Quote:
Originally Posted by seattleflamer
This discussion is a moving target. So now the cuts are an illusion?
Non partisan CBO certified 2.1 trillion in spending reductions over 10 years plus a bipartisan "Super Congress" setup to look at more cuts and if they are stalemate, an automatic reduction takes place.
There is also nothing stopping Congress from extending those tax cuts btw and will be part of the "Super Congress" discussion. Everything is on the table.
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Yes anything that isn't cut right now is up to the next Congress. It is like Obama projected goals and policy for foreign affairs over the next 10 years. He is free to do it but, whoever replaces him next year or in 5 years can chart a different course.
Congress could also extend the Bush tax cuts as well but, that is highly unlikely to happen. They are set to expire and Obama and the Democrats want them gone. One could argue that the Republicans met the Democrats half way by not throwing them on the table as well. They could have demanded they be extended again.
Also, the Tea party wasn't united against military cuts. There are even Tea party members who want an immediate withdrawl of troops from all foreign conflicts. They did want social security and medicare on the table because they like every American knows that those things will have to be fixed or they will be unaffordable in the near future. Even the Democrats acknowledge that.
I personally don't think the Tea partiers were reckless in their defiance of raising the debt ceiling. They were acting on the platform they ran on and were elected on.
They weren't leading the country to default either. August 2 was clearly made up. You don't default on a debt payment of 29 billon dollars when your sitting on 8000 tons of gold amongst a host of other assets.
The credit rating was also scare mongering. No plan put forward is deep enough to save it from eventual downgrade unless the economy changes soon. Default would have triggered an immediate down grade but, of course that wasn't going to happen. If August 2 did pass without a resolution if anything it might have been looked at as a good thing by creditors. It would have meant that congress was serious about making real lasting changes.