I have to be honest. Working with the reality of numbers
often hurts my brain. I’m not good at. Justin Smith seems to have a great grasp
of number realities when it comes to deficit spending, the National Debt, Gross
Domestic Product and the need of a Balanced Budget.
Justin is displeased with the results of the Trump
Administration/Pelosi budget agreement and urges a Presidential veto. No matter
how much the numbers are painful, the inevitable result will be catastrophic if
this Federal accounting disparities continue.
However, the realities of America’s political divide
demonstrated by near even splits of opposing ideologies in Congress means
neither the Socialists nor the fiscal Conservatives will get what they want.
Perhaps an idiotic budget compromise keeps the government operating rather than
frozen. EVEN THOUGH it’s doom and gloom, if
voters DO NOT opt soon for fiscal responsibility a national catastrophe will
occur.
Trump’s hands are tied by political realities, if voters
want a different outcome untie divisive politics – OR ELSE.
JRH 7/26/19
Your generosity is always appreciated:
********************
Trump-Pelosi Budget
and Fiscal Sabotage
A Coward's Financial Agreement
By Justin O. Smith
Sent 7/25/2019 7:06
PM
A coward's financial agreement is the phrase that best
describes the budget deal recently agreed
upon by President Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that just passed the House
with a vote of 284 to 149 at 2:14 CST on July 25th, since it avoids any real
battle over government spending by suspending the debt ceiling until July 2021.
It raises spending caps and lifts the debt ceiling in the name of avoiding a
fiscal crisis, but in reality and ignoring any lessons from 2008, this explodes
U.S. debt in a way never seen in U.S. history, and it exhibits President
Trump's willingness to meekly surrender to another massive expansion of the
federal budget, that creates a short term political "win" for the DC
Establishment of both parties and a long term loss for the American
people.
This deal received 65 Republican votes, and it spends $2.7
trillion over the next two years. It commits President Trump to signing
spending bills that add $320 billion above spending limits set in a 2011
agreement that established automatic spending cuts. This Pelosi Dream Deal also
says there will be absolutely no limit on how much new debt the federal government
can accumulate between now and July 31rst 2021.
The Washington Post was absolutely
correct, when it recently wrote that the budget and debt deal would not contain
actual spending cuts, since the $150 billion in new spending cuts demanded by
White House budget director Russell Vought soon materialized as only [about] 70 billion in actual cuts, that
don't go in effect for ten years and are likely to be reversed by Congress at a
later date. This marks a retreat for the White House.
Reported by the Wall Street Journal, Maya MacGuineas,
president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, stated on July
22nd: "This deal would amount to nothing short of fiscal sabotage." [Blog Editor: I found quote at USA
Today]
And yet, rather than debate the most serious issue of the
day and seek real solutions, the cowards of both parties hid behind
"bipartisanship", in an erroneous, corrupt and wrong-minded fashion,
and cooperated to serve their own personal political interests, as DC's
supposed "elite" elected class.
Our current National Debt Ratio to the Gross Domestic
Product has averaged right at 100 percent, between 2010
and the present. This is even higher than the 94 percent [average] the nation saw between
1944 and 1950.
Incredibly, the federal government spent $3,355,970,000,000,
in the first nine months of this fiscal year, while running a $747,115,000,000 deficit.
President Trump's Treasury is currently issuing U.S. dollars faster than it did
in fiscal 2009 -- even when adjusted for inflation -- when President Bush
signed the bailout legislation for failing banks and President Obama signed a
Stimulus bill focused on ending our economic recession.
Noted by The Hill, grave concerns on the
economy were expressed by the Congressional Budget Office on July 23rd
[Blog Editor: I could not confirm a
7/23/19 date, the links in thos paragraph relate to a 6/25/19 date], and
the CBO wrote in its budget projection that U.S debt is on
track to increase from 78 percent of the GDP to an "unsustainable" level of
144 percent of the GDP over the next thirty years, even if spending caps aren't
lifted and taxes are raised. Now, with the passage of this bill, we are on track
to see the debt rise to 219 percent of the GDP, unless President Trump can be
persuaded to send the bill back with a demand that more actual spending cuts
must be made.
Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) was upset with President
Trump for negotiating through Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, rather than
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought. As reported by the
Wall Street Journal, Roy exclaimed, "The president
should be listening to (White House Chief of Staff) Mick Mulvaney and Russ Vought,
and he should not be listening to Steven Mnuchin, period." Roy added that
"Senate Republicans will never find a corner where they can go and
hide", implying that Senate Republicans are untrustworthy regarding fiscal
responsibility.
Once consumed by fiscal worries, this coward's agreement is
one more sign that makes it more than clear, both houses of Congress and both
the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have become Big Spenders, and
Congress is no longer concerned about the extent of the budget deficits or the
debt they add. The DC Establishment no longer cares, even as our national debt
hits one trillion annually and rapidly approaches $23 trillion.
According to the Washington Post, Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-KY) recently stated: "Nobody has lost
an election by spending too much money", in regard to Chief of Staff Mick
Mulvaney's effort to pay for the spending deal.
After the last massive spending deal, President Trump vowed
never to sign another one. And yet, here he is again, at the ready and far too
willing. He just keeps confirming to the American people that he really is a
Big Government Guy and a Big Spender.
Today, America barely hears any objections over the
exorbitant debt. When Trump campaigned in 2016, he bragged about his ability to
prosper from his own debt. He told CNN, on May 4th 2016:
"I'm the king of debt. I love debt." ... adding the next day ...
"if the economy crashed, you could make a deal ... if the economy was
good, it was good ... you can't lose."
But that's not just the reality of matters for most
Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, and it is just not smart for anyone or
any nation to accumulate debt; at some point another bubble will burst in our
economy, since Wall Street hasn't stopped any of the bad business practices
that caused the 2008 crisis. And, an economic collapse of 2008 magnitude will
pale in comparison to the coming economic catastrophe that deals such as this
one are sure to create. Most of our national debt has been monetized, and any
bailout for the American people will be virtually non-existent.
Niall Ferguson, senior fellow at Stanford University's
Hoover Institute, has warned that empires fall
when interest on their debt equals what they spend on defense. According to the
Office of Management and Budget, this will happen around 2024. If interest
rates increase, it could arrive much sooner.
Unfortunately, America is currently a nation focused on
instant gratification, selfishness and greed, and seems oblivious to the
dangerous path it is on. Whether or not the nation can afford all the current
government benefits, plus the desired additional costs of free university
educations and free healthcare for all, and even though our credit card is
maxed out, Americans seem intent on voting for politicians who promise to
borrow money to give them what they want.
Everyone would do well to recall that in Psalm 37:21 it says, "The
wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and
giveth."
Noting that Congress's out-of-control spending "is
ripping off the American family", former Congressman Dave Brat recently delivered the following
observation to Tony Perkins at Washington Watch, as he looked
across the Atlantic: "There's evidence you can be pathetic for a long
time. And the evidence is called Europe. ... eventually ... debt will impinge
on your economic growth rate as it has been. And what's really missed in the
point is it's intergenerational theft. And I mean that quite literally. We are
stealing from our kids and the next generation to the extent that our deficit
is $1 trillion. We're spending $1 trillion and getting the goods from it right
now -- and the kids are going to have to pay for [everything] we're consuming.
And so it is literally theft. So they're going to have to work hard, pay their
taxes, get tax increases, pay off the debt, and pay all their own personal
bills for our runaway spending binge."
America has embraced reckless spending and She doesn't even
pretend to repay what She owes. She incurs more debt daily at an unprecedented
rate and most of Her current leaders do not acknowledge that this is even a
problem. And so, if our leaders have one shred of human decency and honesty, of
a personal or intellectual kind, rather than pander for votes, their bipartisan
action should warrant a majority of both parties to end this deal and move
forward on a deal that truly cuts all unnecessary spending, or President Trump
must reconsider this deal and veto it, rather than continue on a path that
watches our deficit soar and attacks our nation's solvency and the future
prosperity of America.
By Justin O. Smith
______________________
Edited by John R. Houk
Source links and text embraced by brackets are by the
Editor.
© Justin O. Smith
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