Budget Negotiations
Are A Joke
Gary Gerard,
dumbhoosier.com
Sometimes I think it's as if our elected representatives in Washington,
D.C., have lost their minds.
Seriously.
Right now, between spats over whether or not we should have got
involved in Libya, they're arguing about cuts to the federal budget.
They're threatening to "shut down" the government. You may remember
this happened before, back when President Clinton was in office. I
always got a chuckle out of that.
They would make this dire announcement that "all non-essential
employees" are instructed not to report for work. I guess my question
is, why would a non-essential employee ever have to show up for work? I
mean, how many non-essential employees does the government have? Do you
know anybody in the business world who hires a bunch of non-essential
employees?
Frankly, I hope they do have to shut the government down for a while.
It will save some tax dollars.
Here's the deal.
The national debt is hovering right around $14 trillion.
President Obama has proposed a budget of $3.7 trillion.
Tax revenues are projected to be around $2.1 trillion.
The Republicans have proposed $60 billion in budget cuts over the next
six months. The Democrats say that's way too much so the parties have
settled on cutting $33 billion. So now they're arguing over which $33
billion to cut.
The Associated Press reported the following on Thursday:
Congressional negotiators are working on a proposal for around $33
billion in spending cuts over the next six months and Vice President
Joe Biden was reporting "good progress' in budget talks to prevent a
government shutdown.
The $33 billion figure, disclosed by a congressional aide familiar with
the talks and confirmed by Biden, used a measuring stick tied to
Obama's budget instead of a current spending freeze. The number is well
below the $60 billion-plus in cuts the House passed last month, but it
still represents significant movement by Senate Democrats and the
administration after originally backing a freeze at current rates.
"There's no reason why, with all that's going on in the world and with
the state of the economy, that we can't avoid a government shutdown,'
Biden told reporters after a meeting in the Capitol with Senate
Democratic leaders.
Under Biden's math, the White House is conceding $73 billion in cuts
from Obama's (annual budget) requests, which contained increases never
approved by Congress. Republicans originally wanted $100 billion in
cuts using the same gauge.
Does anybody but me see the lunacy here?
Let me put this into context for you a little bit. Let's say a family -
we'll call them the Profligates - has run up $140,000 in credit card
debt. The Profligates earn $21,000 a year and their expenses -
mortgage, interest-only payments on their credit-card debt, food,
clothes, etc. - run about $37,000 a year. The Profligates are sitting
at their kitchen table poring over their finances. They know they're in
trouble. Nonetheless, they get into a huge argument over whether to cut
back their spending by $330 or $600 over the next six months. Or $730
or $1,000 over the next year.
That's pretty much what's going on in Congress. It's asinine.
Of course, if the Profligates were a real family, they'd file
bankruptcy. But that's not an option for our fearless lawmakers, so
they'll raise the debt ceiling and print more money.
I remember at the end of the much-hated George W. Bush's second term,
the federal budget deficit was $184 billion - for the year. I remember
thinking how awful that was. I remember asking myself, "How could the
guys in Washington overspend that much?
Roll ahead to the reality of today's leadership. The federal deficit
for the month of February was $223 billion. One month.
When Obamacare gets into full swing, it will only become worse. The
Congressional Budget Office and other various think tanks and say that
alleged $1 trillion program will cost more like $3 trillion.
I'm thinking it's hopeless.
Our lawmakers can't fix this. They are incapable of making the "hard
choices" necessary to get us out of the hole.
I am not sure how all this will play out, but I'm pretty sure about one
thing. It's not going to be pretty.
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