It’s not just fringe politicians and Tea Party backed politicians who try to push the idea that not raising the debt ceiling is a harmless thing to do. Two different writers on Forbes, Richard Finger and Jeffrey Dorfman, are both pushing that meme. Dorfman sort of gives away the game of why he’s so happy with the idea.
Holding Medicare spending to about its fiscal year 2013 total and making some small cuts to Medicaid and other health spending would keep health care spending by the government to $860 billion. This does not include additional spending for the Affordable Care Act, but we need to prioritize and I am making it a lower priority than the health spending we have already been incurring. Also, there is no need for extra spending for the Affordable Care Act before January 1 since the coverage does not start until then. So as long as the debt ceiling is raised before then, there is no problem.
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Cutting spending on conservation programs in half and paying only for agricultural research programs (no more farm subsidies) would cost $25 billion.
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Slicing education spending in half would reduce it to about $40 billion.
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Cutting welfare programs back to basically food security programs (food stamps, WIC, the school lunch program) and housing assistance programs will leave federal welfare spending at $150 billion.
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That leaves only about $300 billion for defense spending. However, employee contributions to the retirement plan and some miscellaneous offsets that the government does not count as part of the $3 trillion in revenue expected next fiscal year bring in $90 billion per year.
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If you didn’t notice, NASA and the Departments of Commerce and Energy were completely eliminated. Deep cuts were made to some other departments (Education, EPA, Agriculture, and HUD). Welfare spending was reduced.
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If Republicans cannot get a worthwhile agreement, put the credit card in the freezer and let everyone learn a lesson for a little while.
The emphasis is mine, of course, to point out that one of Dorfman’s strategies to avoid default is to raid pension funds. Of course his bio does say that he takes a libertarian, free market position on things.
Mr. Finger claims “Our current Debt to GDP ratio is an unsustainable 105 percent, projected higher for at least the next several years.”, yet the CBO says it’s only 73%. Personally, I trust the CBO more than I trust an investment advisor with a BS (How appropriate.) in Economics and an MBA when it comes to these kinds of numbers. It also doesn’t help when he says that the government would never default because of the horrible consequences it would have. But of course his careful analysis proves that the government wouldn’t have to do so even if the debt ceiling isn’t raised. Of course his credibility isn’t all that great when he accuses Obama of not leading on the issue (How can he lead the Tea Party?) and closes that paragraph with “It is tawdry behavior to use this issue as a political football.”. Really? Perhaps you should tell your Republican friends.