Proof they are not serious/chicken feed
Boehner Releases Revised Plan: To Cut $91.7 Billion Each Year For A Decade, Buys 4 Months Before Next Debt Ceiling Hike
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/27/2011 - 18:10 Congressional Budget Office Debt Ceiling fixed Medicare
The epic revision in the just revised Boehner plan is to cut a grand total of ... $91.7 billion per year for 10 years (back-end loaded of course: 2012 will see just $22 billion in cuts - can't have any real cuts too early or else). The spin is that this is sufficient because the $917 billion in cuts is more than the proposed $900 billion debt ceiling hike, so all shall be well. Of course that is only part one of the two-part debt ceiling hike process. The next step is a $1.8 trillion cut to "protect programs like Medicare and Social Security from bankruptcy." The problem is that Boehner continues along the path of a two-step debt hike, a formulation that Obama will never agree to, since it effectively guarantees him no-reelection chance, as the last thing the people will want is the same bickering as we are experiencing every day again some time in 2012, when the current $900 billion in incremental debt capacity runs out. And actually, with the US debt already $300 billion below trendline and with the government's two pension funds already plundered by a like amount (which means they have a net IOU position), it means that the Boehner plan really buys only $600 billion of dry powder. At a burn rate of $150 billion a month, this means the first step of the Boehner plan buys precisely 4 months before the debt ceiling has to be raised again! Oh yes, this plan also guarantees at least a one notch downgrade to the US debt, with more notches coming up before the end of the year when this whole farce is repeated.
