How the present fiscal ‘crisis’ rolls right into the next one
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t had any pieces of sky falling on my head today.
The automatic spending cuts known as sequestration take effect beginning today. It’s a little early to gauge whether doom is truly upon us, but the way Americans sense the cuts have affected them — or not — will help determine how the next serial “crisis” is teed up.
We already know what that crisis will be: the debate over a new continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government. Because congressional Democrats have given up on the budgeting process, which would force them to commit in black-letter documents to the kind of tax-and-spend plans they desire for the coming years, the government ends up being funded for a few months at a time. The latest CR expires later this month, so it would seem the debate will now shift to that fight.
It would seem so, except that that fight is the one the White House has been waging for a couple of weeks now.
The intent of the scare stories about sequestration, in all likelihood, were only partly about sequestration. President Obama no doubt would have loved for congressional Republicans to back down and either kick the cuts down the road a bit further, as they did in the “fiscal cliff” deal, or even agree to some new taxes in place of, say, defense cuts. But he was also fully aware that leverage was ultimately on Republicans’ side if they were resolved to let sequestration proceed — as was the case for him in the fiscal-cliff talks, when taxes were scheduled to go up if no one did anything.
So, it’s altogether likely that Obama wanted to talk up the effects of the sequestration cuts not just to pressure them to cave now, but also to build leverage for the CR discussions. After all, if Americans do feel pain from sequestration, he can argue for higher spending in the CR. If they don’t, he can claim to have taken all possible measures to avoid pain now — but to be without any such protective options if spending falls further in the CR.
The talk about “balance” — i.e., raising taxes — will become even louder when the CR is debated. Never mind that the tax hikes in the fiscal-cliff deal are double the spending cuts under sequestration.
The question now becomes: What do most Americans think about the changes wrought by both deals? Will they feel more affected by the tax hikes or the spending cuts? And will they then balk at going further down one road or the other — or maybe find themselves willing to keep going down both?
One would think the fact that everyone’s payroll taxes went up would trump the far less universal spending cuts. But there will be a lot of argument-by-anecdote about spending cuts in the coming weeks to try to negate that.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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499 comments Add your comment
Politico
March 3rd, 2013
12:36 pm
I see little deputy fife is making his rounds and as his usual whine on…
They didn’t have a uniform small enough so they had to get him a deputy costume during a Halloween sale
Don’t forget to put more water in your SQUIRT (get it little fella) gun..
You tought little deput you…..
Bwhahahahahah
Politico
March 3rd, 2013
12:37 pm
*tough
Keep sending AJC emails and doing a good job, Kyle might move you up to a cap gun….
Toodles little dude
Georgia
March 3rd, 2013
12:52 pm
The markets are telling us the the GOP stinks.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 3rd, 2013
12:56 pm
Abraham Lincoln would slap obozo right across his filthy mouth.
Wilbur
March 3rd, 2013
12:59 pm
One day, fairly soon, bondholder will stop being willing to buy bonds from a the US government at a near zero rate of interest. As they start to demand higher interest rates to justify the increased risk of loaning to a government whose balance sheet becomes weaker with each new dollar spent, the real pressure on the deficit will begin. A one percent rise in interest rates doubles our cumulative interest payments. The trillions of dollars fabricated in Quantitative Easing will eventually reignite inflation.
When the “government bubble” bursts, as it inevitably will, there will be amazement. How could this have happened? Who is at fault for looking the other way as our government spent itself and us into poverty?
When you hear so called “smart people” talking about a new paradigm you know the end is near. Make no mistake, you cannot pump up your money supply without starting inflation. You can’t debase your currency without increasing interest rates. Karma is coming and she is mad.
Georgia
March 3rd, 2013
1:04 pm
Abe Lincoln isn’t fit to shine Obama’s shoes. Abe broke every single tenet of our constitution and turned this country into a gulag just so he could save the union. What a total tyrannical monkey that Abe Lincoln was. And who told Lincoln he could write? Why, if I had been around in 1865, he woulda got the pie in the face in front of everyone. A cream pie. (and his idiot wife, too).
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 3rd, 2013
1:11 pm
I’m willing to bet history won’t remember obozo as “Honest” barry.
bluecoat
March 3rd, 2013
1:55 pm
Well it’s crying time again I know your losing.Aesop et’al.It’s over you lost.Go see a shrink.Get it off your mind.Go to the dog park.Go down by the river sit on the bench.Just don’t jump.Go to church,pray for self and Obama.
bluecoat
March 3rd, 2013
2:04 pm
I believe history will remember Obama as “Shrewd”
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 3rd, 2013
2:16 pm
I don’t care how impressed you are with your pimp daddy, bluecoat. I’m actually surprised that you came up for air this long.
indigo
March 3rd, 2013
2:30 pm
Georgia – 1:04
Would you be runnin around yelling HEY MO HEY LARRY WO WO WO WO WO WO?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
March 3rd, 2013
2:54 pm
The repetitive leg humper is back at the local library, I see. . . .
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
March 3rd, 2013
2:56 pm
Bluecoat, there is nothing shrewd about President Incompetent.
But he’s loaded with incompetence, that’s for sure.
getalife
March 3rd, 2013
3:01 pm
Our President is going for the house in 14 to leave a dem majority.
Proceed crybaby.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
March 3rd, 2013
3:05 pm
He might as well try for an electoral success, getalife.
That’s all he seems to be good at, since he’s an abject failure as a president and leader.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
March 3rd, 2013
3:07 pm
Of course, he’ll fail at that as well due to gerrymandered districts.
bluecoat
March 3rd, 2013
3:25 pm
Aseop trying to get along with you.Hoped you would not harm self being so distraught.
Georgia
March 3rd, 2013
3:34 pm
Why, that’s ridiculous, Indigo. I run around yelping, “Moe, Larry, the cheese!”
Which brings up the subject of the greatest comedian of the last two thousand years, Curly. It is the duty of every male american to watch the stooge marathons when they appear. Even if you have to work, you must record. It’s like giving something up for lent. You have to. or else you’ll lose touch with everything that america wont stand for. And then there is the little matter of the pies that go unthrown with each passing hour. I can only hold out for so long, pal. Miss the marathons at your own risk.
Politico
March 3rd, 2013
3:34 pm
The little deputy dog
Leg humper
Color me shocked
Surrender
Pourtage
And he rants from a foot stool about
repetitiveness
He must have been standing behind a podium that was special made for a 9ft tall person… That’s why he could barely look over…. Standing on a foot stool
Bwhahahahahahahah
All that yipping and tapping… Not hard to figure why he figuratively and literally as the statue of a miniature poodle mixed with a chihuahua
Get you last word in or send Kyle a pouty email…. You know how you do it
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 3rd, 2013
3:44 pm
bluecoat – Thanks for your concern but I am comfortable in the knowledge that, not only will obozo be gone soon enough, he will be taking the dummycrat party with him.
bluecoat
March 3rd, 2013
3:56 pm
Aseop sorry,Hillary next in line.Your knowledge not to reliable.
@@
March 3rd, 2013
4:09 pm
I believe history will remember Obama as “Shrewd”
I read ^^^ that as “screwed”.
When it comes to dealing with foreign leaders (Ahmadinejad, Putin, Kim Jong Un)….shrewd is good. When it comes to domestic issues, shrewd would indicate he’s more concerned about party politics than he is the American people and their future.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 3rd, 2013
4:54 pm
“Why are we giving billions to Egypt, when in my mind it is not a friend of America?” said Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.)
I’m pretty sure you just answered your own question, dude.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
March 3rd, 2013
4:58 pm
What are posters who keep repeating the same erroneous information when they’ve been proven wrong?
We call people like Politico liars.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 3rd, 2013
4:59 pm
indigo: Oh, he did his job all right…saddling us with the worst financial depression since the Great Depression.
—————————–
Not sure why it’s Our President Bush’s fault that a whole bunch of Democrats stopped paying their mortgages. Nevertheless, He fixed that mess (TARP–which has been almost completely paid back) and the recession ended in June 2009. Some depression.
Unfortunately for responsible Americans, Obozo has spent four years mucking up that recovery, keeping unemployment higher for four years than it ever was in the previous eight, putting record numbers of folks into poverty, charging a $800 billion “stimulus” to the credit card, and losing our sterling AAA credit rating.
bluecoat
March 3rd, 2013
5:03 pm
In my heart thought I would win until I saw Florida.You need use you head,not your heart.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 3rd, 2013
5:04 pm
@@: When it comes to dealing with foreign leaders (Ahmadinejad, Putin, Kim Jong Un)…
———————–
Let’s hope that rather than take his sorry record of failure abroad to negotiate with those punks, Obozo leaves it to the (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) relatively wiser and more responsible Europeans.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 3rd, 2013
5:05 pm
Don’t blame Romney for the exploding parasite population.
bluecoat
March 3rd, 2013
5:14 pm
@@ you must know the difference.With foreign(putin,kim the others you mention)he has no input from the congress.Within got to deal with the Teaquesters,Elmer Fudd group,cons in gen..You could have Romney and his in my heart decision making.
Michael H. Smith
March 3rd, 2013
5:18 pm
From The Huffington Post
Taxes On The Rich Near 30-Year High: Tax Policy Center
WASHINGTON — The poor rich.
With Washington gridlocked again over whether to raise their taxes, it turns out wealthy families already are paying some of their biggest federal tax bills in decades even as the rest of the population continues to pay at historically low rates.
President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress say the wealthy must pay their fair share if the federal government is ever going to fix its finances and reduce the budget deficit to a manageable level.
A new analysis, however, shows that average tax bills for high-income families rarely have been higher since the Congressional Budget Office began tracking the data in 1979. Middle- and low-income families aren’t paying as much as they used to.
For 2013, families with incomes in the top 20 percent of the nation will pay an average of 27.2 percent of their income in federal taxes, according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a research organization based in Washington. The top 1 percent of households, those with incomes averaging $1.4 million, will pay an average of 35.5 percent.
Those tax rates, which include income, payroll, corporate and estate taxes, are among the highest since 1979.
The average family in the bottom 20 percent of households won’t pay any federal taxes. Instead, many families in this group will get payments from the federal government by claiming more in credits than they owe in taxes, including payroll taxes. That will give them a negative tax rate.
“My sense is that high-income people feel abused by being targeted always for more taxes,” Roberton Williams, a fellow at the Tax Policy Center, said. “You can understand why they feel that way.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/03/taxes-on-the-rich_n_2801206.html?utm_hp_ref=business
bluecoat
March 3rd, 2013
5:21 pm
Mistletoe parasites ones high up in corporations.Parasites feeding off others.Ones made parasites by corporate raiders,and rich exploiting the poor people.Take your choice. a or b or both….
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 3rd, 2013
5:22 pm
“[Obozo] and Democrat leaders in Congress say the wealthy must pay their fair share if the federal government is ever going to fix its finances and reduce the budget deficit to a manageable level.
A new analysis, however, shows that…middle- and low-income families aren’t paying as much as they used to.”
——————————
Hmm…so the middle and low income folks aren’t paying their fair share.
Time to eat your peas and pay your bills, Democrats.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 3rd, 2013
5:25 pm
Try again, bluecoat. In English this time.
Georgia
March 3rd, 2013
5:43 pm
Donald Trump’s new season debuts tonight. This is must see tv, especially after his PR disaster during the campaign about donating five million to chicago disadvantaged kids if only Obama would give in to his Dr Evil style demand. Wow. I still can’t believe Trump didn’t fire everyone who failed to stop him from making that video. He’s the new poster child that defines “delusional”.
Watch trump’s braggadocio tonight, you know, the way he puffs out his chest when he describes the sponsor, as being the “largest company in the world” blah blah. (what a dope, honestly). Now, with this new insight tonight, tell me you don’t find him pathetic. (five bucks sez you’ll throw up).
It’s an irresistible train wreck, and THAT’s why we watch. He’s the new Nascar. But does anyone respect him as a man anymore? I dont think so.
Donald Trump: the Punked Skunk of Bunk.
bluecoat
March 3rd, 2013
5:49 pm
You understood the message.You speak and understand hillbilly language.Hope my check posted to my bank acct.my chivas running low,
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 3rd, 2013
5:58 pm
I thought the government had switched to EBT, bluecoat.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 3rd, 2013
6:48 pm
Republicans now scoff at the idea that the fiscal cliff established any type of precedent when it comes to tapping revenue to cut the deficit. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, dismissed the idea of a precedent as “bull.”
“They haven’t established anything,” he said. “All they’ve established is they want to spend at all costs, and they keep themselves in power by spending it and saying how compassionate they are with everybody else’s money.”
You libs got beat and now it’s time to get punked.
Enjoy!
Georgia
March 3rd, 2013
7:06 pm
Okay, movie reviews: Sinister is surprisingly entertaining. Redbox for a buck? do it. It’s worth a buck. Argo? It’s worth a buck, but you wont be wowed. Too obvious about which is reality and which is hollywood, I(hint: the ending). Writers don’t know how to end movies. They really dont. It’s incredible. Seven Psychopaths? Fun, but ending blows. Hope Springs? Please. Streep needs a strap (on). totally miscast no chemistry and there’s a surprise cameo that stinks so bad it totally ruins what little the movie couldn’t do. you’ll see. “End of Watch” . greatness for half to three quarters of the movie then it stinks so bad you’ll be angry. The master? See it. you decide, but ouch, it crosses the line and I’m still looking for a story there……Deadfall…pure fun, check brain at door, but see it…..small apartments? good enough. fun. new approach to humor and i liked it…….taken 2? drink a six pack and watch it, and have a good time, but…….looper? better than average, but…….the perks of being a wallflower: comes very close to a great movie, but fails. yet, it’s fun to watch the acting..kill for me? yes, but …….okay….okay…..eh….doesn’t stink…..alex cross? good until the ending and then you’ll be po’d. hit and run? okay….doesn’t stink too badly…..the Liability? must see.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 3rd, 2013
7:11 pm
Georgia, that’s as many movies as I watch in two years.
Hillbilly D
March 3rd, 2013
7:31 pm
http://gma.yahoo.com/video/gma-911-dispatcher-pleads-nurse-080000658.html
Politico
March 3rd, 2013
7:47 pm
Rafe
Do you stand by the statement that the GOP doesn’t provide buses or transpotation for voting?
Want to make sure that is your line of thinking before I proceed.
Thanks for the clarification
Politico
March 3rd, 2013
7:50 pm
And we call whiners like Tiberius who cry about bloggers who insult and call names but are themselves guilty of name calling and insults… Little hypocrites and self appointed deputy fifes
Next
Politico
March 3rd, 2013
7:56 pm
Rafe
That would also be GOP & related orgs
Seems you are under the impression that it is only Democrat voters who are provided transportation
Is that correct?
Please clarify before I blow your weak assertion out the water
Thanks
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 3rd, 2013
8:18 pm
In its latest Budget and Economic Update, the CBO forecasts that federal revenue will top $2.7 trillion in 2013, slightly higher than the $2.6 trillion the government collected in 2007, when the last recession officially began. –
Heh, the libs are still dreaming about being as successful as Bushie was but, ain’t gonna happen.
Can you say “crash?”
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 3rd, 2013
8:44 pm
As for the Democrats’ claim that cutting federal spending will damage the economy, it is absurd. If borrowing and spending were the keys to economic growth, we would all be lighting cigars with $100 bills, not watching GDP growth stall at a pathetic 0.1%. And people would be fleeing Texas and North Dakota to seek opportunity in California and Illinois.
You know what I mean?
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 3rd, 2013
8:46 pm
Do-nothing Obozo had to walk back his Chicken Little act due to the reaility that the miniscule sequester cuts will barely be noticed. The sad thing is that the sequester doesn’t do anything to ensure that the Democrat moocher base pays their fair share in the form of reduced parasite maintenance spending.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 3rd, 2013
8:48 pm
Republicans and Obozo promised these spending cuts. Republicans kept their promise. Obozo tried to get them to cave. And failed.
Obozo: Failure.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
March 3rd, 2013
9:12 pm
Watching the replay of the interview with Ann & Mitt Romney. Sure would have been nice to have a couple of Real Americans in Our White House instead of the trash that’s infested it.
bluecoat
March 3rd, 2013
10:20 pm
Obama living in white house,President Obama that is.The little train act. I knew I could,I knew I could,and he did.No trash here,no bushes in this white house.