Tag Archives: fiscal cliff
Eat the Rich
The tax hike on the rich to avoid the fiscal cliff will bring in 60 billion dollars. This year’s deficit is a trillion dollars. The president doesn’t want to cut spending. Stay tuned.
Fiscal Sacrifice
The president came to Washington, demanded shared sacrifice, got his fiscal cliff deal and returned to Hawaii. According to Bloomberg taxes will go up for 77.1 percent of American families. The Congressional Budget Office says the deal will cost $4 trillion over the next decade. Spending cuts? … Maybe later. Kevin O’brien has a nice rant about that here.
Budget Baseline Camp
Uncle Sam’s starting point for spending is a baseline of the previous year CBO projections for the coming year.
“The most absurd current example is Mr. Obama’s claim that his “$4 trillion” plan reduces the deficit by about $800 billion over 10 years by ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But those “savings,” as he calls them, are measured against a White House budget office spending baseline that is fictional. Those wars are already being unwound and everyone knows the money will never be spent. But they are called “savings” to gull the public and make the deficit reduction add up to a large-sounding $4 trillion.”
Making a List
Mitt Romney dropped by the White House for lunch last week. Later the president hit the campaign trail to promote tax hikes on the rich. During a rally at the Rodon Group plant in Hatfield Pennsylvania, Obama announced he was keeping a list of naughty and nice congressmen. The Naughty or Nice List isn’t to be confused with the his Enemies List of Republican campaign donors, or his Kill List.