Let’s be clear: The Republican plan to reduce spending in return for an increase in the federal government’s debt limit is, at best, a modest effort. It leaves untouched the main drivers of increased federal spending, Social Security and Medicare, and, even by the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates, would reduce federal outlays by roughly $4.8 trillion over 10 years.
And yet to listen to some in official Washington, it represents a type of radicalism that threatens the Republic.
As an example, consider the hyperventilating of long-time government apologist Norm Ornstein:
How cynical is the Republican proposal? It was not passed with any expectation that it would become law, since everyone knows that the Democratic-led Senate and the Democratic president would not allow that to happen. It is a complete nonstarter. Which means that the GOP is using the possibility of devastating cuts to programs on which millions of Americans rely—eviscerating crucial public services and safety net protections—as a kind of symbolic gesture for the purposes of negotiation.
How historically extreme is the Republican proposal? Of course, we have seen politicians take that kind of stance in the past, only to cut the necessary deals. Ronald Reagan, when governor of California, took a hardline stance over budget negotiations—only to compromise and say, “That sound you hear is the concrete cracking around my feet.” But Reagan was a more traditional politician, unlike today’s radical House Republicans like Bob Good, Ralph Norman, Matt Gaetz, Scott Perry, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and dozens more. They have already signaled that if McCarthy compromises to dilute the proposal—the proposal that, again, cannot pass but that McCarthy promised them was a bottom line, a floor not a ceiling—they will punish him.
And so on. There’s a kernel of truth in Ornstein’s warning about the nihilist faction in the House GOP that would have no qualms about taking the U.S. into default. They are genuinely dangerous people who, we are told, have unusual clout inside the GOP caucus.
Those concerns aside…let’s get back to the ”extreme” proposal on the table. It’s not – not even close. Veronique De Rugy writes in Reason that the Republican proposal would roll back spending on discretionary programs to what it was in Fiscal Year 2022. What does that mean?
According to the Congressional Budget Office, that means that in FY 2024, discretionary spending—which represents only 30 percent of the budget—would fall to about $1.7 trillion from the currently projected $1.9 trillion. Mandatory spending due to entitlements, however, would continue to balloon—from $3.8 trillion this year to $5.9 trillion in FY 2033, for a total budget of about $8 trillion.
In other words, any proposal that doesn’t increase spending is a cut through meat, bone, blood and nerve that will leave the nation poorer, sicker, more dangerous and so on.
It’s hysteria wrapped in gaslighting and proudly packaged in mendacity.
As the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget noted:
The Limit, Save, Grow Act is a welcome first step in the right direction. Any debt ceiling savings plan should aim to quickly lift the debt ceiling without drama or threat of default and should only include measures to reduce debt, not increase it. We encourage Congress and the President – who put forward $3 trillion of deficit reduction in his own budget – to negotiate a budget deal as soon as possible.
Wait…Mr. Biden proposed deficit reductions of $3 trillion in his 2024 budget? Yes he did:
The President’s budget includes policy changes that it estimates would reduce budget deficits by $3.0 trillion over a decade. This deficit reduction is the net effect of over $2.8 trillion of new spending and tax breaks that is more than offset by nearly $5.0 trillion of revenue increases, about $575 billion of spending reductions and savings, and $330 billion of net interest savings.
We have two plans to choose from: One that relies on modest spending restraint to reduce spending (while turning a blind eye to entitlements), another that relies on increased taxes and a small amount of spending restraint to achieve “savings.”
Let the discussion begin in earnest.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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The Republican debt limit bill is only a non-starter if Senate Democrats and Biden refuse to act in the best interest of the Country and approve it. Republicans can only put forth reasonable bills and are not responsible for the fact that Democrats will only act politically, not responsibly.
We have a moron in the WH pissing away money at a record level.
The U.S. national debt grew by $2.11 trillion during President Biden’s first year in office.
You said “It leaves untouched the main drivers of increased federal spending, Social Security and Medicare“. Please note that much of the government income comes from the FICA taxes paid in by people over decades. It is important to mention this, since you try to speak of the spending independent from the taxation related to it. If you cut either of these programs, you are basically hurting old people who were taxed throughout their working lives for these very programs. If government had not spent a lot of the FICA tax revenues on various less worthy causes, there would not be any problem in funding the programs as originally intended.
remember its “the FICA taxes paid in by people and EMPLOYERS over decades.
This illegal government will stop at nothing to destroy this country. If the GOP folds and allows any kind of debt limit increase, we are truly finished as a nation. Shut them down for a couple of months at least. They do nothing anyway except more rules and regulations toward total destruction. Send them all home and let them deal with a royally ticked off populus!
Good here is a few ideas, defund planned parenthood, blm, antifa, epa, irs, doj, fbi, nsa, quit giving any Taxpayers money to other countries, including the those who dislikes America, defunding the U.N. Removed from American Soil, then start cutting politicians pay, No retirement, No healthcare on Taxpayers Money, we pay their salaries, should never have more than the Working Americans, even the president needs to take a cut in pay, No bodyguards, except the president,and only while president, security clearance revoked once they leave office, quit giving any welfare benefits of any kind to illegals, refugees, that includes Social Security, then the states government needs pay cuts as well, No retirement benefits, No healthcare, on the Taxpayers Money, save like we have to, time to get tough on these politicians we must have a balanced budget federal and states, at the politicians cost not the taxpayers and the government better pay back Social Security including the money they stole for the illegal obamacare
What we should do is cap spending to 2019 AD levels, reversing the pandemic stimulis.
“while turning a blind eye to “entitlements”.
Calling them entitlements is an important fallacy. The Social Security and Medicare programs aren’t entitlements. They are old-age insurance benefits paid for by Taxpayers. They are pledged to be pensions and old age medical care for citizens. In other words, those are taxpayer funds held in fiduciary trust by the Government for the benefit of those depositing those funds. These aren’t “Entitlements” allocated by charitable citizens from their tax dollars.
These funds have been mismanaged by the Government, for which those responsible should be tried and, if guilty, hung. Disregarding these social contracts will be a breach of the social contract big enough that no one will take the government’s word again. It will lead some people to question why pay taxes to a bunch of lying thieves.
Not that the Government is trustworthy now, but not so bad that people aren’t yet ready to pull the plug. Also, many older adults are parents to younger adults. While the Government is trying to replace parents with bureaucrats they haven’t done so yet, so many young people will look at their parents and see their future in front of their eyes. That won’t bode well for Government continuity.
Yes, Mr. Norman, standard operating procedure by both DemoCreeps and RINO RepubliCreeps is a pathological kabuki theater enacted every year to gaslight the American public. Is there any wonder most of us have learned to REJECT both parties and vote for a man who is a successful artifact of populism?
We have a moron in the WH pissing away money at a record level.
The U.S. national debt grew by $2.11 trillion during President Biden’s first year in office.
We have a moron in the WH throwing away money at a record level.
The U.S. national debt grew by $2.11 trillion during President Biden’s first year in office.