Yes Mr. President, you will negotiate the debt ceiling increase! |
| By Michael Busler
Monday, January 06, 2014 At a recent press conference, President Obama was asked about the upcoming battle with Congress to raise the debt ceiling. He responded by again saying that he refuses to negotiate on the debt ceiling because we must agree to pay the bills that we have already incurred. His refusal to negotiate will be a problem in February and he is simply wrong to take that position. Why? It is true that we must pay our bills. But like any fiscally responsible entity, before agreeing to assume more debt, Congress simply wants some assurances that this pattern of spending significantly more than the government receives in annual income, will be at least curtailed. No matter how you look at it, $17.2 trillion dollars of debt is excessive, burdensome and counter-productive to economic growth. Last year, the federal government's annual income was about $2.8 trillion, meaning the debt is more than 6 times annual income. An analogy would be a person with a $50,000 annual income carrying a $300,000 mortgage. It is simply unsustainable. The interest payments are currently more than $400 billion per year, and this is at record low interest rates. As rates rise, so will these payments. We have had annual deficits in 48 of the 51 years. Each deficit adds to the public debt. While the President says that the 2013 deficit declined by more than 30% from the prior year, the fact remains that the $640 billion 2013 deficit was about 50% higher than any president, other than Obama, has ever incurred. For 2014 the deficit will likely grow rather than be reduced and could again soon top $1 trillion, especially if economic growth is low and spending for more government programs, like the Affordable Care Act, increases. ----------Advertisement--------- Think ObamaCare is bad? Wait until you see this… A Washington DC-area financial journalist says there's something brewing within the Obama administration that will soon dwarf ObamaCare. He says this new development will affect not only your health care, but also your bank account… your investments… your retirement… your house… and your job. Get the facts for yourself. Take a few minutes to check out his full analysis, free of charge, here… --------------------------------- We have elected representatives to Congress who are supposed to watch the fiscal condition of the federal government and to insure that no undue burdens are placed on future generations. Therefore it is imperative that Congress and the President have a plan to reduce annual deficits and slow the growth of the public debt, before agreeing to raise the debt ceiling. Perhaps most disturbing, is that the government has no means nor do they have any intention, to ever repay this debt. When bonds, which were sold to finance the deficit, mature, the government simply sells new bonds to re-pay the mature bonds and just rolls over the debt. As a result, the public debt just keeps growing. Can you imagine lending money to someone who makes interest only payments and who has no intention of ever fully repaying? What credit rating would such a person have? What credit rating should the U.S. government have? The House of Representatives, who gives the appearance of fiscal responsibility, recently agreed to a budget plan that spends more money and incurs a larger deficit than the sequester plan which was the law of the land. It is doubtful though, that the House will agree to raise the debt ceiling in February without some assurances that annual deficits will be significantly reduced. We Americans hope that this issue can be resolved before the deadline so that another crisis can be avoided. In October, the House gave in and agreed to re-open the government without getting any spending or debt reduction concessions. Then in December the House and Senate agreed on a budget which continues to have large deficits and an ever increasing public debt. The House has given too much. It must now hold firm and demand fiscal responsibility to protect our economy and to stop placing heavy burdens on the next generation who already has to pay for underfunded Obamacare mandates, underfunded Social Security, underfunded Medicare and underfunded Medicaid. The young will also face high personal debt from going to college where tuition, housing and fees have skyrocketed. They face a bleak job market due to the stagnant economy of the last six years. And they face ever increasing taxes to fund the social programs instituted by the current administration. We have a responsibility to our children. So yes, Mr. President, you will negotiate over the debt ceiling. Michael Busler, Ph.D. is a public policy analyst and a Professor of Finance at Richard Stockton College. The Project to Restore America Every email is important to us. We can't always respond individually, but we read and consider everything. Please email your question, comment or complaint to john@theprojecttorestoreamerica.com or wendy@theprojecttorestoreamerica.com. It's basically on point. It's a message worth sending … and … she's messaging. You guys are messaging. She has a Twitter account where she presumably "messages." Far more importantly, she uses the statist's preferred descriptor for themselves, "Progressive." Seems as if she inhaled that propaganda message quite deeply. Progress toward what? Serfdom … for us? Dominion for them? You can't let your opponent define terms or you lose the debate before it starts? "You aren't opposed to progress, are you?" – Anonymous Bidwell comment: This is great feedback in response to Messaging Versus Reality. If you scroll through the daily updates you've received from The Project, you will see there isn't a lot of messaging in our content. Most of the updates simply arm you with the facts you need to confront the messages and lies perpetrated by the mainstream media. We aim to seek and reveal the truth, which is the very opposite of messaging. For example, consider today's update… You most likely saw the President saying he won't negotiate on the debt ceiling. You might have seen the pundits in the liberal media say things like, "Look, the President said he isn't negotiating… He isn't negotiating." These folks think they have the moral high ground… The right to message goes along with their self-assigned seat on a pedestal. Michael Busler explains all the reasons why the President's statement is not acceptable and ends with, "So yes, Mr. President, you will negotiate over the debt ceiling." The President should be hearing Michael Busler's thoughts from Washington insiders, the press, and every American. But apparently most of those people are too busy being messaged and nodding their heads… On another note, I don't know that the term "progressive" is complimentary. Sure I like progress, but the term progressive can have both positive and negative connotations, depending on its usage. The same is true of the term conservative. I couldn't agree more with your "Messaging Versus Reality" 1/3/2014 post. I firmly believe that people have been robbed of their ability to conduct any form of critical thinking. Grade school children are programed to believe everything their teachers say and never use common logic to question anything . . . I fear that unless people learn to think for themselves we will continue on the path we are on. – Ron Bidwell comment: Ron, you've got it. When we get "messaged", we must remember to explain to others why the messages aren't reality. Start noticing how often fiscal conservatives on national television forget to take the time to explain why a statement isn't correct or debunk a myth. We have to do a better job debunking myths and lies in everything from television appearances to teaching our children to think critically. |
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