It’s time for those in power to bite the bullet. We cannot continue to live on credit cards to escape making tough decisions relating to approving our annual federal budget.
Today the GOP shared their budget proposal that is a wake up call to the president. Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed budget for 2012 is $3.5 trillion dollars.
Table S-1 (Budget Totals) on page 171 of the BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2012 includes some huge numbers that jump off the page.
i.e. Under the year 2012 it reports receipts of $2.627 trillion dollars against outlays of $3.729 trillion resulting in a deficit of $1.101 trillion dollars.
Going to Table S-3 on page 174, Adjusted Baseline by Category, it lists Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and TARP. Below that sub total it includes net interest totaling $240 billion dollars.
As I follow across the net interest line, that category increases from $240 billion in 2012 to $863 billion in 2020.
As the budget is a living document I cannot assure readers that this document source contains the latest White House figures.
Through Jan of 2011 we have almost $11 trillion dollars of debt. “President Obama’s budget projects annual net interest payments on the debt will rise to $560 billion in 2016 from $196 billion in 2010. As bad as this $364 billion increase in interest expenditures is, the actual results are likely to be much worse, or to quote Lehrman, “almost unthinkable.” Source. Hamsayeh.net
US Treasuries outstanding to foreign investors led by mainland China with $1.1547 trillion followed by Japan with $885.9 trillion and the U.K. with $278.4 billion.
What I can say with full confidence is that we cannot continue to borrow billions of dollars from China and Japan to avoid making the tough decisions today.
Juice readers.
Who will blink first?
Will you be impacted if the federal government shuts down next week? And if so, how?
What cuts would you be willing to live with?
Hopefully there will be no shutdown. The amounts of money between the competing proposals for the remainder of the year is only 10 to 40 billion. Not a signifigant amount with the numbers we are facing overall.
It appears Ryans Proposal is only 229 Billion less that the current projections for 2012. He also extends the Bush Tax cuts for everyone permanently so the acutal debt numbers between his proposal and the Democrats proposal to end the cuts for upper income earners are non existant.
Cut defense spending, ethanol subsidies, agribusiness subsidies, etc., and raise taxes on the ultra wealthy first.
Rapscallion.
I agree that we should cut the corporate welfare, especially ethanol that was never fully vetted as an alternative energy solution.
While intentions were correct, facts need to be evaluated in making these decisions.
Ethanol burns hotter than traditional fuel resulting in fewer MPG.
Further, corn used for livestock feed has been diverted for energy driving up the cost to farmers and ultimately to us the consumers .
It reminds me of adding MTBE in our gasoline to clean up our air quality. Over time tanks started to leak causing MTBE to get into the water supply in places like Santa Monica creating a disaster.
I would oppose any tax increase.
If we don’t stop borrowing money to fund our government we will be buried with debt service that could have been used to provide needed services.
The current annual interest payments on our debt is over $200 billion dollars. That money could surely find a more useful purpose.
E-mail reply:
“The government shuts down all the time. Congress & the president seem always to be on vacation . So what else is new. Maybe the democrats can run to Europe ala the Wisconsin Dems.”
The Wisconsin Democrats did what they had to do to thwart the Republican bad faith tactics, so good for them.
There’s plenty of revenue to be found, but too much is concentrated in the hands of too few, so why not some fair taxing? I don;t get the problem.
Here’s another thought — taxing the churches. I don’t mean the small community ones that do some sort of good work, but the mega churches and their “prosperity” demagogues — the Hagees, Crouches, Hinns, Copelands, Warrens, etc.
Rapscallion.
I toyed with doing a post on Senator Rand Paul’s March 2011 64 page federal budget proposal.
i.e. Eliminate the Government Printing Office, National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Means test commodity payments to wealth(y) farmers, eliminate Amtrak subsidies, eliminate the Affordable Housing Program, eliminate Commission on Fine Art and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to name but a few of his proposals.
Let me not overlook his comments on Medicare where Senator Paul states his plan to Repeal ObamaCare.
Under page 54 misc. Freeze Federal Pay, Reduce Federal Travel, Repeal Davis Bacon, Ban Union Labor Project agreements and sell Unused Federal assets.
Some give and take on all sides is needed to avert disaster
Larry, I am not swayed by screwing the poor on affordable housing, or removing the pittance that goes to art programs. Removing consumer product safety is a euphemism for letting the corporate moneyed interests sell us dangerous crap without fear. Also, “obamacare” is a made up name to disparage the availability of healthcare for the general population, which can be easily afforded if we raise revenue and demand that those who profit mightily in our unequal system pay their fair share. They’ll still be able to buy islands and use private jets. Their “suffering” does not concern me.
Selling Federal assets? Such as the national parks, and bringing in the extraction businesses? Geez.
It’s a world economy.
The USA should lead a drive for a world economy tax to fund the world police force.
The UN should start paying the USA treasury 1 trillion dollars a year for services rendered.
We got the bomb. And we have a democrat president in office.
The last time the USA had manufacturing superiority was after WW2 when most of Europe and Asian manufacturing areas were destroyed.
When the government, Fed and state and locals start laying off thousands or millions of government workers, will the citizens of USA sit idly by and watch their children starve?
Or will there be a overwhelming demand to bring those jobs, shipped over seas because of the global economy back to the USA?
We got the bomb. And we have a democrat president in office.
Change, start small and work your way up.
Start with a small under armed dictator, flex your resolve, and go from there.
We got the bomb. And we have a democrat president in office.
The UN should start paying the USA treasury 1 trillion dollars a year for services rendered.
The USA debt can be paid off and the standard of living increased dramatically if there was a 10 dollars per capita tax per month (120 per year) on the population of China and India. (The place where the USA jobs were out sourced to.) (US jobs should pay a US tax wherever they are, right?)
We got the bomb. And we have a democrat president in office.
Off your meds, Cook?