Your politicians at work - screwing the electorate one more time

I note with displeasure - but little surprise - that the House of Representatives will not be passing an annual budget for the USA this year.

Last night by the slimmest of margins (215-210), House Democrats passed a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget. Confused? I don't blame you.

The Democrats' "deemed as passed" resolution is missing the most basic elements of a standard budget that is expected each year: total outlays, total federal revenue, total proposed changes to revenue, total deficit levels, and total debt levels.

Connie Hair with Human Events points out that "never before -- since the creation of the Congressional budget process -- has the House failed to pass a budget, failed to propose a budget then deemed the non-existent budget as passed as a means to avoid a direct, recorded vote on a budget, but still allow Congress to spend taxpayer money."

So, knowing full well that our nation is already $13 trillion in debt, House Democrats found it politically expedient to pursue this alternative to a real budget that will allow them to keep up their record levels of spending without having to be fiscally accountable. Now that's leadership for you!

Unlike the commentator, I don't hold Democrats solely responsible for this monumental mess-up. I'm convinced Republicans would do precisely the same thing if it were in their best political interests. Neither party is really interested in what's good for America, or what the USA needs. They're only focused on what's good for them and their political objectives. As proof, the 'deem and pass' maneuver the Democrats used to get their 'non-budget' approved has been used in the past by Republicans as well, to pass legislation they knew would probably not make it through the usual parliamentary procedures. Both parties are equally guilty.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report last Tuesday (link is to an Adobe Acrobat file in .PDF format) that illustrates the dire financial situation into which the failures of both parties have led this country. (Admittedly, those failures have been particularly egregious during the Obama Administration, but the foundations were laid under former President Bush, and under his predecessors from both parties.) Some highlights of its report:

• The CBO report affirms that the massive health care overhaul fails to address the explosion in health care costs ... [it] states: “Enactment of the [health care] legislation did not cause CBO to change its estimates of longer-term growth rates for spending on the government's health care programs.” This finding echoes CBO Director Doug Elmendorf’s recent comments: “Rising health costs will put tremendous pressure on the federal budget during the next few decades and beyond. In CBO’s judgment, the health legislation enacted earlier this year does not substantially diminish that pressure.”
• The long-term budget outlook continues to worsen with each passing year Congress fails to act. Debt held by the public will eclipse the size of the entire US economy by the year 2023.
• Under CBO’s economic models, Americans’ living standards (real GDP per capita) begin to deteriorate in 2015, and the model breaks down completely in 2027 due to the crushing levels of debt. CBO cannot compute how an economy can function with such high levels of government borrowing to finance deficits, crowding out ever-increasing sectors of the private economy. “Unsustainable” is an understatement.
• The CBO projects that government spending as a share of economy will double by 2043, up from its historical average of roughly 20%. Despite tax revenues above the historical average in the years ahead, the explosion in spending drives the unsustainable explosion in debt. The Long-Term Budget Outlook is clear: the explosive growth of spending is the problem.
• The tidal wave of debt is driven primarily from the nation’s largest entitlement programs -- Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid -- along with the compounding growth in interest payments on the debt. Mandatory Federal spending on health care will roughly double from 5.5% of GDP today to 10.9% of GDP over the next 25 years.
  

So, in the face of a report so damning, from a politically neutral source, our elected 'leaders' choose to ignore reality and fail to pass an annual budget. Guess what they'll do instead? That's right - they'll make it up as they go along, sucking figures out of their thumbs, trying to 'govern by the seat of their pants' instead of sticking to hard numbers from the real world. That's too difficult, you see.

What's the answer? It's simple. Throw out every single incumbent in Washington come November. I don't care what party they belong to, and I don't care what party their replacements belong to. Send a message to Washington that the 'same old, same old' crowd are completely unacceptable, and we want change and responsible government. Guess what? If a crowd of freshmen Congresspersons and Senators roll into Washington next year, they will have gotten the message, loud and clear!

What to do with those currently in office? Let's see . . . tar . . . feathers . . . rope . . . yeah, they're all on the list. Time to go shopping!





Peter