national debt

The AP has put out a fact check of President Obama’s claim last night that everything in his jobs program is paid for:

resident Barack Obama's promise Thursday that everything in his jobs plan will be paid for rests on highly iffy propositions.

It will only be paid for if a committee he can't control does his bidding, if Congress puts that into law and if leaders in the future - the ones who will feel the fiscal pinch of his proposals - don't roll it back.

Apparently the Constitution has changed since President Obama took office. I thought that every program laid out by every President since the start of our country was dependent upon a Congress that the President doesn’t control? As matter of fact the Constitution says that and has since day one. Congress is a separate and independent branch of Government. Of course there are times when the President’s party controls both chambers, but that still doesn’t mean the President controls the Congress. That was obvious in 2009-2010, when Republicans launched a record number of filibusters against the democratically controlled Senate.

But even if it isn’t paid for, so what? The trillions of dollars the Bush tax cuts have cost us wasn’t paid for either, yet Republicans still passed them and keep them alive. Where was all the complaining that these had to be paid for? Hell – they are one of the biggest contributors to the national debt.

OK this is very interesting. The Washington Post has an interactive feature up where you can view all kinds of things about health care reform, including this:

Compare that to what the CBO letter says today:

CBO and JCT estimate that, on balance, the direct spending and revenue effects of
enacting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act incorporating the manager’s amendment would yield a net reduction in federal deficits of $132 billion over the 2010-2019 period (see Table 1)

I would venture to say this is an error in the WaPo’s little Flash application, but that hasn’t stopped the GOP from pushing this:

A lot of wingnuts are dismissing Christopher Buckley for leaving the National Review. They seem to forget that the National Review wouldn't be here if it wasn't for his father, who founded the magazine. Buckley shares a sentiment that I hear from countless Republicans, especially the Reagan class of Republicans:

While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

Instead today's Republican party has become a group of hate-filled irrational thinkers who believe America's only obligation is global dominance. They don't give a damn about the people of this country, as long as they can wage wars and instill feelings of fear and hatred into their followers. John McCain was different from this, but that was back in 2000. Now he has sold his soul in an attempt to become President. To hear him or his campaign talk, they act like McCain becoming President is a right due to his time as a POW. They care nothing about country or principal and continue to rally the troops to yell out hateful and violent lines about his opponent. If Reagan was alive today he would beat McCain's ass - literally.

We raise the national debt. That measure was passed by Congress today and sent to Bush for his signature.

The Senate voted Thursday to allow the national debt to swell to nearly $9 trillion, preventing a first-ever default on U.S. Treasury notes.

The bill passed by a 52-48 vote. The increase to $9 trillion represents about $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. The bill now goes to President Bush for his signature.

The measure allows the government to pay for the war in Iraq and finance Medicare and other big federal programs without raising taxes. It passed hours before the House was expected to approve another $91 billion to fund the war in Iraq and provide more aid to hurricane victims.

Wow. I am so glad the Bush economy is doing so well. This is that "trickle down" theory in action. Now that they have done this, perhaps it is time to cut taxes even more. Why should we worry about it? Let our children worry about the problem. Hell don't we all have an additional $30,000 lying around - we should just send it in and pay off the debt.

It is apparent that this administration believes in some sort of mystical money tree that goes along with this divine creator who made the world in six days. This is truly the administration of fairy tales and the land of make believe. Of course now we need another Bill Clinton to come in and fix everything Bush and his gang-banging buddies in Congress have screwed up. Nice to know how "fiscally responsible" they truly are.

The brilliant Ted Rall brings up an option to deal with our President that I
have thought of in the past. Follow the lead of California and start a national
recall.

One solution is to establish a California-style recall system on the
national level. If a significant percentage of Americans loses confidence in
the president and his administration to the extent that they're willing to
sign a recall petition, a special election should be held within three
months. The number of required signatures should be high
enough--California's system calls for 12 percent of the number of people who
cast votes in the preceding election--to ensure that recalls are only held
as the result of widespread disgust among the citizenry.

To avoid disruption, the constitutional amendment creating the recall
provision could prevent such elections from being held more often than, say,
annually. And a recall won't automatically result in a new party taking over
the White House--just a new administration. But it would replace our current
system of political stagnation with a more dynamic democracy.

The threat of recall would make sitting leaders responsive to the people
more often than the current four-year election cycle, and would allow
disastrous and unpopular leaders like Bush to be replaced posthaste. Of
course, national recall elections wouldn't guarantee that the people would
always be happy with their leaders. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the man who
replaced Gray Davis after the recall, currently "ranks among the most
unpopular governors in modern California history," reports the San Francisco
Chronicle. But Californians don't have to wait until the next election to
get rid of him.