We recently heard a rather strange admission come from that perennial gasbag, Steny Hoyer. What he finally admitted was that he doesn’t have a clue as to when Barry’s plan for the fiscal cliff might actually balance the federal budget. "The President’s proposition was that, on the revenue side, to balance the spending cuts we needed to raise additional revenues," Hoyer said during a Capitol Hill ‘pen and pad briefing’ with reporters on Friday. "We are now collecting revenues at about 15 percent and spending at about 22 percent of GDP [Gross Domestic Product]." "You can’t do that for very long," he said. Adding, "Even the richest country on the face of the earth can’t do that forever without having serious adverse consequences." I think is pretty safe to say that, these days, thanks to Steny and his crowd this country is no longer the richest country on the face of the earth. I mean when you are $16 Trillion in debt, can you really be described as being rich?
But our favorite gasbag wasn’t finished, not by a long shot. Steny went on to say, "Almost everybody you speak to says you’ve got to bring those into balance." However, when a reporter asked the second-ranking Democrat in the House when the president will achieve that balance, Hoyer said he did not know. A report in attendance asked: "You said that we have to bring spending and revenue into balance. So, when does President Obama’s plan, specifically—what year—does he balance the federal budget?" Hoyer responded saying , "I don’t know the answer to that question." Adding, "If it’s the $4 trillion and it’s the percentage of GDP that he arrives at." He was then asked, "Do you have any idea what percentage of GDP they would be balanced at?" To which he said, "Uh, James [Leuschen, senior policy adviser] is not in the room, is he?" He went on, "I’m sorry, I don’t know. I can get that for you." Sure he will, anybody believe that?
The federal government collected $2.4 trillion in revenue in FY 2012, which ended Sept. 30, or 15.8 percent of GDP. Spending accounted for 22.8 percent of GDP at $3.5 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This is the fourth year in a row where the deficit topped $1 Trillion. Thursday on Capitol Hill, Timmy ‘The Tax Cheat’ Geithner, in what was described as ‘negotiating’ on behalf of Barry to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, actually had the nerve to propose $1.6 trillion in tax hikes and at least $50 billion in additional stimulus spending. Laughably, Timmy reportedly also wanted unilateral authority for the president to raise the debt limit and delay the automatic spending cuts via the sequester for an additional year in exchange for $400 billion in cuts to entitlements. Democrats claim that the plan will total $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. Come on, really? Talk about fuzzy math! Democrat constituents may buy this mumbo-jumbo, but nobody else does.
A Republican aide told Reuters that Timmy’s offer was met with considerable laughter for its complete lack of seriousness. "We can't move any closer to them because they're not even on our planet," the aide said. Sen. Jeff Sessions, ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, in a statement said: "Secretary Geithner has offered no plan on behalf of the president. Newspaper articles and leaks from anonymous aides are not a plan. Until this fantasy ‘plan’ from a secret meeting is made public and scored by the Congressional Budget Office it does not exist. Based on history, we can safely assume that reports that this ‘plan’ saves $4 trillion is a fabrication. It is a distraction that allows the White House to continue to run out the clock so it can have maximal leverage to force through a bad deal in the last minutes before midnight." And I’m curious, if we’re taxing at 15 percent of GDP and spending at 22 percent, why is the only solution to increase revenue? Especially when Barry wants to INCREASE spending?
Republicans have vowed to keep the Bush era tax rates in place for all Americans, while offering to raise additional revenue through closing unnamed tax loopholes and deductions in exchange for spending cuts. Earlier this year after Barry unveiled his ‘budget’ for fiscal year 2013, which also promised $4 trillion in deficit reduction and failed unanimously in both the House and Senate, Rep. Tim Huelskamp said it "never" balances the budget. In February, during a House Budget Committee hearing, Huelskamp asked Jeffrey Zients, the acting White House Budget Director, when exactly Barry’s budget would balance spending and revenue. "Well, he stabilizes the debt in this budget," was Zients’ idiotic response. Adding, "And this budget makes major progress." He claimed that Barry "stabilizes" the debt in 2018. "That's when the budget will balance?" Huelskamp asked. "That's when the debt stabilizes in 2018 as a percent of GDP. … You have to think about it that way," Zients said.
"Since he did not respond to the question," Huelskamp later wrote, "I will: the answer is 'never.'" And that pretty accurately sums things up. Barry has absolutely no intention of balancing the budget and that should be painfully obvious. But doesn’t seem to keep blowhards like Hoyer from claiming that that remains the goal. It’s all nothing more than propaganda, empty rhetoric that these pathetic Democrats hope that they can get enough of the American people to believe if only they repeat it enough and can get their allies in our state-controlled media complex to do the same. There is a stubborn refusal on the part of gasbags like Hoyer to make any kind of spending cuts! And the Republicans must remain resolute and present a united front against what will most assuredly be a well-orchestrated smear campaign against them. What makes the most sense, fiscally and economically, in the effort to bring revenue and spending amounts closer? Seems to me the answer is simple, cut spending!
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