Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Tea Party, the Debt Ceiling, the Federal Budget, and a Solution—part 2


From: http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/government/sticking-it-to-the-grandkids/?eiid=&rmid=2011_07_19_PLA_[P11633574]&rrid=387097743

“Sticking It To The Grandkids
July 19, 2011 by Robert Ringer

I think by now everyone who is halfway honest and has an IQ above 32 realizes that the claim that the U.S. will default its debt if the debt ceiling isn’t raised by Aug. 2 is just another shameless Democratic canard. (i.e. a LIE—my addition)

Thanks to cable TV, talk radio and the Internet, the facts are well known:

First, while the exact amounts vary from month to month, the government brings in, on average, about $200 billion a month from (mostly unwilling) taxpayers and pays out, on average, about $20 billion in monthly interest charges. That’s a tenfold coverage.

Second, Social Security and Medicare, at least right now, are easily covered by government revenues each month. There’s no nice way to say it: Barack Obama has been blatantly lying about Social Security and Medicare payments being in jeopardy, as has the rest of the Democratic leadership.

Third, there would also be enough money available to meet our current military obligations (though we need a good debate about how much military we really need in order to defend our country).

Fourth, everything that’s left (about 30 percent of scheduled expenditures) can be prioritized, with the only question being who should make the decisions as to what goes at the top of the list and what goes at the bottom. Not doable, says Turbo Tax whiz Timothy Geithner. Turbo Tim insists that prioritizing government payments won’t work because it would ‘spur deep cuts in other disbursements and still cause investors to shun U.S. Treasury securities.’

No question about it, it definitely would cause deep cuts in other disbursements, but that’s a good thing. It’s a forced solution to government’s spending addiction. And the notion that cutting spending would cause investors to stop buying U.S. Treasuries is questionable, at best. On the contrary, the rest of the civilized world has made it clear that it is gravely concerned about rapidly increasing U.S. spending and debt.

Continued out-of-control spending is far more likely to cause investors to pull their money out of U.S. Treasuries than a fantasy default. Geithner, who was wrong on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (even though TARP was his predecessor’s creation), wrong on the ‘stimulus,’ and wrong on his own taxes, said: ‘Ultimately, the notion of ‘prioritizing’ payments is futile because the debt limit must be increased regardless of which spending path is adopted. There is no credible budget plan under which a debt-limit increase can be avoided.’

Wrong again, Timmy. There most certainly is a creditable budget plan to avoid raising the debt ceiling. It’s called: Cut spending. That’s right, just cut spending enough, and you don’t have to raise the debt ceiling one dime.

And once that’s accomplished, a new House, Senate and President in 2013 could start making serious cuts in the budget, with the litmus test being whether a given program or expenditure is constitutional. Such a litmus test would make it possible to dramatically reduce taxes, borrowing and fiat-money creation.

Geithner warns that because the United States now borrows about 40 cents of every dollar it spends, prioritizing payments without raising the debt ceiling would force the U.S. to cut 40 percent of all government expenditures.” “And here I was hoping to see spending cuts more in the area of 80 percent of current expenditures.

Finally, Geithner got to the heart of America’s impending financial doom when he said that such spending cuts ‘would have painful implications for people in every walk of American life.’ He included military families, veterans and government employees—all commonly referred to by politicians as voters.”

As to government employees, do you know anyone who would be unhappy with getting rid of as many ‘public servants’ as possible? (Why yes, the “public servants.” But then, the purpose of government IS NOT to be a employment agency. Is there any doubt that the federal government is the LARGEST, SINGLE employer in the nation? The truth is that there WILL BE PAIN! However, the PAIN will be much greater in the future if we keep kicking this DEBT down the road. One can NOT dig oneself out of a hole by digging a DEEPER hole! One has to fill in the hole. ONE CAN NOT SPEND oneself out of DEBT! It just CAN NOT BE DONE!!! One HAS TO CUT SPENDING!!!—my addition)

Those who insist that not paying for programs and employees already on the books is just as much of a default as not paying interest on the national debt are, in effect, saying: ‘Even though we have to go deeper into debt to pay for these government programs, which assures that default is only a matter of time, we have no choice because we’ve already made those commitments to people.’ What great logic.

Sorry, but if Congress passes unConstitutional legislation to implement unConstitutional programs, it is not your obligation to pay for them. On the contrary, it is Congress’s duty to repeal all such legislation, because, first and foremost, members of Congress made a commitment that trumps all other commitments—the commitment to uphold the Constitution! I’m feeling a bit lonely wondering about how many other people even care about this little inconvenient truth.”

“Our problem is not how to deal with the debt ceiling. It’s much bigger than that. Our real, underlying problem is that we have lost our moral compass. (Which is why I have been saying all along that it is not enough to just cut spending. We MUST not only RESTORE the Constitution; we must restore GOD and HIS WILL as THE (not a) guiding FORCE in our lives and within the nation! If we return to GOD, HE will return to us!!!—my addition)
–Robert Ringer

Repeating my compromise proposal from yesterday’s post:

1) The Balance Budget Amendment is dropped!

As I wrote on my July 16th post:

“The truth is, if we restore the Constitution, this proposed Constitutional Amendment will be meaningless and unnecessary. If we don’t restore the Constitution, it is already meaningless and unnecessary because the government will continue doing whatever it wants as it is NOW doing!!!”

2) BEFORE ANY raising of the debt ceiling, Congress passes and the President signs a 2011-2012 fiscal year budget!

As I wrote on my July 15th post:

“That’s not all though. The federal government has still not approved a budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. The new fiscal year begins October 1st. That’s less than THREE months away!!! Three months away and no budget so we have NO IDEA how much the next budget will contribute to the growing deficit. The House of Representatives passed a budget that cut back on spending. The Democratic controlled Senate rejected it. The Democratic controlled Senate then also rejected the President’s budget which would have increased spending. Even though the President now claims that he is for cutting “some” spending. The Democratic Senate is NOT close to passing a budget for the coming year. Isn’t a budget for the coming year more important than raising the debt ceiling. It is IF the President and HIS party are serious about cutting spending. The problem is, the President has NO DESIRE to CUT SPENDING!!! NONE!!!!! HE IS A LIAR!!! AND HE THINKS WE ARE IDIOTS!!! AND SO DOES THE MASS MEDIA THAT PARROTS HIS LIES!!!”

3) Federal income tax on ALL business income—sole proprietorship, partnerships, corporations of all types—will end in the 2011-2012 fiscal year budget. Only individual income will be taxed when distributed to individuals. (Next month, I will propose changes in the individual income tax but the first priority is to stop taxing business income.)

In return for not taxing business income, NO tax money will go to businesses to encourage changes in market activities. Let the free market determine economic activity; NOT some bureaucrat in government and certainly NOT Congress, the President, and the Courts. By the way, there is NO such concept as a business or a business sector that is too big to fail! Failure occurs all the time just as success occurs all the time. The risk is the businessman’s. The rewards are the businessman’s. Let the market place decide. Legal, legitimate supply and demand ultimately CAN NOT be controlled by government.

My guess is, and I doubt if anyone knows empirically because our laws have so distorted the free markets, that the federal government spends more money to try to induce businesses into certain business activities than it collects in business income taxes. By the way, the nonsense of requiring businesses to pay “prevailing wages” when carrying out a government contract would end with the 2011-2012 fiscal year budget. That practice perverts the bidding process and needlessly adds additional cost to the project which adds costs to local, State, and federal governments. Costs that NONE of these governments can afford! Again, let the market place decide!

4) Spending WILL be cut in the 2011-2012 fiscal year budget so that the increase in the national debt for the fiscal year WILL BE NO MORE THAN ½ trillion dollars. Repeating: Deficit spending WILL BE NO MORE THAN ½ TRILLION DOLLARS.

5) For the fiscal year 2012-2013 budget which begins on October 1, 2012, deficit spending WILL BE NO MORE THAN ½ TRILLION DOLLARS.

6) In return, the debt ceiling will be raised by NO MORE THAN ½ TRILLION DOLLARS till October 1, 2012. Before the beginning of the 2012-2013 fiscal year budget, IF the national debt has NOT increased by more than ½ TRILLION DOLLARS, the debt ceiling will be raised another ½ TRILLION DOLLARS for the fiscal 2012-2013 budget year. If NOT, the debt ceiling will NOT be raised.

7) Let the 2012 election determine the fiscal direction of the country.

Will we be a nation that CUTS spending to get our national debt under control or will we be a nation that continues to borrow money to increase spending at the federal government level to “invest” in the nation?

Are the members of the two political parties willing to let the voters decide the direction of the country based upon the 2012 election?

I Timothy 6: 10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people (and governments!—my addition), eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

There is NOTHING in the Constitution that grants authority to the federal government to spend money for education or to build sidewalks for a city or to do a lot of other things that the federal government is NOW doing! If the federal government would stop spending money in unauthorized areas, balancing the federal budget would be much easier and would not CORRUPT the behavior of so many within the United States. IT IS TIME TO STOP SPENDING!!! IT IS TIME TO DRASTICALLY CUT THE FEDERAL BUDGET!!!

It is time, it’s past time to RESTORE THE CONSTITUTION
It is time, it’s past time to RESTORE THE CONSTITUTION
It is time, it’s past time to RESTORE THE CONSTITUTION

It is time, it’s past time to OBEY THE CONSTITUTION
It is time, it’s past time to OBEY THE CONSTITUTION
It is time, it’s past time to OBEY THE CONSTITUTION

It’s time, it is past time to TAKE BACK THE NATION!!!
It’s time, it is past time to TAKE BACK THE NATION!!!
It’s time, it is past time to TAKE BACK THE NATION!!!