Let the Games of Futility Begin
We recently went through an exercise in government best described by Mark Twain: “Those that respect the law and love sausage should watch neither being made.” On the one hand we had the Democrats fighting to stop any cuts in spending. They maintained that those most affected were widows on social security and children and cuts in spending were not necessary. On the other hand we had the Republicans, initially demanding $100 billion in cuts as well as demonstrable changes in social policy. One hour before the closing of the government, they compromised at about $30 Billion. For all the wailing, the amount is a drop in the bucket of our budget deficit and our national debt. Not only an insignificant cut in spending, it bore little relationship to the battle ahead dealing with the effort to increase the debt limit of $14 Trillion or the Fiscal Year 2012 Budget. The two sides have begun to stake out their positions. The President has also staked out his position as Feckless-in-Chief.
As we have stated in earlier papers, if there is to be a serious attempt to balance budgets and reduce our debt, everything must be on the table. Everything! That includes Medicare and Social Security, Defense spending and “tax spending”. Our papers have proposed examples of cuts in all of these programs and we will address each separately. We have also speculated on who would be the statesmen and who would be the politicians. Who would seek to deal with the issue and who would seek to use common sense as a club in elections? We see these questions fast finding clear answers.
Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee has published a proposed budget which would cut $4 Trillion in spending over 10 years. The proposal included cuts in the form of substantial modifications in Medicare and Social Security. Unfortunately, the proposal merely copied the President’s budget for Defense and did little to consider comprehensive reform of the tax system. On the other hand, efforts are underway for a tax overhaul program by Congressman Dave Camp, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Before the ink was dry on the Ryan Proposal, the Democrats decided to be the politicians rather than leaders. Today, not to be outdone, Feckless-in- Charge criticized the proposal. He almost accurately stated the causes of our financial problems. It would have been more graceful had he not blamed everything on everyone but himself. Not to worry, few are unaware of the massive and unproductive spending undertaken by Obama. He went on to outline all of the problems he saw with the Ryan Proposal which, he felt would change the country as we know it.
For some time it appeared that this was his speech to announce his run for 2012. Eventually, he began to tell of his program to reduce debt and close the deficit. Unfortunately, he made no proposals, only generalities. The smoke and mirrors were obscuring the smoke and mirrors. His first step to control spending is to maintain the cuts in spending that were just approved by the leaders of Congress. Are these the same cuts he and the Democratic leadership fought to the last hour, criticized them after the agreement and vowed to undo them later? They said they did what they had to do to keep the government open but they clearly did not believe in the cuts. This does not seem to be a sure thing for future cuts in spending.
His second area of massive savings involve finding savings in defense spending. He will to this without compromising our security. As long as he makes no suggestion as to what will be cut, I guess our safety is secure. He cited no examples. I can see how this is going to save a bunch. His third approach is to reduce costs of health care. There were again, no suggestions. Worse, he stated that ObamaCare would result in substantial savings. It is possible that he is the only person in America that still feels the program will result in savings. Certainly, he cannot be reading the reports of the Congressional Budget Office, reading even the liberal press or watching television. He criticizes other efforts to reform Medicare while his is going to maintain quality health care while saving money. Today, he said there would be $600 Billion in savings. He probably was considering the provisions in ObamaCare which take $500 Billion from Medicare.
The President also cited the need to reduce deductions provided for in the tax code. I have to agree with him here. The devil is in the details, however. Which ones? Not a clue. My proposal is to start with no deductions and add them one-by-one under the critical eye of the public. There are some deductions that are warranted but they should be able to withstand the attention of our citizens. If not, it must be that the business of the people is clearly too important to involve the people.
His guarantee of success is to provide that if the target cuts have not been made by 2014, spending cuts would be automatic. This statement would make the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland grin with envy.
Today the Administration proved again that we have not only a budget deficit, we have a leadership deficit as well.
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