Let's get real about raising the Debt ceiling

[Zona]

The republicans will have to vote for it.

Their political careers will be ruined if they dont.

The public will hold them responsible for the mess not voting for it will bring

It's a pretty simple deal that the Republicans are offereing. For every dollar of increase in the debt ceiling, there must be a matching decrease of dollars from spending.

In 2008 we hit the 10 trillion dollar level of debt and now we are at 14+ trillion. This has just got to impress you a little.

Debt Ceiling Raised To $14.3 Trillion…And How Large Is Our GDP, Really? | The Moderate Voice

The Senate approved a $1.9 trillion increase to the debt ceiling, which will get us through the end of the year (yes our debt is increasing $2 trillion this year). It seems like only yesterday when $10 trillion was reached, no wait, it was early Oct. 2008. That means that in two years time we will have increased it 40%. Incredible.

Raise the taxes on the top two percent. Make corporations pay taxes and end the afghan war.

Any idea how much money this is?

 

[code1211]

The republicans will have to vote for it.

Their political careers will be ruined if they dont.

The public will hold them responsible for the mess not voting for it will bring

It's a pretty simple deal that the Republicans are offereing. For every dollar of increase in the debt ceiling, there must be a matching decrease of dollars from spending.

In 2008 we hit the 10 trillion dollar level of debt and now we are at 14+ trillion. This has just got to impress you a little.

Debt Ceiling Raised To $14.3 Trillion…And How Large Is Our GDP, Really? | The Moderate Voice

The Senate approved a $1.9 trillion increase to the debt ceiling, which will get us through the end of the year (yes our debt is increasing $2 trillion this year). It seems like only yesterday when $10 trillion was reached, no wait, it was early Oct. 2008. That means that in two years time we will have increased it 40%. Incredible.

Raise the taxes on the top two percent. Make corporations pay taxes and end the afghan war.

Any idea how much money this is?

It really doesn't matter , does it? By putting more weight on one segment of the population and allowing other parts to slide, you continue the class warfare.

We are in this together. Everyone needs to pay in to help with the solution. If the rich pay more, then everyone pays more.

Don't blabber on about how the poor have to give the most. They don't. Taking less is not giving more. Different concepts entirely.

We're broke. Get used to it. Eating cake is a thing of the past.

 

[waltky]

Get ready for taxes to go up...

Geithner: We Need ‘Revenue Increases;' Cutting Deficit by Spending Cuts Alone 'Irresponsible'
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday that a deal to raise the legal debt limit, which he expects to be completed in the next few weeks, will be only a short-term “down payment” on solving the nation’s debt problem, and that it would be "irresponsible" to reduce the massive federal deficit anticipated over the next ten years with spending cuts alone.

What is needed, he said, is a longer-term deal on a “balanced framework” that includes “revenue increases through tax reform.” Geithner said negotiations with Congress over such a longer-term plan could be completed within the “next few months.” In the vernacular, when the government changes the tax laws to extract more tax revenue from citizens it is called a tax increase. “I think for it to work for the economy you need to have a balanced framework,” Geithner told a Washington, D.C. gathering of CFOs from major corporations.

“If you try to do this, the magnitude of deficit reduction we need--and we need about $4 to 5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next ten years--to try to do that only on spending cuts in parts of the budget would be irresponsible and really not achievable politically,” said Geithner. "You can't pass the budget without that. “So, you need a balanced plan that has modest revenue increases through tax reform as well as some near-term spending savings and long-term entitlement reforms,” he said.

“Again, I think if you look at the structure of our budget and what is driving these long-term deficits, if you look at the scale of challenges we need in terms of creating some room for investing in things that matter for long-term growth, you can’t do it through spending reductions concentrated in a very narrow slice of the government where the economy sort of depends on the government doing things that only the government can do,” said Geithner.

The national debt is now $14.34 trillion. This year, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government will run a deficit of $1.4 trillion. Over the next decade, according to the CBO, the budget proposed by President Barack Obama would run up deficits totallling $9.5 trillion. Geithner said that the adminstration’s negotiations with congressional leaders on a deal to increase the legal limit on the national debt are aimed at trying to lay the groundwork for a longer-term reform package. “We don’t see a realistic path to solving all of this at once in the next few weeks,” Geithner said of the debt-limit negotiations. “It’s just not possible.”

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[Zoom-boing]

They need to drastically reduce spending first, then they can talk about tax increases.