Debt deal reached

[cbseniour]

As always this is smoke and mirrors, 2.4 T. over 10 years is like me cutting a beer a year.
I was however proud and suprised to see the Republicans and Tea Partiers stand ground and get a deal that was not a total loss.

 

[Fletch]

What did you guys want the Republicans to hold out to get?

OK, now I'm confused. Just a little while ago, you were the one championing the hold-out strategy to put the President's feet to the fire. Now you're saying it was time to capitulate. What changed about the situation that made you think it was time to roll?

 

[warangelcometh]

Full steam ahead!!!

+1 - a picture is worth a thousand words, as they say

 

[windellmc]

That is correct. That "super congress" will then give it to the reg. congress and they will do YES/NO vote on it without any debate and/or allowing to change it.

I think the idea of the "super congress" is to give the rest of congress cover for voting for things they should not. They can just blame it on the super congress when they run for re-election. It would be nice if the voters would throw out anyone that votes for this in the primaries next year. However with some many getting checks from the gov't I do not hold out much hope of that happening.

 

[ATOMonkey]

Super congress also makes it easier to lean on the junior members.

Congressman Smith, I see your son is in the Army, sure would be a shame if he were passed up for his next promotion. Have you read my new bill?

 

[insanemonkey]

The super congress is also a win/win for the President. If they get something passed he can say that he made a difference. If nothing passes he can blame it on the people who voted it down. Saying that they are stopping the country from moving forward and protecting their rich buddies. I have little hope for any small group of power players to ever do the right thing.

 

[Libertarian01]

To All,

Just to show how truly pathetic Congress is "cutting" I thought I would do a bit of research.

I will prelude this by saying that there are many numbers to throw around and all will be flawed in some way and accurate in others, but I had to choose a baseline somewhere so this was it, page #15 of the CBOs analysis of the Presidents proposed budget:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/112xx/doc11280/03-24-apb.pdf

According to the CBO IF the Presidents budget was passed we would run a $9.755 TRILLION deficit from 2011 - 2020. So if the current proposal is passed in some similar form we will cut $2.4 Trillion over the next ten (10) years. This will mean we STILL increase the budget deficit by $7.355 Trillion.

If we really want to see our debt reduced at all we need to cut at least $9.756 Trillion over the next ten (10) years.

We do need to get our fiscal house in order, I think everyone outside of DC agrees on that, both Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, etc. The hard part will be to try to do so with the minimum pain and maximum impact on our debt, but also that doesn't throw our economy into massive turmoil.

Lest we forget we have been really building up the national debt for about 60 years. We should look at a similar long term destruction of the debt AND unfunded liabilities.

Regards,

Doug

 

[joslar15]

Some of us won't, anyway.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WYq3iON8KQ[/ame]

 

[insanemonkey]

If we really want to see our debt reduced at all we need to cut at least $9.756 Trillion over the next ten (10) years.

We do need to get our fiscal house in order, I think everyone outside of DC agrees on that, both Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, etc. The hard part will be to try to do so with the minimum pain and maximum impact on our debt, but also that doesn't throw our economy into massive turmoil.

Lest we forget we have been really building up the national debt for about 60 years. We should look at a similar long term destruction of the debt AND unfunded liabilities.

Regards,

Doug

This is something that will take some time to fix and we are not going to fix it over night or with one cut. I think that in the end what is going to happen is going to be painful for some. Right now we are just prolonging it. Just rip the band aid off.

It is going to take people in both major parties being willing to loose the next election. People who are on government aid are going to be upset and they will probable loose the next election. Real change is going to hurt.

 

[Pocketman]

This is something that will take some time to fix and we are not going to fix it over night or with one cut. I think that in the end what is going to happen is going to be painful for some. Right now we are just prolonging it. Just rip the band aid off.

It is going to take people in both major parties being willing to loose the next election. People who are on government aid are going to be upset and they will probable loose the next election. Real change is going to hurt.

I think a lot of people agree with what the Tea Party people are trying to accomplish, it's the manner in which they tried to cram it all in overnight that has caused so much angst. While the debt is a very large problem, it is actually a symptom of the real issue. Congress spends too much on non-essentials and our nation's unemployment is way too high.

We ran a surplus during the Clinton years when unemployment was something like 4-5% and before the Bush tax cuts. I don't want to get into whether or not Clinton did anything right or wrong, the point I'm trying to make is we can fix this if we can get people back to work. The tax code needs some real work as well, so hopefully the revenue stream will be more predictable.

The bigger challenge, IMO, is the global economy. Why create U.S. jobs when corporations can farm them out overseas much cheaper? We need to quit fighting amongst ourselves or China, India and the Middle East will continue to eat our lunch, on our dime.

 

[jgreiner]

Yahoo has a headline on their page claiming that the gov has reached a deal. No story yet though.

Yahoo!

Unless it has over $4 T in cuts....a deal won't mean squat...the US will get downgraded...and we will see interest rates start rising.

Congress has a spending problem...and holding them accountable for it is long overdue.

 

[insanemonkey]

I agree that we need to cut spending, fix taxes and promote job growth. I think the changes to make those three things happen will cause a lot of heart ache. People like the idea of doing those three things, but in practice they don't like what it is going to take. Who are they going to blame for being in a bad spot if they can not blame big companies and conservatives. When you make people accountable for their actions, they are not going to be happy.

 

[Jake46184]

This isn't as much of a "deal" as it is political deception. There are zero spending cuts in this charade that put anyone, D or R, at political risk back home. In reality, it's nothing but a political cover for both sides. It's yet another example that, in our system and especially in today's version of that system, a divided Congress cannot function. We must take the WH & Senate in 2012, keep the House, and then move a true conservative agenda to the forefront. GWB had no interest in pushing such an agenda in 2000 and we have paid for it ever since. We cannot make the same mistake again. This political theatre has provided the groundwork for true, drastic changes from a GOP-controlled government starting in 2013.

 

[mrjarrell]

This debacle (which still has to be voted on), won't do anything and it looks like there's a good chance that the US credit rating is going to take a hit anyway. Boehner, Reid and McConnell are cowards at heart and are just interested in their political hides. This is going to do nothing. I'm interested to see how the votes go, tho.

News Headlines

 

[dross]

OK, now I'm confused. Just a little while ago, you were the one championing the hold-out strategy to put the President's feet to the fire. Now you're saying it was time to capitulate. What changed about the situation that made you think it was time to roll?

You're assigning an opinion to my question. I'm just trying to figure out what people here would have been satisfied to get.

 

[jblomenberg16]

This debacle (which still has to be voted on), won't do anything and it looks like there's a good chance that the US credit rating is going to take a hit anyway. Boehner, Reid and McConnell are cowards at heart and are just interested in their political hides. This is going to do nothing. I'm interested to see how the votes go, tho.

News Headlines

Sadly, I think a credit downrating will be about the only thing that gets Washington's attention. Far be it from them to listen to the voice of the American people.


In the end, the procrastination (maybe intentional) meant that we had no choice but to raise the debt cieling so we could BORROW more money to pay for what has already been spent.

It really is sad that we have such a cashflow problem right now due to a policy spending more than we take in for more than a decade, that we have to go from credit source to credit source just to stay solvent and pay our bills.


The real dissapointment now of course is the fact that the "cuts" as they are called are not cuts at all, just reductions in the increase. Meaning we're going to continue to spend more than we take in for at least 2 more years.

Cutting the "deficite" and reducing the "debt" do go hand in hand. However, notice how the so called deal that was struck says nothing about reducing the debt, and rather says reducing the deficite. In otherwords, we're not really fixing the problem, just prolonging the inevitable. Hence, we're continuing on a collison course with disaster.


Debt itself is a reasonable means to invest in things you need today that will put you in a better position tomorrow. Businesses do it all the time when they borrow for capital investments. Private citizens do it when they buy homes, etc. But businesses and home oweners that are financially stable are the ones that have taken on a debt load that can be paid off as part of their normal operating budget. Those that get into trouble are the one's who have a budget that is financed completely on credit and not on regular cash inflow. Looks like our country has fallen into the same trap so many citizens have with credit card debt. What was the 1-800 number I saw the other night for "Free debt consultation"...maybe I should e-mail that to the bozoos in D.C.

 

[Jake46184]

Fox just reported that Gabrielle Giffords is on the floor of the House this evening to vote.

 

[jedi]

Fox just reported that Gabrielle Giffords is on the floor of the House this evening to vote.

AND???? If she is not voting NO then she is a traitor just like the senior leadership!

 

[mrjarrell]

Great. Another politician with half a brain.

 

[Silverado]

Fox just reported that Gabrielle Giffords is on the floor of the House this evening to vote.

Great. Another politician with half a brain.

Classy. Real classy.