On Friday, PrezBo's deficit commission voted on the proposal offered by co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. It didn't pass. It required 14 votes to force a vote in Congress. No cigar. Bowles and Simpson only managed to secure 11 votes. One of the "no" votes was labor union goon Andy Stern. He says that he voted against the proposal because he wants FEWER spending cuts and more tax increases. Sounds about right for a liberal, tax-and-spend union thug ... someone who really had no business serving on this commission in the first place. But ... when you're the number one White House visitor during the first year of Obama's presidency ... well, I guess you could see that one coming. However the most insulting thing is that they go through these Kabuki dances and get away with it because 98% of the American electorate is stupid about how they set the budget, base line accounting, automatic spending increases already legislated in and the fact that all of them are freaking weasels.
Now here's something you probably don't realize ... though you - we all - should have. The commission's deficit proposal doesn't even propose to cut spending! It only proposed to slow the rate of increasing spending . Nope ... not kidding. With the incredible increases we've seen in government spending over the past 10 years .. this grand commission of policy phoobahs couldn't come up with one single actual spending cut in one government agency. Now I ask you ... can you think of any private business that would have behaved this way if bankruptcy wasn't only in the cards, but perhaps inevitable?
Now ... before you star the emails pouring in ... let's talk about this spending cut thing. Our wonderful "leaders" in congress set up a nifty little scam years ago called the "baseline budget." Here's how it works. Virtually every government spending program has automatic built-in spending increases every single year. These spending increases may be based on inflation, the rate of population growth, or any number of economic or political considerations. The point is that these spending programs have scheduled spending increases built in every year.
How do politicians manipulate this? It's very easy. They vote to cut back the amount of a spending increase for any given year ... just the increase ... and then come to you and brag about how they are cutting spending. They're not cutting spending at all ... they're just slowing down the rate at which the spending is increasing. This is exactly what this seemingly worthless deficit commission did. The truth is Obama's deficit commission is actually proposing real spending increases over the next nine years that exceed the rate of inflation! Under the commission plan spending goes from $3.4 trillion today to $5.1 trillion in 2020.
Think about this! You now have the information you need to realize that this commission is a fraud. The commission was made up of the typical Washington politicians and parasites who have been sucking the taxpayers of this country dry for generations. OK ... I know the commission made some suggestions that some are calling bold ... like raising the Social Security retirement age. Yeah ... real bold. They raised the retirement age FOR TODDLERS. That's really sticking you neck out there.
This was NOT a serious effort at deficit reduction.
Look at some simple facts here on government spending:
How much do you think federal government spending increased during the George W. Bush administration? Let's try 83 percent. Now that comes pretty close to doubling federal spending during the Bush administration. Oh, you say, it was the TARP spending! Sorry ... take TARP out of it and you still have well over 70%.
And what about The Community Organizer? In just the first year under ObamaRule our federal sending increased by over 22 percent.
The point here is that the Imperial Federal Government has been growing spending year after year after year for most of our lives, and by huge amounts in the last ten years ... yet this august commission couldn't even manage to come up with a recommendation to cut the level --- the REAL level --- of federal spending by one single dollar. Come on now ... with these numbers in mind can any of you really suggest that this deficit commission was anything other than Obama window dressing? It was a fraud. A complete fraud. It was there to serve the ends of government, politicians and beltway lobbyists .. not for the purpose of serving the people of this country.
Allow me, dear readers, to share with you the thinking process here:
"Look. We know we're in trouble here .. and we know just how much trouble we're in. The thing is the people don't know how bad things are, and until they realize that we're facing a crisis that could completely rob their children and grandchildren of the American dream, we're pretty much free to give lip service to reform and continue with business as usual here."
Know what? They're right. If you really knew what today's politicians are doing to our future generations you would be hunting them down with pitchforks. But you don't, and they know you don't ... so it's pretty much going to be business as usual.
Not through yet ....
Here's something else you need to know about the deficit commission's proposal. This from the AP - and the liberals will hate this because it essentially validates Sarah Palin's warnings ..
For the first time, the government would set -- and enforce -- an overall budget for Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs that cover more than 100 million people, from Alzheimer's patients in nursing homes to premature babies in hospital intensive care.
Palin attracted wide attention by denouncing nonexistent "death panels" in Obama's overhaul, but a fixed budget as the commissioners propose could lead to denial of payment for medical care in some circumstances.
Overall, the nation will spend about $2.6 trillion this year on health care, and there's evidence that a significant share of that is for procedures and tests that are of little benefit to patients. There seems to be room enough to cut, but no consensus on what should go.
The Democrats are claiming this vote to be a success, because they've changed the dialogue in America. That made me true. But sooner or later you have to stop talking and start acting. They will be judged on their actions, not on their ability to talk.
