We have a revenue problem, not a spending problem

Joan McCarter    Tue Jul 05, 2011

The refrain that's won the day, apparently, for budget negotiators racing to see who can get the most praise from the Very Serious People for making the most Americans suffer under austerity, is "we having a spending problem." Not to put too fine a point on it: Bullshit.

That's a chart from the Senate Appropriations Committee, making a key point.

Our deficit and debts can be traced to the fact that spending on entitlement programs and defense has shot up, and tax revenues have plummeted to their lowest level in decades. But spending on domestic discretionary programs has grown much more slowly. And, if you correct for inflation, and for growing population, it turns out we're spending exactly the same amount on these programs as we were a full decade ago....

"Although non-defense discretionary spending in nominal dollars has increased, when taking inflation and population growth into account the amount contained in the [2011 budget] represents no increase over what we spent in 2001, a year in which we generated a surplus of $128 billion," said chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) in a prepared statement. "So the right question to ask is: Are we really spending too much on non-defense programs? The answer is clearly no."

...In the wake of the Bush tax cuts, and the Great Recession, tax revenue has fallen through the floor to near-historic lows. As a percentage of GDP, it's fallen 24 percent since 2001, and if you correct for inflation, the government is collecting nearly 20 percent less per person than it was a decade ago. At the same time, the population-adjusted costs of mandatory spending programs—driven by Medicare, including its new prescription drug benefit, and Medicaid—have increased by over 30 percent. And, of course, defense spending has skyrocketed. But if you isolate domestic discretionary programs, a decade later we're spending no more on a per-person basis than we were back then.

What has increased? Health care spending, but at a rate that would have nearly been covered by massive loss of revenue in the past decade. TPM took the numbers from the Committee and "put them in a slightly different context, so you can see by what percentage spending and revenues have risen and fallen on a population adjusted basis over the last decade."

As they say, it clearly shows "what is and is not the culprit of deficits and our supposedly out-of-control spending."

 

Technorati Tags: Budget Cuts,Taxes,Debt Ceiling,Republicans,Current Events,Politics

Obama Turns Republican?

  Well yes, if you look at the “ compromise “ that he and the American Taliban have been working on in order to get a budget. What a freakin joke! Once again, the rich/wealthy get to keep their tax cuts and the middle class and the poor get to bend over and take it up the ass. There is really no need to vote for a Republican since we pretty much already have one in the White House. At the rate that Obama and the Democrats keep doing these ludicrous compromises with the American Taliban, sitting out the election will be what I do. I’ll just have to work on the state level elections. In Florida, that is a lot of work.

We Cannot Afford this Kind of Compromise

   By Ellinorianne  on Sat Jul 02, 2011          Original Article

Not caving?  This is not the kind of compromise our Country can afford!  I don't care anyway you slice this, it's still a stale loaf of bread and it still shows that Democrats have folded like a bunch of cheap party chairs.

Deficit battle shaping up as GOP victory

It's not the headline that bothers me, the narrative that the mainstream media is what they want it to be, but the reality is, this compromise will hurt all the wrong people.  It's just that simple.

But even if Obama were to gain all the tax-law changes he wants, new revenue would make up only about 15 cents of each dollar in deficit reduction in the package.

I don't care if Republicans go against their no new taxes pledge or how it gets spun as a victory for the Administration or Democrats.  It's still a huge loss for all those people who are hanging on by a thread.

But substantively, budget experts note, the plan would still be dominated by cuts to government programs, many of them longtime Democratic priorities, such as Medicaid and federal employee pensions.

And yes, I get that we started out this way, it's a "balanced" approach.  Sure, we may call this a victory, but I can't.

"This is not just a numbers debate," Obama said Thursday in Philadelphia. "This is a values debate."

Yes it is, and as I stated in a diary earlier, my values are going down the drain when it comes to leaving the 25% of children who are living in poverty to go to bed hungry.

How is this acceptable? 

The White House is seeking about $300 billion in new revenue over the decade, less than half the amount it sought when Obama first outlined his goals last spring, based on the proposals in negotiations.

Obama once targeted the wealthiest Americans, the top 2% who earn beyond $200,000 a year, proposing to cap their income tax deductions.

But weeks of closed-door talks have diminished that goal. Now, even a deduction cap on those Americans earning beyond $500,000 a year — just 1.3 million Americans, fewer than 1% of all taxpayers — has been dashed. The latest offer on the table would be a more limited cap, to generate an additional $130 billion.

With just a few weeks remaining to reach an agreement, Democrats now are fighting mainly for the most populist tax reforms: ending tax subsidies for oil and gas companies, eliminating a tax break for hedge fund managers, closing an ethanol loophole and changing the way businesses write off inventory, according to those familiar with the talks.

I think we all deserve better, I want better!  And unfortunately, during a recession such as this, the last thing we should be cutting is anything that is helping people in need.  This is what we will face no matter how it turns out.

Regardless of any tax concessions President Obama achieves, the end result would favor Republican goals of cutting spending and government services.

This is what the mainstream media will push.  We need to push back, we need to push for LESS cuts.

It is not enough to merely support The President!

We must support the values we say we so deeply hold close out us.  That we do not let our children go to bed hungry, that we don't let our middle class drown in mortgage and student loan debt (damn the national debt, it should be our last concern right now, if the middle class grows, that debt will shrink!).

The Republicans fear the Tea Party?

It's time the Democrats listened to us!  It's time we did what was important to more people than Corporate Jet Owners and Hedge Fund Managers.

Read More...

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,Democrats,American Taliban,Republicans,Taxes,Corporate Welfare,Debt Ceiling,2012,Elections,Current Events,Politics,News