I'm closely watching the debt ceiling, debt and deficit debates. Other than the Cut, Cap and Balance bill that was proposed by the Tea Party members of the House and passed by the House, as far as I'm concerned the rest of the proposals being created and tossed around on an almost daily basis are just plain bogus, meaningless and full of nothing but empty promises. Senate leader Reid won't even allow a bill into the Senate to be debated. It's the same for any proposed bill that includes a Balanced Budget Amendment. It's truly absurd.
The Reid and Boehner proposals are nothing but smoke and mirrors and more kicking the can down the road by the the elite ruling class career politicians. Reid's bill is full of accounting gimmicks and does absolutely nothing to reduce deficits and debt. Boehner's latest plan is basically the same, however, it does talk about a "possible" Balanced Budget Amendment down the road. The trouble with "down the road" promises from Congress is that nothing ever materializes. It's the same old scam they've been pulling on the folks for decades. It's more of the same, kicking the can down the road and not solving the problems. This is ingrained in the DNA of the elite ruling class career politicians. Democrats, except for a few, don't want a Balanced Budget Amendment. Obama certainly doesn't want it. Why on earth would these fools not want to balance the budget? The one and only reason is they are so addicted to spending our money that they can't stand the mere thought of being restricted to spending more than they take in. Welcome to the Democrat party. Many Republicans during the Bush years are guilty of the same crime.
If you look at some of the numbers being tossed around as far as spending cuts, they may sound big and good, but they're really nothing but chump change compared to where we're already headed. When they talk about a $1 trillion spending cut, that's over a ten year period, or nothing more than $100 billion/year. Chump change when looking at the big picture. Obama's proposed 10 year budget increases annual deficits, and thus the total debt, by around $10 trillion over the next 10 years. $10 TRILLION!!! We already have around $14.5 trillion of debt right now. Add another $10 trillion and it'll be close to $25 trillion!! The Fed has kept interest rates artificially low, but this won't last forever. Rates will go up, guaranteed, and thus so will the interest expense we pay on our national debt. We could conceivably owe a $trillion a year just in interest payments alone! A scary thought. We'll be passing this on to the next generation and the generations after that.
Do the math. A spending cut of $100 billion/year, compared to a deficit of $1 trillion/year (or more) does virtually nothing to reduce deficits and debt. It's a joke. It's a dangerous precedent. It's killing our country. The annual deficit for the 2010 fiscal year ending September 30, 2011 is around $1.5 trillion alone! We are becoming something similar to socialistic Europe. We are becoming Greece. Thank Obama and the Democrats and any Republican interested in a bogus compromise, including John McCain and others. These are the elite ruling class career politicians that got us into this mess. There is no compromising. We need the Tea Party Cut, Cap and Balance bill and we need it now. Keep in mind, the proposed Balanced Budget Amendment requires the budget to be balanced in 5 years. It takes a super majority in both houses, plus the President, in order to pass it. Then it goes to the states for approval. 3/4 of the states need to approve it in order to make it law and part of the Constitution. That process could take a few years. So if it took 3 years to get the state's approval and another 5 years to balance the budget, that would be 8 years out. In other words, it ain't gonna happen tomorrow. However, the sooner the better. The longer we put it off, the longer it'll take to get our financial house in order.
The big difference between the elite ruling class career politicians and the new Tea Party representatives is the Tea Party reps don't care about getting re-elected. They were sent to Congress to fix the problems, not to continue the business as usual scenario that we've had for decades. We the people overwhelmingly sent them there specifically to fix the problems. The 2010 elections were the greatest change in Congress in over 70 years. For some reason, the elite ruling class career politicians still don't get it. They continue to put their hands over their ears and they don't listen to the people. They can't. It's not the way they do business. It's not in their DNA. They don't represent the people. They represent special interest groups that contribute to their re-election campaigns. It's a corrupt system and it needs to be changed. The 2010 election was a good start, but we the people still only control the House, and not by that large of a majority. We need to control the Senate and the White House. The 2012 elections will ensure that happens. The Tea Party is getting stronger by the day and will make a tremendous effort to get out the vote in 2012. It's the only way to save our country. Make sure you are a part of it. Your children's and grandchildren's future depends on it.
Frank S. Fischer
Economist
