Day By Day August 1, 2011 – Targeting the Next Generation

Providing Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Speaker John Boehner get thier Members in line, the next generation will have a little less debt. But, not a lot less and not a lot less anytime soon.

…The debt limit will be raised by the $2.4 trillion needed to allow the federal government to pay it’s bills through the 2012 election. But this does not mean that President Obama will be able to avoid the debt, or any of the other surrounding issues, in the election.

The deal supposedly cuts $2.4 trillion over ten years, but a quick reading shows that only $2.1 trillion of them are guaranteed to go into law, and less than 1 percent of them will actually occur before Obama’s current term is up. The plan calls for $900 billion in spending cuts from statutory caps on discretionary spending over ten years, but only $10 billion of those cuts are scheduled to occur over the next two years. The remaining $1.5 trillion in cuts is supposed to come from a “Super Congress” made up of House and Senate members pulled equally from each party.

This Super Congress will fail to come to an agreement. No Republican appointed to the committee will be able to agree to any entitlement reform that does not fundamentally repeal Obamacare. And no Democrat appointed to the committee will sign off on any reform that does. When the Super Congress fails to reach agreement, another $1.2 trillion in cuts will be triggered, at least half of which will come from defense spending. But these cuts are spread out over nine years and none of them occur before 2013. The triggered defense spending cuts are a completely empty threat.

So, America is saved from default and Washington can now concentrate on the economy, jobs and re-election. But, not in that order — of course.

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