The debt ceiling “crisis”

Medina County Friends And Neighbors  (7/24/2011)

Here is some key information pertaining to the debt ceiling “crisis”  as well as a few other thoughts.  The information is available at http://www.fms.treas.gov/mts/index.html, and the link to the June edition of the Monthly Treasury Statement.

When you open it look at table 9, page 34 under (Receipts, Total).  It shows that the amount of money that came into the federal government during the month (people are still working and paying taxes) was approximately $250 Billion.  It also shows that the amount of interest to be paid on our national debt was approximately 24 billion ( table 9, page 34 under (Net Outlays, Net Intrest)).  That is all that has to be paid to prevent the federal government from going into default.  No need to shut down the government. 

Let’s go on.  The liberals always cry that any restraints on their spending will undermine the most important functions of our government.  Nonsense, the cost of national defense for the month is shown on the table as approximately $59 billion.  We can afford both debt service as well as national defense.  Or they say that they may not be able to issue Social Security checks.  Nonsense again, that is $66 billion, and Medicaid is another $40 billion after that. 

If you add all those up; debt service, national defense, social security and medicare they total about $189 billion.  If Congress passes a bill to spend on essentials first we cover all those “show stoppers” and still have $61 billion left over for all the other government programs; the EPA, DOE(ducation), NLRB, NPR, etc. 

We don’t have a debt problem.  We have a spending problem.  And we have a failure to prioritize.  If Congress passes a bill forcing our government to prioritize its expenditures, the debt ceiling will not be reached and all the “hostages” are freed.  August 3 comes and goes without the “sky falling”.

We need to share this information with everybody, especially when Obama again threatens the “hostages”.  And we need to get in touch with our Congressmen and urge them to pass a bill to prioritize our expenditures ASAP.  Thanks to Dick Morris for this tip.

Marco Rubio also helped by demanding to see Obama’s budget.  Obama doesn’t like the 3 plans the GOP has put forth, so let’s demand to see his.  Fifty state Governors produce a budget within their first 6 months in office.  Why can’t our President in two and a half years?

Brit Hume is due credit for commenting that the Republicans are losing the battle for public opinion.  I was astounded, because the overwhelming majority of people are with us on almost issue.  But we are being portrayed by the broadcast media as being unreasonable, making impossible demands and being unwilling to negotiate in good fath.  And like it or not, tens of millions of our fellow Americans are disengaged, casual and poorly informed voters (if they are even registered to vote) who are easily misled, especially be emotional appeals.  We need to make sure that as we hold the line against raising the debt ceiling, that we never become or appear to be too rigid to negotiate in good faith.  When we say that no tax increases are permissible, we need to remind people that every economist agrees it is damaging to increase taxes during a recession, because it kills jobs.

Last but not least, we should thank our elected officials (including Boehner) for standing firm against spendthrift liberals.  A pat on the back will boost their morale and strengthen their resolve.

Jim & Lisa Woods