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Special Report
America’s Reality Check
Fiscal commission proposals offer Americans a chance to decide what type of future they want.
One of the drawbacks to the concept of “American exceptionalism” is that it has instilled a belief that the nation can have everything in perpetuity — the best military in the world, a vibrant economy, low taxes and a growing welfare state — just because we’re Americans.
For decades, with times relatively good, this belief allowed the nation to ignore those who warned about the threat posed by the tremendous growth of the federal government. Yet when the financial collapse hit in 2008, it ushered in an era of annual trillion-dollar deficits, giving Americans just a small taste of what the future holds.
The conflict over the size of government is not merely a numbers game, but a generational issue. If federal spending grows at its current trajectory, America will become a nation of stagnant growth, high unemployment, crushing tax rates, and runaway inflation. Its military strength will deteriorate substantially, making the nation more vulnerable. And younger generations of Americans will experience a substantially worse standard of living than their elders.
Over the past several weeks, Washington has been flooded with deficit reduction proposals sprouting from President Obama’s fiscal commission. While none of these various plans are likely to be adopted in the near future, they do help highlight the stark contrast in visions for how to respond to the nation’s financial challenges.
On one end of the spectrum is a proposal advanced by the most liberal member of the deficit panel, Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Her plan calls for drastically cutting the military budget while raising income taxes, estate taxes, corporate taxes, payroll taxes, and capital gains taxes. She would implement “cap and trade,” add the government-run plan, or “public option” to ObamaCare, and have the federal government “negotiate” drug prices. In addition, she would spend $200 billion on more stimulus projects. In sum, her plan would put America on an accelerated course toward a European-style welfare state.
On the other end is Rep. Paul Ryan, who has already presented his “Roadmap for America’s Future.” While conceding that entitlement programs would have to remain intact for those at or nearing retirement, his plan would reform them for younger workers by emphasizing individual choice. Alice Rivlin, a member of the commission and a former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget under President Clinton, signed on to Ryan’s proposal to transition Medicare into a voucher program and turn Medicaid into a block grant to states to allow governors more flexibility. Ryan’s plan would overhaul the tax code without raising taxes, and does not involve cuts to the military budget.
Today, the 18-member commission will vote on the final report of its directors, former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson and one time Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles. The plan includes steep military cuts that would bring the defense budget as a share of the economy roughly to where it was before the Sept. 11 attacks. It would simplify the tax code by getting rid of many popular deductions while lowering marginal tax rates. Yet overall, it would still end up raising taxes by $1 trillion, according to estimates by Americans for Tax Reform, and move revenue as a share of the economy from its historical 18 percent to an alarming 21 percent. In addition, it would make changes to Social Security, including raising the retirement age by two years over the next 65 years.
While it has gained some bipartisan support — including from Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Sens. Mike Crapo, Judd Gregg, and conservative stalwart Tom Coburn, the Simpson-Bowles plan is unlikely to be enacted any time soon.
That said, these proposals mark a good opportunity for Americans to question what type of country they want to live in, because the status quo is unsustainable. Do they want to maintain global military supremacy, or are they comfortable adopting a non-interventionist foreign policy and curtailing our military commitments? Do they want to keep taxes relatively low, or are they willing to accept much higher tax rates in exchange for government services? Do they want to be a nation of free markets and individual responsibility, or are they comfortable evolving into a European-style welfare state?
It’s crucial that Americans answer these questions now, because the longer lawmakers delay action, the more difficult it will be to manage the looming crisis. However inspiring the story of its founding, whatever its great achievements, no matter how strong its character has proven to be in the past, America is not immune to reality.
About the Author
Philip Klein is The American Spectator’s Washington correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/Philipaklein
Letter to the Editor View all comments (97) | Leave a comment
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Zbigniew Mazurak | 12.3.10 @ 7:30AM
Reducing defense spending - the most crucial item in the federal budget - is the absolutely worst option the federal government could pursue.
Schakowsky's plan is even worse than that. Not only would it dramatically cut defense spending, it would also dramatically INCREASE domestic spending by adding a government insurance option, greatly increasing pseudostimulus funding (you think the $787 bn Obama stimulus was bad? This one would be even worse!), and growing other domestic government programs. On net, it would GROW federal spending and the budget deficit, even despite the massive defense spending cuts it proposes.
This ridiculous plan also proves that I was right all along: defense spending cuts will not even significantly shrink, let alone abolish, the budget deficit. The DOD could be abolished entirely and there would've STILL been a $774 bn annual budget deficit.
Klein mentioned that the plan proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) does not call for any defense spending cuts. What he did NOT mention is that Ryan's plan, called the Roadmap, would actually balance the federal budget completely (i.e. completely eliminate the budget deficit) in the long term, as certified by the Congressional Budget Office. It would also prevent entitlement programs from burying America under an even bigger mountain of debt than the current one. Needless to say, this means raising the retirement age.
Klein asked, "Do they want to maintain global military supremacy, or are they comfortable adopting a non-interventionist foreign policy and curtailing our military commitments?"
I think that regarding American military supremacy (which has already eroded over this decade, BTW), the answer is obvious: it must be restored. But Klein is offering Americans a false choice:
either a strong military AND a promiscously interventionist foreign policy, or a weak military and an isolationist foreign policy.
This is a false choice and Americans should reject it.
What America needs is a strong defense (and therefore a defense budget not smaller than the current one, i.e. not smaller than 3.65% of GDP), coupled with a new foreign policy which, to borrow words from a former President, "recognizes the indispensability and the limitations of America's role in the world". This means that, even as America needs to maintain a strong defense, it needs to seriously reconsider all of its commitments to foreign countries and organizations, scale down or end some defense commitments, and bring troops back home from countries where they don't need to be (e.g. Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Iraq and Afghanistan). A promiscously interventionist foreign policy would be bad for the Treasury as well as the military, because would waste limited DOD resources.
So: NO to defense cuts, YES to a new foreign policy and a new global military posture.
carnot| 12.3.10 @ 7:49AM
sooo....exactly how does this new foreign policy work when it comes time to project power (rapidly, decisively, sustained)?
Zbigniew Mazurak | 12.3.10 @ 7:59AM
By maintaining and growing the projection capabilities and weapon arsenals of the US military (strategic bombers, ICBMs, SSBNs, tactical subs, tankers, strategic cargoplanes, amphibious ships, aircraft carriers, etc.). This, however, does not require the US to station several Army brigades and AF wings in Europe, although American troops would need to remain in SK and Japan, at least for some time.
vtwin| 12.4.10 @ 12:47PM
Breaking news: Senate Republicans block middle class TAX-CUTS with filibuster!
vtwin| 12.4.10 @ 2:37PM
I want my taxes raised to 90% NOW!
skip| 12.4.10 @ 5:19PM
Imposter!
The real vtwin died of aids.
Alan Brooks| 12.5.10 @ 2:34PM
"Imposter!
The real vtwin died of aids."
If vtwin is progressive, I will vote KKK from now on; now.. let's see, where is Stormfront's url?
Alan Brooks| 12.5.10 @ 2:46PM
But come to think of it, which is the real vtwin? on Tom Bethell's "Interregnum - and a Transition" at the bottom of the queue, someone calling himself vtwin is posting comments... well, they are too strange to absorb.
Either vtwin was smoking the funny stuff when he wrote the comments on Sobran, or they an imposter's.
Hope it is the latter; now that "medical" marijuana is being legalized (that is, taxed) it would be a shme if it produced such bizarre comments. Read them, they are from Jekyll and Hyde.
vtwin| 12.6.10 @ 12:02PM
To quote Mark Twain, “the reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated." AIDS, not to my knowledge but maybe your wife has told you something she hasn't told me.
victor| 12.5.10 @ 11:33AM
If you want to end the tax cuts for "the wealthy," you don't have to wait for the Bush tax cuts to expire at the end of this, you can voluntarily pay taxes right now at the old 1999 rates under Clinton. In other words, if the highest marginal rate of 35% is too low for you, you could make a strong, personal statement right now by voluntarily paying your 2010 taxes at the old highest marginal rate of 39.6%.
In fact you could write a check to the Treasury Dep't right NOW!
Look at your withholding and send in an extra 13% or whatever you feel would make you superior to us peons, eh?
carnot| 12.5.10 @ 11:16AM
uh huh. ever checked the the logistics flow when we fight a war in SW Asia? Or the return flow of wounded? Or the staging that leads up to a war? and yes....fighting a N. Korean invasion from Guam sounds like a capital idea! we'll be right back in the business of trying to rebuild those same bases...if we can manage a foothold.
Melvin| 12.3.10 @ 7:55AM
That is exactly why these Communist Bastards in Washington D.C. want to gut our military because with us out of the way, who is going to stop tyranny? Russia, China, or Venezuela?
JFGalt| 12.3.10 @ 8:00AM
Sorry, but you sound like you work for a major defense contractor. Defense spending needs to be cut dramatically. This is particularly true in purchasing where billions are wasted by overpaying for an inordinate number of items including things that the military doesn't even want but CONgress forces them to buy. DoD contractors are way too fat and happy and that should tell you something-they are not in it for America they are in it for themselves. We fight with a $10,000 weapon against someone using a $5 weapon. They will drain us which is al Qaeda's plan anyway. We need to stop being the world's policeman that does everyone's dirty work and we get nothing in return. Nothing! We are no safer. How can we win every battle and now lose every war? We've created a perpetual war machine that needs perpetual wars to keep existing and feeding off of. All we do is piss off the rest of the world. Part of the problem is that DoD spending including the myriad of black programs is running away at an insane pace and it will send us the way of the Dodo. All we are doing is propping up the ruling elite's overseas ops - they bring no benefit to the American public. We waste the lives of our troops on dubious adventures that only seem to be for the advancement of someone else's agenda. Maintain a strong military at home that is able to project its presence overseas but all these bases are a waste and all these mercenaries we are hiring are bad news too. I feel like I am reading Gibbon's Fall of the Roman Empire when I read the news today. Wake up dude, we're being used by the people that Ike warned about. There are better ways to make America strong and they do not include OBAMA!'s knuckleheaded ideas. Remember how OBAMA! was supposed to bring the troops home and end these conflicts - HA! The MIC is too strong a voice in America and they are not in it for the troops. Shame on them - shame on you!
Ryan| 12.3.10 @ 8:37AM
The balance is somewhere in between. There IS a certain amount of reigning in that needs to be done with some defense contractors and overspending - essentially no more blank checks to the industry, but there IS critical national defense work that needs to continue.
I'm of the opinion that there are a LOT of conservatives - like myself - who believe in a strong, engaged military (and not too much drawback overseas) who are against lowering the defense budget as a general rule, but when presented with specifics, would agree to certain line-item cuts.
Zbigniew Mazurak| 12.3.10 @ 9:08AM
You're flat wrong.
Firstly I do not work for any defense contractor and have never worked for one.
"Sorry, but you sound like you work for a major defense contractor. Defense spending needs to be cut dramatically. This is particularly true in purchasing where billions are wasted by overpaying for an inordinate number of items including things that the military doesn't even want but CONgress forces them to buy."
Gibberish. The DOD's weapon programs are absolutely necessary to replace the military's obsolete equipment which has been worn out by 9 years of continous war. The Alternative Engine Program could be credibly ended, but an engine is hardly a weapon. I could provide a detailed justification to just about every weapon program of the DOD (C-17, F-35, V-22, EFV, Virginia class, etc.), but I see that you are immune to facts and to common-sense arguments. The DOD, by its own admission, cannot afford to reduce its total procurement spending nor R&D spending, which is already inadequate (it accounts for less than 36% of the DOD's total budget and only about 1% of GDP!). If anything, weapons spending should be increased, while spending on bureaucracies, personnel, and HC programs should be reduced. You evidently know nothing about defense affairs.
Defense spending does not need to be reduced - it is perfectly possible to balance the budget without defense spending cuts. Moreover, America cannot afford to reduce defense spending if it wishes to be safe.
"We need to stop being the world's policeman that does everyone's dirty work and we get nothing in return. Nothing! We are no safer. How can we win every battle and now lose every war?"
America doesn't lose every war (who has won the Iraqi war? Al Qaeda? Bin Laden?). Moreover, America is NOT, has never been, and should never be, the world's policeman. The notion that America is the world's policeman because it helps some vulnerable countries defend themselves is ridiculous. That being said, though, the US should only HELP other countries defend themselves rather than do this work for them.
"We've created a perpetual war machine that needs perpetual wars to keep existing and feeding off of. All we do is piss off the rest of the world."
It's not a perpetual war machine. Before 2001, America enjoyed a decade of peace since the First Gulf War ended. Before 1991, the US enjoyed another decade of peace.
"Part of the problem is that DoD spending including the myriad of black programs is running away at an insane pace and it will send us the way of the Dodo."
What are you talking about? There are no myriad black programs and the entire cost of DOD black programs is roughly $20 bn per year. The FY2010 defense budget was $534 bn; as such, it constituted a paltry 14.87% of the total federal budget and a microscopic 3.65% of GDP. During the entire Cold War, except FY1948, American defense budgets constituted a larger portion of the economy than 3.65% of GDP.
CalMark| 12.3.10 @ 2:25PM
The waste in DOD is gold-plated weapons systems and bureaucracy.
We could have a lot more, still high-quality defense systems. Gee-whiz, neat-o, whiz-bang stuff tends to break down a lot. A little simplification would save a lot in both procurement and maintenance costs. We have so much of it because of the Pentagon revolving door: generals and admirals retire to become beltway bandits.
The Navy alone has instituted a number of new administrative officer specialties (entire branches, in Army-speak). There are many admirals who have been on sea duty briefly, if at all. Abolish most of the paper-pushing communities (Personnel Officer as a career specialty? Gimme a break! The armed forces did just fine without them for two centuries) and make everybody a combatant.
There: two suggestions for effective and beneficial cost-cutting.
Zbigniew Mazurak | 12.4.10 @ 2:15AM
"The waste in DOD is gold-plated weapons systems and bureaucracy."
The first part is untrue, the second one is correct.
As for "gold-plated weapon systems", they are absolutely necessary to replace the military's current, obsolete, worn out weapons and to prepare the military for future threats - conventional and irregular threats alike. Go on, pick a specific DOD weapon system; I can justify it. The Virginia class? Necessary to replace the 1970s' LA class, which has been compromised by the secrets Aldrich Ames sold to the Russians. The F-35 program? Necessary to replace the obsolete aircraft currently used by the USAF, USN and the USMC. These obsolete aircraft (F-15s, F-16s, A-10s, F-18s, AV-8Bs) are expensive to maintain because of their age.
You're right about the bureaucracies, though. That is why, in my Defense Reform Proposals Package, I proposed a radical reduction of DOD bureaucracies and the number of generals and admirals (876), so that the money currently spent on them can be reinvested in badly-needed weapons.
carnot| 12.5.10 @ 11:35AM
while I like the thrust of your argument in the main....having served in the belly of the beast:
- your response masks proverbial "devil in the details" specifics. I obviously can't go into specifics, but there are legions of programs that have requirements that either repeatedly change (adding to total cost) or functionality & implementation that is so unique that it consistently undermines one major DoD objective: interoperability....with obvious implications for warfighting effectiveness.
- yes..personnel accounts are huge for DoD. where is the threshold when considering diminishing these enticements to service? there is a point at which the more talented opt out for better pay & benefits in other venues. medical benefits is a perfect case in point and one which every retiree as a well as potential enlistee ought to be weighing in the decision calculus.
- how does one reduce bureaucracy? it's more than a head count. the capability, engineering, acquisition/procurement processes for major systems identify key decision variables. there is goodness in these. yet, it is so complex, so time consuming that nothing is accomplished for years. meanwhile, as mentioned, the players and requirements change forcing yet longer idea to innovation cycles.
- why don't you include civilian/government leadership in your notion of bureaucracy? that is the fastest growing labor category at DoD presently due to the Obama contractor to GS transition underway.
- I agree with you that we have broad swaths of the force structure that is aged and beyond sustainment. but your focus appears to be on strategic systems. that is not the current thrust of National Security policy.
Fist of the Fleet| 12.4.10 @ 10:30AM
I agree with almost everything except the V-22. It is a bonafide POS that has never lived up to its expectations. As the system matures it will cost more and more money.
You seem to be able to speak about the numbers quite well. Someone needs to think about the end user once in a while. The M-16 comes to mind.
Should have spent the money the V-22 sucked up on PAVING out the existing CH-53 until the K model comes into the fleet.
Melvin| 12.3.10 @ 9:34AM
Me a Defense Contractor, yea, maybe in my dreams. No, I just was one of the poor bastards, sitting in a fighting hole half full of rain water, going bang bang because there was no funding for the use of live fire or even funding for the purchase of blank M16 round ammunition. Multiple times there wasn't any funding at all to train period, but we sat in the barracks and cleaned the hell out of our rifles and done as much training as possible on our base.
I have been end user of our defense industry. Do I personally think that we need gazillion dollar toys that the Admirals and Generals can move around like chess pieces on the war boards. It depends, but I will tell you this if that gazzillion dollar toy keeps that damn rag head off my ass long enough for me to kill him and him not kill be or my brothers. Yea, I guess I would say that that toy was worth it.
But I will give you this. Ike was correct, but that isn't up to the poor bastards that are getting directly shot at, it is up to the dumb bastards who put us into that damn conflict or conflicts to begin with.
Joe Oliva| 12.3.10 @ 12:09PM
As far as defense goes, if we are going to be the world's mercenary police force, we should at least charge for the services provided.
We could start by unloading ALL the costs of maintaining troops in Europe onto the back of the E.U. If they do not want to pay, then that tells us that they don't think they need our help. Fine, but they also need to know that if push comes to shove and we have to bail them out of another war, instead of a Marshall Plan, there will be a pay back the U.S. plan to reimburse us for the billions it will cost to fight the Russians or whoever.
The same thing should apply to South Korea and Japan: If you want us there, fork over the cash.
It also might not be a bad idea to recoup some of our $14 trillion dollars of debt by back billing these countries for 60+ years of providing for their defense. That would be about $25 billion per year for 60 years. Perhaps they could pay us back at that rate at a minimum.
Zbigniew Mazurak| 12.4.10 @ 2:16AM
The US military is not the world's mercenary police force. It does help foreign countries defend themselves, but that doesn't mean America is the world's policeman.
Alan Brooks| 12.3.10 @ 10:16PM
In other words, destroy the safety net and let faith-based orgs take care miscreants.
As long as YOU go on record taking responsibility for it.
Clint| 12.4.10 @ 4:22AM
The Safety Net Isn't A Hammock, Obama Apologist.
Appleby| 12.4.10 @ 9:29AM
I will and I do. The Salvation Army does 100 times as much with 10% of the funds, as the top-heavy porkers in the government -- one part being that they are neither unionized nor paid six figures with a lifetime entitlement to a rich panoply of entitlements.
As for Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, what she is proposing is that the USA be turned into Canada. I suggest she come up here and live under socialism as a prole for five years before she proposes this seriously.
Alan Brooks| 12.4.10 @ 11:10AM
"I will and I do."
Fine, but put it in writing.
Alan Brooks| 12.4.10 @ 11:11AM
... notarized:
"I hereby take responsibility."
Alan Brooks| 12.4.10 @ 2:39PM
Proud to be a screaming liberal!
Bubba| 12.3.10 @ 7:30AM
Addressing government spending needs to include state,local & schools. Sinse the Reagan tax cuts other government spending has exploded.
idalily| 12.3.10 @ 5:35PM
Gotta disagree, sorry. 10th Amendment trumps all here. If Massachusetts wants health care, fine. No problem. They can pay for it, and I am free to live there, or not. If they overspend, their problem. My state has a Balanced Budget Amendment, and we live with it. Every state is free to spend what they like, of their money, in their state.
Rick V.| 12.3.10 @ 7:43AM
Mr. Klein,
If at all possible, let’s set aside the politics of the moment and look at the bigger picture. Let’s say for a moment you are a man or woman who has been employed for some time, be it 5 years or 35 years. You work, you pay your bills, you do your best to support your family and your community to the extent you can, you don’t break any laws and, most importantly, you pay your taxes. Uncle Sam takes his cut off the top every pay day, and every transaction you’re involved in during the day is taxed: your groceries are taxed, the gas for your car is taxed, your kid’s new shoes from WalMart are taxed, that bag of pretzels out of the office vending machine is taxed, and even your employer is taxed, so that raise you were hoping for is looking iffy this year. If you are currently receiving Social Security payments, you see those payments taxed; in effect, you are now paying a tax on a tax you paid all your life. Your country taxes you, your state taxes you, your city taxes you, etc.
But you plod along each day, making the best of things and hoping that one day, eventually, things will get “better” – whatever “better” means for you. Then, one day, the government you’ve been paying all along with the hope of maintaining some modicum of stability and security in your life, or maybe just hoping to be left alone, suddenly has a “Moment of Truth.”
I remember years ago, as a kid, asking my Dad for a few bucks. He would always ask, “What did you do with the money I gave you last week?” I’ve been thinking a lot about that conversation lately. We all, all of us, have been giving money to presidents and congresses for decades, as have our parents and our grandparents and our great-grandparents. What did they do with the money we gave them last week, last year, twenty or thirty years ago?
Our current national and economic dilemma did not start with Obama or Bush or Clinton. Some say the slippery path leads back to FDR, others say it started with Lincoln. Whatever the case, our current reality is the result of the malfeasance of politicians who claimed to want to “take care” of us; politicians who would not trust Americans with their own income; politicians who claimed to know what was good for us more then we realized ourselves, just trust them. And after decades of robbing Peter to pay Paul, Peter is now broke, Paul is still unable or unwilling to support himself and the benevolent thieves who robbed us now tell us they didn’t take enough from us the last time. And, by the way, do our kids have any spare change?
Mr. Klein, all employed Americans are having their own moment of truth right now. Please give me a call when Durbin, Crapo, Boehner, Frank, Pelosi, Reid, Cantor, et al, volunteer for their own pay cuts and staff reductions, give up their chauffers and return to their home districts to face their constituents. Their "separate reality" must come to an end. Enough is enough.
JFGalt| 12.3.10 @ 8:14AM
Well said! I find myself thinking of my son's future a lot too. What will there be for him? Fighting in a conscript military for pipeline rights in Asia or even on some far away planet they we are trying to colonize against the wishes of its long time inhabitants in order to make someone else rich. The wars of today are not like WW2. Look at what we accomplished in 4 intense years then! Now they drag out into perpetuity in order to feed the monster. I am lothe to say that we waste the lives of young troopers today but I can't help feel that they often die for less than worthy causes. Our troops are Lions and they are led by Lambs or what I think are really wolves in sheep's clothing. After 9/11 we should have gone out and flattened Afghanistan and not bothered with Iraq - we would have sent the message that if you mess with us you will be pulverized instantly instead it looks more like a couple of girls pinching each other.
Dustoff| 12.3.10 @ 9:51AM
After 9/11 we should have gone out and flattened Afghanistan.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
You were never in the service were you?
The days of this type bombing ended with WWII.
Not that I disagree with your statement.
gazinya| 12.3.10 @ 6:30PM
So, apparently, did declaring war when we go to war. Galt is correct. The towers was an act of WAR not a shoving match. If we had declared war then that would have kept the 'voted for it before I voted against it', pols out of the loop. War is final and it is to the death. This should have been a war not a pinching match.
Appleby| 12.4.10 @ 9:34AM
Tell me the truth -- what would have become of World War II if CNN and Fox News and MSNBC and so forth were broadcasting what was going on, and WikiLeaks was plastering the world with revelations of Allied battle plans -- and Generals were being sued in civilian courts for scowling at Nazi Storm Troopers?
There is no comparison possible between the way we fought World War II and the way we have to fight today. Back in the day, nobody had any real idea of what was going on Over There.
PCC| 12.5.10 @ 10:00PM
An historical note, not a correction: the original quote, referring to the British Army in WWI, was "Lions led by donkeys."
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.3.10 @ 7:51AM
Zbigniew,
Excellent round out on the article. Mr. Klein missed a couple of balls and you hit them out of the park.
Melvin| 12.3.10 @ 7:51AM
It appears that no one is talking about cutting or even the elimination of subsidies that funds everything from agriculture, (the biggie) to the banking industry and Wall Street.
Grants are handed out like party favors to colleges sitting on billions and billions of college endowments and yet these very same colleges are screaming poverty with college presidents raking in million dollar wages.
We are flat broke but the Lame Duck Session is pushing the Dream Act that will cost us 6.2 billion dollars a year and some estimates go as high as 20 billion to fund the education of the children born to illegal entrants into this Country.
We're spending trillions of dollars on illegal Mexicans and other citizens from the Southern hemisphere and are we back charging Mexico or other Countries for providing social services and or medical care? No, our government is encouraging more to cross the border illegally.
The Federal Reserve is playing Santa Clause to the worlds banking institutions by handing out trillions to prop up these financial institutions that should have failed.
Peter Orzag just went from a government job to working at Citi bank.
Congress also just passed 4.6 billion dollars in the Pigford settlement to give American Indians and Black farmers reparations based on the color of their skin and which has now been extended to female farmers and Hispanic farmers.
To be frankly honest, the only way that we the taxpayer or going to get any relief from government is, at the point of a gun. The Senate and Congress need to be thrown out of Washington D.C. physically. Because that is the only way that some of those curmudgeons will leave. K-Street needs to be bulldozed and turned into a park, the Federal Reserve needs to be burned to the ground, and the pack of jackals that reside within be charged and thrown into prison of fraud and theft.
People, we can't keep going on like this, we have absolutely no idea in what the government is up to or what their spending. The Congress and the Senate are inhabited by lying, cheating, and scheming lawyers who no more abide by the rule of law than a man in the moon.
The need to be cleaned out one way or another, and I'm sure they won't appreciate the latter.
carnot| 12.3.10 @ 8:09AM
just a start...but a hugely important one: TERM LIMITS.
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.3.10 @ 10:43AM
Carnot,
pretty pretty please add a second string to your violin.
Term limits only put the faceless "aides" in charge even more.
We have term limits already, guy. They are called elections.
On the other hand, there are some known cures for the "advantage of incumbency". We need to focus on those a hell of a lot more.
carnot| 12.3.10 @ 4:26PM
I might agree but for the fact that term limits would guarantee people like Barney and Nancy go away. The replacements may be the same....but at least this is "change I can believe in".
Claude| 12.4.10 @ 4:33PM
I totaly agree with Term Limit We can all do it at the Nomination Vote for the Chalenger
martin j smith| 12.3.10 @ 7:52AM
The deficit commission talked about a lot except for at least one thing: Obamacare --Why and why is this not being asked of them ? Then there isthis: Why has American Taxpayer money been sent overseas when we need to keep our own house in order ? Are the American People in on this ? Nope !!!!!!!!!!! This is a very good example of why American voters are fed up. Its the old"we know what is best for you" trick" and " to hell with you". If explained and justified maybe,maybe it might be tolerated but maybe not --but when things are done against our will ? The there is old good ole"do as we say,not as we do" trick aka, "we tell you, you listen". ( Prince to peasant relationship ) And finally lets see each member of our government on all levels demonstrate how they are setting an example by making visible sacrifices. Lets see. And in that regard: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett lets see you fork over say about � of your assets to the federal government specifically to reduce the deficit. How about that buddy boys ?
With regards our budget, look at the world--now i will tell you this, right now I do not trust any Democrat or RINO with our national security. If we do not have, for our nation the material to defend ourselves and protect our interests then what is the point ? And, is dit not part of the responsibility of our supposed e;lected authorities to Protect us against enemies domestic and foreign. Yeah I know the D--Socialists and the RINOS do not care about the constitution--but I do and I care about our survival./ I do not believe any D(emocrat ) does care. And, I would go further. They want to kills us. Then there is this question: How can you make a deal with those who hate this country and want us destroyed ? I do not see it. Trust but verify. Every agreement must be proven true in word and dead. Making a deal with Obama or any D is very shaky and should be treated that way. Otherwise, everything is just peachy.
SC Mike| 12.3.10 @ 7:53AM
The only flaw in the Deficit Commission’s plans is their overestimate of what the feds can squeeze out of the economy. No matter what the rates on incomes, estates, dividends, capital gains, tax revenue has remained a remarkably consistent at a bit less that 19% of GDP.
Here’s the graph: http://www.americanthinker.com.....ber_9.html
With high rates, you stifle the economy and slow growth. With lower rates the durn thing grows like Topsy.
Welcome to Hauser’s law.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....RDS=hauser
The commission’s plan can’t succeed, but one with lower spending, a bit less than 19%, could.
Why not have the lower tax rates the co-chairs recommend and have a booming economy? The only thing stopping that is a perverse sense of fairness.
carnot| 12.3.10 @ 8:02AM
nutshelling Mr Klein's message: what we are witnessing now is a negotiation process that determines future winners and losers. the process itself may assume an irrational dynamic where everyone (inter-genarational) ends up a loser. at stake is not only our standard of living, but the nation's core set of values.
the thing I don't get: does the Left really believe...in its collectivist heart of hearts...that millions of unwashed non-believers are simply going to plod along in their diurnal activities frustrated but complacent with whatever new set of social relationships and values they impose? do they really believe that there does not exist some threshold at which frustration morphs into active resistance...a refusal to participate akin to the Left's general non-participation in the country's defense at the pointy end? do they really believe that "feel good" always trumps material condition and self definition?
they are nuts.
PCC| 12.5.10 @ 10:04PM
"Anything that can be put in a nutshell should stay there." Bertrand Russell
Curly Smith| 12.3.10 @ 8:25AM
It seems to me that a growing welfare state is the antithesis of "American Exceptionalism". A growing welfare state doesn't help the citizens, it merely increases the power of government. How does an all-powerful central government, which is contrary to our founding principles, constitute anything remotely "exceptional" given the lust for power that all governments have? We were exceptional because we believed that our rights flowed from our Creator; now we're Europeans who believe that rights flow from government. Oops, since government is now godlike it should be Government.
hardcard| 12.3.10 @ 8:27AM
bla,bla,bla answer: Do the opposite of whatever congressperson schakowsky C/ Ill. recommends.
katherine | 12.3.10 @ 8:27AM
Here is a link to a NYT interactive that you can use to balance the budget and bring down the debt. http://www.nytimes.com/interac.....aphic.html
The only big budget item lacking in the formula is the reduction of entitlements. I am frustrated to no end when I hear of folks collecting food stamps as well as their children getting free breakfast, lunch, and dinner at school. We are paying for them twice? Of course the parents sell the extra on the black market for .30/$1 and use the cash to buy cigs and booze. Those of us who forfeit a "free" public school education for our children not only pay for their schooling ourselves and the schooling (or indoctrination) of others, but we pay for every mouthful that goes into their mouths (and then some).
reality| 12.3.10 @ 8:57AM
Katherine,
What planet are u living on? I deal with people everyday who have lost their jobs. They are glad to have food stamps and free or reduced meals for their children. It is true there are deadbeats on govt assistance. But I don't believe the majority of those who have lost their jobs want to be on assistance. I hope your financial security is never impacted by a job loss. If it is maybe then you might be glad to have a little assistance.
Buckeyeman| 12.3.10 @ 9:52AM
"a little assistance" ????? Welfare transfer payments now comprise 58% of the federal budget, most of which is being borrowed. If you are so worried about paying for other peoples children, why don't you pay for them out of your own resources?
The sob stories wore thin years ago. I was alive in the 50's and 60's before most of this socialist crap went into effect and the world was not such an awful place back then. People did, however, tend not to have multiple children out of wedlock.
idalily| 12.3.10 @ 5:42PM
Katherine, I saw that, and I like the basic idea, but like everything else discussed so far, it did not go far enough. As you said, there was nothing about entitlements. But also, I kept wondering how many squares for, "Eliminate the Dept of Education." And how many for Dept of Energy? And HUD, and Nat'l Endowment for the Arts, and Health & Welfare...
Point is, no one is talking seriously about what actually has to be done. Entire departments must be eliminated. Without a Constitutional demand that they can't spend more than they take in, this necessary cutting isn't likely to happen and we are down the tubes. Crap, even now, in the midst of this, they are going to give our (borrowed) money to the IMF to bail out the EU! Where does it end?
Poofreader| 12.3.10 @ 8:32AM
In RE: paragraph nine.Who is "that" ? You left out the quotation marks about what he said.
Louis Jenkins| 12.3.10 @ 8:40AM
Amerika is being squeezed, and twisted. We have little left to give, but even Hitler found away to make a buck off of the Jewish corpses. The Commission, Ryan, et al., only have more tax funds in their sites, or cuts (a little here and there). Zero based budgetting would be a good way to justify every cent spent by Congress, but who would be the justifiers? [3 trillion sent by the IMF (US) to Europe? This is madness.] Better to amend the budget back to pre-911, and take the savings. Cut the budget, drastically. All told, I'm more aligned with Melvin on this one. Dead citizens tell no tales.
donserge| 12.3.10 @ 8:46AM
Two aspects of this "commission" bother me. One is that when our illustrious leaders want to be absolved of the responsibility that hard decisions require, they appoint a commission. The other aspect is that the co-heads are liberals. When have liberals ever done anything major that one can point to and say: "That was very good and well worth it".
PattyMor| 12.3.10 @ 9:25AM
The biggest beef with the deficit commission is that it locks in much of the higher spending, especially Obamacare. I see no plans to cut whole departments which are largely unconstitutional no matter what the corrupt Supremes say.
I say cut defense some. Let's start with the base in Bosnia. The Muslims have a lot of oil revenue, let them take care of their own. Then move on to bases in Europe. Let's pull out of NATO and let the Euros defend themselves for a change.
Absoutely no new taxes. Washington already has too much money rolling around in it. They just throw it away and are sucking the lifeblood out of us.
Get everyone, including corporations, off the gravy train, because the gravy has been drained anyway. Cut regulations and the corporate income tax. Replace the gravy with jobs. Make people work if they want to live, including seniors. Get a job if you need to pay for prescriptions or housing. Grifters all just like the welfare queens looking for Obama money.
Tom Osterman| 12.3.10 @ 9:31AM
For decades we have had a government that has become so powerful that its profligacy is only exceeded by its arrogance. It has become a confederacy of corrupt officials, a left-wing media that gives the former cover and, usually, direction and a client base that provides financial and other support, e.g. unions, or guaranteed votes, like Social Security and Medicare recipients.
All I know for certain is that this bunch won't give up the reins of power without a fight, and that that fight will be nasty and prolonged.
Clinton Lovell| 12.3.10 @ 9:38AM
The reality is that we are being made to suffer for no good reason. As long as we structure our economy this way it only benefits Washington and Wall Street insiders. The reports over the past few days show that Washington and Wall Street have enjoyed unprecedented enrichment while the rest of us have suffered and this plan by the Commission is just an endorsement of more suffering for America while these elites get away with stealing even more money from us.
We have to end their entire game once and for all. It starts with admitting the obvious: the taxation method of paying for government has exceeded its ability to work for our society and it must be replaced with the investment-income method. The investment-income method is the only method that provides the means for unlimited spending and retirement of our national debt and funding of our unfunded liabilities and all of this is beyond the dispute of reasonable minds. Of course, it would end the tyranny of Washington and the banking class over wealth and income produced by our economy. In the end, that's what all this suffering is about and as long as we grant the banking industry an exclusive monopoly on credit and wealth then this will only get worse. If you read the report you will find that real spending of government never goes down. This is just another smokescreen to allow the ruling class to get more of our money to spend on themselves.
Dustoff| 12.3.10 @ 9:58AM
Our unemployment just went to 9.8% which is killing us. Yet O-bummer and his fools just locked up oil searching. Which means more lost jobs and higher oil prices.
This nut and his fools need to go.
hunter| 12.3.10 @ 9:59AM
We are at the intersection of walk and don't walk. I remember president jimmie carter saying "the American worker is greedy, wanting a raise." I also remember President Reagan saying "The American worker is lazy, they should more industrious as the Japanese. I remember President Bush the first saying "The american worker needs more educaution, so as to work smarter not harder. So there you have it, I'm sure the other presidents since have uttered similar words of wisdom and encouragement but no longer listen nor read anything they have to say. We have been had. A real story is one told to me by my Grandmother. I don't remember if it is a made up, about some other family, or her family. Anyways back in the later 1800's, things were tight, money scarce/not at all, at the supper table food supply low, the Father explaining the dire cirmistances about not having enough food and the children not fully grasping the situation, offered the 7 children a coin. (penny-nickel?) to go to bed without their supper. The children of course all took a coin, and spent the rest of the evening admiring the coin. At the breakfast table the next morning, all were gathered early and hungry only to hear from Father that the price for breakfast was the coin given for missing supper. I fear more of us are going to go to bed hungry, and for the worst wake up w/o a penny to buy breakfast.
martin j smith| 12.3.10 @ 10:20AM
REALITY
: Look at the mess Europe is in--that will be us. Do you want that ? I do not. The reccommendations do not address many problems that are outstanding. So, it is a fraud on us.
Howard Lohmuller| 12.3.10 @ 10:46AM
Let's Take Off The Blindfold
The North American Continent and its surrounding oceans have centuries of supplies of energy that need to be developed. Oil, natural gas, coal with nuclear power added to the mix along with alternative energy sources would allow us, within 10 years to begin exporting oil and coal.
The debt we owe of 14 trillion could be reduced by half a trillion to one trillion per year and the economy could grow at 7%per year, doubling its size in a ten year period.
The debt reduction plan being considered does not consider at all the environmental straight jacket the country is in. This plan will at best produce a lower standard of living.
Throwing off excessive environmentalism can be achieved keeping clean air and water standards and conservation of land.
GENE HAUBER| 12.3.10 @ 10:56AM
I thought our FOUNDERS and our CONSTITUTION clearly spelled out what kind of government AMERICA wanted.
ASIDE FROM OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TRAMPLING ON THE CONSTITUTION OVER TIME AND COMPLETELY BETRAYING THEIR OATHES TO PROTECT AND PRESERVE IT........
WHAT HAPPENED?? ARE THEY TRAITORS, HUH??
55 inch lcd | 12.3.10 @ 11:15AM
Get everyone, including corporations, off the gravy train, because the gravy has been drained anyway. Cut regulations and the corporate income tax. Replace the gravy with jobs. Make people work if they want to live, including seniors. Get a job if you need to pay for prescriptions or housing. Grifters all just like the welfare queens looking for Obama money.
George True| 12.3.10 @ 11:43AM
I am not sure exactly what you mean by getting corporations "off the gravy train". If you mean ending the bailouts to certain mega-corporations, such as banks, auto companies, and investment firms, then I agree wholeheartedly.
I would also suggest that rather than cutting the corporate income tax, it should be eliminated altogether. At the same time, the capital gains tax should be cut to no more than 5-7%.
Finally, a flat tax of 10% across the board should be implemented. If someone makes 50,000 a year, they would pay $5,000. (No more deductions for most things.) If someone makes $1,000,000, they would pay $100,000. Any leftist who complained about that being a "tax break for the rich" could be easily skewered by pointing pout that the "rich guy" is paying twenty times as much income tax as the 50K earner.
With the elimination of the corporate tax, combined with cutting capital gains in half and a flat tax of 10%, we would see an explosion of economic activity the likes of which has not been seen in a very long time.
There would be jobs galore, everyone would be making money, the cost of most goods and services would come down, The dollar would stabilize, and the federal treasury would be overflowing with new tax money coming in. Individual and group health insurance offered by private insurance companies would be affordable and stay that way.
Rather than being a temporary bubble of prosperity, the above scenario would become the new normal for as long as such policies were kept in place. Which is exactly why the leftists in our government will fight such policies to the death. Because it would be impossible to control the populace when everybody was so free to earn as much money as their abilities and ambition allowed, and also be allowed to keep most of it.
James Claypool| 12.3.10 @ 11:44AM
I take issue with the author's definition of "American Exceptionalism": it drips with the notion that all things great about America come from the federal government. By starting off with such a definition, the rest of the article is a foregone conclusion.
The exceptionalism that I grew up with was this: simple, clear, just laws that give a framework for anyone to pursue life, liberty, and happiness; the great payoff of hard work; a "can-do", "will-do" attitude; fierce love and defense of freedom; and above all a deep gratitude to the Lord who gave such blessings to us.
JP| 12.3.10 @ 11:49AM
The combined Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid spend will go over $1 trillion in the next few years. By 2015, these 3 programs will approach 2 trillion. Defense, as a whole will be a fraction of this cost. The big 3 entitlements (which are not mandated by the Constitution) is where all the growth will be - Defense (which is mandated by our Constitution) will actually fall.
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.3.10 @ 12:34PM
Ken (Old Texican)| 12.3.10 @ 11:53AM
OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!
Folks, Beebop, Mr. Grant...
Read it and cheer. (from American Thinker)
http://www.americanthinker.com.....risma.html
Reply to this
ken (Old Texican)| 12.3.10 @ 11:59AM
PS on the article on Sarah. Be sure to read the comments.
Perusha| 12.3.10 @ 12:53PM
“What goes up must come down, spinning wheel, etc”, as CCR (Credence Clearwater Revival) sang, back in the old days.
So, we are confronted with, OF COURSE, another commission of “wise men”, who are tasked by the real WISE GUYS (aka gangsters) in DC to “solve” our fiscal problems.
I, and probably most other elder “statesmen”---to wit, those who’ve been fooled one too many times over their long or short life--- am instantly warned off taking seriously ANYTHING that comes after the word—“commission”.
Any of the commentators on this site, no matter how rich and powerful, along with their wised up brethren who don’t give politics a single thought, don’t really make much difference.
So, all the calls for doing this or that are, verily, just cries for attention---“See, I do too matter!”
For those of my generation, do you remember the folk singers, “The Limelighters”? They had an album that was hilarious, to many---me included---that featured a tune, “Gunslinger”. From 1960!
“Gunslinger, gunslinger, where did you go wrong?
When you were a child, did the Cheyenne and Sioux refuse to plaay nicely with you?
Did you always feel you didn’t belong, gunslinger?
Don’t wear your guns in town today, Old Buddy, cause last night you cried out MOMMY DEAR.
You got a recurrent dream in your craw, and that dream of your Maw will inhibit your draw, Old Buddy.
Yippi yi ya, yippi yi yo.
There you die, dead in the dust, Old Buddy…Old Buddy, and now your myth begins…
Out in the West it’s generally believed you faced and killed the toughest hombres of your day, but time has revealed your feet of clay.
Recent research has clearly shown that 99% of the gunmen you killed were simply ACCIDENT PRONE, Old Buddy; Gunslinger!”
Yes---“accident prone” nails our American situation, totally: except---
We have, as individuals, who have been irremediably programmed from birth by the previous individuals, who’ve likewise been formed into their own knee jerk ever-ready opinions and actions, paradoxically CHOSEN to experience exactly the presently arising space-time situation, here and now on Earth’s crust.
Why are we even alive? Testing, testing, one, two, three!
“This is a test of the early warning system”---so, duck and cover.
“A cooked fowl”---answer, a la Jeopardy: “What is a turkey?”
“Law and Order” TV show---a test for the viewer, to figure out the answer to the crime.
Reality---a test, to ALWAYS ace!
Alas, the mass of test takers choose to fail, that is---they BUY IT, instead of simply observe and understand the humongous and humorous play---the human comedy.
As far as the “commission”, and the apparent need to stop the taxing bleeding, and indeed roll back government spending goes---
Back in the 1980, as gold was skyrocketing and inflation was TESTING its limits, and we were deathly afraid it would be unstoppable, and lurch into hyperinflation, even then, of course, TAXATION was the ultimate question.
Playing with the word, freely, I took “tax” this way---
“Tax” equals “to ax”. “Tax” is shorthand for “to ax” part of the creations of some humans and give it to others, preferably YOUSELF.
Or, “Tax” equals “to take”.
Well, look---IT’S TOO LATE!
The taxing machine is already all-powerful, and has been for decades---witness the unstoppable growth of government!
The dirty HUGE secret that remains hidden from most people is that over half of American production is already TAXED.
When one adds up the percentage of regular production taken (TAXED) by income, sales, property, excise, tariff, taxes, along with all other kinds of hidden fees, etc, certainly over half of it goes to the takers and the taking humans, from the making ones!
The taxing iron triangle, once having become the ruling class, can’t be broken, short of a revolutionary scenario, or a wrenching catastrophe.
The pols who “legally” impose taxes on the producers, the people who share the taken produce, and the bureaucrats who dole out the goodies have already WON!
We should just be happy that, so far at least, they still ALLOW the productive sector enough profits with which to continue increasing our standard of living.
Finally---about “suffering”
A king in the Middle Ages would have LOVED to be able to “suffer” like the “poor” Americans who are today living WELL at the bottom as “below the poverty line.”
Don’t be ACCIDENT PRONE!
Be happy, and use what power you still have to create and KEEP your own True wealth!
Michael L. Hauschild| 12.3.10 @ 1:56PM
I do not believe a word “they” say (they meaning any beltway politician or subcommittee thereof previous to 2010). The reason for that summation is simple; whatever they say never comes to pass, always has significant side effects to negate any positive outcome or is altered beyond recognition by their "peers,"and always costs ten times what they project.
Chew on that "reality check" friends and neighbors.
Chuck| 12.3.10 @ 2:13PM
Do you know who Erskine Bowles is? To start Clinton's Chief of Staff and during his tenure in that corrupt regime Bowles was involved in the unlawful conversion of government property to the use of the DNC during Bill's 1996 re-election campaign. His D.C. scandal sheet goes on ad infinitum also Bowles' tenure as UNC system president was marked by a myriad of scandals. How in the heck did he get the job of National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility when this man hasn't behaved responsibly in any public position he has held.
jrjr| 12.3.10 @ 4:40PM
Cutting the military and intelligence -- return to Carter and the Bent One -- both Dimocrats. As a qualified senior citizen, I understand the problem of Soc Sec and Medicare but there must be other concessions, excluding death panels. For a couple of years seniors did not get the COLA. Okay by me -- so long as the true cost of living did not increase by 3% -- but I'm am more fortunate-worked-harder-longer than some people. What I want is for the politicians, from Washington D.C. to my local town politicians to also get a comparable decrease in salary and benefits. Any talk in the Simpson-Bowles about politicians getting a good cut? Haven't seen that part yet. Obama fly-around-the-worlds -- not on the list - while people in Atlanta lined up for a block or few to get fuel allowances, i.e., welfare? Not on your life! 14% of the population below poverty level but Washington D.C. doesn't recognize that, only Michelle in "her" garden picking really good things to eat - a garden that is manned by her servants. There is no fiscal responsibility in Washington - which covers those just elected. They will be consumed by their godliness in a short time.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 12.3.10 @ 5:46PM
Washington D.C. is full of retarded Shakespeareans who keep recycling the same old tired crap over and over.
The alleged Fiscal Commission is comprised of recycled political hacks who spent us into fiscal Hell to begin with.
And therein lies the rub. Washington D.C. just keeps shuffling the deck of worn out political hacks who in essence all believe that the taxpayers are a herd of sheep who can be fleeced over and over while the political mavens inside the beltway play a never ending con game of fiscal Three Card Monte.
What light through yonder window breaks? It's never the light of truth from anyone inside the beltway.
Washington would have you believe that there is nothing good or bad, simply thinking makes it so.
The politicians inside the beltway are a little more then kin, but less then kind. When it comes to cutting spending, they will speak daggers to it but use none.
Let's face it, all the world's a stage with many entrances and exits, but in Washington few leave, many burrow into the federal government, and politicians enter their third act on K St.
How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes! But it is even more bitter to look at Washington, D.C. and see nothing but payoffs, corruption and greed and the eyes of the press are blind.
Our age could be construed as the winter of our discontent, but the climate change con artists including many in the Republican Party, would scoff and call it the summer of our discontent.
But when it comes to the phony discourse inside the beltway about spending cuts, just remember this, a devil can cite scripture for his own purpose.
Heywood| 12.4.10 @ 12:27AM
What a complete joke this is! They just raised federal spending by a whopping 84% under the Obama administration--so far---and that commission doesn't address Obamacare whatsoever!
It's a scam--just *more of the same*.
The problem isn't going away by diddling with taxes or how government spends and on what--- it's all about getting them to stop spending more than they take in and they raise taxes but then they just keep on spending more than they're taking in on taxes. When they say they're going to cut the budget, they're just cutting the amount they had planned to increase their spending. It's like planning on buying a Ferrari next year--then saying they're going to cut back and *only* buy a Chevy.
Negro X| 12.5.10 @ 7:11PM
Stalin, Heywood,
I completely agree with your observations. The Departments of Ag, Ed. Energy and a host of other need to be abolished. The DoD needs to spend funds on warfighting not all of the social engineering BS that they currently waste time on.
Dave| 12.4.10 @ 12:44AM
If Congress would pay their taxes, and perhaps stop fleecing the tax payers with regular pay raises and lifetime wages, maybe the deficit would turn around.
Just a thought.
C. Hagen| 12.4.10 @ 6:39AM
Frankly, right off the bat, the author shows that he does not even understand the concept of American Exceptualism . He should start over and try again.
bornorange| 12.4.10 @ 6:55AM
At the heart of "American Exceptionalism" is a concept that fewer and fewer citizens are willing to state publicly... The US Constitution
guarantees equal opportunity... not equal results.
When asked about the poor and down-trodden, they say that the federal government will take care because "we care." The correct response is "Where is your family?""Where is your church?""Where is your community?""You'd better find help there because the federal and state governments aren't supporting you."
DaveS| 12.4.10 @ 7:46AM
Erskine Bowles was behind the ill-attempted, ill-conceived Al Gore Florida re-count debacle that everyone now concedes got better for GWB as time went on. Don't tell me he was doing his job. He's partisan, though professorial-looking. Alan Simpson, while a Senator, was a reasonable man. Here's the answer: call a debt-consolidation service (just kidding.) Stop the 'investment' in social spending - i.e. the always dumb Great Society stuff.
Oldefarte| 12.4.10 @ 11:39AM
IMO, there is only one solution to our current problems, and that is to drastically downsize government [since we cannot afford our historical/gradual increase in same to its current size]. Europe has traditionally provided social services greater than ours, along with their higher taxes needed to pay for same. Now they are collapsing toward bankruptcy because their governmental expenses are excessively unable to be paid by their excessive taxiation. In essense, they are the ultimate WELFARE STATE. This country is on the same path to destruction, with liberal politicians/Democrats providing governmental services that far outstripped our taxiation. The Democrats' welfarecare and nonstimulus legislation has exploded our government's defecit/debt to proportions unable to be funded/paid for by taxiation. We simply must reverse out welfare state status and do so quickly, otherwise bankruptcy of this country becomes a real possibility. Everything should be reduced/eliminated by our government, welfare, foreign/farm aid, space travel, education, Medicaid, excessive/unnecessary military expendatures [military bases included]. We simply need to put ourselves on a strict financial diet regarding our governments. We should not be taxed to death and beyond so that generations of cradle-to-grave governmental welfare recipients can continue to overpopulate this country free of charge, at taxpayer expense. Our politicians must accept the responsibility of their elected jobs and begin doing the hard work of downsizing our government!!!!!!!!!
Ronald E. Krick| 12.4.10 @ 1:27PM
Why not cut the size of the senators and representatives staffs and tell them to get thier salaries they need to go back to work themselves just like any other worker on any job. Work at least 8 hours a day 5 days a week and 52 weeks a year no vacations till after they work 1 full year.Then only if have not missed any days except national holidays. Whats good for the goose is good for the gander I say. Or if they still only want to work 120 days a year then they should only get 50% of thier pay. Also take away all the perks they enjoy at our expense put them back in to social security with us little people. No exspense accounts either.they can pay for everything just like us that pay our taxes.
beebop| 12.5.10 @ 7:07AM
While I understand where you are coming from -- and in the early years, the Congress met on a part time basis -- the world is more complicated.
What bothers me is when you have someone who in response to the question as to whether they had read a particular bill (I think it was the healthcare bill) "we pay people to read it" representing constituents.
We pay HIM to read the darn thing. That's HIS JOB. I find the craven dismissal of their job responsibilities unsufferable. And I don't care which party he/she belongs to. They should all be voted out.
Ray| 12.4.10 @ 1:34PM
"Fiscal commission proposals offer Americans a chance to decide what type of future they want. "
That's not true. It only "offers" a few politician alternatives that those to lead us, you know, our betters in government, will chose FOR us. It actually leaves the American public, in general, totally out of the decision making process, as all politicization "solutions" do. We, the People, have had enough of this already.
WhatWillYoudoWithoutFreedom| 12.4.10 @ 1:59PM
Washington is corrupt and everyone knows it. the problem is that we do not have enough time to put these people out of office before they completely ruin everything. we just had elections, and look at the people that they reelected. People like Nancy Pelosi, Perry Reed, this tells you the mindset of these highly populated areas. What we have people like Nancy Pelosi stand up and say that unemployment benefits create jobs that is a level of ignorance that I can't comprehend. But yet they reelected her. People have become accustomed to what they can get out of government. The real problem is government entitlements, but when the people vote for people that give them more entitlements we're screwed. What we need to get rid of is the Federal Reserve, limit the powers of the EPA, get rid of the national education Association, get rid of the federal organization that's in charge of our energy. These are just a few that need to go. These organizations are nothing more than government's attempt to control us.
Mr. Pro Soccer | 12.5.10 @ 3:14AM
Great Article, I hope americans read this article.
Andrew| 12.5.10 @ 12:51PM
People what We have here is a failure to understand what is really happening, the Devil is in charge of this world, and the second coming of Jesus Christ is at Our door! Read Mathew 24/7 most of Daniel and all of Revelations if You can handle the truth! MAY GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS AND MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA THE GREATEST NATION ON GODS GREEN EARTH!
chris haynes| 12.5.10 @ 9:15PM
America, the greatest nation on God's earth?
Not quite. But at least we maybe the greatest in something:
55 million abortions, the greatest holocaust in history. America's already more than 8 times what the Furher could do.
Legal abortion. One of those constitutional freedoms our military is defending. Against those bad Moslems.
Who happen to believe that all humans have inalienable rights. In Saudi and Iran, they ban abortion, and punish it severly.
Andrew| 12.6.10 @ 11:54PM
You made My point Chris about what is being allowed to happen in America, but the majority of the American People are what makes Us the Greatest, not the evil practices of the sick minority! In Iran and most Muslim Countries They don't have any Homosexuals because They kill Them!
cainandtoddbenson| 12.9.10 @ 2:19AM
"American Exceptionalism". Art, image. http://www.flickr.com/photos/c.....530242190/