If Only Those Republicans Were Not So Partisan!

Over the next week or so you are sure to hear about the excessive partisanship of the Republicans in not working more cooperatively with President Obama on the debt limit increase.

However, on the debt ceiling limit increase vote in 2006 not one Democrat voted for an increase in the debt limit when President Bush was in office.

Here is the roll call vote.  Senator Barack Obama was one of the Democrats to vote No.  He now says that was a mistake.  How do we know he is not making a mistake right now?

It is going to be a very interesting week.  Kudos to Senator Tom Coburn for his proposal today that put a blueprint on the table that would cut $9 trillion from the deficit over the next 10 years.  This is made up of about $8 trillion in spending restraint and $1trillion in new revenue from overhauling the tax code. That is over double the deficit reduction in the Ryan plan.  However, federal spending is currently projected to exceed $50 trillion over the next 10 years.  Therefore, a $8 trillion cut is only about an 16% overall reduction in projected spending.  84% of federal spending would still remain.  Would this be painful?  Absolutely. However, how many families and businesses in this country have had to deal with far bigger cuts in their standard of living from time to time?  Ryan's plan would reduce spending by about 10%. Is there any budget that cannot withstand a 10% cut if push comes to shove?

The CBO projects that we will add about $9 trillion in additional debt over the next 10 years on top of the $14 trillion we already owe if we continue on the current path.  If we don't take action, where is the money going to come from to finance this deficit spending?  China?  Japan?  Europe?  Printing Press?  That is the real problem.  At some point, the money dries up.  At that point it is not going to be pretty for anyone.