Drawnlines Politics: congress

Florida Redistricting Reshuffles the Deck, or Not

Posted by Drawnlines Politics congress, Florida, RPOF 1:21 AM

Debt Deal Collapse Good for GOP, America

Posted by Nick Stone congress, Nation 3:43 AM

News broke yesterday that the so-called Deficit Supercommittee failed to reach an agreement to cut $1.2 trillion over the next decade. But is their failure really so bad?

Readers will recall the supercommittee was created as a stipulation for raising the debt ceiling last summer. With the goal of finding deficit cuts, the bipartisan group would either find consensus or suffer a politically unacceptable alternative: deep entitlement and defense cuts, triggered automatically.

The Problem - Revenue vs. Spending:

This chart from the Heritage Foundation clearly shows the relationship between federal spending and tax receipts since 1960, projected to 2021. While revenues have remained near an average of 18% of GDP, spending has risen well above its historical average of 20.3% GDP. So does the government tax too little or spend too much?

Democrats have argued for "increased revenues" (read: tax hikes) on grounds that receipts have been below average during the recession. But projections show that they will naturally return to historical levels as the economy recovers. Alarmingly, the American tax burden is already rising to it's highest level in history. Allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire, Americans will pay 20.6% of GDP in taxes by the end of the decade. Making the Bush-era rates permanent, revenues will still break records by 2035. This is an ominous trend for the folks that pay the bills in this country.

Spending on the other hand is already well above historical averages and growing without end in sight. It is worth noting that discussed "cuts" to federal programs are cuts in projected growth, not actual cuts. The Boston Globe had this to say:

"Sequestration — the triggering of automatic spending cuts if the supercommittee’s required deficit trims don’t materialize — will barely slow the spending train. Between 2013 and 2021, the federal budget is expected to grow by another $1.7 trillion. And if the sequester trigger is pulled? By another $1.6 trillion. If that’s “brutal,’’ I’m Katy Perry."

"Other governments (and earlier administrations) have done it. Under Prime Minister Jean Chretien in the 1990s, Canada slashed spending across the board, reduced its federal payroll by 45,000 jobs, and privatized the national railway and air traffic control system. The result, as Fred Barnes recently chronicled in National Affairs, was an economic rebound. A deficit of nearly $37 billion turned into a $3 billion surplus, and a national economy that had been growing at an anemic 1 percent kicked into overdrive, expanding by an annual average of 3.4 percent between 1994 and 2006."

The Political Aftermath:

Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa) sees an upside to the supercommittee failure. "The silver lining is that we are going to get the spending cuts anyway." However he added, "the mandatory cuts in defense programs could jeopardize our national security." Human Events points out that concern is shared by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, a Democrat.

Automatic spending cuts aren't the only upside to the supercommittee collapse. The process has made Democrats look really, really bad. With tax projections surpassing historic highs and spending at mind boggling levels, they appear petty and hyper-partisan refusing to cut spending growth and instead preferring to hoover more money out of taxpayer wallets. Perhaps the most precious prize of all was the clear and emphatic reversal by President Obama on his pledge to raise absolutely no taxes on middle class families. He will surely have to answer for that next year.

Committee Co-chair Jeb Hensarling (R-Tx) penned in the WSJ, "Republicans were willing to agree to additional tax revenue, but only in the context of fundamental pro-growth tax reform that would broaden the base, lower rates, and maintain current levels of progressivity. This is the approach to tax reform used by recent bipartisan deficit reduction efforts such as the Bowles-Simpson fiscal commission and the Rivlin-Domenici plan. The Democrats said no. They were unwilling to agree to anything less than $1 trillion in tax hikes—and unwilling to offer any structural reforms to put our health-care entitlements on a permanently sustainable basis."

Without a deal, the deficit will narrow automatically by cutting spending without raising taxes. This is a better deal for Republicans than even the most conservative plan floated by the committee. For America's future, the collapse may be the best deal imaginable.

Obama Promises Second Term Tax Hikes

Posted by Nick Stone congress, debt, gop, Nation, obama, POTUS, taxes 7:10 PM

To President Obama's credit, he has tackled recent debt talks with shocking transparency. For starters, he has laid out his re-election campaign strategy. Unable to run on his economic record, the president has doubled down on traditional leftist class warfare against straw men like billionaires, corporate jets, and fat cats. In meetings with Republican leaders, Obama has also fallen into the same trap as he did during the Bush tax cut extensions last year. That is to say, Democrats were horrified that the president never even fought to decouple the tax deal and allow taxes to rise on upper income earners. This time, he announced early that there will be Social Security and Medicare cuts in the final tax deal.

Let's repeat that. The president himself - not Republican lawmakers - announced and prepared lawmakers to sign onto a deal which cuts into those programs. Perhaps the DCCC will run an ad with Obama pushing a grandmother off a cliff now?

Last and most shockingly, President Obama accidentally warned the press of his plans to hike taxes after the election. If he receives a second term, Obama warned, he will raise tax rates in addition to huge hikes in payroll taxes already built into his budgets. According to Obama, "What we have talked about is that starting in 2013, that we have gotten rid of some of these egregious loopholes that are benefiting corporate jet owners or oil companies at a time where they're making billions of dollars of profits." John Hayward at Human Events noted of the stumble, "So, we’ve got an ominous promise by Obama to raise taxes again, if he gets re-elected. That’s right, again. He’s already raised billions of dollars in new taxes, and should never be allowed to pretend otherwise." To support his argument, Hayward pointed to a recent Wall Street Journal article highlighting just a few of the egregious tax hikes the president has already signed.

Will there be four more years for President Obama? Americans should think carefully whether or not they can afford the prospect. At least the president is honest about what he would do in his next term.

Become a Drawnlines Politics insider today.

GOP: U.S. Can Raise Revenues w/o Higher Taxes

Posted by Nick Stone congress, deficit, gop, Nation, obama 12:25 AM

Oil Tax Hike Fails Senate

Posted by Nick Stone congress, energy, Nation, Senate, tax 8:39 AM

Debt Ceiling Reached, Trust Funds Raided

Posted by Nick Stone congress, debt, Nation, obama 1:20 AM

Republicans Want Spending Cap at 18% GDP

Posted by Nick Stone congress, Nation, spending 10:35 AM

Do Words Matter to Debbie Wasserman Schultz?

Posted by Nick Stone Angry Left, congress, Culture, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat, Florida, Nation, tea party 9:14 AM

New Year Web Roundup

Posted by Nick Stone congress, ObamaFAIL, web roundup 9:10 AM

2010 Year in Review

Posted by Nick Stone 2010, congress, election night, Nation 12:22 AM

Weekly Web Roundup

Posted by Nick Stone congress, DADT, Lame Duck, obama, obamanomics, web roundup 9:03 AM

Election Night: Lame Duck

Posted by Nick Stone congress, DADT, election night, On Air 5:16 AM

Post Election Roundtable

Posted by Nick Stone 2010, congress, election night, gop, obama, On Air 10:44 AM

Keep the 60 Vote Rule

Posted by Nick Stone congress, Nation, Senate 9:16 AM

Panetta: CIA Told Pelosi the Truth

Posted by Nick Stone congress 11:26 PM

In it Knee Deep

Posted by Nick Stone congress, obama, one term 9:06 AM

Blue Accountability

Posted by Nick Stone congress 2:27 AM

Air Pelosi: Selling Out Near You

Posted by Nick Stone congress, Culture 11:25 PM

You've heard it before. Nancy Pelosi and the Congressional Liberals want to spend your money on their own luxuries. But is it true?

In short, yes.

But before we ask ourselves who Her Royal Majesty thinks she is, let us ask ourselves, for what purpose does Madame Speaker require the HMS Pelosi?

To be fair, the speaker of the house has been allowed use of military jets as opposed to having to fly commercially since the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. But it's Pelosi's use and abuse of the system that has raised eyebrows, especially in contrast to the speaker's message of responsibility and accountability in government.

The speaker has allegedly used the jet to attend personal business, a funeral in Ohio, a flight to Michigan, a meeting in Iraq, and many trips back and forth to her Bay-area district (where United Airlines, a struggling airline, maintains a hub).

According to the website hispanicbusiness.com, Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog group, has obtained documents from the Department of Defense that itemize her many requests to use Air Force aircraft for travel as well as the use of additional planes as military escorts. More so, Pelosi often canceled her military travel arrangements just minutes before her flight was scheduled to depart. A DOD official referred to this routine practice as "hidden late fees," due to the large staff needed to prep the plane, prepare meals, and more, that still was paid despite the Speaker's lack of attendance.

"Taken together, these documents show that Speaker Pelosi treats the Air Force like her personal airline," said President Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, an organization that aims to promote government transparency. "Not only does Speaker Pelosi issue unreasonable requests for military travel, but her office seems unconcerned about wasting taxpayer money with last-minute cancellations and other demands."

What's next for Nancy Pelosi, and will this be a trend in the "New Era of Accountability" promised by President Obama and the speaker herself? If so, you'll hear about it on Drawnlines.