{"id":9447,"date":"2011-04-27T15:56:20","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T19:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=9447"},"modified":"2011-04-28T10:56:36","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T14:56:36","slug":"breaking-down-the-budget-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/9447\/breaking-down-the-budget-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Down the Budget “Deal”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The budget compromise reached between Congressional leaders and the White House a few weeks ago has been analyzed, dissected and commented upon exhaustively.\u00a0 While\u00a0the “deal”\u00a0may have averted a government shutdown, it\u00a0ended up being a disappointment to taxpayers, who were overwhelmingly\u00a0demanding meaningful<\/em> spending cuts this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an attempt to help\u00a0the American people\u00a0better understand what transpired, Mike Bates\u00a0of 1330 AM WEBY<\/a>, Northwest Florida’s Talk Radio, prepared and recently read the following\u00a0analysis of the “deal”\u00a0on the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Budget Agreement is Nothing to Celebrate
\n<\/strong>\u00a0
\nThe “government shutdown” was avoided when Republicans and Democrats in Washington agreed to a budget compromise to cut $38.5 billion from the proposed $3.8 trillion budget.
\n\u00a0
\nThough it’s been touted by both parties and the press, this is no cause for celebration.\u00a0 Why not?
\n\u00a0
\nA few quick facts:
\n\u00a0
\nOur national debt is $14.2 trillion.
\nThis year’s budget calls for $3.8 trillion in spending.
\nOur government will borrow $1.6 trillion to do this.
\nThat means we are borrowing 42 cents of every dollar we spend.
\nWe are spending $1.6 trillion dollars more than we are taking in.
\nThe Republicans wanted to cut $45 billion from the budget.
\nThe Democrats wanted to cut $33 billion from the budget.
\nThe Republicans and Democrats were arguing over $12 billion.
\nThey agreed to cut $38.5 billion.
\n\u00a0
\nFew people comprehend how bad our nation’s finances are.\u00a0 Just how much is a trillion dollars?
\n\u00a0
\nIf you laid one trillion one-dollar bills end to end, it would extend from the Earth to just past the Sun.\u00a0 It would stretch to the moon 394 times.\u00a0 And that trillion dollars would wrap around the Earth 3787 times.\u00a0 But money is not understood as a measurement of distance.
\n\u00a0
\nIf you spend one dollar every second, it would take you 32,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.\u00a0 But money is not a measurement of time.<\/p>\n

Money is a measurement of value.\u00a0 So I broke down the budget into terms we can all understand.
\n\u00a0
\nA husband and wife have accumulated debt of $373,684.
\nThey have a household income of $58,000.
\nThey plan to spend $100,000 this year.
\nSo they’ll have to borrow $42,000 to do this.
\nThat means they are borrowing 42 cents of every dollar they spend.
\nOne spouse proposed that they cut $1184 from the budget.
\nThe other spouse proposed that they cut $868 from the budget.
\nThe husband and wife were arguing over $316.
\nThey agreed to cut $1013.
\n\u00a0
\nHow long can that couple keep borrowing and spending like that?\u00a0 How long can our government keep borrowing and spending like that?
\n\u00a0
\nThe budget agreement is nothing to celebrate.
\n\u00a0
\nBut wait!\u00a0 It gets worse.\u00a0 Within a week of the budget deal, the Congressional Budget Office announced that the actual savings of the claimed “$38.5 billion” in cuts could be as little as $352 million.\u00a0 If that turns out to be true, the couple above just saved a pathetic nine dollars and twenty six cents.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The budget compromise reached between Congressional leaders and the White House a few weeks ago has been analyzed, dissected and commented upon exhaustively.\u00a0 While\u00a0the “deal”\u00a0may have averted a government shutdown, it\u00a0ended up being a disappointment to taxpayers, who were overwhelmingly\u00a0demanding meaningful spending cuts this year.\u00a0 In an attempt to help\u00a0the American people\u00a0better understand what transpired, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1416,114,2630,455,1867],"class_list":["post-9447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-deficits","tag-federal-budget","tag-mike-bates","tag-national-debt","tag-weby-1330"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9447"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9450,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9447\/revisions\/9450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}