Pay-Go Budget Rules Do Little to Control Spending or Reduce Deficit

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Leave it to an ex-Bushie to try to poke a hole in pay-go. It may be flawed but history reminds us how wasteful and profligate the "Deficit doesn't Matter", 2 unpaid wars, crowd was. Where was Gretchen Hamel's fiscal concern then?
This story's premise is correct in that Obama's situation is not like a typical household. It's like a household where the dutiful son must return home to put in order the ruined family estate where for the past eight years his demented parents have spent the family estate on luxury goods and guns to lock in the basement. They mortgaged the home and then put a second mortgage on it, spent all the money, and didn't fix the roof or the plumbing but gave away huge sums to crooked "friends".

Craig C of MT 10:04AM September 27, 2010

Fill in your salary for Ms. Hamel's next job:
Deputy Assistant United States Trade Representative, a post she served from August 2006 until the end of the Bush Administration. My guess is $100,000 to $130,000 range.
Quite the troll article. We aren't buying your new "non-partisan" status, Ms. Hamel. Give it up.

L. Miles of OH 3:29PM September 17, 2010

Ms. Hamel had no problem with government spending when she took money from our tax dollars!
Her record:
1. $40,200 from November 2005 to August 2006 working as press secretary to Rep. John Carter, R-TX
2. $70,000 in 2005, as press secretary to Carter
3. Nearly $60,000 in 2004, as press secretary to Carter
4. Over $50,000 in 2003 as a press assistant to Rep. J.C. Watts, R-OK
5. Nearly $20,000 from June through December 2002, as press assistant to Watts
[Not bad coin for the times and the job. Check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the same time; she blew the top off the top salaries!]
My guess is her real "non-profit" goal of controlling spending is to get the Democrats out so the government spending will again go directly into her Republican pocketbook.

L. Miles of OH 3:15PM September 17, 2010

For someone trying to re-invent herself as independent and bipartisan, Gretchen Hamel is unconvincing. All of her past experience comes from public relations work on behalf of Republican congressmen and George W. Bush as well as her own public relations firm, Endeavor Global Strategies whose own website promises corporate clients the following:
"We work with our clients to define a goal and message, and then craft a creative, strategic and effective comprehensive public relations plan. We will not only generate media, but shape the public dialogue towards a client's defined goal."
Hamelhttp://www.endeavorglobalstrategies.com/theteam/gretchenhamel.html

ben of CO 5:35PM September 07, 2010

But goodness for once I wish WE (all of us) could focus on serious practices to fix this country. Why is our political system so in love with whining and mudslinging? FIX THE PROBLEMS, DON'T ADD TO THEM BY SIMPLY STATING THEM.

Wish you'd keep it real of OH 7:53PM August 23, 2010

Utter nonsense and disinformation. Social security currently with a $4T surplus.
10 yr US treasuries at historic lows. US nothing like Greece, Spain, etc,

PB of FL 4:49PM August 20, 2010

During the next election, let's throw out all the incumbents. They're not properly running this country, have thrown us into a financial abyss .
That might encourage those who run in 2014 to run responsibly and to govern responsibly. Simply voting their party's leadership on every bill is not statesmanship.

of CO 6:55PM March 12, 2010

Pay Go stinks when you consider how it works. Governments should be required to follow the same accounting practices that business now has to. Then most of us can tell what the government is up to and how it may be trying to sucker the voters.

Harold of FL 6:25PM February 28, 2010