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GOP Selling out US to Foreign Investors

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Posted by: JohnnyBz00LS

Bush Signs Bill Raising Debt Limit
Monday, March 20, 2006

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188531,00.html

WASHINGTON — With no fanfare, President Bush signed a bill Monday pushing the ceiling on the national debt to nearly $9 trillion.

The measure allows the government to borrow an additional $781 billion and prevent a first-ever default on Treasury notes. It also lets the government pay for the war in Iraq without raising taxes or cutting popular domestic programs.

The debt limit increase was the fourth of Bush's presidency, totaling $3 trillion. With the budget deficit near record levels, an additional increase in the debt limit almost certainly will be required next year.

The measure allows the debt limit to rise from $8.184 trillion to $8.965 trillion.

Posted by: JohnnyBz00LS

Senate Clears $781 Billion Debt Limit Increase
Thursday, March 16, 2006

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188109,00.html

WASHINGTON — Congress gave its go-ahead Thursday to let the government borrow an additional $781 billion, and the House and Senate promptly voted for major spending initiatives for the war in Iraq, hurricane relief and education.

The Senate, on a 52-48 vote, sent President Bush a measure raising the ceiling on the national debt to nearly $9 trillion and preventing a first-ever default on Treasury notes. The move allows lawmakers and the president to pay for the war in Iraq without raising taxes or cutting popular domestic programs.

Hours later, the House neared passage of $91 billion in new money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for relief along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast.

In the Senate, a late-night vote loomed on a $2.8 trillion budget blueprint for the upcoming year, but only after approving amendments breaking Bush's $873 billion cap on appropriated spending by more than $11 billion.

Vice President Dick Cheney was expected to be on hand for a possible tie-breaking vote. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., could prove a crucial vote. She negotiated with GOP leaders to used potential oil lease revenues from exploration in an Alaskan wildlife refuge and in coastal waters to pay for projects to preserve the Louisiana coast.

Senators voted 51-49 to add $3 billion to the budget for heating subsidies for the poor. By a 73-27 vote, they added $7 billion for education, health and worker safety accounts. An amendment to add $1.2 billion for aviation security and block Bush's proposed increase in airline ticket taxes advanced by voice vote.

The blueprint for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 bears little resemblance to one from Bush last month. The votes Thursday set up a confrontation with the House, which is certain to oppose the additional spending.

In fact, the Senate's moves on the budget appear to make it far less likely that Congress will settle on a final budget plan this spring. House Republicans will not release their budget until after next week's congressional recess.

The votes dismayed deficit hawks such as Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H. He already had decided to drop Bush's proposals to cut the growth of Medicare, strengthen tax-free health savings accounts and advance legislation to make permanent his 2001 tax cuts.

Republicans are eager to show their conservative supporters that they are getting serious about cracking down on spending. Last weekend, GOP presidential aspirants at a the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis, Tenn., promised to be more thrifty with the people's money.

But GOP moderates such as Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania apparently did not get the message. His amendment to add $7 billion for education, health and labor programs won support from most Republicans, including Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who has criticized Congress for embarking "down a wayward path of wasteful Washington spending."

"All the talk in Memphis just doesn't comport with the realities of these important items" such as education and health research, Specter said.

The debt limit increase was the fourth of Bush's presidency, totaling $3 trillion. With the budget deficit expected to approach $400 billion for both this year and next, an additional increase in the debt limit almost certainly will be required next year.

Treasury Secretary John Snow applauded Congress for "protecting the full faith and credit of the United States." He said it ensures that the government "can deliver on promises already made, such as Social Security and Medicare payments and aid for the victims of the 2005 hurricanes."

The present limit on the debt is $8.2 trillion.

The increase is an unhappy necessity -- the alternative would be a disastrous first-ever default on U.S. obligations -- that greatly overshadowed a mostly symbolic, weeklong debate on the GOP's budget resolution.

Democrats blasted the bill, saying it was needed because of fiscal mismanagement by Bush, who came to office when the government was running record surpluses.

"When it comes to deficits, this president owns all the records," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "The three largest deficits in our nation's history have all occurred under this administration's watch."

Unlike last year, when Congress passed a bill trimming $39 billion from the deficit through curbs to Medicaid, Medicare and student loan subsidies, Senate GOP leaders have abandoned plans to cut mandatory programs.

Posted by: Calabrio

Start telling us what programs to cut. Where would you like to start cutting the fat from the budget.

I'm not going to defend the Congress for the inability to pass effective budget cuts, however, before anyone approaches the debate, they need to first acknowledge the reality of the situation first.

If Democrats are going to block and demonize all changes to entitlements, long term fiscal responsibility is virtually impossible.

Posted by: JohnnyBz00LS

Nothing has to be CUT, we only need to stop INCREASES in spending!

If I've maxed out my credit limit and the payments are larger than my income can support, the fiscally responsible thing to do is NOT ask for a credit limit increase so I can keep on racking up debt.

GW and this modern GOP has proven to be big spenders of our tax dollars, all the while touting their mantra of "smaller government" and "fiscal responsibility". That is all

Posted by: Calabrio

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyBz00LS

Nothing has to be CUT, we only need to stop INCREASES in spending!

According to liberals, reductions in the rate of a programs growth are considerd "cuts."

This has become the default way government has had to go about reducing spending, inorder to limit the political attacks from liberals. Current projects say we'll balance the budget in a few years. Is that fast enough for you?

If not, where do you want to make the cuts?

Quote:

If I've maxed out my credit limit and the payments are larger than my income can support, the fiscally responsible thing to do is NOT ask for a credit limit increase so I can keep on racking up debt.

O.k. So what do you want to cut?

Quote:

GW and this modern GOP has proven to be big spenders of our tax dollars, all the while touting their mantra of "smaller government" and "fiscal responsibility". That is all bsflag:

So, what would you like to cut?
First we need to balance the budget, then we can address paying off the debt. So, start telling us which entitlements you want to cut or trim.

Posted by: barry2952

Just curious. What was the debt ceiling when Bush took office?

Posted by: MonsterMark

Quote:

Originally Posted by barry2952

Just curious. What was the debt ceiling when Bush took office?

Look it up yourself.

And also look up the government receipts since the tax CUTS took effect.

Posted by: barry2952

Don't you know?

Posted by: MonsterMark

Quote:

Originally Posted by barry2952

Don't you know?

You know I do! But it is wasted breath on you, unfortunately.

Posted by: JohnnyBz00LS

Spending obscenities
Mar 21, 2006
by Cal Thomas

Email to a friend Print this page Text size: A A Not so long ago, in a country that now seems far, far away, Ronald Reagan told the nation: "we don't have deficits because people are taxed too little. We have deficits because big government spends too much."

He uttered those words in a year when Democrats controlled the House (the body in which spending legislation originates) and the national debt, according to the Bureau of Public Debt, was $2.3 trillion.

Last week, a Republican Senate voted to raise the debt ceiling to nearly $9 trillion. Senators quickly passed a record $2.8 trillion budget. What would Reagan say now? He said then, ".the federal deficit is outrageous. For years I've asked that we stop pushing onto our children the excesses of our government." He called for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and labeled the budget process a "sorry spectacle." That Republicans are outspending the most reckless 1980s Democrat (and 1960s Great Society Democrats and 1940s FDR Democrats) is the sorriest spectacle of all.

The Senate vote increased the debt ceiling for the fourth time in five years. The statutory debt limit has now risen by more than $3 trillion since President Bush took office. That any Republican majority could preside over such fiscally irresponsible spending ought to be grounds for revoking their party membership.

This is mostly about politics, not terrorism. Republicans fear that only gobs of money will endear them to voters in sufficient numbers to re-elect their increasingly precarious majority. Why should Republicans be re-elected when one of the major reasons the GOP exists is to reduce the size and cost of government and free more people to do for themselves instead of restricting their liberties through costly and overreaching big government?

Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican, rightly blamed out-of-control spending on his colleagues' political nervousness: "They want to go and say they are helping people, but we are not helping people when we are selling out their future."

DeMint might have added that it doesn't help people to cause them to rely on and pay for ever-expanding government. Such a policy stifles initiative and personal responsibility and discourages incentive. It goes against the "Puritan ethic" that was one of America's foundational principles.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, observed, "This budget could be the final nail in our coffin if we don't watch it." Graham said Republican spending habits are demoralizing voters: "I don't think we properly understand the keys to our electoral success."

Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, defended spending an additional $7 billion for health and education programs, claiming those areas have lacked money in recent years. Is he kidding? The Bush administration has sired the biggest new entitlement program in history - a prescription drug benefit for the elderly. And let's not forget "No Child Left Behind," which massively increased federal education spending when there is no evidence of a connection between money and academic achievement.

Perhaps the real culprit is not Congress, but us. The Pew Research Center poll of March 14 found that only 55 percent of Americans rate the deficit as a "top priority." That contrasts with the 1990s when the deficit resonated more strongly with voters. As long as we are willing to take the money in exchange for our votes, politicians will give it to us. This must change, not only because we are in debt up to our eyeballs, but also because many of the note holders are, or might become, our enemies.

Means testing for all government programs and term limits for Congress are the answer to never-ending debt, but neither is likely to happen.

Reagan said his favorite president was Calvin Coolidge. In 1923, when Coolidge was vice president, he said, "After order and liberty, economy is one of the highest essentials of a free government."

Coolidge left the presidency with a surplus. So did Bill Clinton. That a Republican Congress and administration are engaging in such promiscuous spending is obscene. If voting in Democrats -who in the past engaged in deficit spending - punishes Republicans, little will change. What to do?

Maybe it's time for a strong third party, or failing that, another revolution.

By my calculations, that's about a 50% increase in the debt ceiling in 5 years.

Posted by: JohnnyBz00LS

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calabrio

Current projects say we'll balance the budget in a few years. Is that fast enough for you?

In your dreams. Define "a few".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calabrio

If not, where do you want to make the cuts?

O.k. So what do you want to cut?

So, what would you like to cut?

Read:

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyBz00LS

Nothing has to be CUT, we only need to stop INCREASES in spending!

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyBz00LS

Nothing has to be CUT, we only need to stop INCREASES in spending!

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyBz00LS

Nothing has to be CUT, we only need to stop INCREASES in spending!

We should also cut government subsidies to the energy industry, "tax credits" to utililties for doing worthless things like "junker crusher" programs that take a handful of old cars off the road in order to dodge taxes for NOT cleaning up their smokestacks, any incentive to industry to export JOBS outside of the US, pet project "earmarks" that do nothing but get votes, I could go on...............