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The Spectacle Blog
In a useful exercise, David Frum lists the four budget priorities the Republicans will have to reconcile:
1) No tax increase
2) No defense cuts
3) No Medicare cuts
4) Rapid move to a balanced budget.Obviously it’s impossible to meet all four of those commitments. It would be difficult enough to combine #4 with even two of the first three.
My own view is that we keep commitments #1 and #4 by jettisoning the middle two, though until unemployment falls further my preference would be to focus on making the debt levels more sustainable rather than achieving a balanced budget per se. How about you?
View all comments (12) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/02/16/battling-budget-priorities
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Andrew Keirns| 2.16.11 @ 3:05PM
Qualify "cut" and "rapid" ...
Cut = reduction in current growth of spending? Rapid = ten years?
Grant Johnson| 2.16.11 @ 3:45PM
Even most senators will have two elections before ten years are up. Cuts ten years out will never happen. That is just a way for politicians to pretend they are in favor of cuts while ladling out the pork for the next cycle.
If the last election was not a mandate to get serious now about government excess, we may never have one.
PattyMor| 2.16.11 @ 3:05PM
Medicare and Medicad will HAVE to be cut. They are the biggest drivers of the deficits. But it could be done humanely. Bigger subsidies for the poor and less for the well off. And citizens being more responsible for themselves. You can't just retire and 65 and throw you hands up and say save me.
Chris| 2.16.11 @ 3:32PM
Hold the line on #1.
Cuts have to be made with regards to #2, if only to show that everything is on the table.
Accepting #3, kills #4. I vote we sacrifice #3.
Right now, the Republicans have one chance to prove they can be responsible. If they do behave responsibly, then even if they lose in 2012 because of it, they'll have better long term prospects. If they behave as before, they are doomed.
Also, Frum is a moron.
Grant Johnson| 2.16.11 @ 3:49PM
Couldn't agree more. Republicans did not win a vote of confidence in the last election. They are very much on probation, given the opportunity to lead again only because the alternative had so quickly proved itself so disastrously bad.
George| 2.16.11 @ 4:32PM
Start with entitlements by means testing medicare and social security. They are welfare programs, so let's treat it as such. We can reform it later. With defense, start by closing bases around the world. Open some new bases here in the U.S. on the Mexican border. Small savings but money spent will go into our local economies and not Japan or Germany, etc. Huge cuts to domestic programs. Just a start, but it moves us in the right direction.
Oldefarte| 2.16.11 @ 4:38PM
#1-NO,never
#2-YES, all WASTEFUL/UNNECESSARY military spending
#3-NO, force governmental repayment of historical thefts from SS Trust Fund; and remove salary maximum limitation to SS taxiation
#4-YES
[Additional #5]-Immidiate implementation of utilitization review of every governmental program as to its necessitation under current economic conditions; and removal/defunding of any program not so qualifying!!!!!!!!!
Clint| 2.16.11 @ 6:31PM
Dr.Ron Paul:
"Medicare similarly faces a shortfall of $30.8 trillion in unfunded future benefits. The Part D prescription drug benefit accounts for approximately $15.5 trillion, or half of the unfunded Medicare liability. Congress should immediately repeal the disastrous drug benefit passed in 2003 by President Bush and a Republican Congress.
Why exactly should Americans be required, by force of taxation, to fund retirement or medical care for senior citizens, especially senior citizens who are comfortable financially? And if taxpayers provide retirement and health care benefits to some older Americans who are less well off, can’t we just call it welfare instead of maintaining the charade about “insurance” and “trust funds”?
Clint| 2.16.11 @ 6:46PM
“During my 1980 campaign, I called federal waste and fraud a national scandal. We knew we could never rebuild America’s strength without first controlling the exploding cost of defense programs, and we’re doing it. When we took office in 1981, costs had been escalating at an annual rate of 14 percent. Then we began our reforms. And in the last two years, cost increases have fallen to less than 1 percent. We’ve made huge savings. Each F-18 fighter costs nearly $4 million less today than in 1981. One of our air-to-air missiles costs barely half as much.
Getting control of the defense bureaucracy is no small task. Each year the Defense Department signs hundreds of thousands of contracts. So yes, a horror story will sometimes turn up despite our best efforts. That’s why we appointed the first Inspector General in the history of the Defense Department. And virtually every case of fraud or abuse has been uncovered by our Defense Department, our Inspector General. Secretary Weinberger should be praised, not pilloried, for cleaning the skeletons out of the closet. As for those few who have cheated taxpayers or have swindled our Armed Forces with faulty equipment, they are thieves stealing from the arsenal of democracy, and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Clint| 2.16.11 @ 6:49PM
Above: Ronald Reagan February 1986.
ThatJoeGuy| 2.16.11 @ 9:41PM
First things first; Cut corporate taxes and eliminate (or holiday) capital gains taxes. Give this a year to get the economy back up and running like a freight-train. Its gonna hurt over the short haul but we need to look long term. Once the economy is on the rebound then start slicing up the budget including the entitlements.
With a booming economy this gives those coming off the entitlements a place to go.
Regarding the cost of running the government again I'll go back to 1) Eliminate ANY pensions for any elected officials except President and the Supreme's. Get the career politicians out of there.
2) All federal employees have a career of no more then ten years as a federal employee except in those positions regarding national security (for continuity). It'll look good on their resumes and we don't have to deal with pensions for them either.
Just my thoughts.
Teflon93| 2.16.11 @ 11:07PM
Gee, maybe reducing spending to 2008 levels first might help?
Why should we lock in the Obama bubble into the baseline budget?