EXTREME Spending and Debt is a CRISIS

by: bonnie alba | published: 04 01, 2011

Overheard by reporters: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated, “Label the GOP spending cuts as ‘extreme’. I always use ‘extreme’. That is what the caucus instructed me to use.”

No independent thinkers there. The Democrats as one entity have used “Extreme” for decades to describe anyone and anything that doesn’t fit their liberality.

Recall that the Liberal Homeland Security bunch issued a directive that labeled the Tea Party (TP) participants as “extremist” right-wing wackos. You know the ones they mean -- those grey-haired men and women (like me) and young couples with children in strollers toting signs calling for federal government to “cut the spending.”

Meanwhile the “extremists” elected many “new blood” congressional representatives which, as it turns out, the ‘set-in-stone’ House establishment Republicans can’t quite put their arms around.

Democrats (Sen. Harry Reid) are pushing this rift between establishment Republicans and the ‘new blood’ TP Republicans while haggling over cuts in the remainder of the 2011 fiscal budget. It will backfire!

Maybe they should go for the smaller cuts for the rest of the budget year and save their energy for the 2012 budget fight to come. The 2012 budget is going to be rolled out within two weeks. Then is the time to roll back the spending and Cut-Cut-Cut.

Hope and Change? Or, Status Quo?

Americans have watched as our federal government’s inner workings have created a massive National Debt which threatens and imperils our national health. We’re not talking Pres. Obama’s Extreme healthcare here -- though this unconstitutional, socialist program will increase the National Debt to the size of the solar system. TP citizens see the Growing Debt as an “Extreme Crisis” and see Pres. Obama and Congress continue their “status quo” spending. There is no “hope and change” until we become stable financially.

Real Life

Americans have experienced their incomes shrinking in the wake of hefty increases in prices of food, energy, clothing and a wide range of products. While they cut their budgets to survive, they see the government attempting to keep the “status quo” ---- spend and it will get better.
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Dan Spencer’s article “Just how broke are we?” imparts an interesting comparison provided by Duquesne University Economics Professor Antony Davies. He says, “The debt and unfunded obligations of the federal government are greater than the ‘economic output of the entire planet.’” The-Entire-Planet.

Professor Davies shared the following analogy to provide a frame of reference we can understand. (article with video:
www.examiner.com/right-side-politics-in-national/just-how-broke-are-we )

If the Federal government were scaled down to the size of the average US household, here’s what its finances would look like (approximate):

• The Federal government would earn $50,000 a year in tax revenue (the same as the average US household).
• It would be $325,000 in debt.
• It would pay almost $10,000 a year in interest on that debt.
• Last year, it would have spent $79,000.
• This year, it is hoping to spend $86,000.
• The $100 billion in spending cuts (that some politicians view as draconian) would be equivalent to the household cutting its $86,000 in planned spending down to a mere $83,700. Not a bad start, but the household has another $33,700 to go before it balances its budget.

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The above example shows that if this were a family, they would be facing an Extreme Financial Crisis. So is our government. Pres. Obama’s proposed 2012 budget plan calls for $3.7 trillion. Cutting $100 billion would be like subtracting one raindrop in a heavy downpour.

Establishment and TP representatives need to be on the same page just to get through the next six months. During that time they must take the high road and do the hard work.

The biggest problem is the Democrats in both houses and Pres. Obama reject the fact that our nation faces the most Extreme Financial Crisis in our history. To them a “Crisis” doesn’t exist unless they manufacture and promote it which always includes more spending. What will it take for them to become serious? Bankruptcy? Depend on the Federal Reserve to keep us afloat with monopoly money?

The change has to come from the government -- Cut-Cut-Cut!!! Yes, it’s going to hurt but our representatives-senators-president must do just as families do: Cut-Cut-Cut when they face an Extreme Financial Crisis.

This ongoing political circus in Washington must stop! Congress must take serious notice and face the Extreme Debt Wall that America will, not might, hit in the near future.

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