Comments on: Friday open thread

By: John R

John R — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:00:33 +0000

The point of baseline budgeting is that each item increases automatically every year. There are never any real spending cuts, only cuts in the rate of growth. This has been the fact since 1974, the budget has increased every year.

Even the coming sequestration only cuts the rate of growth. If it should take place, the government will continue to grow.

What is wrong with baseline budgeting is that there is never a reduction in the size of government, spending will increase ad infinitum.

The only way to reduce the size of government is to “starve the beast” thru reduction in revenue, i.e. tax cuts.

Washington will claim “spending cuts” when in reality only the rate of growth is very modestly reduced and then they will project the “savings” over the next ten years claiming “trillions have been saved” knowing full well a future Congress is not bound by this Congress and will put back the “spending cuts”, that is the larger rate of growth.

Again, even with sequestration, government grows and spending increases.

Read more: Myths From D.C. “Sequestration is a drastic spending cut.”

http://americansforprosperity.org/legislativealerts/11052-2/

By: 89Hoo

89Hoo — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:28:25 +0000

55 – of course they think it’s austerity. No one has told them otherwise, and they lack the wherewithal to think beyond the next presser.

By: 89Hoo

89Hoo — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:21:28 +0000

58 – well, they CLAIMED they did. They made a big to-do about drastic spending cuts, dire budget cuts government layoffs, misery galore. This was announced with much fanfare and wailing and sobbing in the media and liberal intelligentsia.

The reality is that budgets were cut microscopically, if at all, layoffs were minimal, if at all. Overall spending, and hence budget deficits, rose at pretty much the same rates as before (in spite of simultaneous massive tax hikes).

And the economy continues to plummet.

And the media and liberal intelligentsia continued to wail and sob about the drastic budget cuts that never happened, ignoring the fact that they never happened (“austerity” was announced with great fanfare, after all, and no government officials announced that they didn’t happen, so how would the media know better?). Apparently, since the budget cuts and austerity that never happened had no positive impact on the economy, the budget cuts and austerity that never happened are to blame for the economy being in the toilet.

Now, there is discussion that true austerity measures would have worked at all; Rich claims they wouldn’t have, I claim they would…that’s an entirely different discussion than claiming that measures that never happened did not work.

There was no austerity. So austerity is not to blame.

By: Name Withheld

Name Withheld — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:33:22 +0000

Something I’m not quite clear on yet … did Europe have any austerity measures?

By: Richard J Beason

Richard J Beason — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:09:55 +0000

42. John R – Perhaps it is time for “Zero Based Budgeting” to be considered again. It failed in Carter’s time because it was simply too big a burden, too time consuming, and thereby not something that could be pursued to any extent. Today, we have a lot more information at our fingertips than in 1974. However, don’t think that departments merely add 3% to the prior year numbers and turn in their budget. Each department still has to justify their budget in detail. They use the prior year numbers as the best information available as to what to expect the costs to be for the upcoming year based on what they are expected to do differently in the new year. There is nothing wrong with that approach.

By: Richard J Beason

Richard J Beason — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:06:55 +0000

51 hoo – no, we do not agree on that at all.

By: Sandi Saunders

Sandi Saunders — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:04:27 +0000

They sure seem to “think” it is austerity:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/14/why-we-striking-against-austerity-europe

“In Spain, the recession is taking an incredible toll on the population. We have an intolerably high unemployment rate (more than 25%), the welfare state has been rapidly dismantled and public services and labour relations are deteriorating.

With this strike we want to change European policies, which only pay attention to the voices of the powerful. We also want to fight against employment reforms and a policy of dogmatic deficit reduction, which has brought us close to having 6 million unemployed.

Unemployment benefits are being cut. The unemployment rate among young people in Spain is over 50%, condemning our youth to social exclusion or emigration. The education cuts pushed through by the government are depriving many of any possibility of accessing higher education and force a classist, sexist and conservative education on them. The cuts in the health budget and the introduction of prescription charges mean that the most disadvantaged could be left outside the national health system, and the lack of budget provision for the dependent care law leaves thousands of people without appropriate care. As a result, thousands of families are pushed towards social exclusion.”

What then do you call these measures if not “austerity”?

By: BUD

BUD — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:50:14 +0000

John R…the GDP did not grow 2.2% for the 4 qtrs. of 2012..it was just short of 1.6%.

By: 89Hoo

89Hoo — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:14:16 +0000

50 – JimW, Europe never enacted any austerity measures.

By: John R

John R — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:53:58 +0000

For Q4 ’12 the US GDP fell to a surprising -0.1%. This compares to 3.1% growth in Q3 ’12 and is the first decline in US GDP since the so called
recovery started in mid 2009, well before the so called stimulus had kicked in.

The GDP performance in Q4 2012 was weaker than expected, and was forecast for a rise of 1.1%. The negative GDP was a big surprise to the Obmanistas. No one expected the GDP to decline in the fourth quarter, least of all Bernanke!

For 2012 as a whole the US grew by just 2.2% and is forecast to grow by about 2.0% in 2013. The average GDP since the so called “recovery” began in July ’09 has been an anemic 2%!

If the GDP goes negative again for Q 1 ’13, that would mean a recession and spell the end of the Obama non-recovery. Seems like the economy is going in reverse!

There obviously are those on this blog that are satisfied with 2% annual growth and 8% unemployment. Any real signs of economic recovery are in spite of and not because of Obama.