CNN has infiltrated deep into the bowels of the Republican Party to return this stunning scoop about their priorities for the coming year:
A slide shown in GOP Conference meeting showed the budget and spending priorities for the 118th Congress, including tying the debt ceiling to spending cuts pic.twitter.com/9h1EVQT9ku
— Annie Grayer (@AnnieGrayerCNN) January 10, 2023
I am shocked, shocked, to learn that Republicans plan to insist on a balanced budget within ten years and are pretending they can do this solely by cutting domestic spending programs.
Paul Krugman is first out of the gate with a genre of column that used to be popular in Paul Ryan's day, pointing out that it's mathematically impossible to do this without cutting Social Security and Medicare. Which it is. About a thousand of us will eventually cave in and go through the arithmetic, even though we all know it doesn't matter. Republicans will (a) refuse to say what they want to cut, and (b) claim that they will enact tax cuts that supercharge the economy and send tax receipts through the roof. Take that, liberals.
It's the same old crap back for another round. I almost object more to the fact that Republicans are so tedious than I do to the fact that they're so petty and malignant.
I was going to comment, but I just can't. They're going to keep doing this until we're all dead.
Like playing the Hokey Pokey to a human face, forever.
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"Pass CR before Sep 30" -- appears to be an acknowledgement that they might never get a budget signed for FY24 and FY25.
I think we can all agree that the GOP House budget is DOA. There is no benefit or reason for Democrats to turn these GOP cuts into bipartisan cuts.
The most likely CR to be signed would be one that freezes funding at FY23 levels. If, after all, their CR simply installs cuts that their proposed budget dictates, then we'll just end up having a total federal gov't shutdown and the GOP will sign their political death certificates ahead of the 2026 election.
That might be the least-worst outcome, of course, because the next option is to agree to a BCA-like sequester that automatically cuts everything to meet the 10-year horizon. That would mean smaller cuts on non-discretionary programs, so it's the next-best option available.
Yeah, I was wondering about the CR too...
I'd just count the stimulus spending in 2022 as part of its discretionary spending, and budget FY2024 accordingly.
Got my years off. 2024 budget, 2024 elections. 😀
You are off, currently we are in FY 2023, but FY 2023 began on 10/1/2022. On 9/30/2024 FY 2024 ends meaning that in the run up to the 2024 elections congress will be arguing over the budget for FY 2025.
So FY 2024 AND FY 2025 will be a struggle unless a few GOP representatives decide to compromise with Democrats.
Yeah, the point is, Republicans seem convinced they may never get a budget signed for FY24 and FY25, with either a sequestration doing the cuts or a continuous freeze at FY23 levels.
So, when Democrats take back control of the House, they can at least unwind any cuts or freezes for FY2025.
Vox brought up the potential to use a discharge petition to force a vote on budget items -- https://bityl.co/Gfm8
The problem is nearly half the electorate is incapable of understanding basic math. I encounter this problem every day. Nobody can balance a checkbook manually anymore! This lack of basic mathematical understanding means people do not and will not think these issues through. They will listen to their preferred demagogues and decide the other side's people are idiots.
Since being good at math is now White Supremacy Culture, isn't that a good thing?
Worse yet, being good at math has never, ever been cool. Nobody wants to be a nerd.
Or is it reporters who don't understand math? At any rate political reporters in the MSM usually just repeat what Republicans say without mentioning the fact that the numbers don't add up.
But they will speculate endlessly about what any development means for the next election, based on no particular data.
I believe it's more the reporters. Even NPR (!!) always has its reporters sneering at people who understand ... well, even basic arithmetic, and promising their reporting won't hsve any of that hard, hard, totally uncool stuff in it.
This is where forensic accountant Greg Palast shines, however. And he's been on the US voter fraud beat for literally decades. Best of all, he doesn't think his readers are too uneducated and innumerate to appreciate his findings.
I once read a story about a small restaurant chain that made a "Third Pounder" burger. They charged the same amount for it that McDonald's charges for a Quarter Pounder, thinking it would be a competitive bargain. When it didn't sell as well as expected, they surveyed their customers, and people complained that paying the same amount for a third of a pound of beef as they would pay for a quarter pound was overcharging. They actually thought that the Third Pounder was *smaller* than a Quarter Pounder, because three is less than four.
It is very easy to underestimate the number of people who are this wildly innumerate, because you won't find them in the comment threads of political junkie blogs. But they are very much out there.
The problem is actually that nearly half the electorate is stupid enough to think that the US government budget is exactly like a household budget. Doesn't work like that and never did but Conservatives since forever have been exploiting this to keep taxes low for the wealthiest.
There’s a simple, elementary, and historically accurate solution to the Republicans’ concern. Sadly, they are the ones who won’t face up to both (1) arithmetic and (2) history.
Somebody needs to print a copy of the tax tables from the Eisenhower administration.
Wasn't there a 95% rate on the upper income levels? Yeah, bring it back! Make Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, et al contribute something to the country that's done so much to enrich them.
It was 91%, and it lasted the entirety of Ike's eight years in office.
20 years after the end of Ike's remarkably successful administration, Saint Ronald's investiture saw the top tax bracket at 70%. Saint Ronald soon got Congress to reduce it to only 50%, which Republicans saw as a HUGE victory. In actuality, I would be satisfied if we abandoned the Eisenhower rate and simply restored the 50% Reagan Reduced Rate.
Lemme guess -- defense cuts are off the table, amirite? So yeah, basically it's going to be about demolishing SS and Medicare/Medicaid. Good luck with that!
Also, there is zero reason the federal government should have to run a balanced budget. Zero. Huge, unsustainable deficits and debt are a problem, but as long as they're sustainable, it doesn't matter.
"...tedious...petty...malignant..."
In a nutshell. Perfectly said.
What about restoring the tax rates to what they were when we last had a budget surplus?
WTF? I thought we had half a year before getting serious about Armageddon. Now she tells us we have 6 days!
U.S. Will Hit Debt Limit Jan. 19, Yellen Tells Congress
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/13/business/economy/debt-limit-us-economy.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
“The discussions of debt limits are always quite intense,” Ms. Georgieva said. “History teaches us that in the end, a solution is being found.”
History has never seen a debt ceiling crisis with MAGAs running the House.
I'm afraid any "solution" depends on how much pain and suffering the parties can agree to inflict on the American people.
"the parties"? As in plural? No, there aren't "both sides" in this issue. (Or very many other issues, for that matter.)
Parties. K McCarthy, MTG, George Santos & his financial backer, Matt Gaetz & his adopted son, Vlad & his yacht captain. All the parties.
FYI: "extraordinary measures" are expected to keep the gov't afloat till at least June.
I don't understand why increasing the debt ceiling or in some way negating this problem was not a top priority for the Democrats at the end of the last year before the anarchists came in to control the House.
Because Senator Joe Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema. SIGH.
I'm pretty sure the Republicans will balance the budget by eliminating "waste and fraud," and will continue to insist that this is what they will do right up to the point where they blame entitled boomers for wanting to collect on all those decades of paying FICA taxes. And our Glorious Media will not even dream of asking the Republicans why, if it were always possible to eliminate waste and fraud, they never managed to do it when they controlled all three branches of government. Because... MIGRANT CARAVANS! SCARY BLACK PEOPLE! WOKE MILITARY! Or something.
It takes some big brass balls to try and tell the Senate how to write their own spending bills.
First step to a balanced budget; increase IRS funding until marginal cost equals marginal revenue.