Beckel: "Why Does the Deficit Matter?"

When Dick Cheney famously said "deficits don't matter" back in 2004, the national deficit was only $7 trillion and liberals were seething.

Those were the days!

Today, it stands at a staggering $14 trillion, including an increase of $4 trillion just since Obama took office.

I think it's safe to say we've crossed into "the deficit matters" territory.

But at least we know Beckel's not too worried about it. The way he sees it, we can always just print more money.



Cross-posted.

Rep. Darrell Issa (Squish-CA) Broadcasts His Intent to Vote to Raise the Debt Ceiling

What a dummy.

Any particular reason why Issa must preface his otherwise coherent remarks (quoted below) by saying right off the bat that his vote to raise the debt ceiling is in the bag? Gee, sounds like he's really going to drive a hard bargain with Democrats at the negotiating table. One can only hope the "come-to-Jesus moment" he says he insists on as a condition for his vote is more substantive than the bill of goods we were just sold by John Boehner last week.

"It's inevitable that it will pass. We will undoubtedly vote. I will vote to raise it. It does have to come with a real come-to-Jesus moment where we say what are we doing along with raising the debt ceiling. Are we making changes in how we raise and spend money or are we simply kicking the can down the road for our grandchildren? That's the moment which we are hoping to use along with Paul Ryan's budget, which we intend to pass in a timely fashion. But we have got to start talking about how we are going to spend less, not more," Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told FOX Business.

RealClearPolitics has the video.

Cross-posted.

On the Menu: Grilled OMB Nominee

Meet Heather A. Higginbottom, the Obama administration's nominee for Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Confirmation: Doubtful.

But she at least deserves a golf clap for her reluctant honesty.

SESSIONS: "Look at that chart up there. That's from the President's budget numbers. Is there a single year in which we do not add more to the debt?"

HIGGINBOTTOM: "No."

Via Fox Nation on a tip from Mr. JWF.

Cross-posted.

"I Don't Understand That Math"

Need more proof that the Obama Administration thinks we're all suckers? Today, new White House Spokes-Tool Jay Carney basically tried to convince ABC's Jake Tapper that 2 + 2 = 3.

Well, I'm sure he would have done that had he even attempted to answer Tapper's brilliantly devastating question:

"If I borrow money from you to pay off the interest for the debt I owe to Geoff, am I not adding to my debt? ... The president seems to think that that borrowing money to pay the interest on the debt is not adding to the debt. I don't understand that math."

Unfortunately, Carney thought Tapper asked him to recite random White House budget talking points and explain what Bush's role is in all this.

Oh well, it was really more of a rhetorical question anyway.

Be sure to watch to the end. The expression on Tapper's face says it all.



Hey, maybe this guy can pinch-hit for Carney sometime.

Cross-posted.

Paul Ryan: "I Will Eat My Tie" If Obamacare Reduces the Deficit

Funny, I don't recall Obama making it interesting like that back when he was running around promising Americans that his healthcare monstrosity was 'deficit-neutral'.

Obama could have said: "I'll eat my golf glove if this bill adds one dime to the deficit!"

But he didn't. Hmmm...

So here is Paul Ryan on tonight's Mark Levin radio show, explaining for the umpteenth time that the CBO's output is entirely dependent on the data that is spoon-fed to them and the set of assumptions they are instructed to make.

In other words, they are robot slaves with green eyeshades.

Whatever you put in CBO - in front of them - they have to score what you put in front of them. They put this health care, we put the health care bill in front of them; the health care bill is full of gimmicks and spending tricks. Ten years of tax increases to pay for six years of spending, for starters. They double-count revenue for Social Security. They double-count revenue for this new CLASS Act program. They double-count Medicare cuts. They ignore the 'doc fix'. They did not include the $115 billion in spending that would be required just to set the bureaucracy up to run this new program.

"If you take out all the double-counting - if you add the counting they didn't count - it adds a $701 billion deficit. So, what CBO cannot do is tell you "we're not going to count the budget gimmicks that are in this legislation." They just have to estimate the bill as it's written, with all the gimmicks included. So, people around here know how to write legislation to manipulate the kind of cost estimate you're gonna get from the Congressional Budget Office. I sent a letter to the CBO, I asked them "Well, now look at these budget gimmicks, ignore these budget gimmicks. What then?" And it's what I just told you, this thing is a huge budget-buster. So, what they have is a piece of paper that they've manipulated to say this thing reduces the deficit.

I will eat my tie if that is the outcome of this law. But, they're trying to say by voting to repeal health care, we're going to raise the deficit - and we're just not gonna buy that economics. We're not gonna accept all these budget gimmicks, and that's why we're going to move ahead and repeal this thing anyway."

Transcripted from the audio at The Right Scoop. Cross-posted.

Gateway Pundit links. Thanks!

Former BB&T CEO: Bankruptcy of U.S. is "Mathematical Certainty"

You may recall that several trillion dollars ago, our pal Joe Biden told us we have to spend money to keep from going bankrupt as a country.

Would you believe that cockamamie idea isn't working out too well?

John Allison, who for two decades served as chairman and CEO of BB&T, the nation's 10th largest bank, told CNSNews.com it is a “mathematical certainty” that the United States government will go bankrupt unless it dramatically changes its fiscal direction.

Allison likened what he sees as the predictable future bankruptcy of the United States to the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose insolvency he also said was foreseeable to those who studied their business practices and financial situation.

“I think the first thing we have to realize is where we’re going and to face it objectively,” Allison told CNSNews.com, when asked about the trillion-dollar-plus deficits the federal government has run for three straight years, the more than $13 trillion in federal debt, and the $61.9 trillion long-term shortfall the government faces (according to the analysis of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation) if the government is to pay all the benefits it has promised through entitlement programs.

“If you run the numbers, on all those numbers that you just talked about, which I think are accurate, very accurate, in 20 or 25 years, the United States goes bankrupt,” said Allison. “It’s a mathematical certainty."

Good call there, Mr. Vice President.

Got any other bright ideas?

Hey, it was worth a shot.

Cross-posted here.

Democrats Rack Up Another $180.68 Billion Deficit in July

Mmm, this change tastes great, huh? Hey, while we're at it, why don't we just hand over another 20% of the economy to Obama and his merry band of socialists? Then maybe we can start racking up trillion-dollar monthly deficits before the whole economy simply collapses?

The federal government spent more than it pocketed a 10th straight month during July, nearing a record last set in 1992 for a string of deficits.

Burdened by Wall Street bailout costs and shriveled corporate profits, the government was $180.68 billion in the red during July, the Treasury Department said Wednesday in its monthly budget statement. July 2008's federal budget deficit was $102.77 billion.

Bush was a reckless spender, but now they're in hock by another $78 billion for July as opposed to last year.

Startling. Of course people casually like to overlook the facts the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.

But wait, it gets worse.

The deficit record for any month is $193.86 billion, in February this year.

For the first 10 months of fiscal 2009, the deficit widened to $1.267 trillion, more than triple the $388.62 billion for the first 10 months of fiscal 2008.

Fiscal years start Oct. 1. The White House has predicted the deficit will total $1.841 trillion this fiscal year. The biggest deficit for any fiscal year on record is $454.8 billion, rung up in fiscal 2008.

Wall Street was on target predicting the July 2009 deficit. A survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires forecast $180 billion.

The string of 10 monthly deficits isn't a record. There have been 11 in a row three times, the last time being May 1991 through March 1992.

July 2009 federal government spending totaled $332.18 billion, compared with $263.26 billion in July 2008.

Year-to-date federal-government spending totaled $3.01 trillion, compared with $2.48 trillion in the first 10 months of fiscal 2008.

Is it any wonder Dear Leader is now disapproved by a majority?

By any objective analysis this is a fiscal calamity and if Republicans were overseeing such a boondoggle I wouldn't be hesitant to criticize them for it.

Will the media be so eager to note this road to ruin?