Obama On GOP Deficit Talk: 'I'm Going To Call Them On Their Bluff'

[babylonsister]

The sooner, the better!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/31/obama-on-gop-deficit-talk_n_666360.html


Obama On GOP Deficit Talk: 'I'm Going To Call Them On Their Bluff'

| 07/31/10 03:03 PM | AP


WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has a warning for Republicans who denounce the federal deficit but reject proposals to cut it.

Obama tells CBS, "I'm going to call them on their bluff."

The president promises to have "a bunch of ideas" for deficit reduction, but he didn't specify them in the broadcast interview.

Many analysts say both spending cuts and tax increases are needed to tame the soaring deficit.

Republicans in Congress oppose almost any form of tax increases, as do some Democrats. Lawmakers in both parties call for spending cuts, but they often hedge when cuts are proposed to specific programs.

Obama's interview was taped Friday, and will air on CBS's "Sunday Morning" and "The Early Show" on Monday.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. The first spending cut:

Get out of Afghanistan.

Second: Start canceling needless military equipment expenditures. (Don't cut military forces yet, but maybe find some useful things for them to do that don't involve blowing up people and real estate).

Third: Start public works projects to put some of the unemployed back to work building a new national infrastructure. In other words, turn the dead-weight expense of unemployment compensation into investments that will pay off in the future.

[sellitman]

2. Amen! NT

[ProSense]

3. The first spending cut

in terms of war will be getting out of Iraq.

Second, the President made the first elimination of a military weapons system ever, and is working on reducing the defense budget by $100 billion.

Third, I agree. More people should take interest in expandin this program, it works.

[and-justice-for-all]

4. +1000! nt

[BrklynLiberal]

5. I second that!!! Every suggestion is excellent!!

[Orsino]

8. Yes. n/t

[rateyes]

6. 1. out of Iraq and Afghanistan. 2. Medicare for All

Like that will happen!!

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. 'Selling Edinburgh off will come at great cost to us all.'

The following letter, written by John Stevenson, President of the UNISON public-service trade-union, City of Edinburgh Branch, appeared in Thursday's Edinburgh Evening News. It concerns the accelerating privatisation of public services under the Lib-Con coalition.

In an otherwise enlightened article on council funding and privatisation (Counting the cost of public service cuts, News, July 27), Rory Reynolds spoils it when he says, "the status quo is unsustainable".

Thank goodness the government after the Second World War was not so defeatist. At that time, the national debt (as a percentage of Gross National Product) was three times the current debt.

"Yet the country managed to create the NHS, create proper pensions and and instigate the biggest social housing programme ever seen. (On edit: Also, nationalisation and extension of what became a wonderful national transport system, each bus with a BUS CONDUCTOR, as well as the driver).

By all means report on the current financial crisis facing the council, but don't fall for the Con-Lib spin that there is no alterative.

Let's have a real debate about the so-called 'crisis'. Let's learn from the rebuilding in the USA after the depression.

If Edinburgh is sold off, it will not just be the essential public services that are cut, but the thousands of businesses that rely on them. Sold off to multinationals with no base in the city, not for efficiency, but for profit - and to allow councillors to pass the buck and say, 'It was the big company that didn't deliver, not us'.

The cuts we face are ideological, not financial. We need to wake up to that."

In another connection, not unrelated...

'Demented' cartoon by Jackie Fleming in the Mail on Sunday's supplement, 'You': a middle-aged couple sitting on their sofa, he, looking a little gormless, she, reading a book. He asks, 'Why would they cut incapacity benefit, when there are billions owing in the tax avoidance of the rich....?' Without looking up, she responds, 'They are the rich'.

... nuff said.

Of course, it could be applied to the whole of the safety-net of public services, they'll be eyeing covetously.

[TomCADem]

9. Democrats Need To Remind Republicans Of Their Deficit Talk When They Defend The Tax Cuts...

...to the richest 5 percent. Call them out!

[mikekohr]

10. THE LAST 3 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS ACCOUNTED FOR NEARLY 100% OF OUR INCREASE IN THE NATIONAL DEBT

SINCE 1981

-National Debt-

?



Every President, from Truman to Carter, steadily paid down the staggering debt that was run up in our fight against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. That pattern came to a screeching halt with Reagan/Bush and Bush. Clinton’s fiscal policy was a brief respite during this orgy of deficit spending.

Clinton balanced 5 budgets, which is 5 times as many balanced budgets as the last 5 Republican presidents combined.


President Obama, like President Clinton, inherited a sea of red ink and a recession from his predecessor. He, like President Clinton, recognizes the importance of getting America back to work and then getting our fiscal house in order.


See National Debt Graph @: http://zfacts.com/p/318.html


WHY DO REPUBLICAN ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES EXPAND THE NATIONAL DEBT?
-The answer is simple mathematics. Reduced revenue + increased spending ='s increased debt-


?

(click to enlarge)
http://cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm

The two biggest promises of "Trickle Down Economics" are it's greatest failings. Proponents of "Trickle Down Economics” claim that tax cuts, skewed to the rich, will create jobs and increase tax revenues. The graph above disproves the latter claim. Job creation plummets under "Trickle Down Economics (see http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/job-growth.html )and nine of the last ten recessions have occurred under Republican leadership (see http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/history-of-recessions.html ).

Two things are certain to grow when a Republican is in the White House, unemployment and the National Debt.


By contrast, "Bubble Up" economnic priciples practiced by Democratic Administrations put people to work, rev up the economy, and balance the Nation's ledger books. Every time. No exceptions.