Opposing view: Congress can't escape reality

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   OLYHOOCHposted 14 years ago

   Don't we all yearn for the days when we could fill our tanks for less than $50 and pay for prescriptions that didn't cost as much as a nice dinner out? As much as Americans might like to stop spending so much on life's essentials, we just don't have the option of telling our banker, "Sorry, I've capped my mortgage spending this year. I'm sure you'll understand. I have to make some tough budget choices."
   
   
   OUR VIEW: Fight over debt limit risks a dangerous game of chicken
   
   
   Similarly, we hear a lot of talk in Washington about making tough budget choices. The problem is that creating arbitrary federal budget caps and deficit triggers is nothing more than an old ploy to slash popular programs without leaving fingerprints.Doing so based on flawed formulas yields unintended consequences for millions of middle-class Americans and provides Congress with an escape route from the hard choices it should address.
   
   USA TODAY OPINION
   
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   Rather than tackling the root causes of our federal debt, spending caps put our budgeting on autopilot, allowing Washington to claim credit for "being tough" now and watching from a distance later when across-the-board-cuts slash seniors programs, veterans programs and more. Setting spending levels to match yesteryears' averages ignores today's reality: huge increases in the cost of health care, the creation of the Part D drug benefit, increased homeland security spending in the post-9/11 era, multiple unfunded wars, an aging America and historically low tax levels. Pretending today's America is yesterday's America is risky business.
   
   If cutting trillions of dollars from vital programs serving middle-class Americans while maintaining tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest is Congress' plan for our future, then our senators and representatives should come to the American people and make that case. Poll after poll shows that Americans of all political persuasions understand the importance of programs vital to their survival and expect a balanced approach. They've expressed those views in town hall meetings throughout the past week.
   
   Implementing arbitrary across-the-board spending cuts based on our past and not our present isn't fiscal responsibility. It's an abdication of that responsibility.
   
   Time traveling is still science fiction, especially when used as a federal budget strategy.
   
   
   Max Richtman is executive vice president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
   
   http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/ed … lity_n.htm

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      Druid Dudeposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Congress escapes reality all the time...it's in the job description.

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         OLYHOOCHposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Ya, I think they have put themselves's in a corner, and wan't us to bail them out.

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      LRCBloggerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Solution:  Stop catering to the loudest group of Americans, start catering to the largest.

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   dutchman1951posted 14 years ago

   One of the few level headed articles  have read so far this year.
   
   
   Balanced...yes. Screaming off into the obis cutting everything, or spending wild.....no.  I agree with this

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      LRCBloggerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I concur!

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3. 74

   Mighty Momposted 14 years ago

   Me too!
   Congress needs to listen to Americans.
   And not just so they can get voted back in again.
   Because that's what we elected them to do.
   They work for US.

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