… We have heard a lot lately about plans to slash spending by trillions of dollars. Though these sound like deep cuts, they are not even shallow cuts. Under the plans being discussed in Washington, federal spending would rise, and so would the federal debt -- not by a little, but by a lot….
The publicized changes are mere promises to reduce projected spending -- by some formula that we don't know, because it has yet to be determined. For that matter, there is no guarantee the cuts will ever happen.
Whoever wins this battle, the government's sea of red ink will keep expanding. The publicly held debt now stands at about $11 trillion. Obama's budget would have pushed it up to around $20 trillion by 2021. Under either the Boehner plan or the Reid plan, it would exceed $17 trillion …
Freshmen Republicans in the House rallied behind the "cut, cap and balance" plan, but it amounts to yet another stack of alluring promises. The cuts, $111 billion next year, are not itemized. Neither are the programs that would take a hit from the caps.
The "balance" refers to a constitutional amendment to ban deficit spending. But such an amendment -- even in the very unlikely event it could be passed -- wouldn't balance the budget. It would merely commit Congress and the president to approve cuts in spending or increases in revenue that would eliminate the fiscal gap.
It's not a solution. It's a promise to come up with a solution, somehow, someday.
Why not just devise a remedy now? Because lots of voters will lose interest in fiscal discipline once they realize it means tangible sacrifice on their part. They might even exact vengeance at the polls. Getting voters to endorse frugality is easy. Taking money out of their hands is not.
[I hope I don’t get the chance to say I told you so when Obummer and his band of statists raise taxes and deny spending cuts sometime in 2012 when they realize he doesn’t have a chance at reelection! – JS]
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