Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he believes Republicans are prepared to embrace the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan as a “broad outline” to avert the fiscal cliff in the lame-duck session.
The combination of spending cuts and tax hikes was the product of President Obama’s deficit-reduction commission, but Obama has not embraced the proposals from former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles. Some Democrats and Republicans have urged movement forward on the plan.
“Everybody knows what the solution is, and that’s Simpson-Bowles. I mean, everybody knows that that’s the template for what we need to do, but nobody’s ready to step forward so far. And I say, as a partisan, it does require some presidential leadership,” McCain said on CBS’ Capitol Gains yesterday.
“The president’s made it very clear that everything is going to be settled in a lame-duck or after the election,” he added. “Well, those of us who’ve been around this town, lame-duck sessions don’t do very well. In fact, they’re usually disasters.”
Still, the senator said, markets could react as the cliff gets closer and closer and deal will have to be forged — which could include getting the GOP on board with Simpson-Bowles.
“I think we are prepared to support it as an outline, as a broad outline for a solution,” McCain said. “…It’s a matter of definition. No, I’m not ready to, quote, ‘raise taxes.’ But I am ready to sit down and go over the whole area with everything on the table so that we can fix this.”
And this is just one of the reasons McCain is not the President. The guy is an idiot. One of the problems of this country is that the Federal government uses too much money. Money absorbed from the private sector is not available for real growth. Why didn’t the citizens of Arizona get rid of this guy?
Back in the 1980s, Democrats in Congress told President Reagan that they’d agree to spending cuts in exchange for tax increases. They lied – spending was never cut. Back in the Bush ’41 administration, Democrats in Congress got Bush to agree to tax increases (breaking his “no new taxes” pledge) in exchange for spending cuts. They lied – spending was never cut.
Before Republicans agree to ANY tax increases, they should force real spending cuts. Why should anyone with working brain cells believe government will cut spending unless they’re forced to? It’s the spending, stupid. How many times must Republicans play Charlie Brown to the Democrats playing Lucy with the football before they realize that whenever the Democrats promise spending cuts, they’re lying.
Specifically, where do you think he’s mistaken?
Historically, two components of government spending do contribute to growth- security (including military and domestic law and order) and infrastructure.
Nations which provide those two things at sufficient levels, and then permit the private economy to take it from there, have been prosperous. This has been the way of the world since Rome figured it out, with Roads and Aqueducts (infrastructure) and Legions (security).
Like any other spending, everybody wants to ask “how much”? but the real question is always “And what are we buying with that?”
The government, in effect, is borrowing money from China to buy Government Motors Volts for the military. Just one example, but the list could go on forever. Have you ever wondered how much the miltary budget is inflated to pay for PC nonsense? Somehow, the idea has taken hold that once the government engages in any spending program, that it must go on forever. Instead of ceding politcal ground early by agreeing to tax increases, the opposite approach should be taken. The government gets too much of the productive resources already and not only does that not improve our lot, it is in fact counter-productive. Not only should there be no tax increases, there should be a steady reduction in the size of government and the taxes the government collects. It should have been done years ago.
Swami, you have a good point, but myself and a lot of other people no longer have any faith in the government to hold up its end of the bargain. History since the end of WWII shows that entitlement programs, and other funding of the Left, always escape the budget axe no matter what. Always. It doesn’t matter what laws are passed; entitlement spending just keeps going up. The only way I could get behind something like Simpson-Bowles at this point would be if a Constitutional amendment were to be passed that bans all transfer payments and sets a no-exceptions upper limit on the amount of money that the federal government is allowed to spend. Draconian, yes, but there is no other answer.
There I was at the kitchen table bemoaning my debts, and then an inspiration came to me. I’ll only go to MacDonalds and the movie theatre once a week instead of three times a week. But most importantly I will max out my credit cards to pay off my debt. Time for our government to get a Gastric Bypass.
– in Hanoi is calling.