NYC Letter: Responsive Government Redux -- Debt

Day 968 of CHOPE

Following Congress raising the debt ceiling the nation's debt quickly topped 100% of GDP. In polls majorities of voters favored paying down debt and not raising the debt ceiling.

Call it pocketbook intuition.

67% FAVOR FINDING SPENDING CUTS
IN ALL GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS
POLL August 9, 2011 (Rasmussen)

Spending cuts were favored over new taxes or raising rates.

POLL: TAX CHANGES
UNPOPULAR SOLUTION TO DEBT

POLL July 31, 2011 (Politico) - Only 11 percent of voters want tax hikes to be used as the main way of closing the deficit, a new poll Wednesday found. Seven percent of those surveyed by Gallup said that mostly tax increases, along with some spending cuts, would be the best way to close the deficit. Four percent of Americans say that only tax hikes should be used to cut the deficit.

Voters expressed significantly more support for spending cuts.

One in five Americans surveyed for the Gallup poll say they think the deficit is best cut down by reducing federal spending alone, while 30 percent say that the best strategy for deficit reduction would employ mostly cuts and some tax hikes. Thirty-two percent of those surveyed said they would like to see a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes.

There’s also resistance among the public at large to see the debt ceiling increased, something that congressional Republicans are trying to link to deficit-reducing spending cuts. Of those surveyed by Gallup, 42 percent say they would vote against raising the debt ceiling, while 22 percent say they would vote for it. Another 35 percent say they don’t know enough about the issue to express an opinion.

So voters prefer the government stop spending money it doesn't have over new taxes on the money the voters are hanging onto. Let's call this the popular position.

Now the government's position.

HOUSE DEMS INTRODUCE BILL
TO ELIMINATE DEBT CEILING

September 13, 2011 (The Hill) - Three congressional Democrats are introducing a bill Wednesday that would abolish the federal debt ceiling. The lawmakers say that the recent debate to raise the ceiling and avoid default had a "disastrous" effect on the U.S economy, and that the legislation would keep parties from using a potential default as a hostage in future budget debates.

More like a disastrous effect on Congressional spenders.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY, 8th):

The debt ceiling is truly arbitrary and has nothing to do with the deficit. The debt ceiling does not prevent the United States from incurring new debts. That occurs when Congress decides to authorize more spending than revenues. The debt ceiling prevents the president from borrowing money to pay those debts when they come due.

We had thought that was the idea. Call us old fashion, but doesn't that fall under Constitutional checks and balances? The debt ceiling was a Congressional invention to impose a discipline to save government from its worse excesses. It was designed to make of spending the very issue it became this summer.

[Hat tip: Hervé]

If you are a Democrat spending is never an issue. Taxes, taxes to pay for more and more and more spending, that's the issue.

REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY:
"YOU DON’T DESERVE TO KEEP ALL YOUR MONEY"

September 14, 2011 (Heritage) - Toward the end of a wide-ranging interview, the hosts played a clip from this week’s Republican Presidential Debate where California teenager Tyler Hinsley asked, "Of every dollar that I earn, how much do you think I deserve to keep?" Co-host Don Wade asked Schakowsky (D-IL, 9th) to answer the same question.

After some initial back-and-forth, she replied:

I’ll put it this way, you don’t deserve to keep all of it. It’s not a question of deserving, because what government is, is those things that we decide to do together.

"It’s not a question of deserving." Got that? Good. Now stop complaining in hostile polls and let Congress get on with spending its money. [The faint click of coin in our pocket. We freeze.] And how about forking over more of Congress's money.

A reminder who's running this show.

We own the economy.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL, 20th),
DNC chair and proud owner of the Obama economy
WASHINGTON June 15, 2011 (Politico)

And Democrats, complaintive tax serf, apparently believe they own you, too.

CHOPE.

Debt, the sky's the limit.

Posted by Damian at September 15, 2011 08:30 PM