The article below is from Human Events.
Enough said.
Incontinent spending put America $14 trillion in debt.
The politicians who borrowed and spent us into debt
want permission to borrow more so that they can
spend more. And if they don’t get permission to
borrow more money, they assure us that our debt
woes will worsen.
Does this seem like a solution or a rationalization?
Washington is hooked on spending. Like other
addicts, politicians tell lies to get their fix.
Jonesing for more money, they insist that
raising the debt limit is the best way to limit
America’s debt.
Bad habits are tough to break. Surely, dishonesty
about the problem doesn’t bring us any closer
to a solution.
In the spirit of providing clarity through the
haze of deceit, here are the five big lies the
spending addicts tell to satiate their cravings
for more of your money:
Lie #5 Americans Want a Tax Increase
“Eighty percent of the American people support
an approach that includes revenues and cuts,”
the president claimed Friday. “So the notion
that somehow the American people aren’t sold
is not the problem. The problem is members of
Congress are dug in ideologically into various
positions because they boxed themselves in
with previous statements.” A poll released the
previous day by Rasmussen showed that while
a majority of Democrats want a tax increase
as part of the deal, just 34 percent of Americans
favor one in conjunction with raising the debt ceiling.
Lie #4 The Rich Don’t Pay Their Fair Share
Obama contended in his Saturday radio address
that he merely planned on “asking the wealthiest
Americans to pay their fair share” and that
“we have to ask corporations and the wealthiest
Americans to share in that sacrifice.”
Leaving aside whether Obama intends to merely
“ask” wealthy Americans for more of their money,
there is the subjective question of what constitutes
a “fair share.” A study by the Tax Foundation
found that America’s richest tenth pays a higher
percentage of income taxes than their counterparts
in Germany, Japan, Great Britain, and every other
similar industrialized nation. According to the
Internal Revenue Service, the wealthiest five
percent of Americans pays 59 percent of income
taxes and the bottom fifty percent pays three percent
of income taxes.
Who, precisely, isn’t paying their “fair” share?
Lie #3 The U.S. Will Default If Congress Doesn’t
Raise the Debt Ceiling
The president has repeatedly referred to a failure
to raise the debt limit as “Armageddon.” But if the
debt ceiling is not raised before it expires the first
week of August, it’s not the end of Washington’s
money—let alone the end of the world. The U.S. Treasury
will claim revenues of about $172 billion for the
remainder of the month. Even practitioners of
fuzzy math understand that revenues of $172
billion are enough to cover an interest payment
of $29 billion. Not only are the revenues sufficient
to pay the interest on the debt, but military salaries,
Social Security, and Medicare, too.
Dramatic spending cuts would necessarily follow
a decision not to raise the debt ceiling.
But it’s a lie to equate an act of fiscal responsibility
(refusing to allow more borrowing) with one of
recklessness (default).
Lie #2 The Bush Tax Cuts Caused the Debt
“It turns out that our problem is we cut taxes
without paying for them over the last decade,”
Obama claimed during Friday’s press conference.
But revenues, which had been in decline
immediately prior to the enactment of the
Bush tax cuts, increased by more than a third
soon after the top rates fell from 40 percent
to 35 percent. While receipts declined dramatically
in the aftermath of the financial/housing crisis,
they had increased even more dramatically—
$1.8 trillion in 2003 to $2.6 trillion in 2007—in
the wake of the Bush tax cuts. As with the Harding/Coolidge, Kennedy/Johnson, and Reagan rate reductions, revenue counterintuitively increased following the Bush tax cuts.
Lie #1 Conservatives Who Oppose Raising t
he Debt Ceiling Are (Insert Insult Here)
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee sees
racism fueling opposition to raising the debt ceiling.
Newsweek’s Tina Brown calls Republicans “suicide bombers.” Economist Paul Krugman calls the GOP “crazy.”
But there are sensible reasons why an elected
official might believe that taking on new debt
would make a debt crisis worse, not better.
“The fact that we are here today to debate
raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership
failure,” Senator Obama explained in 2006
regarding his vote against raising the debt ceiling.
“It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay
its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on
ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries
to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies.”
Amen.
The politicians who borrowed and spent us into debt
want permission to borrow more so that they can
spend more. And if they don’t get permission to
borrow more money, they assure us that our debt
woes will worsen.
Does this seem like a solution or a rationalization?
Washington is hooked on spending. Like other
addicts, politicians tell lies to get their fix.
Jonesing for more money, they insist that
raising the debt limit is the best way to limit
America’s debt.
Bad habits are tough to break. Surely, dishonesty
about the problem doesn’t bring us any closer
to a solution.
In the spirit of providing clarity through the
haze of deceit, here are the five big lies the
spending addicts tell to satiate their cravings
for more of your money:
Lie #5 Americans Want a Tax Increase
“Eighty percent of the American people support
an approach that includes revenues and cuts,”
the president claimed Friday. “So the notion
that somehow the American people aren’t sold
is not the problem. The problem is members of
Congress are dug in ideologically into various
positions because they boxed themselves in
with previous statements.” A poll released the
previous day by Rasmussen showed that while
a majority of Democrats want a tax increase
as part of the deal, just 34 percent of Americans
favor one in conjunction with raising the debt ceiling.
Lie #4 The Rich Don’t Pay Their Fair Share
Obama contended in his Saturday radio address
that he merely planned on “asking the wealthiest
Americans to pay their fair share” and that
“we have to ask corporations and the wealthiest
Americans to share in that sacrifice.”
Leaving aside whether Obama intends to merely
“ask” wealthy Americans for more of their money,
there is the subjective question of what constitutes
a “fair share.” A study by the Tax Foundation
found that America’s richest tenth pays a higher
percentage of income taxes than their counterparts
in Germany, Japan, Great Britain, and every other
similar industrialized nation. According to the
Internal Revenue Service, the wealthiest five
percent of Americans pays 59 percent of income
taxes and the bottom fifty percent pays three percent
of income taxes.
Who, precisely, isn’t paying their “fair” share?
Lie #3 The U.S. Will Default If Congress Doesn’t
Raise the Debt Ceiling
The president has repeatedly referred to a failure
to raise the debt limit as “Armageddon.” But if the
debt ceiling is not raised before it expires the first
week of August, it’s not the end of Washington’s
money—let alone the end of the world. The U.S. Treasury
will claim revenues of about $172 billion for the
remainder of the month. Even practitioners of
fuzzy math understand that revenues of $172
billion are enough to cover an interest payment
of $29 billion. Not only are the revenues sufficient
to pay the interest on the debt, but military salaries,
Social Security, and Medicare, too.
Dramatic spending cuts would necessarily follow
a decision not to raise the debt ceiling.
But it’s a lie to equate an act of fiscal responsibility
(refusing to allow more borrowing) with one of
recklessness (default).
Lie #2 The Bush Tax Cuts Caused the Debt
“It turns out that our problem is we cut taxes
without paying for them over the last decade,”
Obama claimed during Friday’s press conference.
But revenues, which had been in decline
immediately prior to the enactment of the
Bush tax cuts, increased by more than a third
soon after the top rates fell from 40 percent
to 35 percent. While receipts declined dramatically
in the aftermath of the financial/housing crisis,
they had increased even more dramatically—
$1.8 trillion in 2003 to $2.6 trillion in 2007—in
the wake of the Bush tax cuts. As with the Harding/Coolidge, Kennedy/Johnson, and Reagan rate reductions, revenue counterintuitively increased following the Bush tax cuts.
Lie #1 Conservatives Who Oppose Raising t
he Debt Ceiling Are (Insert Insult Here)
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee sees
racism fueling opposition to raising the debt ceiling.
Newsweek’s Tina Brown calls Republicans “suicide bombers.” Economist Paul Krugman calls the GOP “crazy.”
But there are sensible reasons why an elected
official might believe that taking on new debt
would make a debt crisis worse, not better.
“The fact that we are here today to debate
raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership
failure,” Senator Obama explained in 2006
regarding his vote against raising the debt ceiling.
“It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay
its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on
ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries
to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies.”
Amen.
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