« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

MEMBER DIARY

Only in Washington

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  November 26th, 2012 at 02:32 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

For those of us who are not schooled in the ways of Washington, here is a glimpse into the duplicity of the “budget savings” as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations.

House Agriculture Chairman Frank D. Lucas has raised hopes that Congress might still be able to produce a multi-year farm bill soon, possibly as part of a package to block impending tax increases and spending cuts.

Lucas says Speaker John A. Boehner has indicated that the billions of savings over 10 years that a farm bill provides makes it an attractive option for legislation to avoid a combination of budget sequester and across-the-board spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff. The chairman had no details on timing, but people following the legislation say movement would have to occur by the first week of December. (CQ subscription)

Let’s do some rudimentary math.  The last farm bill, which was enacted in 2008, authorized $604 billion in spending.  The current House bill proposed by Lucas (HR 6083) authorizes $957 billion in spending extrapolated over 10 years.  Yet, this 58% increase is considered a cut in ‘Washington speak’ because the phony CBO baseline, which locks in Obama’s food stamp spending, projects $992 billion in spending.  Hence, passage of the farm bill, which locks in the record food stamp spending and creates new farm welfare programs, will be scored as a spending cut – to the extent that it can be used for the spending cut side of the ‘grand bargain.’

This is almost as bad as Republicans agreeing to use the war spending – money that will never be spent – as part of budget savings.

When the rubber meets the road at the end of the year, we will wind up with tax increases in exchange for spending increases that are disguised as budget savings.  That is why we are so “intransigent” about raising taxes.

Tags: , , , , ,

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • commonsenseobserver

    No more farm subsidies or federal crop insurance programs, except for disaster relief. Replace them with Farmer Savings Accounts. Urban Democrats should like that too.

    Hold a comprehensive spending review to find spending cuts to adhere by much stricter caps, with the goal of eliminating the structural deficit entirely.

  • ss396

    $35 billion in phony savings, and that’s over a 10-year period. Meanwhile, it will get committed to some other program, so it isn’t a savings, not even a phony savings.

    I’ve been staring at my keyboard for the past half-hour, unable to come up with the words to adequately express my revulsion and disgust.

  • commonsenseobserver

    Discretionary spending must be rolled back to 2008 levels immediately, then continue to be cut in real terms until the deficit is below 3% of GDP. Retirement ages must be increased, and the growth rate of benefits reduced, especially for the most affluent seniors. There must be a firm commitment that revenue increases must only amount to 1/4 of spending cuts.

    There must be a statutory long term, cyclically adjusted cap on the deficit and federal spending as a percentage of GDP, as well as a “flexible limit” on overall spending growth.

    A deal George H.W. Bush would be proud of, unfortunately, but one which would, if (inevitably- they’ll never accept 80%/20% spending cuts/tax increases as the Liberal Democrats in the UK have done) rejected by the Democrats, make them look absolutely unreasonable.

  • commonsenseobserver

    “We should address the drivers of the deficit and Social Security currently is not a driver of the deficit,” Carney told reporters today.

    What about the long-term entitlement debt crisis? Does he want to be remembered as the President who sat on his hands on it?
    In office, but not in power.

  • Pingback: Links for 11-26-2012 | Karl Heubaum

  • willik

    We now have farming ’10 year plans,’ ’5 year plans,’ ad finitum, ad nauseum.
    Template?: USSR?; China?

    Many plans of this sort trumpeted by Stalin, Mao, et. al., resulted in the deaths of over 200 million citizens of the USSR (not just Russia, check out Ukraine) and China.

    Lesson learned? Obviously NOT!!!

    Do we have this to look forward to? ‘Fraid so!

  • stanleybix

    An example of the brain dead Congress (On both sides of the aisle) we have elected…. I just saved $465,000! How asks my friend, I answer I didn’t buy a Ferrari!!!!!!! The government has an unlimited credit and every month we get the bill!!

  • commonsenseobserver

    I’d like to see Obama’s reaction if we introduce a bidding system for Medicare Advantage based on a Center for American Progress proposal, modeled on one for medical equipment established in… Obamacare (one rare ‘good idea’ in the law which has only saved $200 million, but is far superior to the rest of the top-down bureaucratic central planning).

    Of course, it’d be limited compared to full premium support.

  • commonsenseobserver

    We shouldn’t be deciding a “starting point”. But I can think of a very good ending point- the Domenici-Rivlin Bipartisan Policy Center Debt Reduction Task Force proposal. It does cut marginal tax rates and include entitlement reforms such as Medicare premium support, but also envisions a massive increase in the overall tax take and large cuts in defense. Or even good old Simpson-Bowles.

    If Obama rejects it, as he probably will, he’ll get the blame for being unreasonable (rejecting his own Fiscal Commission/ Bill Clinton’s Budget Director) and we’ll subsequently shift back to the right (or, if he still stands firm, let it crash and burn). If he unexpectedly accepts the deal, much of the revenue will not materialize (you can only take that much out of the economy, whether through tax rates or base broadening), and the defense funding can easily be restored under a Republican President, while spending and tax rates would have been reduced, probably for a long time.

  • commonsenseobserver

    The only concern would be the “debt reduction sales tax”, which can be easily replaced by raising the proposed top tax rate of 27%.

  • fuigeneris

    Boehner must go. I say bring in Allen West as Speaker.

  • johnlong88

    What ever happened to baseline budgeting. Nobody seems to champion that concept anymore. Maybe the Tea Party could help out.

  • commonsenseobserver

    Uh, baseline budgeting is doing perfectly fine. Zero-based budgeting, on the other hand, while garnering bipartisan support on the House Budget Committee, can’t seem to go beyond that.

  • banjojack1956

    After careful consideration, I believe I have come up with a “one size fits all” answer to all of the problems that plague us, and the complaints, and the proposed solutions:It’s all our fault! I hear all these comments from armchair quarterbacks about how “We the People” will RISE UP!!! I have a news flash for you: These ills and woes could have never occurred without the unwitting (or should I say witless) connivance of an electorate that is far better informed about “American Idol” than the voting record of their elected officials. Freedom in this country has not been taken by miles, but rather by inches, by dishonest hucksters who depend on the apathy, complacency and ignorance of a “dumbed down” voting populace who frequently can’t even name their Congressman or Senator. Let us face it, when this country was founded, everyone and his dog couldn’t vote, nor was it intended. There will never be meaningful change as long as idiots vote for unhung criminals. What we have now is the illiterate being led by the illegitimate. A Republic (Constitutional, not Platonic), requires it’s component citizens to be at least marginally ethical and have a modicum of education, otherwise the Republic will become one of the Dictatorial variety envisioned by the Greek. We already have what amounts to an Oligarchy of Plutocrats there in “Moscow-On-the-Potomac,” and like it or not, just about any form of government (other than a Constitutional Republic) is a form of Feudal government, complete with Lords and Ladies and Fiefdoms. All the “isms” and “archies” in the world are subsets of some degree of dictatorship, and “We the People” have only ourselves to blame. Remember Ben Franklin’s reply to the woman who asked what we had been given? “A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it.” I think we have let the Founders down.