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Monday, Dec. 10, 2012 | 11:45 p.m.
Washington — A year-end deadline approaching, quiet negotiations to avoid an economy-rattling "fiscal cliff" yielded no tangible signs of progress on Monday as Republicans pressed President Barack Obama to volunteer spending cuts he will support while the White House insisted the GOP endorse higher tax rates on upper incomes. At a campaign-style event in Michigan, Obama warned his listeners their taxes will rise on Jan. 1 without action by the Congress. "That's a hit you can't afford to take," he declared. He spoke one day after meeting privately at the White House with House Speaker John Boehner, whose office expressed frustration with ...
I believe very little in this article. It doesn't mention the additional spending BHO wants to that would more than cancel any revenue increase. It doesn't mention any of the increases to passed to all taxpayers with Obamacare. It is just not the whole truth which has been a hallmark of the president.
You darn RIGHT we TeaPublicans are NOT going to tell you how we are going to cut billions of dollars from the budget because we fear that obama would just use our proposed cuts against us! Remember when we said we would cut Big Bird and Sesame Street and the liberals turned that against us? They will just take whatever we say and use it against us in 2014 and 2016 elections! Even though it's the responsibility of the House to submit legislation, we TeaPublicans are NOT going to fall for the trap of offering up cuts that will then be used against us! We are NOT that dumb! I just can't believe how liberals think social security and Medicare are "earned benefits" when they are really Government handouts! We TeaPublicans also believe that if obama wants $60 billion in aid for Hurricane Sandy that he must cut $60 billion from social services programs! NO aid without immediate offsetting cuts! We Republicans have a responsibility to America to cut, cut and cut some more and we ARE going to do it!
"I just can't believe how liberals think social security and Medicare are "earned benefits" when they are really Government handouts!"
These two programs are social insurance programs and Trust Funds which everyone pays into via payroll deductions, unless they exceed the income caps.
Retirees are entitled to draw benefits since they contributed money to the Trust Funds.
Both of these Trust Funds are solvent at this time and don't directly contribute to the debt.
The funds are invested in special issue securities to protect them from loss and make interest for the Trust Funds.
As far as Social Security goes, the surplus goes into the General Fund each year and is borrowed to use for other government purposes. At the end of 2011, the Trust Fund was owed $2.7 trillion by the government.
The politician's are playing games with language when they talk about having to cut "entitlements". They should be saying they want to pardon what they owe the Trust Funds for the surpluses they borrowed and don't want to pay back.
Medicaid and Food Stamps are public assistance programs that are budget items.