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

President Obama’s plan isn’t like the typical American household budget

February 25, 2010 RSS Feed Print
  • Comment (8)

The president also failed to tell listeners the full story about how pay-go works. It doesn't only say Congress can cut a dollar for every dollar spent. It also says Congress can raise taxes to comply. And that's exactly what the American people should expect: Politicians uninterested in cutting spending will use the rules to justify tax hikes. 

President Obama was right about one thing: "It's easy to get up in front of the cameras and rant against exploding deficits. What's hard is actually getting deficits under control." 

Unfortunately, pay-go rules will do little to limit spending or reduce deficits. 

Congress really should learn something from how families budget. Responsible Americans don't get to use fancy rules with lots of loopholes--they cut unnecessary spending and learn to live within their means. 

Tags:
federal budget,
deficit and national debt,
Barack Obama

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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

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