Monday Night, Obama held a national tv appearance, followed by comments from Republican House Speaker John Boehner. On Tuesday, White House Administration Officials will hold “Office Hours” on our social networks to answer your questions about the President’s speech and the ongoing deficit debate. Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Special Assistant to the President, will be answering your questions on Twitter Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Ask your questions with the hashtag #WHChat and stay tuned for opportunities to engage throughout week.
If you missed the videos, you may watch here: www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Addressont
A transcript of Obama’s speech is here: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/07/25/address-president-nation
And Boehner’s here: www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/speaker-boehners-debt-ceiling-speech_577405.html
You are of course welcome to discuss your own ideas below on our Tuesday Open Line
Stay tuned for articles from Monday nights City Council meeting as well
I pray that Congress and President Obama can come to an agreement that will solve the deficit debate. For many Americans who have worked hard all their lives and paid into Social Security and now are Retired or Disabled and depend on their SS each month to survive. It isn’t a matter of not wanting to contribute more to help bring down the deficit, there is no extra money in the budget for us to give more or pay more for Medicare Insurance. It simply is not fair for the Federal Government to wastefully spend the taxpayer dollars and expect the middle class and retirees to give more money. Billionaires and corporations should contribute more since it was the tax breaks that enabled them to gain their riches. May God bless and guide you in your decision. May God bless America.
The problem we have now is over spending and no budget, not taxing the billionaires and corporations more. Tax breaks did not get us in this mess or make them rich – hard work, sacrifice and inginuity makes someone rich – it doesn’t fall out of the sky so stop resenting them.
You want to punish the very people that can get us out of this mess. Support the Tea Party Republicans that are responsible for stopping the Democrat and RINO Republican spending madness. Don’t let Obama try and scare you just ask why he has never passed a budget and isn’t interested in doing anything realistic to solve the problem. You are mad at the wrong people. Yes, God Bless America.
obama, schmobama, the man is boring. His ho hum speech was liberally (pardon the pun) sprinkled with poll-driven buzz words designed to make the reality challenged among Independent voters think he’s had a come to Jesus moment and has converted (reverted) to the Centrist he pretended to be in 2008. He used the word “balanced” (inappropriately and dishonestly) seven times to describe his amorphous budget ‘plan.’ Seven: A lucky number? Not for him. He has become President Sidelines. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you watched and listened, you saw a lame duck, one term president last night.
Republicans have one goal, to eliminate Obama from presidency in any way possible. Including lying to the american public. This graph shows that under Mr. Bush, tax cuts and war spending were the biggest policy drivers of the swing from projected surpluses to deficits from 2002 to 2009. Budget estimates that didn’t foresee the recessions in 2001 and in 2008 and 2009 also contributed to deficits. Mr. Obama’s policies, taken out to 2017, add to deficits, but not by nearly as much. The rich and yes over $250,000 is rich need their tax cuts expired so they pay the same percentage as the non-rich. The gap between rich and poor is only growing and growing by the minute. The republicans intent is to destroy the average and poor person so much they can not even afford to get to the polls.
Rich people don’t create jobs. Rich people are flourishing right now. Companies posting record profits. But they aren’t magically creating jobs. They’re raking in the dough and keeping it for themselves. Using offshore accounts to avoid paying US taxes. Lobbying for a chance to bring that money back to the US tax free.
Boehner lied all throughout his speech. Bi-partisan deals my butt, only 5 democrats voted for his crappy ‘deal’. How is that bi-partisan? 9 republicans voted against it. All 51 Democratic caucusing Senators voted against it.
His insistence that welfare programs are cut in a depression will kill the average american and drop us into yet another deep depression.
Taxes have to be raised, while cutting spending in all sorts of areas. Military being #1.
Republicans holding this line is purely a political move to make it seem Obama is being the bad guy here.
anon 3, look up the word “unsustainable” . Let Obama increase the debt limit, don’t demand any cuts in spending or changes in “entitlements”, and then see how bad things will get, you should be a lot more afraid of that. The first sentence of your post is right on, because his policies are destroying the country. Are you better off now than when he came into office and why are the poverty rates and unemployment levels higher since he got into office?
Boehner knows he is backed by hard working Americans that aren’t looking for what the government can do for them. You are obviously on the recieving end of all the benefits of liberal social spending and don’t want to see the gravy train come to an end.
I’m not disagreeing that what they are doing is unstainable. Neither side disagrees with that. The disagreement is what to do about it. Reducing the income of millions of people that can’t get jobs is not the answer. I am worse off since bush, during his term i lost my full time job when the company went out of business. I understand that the bad times today is not only Obamas doing, it’s Bush’s just as much, as well as policies in place during both presidents that companies are exploiting to put everyone in this mess. Blaming Obama for everything is shortsighted, no matter how much the republicans repeat it’s all Obamas fault, the populace knows better. Boehner knows he is backed by corporations who want bigger profits. You are obviously on the high income end not not care about the people over companies. I actually do not receive any government benefits, no unemployment, no medicare, no medicaid, no food stamps, no medical insurance. I’m toughing it out for as long as we can. when we can’t then i know assistance is there. Is that the american way, to suffer as a household with an annual income less than 15k while the boss men complain about taxes over $250k? With companies making record billions profit and not paying their fair share of tax is that right?
Obama is not a friend of the United States–simple as that–.
Look, I’m a registered Republican, a strong supporter, but I am tired of self-centered b#@&%*$s running the show. Are we over spending? Yes! Do we need to balance the budget? Yes! Government entitlements out of hand? Yes! Am I tired of politics? Yes! This political system needs to come together for the good of the country. Put politics aside and do what is right for the country. Will this happen in my lifetime? NO!
That’s why Bush’s approval ratings were so low, conservatives were furious with his spending. I am a conservative more than a republican and there is a battle now in the party, as there was with the far left taking over the Dem party, between the old time moderate rep’s and the fiscal conservative Tea Party republicans. Democrats are not used to anyone or anything standing in the way of their crazy spending and vote buying. But it is the American people saying enough. So there is a battle going on – GOOD! And if you think increasing the debt will improve the credit rating, get your sign!
Increasing the debt ceiling will not ‘improve’ the rating, but it will cause agency’s to downgrade our rating if it is not done. I don’t think there’s any improving that can be done without scrapping our entire system and starting over.
I guess you can call me a Fiscal Conservative more than a Republican. The RNC keeps calling me for a donation as in the past. My response? NO WAY! You have got a lot of explaining to do and get your act together. I for one am sick of politics!
Have any of us contacted Congresman Butterfield or our two Senators? Squabbling here does no good
Don’t stop worrying now, mudball. Keep the pressure on the GOP, I don’t send them anything now, either. They are being forced to listen to the conservative base. Think they’ll run a McCain again this time? But you can target good conservative candidates and support them.
And scrap what system? We have the best system in the world that has been responsible for a higher standard of living and more personal freedom than any other time in history. It has just been corrupted by socialism, marxism, what ever you want to call it. We just need to get back to the basics, the way the country was founded. Read the founding documents. They are short, easy to understand and so inspiring. What was it Obama said, we live in the greatest country in the world, help me change it. No thanks, Mr. President.
no butterfield was too busy with his daughter’s wedding to be bothered by the DEBT CRISIS!!! Must be nice to have $$$ and marry into $$$? I must say that I do like him now that his daughter married a DUKE boy!!
the downgrade in our rating will happen because the credit agencies will see that the government isn’t serious about cutting spending and borrowing money and adding to the debt.
period.
17+ TRILLION dollar debt?
it’s madness and economic suicide.
daily spending under GW Bush…1.6 billion
daily spending under Obama…….4.5 billion.
madness.
anon3 post #4…
“….Republicans holding this line is purely a political move to make it seem Obama is being the bad guy here. ”
..and you don’t think that Obama and the Democrats are playing politics and trying to make Repblicans the bad guys?
You should Thank God for “the rich”.
who do you think pays the bulk of taxes in the first place?
47% of “taxpayers” PAY NO TAXES.
and let’s not forget the Earned Income Credit…
Consider taking a course in Econ 101 and taxes..
Going after people making 250G, is going after small business…
you know..the ones who Obama wants to create jobs…
Please educate yourself about how small business owners pay taxes, and what they really end up making..
the 47% of taxpapers that pay no taxes includes shares from all tax brackets. All the way up to the rich. Not that 47% of the bottom most tax payers pay no taxes.
I’m not sure where you got your numbers from spending per day. But the numbers I found are:
Federal spending per year in billions
2001 1863.19 actual
2002 2011.15 actual
2003 2160.12 actual
2004 2293.01 actual
2005 2472.20 actual
2006 2655.44 actual
2007 2728.94 actual
2008 2982.54 actual
2009 3517.68 actual
2010 3456.21 actual
2011 3818.82 budgeted
2012 3728.69 budgeted
Looks like a fairly steady increase to me over the years.
from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1996_2016&view=1&expand=&units=b&log=linear&fy=fy12&chart=F0-fed&bar=1&stack=1&size=m&title=&state=US&color=c&local=s
Also note the spending in 2009 by Obama was from the 2009 budget that was submitted by President Bush in 2008
250g is a lot of money, a business would have to be a multi million dollar business to allow the owner to take out that much cash each year. That’s not a small business.
And like I said, business aren’t hiring, they’re hanging on to cash and keeping it for themselves. The only businesses hiring in any numbers are those receiving grants from government. Does that not count as welfare?
http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_budget