By the Numbers
And they are daunting, says the WSJ:
Note, however, that federal spending remains at a new plateau of about $3.54 trillion, or some $800 billion more than the last pre-recession year of 2007. One way to think about this is that most of the $830 billion stimulus of 2009 has now become part of the federal budget baseline. The “emergency” spending of the stimulus has now become permanent, as we predicted it would.
Yeah, as I told Will Wilkinson (I think) during a very early PJTV segment way back when, “Wait’ll this [stimulus] stuff gets baselined. “Stuffing the beast” is the unofficial White House policy for just spending any damn amount on any damn thing to justify new and endless taxes.
Anyway, back to the Journal:
Even if Mr. Obama were to bludgeon Republicans into giving him all of the tax-rate increases he wants, the Joint Tax Committee estimates this would yield only $82 billion a year in extra revenue. But if growth is slower as a result of the higher tax rates, then the revenue will be lower too. So after Mr. Obama has humiliated House Republicans and punished the affluent for the sheer joy of it, he would still have a deficit of $1 trillion.
But it was never about growth. It was always about spreading the misery around.
Ouch. Enough. Please just go back up in the mountains and hide. Or come down here to the desert and we’ll help you fry your brain with Tequila and sunshine. Either way your and our pain will be lessened. After all of today’s posts you at least owe us some jazz to lower our blood pressure. Now’s where’s that Watermelon Man link ……
What would the numbers be if the House demanded everyone pay their fair share and simply let the tax cuts expire in their entirety? The American people voted for Obama, they obviously want higher taxes.
Also, it seems to me that we could achieve a major policy goal – a balanced budget – by telling Obama that’s he’s borrowed enough money and not raise the debt ceiling.
On the one hand the economy would suffer from higher taxes, but on the other $1 trillion wouldn’t be siphoned out through T-bills.
We tried reason, now is the time to break out the clue-by-four.
I am afriad a clue by four wont be enough. Maybe try the sludge hammer of truth? the morons have pretty thick skulls.
Its not the mass, it’s the velocity. Fortunately Mother Nature makes Barry Bonds looks like the last kid picked for tee ball.
Here it comes. Lots of the big boys are dumping stocks of companies which rely on consumer spending. It’s going to be a lousy Christmas. So, the economy is going to get worse next year, and thus, the tax revenues will also be worse. The deficit will be worse, too, as a result.
http://www.moneynews.com/Outbrain/billionaires-dump-economist-stock/2012/08/29/id/450265?PROMO_CODE=FFAD-1
Maybe it’s time to go rope-a-dope.
Maybe this is the moment for Republicans to call a news conference on the steps of the capitol to say something like: “Fellow Americans. We are here to congratulate the President and the Democrat party and the media for their election victory. For the past four years, we’ve been warning you that our ship of state is about to hit a fiscal iceberg. To make our case, we bombarded you with numbers, because numbers are the only way to calculate the distance between us and the iceberg. What we forgot is that most Progressives and most media members neither like nor understand math, so all those numbers we were throwing out might as well have been Chinese.
The numbers also failed to make an impression on the Captain we elected four years ago, which isn’t surprising when you consider that he had never steered anything bigger than a rowboat on a pond in his life. And yet, last Tuesday, after four years of meandering at half-speed towards the ice field, the children in America reelected him, because he was cool, and hip, and because he promised us more candy from the inexhaustible candy tree our forefathers planted a couple of centuries ago.
Now, as conservatives, we face a dilemma. Unlike the rest of the electorate, we understand numbers. We know the candy tree isn’t inexhaustible. We can do the math. And the math tells us we’re heading straight towards a great big iceberg, which we’ll hit in about five years – at the latest. So – and this is the question all conservatives are wrestling with – what are we to do?
One option is to get up there on the bridge, argue with the captain, and try to slow the ship down. To many of us, that seems like the responsible thing to do. But here on the Titanic, being responsible is considered unhip and uncool, and we know we’ll be blamed for the inevitable collision. “Those idiot Republicans. Our fearless Captain was steering just fine before they butted in and threw him off course.” All those bodies floating around in the cold sea? Our fault. Obstructionism. Same as it ever was.
So we’ve made a decision – not an easy one for those of us who love our imperfect country almost beyond imagining. It’s this: We’re done. We’re sick and tired of being your convenient piñata when things go into the toilet, as they tend to do when children are in control. No, we’re not going to go John Galt on America. We know there are no hidden valleys out there in Colorado. But, after considerable debate, we’ve decided to follow option number two – call it Going John Galt Lite. We grownups are just going to sit back in our deck chairs and watch the children run the ship into the ice. Yep. You heard correctly. Bring any bill you want to the Congress and we’ll all do what our Captain has done so successfully throughout his career. We’ll vote present, and allow you to raid our empty treasury to your heart’s content.
You want more candy? Grab all the candy you can eat. Higher taxes on the rich? You got it. Nothing like a depression to sharpen the senses. Fast track for Obamacare? Let’s accelerate that sucker so the wait time for an MRI or a hernia operation is a couple of months by 2016. Amnesty for illegal aliens? No problemo. Let’s open the borders tomorrow and get those welfare and Medicaid rolls fattened up pronto. Sixteen years of unemployment benefits? $50 dollar minimum wage? Send us the bill. We’ll just roll our eyes and vote present. After all, you’ve told us we have enough candy in America to feed the whole world.
Are you with us so far? Maybe even salivating a bit? Excellent. But we’re not total idiots. We do want something in return. Two things, actually. First, we want you to give us back our Second Amendment rights – you know, the “shall not be infringed” part – so we can protect our families and the little property we have left when the food riots start and the long knives are being sharpened. And, second, we want you to give us veto power over future Supreme Court nominees on the off chance the country survives long enough to have a future.
There it is. We’re all in. How about you?
One final thought for all of you out there whose only knowledge of history comes from reading Howard Zinn – and here I’m talking specifically about – and to – the media. Without us to blame and ridicule for the imperfections in our country, we’re encouraging you to turn your attention to more serious matters – like doing your damn job. Simple stuff, like checking to see whether your facts are accurate before printing your slanders. Learning how to actually tell the truth might even be a reachable long term goal for the best among you. And – boredom alert – the best among you might want to start your road to recovery by picking up some history books and trying to figure out why every great civilization in the history of the world has eventually been overrun by barbarians of one kind or another. Every single one.
History is a place to begin. Because history tells us that there is no such thing as an unsinkable ship – not even this magnificent vessel our forefathers built and handed down to us. And hindsight tells us that if the Titanic had rammed the iceberg head on, it would have stayed afloat. For the last four years, we’ve tried to wrestle the wheel away from our teenaged Captain and his adoring crew of nincompoops, and it hasn’t worked. Can’t work, maybe. So it’s time to try something new – like sitting in our deck chairs reading the Federalist papers while the band plays Amazing Grace. And we have a megaphone. Iceberg approaching. Wear a warm coat.
Will it work? We have no idea. It depends on the other passengers. Thank you and goodbye.”
But it was never about growth?
Agreed. Unless growth means growing more power for the state.
…about spreading the misery around?
Only to those who do not hold the same political clout.
This is exactly why Harry Reid and the Senate have not passed a budget for over 3 years. The last budget was the one with the so-called stimulus package. By not passing a budget, they’ve been relying on continuing resolutions which maintain the spending of the last budget. The “stimulus” is now the baseline. What was supposed to be a one time expense happens every year. So, where is the money going?