It would seem like Republicans hold all the cards in the debate over transportation reauthorization. It seems most likely that they will gain seats in both House and Senate next fall if not capture the Senate majority.
House Republicans have said they want to spend no more money than is flowing into the Highway Trust Fund, less than $40 billion a year. Senate Democrats say they want to keep spending at current levels, which is closer to $55 billion a year, for two years, then start the debate all over again. To make this work, says transportation observer Ken Orski, the Senate plan would completely drain the $19 billion in the Highway Trust Fund and then find another $12 billion somewhere.
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It is time for the Tea Parties to take some action. I hope that Republicans who support the Democratic plan will face some opposition in their next primary elections.
$15 billion per year is a rounding error in the Federal budget. The Tea Party should target entire departments like education, energy, and transportation. Other than special cases like Native Americans and military dependents, the Federal government doesn’t run K-12 schools. There has to be more than $15 billion sticking to Federal fingers as education money flows from Federal taxpayers to state and local governments who do the majority of K-12 education.
Turning freeways into tollroads would help.
The Antiplanner wrote:
Nobody wants to raise taxes, and no one wants to increase deficit spending, so the Senate proposal seems ridiculous. Yet House Republicans sound like they are ready to give in. They don’t want to be blamed for the lost jobs that would result from any budget cuts.
I recall the enthusiasm with which the Republic Party ran up (unpaid) bills on the national credit card (all the while proclaiming that they were against increased taxes) the last time they controlled the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. For example, recall Medicare Part D?
Be cheapest just to bulldoze the exurbs and suburbs. Focus our transportation dollars on intra- and inter- city transportation. Let the mega farms build there own private transportation networks to the cities and declare the rest of the US parkland.
Who are you kidding? The tea party loves roads. They just don’t like paying for them.
C. P. Zilliacus wrote ” For example, recall Medicare Part D?”
Sorry, but Medicare D isn’t a good example of Republican deficit spending. At the time it was enacted, the Democrats wanted a much bigger and more expensive plan.
aloysius9999:
The Depts. of Education, Energy, and Transportation aremererounding errorsthemselves infederal spending. Altogether, they do not even account for $200 billion, and considering that they handle our nuclear weapons and air traffic control systems, among other things, its not as if we could simply turn off the lights on them tomorrow andwalkaway with no consequences.
The major items in the budget are defense/veterans benefits, social security, medicare, medicaid, and interest on the debt. Social security is self-funding, and medicare partially so. The remaining tax revenues do not even come close to paying for the bloated military establishment and medicare and debt interest, ignoring the rest of discretionary spending on all other items, which does not amount to much of anything.
Looked at that way, and considering that tax revenues today arebarely 10% higher than 10 years ago, its obvious that most of the deficit is a problem relatedto low tax revenue and very high defense spending.
In March 2009, before Obama had done anything to US fiscal policy, we already had a deficit of $1 trilllion in the previous 12 months. Keep that in mind when you are ranting and raving about out of control deficits.
Andrew said “Social security is self-funding”
Not currently and probably never again. Social Security went cash flow negative about two years ago when benefits paid exceeded income. The gazillion dollars worth of Treasury notes held by Social Security are worthless. To redeem the notes requires cutting other spending, borrowing money from the Chinese, or increasing taxes.
The Antiplanner’s post posits the Tea Party going after the $15 billion transportation deficit spending. As we have both pointed out, there are bigger fish to fry if you have the balls to cut Federal spending.
aloysius9999:
Gosh, who should we believe? You, or our lying eyes?
Anyone can see the numbers reported by the government about this right here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/hist13z1.xls
The Social Security fund shows consistent surpluses of $100+ billion now, for the past several years, and for the duration of the projection.
If the funds Treasury Notes are worthless, are you implying that every security of the US Government is worthless, or just this specific subset?
Redemption of the notes does not require anything other than sending them to the US Treasury. The demand for US Treasury securities is very, very high and the Treasury has no problem selling every bond it wants to.
We do not “borrow money from China”. China receives dollars from us by a current account surplus that she cannot use and leaves them parked in various US dollar investments including T-Bills and Bonds. China does not issue dollars, we do, so any dollars China has came from us, and when China uses them to buy bonds, the dollars stay with us. You seem confused about the trade here. China works very hard to make things, and we send them little scrips of paper with funny green ink on it promising a return of 0-2% interest which China tends to reinvest in more bits of paper with green ink. Whenever China wants its money back, we can print up other bits of paper with green ink on them promising no interest and trade them for them. Seems like a good deal to me. Its the same deal we run with the Arabs for oil. The Arabs give us their oil, and we give them little bits of paper with green ink on them. What would you rather have? Oil, or paper covered in green ink?
Can’t run cars with bits of paper.
aloysius9999 wrote:
Sorry, but Medicare D isn’t a good example of Republican deficit spending.
No, it’s also an example of the Republic Party in Washington pandering to the geezer vote.
At the time it was enacted, the Democrats wanted a much bigger and more expensive plan.
Doesn’t matter (since the Democrats were not in charge), and in no way excuses Tom DeLay and the others in the Republic Party apparat (who were in charge) in Washington at the time for passing Medicare Part D without bothering to figure out how to fund it.
“Keep the federal government away from my Medicare,” indeed!
tthomas48 said: Who are you kidding? The tea party loves roads. They just don’t like paying for them.
THWM: tthomas48, you hit the nail right on the head! lol
It is all very cute to take a quote from one person in a protest and portray that as symbolizing everyone in a protest. Some media spent months doing that against the Tea Party, and then suddenly realized how ridiculous that was to do to the Occupy movement. Other media was vice-versa.
Politics is all about payback, so what goes around, comes around. After that happens a few times, the politics draws some agreement on what is fair and what is not.
Sandy Teal said: Some media spent months doing that against the Tea Party, and then suddenly realized how ridiculous that was to do to the Occupy movement.
THWM: The tea party defends the big guy.
The occupy movement defends the little guy.
Though an aspect that I’ve seen over lap with both is anti-semitism. 🙁
Andrew wrote “If the funds Treasury Notes are worthless, are you implying that every security of the US Government is worthless, or just this specific subset? ”
No, but any time you owe money to yourself, the notes are figments of the imagination.
The Chinese will continue to collect the interest and will roll over the notes.
Social Security needs bucks to pay benefits and must redeem the notes or cut benefits. In order to redeem the notes, the Feds either sell more notes to the Chinese or increase taxes.