Pressuring the people to pressure the politicians about our national debt
First came the New Year’s tax increases of the “fiscal cliff.” Last week, the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration took effect. Still, Congress will spend much of March negotiating a deal to fund the federal government for the next six months — a deal that, in all likelihood, will mean borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars more.
Lurching from one crisis to the next, however real or contrived each one may be, has not put the country on a more solid, sustainable fiscal path. That’s where Maya MacGuineas comes in.
“We actually know for the most part what the parameters of a fix are,” MacGuineas, head of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told me during a stop in Atlanta two weeks ago. “You know that you’re going to have to look at all parts of the budget.
“You know that a key challenge here is reforming our entitlement programs, as aging and health care are driving the debt, and that … we can reform entitlement programs in ways that are true to protecting people who depend on them — if we get ahead of it.”
True to CRFB’s bipartisan credentials, MacGuineas doesn’t put all the emphasis on the spending side. She also points to the $1 trillion in annual “tax expenditures,” subsidies hidden in the tax code rather than appropriations bills.
“Nobody looks at them,” she said. “These spending programs, dressed up as tax cuts — many of which are not working, many of which are de-leveling the playing field instead of allowing for a functioning economic system, all of which are draining the Treasury — need to be part of that evaluation too.”
So, how do we get politicians to do something they seemingly don’t want to do? One step is for everyone to acknowledge the immediacy of the problem.
“It really concerns me,” MacGuineas said, to hear “the argument, ‘Look at the [interest] rate environment. Why would we want to focus on the deficit? What we should be doing is borrowing more.’ That’s what people who give you credit-card teaser rates say also, to hook you in.”
Government debt that isn’t repaid on time — i.e., virtually all of it — must be refinanced later, almost certainly at higher interest rates. Just a 1-percentage-point increase in interest rates, MacGuineas said, could mean at least $1.3 trillion more in interest payments over the following decade.
“That’s the amount the super-committee [created by the 2011 debt-ceiling deal] failed to find in savings,” leading to the sequester cuts, she pointed out.
Another way is to point out the glaring flaws of proposals on the table.
“I give Paul Ryan credit for putting out a budget that shows how he would do it with spending cuts only,” MacGuineas said, “but don’t forget that budget includes a bunch of Medicare savings he said he opposed during the [2012 presidential] race.”
President Barack Obama’s budgets have their own problems, she said: “One year, he talked about 12-year budgets compared to other people’s 10-year numbers. The next year he counted war savings [after previously announcing the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan], which is really a gimmick.”
MacGuineas said voters “bear a huge responsibility” for continuing to “elect people with a bunch of promises that just are not workable, but they sound good.” That said, she insisted voters “should be able to trust their elected leaders to lead an honest discussion about it. … And that’s not happening.”
She also hopes that if others, such as herself, force that honest discussion upon the country, it will change the political incentives that affect taxing and spending.
“I think what happens in discussions is there are tipping points. And I think if you have enough people talking about this, you have the next ‘Ross Perot moment,’ where it goes from everybody promising fiscal giveaways to, suddenly, we the voters demand they tell us how they’d fix it. And once it gets to that point, then you know that somebody selling you the easy way out isn’t telling the truth, and then it becomes politically more important to have a fix.”
– By Kyle Wingfield
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467 comments Add your comment
JKL2
March 7th, 2013
10:53 am
cheesy- Now just like before with Clinton it will be up to a responsible Republican Congress to balance the books.
Fixed your typo.
JDW
March 7th, 2013
10:53 am
O’ and Kyle, speaking of laughable…”A case can be made that Obama shouldn’t be held responsible for the entire $32 billion increase. The $410 billion was only $20 billion more than Bush had requested, according to Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, the appropriations chairman.”
I guess you missed the part where that was funding requested by Bush that had not been completed before he left office…from FactCheck…
“A case can be made that Obama shouldn’t be held responsible for the entire $32 billion increase. The $410 billion was only $20 billion more than Bush had requested, according to Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, the appropriations chairman.”
JohnnyReb
March 7th, 2013
10:53 am
The AJC has a headline using the word “Furlough.” In my long working career in the air line industry, the word furlough was applied when someone is not working. It took the place of “laid off.” And, in the current situation the people in question are still working, just their hours are reduced.
Using the word furlough presents the wrong picture. The wrong picture is being given by the Obama administration and of course the liberal writers in legacy media – paint as bad a picture as possible and blame it on the Republicans.
Kyle Wingfield
March 7th, 2013
10:55 am
JDW: Why are you ignoring the section of my 10:10 in which I specifically addressed what FactCheck said?
JKL2
March 7th, 2013
10:59 am
HDB- I would say lack of leadership; Obama has a different leadership style…..
…and in that 47%, are you counting the military as sheeple….are you counting the air traffic controllers as sheeple…or are you counting the millionaires and business executives that pay NO INCOME TAXES as sheeple?? Please clarify
obama “has a different leadership style” is the understatement of the year. It’s called “NONE”.
Big difference between people who work for the government and those who do nothing except take handouts (giving nothing in return).
breckenridge
March 7th, 2013
11:05 am
Retired soldier:
You said I am not a republican. That is correct, I’m a fiscal conservative who was a republican for 24 years who quit the party because it has been destroyed by fundamentalist religion.
My core beliefs are as follows 1) small government 2) fiscal restraint 2) individual liberty – Goldwater values. Furthermore I believe 4) people that believe the Bible is word-for-word true are either misinformed, naive or just plain stupid and 5) the belief that only born-again Christians can go to heaven is 100% pure garbage and 6) the Southern Baptist and Pentecostal churches should both lose their tax-exempt status because they are involved in politicking and spreading stupidity.
JohnnyReb
March 7th, 2013
11:06 am
It would be very intersting to know how the people who actually pay income tax voted in this past election?
And, I don’t mean to include people who have income tax deducted each payday but get it all back, sometimes more back, than was deducted.
In the end, the compromise will be less spending and more tax increases. To make any headway, the tax increases will have to apply to middle income – the bunch who still pay some taxes.
The problem is obviously those not carrying their own weight. The life boat is full or soon will be. There are hard choices ahead that will cause the bleeding hearts to explode.
Aquagirl
March 7th, 2013
11:13 am
Big difference between people who work for the government and those who do nothing except take handouts (giving nothing in return).
This sort of incisive thought process is why Republicans are no longer the party of small government/less spending. They’re intellectually bankrupt.
Republicans sold their souls for these votes, further proving they’re not a party capable of logical thought.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
March 7th, 2013
11:19 am
“JDW: Why are you ignoring the section of my 10:10 in which I specifically addressed what FactCheck said?”
Because it’s devastating to his flawed case, Kyle!
From ‘Liar, Liar’:
http://www.hark.com/liar-liar/its-devastating-to-my-case
Retired Soldier
March 7th, 2013
11:20 am
breckenridge-
Points 1-3 I am with you 100 %. Your dismay at not funding Planned Parenthood violates 1, 2 and possibly 3.
Your have completely the right to believe or not to believe, but don’t forget this nation was founded on a Judeo-Christian heritage and many of us wish to maintain that tradition. Finally, if you think the Southern Baptists and Pentrcostals are the only “political” churches you need to think again.
Uncle Jed
March 7th, 2013
11:20 am
Jefferson
March 7th, 2013
7:26 am
If you want to get out of debt, you will have to support more revenue, anything less would mean you are fooling yourself .
Fooling YOURSELF indeed there Mr. Jefferson. If one desires to be debt free, then one must stop spending in excess of one’s means. As you know, assuming you are able to accept reality, there is not enough revenue available through taxation to offset the irresponsible spending spree.
Retired Soldier
March 7th, 2013
11:25 am
AQ-
“Republicans are no longer the party of small government/less spending”
You are correct, they are known as Rino’s. There is a serious push to elimate those from hilding office. We have found that being “democrat-lite” is a sure fire way to defeat.
Retired Soldier
March 7th, 2013
11:26 am
Uncle Jed-
Amen brother.
independent thinker
March 7th, 2013
11:27 am
I find it interesting that Kyle explains a nearly 230% increase on defense spending “on the books” since 2009 as due to inflation, Harry Reid and left wing practices. Nearly 500 billion being spent on F-35s that can’t even fly right now. I would love to see which red states got that contract.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
March 7th, 2013
11:27 am
but don’t forget this nation was founded on a Judeo-Christian heritage
No it was not.
The founding fathers were liberals and wanted Religion very much out of the picture.
If anything they knew they had a unique opportuninty in human history. To create a country from scratch.
They drew far more inpsiration from ancient democracies of Rome etc.
This is well documented.
MarkV
March 7th, 2013
11:29 am
Retired Soldier @ 10:52 am
That is your opinion, to which you are entitled, and which I am entitled to disagree with.
JDW
March 7th, 2013
11:30 am
@Kyle…”JDW: Why are you ignoring the section of my 10:10 in which I specifically addressed what FactCheck said?”
Not ignoring it…your argument is…
“for those fact-checkers to assign Bush responsibility for $378B of a $410B bill that he did not sign. The fact that those agencies got $378B in the previous fiscal year does not cut it as an argument.”.
Which is specifically addressed and rendered mute in my 10:53 that points out Duhbya REQUESTED said spending…it had simply not been appropriated when he left office.
JDW
March 7th, 2013
11:32 am
@Tiberius…”Because it’s devastating to his flawed case,”
Ahhhh “Mr. Self Appointed Constitutional Authority” has crawled out from under his rock…with his usual insightful contribution…BTW how is the search for the federal budgeting requirements in the Constitution coming…thought so.
Uncle Jed
March 7th, 2013
11:33 am
@breckenridge
March 7th, 2013
11:05 am
…and 6) the Southern Baptist and Pentecostal churches should both lose their tax-exempt status because they are involved in politicking and spreading stupidity.
So, let me take a guess at it: You are a high bishop in one or both of the maligned churches, right?
Hillbilly D
March 7th, 2013
11:36 am
It’s always the other guy’s fault……..therein lies the means of our destruction.
Uncle Jed
March 7th, 2013
11:40 am
The founding fathers were liberals and wanted Religion very much out of the picture.
If anything they knew they had a unique opportuninty in human history. To create a country from scratch.
They drew far more inpsiration from ancient democracies of Rome etc.
This is well documented.
Pass the grits and put down the comic books. They are not a reliable research tool unless you wear your panties on the outside of your colored tights.
breckenridge
March 7th, 2013
11:41 am
Cheesy Grits……
The Founding Fathers did indeed draw on ancient democracies. And also the Enlightenment thinkers. Samuel Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, James Madison, Hamilton, John Jay…all the thinkers of the Founding generation pointed to John Locke as having a major influence on their political thinking.
Between 1766 and 1774 James Madison, who was positively brilliant, studied every political system ever devised by man. Each and every one. And one of his conclusions was that “religion has never been the guardian of liberty” which was certainly foremost in his mind when he wrote the Bill Of Rights.
Kyle Wingfield
March 7th, 2013
11:41 am
independent thinker: You need to check your reading skills. Or math skills. Maybe both.
My comment about inflation had to do with your other point about GDP growth. As for defense spending: According to OMB’s historical tables — you want Table 3.1 — defense spending was $661B in FY09. It was projected to peak at $716.3B in FY12. That’s an 8.4% increase, not a 230% increase.
Kyle Wingfield
March 7th, 2013
11:42 am
Ok, JDW @ 11:30, in that case we should assign many billions more to Obama for each of his years in office. After all, he requested it; it just hasn’t been appropriated yet…
independent thinker
March 7th, 2013
11:42 am
“”"”"”"”"”"”"”"In each of his three previous budgets, the President identified on average more than 150 terminations,
reductions, and savings, totaling nearly $25 billion each year. These cuts ranged from eliminating subsidies
for oil and gas companies that hardly need to be propped up to saving millions of dollars by leveraging
technology to make Treasury transactions paperless and more efficient. While recent administrations have
seen between 15 and 20 percent of their proposed discretionary cuts approved by the Congress, the
Administration saw 60 percent of its proposed discretionary cuts become law for 2010. The 2012 Budget
proposed nearly $25 billion in discretionary terminations and reductions; Congress reduced these programs
by $23 billion, 92 percent of the requested reduction.1
The Budget Control Act that the President signed into law in August will generate approximately $1
trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years through the use of discretionary spending caps. Meeting these caps requires reducing the overall discretionary spending level for the second straight year. In fact, compared to 2010, discretionary spending has decreased by $42 billion or 4 percent. To meet these caps, it will takenot only eliminating ineffective and duplicative programs, but also cutting worthy programs that theAd ministration would otherwise fund were it not for the tight fiscal environment. “”"”"”"”"”"”"
From the WHouse Office of Management and Budget (online)
So where are the matching reductions in tax deductions promised by the supreme flip flopper and Lyin Ryan???????????? or they are no longer members of the stupid party?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
March 7th, 2013
11:42 am
Both extremes (left AND right) are failing this nation, and the biggest culprit is President Incompetent.
No leadership capability whatsoever.
Takes him 4 years to invite selected Republicans to dinner to try to find common ground? Really?
Anybody who thinks he’s going to walk into PUBLIC negotiations with tax hikes and little to no spending cuts with an opposition who can stop him cold is, frankly, not playing with a full deck. As is the opposition who thinks that spending cuts alone will pass the other side of the aisle in their own chamber, let alone the other chamber run by the opposition.
Now, to the armchair generals who think we could (and should) cut our defense spending to reflect the rest of the world, get a life! We spend more because at some point, we’ll be called upon to bail some other country’s butt out of the fire. It’s not right, but over the last century we have allowed ourselves and those other countries to believe that is our role when it is not. This is not to say that defense shouldn’t be cut and our role reduced, but to cut to the rest of the world’s level is simply naive.
And yes, entitlement programs must be cut, despite the liberal’s clinging to their phony effectiveness. Raise the age for receiving SS for people 50 and younger, and block grant Medicare to the states to run. The fallacy that we are receiving enough to fund those programs, when we are stealing those dollars to fund others with NO plan in which to pay back that stealing, is simply akin to building the dam higher and higher while not controlling the rising waters.
On the revenue side, eliminate ALL deductions and loopholes.
For everybody. Including the home mortgage deduction. If you can’t afford a home, the government has no business in helping you to do so. The GOP needs to understand that as part of this, rates cannot offset completely the increased revenues this will bring in. They should be lowered, but not a one-for-one cut in rates to revenue gains.
You want a “grand bargain”, this is a good place to start.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 7th, 2013
11:43 am
When the Truth sees cheesy and jdw walking down the street it must run the other way, screaming in horror.
JKL2
March 7th, 2013
11:45 am
aquagirl- Republicans sold their souls for these votes, further proving they’re not a party capable of logical thought.
Not sure you’re keeping up with current events, but the 47%ers all voted for obama. Last I checked, obama was not a Republican. The soulless crowd is overwhelmingly Democrat.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
March 7th, 2013
11:46 am
One of the reasons the US Dollar is the world’s reserve currency is because our military might stabilizes it. So yeah, let’s gut the military.
You have to be willfully blind to not see that every idea a lib has is meant to do damage to the United States. Every one. Name something good that has come about of liberalism. You can’t do it.
Uncle Jed
March 7th, 2013
11:49 am
“…“religion has never been the guardian of liberty” which was certainly foremost in his mind when he wrote the Bill Of Rights.”
Let’s stipulate that your assessemnt of Madison’s mind is generally correct for the sake of this argument. Notwithstanding, it seems dismissive of reality to assert that this country was not founded under a code of morality derived from Judeo-Christian principles. There are simply too many references and examples to reasonable beleive otherwise. The only true guardian of liberty is the free man, regardless of his religious affiliation. Our freedom is granted by our Creator.
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JKL2
March 7th, 2013
11:50 am
cheesy- The founding fathers were liberals and wanted Religion very much out of the picture.
ROFL! That is a good one. Maybe you should have done more than sleep through history class.
Is that why most states had official religions? Because they wanted to make sure to keep away from it…
JDW
March 7th, 2013
11:51 am
@Kyle…”Ok, JDW @ 11:30, in that case we should assign many billions more to Obama for each of his years in office. After all, he requested it; it just hasn’t been appropriated yet…”
Well interesting spin…should the President request spending in a formal budget spending that is then appropriated the month after he leaves you go right ahead.
Do you have any idea how idiotic it is to claim that bill is the result of Obama overspending…you are talking about regular funding for that had been requested by Duhbya in a formal budget proposal and not apporoprated when he left office. Thats just asinine.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
March 7th, 2013
11:51 am
So yeah, let’s gut the military.
Exactly. I dont think the dollar willl care if we stop spending 500 billion on fighter jets that dont fly.
Most of your government waste is right there.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
March 7th, 2013
11:52 am
“When the Truth sees cheesy and jdw walking down the street it must run the other way, screaming in horror.”
Not so, Aesop. The Truth and Cheesy and JDW are never found in the same zip code!
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
March 7th, 2013
11:54 am
ROFL! That is a good one. Maybe you should have done more than sleep through history class.
Its true. They were.
Washington rarely attended church. Jefferson, Franklin., Thomas Paine, Paul Revere,
Liberals all.
JKL2
March 7th, 2013
11:55 am
independent- In each of his three previous budgets, the President identified on average more than 150 terminations, reductions, and savings, totaling nearly $25 billion each year.
Then why do we still have debt? That should have been cleared up years ago with all that money…
Don't Tread
March 7th, 2013
11:58 am
Of course, according to Democrats, there isn’t a spending problem – it’s a revenue problem! (It’s a “revenue problem” because there are other people who have more money than they do and “that’s not fair”).
Democrats aren’t interested in fixing the debt problem. They want to enforce equality of outcome, even if it requires bankrupting the country and destroying the economy to do it.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
March 7th, 2013
11:58 am
Oh, and this whole nonsense that President Incompetent wasn’t responsible for FY2009 spending?
Laughable.
He’s the Chief Freakin’ Executive, ladies!
He ran for and was hired to do a job; nobody forced him to do so, and he continues to fail at it each and every day. Just because it was appropriated, doesn’t mean it has to be spent. He may not have WANTED to cut spending, but because he did not choose to, he owns FY 2009.
Nice try at not taking responsibility, but while it might get you re-elected by the dumb masses, it doesn’t absolve you of the responsibility.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
March 7th, 2013
11:59 am
Is that why most states had official religions? Because they wanted to make sure to keep away from it
Show me the word God in the Constitution.
Do you think they just forgot ?
I understand this doesnt fit in with the lie you have been told over and over and have come to believe.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
March 7th, 2013
11:59 am
“Liberals all.”
Correction: LIBERTARIANS all.
HUGE difference, Cheesy.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
March 7th, 2013
12:02 pm
Of course, according to Democrats, there isn’t a spending problem – it’s a revenue problem!
When people like Mitt Romney pay half the rate of an average American.
Then yes there is a problem.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
March 7th, 2013
12:02 pm
Correction: LIBERTARIANS all.
HUGE difference, Cheesy.
Nope.
Liberals.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
March 7th, 2013
12:03 pm
For the historical revisionists on today’s blog, i.e. Cheesy Grits, the Founding Fathers didn’t want a STATE (government) religion, not a ban on religion.
They knew that freedom TO worship should not be curtailed, just not sponsored.
That being said, there is no Constitutional justification for tax exemption of churches.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
March 7th, 2013
12:05 pm
“Nope.
Liberals.”
Reality says differently. Just not in Chessyville.
Libertarians think. Liberals? Not so much.
JDW
March 7th, 2013
12:07 pm
@Tiberius…”Not so, Aesop. The Truth and Cheesy and JDW are never found in the same zip code!”
Yeah right…it’s just FactCheck and The CATO Institute taking my view vs. you yahoo’s that’s an easy choice.
JKL2
March 7th, 2013
12:07 pm
cheesy- Washington rarely attended church. Jefferson, Franklin., Thomas Paine, Paul Revere, Liberals all.
I guess it’s a good thing our country only had five people in it at that time.
“To say that he [George Washington] was not a Christian would be to impeach his sincerity and honesty. Of all men in the world, Washington was certainly the last whom any one would charge with dissimulation or indirectness [hypocrisies and evasiveness]; and if he was so scrupulous in avoiding even a shadow of these faults in every known act of his life, [regardless of] however unimportant, is it likely, is it credible, that in a matter of the highest and most serious importance [his religious faith, that] he should practice through a long series of years a deliberate deception upon his friends and the public? It is neither credible nor possible.” -Jared Sparks from Washington granddaughter in 1834.
breckenridge
March 7th, 2013
12:10 pm
“Notwithstanding, it seems dismissive of reality to assert that this country was not founded under a code of morality derived from Judeo-Christian principles”
No.
American law governs this nation. American law is derived from English Common Law. The roots of English Common Law predate the arrival of Christianity in England by 178 years. There is no causal relationship. Morality and religiousness, while certainly not mutually exclusive, are not synonymous. Example: one need not refer to the Bible or Ten Commandments to know that it’s wrong to kill his neighbor, rape his wife, steal his pigs and burn down his house. This distinction is not derived from religion. If it is, if one must reference religious text to determine that it’s not okay to kill his neighbor, rape his wife, steal his pigs and burn down his house, then that individual is likely a sociopath.
getalife
March 7th, 2013
12:11 pm
The budget debate is over.
The dems raised taxes on the wealthy and the gop got their cuts
The gop will try to undo their cuts on defense but will fail.
The outreach is for his agenda.
Retired Soldier
March 7th, 2013
12:11 pm
Cheesy-
And which “loopholes” allow Romney to pay a smaller rate? Who proposed those loopholes and who voted for them. You will find democrats are not innocent here. BTW, half the rate of the average American? Don’t you mean half the rate of the average American that pays taxes? Particularly since 47% of Americans pay zero income taxes.
One last thought, do you pay income taxes cheesy and if so to you take the allowable deductions that available to you?
HDB
March 7th, 2013
12:13 pm
JKL2
March 7th, 2013
10:53 am
“cheesy- Now just like before with Clinton it will be up to a responsible Republican Congress to balance the books.”
Problem is….before Clinton, the ONLY Republican Congress that presided over a balanced budget was during the EISENHOWER Administration. Since then, the GOP hasn’t been responsible; the more fiscally responsible Congresses have been Democratic……contrary to what many believe…..
Clinton was put on the path towards a budget surplus because of the tax INCREASES that were passed in 1994…….