The "fiscal cliff" deal that was designed to save money actually includes $330.3 billion in new spending over the next decade, according to the official estimate the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday afternoon.
CBO said the bill contains about $25.1 billion in new cuts, but those are swamped by the new spending on extended unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and other new refundable tax credits that President Obama fought for.
Of those cuts, only $2 billion are scheduled to take effect in 2013.
And CBO also warned that some of the cuts Congress is counting are from programs on which CBO never expected the money to be spent anyway — such as cuts to the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan, which was part of Mr. Obama's health care law.
All told, the bill deepens the deficit by nearly $4 trillion over the next decade, when the new tax cuts and spending are combined.
The bill also delays by two months the automatic spending cuts slated to take effect Wednesday, with a promise to reduce spending in the future to cover for them.
It is absolutely critical to the Democrats to keep extending unemployment to numb people to the effects of their disastrous economy and lull them into voting for them again and again while they dismantle the wealth of the nation.
In a bit of good news, this bill does repeal part of Obamacare; the late Ted Kennedy's CLASS Act, one of the huge unfunded mandates.
The "fiscal cliff" deal that was designed to save money actually includes $330.3 billion in new spending over the next decade, according to the official estimate the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday afternoon.
Actually, measures to avoid the combination of automatic events that Bernanke called "fiscal cliff" are not to save money. The best way to save money and cut the deficit would be to just let it all happen.
The reason for taking action now is to avoid further hurting the economy by letting the large automatic spending cuts take effect, combined with taxes going back to 90s levels.
When trying to come back from a deep recession, making steep cuts is really self destructive.
"The DNA of fictional populations appears to be the most susceptible to extinction." - Simon Southerton
krose wrote: When trying to come back from a deep recession, making steep cuts is really self destructive.
Why? What does government spending have to do with recovery from a recession?
Think carefully, Krose.
A second question would be: Why, in a recession, when as much productive capital as possible is needed within the productive sectors of society, and in the pockets of individual citizens, should vast and increasing quantities of it be transferred to the state?
Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father [in Heaven] and how familiar his face is to us
- President Ezra Taft Benson
I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.
Why? What does government spending have to do with recovery from a recession?
This should be evident to anyone with even a sophomoric understanding of economic history, particularly dealing with recessions. You might as well ask another dumb question like, what do taxes have to do with revenues! Unfortunately, you've confined your "education" to your own readings of online sources like Heritage Foundation and Mises.org, which were never serious tools for education. Those are merely tools for continued indoctrination. Hardly surprising that Mormons would jump on them with such blind faith...
Last edited by Guest on Tue Jan 01, 2013 10:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father [in Heaven] and how familiar his face is to us
- President Ezra Taft Benson
I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.
This should be evident to anyone with even a sophomoric understanding of economic history, particularly dealing with recessions. You might as well ask another dumb question like, what do taxes have to do with revenues! Unfortunately, you've confined your "education" to your own readings of online sources like Heritage Foundation and Mises.org, which were never serious tools for education. Those are merely tools for continued indoctrination. Hardly surprising that Mormons would jump on them with such blind faith...
Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father [in Heaven] and how familiar his face is to us
- President Ezra Taft Benson
I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.
Tell you what Loran, go get an education on these issues before pretending you can play with the big boys. Regurgitating "Think tank" rhetoric won't take you very far in neither life, nor in these discussions.
Kevin Graham wrote:Tell you what Loran, go get an education on these issues before pretending you can play with the big boys. Regurgitating "Think tank" rhetoric won't take you very far in neither life, nor in these discussions.
How does removing large and growing quantities of productive, working capital and spendable income from the productive private sector, and transferring it to government, alleviate a recession, or in any sense bring a nation out of a recession?
How does the consumption of wealth by the state, or the transferring of it to politically favored nodes or points within the economy, alleviate a general recession?
How is wealth created?
Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father [in Heaven] and how familiar his face is to us
- President Ezra Taft Benson
I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.