Will wonders never cease…
From Tyler Durden at zerohedge come details of Mr. Reid’s debt reduction plan; offered as a counter to Mr. Boehner’s two tiered proposal. You know, the one Reid was all in on before Obama reminded him that he really didn’t like it…
According to Tyler, the bulk of the $2.7 trillion in proposed savings come from:
-REID PLAN SAID TO HAVE $1 TRLN SAVINGS FROM WINDING DOWN WARS
-REID PLAN WOULD INCLUDE $30 BLN IN FANNIE, FREDDIE CHANGES
-REID PLAN WOULD INCLUDE $400 BILLION IN INTEREST SAVINGS
-REID PLAN SAID TO INCLUDE $1.2 TRLN DISCRETIONARY SPENDING CUTS
-$10-$15 BILLION IN AGRICULTURE SAVINGS
-and of course… THE CREATION OF A BIPARTISAN PANEL TO FIND FUTURE SAVINGS. I.E. WHY DO IT NOW, WHEN YOU CAN DO IT… NEVER!
Does any of this sound familiar? It should, It’s basically the Biden plan resurrected save for the removal of the tax increases reductions in “tax code spending”. Or as ACE pithily phrases it, “Meet The New Plan, Same As The Old Plan”:
Those “cuts,” however, are entirely of the phantom variety — they are the anticipated savings from no longer fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s actual money we won’t be spending, but that is already figured on anyway, and further, that’s money that’s spent as required, or not spent as not required. Bush had counted that spending off budget, which Obama claimed was deceptive, but it is a fair way to characterize the emergency, special-conditions nature of it. Those expenses were never part of the permanent budget going forward, were they?
All very true. In fact as a sort of PSA to Conservatory members, I’d just point out, once again, that none of these “cuts” are actually “cuts“, but are simply decreases in the rate at which federal spending would increase!
I suspect the speaker is taking liberties with the truth. You know why? Because his lips are moving…
Kind of like all those times a camera got anywhere near him; when he kept endlessly repeating the reality-based-community’s-fake-but-accurate-not-quite-factual talking points in 2007 and 2008, “THE WAR IS LOST!”, and, “THE SURGE ISN’T WORKING!” And I’m personally thinking this dogpile won’t pass House muster myself. What do you think, kind reader?
- Excited
- Angry
- Not as Angry
- Bored
- Indifferent
- Sad
I’d forgotten how scared wingnuts are of Harry Reid.
Even when the Republicans were running up deficits when they controlled the whole federal government, Harry Reid was making them look like fools.
And now he’s calling the Tea Party morons’ bluff with his new bill…ouch!
I know; we were especially petrified by that budget that he passed back when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress–the one that prevented a debt-ceiling crisis and . . . oh, wait . . .
I’m willing to predict that when all the dust settles, the Republicans will sign on to Reid’s plan or one very like it.