How many of the republicans spending cuts will be...

How much to cut before the economy is harmed?...
:confused:
How spending cuts hurt the economy -- dueling estimates
February 27, 2011 -- The big spending cuts proposed by House Republicans could weigh on economic growth and jobs, but forecasts vary widely.
Economist Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics said Sunday that if all $61 billion in proposed cuts for the rest of this year were enacted, the economy's growth could be reduced by half a percentage point. Many forecasters expect the economy to grow at around 3.5% this year. By the end of the year, Zandi said, those spending cuts could cost the economy between 400,000 and 500,000 jobs. "I think it's premature to engage in that kind of budget cutting," Zandi said. "We can't do that, I don't think, until the economy is off and running." Zandi was speaking on CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley.

But economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin said that cuts would have a much smaller impact on growth: 2 to 3-tenths of a percentage point. "It's a rounding error," said Holtz-Eakin, who was a top economist in the George W. Bush White House and also served as director of the Congressional Budget Office. Instead, said Holtz-Eakin, who was also on State of the Union, the budget cuts could ultimately have a positive impact by reducing the fear of increases in interest rates and taxes that deficits can cause. The proposed spending cuts are "tiny," relative to the $15 trillion U.S. economy, said Holtz-Eakin. "The notion that somehow doing the right thing in this amount is going to harm us is just misplaced."

Zandi agreed that we need to address the deficits - just not yet. "We are not creating enough jobs to bring down unemployment. We need to have all the juice we can get to make sure that's happening before we go through these budget cuts." Last week, Goldman Sachs economists said the impact of budget cuts could be far worse: 1.5 percentage points to 2 percentage points in the second and third quarters. On Friday, economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2010 was revised sharply lower, to 2.8%, driven largely by budget cuts by state and local governments.

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Obama urges budget consensus to prevent 'gridlock'
26 February 2011 - US President Barack Obama has urged Congress to find "common ground" over the budget to prevent a government shutdown.
In his weekly radio address, Mr Obama said economic recovery would stall if lawmakers could not agree on spending cuts before a 4 March deadline. Republicans and Democrats are trying to work out a compromise short-term budget as an interim measure. The 2012 budget proposes a $1.1tn (£690bn) deficit cut over a decade.

Although Mr Obama is empowered to propose a budget, it is up to the US Congress to pass it into law and then to distribute the funds. "Next week, Congress will focus on a short-term budget. For the sake of our people and our economy, we cannot allow gridlock to prevail," Mr Obama said in his weekly radio address.

"I urge and expect them to find common ground so we can accelerate, not impede, economic growth," Mr Obama said. "It won't be easy. There will be plenty of debates and disagreements and neither party will get everything it wants. Both sides will have to compromise," he added.

'Interim plan'
 
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Unless they plan on coming up with some real cuts to military spending, SS, and Medicare, then they aren't going to cut shit, because all three of those programs are going to cost us more. Pensions for retiring military are going to dramatically increase costs as those positions will need to be filled, so we will be paying more pensions and continuing to pay for an oversized active military.

As for SS, we all know where that is headed. In order to get SS under control, the retirement age must be raised sooner, and either the payroll rate must be increased or the $106,000 (or whatever it is currently) needs to be raised some to increase funding.

In the end, we'll probably see some necessary cuts in discretionary spending, but in the end it won't even put a dent in the deficit spending.
 
Any person who advocates any actual cuts in government spending will be demonized and attacked.

Defaulting on the debt followed by massive inflation looks like the only way to get sleepy, drooling Americans to wake up.
 
They better be real cuts.

Lets do the math. Retards want to cut the budget 61 B, while the interest on the debt is 187 B

Thats like coming to dinner and eating your carrots, but ignoring the roast beef, mash potatoes and gravy. Oh, and the dinner roll with butter. :lol:

IF you are going to get serious about the budget, cut the budget.

Defeat The Debt*-* How Much?
Maybe we could use parallel-ops; the veteran-pols start hackin'-away on defense-spending....the 'Baggers/rookie-pols start cuttin'-their-teeth on more-familiar (to them) waste.....like.....​


Across-the-board cuts are just some chickenshit way o' avoiding specific-cuts.

Much like passing individual-bills (without "riders"), we need to do the same with cuts. Start-out with the largest (Defense), and let's HEAR the various pols (who are responsible for the spending) JUSTIFY the amounts they're spending!!

Across-the-board cuts are their way of AVOIDING that conversation.​
 

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