Trajan
conscientia mille testes
*shrugs*. The Wash. Post created the title, I didn’t, but it appears apt.
I think its time that a few facts are acknowledged as the ‘super’ committee gets closer to not doing what its charged with doing ( note that this comm.. started out s a dem. idea waaaaay back, was dropped, then McConnell stole it and ran with it, I never thought it a good idea in any event, we already have a ‘super ‘ –comm.. , its called congress).
Facts-
-There has been no budget approved and implemented by congress in over 1000 days, that’s just short of 3 years, despite the 1974 process which had been here to fore followed.
- a budget was proposed, voted upon and passed by the house in August, no action in the senate.
The process has gone so far down the rabbit hole;
New legislation co-sponsored by Sens. Ben Cardin (D., Md.) and Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) would go one step further. The Washington Post reports:
This is how badly broken Congress’s budget process has become: A Democrat and a Republican in the Senate have jointly proposed the radical idea that if Congress can’t come up with a budget by April 15 — a legal deadline now routinely blown — the national legislature would simply shut down.No other bills would be considered.
No post offices named, no judges confirmed. Congress wouldn’t even be able to abandon Washington and go home on recess.
“It’d be a pretty good incentive to get things done,” said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), who is sponsoring the bill with Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.).
Unreal.
- 22 plans for job creation/sppt./ activity have been passed, many WITH bi-partisan sppt. in the House over the last 2 months, no action in the senate
Which brings me to the latest, and the real subject of the thread, there was someone yelling uncle ( to an extent) yesterday.
You can read the Wapo story here, http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...rter/2011/11/08/gIQAJ6Xa1M_story.html?hpid=z4, which though is short on grind it out specifics, some of whose points need to be made and recognized;
- The offer was to raise revenues by 500 Billion, a major sea change in the GOP stance
- There would be a myriad of deduction eliminations in exchange for a drop in rates, i.e.; individual rates drop from 35% to 28%, capital gains and dividends stay at 15% and the 35% estate tax would remain as is.
- This was the here to fore magic elixir that members of both parties said they would sppt. as the most even handed way of getting some growth going by flattening thereby expanding the base, which improves the share of fed GDP revenue by upping the size of that share in real dollars.
- After hearing the proposal the Dems demanded that these tax changes also be statically scored—which assumes no revenue gains from economic growth, please pause for a moment and consider what that means.
- The cuts offered by the dems. equal less than $1 per $1.50 of revenue gain. This is below by a factor of 2, what the Bowles-Simpson commission proposed and frankly, is not even a serious counter-proposal, and- entitlements are off the table, as is the ObamaCare 3.8% payroll increase next year.
This is a significant concession, no matter which way you slice it ( one I am not totally on board with either).
I think the reps are scared of the cuts that will have to go into effect if no deal is done and, being cast as the folks who won’t bend to any compromise what so ever.
I am happy to see the Washington Post at least acknowledges that this is not so at least, in this case.
If the dems don’t come back with some more cuts; like the drivers of the car that is taking us over the cliff- entitlements, they aren’t for real and perhaps they are set on making Obamas charges of the ‘do nothing congress’, no matter how ridiculous as one wing of congress is democratic, , appear true.
I think its time that a few facts are acknowledged as the ‘super’ committee gets closer to not doing what its charged with doing ( note that this comm.. started out s a dem. idea waaaaay back, was dropped, then McConnell stole it and ran with it, I never thought it a good idea in any event, we already have a ‘super ‘ –comm.. , its called congress).
Facts-
-There has been no budget approved and implemented by congress in over 1000 days, that’s just short of 3 years, despite the 1974 process which had been here to fore followed.
- a budget was proposed, voted upon and passed by the house in August, no action in the senate.
The process has gone so far down the rabbit hole;
New legislation co-sponsored by Sens. Ben Cardin (D., Md.) and Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) would go one step further. The Washington Post reports:
This is how badly broken Congress’s budget process has become: A Democrat and a Republican in the Senate have jointly proposed the radical idea that if Congress can’t come up with a budget by April 15 — a legal deadline now routinely blown — the national legislature would simply shut down.No other bills would be considered.
No post offices named, no judges confirmed. Congress wouldn’t even be able to abandon Washington and go home on recess.
“It’d be a pretty good incentive to get things done,” said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), who is sponsoring the bill with Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.).
Unreal.
- 22 plans for job creation/sppt./ activity have been passed, many WITH bi-partisan sppt. in the House over the last 2 months, no action in the senate
Which brings me to the latest, and the real subject of the thread, there was someone yelling uncle ( to an extent) yesterday.
You can read the Wapo story here, http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...rter/2011/11/08/gIQAJ6Xa1M_story.html?hpid=z4, which though is short on grind it out specifics, some of whose points need to be made and recognized;
- The offer was to raise revenues by 500 Billion, a major sea change in the GOP stance
- There would be a myriad of deduction eliminations in exchange for a drop in rates, i.e.; individual rates drop from 35% to 28%, capital gains and dividends stay at 15% and the 35% estate tax would remain as is.
- This was the here to fore magic elixir that members of both parties said they would sppt. as the most even handed way of getting some growth going by flattening thereby expanding the base, which improves the share of fed GDP revenue by upping the size of that share in real dollars.
- After hearing the proposal the Dems demanded that these tax changes also be statically scored—which assumes no revenue gains from economic growth, please pause for a moment and consider what that means.
- The cuts offered by the dems. equal less than $1 per $1.50 of revenue gain. This is below by a factor of 2, what the Bowles-Simpson commission proposed and frankly, is not even a serious counter-proposal, and- entitlements are off the table, as is the ObamaCare 3.8% payroll increase next year.
This is a significant concession, no matter which way you slice it ( one I am not totally on board with either).
I think the reps are scared of the cuts that will have to go into effect if no deal is done and, being cast as the folks who won’t bend to any compromise what so ever.
I am happy to see the Washington Post at least acknowledges that this is not so at least, in this case.
If the dems don’t come back with some more cuts; like the drivers of the car that is taking us over the cliff- entitlements, they aren’t for real and perhaps they are set on making Obamas charges of the ‘do nothing congress’, no matter how ridiculous as one wing of congress is democratic, , appear true.
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