However, federal investments in community development, measured as a share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), have fallen over 75 percent in the last 30 years.
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First, the Left is openly crowing about the fact that the deal is a huge victory for their side. There never should have been a “deal” required to keep one faction in one house of one branch of our government from blowing up the world. While the agreement can not turn back the hands of time, it may stem the tide of budget cutting that has accelerated since enactment of the Budget Control Act and the implementation of the across the board cut, or sequester, which was required by the legislation.
Call it the J. Wellington Wimpy Budget: “I’d gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”. Overall spending will increase. The “out years” never come.
However, a few conservative members of the Republican Party are not happy with the deal.
2025? Don’t hold your breath.
Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer told reporters Tuesday morning that most Democrats viewed the agreement positively. The people’s elected representatives are mere bystanders. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said.
Of course, the deal could still fall apart at the 11th hour. I think it’s the best deal we can probably get.
It appears this deal is built on the same principles as the Ryan-Murray budget deal from 2013.
“For months, we Democrats have asked for a budget that increases spending significantly above sequester levels, and does so in a way that is equally balanced between defense and key middle-class programs”. Because these amounts can not easily be predicted, OCO is not subject to congressional spending caps.
Pension smoothing is also a way to boost revenue now while putting off lower revenue until later.
A deal could be announced as early as this evening, according to the Senate source. “We continue to urge Republicans to continue to engage constructively with Democrats to identify common ground”.
The deadline is artificial and can easily be pushed back with a short-term measure if needed.
Ryan is set to be chosen as the Republican nominee for speaker on Wednesday and formally installed during a vote on the House floor on Thursday. There is no urgency to pass a 2-year deal. GOP presidential hopeful Sen. “I can’t agree to immediate spending increases in exchange for the promise of future savings”. “We have extended the solvency of Social Security Disability Insurance and protected millions of seniors from a significant increase in their Medicare Part B premiums and deductibles next year”. Together, the increase is about 5 percent over current levels. When the government incurs an annual deficit, long term bonds are sold to finance it. The government pays interest only on those bonds every year.
What has Congress done to reform the disability insurance program since then? The GAO puts agencies on this list when they are vulnerable “to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or are most in need of transformation”.
In the final analysis, there’s not much to love in this deal. It is not a debatable point or a difference of opinion, it is a lie. They routinely claim that the United States government would have to default on its debt and cause a global crisis unless there is approval for more borrowing.
For instance, exuding an air of faux hysteria, one writer for the Washington Post asserted that, “Failure to raise the debt ceiling would unleash hell on the USA economy”. Or both. If it doesn’t do those things, the only thing it accomplishes by not raising the statutory debt limit is to default on the obligations that lawmakers themselves created.
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Oh, please, we’ve heard this song and dance before. But that’s simply not a realistic possibility. Today the public debt is just over 100% of GDP. It can retire old debt and incur new borrowing; those transactions are a wash. It is that they should be done outside the defense budget, so that the military can focus on national defense and protecting Americans, rather than do bad impressions of Whole Foods, the USA auto industry, and the Sierra Club.
