Little-Acorn
Well-Known Member
Text of the just-passed Budget Deal can be found at:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/DEBT_016_xml.pdf
Glancing through it and various reports, it contains:
1.) Authorization for Congressional spending that will add $7.1 trillion to the existing National Debt over ten years, for a new national Debt of $21.6 trillion.
2.) Requires Congress to vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution... but doesn't require that they pass it.
3.) Raises the Debt Ceiling immediately by $900 billion.
4.) Raises the Debt Ceiling immediately by an additional $1.2 trillion if Congress "cuts" spending by the same $1.2 trillion over ten years, or by $1.5 trillion if the BBA is passed and sent to the states for ratification (but doesn't require that states ratify it). So if Congress "cuts" spending by $1.2 trillion, the total increase in the National Debt Ceiling is $2.4 trillion.
Spending has been expected to increase by approx. 13% every year. This bill changes it to an increase of 12.9% in 2012, 12.8% in 2013, etc., to a yearly increase of approx. 11% in 2021. Congress refers to these reductions in the rate of increase, as "spending cuts".
This Deal forms a committee of six Democrats and six Republicans. Some people are calling the committee a "Super Congress", though it has no power to make or change laws. Its job is to recommend "spending cuts" to Congress. The full Congress can then vote the recommendations up or down, but cannot amend them.
5.) This "Deal" does not contain any tax increases that weren't already coming. But it does nothing to stop the Bush tax cuts from expiring in 2013, nor the major tax increases contained in Obamacare from occurring in 2014 and later. Together, these tax increases will be the largest in United States history.
6.) The United States's credit rating will be downgraded. The major services (Moody's, Standard & Poors etc.) have indicated that none of the earlier bills would avert this downgrade, since the National Debt was so large; and this new bill does even less than some of the old bills proposed.
SUMMARY:
National Debt will rise quickly to $17 trillion, and to $21.6 trillion in ten years. Spending will continue to increase by nearly the same amount as before. A BBA must be voted on, but not passed. Taxes will increase more than they ever have, in 2013 and 2014. The nation's credit rating will be downgraded, resulting in large increases in the interest rates we must pay on that $21.6 trillion debt.
Various news services are describing this as a "victory for conservatives". Others' opinions vary.
Would anybody like to read throught the bill carefully and thoroughly, and fill in more details in this thread, please? I only glanced through the bulk of it (it's 74 pages long).
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/DEBT_016_xml.pdf
Glancing through it and various reports, it contains:
1.) Authorization for Congressional spending that will add $7.1 trillion to the existing National Debt over ten years, for a new national Debt of $21.6 trillion.
2.) Requires Congress to vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution... but doesn't require that they pass it.
3.) Raises the Debt Ceiling immediately by $900 billion.
4.) Raises the Debt Ceiling immediately by an additional $1.2 trillion if Congress "cuts" spending by the same $1.2 trillion over ten years, or by $1.5 trillion if the BBA is passed and sent to the states for ratification (but doesn't require that states ratify it). So if Congress "cuts" spending by $1.2 trillion, the total increase in the National Debt Ceiling is $2.4 trillion.
Spending has been expected to increase by approx. 13% every year. This bill changes it to an increase of 12.9% in 2012, 12.8% in 2013, etc., to a yearly increase of approx. 11% in 2021. Congress refers to these reductions in the rate of increase, as "spending cuts".
This Deal forms a committee of six Democrats and six Republicans. Some people are calling the committee a "Super Congress", though it has no power to make or change laws. Its job is to recommend "spending cuts" to Congress. The full Congress can then vote the recommendations up or down, but cannot amend them.
5.) This "Deal" does not contain any tax increases that weren't already coming. But it does nothing to stop the Bush tax cuts from expiring in 2013, nor the major tax increases contained in Obamacare from occurring in 2014 and later. Together, these tax increases will be the largest in United States history.
6.) The United States's credit rating will be downgraded. The major services (Moody's, Standard & Poors etc.) have indicated that none of the earlier bills would avert this downgrade, since the National Debt was so large; and this new bill does even less than some of the old bills proposed.
SUMMARY:
National Debt will rise quickly to $17 trillion, and to $21.6 trillion in ten years. Spending will continue to increase by nearly the same amount as before. A BBA must be voted on, but not passed. Taxes will increase more than they ever have, in 2013 and 2014. The nation's credit rating will be downgraded, resulting in large increases in the interest rates we must pay on that $21.6 trillion debt.
Various news services are describing this as a "victory for conservatives". Others' opinions vary.
Would anybody like to read throught the bill carefully and thoroughly, and fill in more details in this thread, please? I only glanced through the bulk of it (it's 74 pages long).
