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| You will hear more about sequester than the next GDP report. Or at best, you will hear the sequester caused the low GDP numbers. |
The most talked about word in government circles since "pork" has to be sequester, well at least for the next couple of weeks.
What is sequester? Read for yourself. I personally like numbers 2 and 4. Remove, seperate, hold and control excess spending capabilities of the enemy (Congress and the President.)
Politically, and this became clear to me last week, the sequester is a smoke screen that the President has deployed to keep Americans focused on Congress and not the economy. Last week the Commerce Department upgraded the last three months of 2012 GDP (Gross Domestic Product-How much money the total economy generated) growth rate to % 0.1. It had been reported at a %0.1 decline from the preliminary report. What this means is that if the next GDP report is an negative number, which many analyst believe it will be, the media will not invoke the "recession" word. In order to have a recession, you must have two consecutive quarters of negative GDP.
With the President's tax increases taking place on Jan. 1st, there is less money in the GDP pool. There are numerous reasons for this, and I will not go into them here. However, all one needs to know, is that sequester is a Presidential smoke screen, and it is not the end of the world as we know it.
For him to act like a child whose mommy took away his toys because he was abusing them (spending too much money,) is at best, sickening. For him to scare people who should not be scared, for him to hope for the worst, for him to not want to make sensible cuts, but cut where it hurts most, is in my opinion, childish, and representative of the traits of a person who could care less about America as long as he himself is held in adoration.
If this country cannot cut 2 1/2% of the federal budget, then we are doomed. It really is that simple.
What say you?
The difference between the projected and actual debt between 2001 and 2011 can be largely attributed to:
ReplyDelete$3.5 trillion – Economic changes (including lower than expected tax revenues and higher safety net spending due to recession)
$1.6 trillion – Bush Tax Cuts (EGTRRA and JGTRRA), primarily tax cuts but also some smaller spending increases
$1.5 trillion – Increased defense baseline budget and non-defense discretionary spending under both the Bush and Obama administrations
$1.4 trillion – Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
$1.4 trillion – Incremental interest due to higher debt balances
$0.9 trillion – Stimulus and tax cuts since 2008 (Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, ARRA and Tax Act of 2010
What Say You? These are facts, not opinion.
Anonymous, I am not saying that spending is out of control. It is, and you put up some lines that show some of the spending (However on the tax revenue side, there have been increases every year...so I don't understand that one.)
ReplyDeleteAll of these have lead to debt. I agree. We can argue the waste line by line.
A question for you: Can we keep spending like we are, with the projections showing that the debt will be 100% of GDP in 2015?
Of course not but look at the first ones to introduce a bill to reinstitute spending: House Republicans. They are working on a bill to roll back the cuts -but onlyt to defense-actually they want $2B more than before. Both parties want to keep spending but I would argue with you that the Republican's priorities are the ones that resonate the least with most of your "average" taxpayers. A question for you then: Do you agree with this republican bill to restore these defense cuts?
ReplyDeleteNo, I believe, as I have said many times, both parties are fiscally unfit. However, after saying that, I believe the Republicans do a much better job, although it is not good enough, at keeping the budget smaller. The military spending, in some areas is nothing more than pork, that has nothing to do with national security. Cut that, and I have no problems.
ReplyDeleteBut the sequester, as being implemented, is nothing more that a fire drill in which this President is making department heads cut in the worst possible areas that affect not only the security of the country, but the well being of the people for pure political gain. In my almost 60 years, I have never seen a president do this.