Ron Paul: Just Freeze The Budget!

Video - Texas Straight Talk - Aug. 1, 2011

Complete transcript inside.

One might think that the recent drama over the debt ceiling involved one side wanting to increase or maintain spending with the other side wanting to drastically cut spending, but that is far from the truth. In spite of the rhetoric being thrown around, the real debate is over how much government spending will increase. No plan under serious consideration cuts spending in the way you and I think about it. Instead, the cuts being discussed are illusory and are not cuts from current amounts being spent, but cuts in prospective spending increases. This is akin to a family saving $100,000 in expenses by deciding not to buy a Lamborghini and instead getting a fully loaded Mercedes when really their budget dictates that they need to stick with their perfectly serviceable Honda.

But this is the type of math Washington uses to mask the incriminating truth about the unrepentant plundering of the American people. The truth is that frightening rhetoric about default and full faith in the credit of the United States being carelessly thrown around to ram through a bigger budget than ever in spite of stagnant revenues. If your family’s income did not change year over year, would it be wise financial management to accelerate spending so you would feel richer? That is what our government is doing, with one side merely suggesting a different list of purchases than the other.

In reality, bringing our fiscal house into order is not that complicated or excruciatingly painful at all. If we simply kept spending at current levels, by their definition of cuts that would save nearly $400 billion in the next few years, versus the $25 billion the Budget Control Act claims to cut. It would only take us five years to cut $1 trillion in Washington math just by holding the line on spending. That is hardly austere or catastrophic.

A balanced budget is similarly simple and within reach if Washington had just a tiny amount of fiscal common sense. Our revenues currently stand at approximately $2.2 trillion a year and are likely to remain stagnant as the recession continues. Our outlays are $3.7 trillion and projected to grow every year. Yet we only have to go back to 2004 for federal outlays of $2.2 trillion, and the government was far from small that year. If we simply referred to that year’s spending levels, which would hardly do us fear, we would have a balanced budget right now. If we held the line on spending and the economy actually did grow as estimated, the budget would balance on its own by 2015 with no cuts whatsoever.

We pay 35% more for our military today than we did 10 years ago for the exact same capabilities. The same could be said for the rest of the government. Why has our budget doubled in 10 years? This country doesn’t have double the population or double the land area or double anything that would require the federal government to grow by such an obscene amount.

In Washington terms a simple freeze in spending would be a much bigger cut than any plan being discussed. If politicians simply cannot bear to implement actual cuts to actual spending, just freezing the budget would give the economy the best chance to catch its breath, recover and grow.

Comments

[DailyBail]

Phony rabbi gets 18 years for $10 million tax fraud

Ex-Chicago man filed fake returns using stolen IDs to get refunds

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-fraud-sentence-20110802,0,5454509.story

[DailyBail]

Polar Bear Population Much Higher Than in 20th Century: Is Something Fishy about Extinction Fears?

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/190805/20110802/polar-bear-global-warming-extinction-climate-change-research-world-wide-fund-wwf-geological-survey-s.htm

[DailyBail]

http://www.wcax.com/story/15000495/vermonts-hidden-homeless-camps

vermont’s hidden homeless camps

There is video.

[DailyBail]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - President Obama on Tuesday said cuts in federal spending won't do much to help the U.S. economy and he urged Congress to take swift measures to create jobs. Obama issued his plea shortly after the Senate passed a deal that raises the borrowing limit of the U.S. government by up $2.4 trillion, while cutting federal spending by a similar amount over the next decade. Obama indicated support for an extension of the temporary cut in worker payroll taxes and more money for unemployment benefits, among other things. He also reiterated his call for higher taxes on the rich and the elimination of corporate tax breaks to help balance the U.S. budget in the long run.

[DailyBail]

Eurozone Watch: The Slowdown Is Here; Italian and Spanish Contagion Is On the Way

http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/eurozone-european-debt-crisis-sovereign-debt/8/2/2011/id/36071

[DailyBail]

U.S. poised to join China, Spain in double-A club

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-poised-to-join-china-spain-in-double-a-club-2011-07-30

[LiberatedCitizen]

Rep. Paul introduces bill to cancel $1.6T in debt held by Federal Reserve

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/174953-rep-paul-introduces-bill-to-cancel-public-debt-held-by-the-fed

[LiberatedCitizen]

Italy and Spain well

On Your Mark, Get Set, (Bank) Run! The Dominos of Serial Lehman 2.0 (x 4) In The EU Are Falling Into Place At A Quickening Pace

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/your-mark-get-set-bank-run-dominoes-serial-lehman-20-x-4-eu-are-falling-pace-quickening-

They're too big to bail out and our banks have huge exposure

Italy Is Too Big To Bail, Even For France And Germany

http://blogs.forbes.com/afontevecchia/2011/07/12/italy-is-too-big-to-bail-even-for-france-and-germany/

Spain could be too big to bailout

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/06/28/am-spain-could-be-too-big-to-bailout/

That's why we will all be collapsing soon GLOBAL FINANCIAL ARMAGEDDON Credit Derivatives wink

[DailyBail]

The EU will implode soon, I agree LC. IT's getting closer every day. The Dollar and Treasuries and even (gasp) the US stock market will be safe havens for institutional cash as it flees Europe.

[theo]

But if they actually tried this then NO lobbyists would be throwing money at them for the rigged elections! Those insider trading tips, free 'junkets', etc would dry up in a second. Just think if we had a 'pay for performance' law for politicians the vast majority of them would be imprisoned and have ALL their assets confiscated. 'We' are broke, the world is ripping up our credit card and the FED is acting like there is no rule of law while the whores in CONgress are preparing to retroactively legalize the whole mortgage fraud scam, gut spending at home while EXPANDING the corporate wars (Libya is a 'gift' to the EU to lessen Russian dependence) and with Venezuela recalling its gold reserves I would predict yet ANOTHER corporate war within a year. OBama has proven far beyond what Mussolini proclaimed himself to be a Fascist Dictator who can only rule by threat.
Really you would have a better chance of cocaine addicts guarding police evidence lockers than you would having CONgress actually do what is right.