John Rossomando
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Fifteen years ago, House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer pontificated about how the nation’s then $5 trillion debt threatened his daughter’s well-being and that of his grandkids at a Jan. 1995 press conference defending the balanced-budget amendment.
But now as the national debt passes a then-unimaginable $15 trillion, Hoyer and the Democrats have entered into silly season by opposing any sort of balanced-budget amendment. Instead of taking the situation seriously, they continue to advocate for uncontrolled reckless spending.
And the GOP isn’t far behind them because House leaders like Speaker John Boehner have caved going back to their pledge to cut $100 billion from the federal budget. But CBO found they only ended up cutting out a meager $353 million in last spring’s budget deal.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan has stood alone among the Republican leadership as a voice crying in the wilderness about the need to take this debt explosion seriously.
Mr. Ryan stated the following last night in a press release:
“Instead of advancing credible solutions, the president remains committed to more borrowing, more spending, and more taxes. When it comes to making the tough decisions necessary to deal with our debt, the President is deferring to one commission after another, only to ignore the recommendations of these commissions. And his party’s leaders in the United States Senate? Well, it has been over 930 days since they passed a budget.
I think the reason is pretty simple: the president and his party’s leaders remain unwilling to publicly commit to the kinds of tax increases that their spending appetite requires.
“You deserve a lot better than that. You deserve a credible plan. You deserve leaders willing to tackle this problem, willing to advance solutions that would lift this crushing burden of debt and make possible a growing, prosperous economy.
That is exactly what we here in the House of Representatives have done, and we will continue to advance serious solutions that match the magnitude of our greatest challenges.”
Sure things are hard when the GOP controls 1/3 of the 1/3 of the federal government, but the party has done a terrible job in the public-relations war let alone in holding the line with Obama.
And instead of Republicans forcing the Democrats to compromise, The Hill greeted readers with the headline: “Hensarling says GOP willing to consider Dem tax proposals.”
The Republican co-chairman of the deficit-reduction Supercommittee on Wednesday indicated he and his party were willing to listen to proposals from Democrats to consider higher taxes to reduce the deficit.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) walked back a statement he made Tuesday on television, when he said Republicans “have gone as far as we feel we can go” by offering to raise $250 billion in new tax revenues.
The GOP won the House last year on the promise that it would end business as usual, but Republicans have failed to deliver during the negotiation process.
The Democrats need to stop for a second and see the results of their failed fiscal policies as RSC Chairman Jim Jordan observes:
“The national debt is nearly equal in size to our entire economy and growing larger every single day. Unless we make the fundamental changes needed to stop the out-of-control spending, you can look at Greece and Italy to see where this road ends.”
And presidential candidate Herman Cain's campaign chimed in with comments to ConservativeHome USA saying:
"Our national debt has exceeded $15 trillion – including a $4 trillion spending-binge during the Obama presidency. Obama’s failed leadership and flawed Keynesian economic philosophy has driven the American economy not into the proverbial ditch but off the cliff. In order to renew America’s economic prospects we need bold solutions and a leader with a proven record of turning around dysfunctional business enterprises.
“President Obama’s disastrous economic policies are not only an economic travesty, they are immoral. We cannot leave our children and grandchildren with this enormous burden. We must take responsibility for our actions."
Throughout the Western economies we have a crisis of leadership. We are seeing economic power surge to the 'developing' economies of China, Brazil and India.Economists and politicians have no a clue what to do about it, and they frantically apply strategies or argue based on 'old rule economics' which do not fit the current crisis.
We need a reconfigured capitalism, to remove the current madness: where jobs are going from the West to the East, only because goods are being made cheaply there, due to the appalling conditions their workers endure. These conditions would in previous years never have been tolerated in the West, but the West is happily buying these products, and now even suggesting our workers should return to these Victorian era conditions as well.
We need an 'ethical framework' around which Companies function. The sole crieria for success can no longer be maximum profit no matter what the cost. We can no longer justify creating 'false markets' for superfluous tat. All Companies should have a mission statement of ethical working saying how they will function in terms of products/manufacturing/marketing which should be open for public viewing. Then we could create sustainable companies which people would want to work with, and it would create a more even balance between countries as the people can choose whether or not to buy from companies with a greater ethical edge.
Job creation is essential in the current economic climate and monies should be prioritised for small business development linking older unemployed,but experienced, workers, with younger people with complimentary/different skill sets.
We should not let politicians take us into a post-democratic era of control through impoverishment, which is what is currently happening.
Posted by: Amber Astron Christo | November 18, 2011 at 04:58 PM