Obama’s Debt Panel Leaders, “Cut Spending!”

Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 by Post Scripts

Posted by Tina

UPI

WASHINGTON, June 28 (UPI) — Democrats ought to agree to GOP lawmakers’ demands for $2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, the heads of U.S. President Barack Obama’s fiscal panel said.

The money would be a “down payment” on “a $4 trillion-plus, gimmick-free fiscal consolidation package that stabilizes and then reduces our debt as a share of the economy,” Erskine Bowles, White House chief of staff in the Clinton administration, and former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., said in an op-ed piece published in The Hill Tuesday.

A fiscal consolidation package is “what this country needs — and what the American people deserve,” they said.

Ya think?

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Obama’s Debt Panel Leaders, “Cut Spending!”

  1. asking says:
    Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 10:29 am

    How much of these cuts will come from what we spend on war?
    Will this budget restore the trillions that have been taken from Social Security and Medicare to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

  2. Post Scripts says:
    Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 10:49 am

    Asking: I’m not in the know any more than you are, but my guess is no it won’t restored. That money is gone – nobody in Iraq or Afghanistan is going to be giving it back to us. We’re screwed.

  3. Tina says:
    Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    Asking…This is not a budget it’s a proposal about cutting spending.

    This proposal is being ignored even though the president called for these men specifically to meet and determine a course of action.

    Democrats continue to insist that raising taxes on the producers in America will result in more revenues to government. This is stupid since taking more money from the private sector will cause producers to do less. They will not expand their businesses, buy new equipment, or hire new people. Business has already slogged to a near stop so oppressing them further makes zero sense if you want more revenue.

    Fewer working people and fewer business transactions result in less revenue flowing to government. (My God its so simple)

    Government doesn’t create jobs and it doesn’t make the economy vibrant. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DO!!! But the people (and people in business) have to have cash in their own hands and optimism about the future to do it.

    “How much of these cuts will come from what we spend on war?”

    Good question. Some have suggested an across the board 10% cut on every department including defense. Some have suggested returning to an earlier budget level and holding spending to that level at least until our ship has righted itself.

    “Will this budget restore the trillions that have been taken from Social Security and Medicare to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?”

    The social security trust fund doesn’t really exist and has never had any funds. It is simply a device of accounting. Heritage explains how it works:

    http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2004/09/Misleading-the-Public-How-the-Social-Security-Trust-Fund-Really-Works

    Workers pay their Social Security taxes through their employers. Each employer periodically sends a lump sum payment to the U.S. Treasury that includes all of the income taxes and Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes paid by both the employer and its employees.

    The Treasury both receives the payroll taxes (and income taxes that higher-income retirees pay on their Social Security benefits) and pays monthly benefits on behalf of the Social Security Administration (SSA). The money stays in the Treasury’s hands until it is either paid out as Social Security benefits or otherwise spent by the government. In fact, no money ever goes into the trust fund. Instead, the trust fund balance is the result of two accounting entries by the Treasury.

    First, the Treasury estimates how much of the aggregate tax receipts are Social Security taxes and “credits” the Social Security trust fund with that amount. Then the Treasury “subtracts” the total amount paid in monthly Social Security benefits from the trust fund balance. No money actually changes hands; these are strictly accounting entries.

    Any “money” remaining in the trust fund is converted into special-issue Treasury bonds, which are really nothing more than IOUs. In addition, the Treasury pays interest on the trust fund’s balance by crediting the trust fund with additional IOUs. These are also strictly accounting entries, and again no money changes hands. After crediting the trust fund with the proper amount in IOUs, the government spends the extra Social Security tax collections just like any other tax revenue–to finance anything from aircraft carriers to education research.

    Medicare probably works the same way.

Comments are closed.