The common sense Senator -- Jeff Sessions

Jeff Sessions made the following comments on the floor of the US Senate yesterday:  we would do well to remember them when the dust settles on this disgraceful budget debate charade/fiasco:

First, I would like to address the myth that the president has a $4 trillion deficit-reduction plan. The only plan the White House has ever put on paper is his February budget, which doubles our national debt.

The president has never put a single spending cut plan on paper and he has no proposal to slash the deficit. If he does, it’s a closely guarded secret. And if such a secret plan does exist it should be made public this very afternoon. I’d like to see it. I’m sure millions of Americans feel the same.

We also have no debt plan from Senate Democrats. In fact, they haven’t even passed a budget in 813 days.

As of now, there is only one debt limit plan on paper. Only one plan available for public scrutiny and review. That’s the plan we are debating today: cut, cap, and balance. It cuts spending immediately, it caps it so it doesn’t go up, and it requires the passage of a balanced budget amendment to ensure Washington ends the deficit spending once and for all. The American people do not trust Washington to pass some grand budget deal with tax hikes that never go away and spending cuts that never materialize. …

Another myth I’d like to address is the idea that our current budget crisis is the result of two wars and a tax cut. Let’s consider that claim. The total cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, over the entire last decade, is $1.3 trillion. Again, that’s over the last decade. This year alone the deficit is expected to be $1.4 trillion dollars. War costs represent only 4 percent of total outlays over the last ten years. The total amount of money spent since the president took office is $8.5 trillion dollars. By the end of his first three years in office we will have added $5 trillion to our gross federal debt. We are borrowing almost half of what we’re spending every single day. In the last two years, non-defense discretionary spending has soared 24 percent. The stimulus package alone—enacted into law in a single day in 2009—cost more than the entire war in Iraq. Annual spending when President Bush took office was less than $2 trillion. Today, it’s almost $4 trillion. It will be almost $6 trillion by the end of the decade.

There is only one honest answer to the question over why our debt is rising so fast: out-of-control domestic spending.

Another myth that’s circulating which I’d like to address concerns the budget summary from the Gang of Six. The authors of the summary claim that their approach would reduce the deficit by $3.7 trillion. But my staff on the Budget Committee can only find $1.2 trillion in reduced spending, along with a tax increase of $1 trillion. Where does the other $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction come from? Chairman Conrad, one of the members of the Gang of Six, even says the outline has a $1.5 trillion tax cut. But this is compared against a baseline that assumes a $3.5 trillion tax increase. It’s just an accounting gimmick. The real cost of the tax changes could be an increase as large as $2 trillion.

This is why we need more than a handout—we need legislative text.

The last myth that I’d like to address is perhaps the most important of all. This is the myth that we only need about $2 trillion in spending cuts over the next ten years.

Democrats have said—although no plan has ever been made public—that they could get behind a budget deal that reduces the deficit $4 trillion over the next ten years, half of it comprised of spending cuts. I’m skeptical that even this minimal level of spending cuts would occur. But even if it did, it’s not even close to what is needed to ultimately balance our budget. We are projected to spend $46 trillion over the next ten years. A $2 trillion cut is only about a four percent reduction in spending that is set to increase almost sixty percent.

The looming local budget crises

As bad as the federal budget crises is, local governments budget crises are shaping up to be worse.  The idea that it's always a good idea to get government services as close to the taxpayers as possible for better citizen control, is proving to be a sham.  Local governments across the land are now facing crises largely driven by the pension obligations accrued over the past couple of decades.  Since local budgets are typically tied to property, sales taxes, and fees, look for substantial increases in these sources of revenue in the coming years, otherwise a lot of municipalities will be defaulting.  Steve Malanga of City Magazine lays out the dilemma here.  At least the federal government can default on its obligations by inflating them away thorough the printing press.  No such luck on the local front where the only recourse is to raise taxes.  It's probably safe to say this particular financial crises has been brought about by neglect on the part of local citizens who often work outside of their local district and tend not to follow budgetary matters closely.  That will change in the new world.

Paul Ryan's dilemma

An article in The Weekly Standard makes a number of very good points about the current discourse on the budget.  First, it highlights exactly how politicized the debate has become and how unserious and truth averse the Democrat Party and its thuggish union members are.  Second, it demonstrates how biased and perverse the so-called mainstream media has become.  Third, it suggests that in any debate the advantage rests with the better informed, rational side than with the uninformed, emotional, irrational side.  So far, at least, Paul Ryan, the architect of the Republican budget proposal is winning the debate on this issue.  His dilemma, however, is to overcome the misinformation and disinformation being perpetrated by the democrats, their unions and left media supporters.  It will be a difficult time ahead for the forces of rationality and real reform largely because this corrupt media supports the demagogues.  It  is they who have the biggest and loudest megaphone and who are able to create the misleading narratives as is seen so clearly in this Weekly Standard article.  Ryan has the facts and the command of the issues.  It remains to be seen if he can overcome the left's all out assault in the coming months.  If he does not succeed we are over the cliff which is probably exactly what the left and Obamunists want to see happen.  They can then build their more perfect socialist union.

Obama's budget consequences

Keith Hennessey, former WH operative provides useful charts here.

And here, yet another condemnation of Obamacare, the fraudulent numbers and the havoc it will wreak on state budgets.