Just heard Connie Mack (R-Teahadist) give an interview to CNN. Here's the relevant portion of the transcript that caught my attention (transcribed from my DVR):
ANCHOR: Now I want to bring in Congressman Connie Mack, a Republican from Florida. He's also planning to vote against the Boehner plan. Congressman, good evening. What have you been hearing today? Have people been twisting your arm?
MACK: No. You know, I haven't had my arm twisted but, you know - I - early on I made it clear to the leadership that this is about balancing the budget. I've introduced a plan that would do just that by cutting 1% of spending a year, capping spending at 18% of GDP, we balance the budget in 8 years, we cut $7.5T a year all by taking one penny out of every Federal dollar.
ANCHOR: Sir, I've read over your plan and it's an interesting plan. But it also isn't at a pont now where it's the thing being voted on. Is it a mistake that the leadership is not talking and saying look - is there some variation of this plan that could bring you on board? Because right now, the problem is nobody has a plan that can get approved.
MACK: Here's the problem. The problem is that we are $14T in debt. We have a $1.4T or $1.5T deficit every year. The plan that's coming before us cuts $900B over 10 years, so that's roughly $90B a year. That means we still continue to spend more than we bring in, and after ten years we have a $20T debt. So I don't think anybody can look at those numbers and think that this is a good idea. We're not changing anything in Washington.
My emphasis added.
I'm not sure what Congressman Mack did prior to serving on the Florida legislature beginning in 2000, whether he had a real job or what have you. I rather doubt that he ran a business, because if he had, he would understand basic balance sheet math.
The Federal deficit is a simple calculation. You add up all the government's income (taxes, other payments and monies, etc.) and you subtract from that all of the government's expenses (defense, interest payments, SS, Medicare, Medicaid, salaries, programs, grants etc.). If the expenses exceed the revenues, you have a shortfall - a deficit.
The $1.4T or $1.5T deficit he references is the projected deficit for this Federal fiscal year, 2011, ending on September 30 2011.
Did I mention that unemployment is 9.2%? That means that slightly less than 10% of Americans aren't working. If they aren't working, they're not paying income taxes, which (aha!) chains directly to the government's income. Most likely, in addition to not adding income to the government, they are taking some additional amount out in the form of unemployment payments and the like (all of which they paid into when they worked, of course).
So. Mack's assertion that in ten years we will be at a $20T deficit, by default, assumes that unemployment won't improve, that jobs won't be created, that the economy won't get better.
I guess that makes sense considering that this House hasn't touched anything that might be construed as a jobs bill to try to help with the income side of the equation and thereby help allay their concerns.
So yes, America. Your best days are behind you. They're telling you that every time they open their mouths these days. Why don't you call your Representative and your Senators and ask them why Republicans believe that America's best days are behind us??