Dear Editors: Last week, both Democratic Senator Michael Bennet and Republican Congressman Scott Tipton visited Grand Junction. While they agree on the need to negotiate solutions to our budgetary challenges, they disagree on how best to reduce annual deficits and constrain our national debt. Useful insight into whose policy perspective is more defensible is found in the CBO’s September report: “The 2013 Long-Term Budget Outlook” (revised October 22, 2013). The first clue was provided by Tipton’s contrived “town meeting” handout, which – albeit relying on the CBO’s 10-year projections – substituted grossly inflated “longer term” numbers from the Republican House Budget Committee for those reported by the non-partisan CBO. The obvious purpose of that deception was to graphically mislead gullible locals into believing that “spending is the problem” and therefore that further spending cuts (as in more “sequestration”) offer the only viable solution. However, the Republicans’ position is directly contradicted by the CBO. Currenlty, the annual “Fiscal Gap” (between spending and revenues) that must be closed to hold the national debt constant (as a percent of GDP) is $150 billion – which can be generated by a further 4½ % reduction in spending, a 4½ % increase in revenues, or a combination of both. To shrink the national debt would require more than $150 billion annually now, but the key is to act quickly – because delay inexorable widens the “Fiscal Gap”. The CBO also reports that federal revenues reached 20% of GDP in 2000 (prompting the Bush Tax Cuts), but have fallen to 15% (the combined result of partially extending those cuts and the near-Depression). Thus, the annual “Fiscal Gap” could be entirely closed by increasing revenues alone to just 16% of GDP. Democrats want more revenue, fewer cuts, and no more delays. Republicans demand more cuts, reject revenue increases, and promote gridlock. You decide. Bill Hugenberg
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 23:28:16 +0000
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