Obama, GOP must pay the nation's bills and cut spending
It’s time for Round Two of the fiscal follies in Washington.
Cue the bluster, talking points and implied threats from the nation’s politicians.
Just weeks after a feeble “fiscal cliff” resolution, President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress are gearing up for yet another battle over taxes and spending.
Yes, as Obama said Monday, Congress should vote to raise the nation’s debt limit. Republicans who are pontificating about how they won’t do that — how they’re willing to shut down at least part of the government until spending cuts are in place — aren’t looking out for the country’s best interests.
Congress under both Democratic and Republican leadership has decided to fund a large number of federal programs. The bills have to be paid, and, as Obama put it, America is not a deadbeat nation.
But it’s also true that the president and leaders of both parties have been unable to offer a bipartisan plan of how to dramatically cut the nation’s spending in the future.
That especially means approving reasonable ways to better control costs of entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Those are real reforms that take real courage to accomplish. More yapping from Republicans or Democrats about how they won’t touch a dime of these programs is unproductive.
We’ll say it again: Obama must embrace the concepts of his own bipartisan deficit reduction commission, put forward by Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson. That should be the starting point to work with congressional leaders to make further spending cuts and find new ways to raise revenues. That means closing some loopholes and limiting some tax deductions.
The nation’s financial future will be stronger if firm decisions finally are made this year on these crucial issues. Congress and Obama must put in place a fairer tax system to finance responsible spending, especially in the massive entitlement programs.
Matt Henry
5 months ago“Further” spending cuts. Now that’s just funny.
Where’s the man who is willing to act unilaterally for the American people when congress is unwilling or unable to act? Where is that tin-pot dictator we have all grown to know and love?
Maybe, just maybe, he’s not particularly interested in solving the problem. At least the Republican house, no matter what you think of it, has passed a budget that continues coverage for all and deals with the problem. Can the same same be said for the Senate or the White House? The WH’s last budget received zero votes in congress, including his own party. That’s how un-serious this “serious” man is about fixing the entitlement system.
There is always this underlying notion in pieces like this that all parties are interested in actually solving the problem. How quaint.