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Throw the Book at Him
June 13, 2013 | 196 comments
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Testimonial to a Great American
June 6, 2013 | 39 comments
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A Close Call at the Newseum
May 30, 2013 | 7 comments
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Obama’s Imbroglios
May 23, 2013 | 45 comments
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My Rahm Reunion
May 16, 2013 | 16 comments
The Current Crisis
The Overextended America
The only way out is to reject the Obama Entitlement State for freedom and choice.
WASHINGTON — We in America today live in a country circumscribed by entitlement policies devised by an America that has steadily been disappearing. Those policies established over a generation ago cannot possibly in mathematical or demographic terms support the America of the present much less the America of the future. That is the stark reality. We need to reform those policies or we shall go bankrupt, and raising taxes on the so-called rich will not fix things. Even raising taxes on the middle class will not fix things. Nor will spending a trillion dollars more than we have on hand fix things. Eventually those trillion-dollar deficits have to be paid off. Facts are facts; the day of reckoning that our hayseed politicians have said was up the road a piece is here. We have to do something now and we can begin by growing the economy.
That is the burden of Chairman of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan’s carefully thought-out budget for fiscal year 2013. The way he would get the economy growing again is by lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to a more competitive 25 percent. He would allow American corporations to bring profits earned abroad home without penalty so that they could invest in jobs and factories here. His budget would eliminate the complexity of the tax code on individuals and families and consolidate the tax brackets from the current six brackets to two of 10 percent and 25 percent. He argues that revenue would remain steady because of the elimination of special-interest loopholes and because of economic growth.
As for confronting the budgetary overhang, the Ryan budget offers disciplined spending cuts that amount to $5.3 trillion over the next decade. He would return to the states the responsibility for federal programs such as food stamps and Medicaid, for at the state level the needs of the citizens are better understood than at the national level. He would reorganize education and job training and make Pell grants dependent on need. Taking on the major force behind our budgetary exigency, Ryan plans a complete overhaul of healthcare, eliminating Obamacare and reforming Medicare. For those in retirement or near retirement there would be no change in Medicare. For those facing retirement a decade from now the House budget provides guaranteed coverage for various options to be financed by “premium-support.” Recipients can bid for various options made available by competing insurance companies. As Ryan said in the Wall Street Journal the day before he announced his budget, “Forcing health plans to compete against each other is the best way to achieve high-quality coverage at the lowest cost….”
That same day Ryan announced on YouTube, “Americans have a choice to make — a choice that’s going to determine our country’s future. Will it be the future that looks like the America we know — one of greater opportunity, greater prosperity — or more of what we’re seeing today, debt, doubt, and decline?” That stress on choice is becoming a theme of Republicans as opposed to President Barack Obama’s Entitlement State.
Choice of one policy over another policy. Choice over the government straitjacket. Choice is the natural consequence of a people who believe in personal liberty.
By making choices in public policy one creates competition and all the benefits that come from competition. One creates better policies, policies suited for individuals’ varying needs. One creates efficiencies in distribution and in design of policies. Ever since the New Deal, the Nanny State mentality has been developing ever more intrusive policies to govern our lives and to limit our freedoms. The result is the Entitlement State and the trillions of dollars of looming debt. Paul Ryan and his Republican colleagues think their budget can eventually eliminate the debt and get the economy growing again. Moreover, they believe a sufficient number of Democrats are concerned about our freedom and the budget overhang to act in a bipartisan manner at least on some of the matters he has taken up. We shall see, but for now the Senate Democrats have not even attempted a budget in three years!
About the Author
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (84) | Leave a comment
More Articles by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
More Articles From The Current Crisis
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/03/22/the-overextended-america
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Appleby| 3.22.12 @ 6:55AM
I foresee Greece on the horizon as the Occupiers start their Spring Shriek-In and tents begin to spring up once again. We're already starting to have it up here in Kanukistan; everything that can go on strike is going -- even the librarians are on strike, although people are pointing out that libraries are quaint institutions of yesteryear and even Encyclopedia Brittanica no longer publishes paper volumes because they're out of date well before they're published, and anyway most people can't read and need bang-flash audio-video to explain the world to them.
If there is anything to be done about America, it will have to be done by the last two generations that existed before TweetWorld took over; and frankly, my dear, we're tired of being in charge. We are going to move into locations where nobody under 60 ia permitted, and y'all can figure it out.
Write us when you get work. If you can.
Jack in Wi.| 3.22.12 @ 7:27AM
There is no chance that this country can return to fiscal sanity if it keeps spending trillions of dollars on worldwide warfare and other hole in the pocket foreign aid. When the warfare state has been slashed 50% and the corporate welfare has been slashed totally, then maybe we can talk about cutting entitlements and foodstamps for Americans.
I work as a volunteer for a group of peoploe who supply over 1200 food pantries and soup kitchens with surplus and stale food, in the greater Milwaukee area. Most of the food is supplied by manufacturers and stores who are very generous. The food disappears from the shelves and kitchens at a fast rate.
This depression has been going on for over 4 years. Neither party wants to get to the heart of the matter. We are spending too much money too foolishly. Ryan's plan is not sellable as long as it concentrates on tax cuts for the rich and benefit cuts for the middle class and destitute.
richard ryan| 3.22.12 @ 7:53AM
War spending? Drop in the bucket. Look at the projections for entitlement liabilities. Over 100 Trillion bucks.
The figures used to describe the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan should deduct the cost of maintaining the men and equipment if they were at home. So the figures are greatly overstated, just like the Troll Rosie overstated the number of civilian deaths.
We don't manufacture much of anything in this country anymore. Some of the things we do make are these: MREs, Kevlar, Humvee armor, guns, ships, etc. So is the defense spending thrown down the crapper like most federal spending? No, not by a long shot. It helps grow the economy of the localities that host these factories.
Lee Ghume| 3.22.12 @ 8:03AM
Oy r ryan, we make plenty of stuff in the USA, we just do it with fewer assembly line drones. Machines and robots have replaced thousands of manufacturing jobs, but we still crank out the best made products for your dollar. Walter W. Williams has written a few op-eds on the subject and he refutes the misnomer that our manufacturing base is eroding.
Mac Jehoff| 3.22.12 @ 7:53AM
Yo hosehead, in case you did not notice your Barry boy ended the "worldwide warfare" you disdain. As long as your commie pals take the hard earned dollars away from those who earned it to give it to those who want it, our Federal deficits will not go away. You, Jack, can not see the forest for the cheese.
Jack in Wi.| 3.22.12 @ 8:55AM
Obama hasn't stopped poo poo. He wants wars all over Africa. He hasn't cut one base. It is true that he has pulled most of the troops from Iraq, but most of them are stagged elsewhere in the Middle East. The peanuts he has proposed cutting on the defense budget are just a drop in the bucket compared to what should be done. If we didn't have all that waste defending people that mostly don't want us around, we would never be in the fiscal mess we are in. The Cold War has been over for 20 years. We should have pulled the troops home then and we would have much less debt. Now we are in a fiscal mess that no one wants to address.
One if by land...| 3.22.12 @ 4:26PM
Poor people don't pay taxes now you firggin IDIOT!!! How are you so stupid???? I really wish I could jump through the computer, end up in front of you, and beat you to the brink of death! READ moron! READ!!!!! I already knew you were stupid Jack, but today I must be man-raging becasue you really hit a nerve today.
markenoff| 3.23.12 @ 12:50AM
Unlike 90% of what the federal government does including Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, funding for Planned Parenthood, PBS, the NEA, the NEH etc, providing for the common defense and defending the states from invasion are not only allowed by the Constitution but required by the Constitution. The key to fiscal sanity is getting the federal government out of all the areas it is not Constitutionally required to be in. Not every good idea should be funded by the federal government.
BTW I'm glad to see we agree that the corporate welfare that Obama provided to Solyndra, SunPower etc. is a waste of money as well as the subsidies to GM for the Volt and subsidies for ethonal that go to ADM are a waste as well.
Alan Brooks| 3.22.12 @ 12:26PM
Jack is correct, see Paul Kennedy's book on imperial overstretch-
and it was published in 1987.
Alan Brooks| 3.22.12 @ 12:28PM
... but Obama isn't culpable, it started when the Cold War ended in 1991, with the Soviet Union's dissolution.
Jack in Wi.| 3.22.12 @ 3:19PM
Alan: Obama is plenty culpable. He could have brought home the troops from the first day he entered office. Instead he has expanded our wars from Afganistan to all over Africa. In the end he will go anywhere his handlers tell him to go.
markenoff| 3.23.12 @ 12:52AM
At least he closed Gitmo...oh wait, he didn't.
Well ate least he ended Predator drone strikes. Oh wait, he expanded them to include executing suspected terrorists and their families by push button.
Well at least he ended renditions. Oh wait...
One if by land...| 3.22.12 @ 4:27PM
Said one moron to the other
BruceTi| 3.22.12 @ 7:06AM
Since about three out of four registered voters are white, and since most whites vote GOP, the logical strategy for the GOP to win would be to motivate the native born white vote. Why? Because each percentage point of the white vote is "weighted" much more heavily than a percentage of the black, latino, etc. vote.
This is also a caution to the GOP that mass immigration will put your party into the dustbin since most immigrants are "non-white" and most non-white people vote liberal/Democrat.
Indy| 3.22.12 @ 7:33AM
"most whites vote GOP"
source please
BruceTi| 3.22.12 @ 1:21PM
Examine the results of the 2008 election, 2004 election, 2000 election, 1996 election, shall I continue?
Indy| 3.22.12 @ 8:26PM
No source, blanket statements with no links, I won't waste my time. How did Obama win if most whites vote GOP? The far left media is mostly white, do you really think they vote GOP?
Jack in Wi.| 3.22.12 @ 7:37AM
The Democrats have been the party of most immigrants for at least 150 years. They have lost plenty of elections. We have to appeal to all people on a rational basis. Many immigrants have moved into the middle and even upper classes. They are prime candidates for the Republicans if they put forth good candidates and programs. The probable Republican candidate Romney has neither. He would waste trillions more on war and has no real program to address the massive disaster that the country is experiencing. He is Bush Redoux. That is another elitist, who can't connect with the average person.
Of course the Republicans would not have to worry so much about immigration if they hadn't pushed abortion so much in the 60's and early 70's. 60 million aborted babies have been replaced by 60 million, mostly 3rd world immigrants. Somebody has to do the work that those babies would have been doing.
BruceTi| 3.22.12 @ 1:48PM
95% of blacks vote Democrat. 75% of Latinos vote Dem. Roughly 66% of Asians vote Dem. Some 85% of Arabs/Muslims vote Dem.
Every election, approximately 55-57% of native born white Americans vote Repubilcan.
Democrats/leftists/socialists/limp-wrists/U-W Madison types win when they add more "non-white" people to the country via immigration.
Do the math.
One if by land...| 3.22.12 @ 4:28PM
Becasue they get HANDOUTS!!!!!
vtwin| 3.22.12 @ 9:54AM
I think exit polls confirm that more white men and older voters vote GOP but almost all of other demographic groups, women, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and the young favor Democrats. And the Democrat’s overall demographic advantage is increasing by 2% ever four years according to a recent article in the NYT.
vtwin| 3.22.12 @ 10:19AM
The so-called millennial generation (those born between 1978 and 2000) is adding 4 million eligible voters every year, and this group voted for Obama by a whopping 66-32 margin. And by 2020 the first presidential election in which all millennials will have reached voting age will represent about 40% of all voters. The Republicons will have to change or go the way of the Whigs.
Tim the Enchanter| 3.22.12 @ 12:59PM
I still want to know where you got your sparkly pink handlebar streamers for your tricycle.
Dmac | 3.22.12 @ 1:50PM
Why, there won't be a Democratic party in 2020. Of course their may not be a Republican party either as both of the suck! However with this Preseident there is a very good chance there will be one party, Communist.
idalily| 3.22.12 @ 4:12PM
"this group voted for Obama by a whopping 66-32 margin."
Yep, and Obama thanked them for their vote by raising their unemployment rate to 26%. I doubt as many will be going to the polls this time around. I hope they are a little older and wiser than they were in 2008.
Bob| 3.23.12 @ 3:25AM
When you've been enslaved by the Democrat Party with welfare, you're not gonna vote against your masters.
JRC| 3.22.12 @ 6:28PM
What do you think the GOP has done for the past 50 years? The only way to increase the white vote for the GOP (as if it could get any whiter) is to move the party in a more liberal direction to attract the scores of white suburbanites in the Northeast who've abandoned the party since the George H W Bush administration.
Bob| 3.23.12 @ 3:27AM
And you can bet that when the liberals advocating for "voters rights", DREAM, and immediate citizenship of illegals get their way, they will have handed millions and millions more voters to the Democrat Party.
Von Mises Jr.| 3.22.12 @ 7:37AM
While the United States has the resources, technology and infrastructure to return to prosperity, it will require return to the rule of law and property rights. The royalties on oil and gas alone are enough to pay the hard debt of $15T.
But the problem is that they government through sub-prime, Agenda21, Foreclosure Acts, and buying up oil and minerals rich land to take offline will destroy all property rights and the financial system. If you do not have property rights, you do not have freedom!
That is why 2012 is so crucial. If the housing markets are not allowed to bottom out and heal, instead of the current course of "Smart Growth" to destroy home values for the government to grab on the cheap; the people will not have the most basic of their wealth maintained. If oil and gas is not opened up to private, competitive markets; the government will control the wealth of the nation at your peril.
This is not just why Obama and Reid must go, but any congressional or state official that passes Agenda21, Foreclosure Acts or prevents opening up access to energy. This includes Liberal RINO Republicans such as Chris Christie who is about to sign Agenda21 into regulation by Executive Order, and his government in Trenton foreclosing and advancing "affordable housing."
darcy| 3.22.12 @ 4:58PM
Thank you for the information on "Smart Growth" and Agenda21 -- which we ignore at our peril.
Chris Christie should be sent to the woodshed and whipped.
Indy| 3.22.12 @ 7:37AM
This video in 3 minutes illustrates the problem with our debt and what it includes that the media refuses to cover is the impact of interest rates.
http://www.learnliberty.org/vi.....-much-debt
Remember, Bernanke promised to hold interest rates down through 2014...big trouble to come and sooner rather than later.
John786| 3.22.12 @ 8:05AM
A bit less on defence. Fewer wars. A sane health system. A bit more taxes on capital gains. Not much required to put this ship on an even keel.
Indy| 3.22.12 @ 8:12AM
I disagree, there is no trimming around the edges, massive changes are needed and yes, big spending cuts. Why Ryan leaves the baseline at current spending levels boggles the mind, how can he leave the stimulus spending in the baseline? He is right to reform Medicare but not touching the baseline is a huge mistake. I like a blend of the Ryan plan and the Senate plan proposed by Lee, Paul and DeMint
darcy| 3.22.12 @ 5:01PM
Ryan's plan does not restore mark-to-market accounting nor does it force the Feds out of the student loan "market." These issues must be addressed immediately.
vtwin| 3.22.12 @ 9:33AM
I agree, the defense department needs cutting, let Israel fight her own wars, end the deficit causing Bush tax cuts and capital gains should be tax at the same rate as EARNED income, and with the Bush recession ending, thanks to Obama’s leadership, tax receipts will increase and government expenditures (unemployment, food stamps …) will decrease.
wally| 3.22.12 @ 9:44AM
What a maroon.....
vtwin| 3.22.12 @ 10:33AM
Dark brownish-red?
jppc| 3.22.12 @ 1:24PM
Yes, a bit less on social programs in the DoD, for women, mooooslims, gays, etc. More for weapons - Navy ships, Army tanks, Air Force combat aircraft.
Repsect the will of the majority of Americans - repeal Obamacare ASAP. It is a diasaster. Realize the purpose of Obamacare is to transfer wealth from the white middle class to latino and moooslim "immigrants".
Cut captial gains taxes and all income taxes - let the left-liberals-democrats get out of their mommy's basement and find productive work and stop relying on Barry Soetoro and other smooth talking race-baiting flim-flam men.
Bill Husssein O'Stalin| 3.22.12 @ 8:19AM
The reason the Democrats will not pass a budget is the simplest of all reasons. They don't want the public to see what they are up to with their evil plans. It's just that simple.
darcy| 3.22.12 @ 5:11PM
You're right about that. Once it's in black and white they expose themselves to scrutiny.
Who was it that recently said that "The only people who don't want to discuss the truth are people with something to hide"?
Oh, dear! Was that Obama?? Well, he should know about such things. Amazing, isn't it, how they tell us the truth in every lie and misdirection they utter? For every lie about others is the truth about themselves.
vtwin| 3.22.12 @ 8:36AM
American corporations don’t manufacture overseas because the corporate tax rate is 35 percent nor will lowing the corporate tax rate to 25 percent incentivize American corporations to repatriate outsourced manufacturing jobs. American corporations have moved and continue to move manufacturing overseas because wage costs are lower in Asia. Lowing American corporate tax rate will increase the profit margin for the investors of American corporations but at the expense of increasing our nation’s debt.
wally| 3.22.12 @ 9:45AM
Wrong again, Watson.
Douglas Fletcher | 3.22.12 @ 1:05PM
Thank you, Dr. Friendman.
Mike Hawk| 3.22.12 @ 3:42PM
Obviously lacking any education in accounting or economics outside of SEIU.
Bill| 3.22.12 @ 9:18AM
Paul Ryan is a legend.........Jack Kemp, Milton Friedman, William Buckley.................
Bill| 3.22.12 @ 9:18AM
Paul Ryan is a legend.........Jack Kemp, Milton Friedman, William Buckley.................
vtwin| 3.22.12 @ 9:23AM
“He would return to the states the responsibility for federal programs such as food stamps and Medicaid, for at the state level the needs of the citizens are better understood than at the national level.”
Emmett, please explain how nutrition and healthcare needs of the poor differ depending on which state borders one resides in.
idalily| 3.22.12 @ 4:15PM
Because at the state level, the people have better control over it and by having the ability to leave it by moving to another state. Why is states' rights such a difficult concept for leftists?
One if by land...| 3.22.12 @ 4:31PM
I'm not wealthy but manage to feed and clothe myself. So, tell my why others in my economic circle or below would even need state assistance? Work for what you need!
markenoff| 3.23.12 @ 12:56AM
vtwin please cite where in the Constitution the federal government is allowed, let alone required to pay for the nutrition and healthcare needs of the poor.
Bob| 3.23.12 @ 3:19AM
Come on, surely you must appreciate that the costs of living in, say, South Dakota are dramatically different to the costs of living in New York. We don't all live in one mega-metropolis (yet).
Dmac | 3.22.12 @ 9:29AM
This budget proposal is a joke. Why can't someone on the right just stand up and say whats needed and proopose it. We need to cut any able bodied person off the welfare rolls after 1yr. They can move in with family or go to the church for charity.
We can cut defense more, but do it buy telling the suppliers we aren't going to pay the price they want. Thrity five million for one fighter jet? Ridiculous!
Make it the law of the land, like it was years ago that it is illegal for Americans to have an overseas bank account and include corporations in on that. They should pay some tax on their overseas profits, lord knows they don't pay much as it is with all the deductions they have.
Have every American pay some tax on their wages. Do not give anyone a bigger tax refund than what they paid in to the federal government for the year. You wanna have eight kids, fine. You pay for them.
For Ryan to even suggest lowering the tax rate on the wealthiest Americans when we are in such financial trouble is just plain stupid! All it does is give the Democrats ammunition and prove that they were right all along. The Republicans only care about their rich friends.
Douglas Fletcher | 3.22.12 @ 1:06PM
Read a book, would you?
Dmac | 3.22.12 @ 1:56PM
I did, I've read several, most of them History books. I especially enjoy reading about our founding fathers, and they wouldn't like what either party is doing in Washington.
Whats more, they would think of the current citizens of this country as cowardly serfs. Remeber Doug, they fought a revolution against the strongest military power in the world and won so we could live as free men. Just how free are you? Been to the airport lately.
Now, please get back to New York Times and don't let my comments bother you a bit.
I'm a conservative Doug. Not a Republican, a conservative and I don't appreciate pussy politians who refuse to stand up and do whats right. Either serve or resign and give someone else a chance to do something good for the country.
One if by land...| 3.22.12 @ 4:33PM
So how many people do poor people employ? Answer that one wonder boy! NONE! Rich people? ALMOST EVERYONE!!! Sure, tax the providers.
Petronius| 3.22.12 @ 11:18AM
Eliminate all spending not originally mandated in the Constitution and eliminate all cabinet departments instituted after 1912. This country has one last chance to grow up or it's finished.
darcy| 3.22.12 @ 5:24PM
Agreed. Meanwhile, the establishment candidate, Romney, would like to install a Department of Early Childhood Education, paving the way for government-controlled pre-school.
Gotta love a Party that's eager to foist on us yet another statist to enlarge and cement the government's footprint. The R's and D's, that's what they live for, seeing in us, the hard-working people of America, a well to drain dry and exploit for the sheer hell of bringing us to heel.
Tim| 3.22.12 @ 11:25AM
The problem as many have stated over and over is that with so many millions on the public welfare system......free lunch.....it will be next to impossible to have these folks vote against their own interests and elect a very wealthy man as president.
If there isn't a passionate reason to go to the polls Obama wins re election.
The constitution freedoms and liberty mean a great deal to us on this site but to the average Joe who can't make a house payment while working two jobs getting a free lunch trumps these things.
It's not right, or just its just reality!
The only chance is to tie social issues, the war on religion etc to this economy melt down if not Obama wins.....and then in 2016 there will be no country left except through a massive revolution which won't happen because the power brokers control the Cops.
Dmac | 3.22.12 @ 1:12PM
Real talk of states seceding from the U.S. is going to hopefully get the attention of those in Washington. Maybe the govenors of the states will come to their senses and call a Continental Congress.
As for the cops being owned by the government, they've cut police protection down to nothing over the years. The military is not going to fight its own citizens if a real revolution breaks out. Military people take an oath to the Constitution, not the President, nor are they bound to perform an illegal order. Go to the Oathkeepers site and see whats oing on.
Bob| 3.23.12 @ 3:17AM
I wonder if Obama's dramatic expansion of drone use in Afghanistan, and reports that police state-side will employ drones "only for surveillance", has anything to do with that.
RJ| 3.22.12 @ 1:00PM
America as a society has lived beyond its means for the last few decades and no serious-minded person can deny that the Federal government and many of the state governments have made more promises than they can provide. The status quo is unsustainable. We can either reform it voluntarily or it will be more harshly forced upon us.
As my former economics professor said years ago, the maserati is heading towards the brick wall at 150 mph. No one in Washington denies this, they only dispute what the crash will look like.
Pat| 3.22.12 @ 4:13PM
In President Obama’s famous Guns vs. Concrete proposal, the $400 billion in new highway construction planned for the next 6 years would be paid for by cuts in military and defense. Consequently, the $55 billion in defense budget cuts proposed for 2013 would be a mere down payment on a plan everyone, Republicans and Democrats alike, should support since it promises needed economic recovery related in some unexplained fashion to pouring concrete. However, $400 billion in new highway construction doesn’t buy much happy motoring according to Washington cost accountants. For that amount of money, we could potentially see a completely renovated stretch of interstate between Salt Lake City and Wendover, Nevada. Or possibly as far as Elko, Nevada if we drastically cut back on re-tiling the bathrooms within the 3 rest stops.
Now some might argue that $400 billion is outrageously high to repave I-80 for only a couple hundred miles of desert but Obama’s cost accounting methodology was modeled on his previous Stimulus Plan estimation techniques.
First, you must set aside special grants to teachers’ unions for re-hiring teachers cut during the recession, although the reasons why aren’t entirely clear. Next, you must set aside funds to underwrite loans to recently formed companies who are developing new types of concrete which are kind to the environment. Basically, this revolutionary “Green” concrete dissolves into bio-degradable peanuts which are then eaten by endangered species who inhabit desert climates. Other money must go to health care plans and catch-up pension contributions for all federal employees within the Highway Department – and with this massive Salt Lake to Elko building program, the Highway Department plans to add 5,000 new employees.
Toward the bottom of the cost estimate sheet, there is a one line provision for $200 billion in miscellaneous expenses, which is based on a standard percentage factor used within every federal spending program for money which always seems to disappear without a trace – we should honestly acknowledge these mysterious and unavoidable miscellaneous expenses never fail to occur, especially under the Democrats. We, as a nation, will be indeed fortunate if the promised $400 billion is enough to extend concrete all the way to Elko, but as taxpayers we must agree this proposed highway spending program is very necessary to our economic future and well worth the reduction in our military readiness.
Bob| 3.23.12 @ 3:14AM
He should just put highway construction under defense spending. It's how Eisenhower got Congress to pay for the Interstate Highway System. It's an unprecedented public works project whose costs were tremendous, but if it could help protect against the Soviets, we need it. Then Obama can trim the "evil" military that only kills innocent civilians while telling opponents he didn't really cut anything, and he can pay off his union supporters at the same time.
Ralph Novy| 3.24.12 @ 8:44PM
Hey, Bob, I know you're being more than a bit "facetious," here ... but, at the bottom line, I think you're right.
If it takes selling a massive infrastructure program as a "defense" or "security" measure -- fine and dandy.
Because ...............that's the truth!
That's what Eisenhower recognized: We're only "safe and secure" insofar as our infrastructure is sound.
Duh.
cicero| 3.22.12 @ 4:55PM
Indy was the only one that caught the flaw in Ryan's budget. Sure, he has begun a process that may get the country back on the roadd to fiscal sanity. However, starting with the assumption that insanity is the new normao won't help much. The baseline has to go back to the last Republican budget - 2006/7. To start with our foot in a $1.2 trillion hole is to declare defeat, and then pick a fight.
Ralph Novy| 3.24.12 @ 8:51PM
100% wrong, cicero.
First of all, we have to start with our feet in that $1.2 trillion dollar (or more) hole, like it or not.
The question is where and how we go from there.
No?
Now...........Do we go down the path of Greenspan, Gramm, et al.? (Which turned out so well.) Or do we go down the path of Krugman, Johnson, et al.?
If nothing else has proven the validity of Keynesianism, the last 5 years in the US have.
If you've got HARD facts/statistics to regiment against what I've said ... bring it on.
JRC| 3.22.12 @ 6:06PM
I've noticed the more intelligent commenters have already noted how no GOP notable has yet to propose cutting the foremost example of right-wing entitlement spending: defense. The US spends 800 billion vs. 500 billion for the rest of the world combined. We can cut that monster by 60% and we'd still outspend Russia and China combined. No Republican proposes eliminating other right-wing entitlements such as agriculture subsidies, either.
As far the civilian entitlements are concerned, Social Security can be made completely solvent with removing the payroll tax limit of $109,000 a year and raising the age of retirement to 67. Health care cost reduction requires the institution of a single-payer system since the for-profit health insurance model is flawed beyond repair and not worthy of citizens in a developed nation.
Medicaid expenses come from nursing home care and end-of-life treatment for the elderly indigent. Food stamps are above all an agricultural subsidy. Reforming health care and eliminating the agriculture subsidies will reduce the costs of both.
And, yes, Virginia, we will need to raise income taxes, too. Especially on the rich, and even on their "interest carried forward", since they have the money to spare to pay them.
darcy| 3.22.12 @ 9:34PM
JRC: Pardon me for butting my nose in, but in an earlier age, before women were found to be "oppressed" at home and then actually did become oppressed by the state which fashioned laws and encouraged a culture friendly to feminist goals, the elderly were taken care of by their CHILDREN. Grown-up women and their husbands actually took care of their aging parents, at home. Sure, it was something of a burden, but it was the right thing to do (postmodernism has no concept of right and wrong, only what's expedient), and grateful adults were honored to be able to give back to their parents something of what their parents had sacrificed for them.
This whole liberal mindset must be exposed for the selfish hedonism it actually is: that one would give over to the state what is their natural obligation to their parents in order to live a "fulfilled" and self-actualized life is nothing but Satanic lies and a pack of garbage.
Nursing homes for the elderly should be a last resort to people who were childless or had children who pre-deceased them. And this should be the case not as a matter of state diktat but should be the desire and result of a culture who places value in concepts such as gratitude, honor, duty, and self-sacrifice, terms totally lost on today's self-absorbed worshipper of the state and its "noble" directives.
Bob| 3.23.12 @ 3:06AM
Whenever I hear on TV, movies, etc. characters talking about the in-laws with derision, I cringe. The media is making it appear as if everyone hates their in-laws. They're accelerating cultural decay by making it look normal that you aren't supposed to care for the in-laws. The media message is, "forget the in-laws, put them in a nursing home and live it up." There is no honor in the media and the culture they're trying to force on us.
Ralph Novy| 3.24.12 @ 8:36PM
I agree. In-laws have gotten a bad rap in the media -- for 100 years+.
By the way, have you seen "The In-Laws" with Alan Arkin and Peter Falk?
A hoot.
Ralph Novy| 3.24.12 @ 8:40PM
Yeah, the elderly were "taken care of" by their children -- i.e., shoved into the basement or a back room.
You weren't there, darcy. You obviously haven't listened to your elders. You obviously haven't read social history. You're full of shit. The elderly's plight before the New Deal was real and bleak.
So before you go spewing anymore "that's not necessary" crap out of your mouth, do some reading. Bitch.
billg| 3.22.12 @ 10:28PM
Defense cuts- Ron Pau and Jim Demint come to mind as 2 Repubs who are wiolling to cut or reducethe growth of defense spending
markenoff| 3.23.12 @ 12:59AM
Defense spending, unlike most federal spending, is actually required by the Constitution. Eliminate the spending not required by the Constitution and the deficit and debt disappear.
Bob| 3.23.12 @ 3:02AM
Agriculture subsidies are right-wing now? Well, I guess after Congress terminated the failed experiment that is ethanol subsidies that did nothing to lower gas prices and was less "green" that just using petrol straight up, what's left has to be right-wing right?
Hopefully Obama will cut the trips he and his family take. Those secret service agents cost a lot of money, and he definitely does not have "the money to spare" to pay for them.
Ralph Novy| 3.24.12 @ 8:54PM
Good points, JRC.
These folks here at Spectator need to here MORE of this stuff. They're awfully unacquainted with "facts."
POST American| 3.23.12 @ 12:36AM
----------------------FINAL WORD--------------------------
And even now, just a year on from the
ever so agenda 'friendly' FUKISHIMA
world nuclear disaster, involving 6
flawed GE MOX reactors ------GE itself,
under the uspices of Jeff 'I--Melt-down'
is building dirty plants across RED China
and the world ---TAX FREE and even
---underwritten, by -------US.
Just a little REALITY CHECK in this,
the 11th hour of the CFR Globalist RED
China handover and takedown op.
CIAO!
Bob| 3.23.12 @ 2:58AM
Lowering the corporate tax rate will have a very real effect. When I worked at a start-up, a company funded by venture capitalists where employees are typically paid in stock with a lower-than-industry-average wage, the CEO once called a meeting to discuss how to best use the stock to make the most money. Most of the financial terms were beyond me, but he based his recommendations on the fact that capital gains tax was lower than corporate tax, so obviously you do what makes you more money. If you lower the corporate tax, that will bring back more companies who will make more money in the US than they would abroad.
Follow the money!
Ralph Novy| 3.24.12 @ 8:31PM
"We in America today live in a country circumscribed by entitlement policies devised by an America that has steadily been disappearing."
Wow. That is so stunningly stupid!
It's like "you've been keeping alive traditions that were dead before you were born."
How often do you think about the things your write, Mr. Tyrrell? Or think about the things you think about?
Godfrey Daniels!
Go back to the drawing board and try to craft a decent self for yourself, son.
High amongst the tactics I suggest for doing so would be: listening, reading, thinking -- pretty much in that order.
Until you've accomplished your "remake," you'll be nothing but a jizzrag like Tucker Carlson.
I'd strongly advise you against THAT.
LOL
Ralph Novy| 3.24.12 @ 8:57PM
You know, Tyrrell: Would that you had applied that title, "Overextended America" to the US's military overreach around the world -- and the consequent bloating of the "defense" budget.
But you didn't.
Instead, you misapplied it to domestic investment.
Shame on you.
POST American| 3.27.12 @ 2:52AM
"America has one FINAL task before its
own takedown is completed and RED China's
brought in as 'Model for the World' --and
'World Enforcer' ----and that's to 'bring in'
(GM food/ standardization/ cultural annihilation/
franchise slums and EUGENICS) the recalcitrant
middle east."
Infomed Online
In this, the 11th hour of the CFR Globalist RED
China handover, takedown, TREASON and
FINAL EUGENICS OP ---and probably just
a few years away from full-blown, boots to
the ground RED Chinese-Globalist managed
'receivership' --------------UH-------------------
anyone care to DENY or dispute this reading?
WE'LL WAIT. . . . . . .
Tom H| 4.10.12 @ 8:58AM
Quit acting like highly educated Gods of Government, speaking 'down' to the people! Throw away the Thesaurus, and write this article for 'the common man'. Using the word "exigency", rather than "need", is a perfect example of why your ideas ring with the 'average American', as a THUD! I do not mean that you should write articles as if you were a third-grader. But, it is irritating to see how you view your style as THE WAY to communicate your ideas, when the reader must wander through your poor writing.... And yes, it is poor writing, when it does not communicate your idea in a manner that makes for easy reading..... After-all, you are trying to promote an idea, not shove it down America's throat... Or, perhaps that is EXACTLY what you plan to do, if you ever get enough political power..... Drop the lawyerize act, please!