Why neither side is serious about deficit reduction and spending

My wife and I are working like mad to pay down our personal debt.  It takes hard work and for us to pay off debt we have to spend much less than we take in (a family budget surplus) and then take that surplus and use it to pay down debts that we have incurred and intend to pay off.  It takes discipline and sacrifice. 

Only in Washington, however, can a person run out to the press and say that he or she has a plan that will "save" the country billions or even trillions, when in reality the national debt increases.  This is what people on both sides of the political isle are saying.

When is someone in the Congress or the Oval Office (I'm not holding my breath in either case) going to go out and say, "We cannot even have a real conversation about deficit reduction until we agree to a budget that spends less than the revenues that the government takes in."

Wouldn't that be amazing?  But no. All we get from both sides is demagoguery, with both sides seemingly trying to blame the other for cutting whatever pet program their constituency supports.  This is why so many (74% of Americans in a very recent CNN poll) people want a balanced budget amendment.  They know that neither side can be trusted when it comes to spending and these children must be dragged kicking and screaming across the line to fiscal responsibility.   

Just a little fact about balanced budget statutes. 49 out of 50 states have some form of a balanced budget amendment in their state constitutions.  So what's good enough for the states is not good enough for the Federal Government?  

Seriously?

Truths in the Debt Ceiling Talk

I am flabbergasted by the tactics of Obama and the Democrats.  First, I never thought in my life that a person that opposes tax increases is now considered to be an extremist, but that is beside the point.  There is one fact that must be reiterated when discussing the debt ceiling, the national debt, and the deficit.

Before the 2010 midterm elections, the democrat controlled house and senate, passed a budget that added somewhere between 1.5 and 1.6 trillion dollars to the national debt.  The budget was signed into law by President Obama.  True the 2008-09 budget that both Bush and Obama had their hands on was somewhere between 1.2 and 1.4 trillion dollars.  But remember that without TARP the deficit for FY 08-09 would have been about 400 to 600 billion dollars (still an obscene amount of money, but less than half of Obama's 09-10 FY budget).

Since the '09 budget, the still democrat controlled senate has not submitted a new budget.  This means quite simply that the government is stuck with the old gargantuan budget which includes adding about $1.6 trillion to the national debt.

What angers me most is that this president and the democrats are now talking about "shared sacrifice" as a means to force down the throats of the American people tax increases.  I keep reading (Ezra Klein of the Washington Post is the latest) to say that "most economists" agree that the debt crisis can only be solved through a combination of tax increases and spending cuts. I reject this utterly false argument.

How does a government expand its spending by 100% in less than two years and then have the gall to tell us that they don't have enough tax revenue and need more?

Before I or any other reasonable conservative will consider that tax increases are necessary to balance the budget, what must happen first is that Congress and the President must cut spending. This does not mean to limit the amount of increase (which is a cut to people in congress). It means to spend less this year than you did last year.  Increase the debt limit and gut spending to pre 2008 levels.  Once you have demonstrated that you can exercise real fiscal discipline, then we can discuss additional revenue.  If Americans fall for this ruse, and tax increases happen, there will be no cuts in spending.

Consider this.  Since 1968 (and I dare say never in US history) has the US government's spending gone down from one year to the next year.  Government always spends more.   This has to stop.

National Debt and Deficit Spending

I have been politically minded for a long time.  It has taken me a long time however to understand the significance of deficit spending.  I should have known better.  My religion warns its members against debt.  I have seen how debt in my own life can inhibit my ability to be financially secure.  As I have attempted to right my own financial ship (a work in progress i might add), I have become more of a deficit hawk.

I must call myself to the carpet though.  I was and still am a supporter of President George W. Bush, but I have come to realize how much damage he did by being such a big spender.  While Bush 43 did the right thing by cutting taxes to keep the economy chugging along after 9/11, he did not adhere to the other equally important part of Conservative principals, that is to keep government spending in check.  Bush increased spending more than Clinton did, and he did it with a Republican congress helping him.  

Now some might argue that part of this spending was for the War on Terror and was necessary to keep America safe.  But Bush also spent gobs of money on things like No Child Left Behind and the Prescription Drug Benefit, two examples of new layers of Government bureaucracy that should never have been added to by a Republican president.  

I was not critical of President Bush.  I did not check the facts when conservative pundits said that it was because of the War on Terror, or I just was not listening when they talked about the skyrocketing debt. 

Well consider this person awoken to the perils of the deficit.  Bush may have increased the debt and should be greatly criticized for it, but Obama has gone crazy with it.  I will write more on this within the next twelve hours, but consider this.

Congress is debating whether or not to increase the debt ceiling by something like 2 trillion dollars.  If Obama continues to run deficits of 1.6 trillion dollars per year.  This debt limit increase will not get the US government two years before another debt limit increase has to be passed.

More on the deficit in a few hours.  

Simple statistic about the compromise that avoided a shut down.

The 38 billion in spending cuts agreed upon in this amazing, historic compromise will shrink the deficit by a whopping 2%.  This compromise constitutes the largest spending cut in history,  and the deficit will still grow by a whopping 1.57 trillion dollars this year.

We are on the road to ruin.