The Debt Ceiling and other Washington Chicanery

During the Holidays, the National Debt quietly creeped over 14 trillion dollars. Our current debt ceiling (the amount of money that the government is allowed to owe) is now $14.3 trillion. Very soon now, Congress will have to raise this limit or we as a nation will start to default on our debt ... or we will have to arbitrarily start to defund programs.

Some folks are against raising this ceiling, and if we have to default or cut programs ... so be it! I say ... raise the ceiling gradually. Each time the ceiling is raised, get some concessions from the White House. You want to raise it to $14.7 trillion ... let's cut 10% across the board on all discretionary spending. Later on, if you want to raise it to $15 trillion, another 10% and a balanced budget agreement. Conservatives only control the House, this is a way to leverage that control to get things that they normally can't get through.

Now how about this 2% payroll tax reduction that the President put into the tax bill for this year? I've wondered why he didn't just cut income tax by 2%, then I realized why. 48% of Americans don't pay any income tax at all ... cutting the income tax does nothing for them. Let's not forget ... when an illegal gains employment, he immediately fills out his W-2 form with Married 12 dependants ... the only taxes he pays are the social security taxes. The President was just looking out for his constituency. Now we all can see how serious this Administration is about the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund.

The Constitution was read aloud on the floor of the House of Representatives last week. This might have been the first time that some of our law-makers have every read the Constitution in its entirety. I hope they were taking notes.

This coming week the House will vote on repealing Obama-Care. Some say that it is an exercise in futility ... some say it is a colossal waste of time. I don't know about you, but I will be very interested in which members vote against this bill. This will translate into my vote come next election day.

So much for my first rant of the New Year ... may God bless you and our country.

Sphere: Related Content

Don't Celebrate Yet

El Presidente Hugo Chavez lost in a referendum election to change the Venezuelan Constitution and allow him to run for a third term, eliminating term limits completely. The referendum would also have allowed him to suspend the constitution whenever he felt like it. In order to garner support, the referendum also would have shortened the work-day to 6 hours and would have given pensions to street vendors and housewives.

The referendum was defeated 51% to 49% and Chavez quickly called admitted defeat and called for calm ... earning him some statesmanship points. He had promised last week to cut off oil to the United States if the referendum passed and the US objected to the outcome of the election, so I was wondering what would happen if he lost.

But do not pop the champagne corks yet, Chavez will still be in power till 2010. In that time, I'm sure that this referendum will once again (maybe twice or thrice) rear its' ugly head. It only needs to be passed one time for the possibility of a President for life. Chavez has pledged to find another way to pass his reform plans.

But for now, we can take solace in the fact that 51% of Venezuelans don't want to give up democracy. I'm thinking that it is probably a bigger number ... but Chavez underestimated how much he had to stuff the ballot box in order to win.

Sphere: Related Content