Tuesday
Mar242009
"Spending money I haven't made yet for things I don't want."
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 4:07PM
Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News
Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said, “The president is proposing to increase our national debt more than all prior 43 presidents combined,” adding $2.3 trillion more “to the national debt in higher deficits” than his own budget office stated.
Ryan said the budget increases taxes and spending. “But what’s so galling about this – we read today the Chinese are talking about a new currency, the Russians are talking about a new currency. We are debasing the value of the American dollar by borrowing way beyond our means,” he said.
“We are consigning our next generation to an inferior standard of living,” Ryan said.
He estimates the national debt will double in six years and triple in ten.
Dan Mitchell, senior fellow at the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, said, “That’s just the tip of the iceberg, because … we have trillions and trillions of unfunded liability for entitlement programs, … tens of trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities in the future. We are in effect on a path to become the next Argentina.”
That other countries would consider a reserve currency other than the dollar is, he says, “a referendum that we are on the wrong track.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Task Force of the Republican Study Committee, said that one of the elements of greatness is the willingness of one generation to sacrifice for the next. The next generation, he said, will never be able to repay this debt.
He quoted Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) as saying this budget would bankrupt the country.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said “One of my constituents said it best, ‘I am tired of Congress spending money I haven’t made yet for things I don’t want.’ When you look at the push for nationalizing healthcare, when you look at the cap-and-tax scheme (Cap-and-Trade), this is what people are afraid is going to pile on more and more debt.”
“I look at this as being economic abuse of (her grandchildren’s) future,” she said.
Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) said, ”When you find out you’ve dug yourself a hole, you should quit digging, but we’ve brought in heavy machinery, and we’re making the hole so deep that we’re not going to be able to get out of it.”
“We tell our children we can’t afford to get everything,” he said, and now the children, the public, are telling the parents, the legislators, “We don’t really have to have that.”
Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said, “The president is proposing to increase our national debt more than all prior 43 presidents combined,” adding $2.3 trillion more “to the national debt in higher deficits” than his own budget office stated.
Ryan said the budget increases taxes and spending. “But what’s so galling about this – we read today the Chinese are talking about a new currency, the Russians are talking about a new currency. We are debasing the value of the American dollar by borrowing way beyond our means,” he said.
“We are consigning our next generation to an inferior standard of living,” Ryan said.
He estimates the national debt will double in six years and triple in ten.
Dan Mitchell, senior fellow at the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, said, “That’s just the tip of the iceberg, because … we have trillions and trillions of unfunded liability for entitlement programs, … tens of trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities in the future. We are in effect on a path to become the next Argentina.”
That other countries would consider a reserve currency other than the dollar is, he says, “a referendum that we are on the wrong track.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Task Force of the Republican Study Committee, said that one of the elements of greatness is the willingness of one generation to sacrifice for the next. The next generation, he said, will never be able to repay this debt.
He quoted Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) as saying this budget would bankrupt the country.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said “One of my constituents said it best, ‘I am tired of Congress spending money I haven’t made yet for things I don’t want.’ When you look at the push for nationalizing healthcare, when you look at the cap-and-tax scheme (Cap-and-Trade), this is what people are afraid is going to pile on more and more debt.”
“I look at this as being economic abuse of (her grandchildren’s) future,” she said.
Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) said, ”When you find out you’ve dug yourself a hole, you should quit digging, but we’ve brought in heavy machinery, and we’re making the hole so deep that we’re not going to be able to get out of it.”
“We tell our children we can’t afford to get everything,” he said, and now the children, the public, are telling the parents, the legislators, “We don’t really have to have that.”
Nervous Paulson Gets Grilled On Controversial Bank of America-Merrill Lynch Merger
Though the unemployment rate is currently at 9.5% and is expected to rise, Paulson continued to affirm that if Ken Lewis were to invoke a Material Adverse Change Clause (MAC), which would stop the merger, it would have been detrimental to the economy.
In the first two hearings held to discuss the controversial merger, it was concluded that Ken Lewis must have known about the major fourth quarter losses that Merrill Lynch suffered after the shareholders voted to go ahead with the merger, which would explain his attempt to invoke a MAC clause. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) asked how Paulson could shoot down the MAC clause (a legal action) and ignore the possible illegal action of Lewis’ withholding vital information from Bank of America shareholders.
“Nothing in Mr. Paulson’s testimony today justifies the Government’s decision to ignore evidence that Bank of America withheld information from its shareholders about mounting losses at Merrill Lynch before the crucial shareholder vote on December 5-- a potentially illegal action,” said Kucinich in his opening statements.
In response, all Paulson said was that he simply did not see any illegal actions.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said that there is a “clear pattern of deception and intimidation” in terms of the relationships between Lewis, Paulson, the merger and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke.
“People need to see this situation because it sheds light on where we are headed...it is important we see what happens when you give this kind of involvement to the federal government,” said Jordan.
It was revealed during the hearing that Paulson did in fact share information about the merger with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman, Christopher Cox and FDIC Chairman Shelia Bair. In his closing statements, Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) said that he will invite them to testify on their involvement with this merger after the August recess.