Our next stop on this crisis bound train ride called the Obama administration is the debt limit. In the very near future (some estimate October 13th) we will reach our spending limit of 16.699 trillion dollars and will have to increase our credit limit. We are told if we don’t raise the limit to spending, America will default on its obligations and very bad things will happen.
A little history on the Debt limit before we tackle our proposal is in order. Before 1917 the only way the government could spend more than it confiscates from citizens was legislation to sell bonds, bills or notes and only for a specific purpose. This proved cumbersome during two world wars so the Debt Ceiling was invented to allow general borrowing when total costs are not known.
This served the US well during the war but it proved very problematic when bring home the pork. It forced Congress, always willing to spend more money to be a hero for new programs but a goat for having to increase borrowing to pay for it. In 1979 the “Dick Gephardt” rule was passed that said if it is in the budget it is automatically paid for regardless of any increase in borrowing. Spending other people’s money then became a win win reelection for politicians. The contract with America returned to forcing Congress to admit they had a spending problem by making them once again have to stand up and vote to pay for pork they needed for reelection.
This proposal is not to raise the debt ceiling but stop some of the wasteful stupid spending so typical of Washington. It is possible our leaders are too busy chasing veterans from memorials and tourists from monuments at this time to have thought of this but here are some modest proposals to avoid the Debt Ceiling.
1) Wasteful spending: 11 billion in faulty IRS refunds, 3.3 billion in unemployment fraud,8 million on public relations for Obamacare, 4 trillion in improper food stamp purchases. The list goes on to see the complete list and maybe add your own click the link. ( http://thewastelist.nrcc.org/ )
2) Stupid spending: 5 million to build a dog park on the upper east side of Manhattan, 6.4 million to NPR and a 40 million tax break for their new headquarters so they can lay off 10% of their staff, At the same time borrowing from China we return 17.8 million to help them combat non existing ”global Warming”.
3) Rewarding corruption with a pension: Jessie Jackson Jr. collects a pension while in prison for disability for his time stealing from the public.( http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?id=9206552) Louis Lerner acts like a Russian commissar while at the IRS and collect a pension for her good work.( http://cnsnews.com/commentary/pete-sepp/lerners-pension-could-be-much-102600year-396-million-lifetime) John Beale stopped showing up for work at the EPA and told his bosses he was on secret assignment for the CIA. When years later he is caught he retires with his pension.( http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/epa-official-who-faked-cia-ties-takes-the-fifth-97644.html)
4) School lunch programs: While you can applaud the logic behind spending 11 billion dollars to feed children of snap recipients in schools. How much would the government save if it was not illegal to verify the income of recipients of the program?
If our government was half as efficient when taking our money as they should be when spending it, we would not need to raise the limit. But that would take real leadership and Washington is full of politicians.
