If not now, when?

Public opinion polls show a majority of Americans support a debt reduction plan that includes some tax increases and view Obama as more willing to deal on the federal debt.

Man we have fallen for the liberal media slant on this issue.

Look what has happened here, Obama has increased spending over 1 trillion dollars in just two years, he has imposed millions of dollars in new taxes, he has increased the % of total GDP the government takes to a point where spending as a % of GDP in the future could be 80-100%..... and now he wants to deal. Sure he wants to deal, he has taken a dollar and he is willing to give back 5 cents. It would be like Wal-Mart doubling all their prices and then giving everyone 10% off. That's no deal!

What has he really offered to deal? Has he offered any plan? The President preaches to congress that "they" have to do something, he holds meeting and the total real savings he has offered is 2 billion dollars, big deal, the government spent that in the time the meeting took.

The GOP has offered plans and ideas, the one thing they should not do is increase the income tax.

I want the federal spending stopped and you don't stop federal spending by raising taxes again. This is real simple, stop spending money. The federal government will collect 2.8 trillion dollars this year, if we give them another trillion next year they will want another trillion, it has to stop.

In 2008 the government spent 2.8 trillion dollars and if you listen to the liberals every single cent was absolutely necessary. In 2012 they will spend 3.5 trillion and guess what, every single cent is absolutely essential, well that is except for defense spending: which the liberals think we can slash.

I do not want the rate of increased spending slowed, I want the increases stopped, when the economy starts growing the government will get more money but there is no reason on earth the federal government need to continually have more and more of the money earned in this country as compared to GDP, it is absolutely unsustainable.

You might not like the Republicans digging in their heels, but Greece would be in a lot better shape now if someone in the Greek government would have dug their heels in 20 years ago. Compromise now and your kids will grow up in a country that makes Greek spending look like small change.

You don’t think it is all that bad? When Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as speaker of the house she vowed “there would be no new deficit spending” to quote madam speaker exactly

"After years of historic deficits, this 110th Congress will
commit itself to a higher standard: Pay as you go, no
new deficit spending”

The federal debt was 8.6 trillion at that time, today it is 14.5 trillion and we have raised the debt ceiling

74 times on the last 49 years……

It has to stop sometime and now is the time.

If we follow the same game plan why would we exspect a different result?

Wouldn’t be nice if you could try out political or economic theories before applying then to your country?

Amazingly enough we actually have a good test run of the Obama economic experiment right down to the one word campaign slogan of “change”. Where was the pre Obama socialist experiment conducted? Check out the Greek elections of 1981.

In 1981 Andreas Papandreou was swept into power as Prime Minister of Greece along with his socialist PASOK movement. At the time of his election the Greek debt to GDP ratio stood at 28%, a figure envied by most of the free world. By the end of Andreas second term it had ballooned to over 80%. It was a rate of government expansion so large and so fast reaching every corner of Greek society that in the end it actually changed a whole countries idea about the proper role of government.

Starting with government health care, huge increases in the number of federal public employees, takeovers of failing private industries, and numerous new government hand outs, Papandreou inserted government in every corner of Greek life. The similarities to our current US President are amazing and tragic.

In one generation Greece went from a country with a rich and proud tradition of self reliance to people rioting in the streets to maintain their government’s giveaways.

And even with the huge increase in government spending the government has proven once again the failure of large government to deliver, as Napoleon Linardatos wrote in the National Review “The Greek government employs lots of people, even by European standards; the increase in unemployment since the crisis started has come exclusively from the private sector. Finland may have the best educational system in Europe, but its ratio of students to teachers is double that of Greece, which has one of the worst educational systems. In area after area of governmental activity, Greece has the most people employed per population but also the worst results: a way-above-average number of tax collectors but very poor tax collection; an above-average number of policemen but dismal public order; a record number of local courts but perhaps the slowest justice system on the continent; a record number of hospitals but one of the worst systems of health care.”

Now Greece finds itself with a GPD to debt ratio over 140% and rising. With its only hope to remain afloat being bailouts from the European Union. The present Greek government finds itself attempting to drastically cut un-sustainable spending while facing mobs and riots by Greek citizens for their efforts. 25% of the population is employed by the government, and large minorities of the rest of the citizens are dependent on one government program or another or employed by failed government owned companies. The Greeks have become addicted to a living based on tax dollars and to many their solution to the crisis is an Obama like “tax the rich”.

The Obama play book looks to be ripped out of the failed policy manual of the Greek socialist. Maybe in 2012 we should try a different path.

Food for thought, maybe low fat food!

In the world of diet and weight control, the theory of a weight “set point” is widely accepted. The set point theory states that each person's body has an internal gauge based on certain factors that determines the amount of fat needed to function. The body's metabolism will do whatever is necessary to maintain this predetermined fat level.

I am beginning to think that the federal government also has a “set point”, a spending set point and that Liberals will do anything to maintain the federal government fat levels.

Recently a public debate between Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner and Representative Renee Ellmers (R-NC) pointed out that reducing the size of government is not really an option to the Liberals. When Ellmers finally told Geithner that “the point is, we need jobs,” he responded that the administration felt it had “no alternative” but to raise taxes on small businesses because otherwise “you have to shrink the overall size of government programs”—including federal education spending.

“We’re not doing it because we want to do it, we’re doing it because we see no alternative to a balanced approach to reduce our fiscal deficits,” said Geithner. (1)

Well there we have it - “no alternative” - the only way to reduce the federal deficit is to increase taxes. At least Mr. Geithner was honest enough to admit that if the level of federal fat is going to be maintained, we must raise taxes on small business. Geithner, who had trouble paying his own taxes before coming to work in the White House, now sees increase taxes as the “only alternative” to a balanced federal budget.

As President Obama’s Chief of Staff said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. Apparently if you don’t have a crisis, you just create one. It would appear that the budget was not sufficiently in debt when we spent 2 trillion dollars a year, so the Democrat’s drives spending up to over 3 trillion and presto debt crisis, now we have “no alternative” but to raise taxes, really it wasn’t our fault cry the Liberals.

Let’s just look at some statistics. As of December 28th, the U.S. national debt was $13,877,230,355,933. (That’s trillions of dollars in case you lost count of the zeros), the U.S. national debt is increasing by roughly 4 billion dollars every single day. The U.S. government is borrowing approximately 2.63 million more dollars every single minute. September 30th, 1980 the U.S. national debt was 907 billion dollars. Just thirty years later, the U.S. national debt is over 14 times larger. (2)

 A federal government that only spent 2.4 trillion dollars in 2008 now must raise taxes so it can spend 3.5 trillion in 2012. The liberals are not even satisfied with maintaining the existing level of government fat; they want to gorge themselves on tax dollars to increase the fat levels by 30%!

The First Lady’s “Lets Move” program is focused on reducing obesity in children, maybe her husband could think about the same program for the federal budget.

(1) http://lonelyconservative.com/2011/06/geithner-we-must-raise-taxes-so-government-doesnt-shrink/

(2) http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm