Raise the Limit so we can Spend Less!
by Mr. Ogre on May 5, 2011 at 16:26 Political
The incredible political posturing continues at full-speed in the US Congress. Well, of course it does, that’s what they do. Keep that in mind when any elected politician talks — he’s a politician, and he’s not going to speak the truth. And that statement in itself is a sorry statement on the government of this country. But that is what it is, and I can do little more than point out the lies.
For example, what’s with the new trend of Republicans to demand decreases in spending in return for a higher debt limit? How does that make sense to anyone but a politician? If you’re going to spend LESS, then why do you need a higher borrowing limit? What are you going to do with that extra money you borrow, if you’re not SPENDING it?
Of course, here’s the dirty little “secret” that not one member of Congress wants you to know: the current, sitting members of Congress, the people there RIGHT NOW are 100% responsible for every single dollar spent. That’s without any exceptions. This current Congress will vote on a budget, and they get to decide what’s in that budget — NO ONE else.
So if they wanted the federal budget to be one dollar, THEY HAVE THE POWER TO DO THAT. If they want to budget to be 14 trillion dollars, they will do that.
Do not listen to any Congressman who puts the blame on anyone else for a single dollar in the budget. If the budget passed is 14.3 trillion dollars, it is ONLY because this Congress wants it to be so.
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Tags: debt limit, insanity, taxes
I agree though I will point out that there area a number of things that are auto triggers for spending. In other words, a past Congress has set something up so that a spending increase takes place in response to a certain trigger (like auto pay raises and increases in Social Security).
Yes, why raise the debt ceiling if you are going to lower the spending? Makes no sense. I will also point out that there is a dirty little campaign to place auto triggers in the new spending limit bill.
They will raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts (the foolishness you described) and they will place triggers in so that of debt gets to a certain amount or some other stimulus is encountered, taxes will increase automatically (and on more than those making above 200k).
This way members of Congress will not leave fingerprints at the crime scene. Three Republicans are on board with this.
If they do it then it might be time to march on the Capitol and take the country back…
“Yes, why raise the debt ceiling if you are going to lower the spending? Makes no sense.”
It makes perfect sense inside of the current budget process. Even if we reduced the budget to $1 today we’re still spending on a previous budget that is running up the debt over the debt ceiling. What might be better if you’re of this mind is to make an agreement that raises the debt ceiling to match our current debt but then force a decrease again for the next budget. I assume if the limit can go up it can go back down but I’m not 100% sure on that. I wouldn’t mind that.
I agree with some of Ogre’s sentiment about passing blame. This is a result of Congress’ slight of hand they invented so that they won’t suffer politically for driving up the debt. They can vote today on a budget that we all know forces a debt ceiling increase next year. Then next year when it comes time to raise because we’ve hit the ceiling Congress can count on the short term memory of the US population so they can pretend that the debt all came from some past group of politicians.
Re:Triggers
Big Dog, you missed part of my point. My point is that this Congress, these people right now, have the TOTAL power to remove those! Every last one of those triggers can be removed with a single vote. That’s their darn job and when they claim they’re “locked in” to certain spending levels, those are just complete and total lies. That’s them, as Adam says, just passing the blame, and they damn well know it.
The only true spending they’re mostly obligated to spend is interest on the debt — and yes, they even have the power to NOT spend that money if they want to. They could, absolutely, literally, just spend $1 in the budget next year. They have that power, they just don’t want to take responsibility for, well, anything.