The special deficit panel would have attempted to produce a plan combining tax cuts and spending curbs that would have been voted on after the midterm elections. The measure went down because anti-tax Republicans joined with Democrats who were wary of being railroaded into cutting Social Security and Medicare.
The Senate vote to kill the deficit task force came just hours after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted a $1.35 trillion deficit for this year as the economy continues to slowly recover from the recession.
The report sees unemployment averaging 10.1 percent this year as the economy grows by just over 2 percent. It would grow only slightly more next year with an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent.
It's a sobering reminder of the fundamental imbalance of the federal government's budget that comes just days before Obama's Feb. 1 budget submission. The White House says Obama will propose a three-year freeze on domestic agency budgets, though the savings would barely make a dent. It hasn't said whether Obama will proposes tax hikes or cuts to spiraling benefit programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
More..
1 comment:
As I said before, the politicians don't have the balls to attack this problem head on. Dems. are too chicken $h!t to admit that we can't afford all the entitlements. Reps. are too chicken $h!t to admit that we'll have to raise some taxes. Overall all are to scared to admit that this is a big $h!t sandwich, created over several Dem. and Rep. administrations/congresses, and we're all going to have to take a bite.
Post a Comment