Two budget fights loom — one that matters, and one that doesn’t
The looming budget fight in Washington has two components, the short term and the long term. And it’s important to keep that distinction in mind as events play out.
The short term is going to be brutal. House Republicans are itching for a spending fight, and they’re going to get one. The occasion might be passage of the continuing resolution needed to fund the rest of this fiscal year; it might be the debate over raising the debt ceiling; it might be both. The House GOP is proposing budget moves they know won’t be accepted — a 29 percent cut in the hated EPA, eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Americorps and slashing college tuition aid while defense spending increases — but they show every sign of stamping their feet and throwing a major hissy fit if the rest of Washington doesn’t bow to their every wish.
The damage those cuts would do is serious. But in terms of the deficit, the short-term fight will mean nothing and accomplish nothing. By concentrating on non-defense discretionary spending, which accounts for just 12 to 18 percent of federal spending depending on how you define it, the short-term battle sidesteps entitlements, defense or taxes, which means it doesn’t address the deficit at all. Its sole impact will be to strengthen or weaken the political position of the various participants as they prepare for the longer game.
That’s where the money is, and where the change will come. For the first time, we’re seeing signs from President Obama and congressional leaders of both parties that they’re willing to work toward a grand compromise. To his credit, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia is reportedly playing a major role in leading a bipartisan, behind-the-scenes discussion in the Senate in which all ideas — entitlements, taxes, defense — are on the table.
Let’s breeze through the major areas of concern:
1.) Saving Social Security is relatively easy. You don’t have to privatize it, you don’t have to slash it. The president’s bipartisan deficit commission laid out a common-sense approach of reductions in long-term benefit increases combined with slight increases in SSI taxes to make the program actuarially sound. Remember, the maximum Social Security benefit for someone retiring this year at age 66 is barely $28,000, so any effort to slash that is going to hit a lot of vulnerable people very hard.
2.) Medicare, on the other hand, is relatively impossible. We’ve got a health-care delivery system that already spends twice as much of our national GDP as any other industrialized country, and we’ve got large numbers of Baby Boomers about to retire over the next decade. That’s a hugely expensive combination.
The House GOP approach to Medicare is essentially to abandon it, converting the program to vouchers that senior citizens can use to buy health insurance on their own. However, those vouchers would be scheduled to diminish in value over time, leaving seniors to somehow pay their own medical bills. The numbers just don’t work, and the impact of that approach on seniors’ access to health care would be far more devastating than the imaginary death panels could ever have been.
Somehow, you’ve got to lower health-care delivery costs not just in Medicare but throughout the health-care system. (Doing it in Medicare alone is impossible.) You’ve also got to means-test benefits to a degree and raise taxes if necessary to cover what’s left. You can’t “solve” Medicare, but you can certainly contain it.
3.) Defense spending also has to be cut. Everyone knows it, although some refuse to acknowledge it. You cannot sustain a globally dominant military without a globally dominant economy, and if you try to do so, you weaken your economy still further. Today, we lack the means to permanently finance a military establishment that spends as much money as the rest of the world combined on defense. Those days are over.
4.) Taxes have to go up. We have to trash the nonsensical idea that tax cuts pay for themselves, because they don’t. Taxes aren’t too high — as a percentage of national GDP, they’re lower now than they’ve been in decades. If we simply allow the Bush tax cuts to expire as now scheduled in 2012, taxes as a percentage of GDP would still be at or below the historical average since 1970.
Those are the raw ingredients of a deal: Entitlement cuts, spending cuts, defense cuts and tax increases. How much of each will be a matter of negotiation and sometimes bitter political gamesmanship, but without all four components, no deal is possible and we’ll continue right off the cliff.
– Jay Bookman
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489 comments Add your comment
larry
February 16th, 2011
1:32 pm
I’m shorting treasuries.
Im sorry , i thought that said I’m snorting treasuries.
Oh well, you do so at your own peril .
Granny Godzilla
February 16th, 2011
1:33 pm
oh and nice guy
the more obvious point is all those brave young folks out there and guess what? ET and the Kardashians have not reported on the WI governor’s attempt to take away workers rights.
So they must not do as you say……
jm
February 16th, 2011
1:33 pm
Soco 1:18 – ok. Fine lets use Splost. SPLOSTs are used to pay for infrastructure, infrastructure that the city would otherwise have to pay for out of general funds. So now that we have SPLOSTs to pay for infrastructure, the city spends less on infrastructure and more on everything else…. its all a slush fund.
Would you suggest the USG put all the SS funds into infrastructure? If you want to make that argument, then fine, a lot of that has happened….
Look, I’m a finance / numbers / moral hazard / agent problem / adverse selection junkie. I understand our desire for retirees to not face a dismal retirement future. But privatization is not BY DEFINITION in conflict with those goals. Except to politicians in the Democratic party. There are perfectly good ways to create private accounts that prevent government looting, are safe, secure, and provide ample protection for retirees….
Democrats are fear mongerers.
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:34 pm
“have not reported on the WI governor’s attempt to take away workers rights.”
It only takes a couple kids to suggest skipping class for a local protest before half the school empties out.
Impressed I am not.
Granny Godzilla
February 16th, 2011
1:35 pm
oh and nice guy
“Only back in my younger days, when I was an ill informed voter”
it’s wrong to paint our young folks as feckless as you were in your own youth.
jm
February 16th, 2011
1:35 pm
Nice Guy 1:30 – I’m long TBT
(a bit of oxymoron there) Anyway, yes. Not long enough yet, but getting longer TBT by the month…
Granny Godzilla
February 16th, 2011
1:36 pm
Nice Guy
Got kids?
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:37 pm
“it’s wrong to paint our young folks as feckless as you were in your own youth.”
Granny, I understand your admiration for the young folks. But based onwhat I’ve seen of the young folks today, ‘well-informed teenager’ is a bit of an oxymoron.
Halftrack
February 16th, 2011
1:38 pm
Jay; Citizens are Maxed out in “credit card” debt and struggling with married children living at home, going to college, or lost jobs or even lost spouses. New taxes will burden the citizen and the economy by making the struggling borderline people poor. The amount of debt that the US owes in beyond our thinking plus the thinking of the egg heads. A simple solution for everyone is to go back to the levels of 2008. Use your column to promote a better solution instead of critique.
Granny Godzilla
February 16th, 2011
1:39 pm
Nice Guy
that’s sad for you
Jefferson
February 16th, 2011
1:40 pm
Much like UGA football and GT basketball, it will have to get worse before it gets better.
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:40 pm
jm @ 1:35
Good stuff!
I haven’t dove into that one yet, but I have loaded up a bit on a solid metals fund.
jm
February 16th, 2011
1:40 pm
Nice Guy – “teenagers” well, there are probably a few. Like this junkie who was reading The Economist from the age of about 15. Made for some nightmarish conversations with my mother about vouchers, given she worked in the public school system…. I think her position has shifted over time though…
Normal
February 16th, 2011
1:40 pm
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:21 pm
Which means you don’t think ol’ Rush is fair and balanced?
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:40 pm
“Much like UGA football and GT basketball, it will have to get worse before it gets better.”
You forgot GT football.
Left wing management
February 16th, 2011
1:40 pm
Nice Guy 1:21: So is Limbaugh.
Limbaugh is a proto-fascist enabler. He’s a spiritual termite colony that’s literally eating the frame of the nation’s spiritual house.
His true colors were shown this week when he used the expression “go Egypt” against the Obama administration of health-care repeal fails. Which shows the following: Limbaugh was offended somewhere deep down by the events in Egypt. That offended his world view. He knows instinctively which side the thugs are on, and naturally he wanted them to win.
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:41 pm
“that’s sad for you”
Just call’em like I see’em.
sleestak63
February 16th, 2011
1:41 pm
I think totalitarian’s like Bookman and CT should be paying 100% tax rates because the gubmint knows
how to spend their money better than they do.
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:41 pm
“Which means you don’t think ol’ Rush is fair and balanced?”
Not 100% of the time. Nobody is.
Jefferson
February 16th, 2011
1:42 pm
GT football get much more from what they have to work with than UGA by a long shot.
Common Sense isn't very Common
February 16th, 2011
1:42 pm
Nice Guy@1:34 pm
It only takes a couple kids to suggest skipping class for a local protest before half the school empties out.
——————–
Sounds like they are easily led down the wrong path with false information just like people that only listen to the far right or far left media.
jm
February 16th, 2011
1:44 pm
Nice Guy – Yeah, TBT is already up a bit over the last 6 months. But if you look at the #’s, there’s plenty of downside left for Treasuries…. I’d really prefer a canadian version of TBT, but I haven’t figured out how to get access to it yet.
Horizons BetaPro U.S. 30-Year Bond Bear Plus ETF (HTD) – denominated in Canadian $s
Normal
February 16th, 2011
1:44 pm
“If the president is presented with a bill that undermines critical priorities or national security through funding levels or restrictions, contains earmarks or curtails the drivers of long-term economic growth and job creation while continuing to burden future generations with deficits, the president will veto the bill.”
I think that’s good, tough leadership. Good-O!
catlady
February 16th, 2011
1:44 pm
Time for Obama to take off the kid gloves. List MASSIVE spending cuts in the sacred cows to Republicans, and let THEM sputter about how “necessary” those areas of spending are!
Granny Godzilla
February 16th, 2011
1:44 pm
Nice Guy
AGAIN
Got kids?
George W
February 16th, 2011
1:45 pm
Bookman…when you say the word “budget”…do you mean the uncontrol spending this administration continues to do with the ever rising debt load? Or the lies that Obama spouted during presenting the budget?
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:46 pm
“Limbaugh is a proto-fascist enabler.”
Perhaps you should check the details of what a facist is.
I love how Rush gets all the Left-nut’s knickers all bunched up!
George W
February 16th, 2011
1:46 pm
Granny….did you get me banned from CTuckers blogs?
jm
February 16th, 2011
1:46 pm
Normal 1:44 – what a joke. The guy is basically saying, by default, send me a bill with a huge tax increase or I will veto it. So he’s asking a Republican House to send him a bill with nothing it would ever be inclined to do…. it’s ridiculous.
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:47 pm
“GT football get much more from what they have to work with than UGA by a long shot.”
If GT continued their success of the inaugural PJ season, I’d agree. But they haven’t.
getalife
February 16th, 2011
1:48 pm
rush is a secret lib and says crazy stuff especially at election time so the gop will lose.
Normal
February 16th, 2011
1:48 pm
love how Rush gets all the Left-nut’s knickers all bunched up!
He’s just a radio DJ on WOLD-d-d-d…
Normal
February 16th, 2011
1:50 pm
jm,
I hope he uses his veto pen ’til it runs out of ink.
Left wing management
February 16th, 2011
1:50 pm
Nice Guy: “I love how Rush gets all the Left-nut’s knickers all bunched up!”
Nah, What gets my knickers in a twist in hearing a Democrat like Barack Obama spout recycled Republican talking points (e.g. saying the private sector is the natural job creator, tripe like that).
Limbaugh? He just moves me to say things like: “Limbaugh is a one-man termite colony that devours, a spiritual blow-torch that’s burning out the soul of the nation.” You know, that sort of stuff. Pretty mild stuff, don’t you think?
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:50 pm
“Horizons BetaPro U.S. 30-Year Bond Bear Plus ETF (HTD) – denominated in Canadian $s”
Interesting. Shaky LTM, but last 6M is good.
George W
February 16th, 2011
1:50 pm
I think it is funny how the libs say that Rush is irrelavant but then quote his radio broadcast all of the time. What about his ratings?
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:51 pm
Granny – “Got kids?”
Yes ma’am.
jm
February 16th, 2011
1:51 pm
Normal 1:50 – fine then, Obama will be blamed for a government shut down after the debt ceiling isn’t increased
Bosch
February 16th, 2011
1:53 pm
Nice Guy,
” But, if nothing else, thus far, those elections have helped BHO understand that his drunken sailor spending habits (i.e. election victory lap) was unsustainable and dangerous.”
Awwww….I remember the good ol’ days when everybody used to say the same thing about ol’ Georgy Boy — Luckovich even did a cartoon about it:
http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add_edit.php?iid=25329
Nothing ever changes because so little of what the feds actually spend are discretionary spending — hell see Lucko’s cartoon today even.
jm
February 16th, 2011
1:53 pm
Nice Guy – a lot of the treasury ETF’s are leveraged, so people just need to be cognizant of that going in. I think HTD is, I know TBT is. So there’s volatility in there. There are shorter duration and unleveraged funds with lower volatility if people don’t like the vol associated with leveraged funds.
I just think the downside is limited… I mean, aside from japan, it’s hard to imagine T’s going to 1.5% with the Fed printing as much as it is and the USG running as much red ink as it is….
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:53 pm
“He’s just a radio DJ on WOLD-d-d-d…”
Normal….we must be talking about two different people….
Kamchak
February 16th, 2011
1:56 pm
…when I was an ill informed voter.
Some things never change.
Granny Godzilla
February 16th, 2011
1:56 pm
George W
February 16th, 2011
1:46 pm
Granny….did you get me banned from CTuckers blogs?
Think about that will you?
And think about the language you use.
No, if you are banned – you did it with your own little fingers and lack of self control.
Granny Godzilla
February 16th, 2011
1:57 pm
Nice Guy
are they/were they ill-informed in tha age range we are talking about?
if so why would you allow that?
George W
February 16th, 2011
1:58 pm
Granny….no idea what you are talking about. I guess you are still a scared little girl acting like a grown up.
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:58 pm
Bosch – “Nothing ever changes”
Isn’t that the damn truth. Comes in cycles. Yet we all still show up and argue about it.
Bosch
February 16th, 2011
1:58 pm
Mrs. G.,
And the wingnuts are always talking about personal responsibility, huh?
Kamchak
February 16th, 2011
1:59 pm
Tick…tick…tick….
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
1:59 pm
“Some things never change.”
Some one just finished their mid-afternoon lobster thermidor….
Granny Godzilla
February 16th, 2011
2:01 pm
Hi Bosch
George W claims he was banned and can’t for the life of himself figure out why…..
that guy is sooooo all about personal responsibility!
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
2:02 pm
“are they/were they ill-informed in tha age range we are talking about?”
To young to vote just yet.
“if so why would you allow that?”
I’ll try my best to not allow that, trust me.
MPercy
February 16th, 2011
2:02 pm
“2) An increase of 5% on the lowest bracket, and lower percentages of increase on the other brackets, is just not fair.”
But was it fair when the lower bracket went down by 5% and the upper bracket went down by 3.5%? Why do I get the feeling it was just fine with you…that your idea of “fairness” is asymmetrical?
Normal
February 16th, 2011
2:03 pm
Nice Guy,
Isn’t that what he is? Just a DJ? On a radio station? What ever else he thinks he is, is in his own mind.
George W
February 16th, 2011
2:04 pm
Granny…..once again you guys continue to make allegations with no evidence. Some people never change.
jm
February 16th, 2011
2:04 pm
Amen. Thank you Geithner….
Geithner again put in a pitch for corporate tax reforms that would reduce tax rates but eliminate special tax deductions and credits that distort investment decisions. He said this could be accomplished before reforming the system for personal income taxes but that process should start now — in part to show the United States’ commitment to fiscal discipline.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/16/us-usa-budget-geithner-idUSTRE71E58U20110216
jm
February 16th, 2011
2:07 pm
Nice Guy – the big guys are shifting sides…. to our side…. gotta get ahead of the curve
Liberty Mutual CEO Says U.S. Policymakers ‘Debase the Dollar’
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Noah Buhayar
Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) — Liberty Mutual Holding Co., the second-largest policyholder-owned property-casualty insurer in the U.S., is expanding abroad and shortening the duration of bond holdings because deficit spending and Federal Reserve policies may weaken the dollar.
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
2:07 pm
Normal – “Isn’t that what he is? Just a DJ? On a radio station?”
That’s kind of like saying, BHO is just a man, living in a big, white house.
Doesn’t really capture it, does it?
MPercy
February 16th, 2011
2:09 pm
Adam @11:49 am MPercy: Where is the 1.8T figure coming from. I thought it was 1.4T.
I was asking Paul about his post (see the first posting here) where he said: “The latest GAO estimate, according to that table, is the Bush budget racked up a deficit of $1.8 trillion.”
So my question was “were was TARP expenditures included in that deficit, and if so, were TARP repayment counted as revenue in Obama’s budgets”. Did TARP (mostly loans) make Bush’s deficit larger that year by about $300B, and Obama’s subsequent deficits smaller by about $200B (as TARP loans and profits are paid)?
Granny Godzilla
February 16th, 2011
2:09 pm
George W
I did report 2 of your comments……so maybe I can get part of the credit.
My fellow posters forgive my repeating of the terms that I found offensive enough to report……
refering to African Americans as “blackies with their hands out” and calling the President of the United States the “HNIC”
anybody here support that?
again forgive me for having to repeat that, but like a puppy who poops in the house sometimes to train them properly you have to rub their nose in what they dropped.
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
2:10 pm
jm – “the big guys are shifting sides…. to our side…. gotta get ahead of the curve”
I hear ya. The dollar issue is a shame. Just as the market gets all excited about earnings and M&A activity.
George W
February 16th, 2011
2:11 pm
I had someone who lives in Europe ask me recently. “If America is at war with terror and the middle east….why did we elect a Muslim for president”.
And you guys wonder why the rest of the world laughs at us.
jm
February 16th, 2011
2:13 pm
Obama Budget Shows Hunter S. Thompson Was Right: Caroline Baum
http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=ae2lPEkX5.rM
Baum: you are the problem….
A great read.
Paul
February 16th, 2011
2:13 pm
Hey Bosch!
So on Sunday I was telling my wife about your Small World nightmares and I said “I think, sometime next week, I’ll ask him
Bosch! Remember when you said you couldn’t get that song out of your head? The one that goes “it’s a small world, after all…. it’s a small world after all…. it’s a small world after all, it’s a small, small, world.” So I was wonderin’, when did you stop thinking about it? Did it take a long time? Did it ever start up again? Like, did anything set you off? To remind you of the tune or the words of “It’s a small world after all…”
That’s when my wife looked at me and said “I wouldn’t be surprised if someday, someone put out a contract on you.”
She has a very practical view of things.
Del
February 16th, 2011
2:14 pm
The Republicans are going to take on entitlements. Obama is going to lay back and hope they take enough hits from the public to get him re-elected. His budget is laden with tax increases on the wealthy and on business, so he plays to his left wing base with it. Good strategy? It all depends on how serious voters are about reduced spending and the deficit. Obama could win or he and the Democrats could lose real big in 012. It should be quite interesting watching events unfold leading up to the national election.
Paul
February 16th, 2011
2:15 pm
“I had someone who lives in Europe ask me recently. “If America is at war with terror and the middle east….why did we elect a Muslim for president”.”
That’s hilarious -
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
2:16 pm
Paul @ 2:13
Funny.
I remember him saying that.
One can only hope he sees your post today…
MPercy
February 16th, 2011
2:16 pm
Doggone/GA @12:02 pm “So the only real option is putting some individual control over it, with guardrails there to prevent people from doing something incredibly stupid” do you ask your insurance company to give you “individual control” over the money you send them?
Yep. I can stop paying the premium just as soon as I think their doing something I don’t like. And in seriousness, many insurance products (esp. life insurance and annuities) carry self-directed investment components. If you’re talking about SS, an annuity is probably the closest private equivalent and there are plenty that are self-directed (see variable annuities).
MPercy
February 16th, 2011
2:17 pm
Dammit…just as soon as I think their doing NOPE just as soon as I think they’re doing
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
2:19 pm
Off Topic
Man, that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi sure has stepped in it…
Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 16th, 2011
2:20 pm
Dear Adam @ 11:11, “Ragnar: Your observation, that war is expensive, is undoubtedly true. Surrendering freedom is always cheaper than preserving it. Two sentences that have absolutely nothing to do with one another.”
The explanation is in the second paragraph. Many young people fail to appreciate the truth that peace and freedom are mutually exclusive over the long term. Freedom is preserved only by breaking the peace; peace is accomplished only by surrendering freedom. It has to do with the controlling nature of a substantial portion of the population, an innate trait for far too many.
TaxPayer
February 16th, 2011
2:22 pm
Yosef Stevens/2016
AmVet
February 16th, 2011
2:24 pm
Granny to your point regarding Ms. Tucker’s forum, she attracts every bigot and racist from Dahlonega to Douglasville. From Snellville to Fayetteville and beyond.
A veritable viper pit of the most puerile and hateful trash ever written. And that is not just hyperbole.
Trying to have reasoned and adult discourse over there is a huge challenge, and frequently, impossible.
Truly an environment where the inmates are running the asylum. And if she banned every one of those disgusting, childish louts, it would take up half of her day.
And why I have virtually given up on blogging there…
George W
February 16th, 2011
2:25 pm
AmVet….you are right. Tucker herself is NEVER a bigot or racist!! haha grow up.
Del
February 16th, 2011
2:25 pm
Nice Guy, they say that he got into it somehow.
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
2:25 pm
“Yosef Stevens/2016″
There’s your sign.
AmVet
February 16th, 2011
2:26 pm
On a lighter note…
Today is National Slap A Cop Day! Founded by Zsa Zsa Gabor…
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
2:27 pm
“Nice Guy, they say that he got into it somehow.”
In a country where prostituion is legal, you should never be charged with anything having to do with prositution.
AmVet
February 16th, 2011
2:28 pm
haha grow up.
And right on self-destructive cue, it is obvious why this particular childish lout was banned from there, isn’t it?
Granny Godzilla
February 16th, 2011
2:28 pm
AMvet
I know, sometimes I don’t have the desire to rub shoulders with that riff raff…..
other times, you know, it’s fun to poke ‘em.
Always glad to see YOU though
George W
February 16th, 2011
2:29 pm
AmVet….great post….I would expect nothing less from you.
jm
February 16th, 2011
2:32 pm
great.
On the regulatory front, Obama’s intention to submit all federal rules and regulations to a cost-benefit analysis sounds nice, but what bureaucrat has ever declared himself redundant and written himself out of a job?
It reminds me of a joke about the tourist who goes to visit the Agriculture Department. As he’s walking down a long, empty hallway, he hears the sound of crying coming from an office. The tourist peaks his head in and asks the employee, sobbing at his desk, “What’s the matter?”
“My farmer died,” the employee replied.
The Department of Agriculture, like any government agency, never willingly cedes a part of its fiefdom.
jm
February 16th, 2011
2:32 pm
In the 1700s, the U.S. was an agrarian nation with 90 percent of workers engaged in farming, according to Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center in Arlington, Virginia. Today the U.S. economy has highly productive agribusinesses employing less than 2 percent of all (legal) workers. Yet “the federal government continues to subsidize agriculture,” de Rugy said. “Spending for the Department of Agriculture in real terms went from $95 billion in 2000 to $142 billion in 2010.”
jm
February 16th, 2011
2:33 pm
The Education Department’s mission is to promote student achievement and prepare our youth for global competitiveness. Inspirational, to be sure. Where’s the policy to accomplish it?
Running in place. Between 1970 and 2007, inflation-adjusted spending for grades K-12 increased 190 percent without any noticeable improvement in academic achievement, according to Andrew Coulson, director the Center for Educational Freedom at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington.
Education’s Cost/Benefit
“After $2 trillion and 45 years in the business of education, you’d think we’d have something to show for it,” Coulson said in a telephone interview last week. Instead of better student performance, all that money bought us “a lot more public school employees,” he said.
The U.S. spends more per pupil than most countries, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In its latest report, “The Condition of Education 2010,” the NCES said the U.S. spent $10,267 per pupil for primary and secondary education, 41 percent more than the average for developed countries. (Data are for 2006.) That amounts to 4 percent of gross domestic product, also above the average.
Paul
February 16th, 2011
2:35 pm
George W
AmVet was discussing the bloggers at Ms Tucker’s.
Your post, in response to his criticism of said bloggers, was not to explore the reasons why, or to comment regarding them; instead, it was to criticize Ms Tucker.
?????????????????????????????????????????????
TaxPayer
February 16th, 2011
2:37 pm
Oops! That should have been Yusuf Stevens/2016.
AmVet
February 16th, 2011
2:37 pm
Thanks, G.
I’ve read his bigoted posts over there. And those quotes of his are but the latest in a long string of them. The guy is a real racist work of art. (Too bad the only color in his palette is white!)
No worries, he’ll “reappear” with a new and improved moniker in a couple of weeks…
Granny Godzilla
February 16th, 2011
2:39 pm
Amvet
but it’ll be easy to pick up the stench
Paul
February 16th, 2011
2:39 pm
AmVet 2:37
Aahhhh, that explains it.
Always easier to criticize others than to engage in a bit of self reflection, eh?
George W
February 16th, 2011
2:39 pm
AmVet, I have never changed my moniker. Demoncrat excuses….
BLAME BUSH
BLAME PALIN
SCREAM RACISM!!
Keep up the great work.
Southern Comfort (B.P.O.I.B.W.)
February 16th, 2011
2:41 pm
Except that I suspect when you say not-for-profit, you really mean government (taxpayer) funded. Those are two very different things
Your spidey senses are way off. I have no problem with non-profits or other people doing health care. I don’t think the government should be the one controlling it. I just think it is morally wrong to be in the business of health and be more focused on bottom line profits as opposed to the health and well being of the person you’re trying to help.
A business will be a business regardless to what industry it’s in. Co-ops would be a more logical solution to our health care system for me as opposed to what it is now. Don’t try to assume anything about something I’m trying to say. If you have a question about a point I have, just ask. I have no problem clarifying a point. I’m not one of those who need the government to bail me out. I’m also not one of those who think everything should be open for profit mongers either.
USMC dawg
February 16th, 2011
2:42 pm
“Granny to your point regarding Ms. Tucker’s forum, she attracts every bigot and racist from Dahlonega to Douglasville. From Snellville to Fayetteville and beyond.”-Amvet
She attracts some white people too.
MPercy
February 16th, 2011
2:42 pm
Left wing management @1:40 pm His true colors were shown this week when he used the expression “go Egypt” against the Obama administration of health-care repeal fails. Which shows the following: Limbaugh was offended somewhere deep down by the events in Egypt. That offended his world view. He knows instinctively which side the thugs are on, and naturally he wanted them to win.
I don’t listen to Limbaugh, but from what you wrote, I got a 180 degree different take on what he meant. I took it to mean that if the legislative actions for repealing Obamacare fail, then the people (who by a fair majority favor repeal) take to the streets in vocal mass protest–i.e., “go Egypt”–then maybe the government will be inclined to listen to their demands.
George W
February 16th, 2011
2:45 pm
USMC ……Great POST!!! Semper Fi!
Old Boy
February 16th, 2011
2:46 pm
Disagree with most of your opinions, but this one seems to be pretty spot on. Defense budget needs to decrease (remember, planes and ships don’t hold ground), Medicare is impossible and we need to grit our teeth and pay a little more in taxes, from top to bottom. I would, however, really like to see a phasing out of social security that would cause it to disappear completely. I understand you can’t take it from someone who is in his sixties and has been planning on it, but you can sure take it from someone in his fourties and say “sorry, looks like you need to start saving some of your paycheck.” As a gen-Xer, I know social security will be gone by the time I retire and that any money I have put towards it is lost, but I would like to see a ‘phased withdrawl’ if you will. The sad fact is that social security is a Ponzi scheme that was doomed to failure from the start.
Normal
February 16th, 2011
2:46 pm
Nice Guy
February 16th, 2011
2:07 pm
BHO has a title…President Of The United States.
Rush has no title and is a Disc Jockey, period
Southern Comfort (B.P.O.I.B.W.)
February 16th, 2011
2:46 pm
Would you suggest the USG put all the SS funds into infrastructure? If you want to make that argument, then fine, a lot of that has happened
That’s not what I”m talking about. We may be on the same page, but looking at things from a different standpoint. What I’m saying is that a set-aside does not necessarily have to become a “slush fund”. Had previous administrations started to use SS as their private piggy bank, the SS fund would probably be a lot better off now. I have no problem with SS being it’s own thing, whether an umbrella government agency or quasi-private insurance company. What I think, is that SS taxes collected should have no bearing on the budget whatsoever. That was the original design and it held up that way until recent administrations.
If,by privatization, you mean letting a board administer the program and invest that money wisely so that it can maintain solvency, we’re talking the same thing. If you mean turn SS over to some investment firm so they can collect their fees and retirees end up with diminished returns, I can’t go for that.
George W
February 16th, 2011
2:48 pm
Normal….sure he does. “Most listened to talk radio host in the country”. Nice title eh?
AmVet
February 16th, 2011
2:48 pm
Paul, one thing about the George W’s of the world, you can quote their irrefutably bigoted words (blackies with their hands out) and they still neither admit to nor apologize for their cretinous comments.
No shame whatsoever.
But they will deflect and play stupid to perfection.
OK, off to the Sweatatorium of Pain.
For George:
WHITE POWER!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCITZh_Btyo
George W
February 16th, 2011
2:48 pm
BHO better enjoy that title now. It wont be there in 24 months.
0311/0317 - 1811/1801
February 16th, 2011
2:48 pm
Kammy:
You’re a hoot and a great person.
Ooops, forgot I’m consistently wrong.