Appropriations Reform. We want to own the discussion on how money is spent, let the Democrats own the excessive spending..

Bipartisan Reform of Appropriations Committee?

This is another lame suggestion. We have had Simpson Bowles already so where did that get us? Exactly where we are now. So why keep doing the same all over again? Neither dems or reps have any intention of cutting spending especially when it affects their constituencies. I really would like to see something different besides the same old same old.

Sorry Erick, bad idea. This is just another version of Simpson-Bowles.

I’m afraid the only way spending is going to be cut is through the debt ceiling limit. I like the idea of spending priorities as mentioned by Daniel in his “Once again, we’ll fight next time” post yesterday. Unless the House takes the Pat Toomey bill approach, they will NEVER get spending cuts.

Can’t get the Senate to pass Toomey’s bill and the Prez to sign it? They should do like Congress did to Clinton with welfare reform in the 90′s. Keep sending the same bill back until Obama signs it. Force the Dems in the Senate to “own” a possible default. Once the House shows some resolve by doing that, the left just might fold like a cheap suit.

Aye.

So, in other words, we need another Simpson-Bowles Commission – this time with teeth. Would be great. Never gonna happen.

Good idea and vehicle for change and all BUT … not raising the debt ceiling unless the President and Democrats come up with meaningful spending cuts and reforms. IF we hinge on this the trap we walk into is going to eat us alive in the media.
Since we won’t get a BUDGET we will produce another CR. USE THAT or maybe sequestration and not the DEBT CEILING then we can use the sound bites from the Presidents Speech to talk about running up NEW DEBT, and shut it down till we get the cuts.
Don’t get hung up on Medicare and SS right now, lets do the structural reform in normal order and not in the heat of this debate, Let Ryan run the commission, he communicates well and has voted for all the bail outs so the Democrats will accept him too. Otherwise they hang the “They will take your SS check away”mantra ’round our necks. We have the Leadership Meetings this weekend I believe, to hammer it out in, the Tea Party will work with us if we ASK them too. That may only mean sitting quietly, but they’ll play, after watching the cliff and Plan B crash and burn – giving us that ++++ we wound up with….

Absolutely not! The FairTax plan eliminates ALL personal and corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, estate taxes, capital gains taxes, and taxes on savings and dividends. Used items are NOT taxed.The idea of the FairTax is to reward savings and production, not tear them down like the current tax code does now.

This is a gimmick when we need a strategy. It’s one thing to get a base closure panel in the immediate aftermath of a Cold War victory. It’s another thing to let a bunch of unelected poobahs have at “reforming” the entire tax code and the federal leviathan. Let’s just say it would not end well for the cause of constitutional government.

The House should pass three, four, or ten versions of a debt ceiling increase; two for three months, one for six months, six versions for ninth months, etc. They should attach different limited government legislation to each and every version they pass. The bigger the increase of debt, the bigger the government reduction. But don’t be afraid to trade a debt increase for a meaningful long-term change to a major entitlement program. Pass the Ryan medicare reform or a Medicaid overhaul and attach it to a one year extension. Pass a six month extension and include provisions gutting Obamacare’s mandates on the types of coverage insurers must provide. Pass a bunch of bills stuff that include THINGS WE WANT and let Obama choose which extension he wants. Regular order in the House is our friend. Hensarling, Ryan, Price: get together, come up with a plan, and present it to the caucus and then to Boehner. More chess, less checkers.

But staying on the sidelines and waiting for the House caucus to fracture? We have all seen that movie enough times.

Fitch is threatening to lower the credit rating of the United States.

Here’s what Fitch says:

The pressure on the U.S. rating, if anything, is increasing….We thought the 2011 [debt ceiling] crisis was a one-off event …. if we have a repeat we will place the U.S. rating under review.

Fitch also says that the U.S.’s AAA rating is supported by the fundamental strength of the U.S. economy, but:

[F]undamental credit strengths are being eroded by the large, albeit steadily declining, structural budget deficit and high and rising public debt.

Congress needs to find a way to raise the debt ceiling in a way that satisfies agencies like Fitch that there is no risk of economic.turmoil, but also makes a real dent in the structural budget deficit and national debt. There are many ways to do this. One way is for the House to pass a bill authorizing the debt ceiling to increase 50 billion per month, while offering to raise it further if all of the debt ceiling increases are completely offset by spending cuts.

I don’t agree with flatly refusing to raise the debt ceiling at all, because that would obviously cause a great crisis, even if not default. This would lead to a ratings downgrade and a huge blame game that the GOP would lose.

The lies, diversions, obfuscations, and deceptions continue unabated.

There is no relationship between the debt limit and paying our bills. The only reason to raise the debt limit is to borrow more money to support even more spending. The arguments coming from DC don’t even make sense.

It would be like me going to my bank and telling them that without increasing my line of credit I couldn’t pay the mortgage, buy food, buy gas, pay utilities, etc. they would laugh and tell me to lower my spending to match my salary.

There is no need to make any kind of deal with Obama about raising the debt limit. If the GOP wants to cut spending the best way to do so is to refuse to raise the debt ceiling. Obama woud have no choice but to spend not a dime more than the Treasury receives in taxes each month. So, technically no deal has to be made whatsoever. It’s the GOP that holds all the cards here if only they knew how to play them.

And here the 14th Amendment actually applies. Interest on the debt must be paid first.

There will be no real progress unless we get rid of the twin entitlement programs in Medicare and Social Security. People need to work hard and provide for themselves in their later years, and not leach off the rest of us. So long as these entitlement programs continue to exist, the “entitlement mentality” will persist, the AARP will be the most powerful force in America, and we’ll keep draining down the tube.

Contrary to a lot of the Democrats’ spin, the federal government will not default if the debt ceiling is not raised. Only if Little Timmy Geithner decides to not pay certain debts will the government default. It is his choice.

Doesn’t matter, republican will get blamed for it anyway.

We have a department of Energy that has failed to perform its mission completely and continuously close that base. We have a Department of Education that hasn’t performed its mission and should be a closed base. How about the little government we all have down town called a post office. I has mismanaged itself into a continuous bleeding debacle. Close them and turn them over the the thing that does work in this country, private enterprise. Reducing the Military falls right into Obama’s admitted plan to reduce our economic footprint and our military strength to a level of the Muslim world so they will like us better or as they put it. “Death to America” Everything Obama has done so far does not deviate from this plan. No commissions. Just tell the Pentagon It should look for no impact reductions it can make and concentrate on reducing the waste that prevails everywhere in this Government. Starting with the extravagant Vacations of the president and his family. Make him act like he is part of this country. His home is Chicago. He has a private retreat at Camp David. That is all the rest and relaxation he needs from playing golf. I know he isn’t really an American, 2 million dollar fake birth certificate, but he could act like one. He thinks he is an Arab sheik touring the Peasants in his golden buses, millions of wasted tax dollars for what? He fly’s to where the buses are and then drives into town. I am surprised they don’t have gold spinner wheels and a continental tire on the back. He thinks they are they are his sweet ride. He isn’t a rock star on tour. We should know by now that friendship cannot be bought. We should stop all foreign aid to countries that hate us. Maybe it is my lack of information I have very limited resources for the truth and the Media has no interest there, But I can’t think of a single Muslim country that doesn’t hate us. England, Japan, and Germany are three of our strongest allies and we defeated all three. We would do well to help our friends with the extra money we have not money we borrowed from China. The argument we usually hear against that is it isn’t enough to make a difference. Bull ****. it is money we don’t have. And we are borrowing money to pay the interest. If we want to be Philanthropic we need to save our money and be fiscally responsibly. These are not nations of starving children, these are nations of men, able bodied men who squander their money just like we do. If the have starving children they need to sell their gold palaces to feed them. Stand up to their despots like men. Not fight each other and murder their own.

So not do you kids understand? You can send your pennies to what ever country you like but you have to save them up first. Not borrow the money and not pay it back.

Every dollar matters. We have made an entitlement society not just here but the whole world is now. People all over the world, including the broken toy president we have who is trying to get his dead father who abandoned him to approve of him, hate us for what they think we owe them. They see foreign aid as an entitlement. Obama even went on an official apology tour of the Middle east. Apologize for what? Being prosperous, ingenious, hard working, reinvesting in our enterprises, caring for each other? The nations of the world who want to be our friends and support us in our love of liberty and freedom are welcome to join us. We will mutually support each other like we always have We sacrificed millions of our men and billions of dollars worth of our stuff to defend our friends throughout history. Though the memory is fading and some appreciated it more than others we have remained steadfast, And like Colin Powell said when ask about our imperialistic intentions in Kuwait, “Over the years the United States has sent many fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land w have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.” I have said too much.

The republican “Leadership” finds it easier to go along-after the usual posturing for the folks back home- to get along than to expend any gray matter energy to come up with anything meaningful. They don’t like the idea of putting in more effort than democrats for the same salary.

If Geitner can easily ignore the debt ceiling, there’s no pending default which means there is no leverage to force dems to enact cuts.

And the MSM will never change unless we buy them. So this is exactly why our side’s position needs to become “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

Yes, they continue. And no, they don’t make sense. Alice in Wonderland meets 1984.

Cuts first, loophole closures later.

Can’t do both at the same time, since repealing the 16th requires another constitutional amendment. What we can do is write into the FairTax that after 3 years of being in effect it will be all repealed if the 16th hasn’t been repealed yet.

That’s why the only exception in the FairTax is for education, period.

Although a Brac type committee is a decent Idea. I fear that the congress would just reject whatever program they come up with. The Left have gone completely rogue, and the Republicans are more spineless than ever. Nothing will get done, everything will collapse, and then we will elect, perhaps some better people.

Mark my words, nothing good will happen in the next two years at least.

So the country goes from crisis to crisis to crisis. Is that your plan?
Democrats will use the Republican promise of endless crisis and hit you with it like a club.

“…without any impact on our Country whatsoever.” Oh, really? Do you think that NONE of those busybodies wouldn’t file for unemployment compensation? I’m not saying that is a bad thing…except of course that Zero has made it not unappealing either.

Exactly. The federal government receives over $2 trillion in tax receipts and interest on the debt is only a small part of federal outlays. If Obama can’t operate the government on that massive amount of revenue, that’s his problem. All the talk about “default” is just scare-mongering by a vulnerable president and his leecher base, who are afraid the mean Republicans won’t let them keep maxing out this country’s credit card.

There is no need to talk about loopholes or deductions. Any true conservative knows that the easiest way to balance the budget is to stop raising the debt ceiling, and “compromising” or “grand bargains” are just needlessly giving away leverage. Only when Obama has proven he can actually manage taxpayer money, should we talk about anything that would bring more revenue to federal government coffers.

The whole thing is a farce. If GOP causes a debt default the public will turn against us. Watch as the establishment types move once again to force the conservatives into line. The sequester and a government shutdown don’t really scare obama.

Our big mistake was letting obama decouple the tax cuts with the odious fiscal cliff bill. Now he does not need to worry about taxes increasing on the lower and middle classes, and knows that he has no downside in taking republicans to the mat. The fools who told us that we should just approve the fiscal cliff deal and fight it out over the debt limit conveniently ignored the optics of a default, and now leave us hapless and divided. It’s time to fire Boehner, and get some new leadership in the house. One card we have is to let the post office go busto.

“Specifically, I think the Republicans should propose a BRAC Commission for spending.”
This is a good idea which in normal times would help make the medicine of fiscal discipline go down.

Better would be a SPEND-GO provision. No spending passes without cutting something equivalent – the Sandy bill would have HAD to be paid for by equivalent spending cuts.

It’s no accident that the era of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings and pay-go and fiscal responsibility led to the deficits going to zero, which then led to those rules getting tossed … which led to where we are today.

My fear is that any idea is useless while we have a Democrat party actively subverting fiscal responsibility. The fact that the Democrat-led Senate hasnt even passed a budget says it all. BRAC will be round-filed by Obama in the same place he put the Simpson-Bowles, same place he put all those phony ‘grand bargain’ ideas.

Here’s the bottom line reality: DEMOCRATS WILL ONLY CUT SPENDING WHEN THEY START LOSING ELECTIONS BECAUSE THEY ARENT DOING IT.

“The Left have gone completely rogue”
Correct. the ONLY solution is kicking leftists out of power, and in 2014 that is Senator Harry Reid. It’s not even about Republican spine any more, but about the power of spending interests at all levels controlling Washington DC.

Its phony leverage anyway…. we talk about ‘forcing Obama’ or ‘forcing Reid’ to cut spending. Where do you cut spending? IN SPENDING BILLS!

The debt ceiling is NOT a spending bill. On that point Obama was right (although he was 100% wrong in saying its about paying the bill for past spending; that is false. Increasing the limit above what we owe now is to cover FUTURE spending).

The leverage to cut future spending is in 2 places – BUDGETS and APPROPRIATIONS. The Democrat-led Senate ripped apart the spending controls in place since 1921 by not even passing a budget(!!!). Getting back to actual budgets is a first step. Demanding a path to balance within 10 years is a second step. The third step is to actually cut not just the budget but to stick to it in appropriations.

The Republicans in 2011 and 2012 failed to fight hard bit by bit in apprropriations and tossed in the towel a number of times when they didnt have to.
Instead of grand high-stakes shutdown threats, do it piecemeal and bit by bit.

Cut the spending. Cut the spending. Cut the spending.

There is a need to do a end-run around the media and the Democrats and take this whole thing to the American people through somebody who is articulate. If you remember the Reagan presentations sponsored by GE, I would be in favor of a similar sponsored by the Koch Brothers or the Heritage Foundation with someone articulate such as Jim DeMint presenting them. We may need to buy “public service announcement” time on the radio to do such, but that is the major way to get the material out there. Get Rush, Levin, and others to advertise them.

We need to get beyond the media, and put them on notice that their days as gatekeepers of information is over.

However, I agree with several others: what we need is a Republican action plan, not another commission. We had that with the last debacle that Obama put together. These are simply cover for our Democrat brethren to run their mouths and do nothing.

So how did George W. Bush manage to spend “only” $2.7 trillion on the 2005 budget? Why does the federal government under Obama need $1 trillion more? This was only eight years ago. Did we not have a large military in 2005? Did we not have Social Security and Medicare? These were all programs that consumed large amounts of federal spending in 2005. The only difference now is Obama loves giving out $1 trillion more in food stamps and welfare.