Change The Way You Look At Things . . .
At first I was willing to believe it was just a lot of political posturing. Now, I’m beginning to worry that Congress truly doesn’t have a clue about what it means to compromise.
“The impasse on the massive plan leaves Obama and congressional negotiators back at the smaller package of cuts to federal agency budgets and more modest reforms to entitlement programs. That package, which had been negotiated by Vice President Biden and key GOP leaders including House Majority Leader Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.), would come to somewhere between $2 trillion and $2.4 trillion in savings, allowing for Congress to approve an extension of the federal debt ceiling into the spring of 2013.”
I understand the Republican’s desire to stick to their ideologically based goals, but aren’t they running the risk of this backfiring on them during next year’s election cycle?
Stubbornly walking out twice on perhaps one of the most important national negotiations in our country’s history could prove difficult to defend in the context of necessary action and decision-making with global consequences.
Please let this situation be a lesson to us all.
I recommend doing a bit of research on the financial disaster playing out in Greece if you want to have a more urgent perspective on U.S. economic policy and the ongoing debate surrounding deficit reduction & the debt ceiling.
Indeed, the revenue loss just from extending the tax cuts for people making over $250,000 — the top 2 percent of Americans — would itself be almost as large as the Social Security shortfall over the 75-year period. Members of Congress cannot simultaneously claim that the tax cuts are affordable while the Social Security shortfall constitutes a dire fiscal threat.”
This is what happens when you aren’t required to pay for a tax cut up front — you can’t lump it in with “cut spending.”
