Obama and the Debt Ceiling: Fooling Most of the People Most of the Time?

President Obama is at least consistent (as, I am afraid, are many Republicans in the Republican establishment). In his press conference on the "debt crisis", and debt ceiling talks, Obama proposed the same FRAUD. You heard him. He actually told you what he is dioing. President Obama said this: "Once we 'solve' (lol--editorial comment) our long-term debt problem with a 'big deal', then we can concentrate on what we need to do on jobs. Once that is off of the table, we can talk about the investments we need to make to grow the economy." (not quite an exact quote, but almost)


This is President' Obama's idea of a "compromise" "solving" the debt prolbem. Propose TAX INCREASES for the future, which may or may not go into effect, but which will supposedly be put in place BEFORE any real spending cuts. Do yet another "stimulus" NOW, by extending unemployment insurance benefits yet again and extending that WELFARE PAYMENT known as a "payroll tax cut" (thereby INCREASING the debt and current deficit). Propose "spending cuts" for the FAR FUTURE, which will either never take place or are the result of already planned events not having anything to do with "cuts" (such as the planned end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and maybe even Libya). Then President Obama will declare the debt and deficit problem SOLVED (lol again--what else can you do about an Orwellian Big Lie this blatant).


Once Presidentg Obama HYPES whatever fraudulent "big deal' he has gotten establishment Republicans to agree to--thereby killing off lthe Republican Party--Obama itends to ask for INCREASED SPENDING. In other words, Obama intends to declare the debt/defict problem "solved", at the same time he INCREASES the current problem. The wish list is long. Infrastructure bank (in the great tradition of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which alomst bankrupted this country?). Yep. That is on the list, and Obama says it will "cost very little". Uh-huh. And I have this bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell you, or this former "quasi-government" company (Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae) that you can have if you will just assume the TRILLIONS in debt now the responsibility of the American taxpayer. Job training? Obama wants it. His list of proposed spending just goes on and on. His list of "ctus" is NOT REAL, and does not supposedly happen until the far future. So much for "hard choices". The only sepnding we know we can CONTROL is the spending for next year. If Republicans accept pie in the sky promises, in order to get a "big deal", while Repubicans let CURRENT spending remain out of control, then the Repubican Party no longer has a reason for existence.


Tax reform and Medicare reform (not to mention Social Security reform, even as Democrats--and many Republicans--abandon the entire CONCEPT of self-sustaining Social Security with these games about a Scosial Security tax "cut") are SEPARATE ISSUES that should not have anything to do with the debt limit, unless they currently CUT spending (the Ryan plan does not, since it keeps Medicare benefits the same for the next ten years). Notice I did not say MEDICAID had nothing to do with courrent deficits, since something should be done abut Medicaid NOW. And, of course, the biggest entitlement of them all needs to be REPEALED. That is ObamaCare.


Notice the LACK OF TRANSPARENCY (fraud) that my proposal would cure. Any "big deal' is just a device (LIE) to get everybody past the next election before the debt ceiling issue comes up again. I have proposed a simple way to end the games. Raise the debt ceiling enough just to get through Septembr 30 (end of the fiscal year). Then key the rise int he debt ceiling to the APRROPRIATIONS for the next fiscal year (beginning October 1). Yes, this means that there can be no "coninuing resolution", whicch is a violation of the law anyway). Every appropriatons bill for the next fiscal year would have to be PASSED, before the debt ceiling is raised. And the debt ceiling would be raised only enough to get through the next fiscal year--which should nto be a hard calculatoin, since we would then KNOW what we are supposedly going to spend next year. Then the process would be repeated next year, and every year after that. No raising of the debt ceiling until the spendin gfor the fiscal year is SET.


Notice the transparency in my proposal, and the deliberate lack of transparency in other proposals (relying on fraud, as the President does in an even more blatant way than most). How much is next year's spendin g going to increase our debt? If we key the debt ceiling to the appropriatioins bills--basically a simultaneous passage--then everyone KNOWS exactly how much the actions of Congress have added to the debt over the next year. No games (well, not as many). No hiding the ball (well, not as much). If the debt ceiling is to mean anything, and impose fiscal discipline (as then Senator Obama said it should, in opposing an increase in the debt ciling when he was a Senator), then it MUST be keyed to spending bills.


President Obama, and too many Republicans, want to avoid having the people know what is really goiing on. They are trying to test Lincoln's famous statement, or at least modify it to read: "You can't fool all of the people all of the time, but you can fool MOST of the people most of the time." Obama clearly intends this "big deal" to DECIEVE the people into believing that he has "solved" our deficit /debt problem. Obama knows he will be doing no such thing, if he gets what he wants. All Obama wants to do is get through the next election without any real spending decreases (or even any real tax increases).


Nope. The only way to make this REAL, instead of an exercise in political fantasy, is to key any increases in the debt limit to each year's proposed spending, so people can SEE exactly what is happening.


How does it feel to know that if you oppose this idea you are opposing transparency, and exposing yourself as a person who wants to continue t DECEIVE the people (per my view of the way people like you want to revise Lincon's famous saying)?


Why does Obama think he can get away with this? Easy. He HAS gotten away with it twice. At the end of last year, Obama agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts (which he always intended to do). In "exchange", Obama got another "stimulus"--that welfare payment/Social Security tax "cut" and an extension of the extended unemployment benefits. That deal--not counting the Bush tax cuts already in effect--ADDED to the deficit more than Republicans have so far managed to"cut" (by a large margin). Then came the current fiscla year spending, which Democrats had refused to set becaukse they were COWARDS. You had that government "shut down" (lol) battle, where Boehner always knew he wa going to cave (as he thought he would on this current battle, but people like me are all set to HANG him--figuratively--along with the entire Republican Party as an institutiion). Republicans supposedly got 40 BILLION dollars in "cuts", which the CBO said represented no "cuts" at all in thiis year's spending. Obama palns to do it again, but this time adding MORE fraud on top of the additons to the deficit represented by the unemployment benefit extension and Social Security tax "cut" (same as a payment out of the general Treausry of a check every month to every worker, as the money will be BORROWED by the general Treasury and "repaid' to the non-existent Social Secruity "trust fund").


Fraud is a kind way to describe these games--"politics as usual". If a "grand deal" is announced, and Obama says he has "solved" the debt problem so that we can get down to spendin gmoney again, we should all KNOW it is a LIE. I believe that most of us do know. At some point, we all have to stop being cowwards and face up to our real problems--maybe even letting the people know exactly the magnitude of those problems


P.S. I actually wrote a version of this article over the weekend, BEFORE Obama's press conference. Yes, as usual, I was right on every poin.t But you knowe I was prescient.already. Look at the title in the article before last, without an article. The article EXISTS. Why was it not posted? Well, I composed it on Google email, to be "cut and ppasted" on tehe Google blog. The Google blog compositon page would NOT accept the "ctu and paste". I am ure a tech person could do it. I could not figure out how, even though I have previously been able to do it and even though the Google "comment" blog page WOULD take the "cut and paste" (but still refuse to accept it because of too many characters). Have I told you I HATE GOOGLE? For that matter, have I told you i HATE COMPUTERS? I think I have. Still no proofreading or spell checking, of course, because of my bad eyesight. If an when I figure out how to do it, I will post the already prepared artile under the laready posted title (unchanged). You will have to tkae my word for it. Yes, it pretty much says the same things as this article, but with more pointed warnings to REPUBLICANS.