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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (98895)	1/26/2011 12:48:39 PM
From: JakeStraw	3 Recommendations Respond to of 224744

The American people want spending cuts. In his State of the Union address, Obama proposed to freeze discretionary domestic spending — a fraction of overall spending — for five years to save $400 billion. Compared to the $3 trillion he added the national debt in the past two years and the trillions more projected over the next 8 years, this is a miniscule amount. npr.org

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (98895)	1/26/2011 2:47:16 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	2 Recommendations Respond to of 224744

Deficit at $1.5 Trillion, a Postwar Record By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN The nation’s budget deficit will widen to nearly $1.5 trillion this year, and the country faces “daunting economic and budgetary challenges,” the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday as it released its most updated fiscal report. The budget office noted that “the deficits of $1.4 trillion in 2009 and $1.3 trillion in 2010 are, when measured as a share of gross domestic product, the largest since 1945 – representing 10 percent and 8.9 percent of the nation’s output.”

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (98895)	1/26/2011 5:01:07 PM
From: FJB	1 Recommendation Respond to of 224744

CBO: this year's budget deficit to hit $1.5T By ANDREW TAYLOR, The Associated Press Andrew Taylor, The Associated Press – 2 hrs 51 mins ago WASHINGTON – A continuing weak economy and last month's bipartisan tax cut legislation will drive the government's deficit to a record $1.5 trillion this year, a new government estimate predicts. <span style='font-size:20px;color:blue'> The eye-popping numbers mean the government will continue to borrow 40 cents for every dollar it spends. The new Congressional Budget Office estimates will add fuel to a raging debate over cutting spending and looming legislation that's required to allow the government to borrow more money as the national debt nears the $14.3 trillion cap set by law. Republicans controlling the House say there's no way they'll raise the limit without significant cuts in spending, starting with a government funding bill that will advance next month. The CBO analysis predicts the economy will grow by 3.1 percent this year, but that joblessness will remain above 9 percent this year. Dauntingly for President Obama, the nonpartisan agency estimates a nationwide unemployment rate of 8.2 percent on Election Day in 2012.</span> The latest figures are up from previous estimates because of bipartisan legislation passed in December that extended Bush-era tax cuts, unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and provided a 2 percent payroll tax cut this year. That measure added almost $400 billion to this year's deficit, CBO says. The deficit is on track to beat the record of $1.4 trillion set in 2009. That figure reflected huge outlays from the Wall Street bailout. The nonpartisan budget agency predicts the deficit will drop to $1.1 trillion next year. "The fiscal challenge confronting us is enormous. To solve this problem, it will require real compromise and a great deal of political will," said Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D. "We need to have both sides, Democrats and Republicans, willing to move off their fixed positions and find common ground." The chilling figures come the morning after Obama called for a five-year freeze on domestic agency budgets passed by Congress each year. But those nondefense programs make up just 18 percent of the $3.7 trillion budget, which means any upcoming deficit reduction package — at least one that begins to significantly slow the gush of red ink — will require politically dangerous curbs to popular benefit programs, which include Social Security, Medicare, the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled, and food stamps. Neither Obama nor his GOP rivals on Capitol Hill have yet come forward with specific proposals for cutting such benefit programs. Successful efforts to curb the deficit always require active, engaged presidential leadership but Obama's unwillingness to thus far take chances has deficit hawks discouraged. Obama will release his 2012 budget proposal next month. "Somebody is going to have to bite the bullet and get this process going," said Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan group that advocates fiscal responsibility. "And that somebody has to be the president." Obama has pointedly steered clear of the recommendations of his deficit commissions, which in December called for politically difficult moves such as increasing the Social Security retirement age and reducing future increases in benefits. It also proposed a 15 cents a gallon increase in the gas tax and eliminating or scaling back tax breaks — including the child tax credit, mortgage interest deduction and deduction claimed by employers who provide health insurance — in exchange for rate cuts on corporate and income taxes. "I find the president moving in the same directions as (the deficit commission), certainly the same goals," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who served on the panel and voted for its controversial findings. "Stay tuned." CBO predicts that the deficit will fall to $551 billion by 2015, down to a sustainable 3 percent of the size of the economy. But under its rules, the CBO assumes that recently extended cuts in taxes on income, investment and people inheriting large estates will expire in two years. If those tax cuts, and numerous others, are extended, the deficit for that year would be almost three times as large. Tax revenues, which dropped significantly in 2009 because of the recession, have stabilized. But revenue growth will continue to be constrained because of the slow pace of economic growth and the extension of Bush era tax cuts passed by Congress in December. The CBO projects revenues to be 6 percent higher in 2011 than they were two years ago, which will not keep pace with the growth in spending. As a share of the economy, tax revenues in 2011 are projected to reach their lowest levels since 1950. The CBO projects that tax revenues will be 14.8 percent of GDP in 2011, which would be 0.1 percentage point lower than in 2009. "The United States faces daunting economic and budgetary challenges. The economy has struggled to recover from the recent recession, which was triggered by a large decline in house prices and a financial crisis — events unlike anything this country has seen since the Great Depression," the CBO report says. Separately, almost a dozen Republican senators endorsed a proposal by Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to amend the Constitution to require a balanced budget. The version is stricter than a bipartisan balanced budget amendment that fell one vote short in the Senate in 1997. It requires a two-thirds vote in Congress to raise taxes, among other provisions backed by tea party activists. No Democrats have signed on to the measure.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (98895)	1/26/2011 6:10:22 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	5 Recommendations Respond to of 224744

oooh, spunky remark Ken. you'll be drawn & quartered for daring to call the Left's all knowing, all seeing oracle boring.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (98895)	1/27/2011 1:05:36 PM
From: FJB	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224744

CBO Director: Trillion-Dollar Deficits Risk 'Fiscal Crisis' in U.S. Published January 27, 2011 \| FoxNews.com foxnews.com <span style='font-size:20px'> The top numbers cruncher for Congress warned Thursday that the federal government increasingly risks sending the country into a "fiscal crisis," projecting that unless cuts are made, within a decade the national debt could reach nearly 100 percent of all annual economic activity. That's like having $50,000 in debt on a $50,000-a-year salary. Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf, on the heels of a report pegging the 2011 budget deficit at a record $1.5 trillion, testified before the Senate Budget Committee on the risks of inaction. He said cumulative deficits over the next 10 years could run anywhere from $7 trillion to $12 trillion. He warned that making budget cuts too deep, too fast could be "disruptive" to the economic recovery at a fragile time. But he said Congress will have to start balancing the budget soon if it wants to head off, or at least minimize, the chance of a national debt-driven fiscal calamity in the future. "The longer that you wait to make those policy changes ... the greater the negative consequences (of the national debt) will be," he said. </span> Invoking recent economic crises in countries like Ireland and Greece, Elmendorf said waiting too long to curb spending and reduce the debt can have a host of consequences which all add up -- investors get nervous that the government can't finance its debt; the government loses the ability to respond to emergencies while interest rates eat up more and more of the budget pie; and taxes rise. As is customary in congressional hearings about the nation's fiscal problems, Elmendorf rattled off a string of staggering numbers in his forecast of future budget shortfalls. He said that if nothing changes in the law, the federal deficit will add up to $7 trillion over the next decade, pushing the debt up to 77 percent of GDP. But he suggested that estimate "understates" the problem, given that lawmakers frequently extend policies, like tax cuts and higher Medicare payments to doctors, that would help balance the budget if they were allowed to expire. If such short-term policies are extended, Elmendorf said, the deficit would reach nearly $12 trillion over the decade, pushing the debt to almost 100 percent of GDP. The hearing comes after the Congressional Budget Office released a report that shows the nation's red ink running even deeper than previously thought. "Spending as a share of our national income is at the highest level in 60 years. Revenue as a share of our national income is at its lowest level in 60 years. No wonder that we are headed for the largest deficit ever," said committee chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D. The analysis showed the deficit hitting a record $1.5 trillion this year, charting a rise due in part to a lagging economic recovery coupled with the recently passed tax cut package. The study also showed Social Security in a deficit this year. The entitlement program ran at a deficit in 2010 but had been expected to run in the black for a few more years before reverting back and permanently paying out more than it takes in. The latest estimate now shows Social Security consistently operating at a deficit through about 2037, when its reserves are expected to run out entirely. President Obama touched on the need for deficit reduction in his State of the Union speech Tuesday. He called for a five-year freeze on non-mandatory domestic spending, a proposal he estimated would save $400 billion over the next decade. He called for action on reforming entitlements like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, without offering specifics. But the $400 billion in proposed savings adds up to less than one-third of this year's projected deficit, and Republican congressional leaders roundly called on the administration to do more to address the nation's debt and deficit. At the Budget Committee hearing, there was a bipartisan call for Congress to develop a spending-cut plan this year. "We can't continue to put this off. We need to reach an agreement this year," Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said. "The time for debate is over, and we must take action," said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.