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It’s Official: 2012 Deficit Was $1.087T; $1T+ All 4 Yrs of Obama’s 1st Term

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Congressional Budget Office last week released updated historical budget data for the federal government, reporting a deficit of $1.087 trillion in fiscal 2012.

2012 marked the fourth straight year—and the only four years in the history of the nation–when the federal government’s deficit topped $1 trillion.

Last year’s $1.087 trillion deficit was even greater in inflation-adjusted dollars than the peak World War II deficit of fiscal 1943—which was $54.554 billion in 1943 dollars and $723.8714 billion in 2012 dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics online inflation calculator.

The deficit has also remained at a higher percentage of GDP over the last four years than at any time since the conclusion of World War II (which ended during fiscal 1946, which began in June 1945).

In February, the CBO had initially calculated that the deficit for fiscal 2012, which ended on Sept. 30, 2012, had been $10894 trillion. That was based on an estimation that the federal government had taken in $2.4491 trillion in taxes during the year and spent $3,5385 trillion.

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Here’s that Dynamic Scoring You Asked for, Senator Rubio

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerThe Heritage Foundation recently issued a comprehensive report showing that Sen. Marco Rubio’s plan to instantly legalize 11.5 million illegal immigrants would add $6.3 trillion to the nation’s budget deficits over the next 50 years. Heritage assumed there are 11.5 million illegals, but other estimates put the number at 33 million, which would mean adding another $18 trillion to the deficit. To put that in perspective, the largest U.S. budget deficit in history was $1.4 trillion in 2009.

Currently, the average illegal alien gets about $24,721 in taxpayer-funded benefits and pays about $10,334 in taxes. After full legalization, they will be eligible for a whole new panoply of government benefits such as direct welfare payments, Obamacare, Social Security and Medicare. Heritage concludes that the total government benefits to these former illegal aliens will then rise to about $43,900 per household, while the taxes paid by them will increase only modestly to around $16,000.

Rubio says Heritage’s report is all wrong because it fails to use “dynamic scoring.”

The sentence ends there. It’s like when Obama responds to questions about Benghazi by saying it’s a “political circus,” or liberals say their position on abortion is that “it’s a complex issue.” What isn’t political? What isn’t complex? Those aren’t answers; they’re deflections.

How about Rubio explain the hidden rays of sunshine that will appear by applying “dynamic scoring” to his amnesty bill.

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Naval Cuts Jeopardize US War Readiness, Experts Say

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Photo Credit: AP/US NavyThe threat of sequestration and looming budget deficits is already impacting the military readiness of the U.S., according to some defense analysts.

A recent Defense Department memo outlined the difficult steps the armed services must take to cope with the nation’s perilous fiscal situation. The memo recommended that the department fire administrative personnel, cut down on research and development, and cancel routine maintenance checks for naval ships.

“Cancel 3rd and 4th quarter ship maintenance availabilities and aviation and ground depot level maintenance activities,” the memo suggested.

The maintenance recommendations are particularly worrisome, and impact the U.S.’s naval preparedness, said Brian Slattery, a defense expert at the Heritage Foundation.

“The military is already having trouble in some circumstances meeting its readiness requirements,” he said in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Maintenance is already a pretty significant concern, particularly with the navy.”

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It’s the Spending, Stupid

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Barack Obama, who seemingly has remained in campaign mode since first entering public life, continues to insist House Republicans obey his command to hike tax rates on upper income earners. If Republicans do note cede to his demands, Obama is willing to let everyone’s taxes go up and to cut one trillion dollars from the budget, a disproportionate amount of which will come from defense.
Were Obama sincerely interested in solving America’s fiscal dilemma, this would not be his stance.

He continues to make campaign appearances claiming that these higher tax rates are needed to lower the U.S. deficit and cut the national debt.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The amount of revenue collected by the IRS as a result of such a tax rate increase would fund U.S. federal spending for less than nine days.

According to the latest data from the Congressional Budget Office, at current spending levels the federal government is borrowing forty six cents of every dollar it spends. Through the first two months of fiscal year 2013 the government is already almost $300 billion in debt.

Medicare, Social Security and interest on the debt are the biggest drivers of the debt. The true costs of Obamacare have yet to be revealed, but given the U.S. federal government’s track record it is safe to predict that it will be far more expensive than projected and finish in the red every year.

Collecting eight days’ worth of spending from upper level incomes will do nothing to affect the level of spending on any of these programs.

Additionally, Obama willfully ignores that at current tax rates, revenues are up by thirty billion dollars over last year.

Obama, his “progressive” political allies and the obedient lapdogs within the “progressive” Party Pravda continue to foster the notion that raising tax rates on the highest income earners, those who already pay forty percent of all income tax revenue, will be a panacea, the magical elixir needed to solve America’s fiscal woes.

They also continue to lay the blame for today’s deficits on former President George W. Bush. Bush’s highest deficit was $438 billion during his last year in office. Obama’s government is poised to post another $1 trillion deficit, which will mark the fifth straight year of $1 trillion or more deficits.

America’s current financial predicament is the result of wasteful “progressive” spending on big government socialist programs.

That is the reason.

America’s debt and deficit dilemmas can only be solved through reduced spending. If and when the United States falls off a fiscal cliff or receives another credit downgrade, it will be because of “progressives”, not Conservatives.

The conversation should be about how to cut spending, not about how to increase taxes.

Political Party or media employer notwithstanding, anyone who says differently is being intellectually dishonest.

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Michael Fell is a former MCA recording artist from the seminal punk rock era who toured America from coast to coast. Today, he’s a leading voice in the L.A. Tea Party movement, active since the February 2009 inception. Mr. Fell currently chairs the Westwood Tea Party, is a founding member of the L.A. Metro Tea Party Coalition, serves as the Vice Chairman of the Westside Republicans Club in L.A. CA, and is an elected Republican delegate to the L.A. 47th AD Central Committee. He’s been Campaign Manager for a primary winning Congressional candidate, as well as Santa Monica and L.A. City Council candidates. Mr. Fell is a contributing writer for https://conservativedailynews.com/, https://rightwingnews.com/, https://www.hollywoodrepublican.net/, https://beforeitsnews.com, https://www.redcounty.com/, https://www.uspatriotpac.com and, https://westsiderepublicans.com/. His opinions on today’s news events and political climate can be found on his blog: https://mjfellright.wordpress.com/

Sen. Patty Murray: Democrats will go over ‘fiscal cliff’ unless GOP relents

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With the US economy speeding toward a year-end fiscal cliff of some $560 billion in higher taxes and draconian spending cuts, Sen. Patty Murray (D) of Washington bluntly laid out her party’s position on how Congress should handle the nation’s coming fiscal travails: Go big or go over the ledge.

“Millions of jobs could be lost through the automatic cuts, programs families depend on would be slashed irresponsibly across the board, and middle-class tax cuts would expire. And once again, if Republicans won’t work with us on a balanced approach, we are not going to get a deal,” said Senator Murray, the Senate’s No. 4 Democrat, in a speech at the Brookings Institution on Monday.

“[I]f we can’t get a good deal – a balanced deal that calls on the wealthy to pay their fair share – then I will absolutely continue this debate into 2013, rather than lock in a long-term deal this year that throws middle-class families under the bus,” she said.

The chair of the party committee charged with electing Democrats to the Senate laid out the broadest, most full-throated explanation of the party’s views on the party’s negotiating position vis-a-vis the fiscal cliff, while outlining the party’s strategy for attacking Republicans at the polls in November.

While optimistic “that we can get a good deal,” Murray said Democrats would not, for example, sign on to a plan that would offset the $55 billion portion of the $109 billion in automatic spending cuts mandated by the “sequester,” the budget-slashing mechanism agreed to as part of 2011’s debt-ceiling showdown. The remainder of the reductions come from discretionary spending, home to Democratic priorities like social welfare programs, and reductions in payments to Medicare providers.

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Photo credit: ozmafan