Jul 14 2011
Unspent Stimulus Funds Can Get Us Through August
So, the answer to get us past the August 2nd debt ceiling conundrum is simple – stop funding Obama’s failed stimulus bill. Karl Rove has the numbers:
The Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank, projects that the government will receive $172 billion in revenues between Aug. 3 and Aug. 31, but it is on the hook to spend $306 billion, leaving a shortfall of $134 billion.
Note that number. We just need to close that small spending gap to by another month and avoid this:
There will, however, be no cash for highway construction, no checks for federal workers or retirees, no agriculture payments, no open national parks. Interest rates are also likely to rise if U.S. debt is downgraded, adding massively to the deficit and further damaging the economy. This would be a disaster with no political winners.
So, where can we get this money so we can do the following?
The $172 billion in revenues collected over the rest of the month can pay the $29 billion interest charges on the national debt, Social Security benefits ($49 billion), Medicaid and Medicare ($50 billion), active duty military pay ($2.9 billion), Department of Defense vendors ($31.7 billion), IRS refunds ($3.9 billion), and about a quarter of the $12.8 billion in unemployment checks due that month.
Not so surprisingly the money to get past this month is money still stuck in the lethargic federal bureaucracy from the failed stimulus bill passed in Feb ’09:
Mr. Obama’s “untouchable” list includes his $1 trillion health-care reform, $128 billion in unspent stimulus funds, education and training outlays, his $53 billion high-speed rail proposal, spending on “green” jobs and student loans, and virtually any structural changes to entitlements except further squeezing payments to doctors, hospitals and health-care professionals.
As Mr. Rove notes, there’s plenty of money available to meet our obligations. It’s just Presidential ego that is in the way of a simple and less painful solution. All this money is for start ups we never could afford, but Obama, Reid and Pelosi passed anyway, thinking Americans were basically lemmings who would do whatever the political elite told them to do.
Sadly for Dems, their assumptions were as ridiculous as their spending spree.
So Obama can tell the Republicans that they are being ridiculous and need to come to a decision instead of playing politics. But he can play politics. FYI Obama…you don’t make the decision about how our money is spent. There is a reason our founding fathers put that responsibility in the hands of one half of one branch! The House needs to pass a solution and force the Senate and the President to finally live what they have been preaching and compromise!
What makes you so sure that money is still there? Maybe obama is waiting for more revenue to cover the stimulus and other funds that he has spent elsewhere. Maybe that is why he is so stubborn about tax increases and raising the debt ceilig. He just might be trying to cover his butt. Congress can say all its watns to about where the money is to be spent but when has obama paid any attention to either the judicial or legislative branches. Once he got his hands on the money who would stop him from doing what he want to do with it. An honorable man would obey the rules but we are not talking about an honorable man.