THE GREAT DEBT CEILING AND SPENDING CUT LIE - THE SUNDAY COMMENTARY
We the people of The United States are being lied to, plain and simple, absolutely lied to by a President and a Congress that claims to be looking out for our best interest but in reality are looking out for THEIR best interest. In order to push a political agenda Barack Obama is scaring our Nation and foreign lands into thinking that come August 2 unless everyone bows to his wishes The United States will default on its loans.
That is absolutely NOT true. The 14th Amendment prohibits by law the Nation from defaulting on any loan made with the approval of Congress and as such if we were to default it would be by order of the President regardless of whether any debt ceiling deal is or is not made and if this happens he as the responsible officer of the government who gave the order would be in direct violation of The Constitution and the law and as such guilty of a, "high crime or misdemeanor," and immediate grounds for impeachment and removal from office. Even Obama is not stupid enough to violate this law. So the debt will be paid and we will not default.
That in a nutshell is the great lie being told to the American people about the need for raising the debt ceiling. The reason Obama wants the debt ceiling raised as well as many in Congress from BOTH parties who are in favor of it lies solely in the fact that without raising the debt ceiling and borrowing more money they CANNOT continue spending at the rate they have grown accustomed to. This is also why Democrats and Obama especially are pushing for additional revenues through new taxes. A ploy like raising the debt ceiling to grow government and grow spending.
This is where they are all talking out of both sides of their mouth. If the cuts that are being proposed were real and binding cuts as well as immediate there would be NO NEED to raise a ceiling nor borrow any money since cutting would eliminate the, "need," making current revenues sufficient to meet current expenditures. This is budgeting 101. You spend ONLY what you have. If you don't have it you cut spending to match revenue. That is a concept Obama and most of Congress cannot fathom because they are all spendaholics and drunk with using OUR money for their projects.
With that said we now move on to the second lie being told to the American people concerning spending cuts. As I mentioned before if the proposed cuts were immediate and planned for the here and now making governments budget as ANY business or American family must to survive by ONLY spending what comes in and cutting to keep from creating debt by having to borrow to meet over spending, then the debt ceiling debate is a moot point.
But Congress and Obama are proposing $3 to $4 trillion dollars of spending cuts stretching them out over ten years which makes spending still exceed revenue since most of the cuts won't be applicable until well off into the future which means this stupid debate over the debt ceiling will continue as revenues will not meet the supposed ,"decrease," in spending since they are NOT immediate.
The second fallacy in this spending debate lies in the length of time the cuts are stretched namely ten years. The Constitution prevents ANY Congress from binding another on spending items which means that no matter WHAT the figures or how many cuts the spending cuts that take place between the time this debacle is passed and the end of the current Congress are the ONLY cuts that are binding. All others cuts will depend upon the next Congress passing and agreeing to continue the plan to cut over the ten year term.
An example of how this works is Social Security. Most Americans believe that SS is an automatic expenditure that passes on from Congress to Congress because it has been in existence since it was first passed during the Roosevelt Administration. WRONG. Each Congress since the end of the term of the original Congress that passed the SS bill is required by the Constitutional provision preventing the binding of one Congress to anothers legislation to pass a bill which funds SS for the term of that particular Congress. ANY CONGRESS BY LAW CAN DEFUND SS WHEN IS PLEASES AND AS SUCH END THE PROGRAM. They don't because they know it would be political suicide.
The proposed spending cuts fall under this same Constitutional provision. If a future Congress decided NOT to continue the spending cuts as passed by the current Congress they are under NO obligation to do so and that will be the END of this decade long process of cutting the federal budget. Obama knows this and every member of Congress who is backing a decade long approach to cutting spending knows this.
The ONLY way spending is guaranteed to be cut is if a number is reached and ALL spending cuts are made Before this current Congress adjourns at the end of its term following the 2012 calendar year. Other wise it becomes the responsibility of the next elected Congress to continue and they may choose not to or choose to cut far less than what is passed by the current Congress.
This is also why a Balanced Budget Amendment is so important. With such an Amendment every Congress by Constitutional law would be required to cut spending and keep it in line with whatever the revenue base is during their term of office. The ONLY way a budget can be balanced is if spending and revenues match which eliminates deficit spending and requires EVERY Congress and President to keep it that way.
If Washington were truly serious about cutting spending they would pass the Amendment, cut spending across the board to meet current revenue WITHOUT borrowing more or raising the debt ceiling and make the cuts immediate and binding to this Congress and not stretched out on the assumption that a future Congress will follow through with a plan to cut spending.
They can argue, maneuver, condemn and accuse all they want but until cuts are immediate and they are willing to stick their political necks out and require a Constitutional legality forcing spending to meet revenue then we will NEVER end this debate. We will NEVER get our fiscal house in order and we will continue to spend our children's future and slide ever closer to a bankrupt country with a third world economy.
Ken Taylor
That is absolutely NOT true. The 14th Amendment prohibits by law the Nation from defaulting on any loan made with the approval of Congress and as such if we were to default it would be by order of the President regardless of whether any debt ceiling deal is or is not made and if this happens he as the responsible officer of the government who gave the order would be in direct violation of The Constitution and the law and as such guilty of a, "high crime or misdemeanor," and immediate grounds for impeachment and removal from office. Even Obama is not stupid enough to violate this law. So the debt will be paid and we will not default.
That in a nutshell is the great lie being told to the American people about the need for raising the debt ceiling. The reason Obama wants the debt ceiling raised as well as many in Congress from BOTH parties who are in favor of it lies solely in the fact that without raising the debt ceiling and borrowing more money they CANNOT continue spending at the rate they have grown accustomed to. This is also why Democrats and Obama especially are pushing for additional revenues through new taxes. A ploy like raising the debt ceiling to grow government and grow spending.
This is where they are all talking out of both sides of their mouth. If the cuts that are being proposed were real and binding cuts as well as immediate there would be NO NEED to raise a ceiling nor borrow any money since cutting would eliminate the, "need," making current revenues sufficient to meet current expenditures. This is budgeting 101. You spend ONLY what you have. If you don't have it you cut spending to match revenue. That is a concept Obama and most of Congress cannot fathom because they are all spendaholics and drunk with using OUR money for their projects.
With that said we now move on to the second lie being told to the American people concerning spending cuts. As I mentioned before if the proposed cuts were immediate and planned for the here and now making governments budget as ANY business or American family must to survive by ONLY spending what comes in and cutting to keep from creating debt by having to borrow to meet over spending, then the debt ceiling debate is a moot point.
But Congress and Obama are proposing $3 to $4 trillion dollars of spending cuts stretching them out over ten years which makes spending still exceed revenue since most of the cuts won't be applicable until well off into the future which means this stupid debate over the debt ceiling will continue as revenues will not meet the supposed ,"decrease," in spending since they are NOT immediate.
The second fallacy in this spending debate lies in the length of time the cuts are stretched namely ten years. The Constitution prevents ANY Congress from binding another on spending items which means that no matter WHAT the figures or how many cuts the spending cuts that take place between the time this debacle is passed and the end of the current Congress are the ONLY cuts that are binding. All others cuts will depend upon the next Congress passing and agreeing to continue the plan to cut over the ten year term.
An example of how this works is Social Security. Most Americans believe that SS is an automatic expenditure that passes on from Congress to Congress because it has been in existence since it was first passed during the Roosevelt Administration. WRONG. Each Congress since the end of the term of the original Congress that passed the SS bill is required by the Constitutional provision preventing the binding of one Congress to anothers legislation to pass a bill which funds SS for the term of that particular Congress. ANY CONGRESS BY LAW CAN DEFUND SS WHEN IS PLEASES AND AS SUCH END THE PROGRAM. They don't because they know it would be political suicide.
The proposed spending cuts fall under this same Constitutional provision. If a future Congress decided NOT to continue the spending cuts as passed by the current Congress they are under NO obligation to do so and that will be the END of this decade long process of cutting the federal budget. Obama knows this and every member of Congress who is backing a decade long approach to cutting spending knows this.
The ONLY way spending is guaranteed to be cut is if a number is reached and ALL spending cuts are made Before this current Congress adjourns at the end of its term following the 2012 calendar year. Other wise it becomes the responsibility of the next elected Congress to continue and they may choose not to or choose to cut far less than what is passed by the current Congress.
This is also why a Balanced Budget Amendment is so important. With such an Amendment every Congress by Constitutional law would be required to cut spending and keep it in line with whatever the revenue base is during their term of office. The ONLY way a budget can be balanced is if spending and revenues match which eliminates deficit spending and requires EVERY Congress and President to keep it that way.
If Washington were truly serious about cutting spending they would pass the Amendment, cut spending across the board to meet current revenue WITHOUT borrowing more or raising the debt ceiling and make the cuts immediate and binding to this Congress and not stretched out on the assumption that a future Congress will follow through with a plan to cut spending.
They can argue, maneuver, condemn and accuse all they want but until cuts are immediate and they are willing to stick their political necks out and require a Constitutional legality forcing spending to meet revenue then we will NEVER end this debate. We will NEVER get our fiscal house in order and we will continue to spend our children's future and slide ever closer to a bankrupt country with a third world economy.
Ken Taylor
3 Comments:
Just like a bunch of whiny kids who want their way all of the time.
Referenced this post on my blog.
One question. How would we pay the debt if the issue is that we don't have the money to pay off the debt? I understand that the president would never want to default but if we can not pay off the debt it is not like it will go away. so what would happen?
Anonymous, the answer to that is simple. The government lives within its means. We have nearly $200 billion dollars in revenue every month. The problem is not revenue but an excess in spending. Real cuts and not stretched over ten years but immediate and putting spending in line with revenue. In fact cutting spending to a point that it will fall below current revenue will allow any excess revenue to be applied to the debt. One example of cuts that NO ONE is even talking about is the fact that there are $2.7 trillion dollars in over lapping or repetative programs. IE in the education dept alone there are more than 18 programs that provide exactly the same function. This is just ONE of many ways cuts can be made in the here and now.
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