Fiscal Cliff: Where Are Your Spending Cuts, Mr. President?

[Valin]

The Foundry:

Emily Goff

November 28, 2012

 

The fiscal cliff debate has centered on talk of raising taxes on high-income Americans. The silence on spending cuts has been deafening.

 

On Monday, as if on cue, came investor Warren Buffett’s rehashed—albeit flat-out wrong—proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy. Even though the Obama Administration has said both sides must make tough choices and put everything on the table, it has embarked on a photo-op-studded campaign for tax hikes. The irony is befuddling.

 

Washington has a spending problem, not a tax revenue problem. Spending is well above its historical average level and is projected to remain high over the next decade. It gets worse thereafter, as entitlement programs and net interest costs send total spending soaring to 43 percent of the economy, up from 23 percent today. Meanwhile, tax revenues are projected to return to their historical level as the economy recovers and more Americans return to work.

 

(Snip)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dJFlYXB68c

[Valin]

McConnell slams the door on raising tax rates in deficit deal

Alexander Bolton

11/29/12

 

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) slammed the door Thursday morning on Democratic demands to raise tax rates on families earning more than $250,000 per year.

 

“We’re insisting on keeping tax rates where they are, first and foremost, to protect jobs and because we don’t think government needs the money in the first place,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

 

“The problem, as I’ve said, is that Washington spends too much. But if more revenue is the price that Democrats want to exact, then we should at least agree to do it in a way that doesn’t cost jobs and disincentivize rates, as we all know raising rates would do,” he said.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

My Man Mitch!

 

McConnell 'Burst Into Laughter' as Geithner Outlined Obama's Plan

FRED BARNES

11/29/12

 

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, says he “burst into laughter” Thursday when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner outlined the administration proposal for averting the fiscal cliff. He wasn’t trying to embarrass Geithner, McConnell says, only responding candidly to his one-sided plan, explicit on tax increases, vague on spending cuts.

 

Geithner’s visit to his office left McConnell discouraged about reaching a “balanced” deal on tax hikes and spending reductions designed to prevent a shock to the economy in January. “Nothing good is happening” in the negotiations, McConnell says, because of Obama’s insistence on tax rate hikes for the wealthy but unwillingness to embrace serious spending cuts.

 

Geithner suggested $1.6 trillion in tax increases, McConnell says, but showed “minimal or no interest” in spending cuts. When congressional leaders went to the White House three days after the election, Obama talked of possible curbs on the explosive growth of food stamps and Social Security disability payments. But since Geithner didn’t mention them, those reductions appear to be off the table now, McConnell says.

 

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

[Valin]

[Draggingtree]

Protein Wisdom

 

November 30, 2012

 

Picking nits with Charles Krauthammer: a messaging plan that CAN work

 

Darleen points to Krauthammer’s advice to the GOP (mirroring the more sternly-worded advice offered here ever since talk of the “fiscal cliff” got John Boehner’s delicious orange tears of imminent surrender flowing) that Republican leadership merely walk away from what Krauthammer rightly notes is an “insulting” offer from Geithner and the President, who are not only offering no cuts, but want increased taxes and an increase in spending by calling for a new stimulus. (Making my own prediction not very far off the mark.)

 

That’s the “balanced approach” Obama has offered, and the one he keeps pushing publicly in his speeches as a “balanced approach” — as if repetition of the phrase, coupled with his reminders that a balanced approach is what the American people say they want, suddenly turns a demonstrably unbalanced approach into a balanced one by mere claim and repetition.

 

And yes, the GOP needs to walk away in a huff.

 

http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=45669

[Draggingtree]

Fiscal Cliff: Will Obama Stop Kicking the Can Down the Road on Entitlements?

 

 

Romina Boccia

November 30, 2012 at 10:00 am

 

http://youtu.be/Q3yTAx-BrA8

 

Even with the President’s desired tax hikes, publicly held debt would rise by $7.7 trillion in 10 years under the President’s budget.

 

That’s right: Our federal debt would continue growing even if the President gets his way completely in the fiscal cliff negotiations. Until the debate focuses on reining in federal spending, especially in the entitlements, no real progress will be made towards solving the U.S.spending and debt challenges. That is the very reason why Speaker of the House John Boehner (R–OH) told members of his party: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/11/30/fiscal-cliff-will-obama-stop-kicking-the-can-down-the-road-on-entitlements/

[Draggingtree]

Six Bipartisan Entitlement Reforms to Solve the Real Fiscal Crisis: Only Presidential Leadership Is Needed

 

 

By J.D. Foster, Ph.D. and Alison Acosta Fraser

November 30, 2012

 

Abstract: The United States faces a real fiscal crisis, and the impending fiscal cliff of massive tax hikes and spending cuts in January is only the first act. In early 2013, the federal government will exhaust its ability to issue debt legally. Yet as large and as major a concern as federal budget deficits are today, they are of secondary consequence compared with the fiscal quagmire of unaffordable entitlement spending in the next decade. Fortunately, the entitlement problem can be resolved by six simple reforms to improve the fiscal future for Social Security and Medicare. But to implement these reforms, President Barack Obama must lead.

 

A high-stakes fiscal policy debate of unique size and import has just begun. Absent congressional action to the contrary, a massive slate of tax hikes and spending cuts will take effect on January 1, and that is only the first act. The second act will occur early in 2013 when the federal government will exhaust its ability to issue debt legally. Both acts need prompt solutions. snip

 

Fiscal Cliff: By Design, Not by Chance

 

 

Many events arrive by chance, but the present fiscal spectacle is not one of them. The fiscal cliff results from explicit actions by Congress and the President to push difficult fiscal policy issues past the recent election. In this, they succeeded, although it took a series of legislative acts to accomplish it. With regard to taxes:

• The payroll tax cut, extended in the spring of 2012, will expire on December 31, 2012.
  
• The extension of the Bush tax cuts, signed into law in December 2010, will expire at the end of the year.
  
• This same law also established a new structure for the death tax with a 35 percent rate and a $5 million exemption per spouse, which will expire at the end of the year.
  
• Various Obamacare tax hikes begin at the start of 2013.<a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/11/six-bipartisan-entitlement-reforms-to-solve-the-real-fiscal-crisis-only-presidential-leadership-is-needed#_ftn2#_ftn2">[2]
  

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/11/six-bipartisan-entitlement-reforms-to-solve-the-real-fiscal-crisis-only-presidential-leadership-is-needed

[Draggingtree]

Speaker Of The House Shocked That President Who Likely Left Two Heros High And Dry In Benghazi Proves Incapable Of Keeping Phone Call Secret

 

Posted on | November 29, 2012

 

by Smitty

 

For crying out loud in the dark, Boehner:

 

Republicans believe the administration leaked details of the 30-minute Wednesday night phone call to Politico, which is causing them to question whether they can trust the White House to keep details private, a sentiment that has caused progress in the negotiations over the “fiscal cliff” to stall.

 

Trusting Obama

 

http://theothermccain.com/2012/11/29/speaker-of-the-house-shocked-that-president-who-likely-left-two-heros-high-and-dry-in-benghazi-proves-incapable-of-keeping-phone-call-secret/