Reid Pushes CR Bill With No Spending Cuts; CBO: Would Increase Deficit Another $200 Billion

Harry Reid: Tuggery Personified

Today in Washington, D.C. - Feb. 23, 2011: Both house of Congress in recess until next Monday, Feb 27th.  But that does not keep the Senate democrats from hreatening a shutdown like union thugs if a CR is not passed without cuts.

The Washington Post reported yesterday, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced on Tuesday that he will introduce a measure next week to keep the federal government running for 30 days at current funding levels. The move sets the stage for a showdown with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who late last week announced that House Republicans will oppose any short-term funding measure that does not include additional budget cuts. . . . The short-term resolution would actually keep the government funded at current levels.”

In other words, Democrats are proposing to continue the status quo of massive government spending at a time of record debt and deficits. Two weeks ago, the Congressional Budget Office pointed out that if this Democrat plan were continued throughout the fiscal year, it would still increase the deficit by $200 billion. “If appropriations for the rest of this fiscal year are set at the same annualized amounts as those in effect for the first several months and the Congress were to enact no other legislation affecting spending or revenues, CBO expects that the federal government would end fiscal year 2011 with a deficit of nearly $1.5 trillion, around $200 billion more than the $1.3 trillion deficit recorded in 2010.”

Just a few days ago, The Washington Post pointed out the scale of America’s debt problem. “The daunting tower of national, state and local debt in the United States will reach a level this year unmatched just after World War II and already exceeds the size of the entire economy, according to government estimates.” The Post wrote, “The key factor in the rapid drop in government debt, said Harvard University economist Kenneth Rogoff, was fast economic growth. Spurred by a young labor force, world-leading manufacturers, high personal savings rates, a pent-up demand for consumer goods after years of war and the Depression, and a bout of inflation, the economy grew 57 percent in six years. . . . But today the U.S. economy is in a polar opposite condition. The labor force is aging, U.S. manufacturing often lags behind Asian and European rivals, households are in hock up to their eyeballs, and consumer appetite for goods is tepid. . . . ‘We’re not growing like we were after World War II, so the amount of debt you can bear and the trajectory are much worse,’ Rogoff said.”

And even given all this, Senate Democrats can’t find a single dime of government spending to cut? As House Speaker John Boehner said yesterday, “Senate Democratic leaders are insisting on a status quo that has left us with a mountain of debt and a stalled economy with unemployment near 10 percent.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell explained why Democrats’ business as usual spending plans are “simply unacceptable”: “The American people spoke loud and clear: stop the Washington spending spree and bring down the debt. Yet Washington Democrats can’t find a single dime of federal spending to cut, insisting on the status quo, even for a short-term spending bill. But keeping bloated spending levels in place and, predictably, proposing even more tax increases, is simply unacceptable. Washington has to stop the spending increases and start shrinking the ruinous federal debt. That’s the key to getting the economy back on track and creating the conditions that will lead to private-sector job growth.”

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Tags: US House, US Senate Washington, D.C., Harry Reid, CR, Continuing Resolution, no spending cuts, more debt, deficit To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!