No More Patience on the National Debt, Federal Budget Deficit

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"It’s common knowledge that the budget deficit won’t come down much without cuts in entitlements. And Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee are asking President Barack Obama to address that need, The Hill reports."
"The $100 billion in spending cuts the committee agreed upon last week apply to discretionary spending, which makes up only 16 percent of the federal budget. Committee member Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, noted that despite all the “gnashing of teeth,” the cuts are “small potatoes” compared to entitlement spending."
"Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., who chairs the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee, says Obama’s 2012 budget request should reflect the conclusions of the president’s debt commission. “He has got to embrace the Bowles-Simpson commission, he has got to talk about entitlements, that is where the money will come from,” Wolf said."
http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/GOPHouseCommitteeSeeksEntitlementCuts/2011/02/14/id/385972

Bill Hedges of MO 9:02AM February 19, 2011

The reason interest costs will grow is because of spending on those same entitlements you brushed over. The argument you're making is basically the same as "I am broke because I pay too much interest on my credit cards, not because I borrowed more than I could ever feasibly pay back and failed to deal with it in a rational manner. No. The problem is my interest, which is completely seperate from that."
At this point, given the recent proposals by Republicans, whom also failed to enact any entitlement cuts, the blame is not solely on Obama.
What an amateurish column. I am ashamed that you are even allowed a large scale forum like this to voice your ignorance.
Weak.

Shaun of KS 1:34AM February 19, 2011

This in 1992
“List of government entitlement programs?”
“for persons with limited income,”
“Combined Federal, State and Local Welfare Budget, 1992 (millions) Medicaid $118,067 AFDC 24,923 Food Stamps 24,918 Supplemental Security Income 22,774 Lower income housing asst. 12,307 Earned Income Tax Credit 9,553 Veterans medical care 7,838 Stafford loans 5,683 Social Services (Title 20) 5,419 Pell Grants 5,374 Low-rent public housing 5,008 General medical assistance 4,850 Foster Care 4,170 School Lunch 3,895 Pensions for needy veterans 3,667 General Assistance 3,340 Head Start 2,753 Food supplements, Women, infants and children 2,600 Training for disadvantaged youth and adults 1,744 Low-income energy assistance 1,594 Rural housing loans 1,468 Indian Health Services 1,431 Summer youth employment 1,183 Maternal and child health 1,059 JOBS and WIN 1,010 Job Corps 955 Child care block grant 825 School Breakfast 782 Child care for AFDC 755 Nutrition Program for Elderly 659 Housing interest reduction 652 Child and adult care food program 624 "At risk" child care 604
Source: Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, "Cash and Noncash Benefits for Persons with Limited Income: Eligibility Rules, Recipient and Expenditure Data, FY 1990-92," Report 93-832 EPW and earlier reports.”
Of course, there are many entitlement programs that are not necessarily for persons with limited income, including Medicare and Veterans Benefits, that add up to more dollars than this.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/List_of_government_entitlement_programs#ixzz1ELtosjnQ

Bill Hedges of MO 5:40PM February 18, 2011

I'm in favor of eliminating all entitlement programs; OR doing nothing, letting them destroy the country (which ends the entitlement programs) and starting anew. "Fixing" them only prolongs the inevitable, and is therefore the WORST solution.
We've known this was coming for 30 years or more. Everyone wanted to kick the can down the road and not be blamed for doing the right thing.
END ENTITLEMENTS.

Rich of CO 1:18PM February 18, 2011

I understand the gist of your point and agree with you. However, to clairify the record. Congressmen no longer get their wage for life. That was changed in the 90's. They are glorified government employees.
Also, the imposition on the congressmen wouldn't even scratch the surface of the national debt. You could withhold their pay and benefits for a hundred years and still it would not scratch the national debt. Essentially, any cut would be largely symbolic. Honestly, I think Americans want/demand more than symbolic empty measures.

david of ID 12:03PM February 18, 2011

It seems to me that our Senators and Representives are just fine taking more from the public in there economic cuts. Why dont we ask each and everyone of them to take a cut ! They have entilements for life after serving in their postions;so lets see if they are willing to do without there pay and benefits for a year or even two that would create a great deal of revenue for the budget relief fund. This would truely let them see and feel whats it's really like to live on next to nothing as they seem to think most of medium income level can .

usa jane of SC 10:16AM February 18, 2011

Afraid you throw the bath water out with the baby. I agree with you meat will be loss in major operation we must perform.
Stomp out illegal benefits and welfare. Illegal to hire illegals. Strengthen Mexican boarder. How can we have public land in America off limits to citizens.
Just as the great Governor of WI asked for fairness with pension & heath care cost from State employees, some cuts in social security, medicare and medicaid must occur. There must be some domestic & foreign military bases that can be closed. As well as other military spending cuts not absolutely essential.
Bill Clinton gave us recession & Bush warned. barry raped our Country.
barry needs to get off his HIGH HORSE and open up Gulf oil exploration. Can bar his friend BP. Open up Alaska and other areas. Oil shell and oil sand. Government needs the oil royalties & we need the oil.
Spain proved the folly of most alternative energy for now.
"Job Losses From Obama Green Stimulus Foreseen in Spanish Study"
By Gianluca Baratti - March 27, 2009
"For every new position that depends on energy price supports, at least 2.2 jobs in other industries will disappear, according to a study from King Juan Carlos University in Madrid."
"The premiums paid for solar, biomass, wave and wind power - - which are charged to consumers in their bills -- translated into a $774,000 cost for each Spanish “green job” created since 2000, said Gabriel Calzada, an economics professor at the university and author of the report."
“The loss of jobs could be greater if you account for the amount of lost industry that moves out of the country due to higher energy prices,” he said in an interview."
"Spain’s Acerinox SA, the nation’s largest stainless-steel producer, blamed domestic energy costs for deciding to expand in South Africa and the U.S., according to the study."
“Microsoft and Google moved their servers up to the Canadian border because they benefited from cheaper energy there,” said the professor of applied environmental economics."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a2PHwqAs7BS0

Bill Hedges of MO 10:25PM February 17, 2011

I hope you will agree that people in journalism should be trained in scientific observation so they would look at data and facts, and they should be trained in logical thinking so they can make sense of what they see.
Every sovereign nation has the inherent authority and power to issue its own money, in any form and quantity its government chooses. Since the United States is a sovereign nation, the United States government can issue as much money as it chooses. There is no justification for the United states having a national debt.
I ask you, if you were the king of a sovereign nation, having full authority and power to make laws, levy taxes and issue money, would you delegate the authority to issue your nation’s money to me?
I would issue all of your nation’s currency for you, lending it to you at interest, crating a national debt for your country, requiring you to levy taxes on your subjects in order to pay the interest, forcing you to limit spending on social programs and reducing your spending on your nation’s infrastructure, while making me a very rich and powerful person. I would be very sedulous about my business, looking very dignified and well dressed, building imposing vaults and offices, researching and writing profound articles on the seriousness of excessive government spending. I would perform for you, just like the Federal Reserve does for Congress.
Fortunately we do not have such a king. We have an elected government. It has the sovereign authority and power to make laws, levy taxes, and issue money. I do not have the authority to issue money. We have the Federal Reserve. But, the Federal Reserve is not a sovereign nation, its having no inherent authority to issue legal tender money. It is a privately owned, for-profit assemblage of banking corporations that should not exist. So why do we borrow Federal Reserve money?
Two hundred years ago we threw out the first privately owned central bank when the Congress refused to renew its charter in 1811. We need to do it again.

Bill parks of MD 10:12PM February 17, 2011

Means test SSI and Medicare. Hiring freeze at all levels of government. A 10% pay cut for all government employees and renegotiate government union contracts to reduce legacy costs.
Oh yeah, and dump the Green Dream and start selling oil and natural gases leases EVERYWHERE!

R.L. Schaefer of CA 9:27PM February 17, 2011

The Tea Party militias are quite capable of creating a Constitutional Coalition Party to restore their traditional constitutional rule of law, which has been so thoroughly corrupted by the insidious coalition of NeoCon/NeoLib minorities of the Republican and Democrat parties who notoriously serve the economically ruinous banking lobby, insurance lobby, teacher’s lobby, trial lawyer’s lobby, China lobby, Mexican lobby, and the aid extorting and warmongering Israel Lobby.

Jeugenen of MA 7:25PM February 17, 2011