If i was Boehner, and i really cared about bringing down the deficit here is what i would do, i would go to the democrats and say here is what we are going to do. We (the republicans) are going to get together and we are going to find 200 billion dollars to cut out of the budget for 2012, and we expect you (the democrats) to come up with 200 billion dollars in spending cuts as well. Once the two sides each have their plan to cut 200 billion out of the budget, they get together and put a together bill which makes all of the cuts both sides wanted, and put it in the same vote to raise the debt ceiling, and say unless this whole thing goes together in one bill, we (republicans) are not going to vote on raising the debt ceiling. This would eliminate any of the finger pointing or anything which goes on when cuts are made to the budget, since both sides would be voting on the bill, so it essentially lets everyone off the hook with their base and cuts four hundred billion out of the budget, probably a little less since there would be some overlap in it where both sides decide to cut. Look at what happened with the lame duck congress, republicans wanted tax cuts, dems wanted unemployment benefits, and both sides got to point fingers and essentially get themselves off the hook saying they did what they had to in order to get what they wanted. The same would happen here, if cuts happen to areas which pisses off either sides base, they can both simply say, "my hands were tied, i had no choice but to vote for it in order to get what i wanted." No one ever wants to make budget cuts because they are seen as the bad guy, and this is the reason why government just keeps growing bigger and bigger every day, if they were to do it this way they essentially all give themselves a free pass. I dont get why politicians dont think of simple ideas like this.
Our debt service is $800B a year. We take in $2T in Revenue. We have plenty of money to pay the debt. The talk about default is nonsense. I would not raise the debt ceiling until they came up with a plan to balance the budget. Until that time, we pay debt, pay military, and the rest to entitlements. When money runs out we shut what can't be funded down.
I agree, but i know that will never happen, so im trying to come up with something these clowns might actually be able to get done, both sides are talking about cutting spending then when they come up with an idea, their idea is something which cuts 30 billion dollars out of the budget or something ridiculous like that which is pointless. If all they can come up with is something to cut 30 billion dollars out of the budget, we are still digging a deeper hole in the deficit because the deficit is a trillion a year, the amount of interest we have to pay on the trillion ends up being more then the amount they cut in the first place, so they dont get anywhere. These politicians dont seem to understand that, every time they punch another trillion dollar hole in the debt, they have to cut 10-30 billion out of the budget just to break even, and they arent even getting anywhere on that because that money now goes to paying interest.
Because our career politicians in Washington have no desire and little or no motivation to really fix anything. Virtually every word out of their collective mouths is either useless rhetoric or an outright lie. (Pelosi's out going speech for example) You gotta remember that congress and the federal government is the SOURCE of most our current troubles, not the solution. They have been and are in a position to correct, improve or reverse any or virtually all of our problems at any time they wanted to. Obviously they don't really want to, and until the voters make a clean sweep of congress they most likely never will.
Unfortunately i agree with you. The only way this will ever end is when these guys finally push it to far, and they bankrupt us, my only solace will be when i get to watch all of these people in the government who have raped us for so many years out of money and living out on the street.
I agree, if they are serious there is NO reason to raise the limit yet again. Cut spending to stay within the current limit.
Your idea sounded complicated to me. A less complicated idea is not to raise the debt ceiling, period.
I would love to see that happen as well, but i know that it probably wont so its basically wishful thinking, its funny these idiots could have had it good, if they just didnt rape us so badly, we are now paying 800 billion just to service the debt and our deficit is supposed to be about 1.4 trillion in 2011, if they just were not complete pigs, and they didnt decide to run up such a ridiculous deficit on us they could have lived a pretty good life off of us with no complaints. I guess it goes back to the old saying, "you can shear a sheep many times but skin him only once." This is obviously a concept that government has no understanding of, as they seem to decide to go out and skin tax payers the second they get a chance, every single time.
Inflation is a reason to raise it, but other than that I have no problem with the concept. By the way, the dems are cutting spending, and they're doing it in your favorite way, by cutting government jobs and spending. See the CNN article re the pentagon's new budget.