Republicans Pressing for a Balanced Budget Fail to Deliver Details on How

[TomCADem]

Source: Bloomberg

Congressional Republicans are clear in their demand for a constitutional amendment forcing the government to balance its budget. What they’re not offering is clarity on how to get there.

* * *

Hatch, a Utah Republican facing re-election in 2012, wouldn’t offer specifics on entitlement cuts or say which federal departments he would close to reach a balanced budget.

“When the time comes, I’ll name them,” said Hatch. “I don’t want to do it right now, because we have to pass that amendment

* * *

Representative Flores, a freshman Republican, said he couldn’t name specific cuts “off the top of my head.” Identifying cuts isn’t necessary at this point, he said, because the voters aren’t “trying to get down in the weeds on where the cuts would come. They want the balanced-budget amendment.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-18/republicans-pressing-for-a-balanced-budget-fail-to-deliver-details-on-how.html

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Here is a rare news article that actually documents Republicans dodging questions regarding what they would cut to get to their so-called balanced budget assuming their amendment was passed. This is complete bullshit. Yet, the corporate media generally fails to push Republicans on what they would cut or how does going through this BS exercise solve the debt limit issue. This amendment is pure political theater, an act of cowardice on the part of Republicans, yet the corporate media gives them a free pass.

Afterall, we must follow the Rupert Murdoch narrative, "Blame Democrats and Give Republicans a Free Pass!"

[FreakinDJ]

1. "Slash and Burn" - thats how

with Cantor playing the violin as America erupts into flames

[Stonepounder]

3. Are they really that stupid?

So we get a 'Balanced Budget Amendment' to the constitution, that says 'the Government may not spend more than it takes in.' What the hell do they plan on doing the next time we go to war? Since by then there will be no middle class and our seniors will all have either starved to death or died for lack of medical care (since there will no longer be any Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.). Where will the money to fuel the military/industrial complex come from?

Or do they figure that we won't have any more wars (or national disasters like Katrina, or a Gulf Oil Spill, or floods).

What a bunch of idiots!

[FreakinDJ]

4. Amount equal to 6% of GDP out Discretionary Spending

meaning "Non-Defense"

BTW: Welcome to DU = Wish it could be under better circumstance other then discussing the current RATpubliCON regime

[creeksneakers2]

2. That's what I've been saying for weeks

The GOP doesn't have the votes to increase the debt ceiling under any realistic scenario. They don't have the votes to cut SS or Medicare either, even though they pretend to their base that they do. The entire GOP effort to cause all this trouble has just been bluff and con game to try to trick somebody else into making the tough choices for them.

Obama should demand that the GOP create and pass a specific plan through the House. Expose the GOP for the frauds they are.

That's a great article you linked to. Somebody out there finally gets it.

[Downwinder]

5. Sound familiar? I've got the list right here. But you can't see it now.

Hatch quote, "You expect somebody to remember what they say in a speech?"

[BNJMN]

6. GALLUP: "Americans, Including Republicans, Want Debt Compromise"

http://www.gallup.com/poll/148562/Americans-Including-Republicans-Debt-Compromise.aspx

[tavalon]

7. Quagmire of Fail

The republics, I mean.

[No Elephants]

8. Iraq? Afghanistan? Libya? Yemen? Pakistan? MIC? People who can afford it?

Just a few suggestions to Pubs and Dems alike.

But you know Grandma, Grandpa, the disabled and families with dependent children are the ones who will take a death panel for the team. Hey, if 99ers can survive on the street, no reason why they can't.

The Plutonomy. Love it or leave it.

[TomCADem]

9. Of Course Not, The Grover Norquist Amendment Contains A Military Exception!

So, no such luck. It is a Republican constitutional amendment afterall.

[starroute]

10. The Republicans are great believers in discipline

This is the same mindset that makes them believe people getting unemployment benefits are lazy bums who need to have the easy money cut off to make them shape up and find a job. Or that old folks on Medicare are grifters who ask for a lot of unnecessary tests and procedures just because they can.

In the same way, they believe the federal government is just a bunch of wild spenders and that if they had the discipline of being held to a budget they could discover cuts were easy to identify.

If you think that discipline is the answer to everything, you don't need to find a plausible path to the result you want. They mantra is that you crack down on people and they will shape up. It's that simple.

[gratuitous]

11. This has worked so well in California

Supermajorities are required for any tax increase (a balanced budget is mandated by the state constitution), and a dedicated group of Republicans stick together to defeat every proposal to pay for state expenses. As a result, California's state university system, which was a model for the nation if not the world in terms of affordability and open enrollment to residents has grown increasingly expensive and outmoded. And that's just one example. Other state agencies and services have likewise suffered, but the yammering nitwits who oppose any tax increase, no matter how necessary or vital, stop every last bit of progress to the detriment of the state and the delight of their hidebound conservative supporters.

This is an attempt to re-enact the disaster overtaking California on a national scale.

[w4rma]

12. I wouldn't support unless it requires supermajorities for tax reductions on high income follks. (nt)

[cbdo2007]

13. Most of these guys can't even balance their own budgets.....

all a Dem needs to do to argue this is stand up in Congress and ask how many of the Repubes are debt free in their own personal finances. When only a handful raise their hands, ask them how they expect to balance the budget when they can't even balance their own finances.

[daleo]

14. It's like declaring war, without bothering to name an enemy

Which has also proven to be a mistake.