Comments about ‘Letters: Congress' business’

Foreign aid and congressional salaries are a microscopic fraction of the federal budget. Cutting them would only further alienate us from the rest of the world and make congress a reserve for the already-wealthy and provide even greater incentives for corruption.

Mr Bender,

I believe that ALL spending should be on the table. However, congressional pay and foreign aid are far down the list of anyone who truly wants to tackle the spending issue.

SS, Medicare and Defense. The big 3. Everything else is peanuts.

So, feel free to rant about big bird, but diverting focus on anything other than the big 3 is not productive. At least not as a starting point.

I am much more concerned about how the president is doing his business. John Paul Jones once said, "we have not begun to fight" Barrack Obama and the Democrats are saying, "we have not begun to tax and spend". The Democratic party is the party of no; no fiscal responsibility!

So if your household budget is tight, don't bother with things like turning off lights and electronics in rooms you aren't using, because your large mortgage payment is the real budget buster, not the small amount paid for electricity.

Except how do you reduce the mortgage? You have already obligated yourself to pay it?

Yes discretionary spending is the smallest piece of the budget, but it is also the piece that is, by definition discretionary, as in the part that is optional, not already obligated.

Now that you are thinking, since we are struggling to pay what we are already obligated to pay, why on earth are we taking on more debt, with its interest and repayment obligations, and yet another entitlement obligation (namely Obamacare).

Mountainman,

Yup, MM. The dems are spenders. So is the GOP.

Pick your poison.

Overspend on helping Americans, or overspend on useless wars of choice or to "liberate the Iraqi people"

Both parties are fiscally irresponsible.

Unfortunately, you are blind to half of it.

@ JoeBlow. Not blind, just honest! You really believe Obama and the Democrats wants to cut spending?

"You really believe Obama and the Democrats wants to cut spending?"

Not really. But, I dont think the GOP does either.

But I am not party enamored. Spending cuts are tough.

I get it. I can easily blast either/both parties for their role in the problems that this country faces.

Dems are big spenders. They have contributed greatly for the mess that we are in.

See how easy that is?

Blaming only the Dems for our countries problems is not honest. But you do it daily.

MM:

I'll take tax and spend any day over borrow and spend.

@ Kent. Wouldn't it be even better if the government lived within its means, paid off the national debt so our grandchildren will not have to pay for OUR entitlements and the government actually spent less than they take in? We just got huge tax increases, championed by Obama, why not use it to pay off our debt instead of just spending it on ever more entitlements? How about demanding accountability from our "leaders"!

@Mountanman

I see you on here daily ranting about government spending and how the evil Democrats are spending us into oblivion.

What I'd like to see is an honest conservative who will actually spell out what spending cuts they'd like to see. You and Mr. Bender rant all the time about the out of control government, but never, ever have anything constructive to add - just blame and feigned outrage. How about an honest conservative plan with actual numbers. Show us what you want cut and we'll take you seriously. Saying you'll cut "loopholes" without actually naming any isn't productive. I'll take a stab at it. How about cutting the construction of one of the two Ford Class aircraft carriers - savings $13.5 billion dollars.

#1 There is blame enough to go around. The blame game is not helping. It is actually just a distraction.

#2 Many Americans have difficulty with appropriately prioritizing their spending. Some are evicted for non-payment of rent or mortgage while their satellite TV bills are paid in full so they can watch Big Bird reruns. No wonder our country can't get its finances in order.

#3 Defense spending is a top priority. Without defense, we are goners. The defense budget should include all war spending because we should not be at war except for defense. Veteran care should also be included. We need to consider the whole cost of all we do, not parcel it out away from view.

#4 National health care is a lower priority than defense. Health care can be done by entities other than the federal government. National defense cannot. It is more important to prevent another terrorist attack that to have plenty of government paid medical personal to tell us how many are dead.

To be continued...

#5 Discretionary spending is %25 of the budget. A large piece, yes, but cutting it all won't be enough.

#6 We borrow %40 of our budget, which is more than the discretionary budget, so we must have policies that GROW the economy (not just temporarily stimulate it) to be able to cover our expenses.

#7 Class warfare does no more to grow the economy than military warfare. Time for a unification strategy instead. We all need to work together to solve our financial problems.

Which brings us full circle. Blaming is divisive, so let's just stop that and be solution oriented.

The problem for a lot of people is thinking that Congress is not doing their job, they are not doing what they should, when in reality they are doing exactly what their owner, manager and main employer tells them to do. The main owner/manager of the representative is the business interests who paid for their election. Cutting their pay from the government would not effect their overall compensation from all sources and therefore have little effect on their actions.

Most foreign aid ends up in the pockets of American businessmen who pay for the lobbies to keep and increase foreign aid.

Israel is not America. It does not espouse the same principals as Americans. We should not allow Israel to control the American government.

CHS. Obama is already demanding that the debt ceiling be raised and suggesting that he be given authority or increase it at his will? Now why would he do that? So he can borrow more money to spend! I rest my case!

Could it be blind AND simply dishonest?

It's very easy to find out with just a little research that a huge proportion of the debt Obama is being blamed for is a direct result of tax cuts stemming from as far back as Reagan and accelerated by Bush.

It's also very easy to learn that spending under Obama has been more constrained than under any recent President.

It's also easy to learn that the GOP members of Congress are directly responsible for enormous amounts of pork. (Although yesterday one of our most blatantly conservative posters called that "bringing home the bacon" and assured us that is what Congressmen are supposed to do.

But it's much, much easier to dig in and hold on to a deceitful position than it is to do make a conscious effort to learn the truth.

One of our favorite friends here is showing again his lack of comprehension -- or could it be his tendency to simply disregard facts?

Raising the debt limit is a foolish political Congressional exercise because the debt consists of money ALREADY approved and spent by (get this) NOT THE PRESIDENT, but by CONGRESS!

But as I said a few minutes ago, it's much, much easier to dig in and hold on to a deceitful position than it is to do make a conscious effort to learn the truth.

Lets be honest about what raising the debt ceiling means.

Here is an analogy.

You go to a restaurant and order a nice meal. You include drinks, appetizers and a desert. You order it all from the menu which has prices clearly marked.

Then the waiter brings you the bill.

You get the bill and decide that you have been spending too much money lately.

You know that your credit card is maxed out. So, you decide you dont want to pay.

Regardless of what you hear, Obama does not spend money. He may propose spending, but congress MUST approve every penny of it. EVERY PENNY.

And they have. Everything that is being spent has been voted on.

Raising the debt ceiling is all about paying the bill for things that you bought, you know you bought and you wanted to buy.

It has absolutely NOTHING to do with allowing more spending. Only congress does that.

And last time I looked, the house was controlled by the GOP. A house that APPROVED all of the spending.

Yes, we are spending too much money, but the debt ceiling has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with it.

@Mountanman

Just as I expected. You cannot give a concise answer with ONE actual budget cut with an actual figure attached. All you want to do is throw stones and not offer any constructive alternatives.

You lived up (or is it down?) to my expectation.

Re: "What I'd like to see is an honest conservative who will actually spell out what spending cuts they'd like to see."

Here goes --

The EPA -- $90B over 10 years. EPA is duplicated in all the states, anyway.
Dept of Education -- $690B over 10 years. DoED is an impediment, not an asset, to existing state educational structure.
Dept of Commerce [minus USPTO, transfer to Treasury] -- $165B over 10 years.
National Science Foundation -- $75B over 10 years. Duplicates/complicates structure in place in state university systems.
Dept of Labor -- $132B over 10 years. Does nothing of note.
Dept of Energy -- $671B over 10 years [includes $270B in loan disbursements, too many of which go bad and are made to crony capitalist friends of the regime] Invariably backs the wrong horse.

Note that this is just a start. Character limits prohibit a more detailed analysis. But these few measures would cut nearly $2T.

Couple these with a 5% per year, over 5 years, across-the-board budget cut, and we're talking balance by 2018.

Honest.

Fiscal Procurer would cut $2 trillion by cutting out education, environmental protection, and science, leaving us ignorant, choking on our own pollution, and scientifically backward. I have a different suggestion: How about cutting 25% out of the military budget, which would produce the same savings and still leave us by far the most powerful nation on earth.