The deficit neutral promise is a gimmick of looking ten years down a road in which the funds are confiscated for the entire ten and are only given away for the last five; kind of like taking into account only the the running start and the first five miles of an attempt to climb an infinitely high and increasingly steep mountain. A less dishonest look at the bill would consider dole vs. confiscation within a time period in which both are occurring simultaneously, but I guess that's a little much to ask.
One example of the use of dishonest accounting gimmicks can be seen in the myth of Clinton's surplus. Here are the actual numbers from the Obama administration's Treasury Dept. web site showing increasing debt for the entire eight years of Clinton. How can this be? Well, it can be if one closes one eye while journaling about government ledgers to make the journalist's man look better to the willingly duped plebeian.
This is accomplished by taking into account only one of the two ledgers in congress. One shows the money borrowed from our trans-pacific friends and the nation's citizens. The other shows the money the government borrows from itself out of its surplus receipts from the SSI "trust" fund. The link above shows this as debt because it is in fact debt; but more of a Bernie Madoff style debt which similarly allows for the dishonest claim of a "Clinton Surplus".
In a similar tactic, this congress will be passing a huge tax increase for promised free hand-outs that will not come due for two election cycles. During this time, if the tax increases don't damage the economy to the point that a sufficient gain is not seen, the government and its media accomplices might well be able to tout a Clinton/Madoff style "surplus" for a couple of election cycles.
Someone told me during my engagement to my wife to keep both eyes open, then after our marriage to close one. With this in mind it looks as if the media has married the Democrat party. So the real question now is will the democrat party and its husband the media be able to pull off a similar dishonest deception with enough of the politically unsavvy?
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11 comments:
Unfortunately it looks like they might.
Susan
Agreed Susan
The deficit neutral promise is a gimmick of looking ten years down a road in which the funds are confiscated for the entire ten and are only given away for the last five; kind of like taking into account only the the running start and the first five miles of an attempt to climb an infinitely high and increasingly steep mountain. A less dishonest look at the bill would consider dole vs. confiscation within a time period in which both are occurring simultaneously, but I guess that's a little much to ask.
It's way too much to ask of this or pretty much any Congress. I am moving more and more to the position that the problem is not so much that the current Congress is doing (or trying to do) damage to the country. The problem is that the Congress - any Congress - has such power. The only hope left might be a Federalism Amendment, to clip the wings of the federal government to such an extent that even if it wanted to pass some crazy health care scheme, and even if it had 80% approval in both houses, it simply couldn't.
(Awkwardly worded, but you get the general idea.)
As for the deficit-neutral promise, I should add that it is actually worse than it looks. Due to ongoing static thinking (sorry!) in Washington, the assumptions about the programs costs are completely wrong. By the time five years has passed, my prediction is that the costs will be twice what they are now. In other words, not even ten years of unconstitutionally obtained revenue will offset five years of cost.
May God help America.
I see that you have seen through the enormous amount of benefit of the doubt that I gave to this scheme to the hard-core realities which undergird that doubt. I notice even that you make the parenthetical statement (or trying to do) as it pertains to congress damaging the country; and, given the obstacles one, especially one in congress, must overcome to remain ignorant of the current plight we now face with spending on social programs and their sure-as-the-rising-sun collision with the eality of insolvency, it is becoming just as difficult for the realist to quash the inklings that this is being done on purpose.
Sadly - I believe that both the d -party and the msm have the same ideology...to wrest individual freedom and place power in the hands of the few....
BTW-my smileys won't work on my comment section :( and it looks like they do not work on yours :((..
C-CS
If I never saw the numbers I would STILL not trust the "Deficit neutral" contention of the Democrats, because I don't trust anything they say.
Since they have lied to me in the past, I cannot know what to believe about what they say in the future.
That's the way it is with lying.
The government has been using Social security IOU's to cover its yearly shortfalls for years. The budget process is just a "shell game". Unfunded government liabilities may run into the hundreds of trillions of dollars. I doubt anyone really knows the extent. At this point, our "leaders" are afraid to tell the people the truth ... the USA is bankrupt with China and the oil rich middle east holding our debt.
It will take a completely new set of leaders to even attempt to deal with this problem ( and the public will NEVER allow the tough choices). I personally feel its too late and America's sun is setting.
M
I can't help but feel this way myself. I increasingly find myself thinking ahead, not in terms of a rebounded economy, but in terms of a collapsed system. Granted, I have to make myself do this because American seems to have always gotten through these things. But that's really part of the problem. Most Americans alive today have never had to face a real national trial like the one we are facing. As such we are convinced that "they" will take care of this for us and are content in thinking that we have experienced a bump in the road that they will be able to fix, and that things will soon return to normal. They might I suppose, but the reality of the mountain of debt looming on our horizon will remain.
saw your comment at Z's...I live in QC
Were are on opposite corners.
you need to check out http://www.optimist123.com/
Its written by a guy who has way more education on analyzing the economy and is very easy to read. His pie chart of who owns the national debt is spot on with your post.
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