Thursday, November 21, 2024

US needs Elon and Vivek to avert deficit disaster

Progressives have suddenly found themselves lost in the political wilderness, caught in a self-inflicted trap of anger and fear. From the sound of their fury, they could be there for a long while. (Thoughts and prayers.) With Democrats now irrelevant, the second Trump administration has four years to take a wrecking ball to the Washington establishment, including deep cuts to federal spending and an overhaul of the bloated bureaucracy. To understand why the wrecking ball is needed, look at the annual budget deficit ' $1.8 trillion in fiscal year 2024. In a time of relative peace and prosperity, the deficit grew 8% in one year, even though federal revenue increased by 11%. In other words, the Biden-Harris administration collected significantly more money from taxpayers in the last fiscal year but still managed to blow up the deficit by an additional $138 billion. That's simply unsustainable.

Comments

This really should be a bipartisan issue. Our current path is not sustainable.

#1 | Posted by BellRinger at 2024-11-21 12:18 PM

Deficit spending has been going on since WW2, if not longer. No one does anything about it.

#2 | Posted by REDIAL at 2024-11-21 12:24 PM

Cutting federal spending to education?? Typical Republican want. They need all of the money that they can get.

#3 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2024-11-21 12:31 PM

Or maybe we can stop giving billionaires tax cuts and corporate welfare?

It's cute that you ignore that Biden had to pay 50% more debt interest thanks to Trump.

#4 | Posted by Sycophant at 2024-11-21 12:39 PM

... US needs Elon and Vivek to avert deficit disaster ...

What power do they have, specifically, to do anything about the problem?

#5 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-21 12:46 PM

BTW It's the House of Representatives that gets to decide where the money is spent. Not these two.

#6 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2024-11-21 12:47 PM

What power do they have, specifically, to do anything about the problem?

They can make recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget. That's it.

#7 | Posted by REDIAL at 2024-11-21 12:52 PM

"They're going to need inside Washington budget experts like ex-Capitol Hill staffers and the like," Chris Edwards, a Cato Institute economist who specializes in government spending, told me. "People (who) used to be on the budget committees on Capitol Hill and used to work for the (Office of Management and Budget). They're going to need those sorts of people to tell them exactly how and what they can cut."
That's pretty funny. In order to cut wasteful spending by deep state bureaucrats, they hire a bunch of former deep state bureaucrats that used to waste money the same way.

#8 | Posted by REDIAL at 2024-11-21 01:03 PM

Actually, they should have just elected a Dem for POTUS.

Historically, Repubs f&*^ it up and Dems fix it.

#9 | Posted by jpw at 2024-11-21 01:08 PM

"This really should be a bipartisan issue."

Dubya and Dick Cheney reset America's fiscal sights from surpluses to deficits, without a single Democrat voting in favor.

Why do you always leave out the salient part? FFS, we all lived through it.

#10 | Posted by Danforth at 2024-11-21 01:26 PM

Or you could tax billionaires at the rate they deserve and cut off freebies to corporations.

#11 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2024-11-21 02:18 PM

Danforth,

I don't care who corrects course be it Republicans, Democrats or both.

Looking back it was Clinton AND a GOP House that by adding SS to the general fund managed to balance the budget. You want to blame the Bush era GOP, have at it. I agree with you. Didn't change under Obama or Biden.

My hope is DOGE comes up with changes that Congress can adopt. Obama created Simpson -Bowles and immediately disavowed their recommendations so I don't have high hopes for this.

#12 | Posted by BellRinger at 2024-11-21 02:20 PM

@#7 ... They can make recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget. That's it. ...

So, basically, they are lobbyists?

#13 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-21 02:52 PM

Trump increased the Deficit and the Debt exponentially, and is planning to do so yet again.

"Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That It'll Weigh Down the Economy for Years
The "King of Debt" promised to reduce the national debt " then his tax cuts made it surge."

www.propublica.org

;

"Nonpartisan analysis suggests national debt could increase under Harris, but surge under Trump
Politics Oct 7, 2024"

www.pbs.org

#14 | Posted by Corky at 2024-11-21 03:19 PM

Let's be clear... medicare, social security, medicaid and food stamps will all be on the chopping block by Sh*tler to pay for even more tax cuts for billionaires.

The hilarious part is going to be when the magidiots realize their benefits are getting cut.

So far we've seen the muslims who voted for him howling over Rubio and Huckabeast and the farmers who voted for him howling over the prospect of tariffs hurting them AGAIN.

#15 | Posted by Nixon at 2024-11-22 09:46 AM

Clinton AND a GOP House that by adding SS to the general fund

The date the SS trust fund was xferred to the general fund was 4/20/1983 to fund Rayguns massive spending and tax cuts.

#16 | Posted by Nixon at 2024-11-22 09:53 AM

This really should be a bipartisan issue. Our current path is not sustainable.

#1 | Posted by BellRinger

And yet you post garbage so ridiculous I refuse to even open the link?

caught in a self-inflicted trap of anger and fear.

Nonsense. Gaslighting at its finest.

With Democrats now irrelevant,

That's not how our government works, s*&^heap. Never has.

And it's views like this from stupid people who can't actually look at reality and see it fully are why the above is ridiculous gaslighting from people with a textbook abuser's mindset.

the second Trump administration has four years to take a wrecking ball to the Washington establishment

Destroying the country because the loud, stupid, bitter and angry bottom 22% of the electorate voted for one guy is the antithesis of our system of governance.

Sadly, that loud, stupid, bitter and angry 22% is only going to be louder, stupider, more bitter and angry when the consequences of their vote come to fruition. A cycle that's been repeated multiple times throughout my adult life as MAGA morons have continually been duped, voted against their own self-interests then got mad their quality-of-life decreases.

Here's a good idea you should consider-stop trying to fix the problems you've created out of your own ignorance and stupidity. Let your betters handle reality while you watch football and nascar and imagine yourself worth a s&^% as you scream at professionals on the screen on how to do their jobs.

#17 | Posted by jpw at 2024-11-22 10:25 AM

FFS, we all lived through it.

#10 | Posted by Danforth

You assume there's any level of observational or critical thinking skills present...

#18 | Posted by jpw at 2024-11-22 10:26 AM

JPW Did you notice in the article which Department they want to cut?? The Department of Education?? People like Jeff want more stupid people like himself because they will vote for the Republican party. Public schools are underfunded the way it is. Now he wants them to be MORE underfunded. Quite telling if you ask me.

#19 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2024-11-22 10:37 AM

Laura,

The problem is that they take an issue that really does need reform (education does, in fact, need to be reformed for a variety of reasons) but they go to the absolute extreme solution driven more by their philosophical bias than an objective, rational analysis of the topic.

They point to education needing to be fixed, but propose a solution to completely break it, not fix it.

If MAGA political strategy was applied to their glorified minivans called pickup trucks, they'd be leaving them in a field burning everything the check engine light came on.

#20 | Posted by jpw at 2024-11-22 10:45 AM

If you fire all 1.1 million fed employees that handle delegates regs in a post chevron world, it takes the deficit down by 8%.

If you also eliminate non defense spending it gets it down to 900 billion deficit.

That leaves Medicare, ss, and Medicaid 2.6 trillion to cut the 900 from.

Political suicide.

#21 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-11-22 10:48 AM

And that's to break even and make mandatory debt payments at their current value. They go up, more cuts.

#22 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-11-22 10:49 AM

"I don't care who corrects course be it Republicans, Democrats or both."

That doesn't suddenly make your claim true.

Republicans made the UNILATERAL decision to reset America's fiscal sights. Blaming "both" is hackery.

#23 | Posted by Danforth at 2024-11-22 12:47 PM

I see Jeffry has a still
On the Kremlin's payroll. Sad.

#24 | Posted by a_monson at 2024-11-22 04:00 PM

Every time I looked at it, I thought the headline was a joke. Not quite Onion-esque, but close.

#25 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2024-11-23 09:18 AM

"My hope is DOGE comes up with changes that Congress can adopt."

You're joking, right?

Elon identified 75% of the problem as...wait for it...

...interest on the debt.

His answer is plunge Americans into hardship so he can continue his tax cuts, i.e., even MORE debt.

#26 | Posted by Danforth at 2024-11-23 03:56 PM

@#26 ... His answer is plunge Americans into hardship so he can continue his tax cuts, i.e., even MORE debt. ...

Musk, Ramaswamy Proposal to Slash Spending Could Include VA Medical Services
www.military.com

... A plan by the incoming Trump administration to slash government funding could kneecap Department of Veterans Affairs health care.

In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal this week, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who President-elect Donald Trump tapped to lead the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency," confirmed that they plan to target "unauthorized" federal spending, a category that includes the VA's medical services. ...

The pair did not specifically call out the VA. But the type of spending they're taking issue with includes about $120 billion for the VA's medical services, according to a report issued earlier this year from the Congressional Budget Office.

Historically, in order for a federal agency to operate, Congress passes two different types of legislation: an authorization bill to authorize funding and an appropriations bill to actually allocate the funding.

For example, for the Pentagon, Congress passes the National Defense Authorization Act and a Pentagon appropriations bill every year.

But for most federal agencies, Congress hasn't bothered with the authorization bills in years, instead streamlining its work by considering the appropriations bills to be self-authorizing.

A 2023 report from the Congressional Research Service notes the distinction between authorization and appropriations bills "is based on chamber rules, rather than a constitutional or general statutory requirement."

For VA medical services, the last authorization bill was 1996's Veterans Health Care Eligibility Reform Act, according to the Congressional Budget Office report. ...



#27 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-11-23 04:10 PM

"Musk, Ramaswamy Proposal to Slash Spending"

You'll notice the billionaires will NEVER suggest a higher tax rate on themselves.

With apologies to Churchill, never in the field of taxation will so much be owed by so many to so few.

#28 | Posted by Danforth at 2024-11-23 04:19 PM

It is almost as though the author of this piece doesn't seem to realize that. Wouldn't be surprised after all this DOGE stuff that Trump's term ends with the debt significantly higher.

#29 | Posted by rosemountbomber at 2024-11-23 07:07 PM

Ballwasher has an I.Q. hovering near room temperature. If you live in Antarctica.

#30 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2024-11-23 10:10 PM

Total confiscation of the top 10 wealths on the planet, not just in America, and magically it's all liquid cash, can't cover the current deficit for a single year. More like 8-9 months of it. Once.

#31 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-11-24 10:20 AM

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