Yesterday House Republicans passed the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act which would take a hard line on the largest portions of our national debt, government spending. On the same day that the House passed their proactive bill, Obama finally surfaced to praise the ‘Gang of 6′ Senators on their budget plan.
So what budget plan does the “Gang of 6″ have? Let’s take a look (from the Heritage Foundation).
- Make unspecified spending cuts and unspecified tax increases to yield a $500 billion reduction in the federal deficit.
- Impose spending caps on discretionary spending, but not on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and welfare programs that are the main cause of out-of-control spending.
- An unenforceable promise — that some time in the next six months Congress will enact a second law with all kinds of Christmas presents for everybody.
- For the Republicans, a promise to eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, drop the top individual tax rate to 29 percent, and drop the corporate tax rate to 29 percent.
- For the Democrats, the promise of a second law would have what appears to be a $3.4 trillion tax hike over the next 10 years, so the size of government can just keep on growing.
But why would President Obama praise this budget plan? Here’s why. With this plan he gets:
- Obama gets his desired tax hikes
- Obama gets to borrow lots more money
What do the American people get out of this plan? Why, we get the chance to procrastinate dealing with our nation’s spending addiction (another 6 months), with lots of promises of “doing the right thing” later, i.e. someday. We cannot afford to be kicking this problem down the road any longer.
The other plan being discussed in the Senate is what Sen. Jim DeMint calls “Plan B.” Here is his take on the McConnell-Reid budget plan:
“It seems to be a cover-up,” DeMint said this afternoon in an exclusive interview with Heritage. “It’s like leaving the door to the federal vault open and looking the other way and saying we had nothing to do with the robbery.”
Here is a recap of the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act passed yesterday as promoted by Rep. Bobby Schilling, (more here):
Congressman Bobby Schilling (R-IL-17) took to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday July 19, 2011 in order to express his support for the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act.
It is clear that Senate Republicans have not learned the lesson of the 2010 election, that America wants proactive Conservative Republicans and not the old deal-making horse traders of 2008. If we are to retain our financial standing in the world and not bring on economic collapse because of government’s addiction to spending, we MUST pressure ALL our Senators to support this bill.
Many on the Left, and the Right, were claiming defeat in the Senate before the ink was even dry. If we accepted that same kind of defeatist attitude in the 2010 election, we would not even be having this debate. President Obama and the Democrats would be passing whatever they want with the American people having no say against tax increases and more spending. However, the American people have actively and effectively spoken before and they need to do it again. They have accomplished amazing things in the past 2+ years by organizing and bringing the heat to their Congressmen.
Where is that fire now?
This moment is as critical as the last election, if not more.
If Cut, Cap, and Balance passes the Senate, President Obama will have to choice but to pass it. And if he does indeed veto it, the clear and obvious fact, that not even the media can argue, is that he alone stood in the way of saving the economy.
One Comment
The economic crisis has definitely been put off way too long. We have to deal with it now. Our spending needs to be controlled immediately. It has gotten way out of hand.