I don't know what Lynn Jenkins is smoking, but it can't be legal. The Second District Congresswoman just sent me an e-mail confirming that she doesn't have a clue about history. She excels at making propaganda points and is a spin doctor's star pupil. To see how far afield she is from fact based truth I'll start with her conclusion.
Jenkins, speaking somewhat mindlessly about federal spending said: "This plan is not perfect, but it took us more than 230 years to get into our current fiscal mess and with a Democrat Senate and President Obama in the White House it is an important step as we continue to fight to reform Washington and get our nation on a course toward financial accountability."
As reported previously on this blog (http://ideas-observations--mentalmachinati.blogspot.com/2011/07/reckless-republicans-poised-to-ruin.html), during the Clinton Administration, employing those Clinton Era Tax Rates, we had a Budget Surplus ($237 billion), the single largest three year pay down of the Public Debt ($363 billion), paid for Social Security, and reduced the interest payment on the debt by $125 billion.
Reality to Lynn Jenkins: This problem is clearly rooted with a Republican President not using his veto pen while the Republicans in Congress were spending like crazy, plus the predictable negative effects of deregulation of Wall Street - which critically wounded the economy, and George Bush waging two wars off the books. America got into the current fiscal crisis for these reasons and not because of our 230 year history. Rather than demagogue the issues why can't Lynn Jenkins just tell the truth? Because she can't handle the truth!
Even MicroSoft Word found Representative Jenkins' grammar questionable. But I can live with bad grammar better than with bad logic. Jenkins' rambles in the beginning of her letter. "This change we seek, from a Washington, D.C. culture of spending and increased government dependence toward a culture more consistent with Eastern Kansans that encourages opportunity, not dependence, takes time." I think what Jenkins is trying to say is that those who rely on funds from the government are dependent on the government. That dependence, Jenkins believes, runs counter to the values of Eastern Kansas.
Gee, that sure sounds good. But Lynn, when America is borrowing money to pay for the Bush Era tax cuts (and we are), then doesn't that throw a rod in the engine of your argument? And who is it that Lynn thinks is too dependent on the government? Well, I bet she doesn't think its these folk. Ending the "Bush Era" rates will cost the Koch Brothers $2 billion, the Wal-Mart Walton family $7 billion, the Campbell Soup Dorrance Family more than a half a billion dollars, and the family at the center of the Mars Candy Co. fortune will lose a $2.5 billion savings on their estate taxes.
And she doesn't think that Defense Contractors are dependent on the government dole. Jenkins voted for H.R. 1473, the Department of Defense and Full‐Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011. That measure outspends Budget Authority on Defense spending by $72,116,000. That's just the nonemergency spending! To be fair every category got outspent from its Budget Authority.
Jenkins then turns our attention to the Draconian budget passed by the Republicans in the House, H.Con.Res. 34. The first confusing thing we see about the Republican Budget is that despite cuts it still perpetuates deficits. Jenkins voted for these Budget Deficits:
Fiscal year 2012: $1,081,462,000,000,
Fiscal year 2013: $787,260,000,000.
Fiscal year 2014: $578,441,000,000.
Fiscal year 2015: $523,938,000,000.
Fiscal year 2016: $574,365,000,000.
Fiscal year 2017: $499,984,000,000.
Fiscal year 2018: $463,988,000,000.
Fiscal year 2019: $492,064,000,000.
Fiscal year 2020: $467,907,000,000.
Fiscal year 2021: $439,622,000,000.
When Bill Clinton left office we had a Budget Surplus. The Republicans can't get us back to zero with a ten year plan.
The Republicans want to spend more on Defense. They plan, despite the winding down of the Middle East Wars, to ramp up spending for the Military-Industrial Complex. Here are those numbers:
Fiscal year 2012:
(A) New budget authority, $582,626,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $593,580,000,000.
Fiscal year 2013:
(A) New budget authority, $600,283,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $597,211,000,000.
Fiscal year 2014:
(A) New budget authority, $616,451,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $606,903,000,000.
Fiscal year 2015:
(A) New budget authority, $628,847,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $618,837,000,000.
Fiscal year 2016:
(A) New budget authority, $641,976,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $635,475,000,000.
Fiscal year 2017:
(A) New budget authority, $653,695,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $643,275,000,000.
Fiscal year 2018:
(A) New budget authority, $665,679,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $650,246,000,000.
Fiscal year 2019:
(A) New budget authority, $677,884,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $666,959,000,000.
Fiscal year 2020:
(A) New budget authority, $690,273,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $679,088,000,000.
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $702,903,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $691,494,000,000.
The Department of Energy, where we pay for our nuclear weapons, gets consistent overspending treatment for the next five years by the Republican Budget.
Fiscal year 2012:
(A) New budget authority, $6,996,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $16,174,000,000.
Fiscal year 2013:
(A) New budget authority, $3,850,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $10,053,000,000.
Fiscal year 2014:
(A) New budget authority, $1,215,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $4,547,000,000.
Fiscal year 2015:
(A) New budget authority, $1,101,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $1,360,000,000.
Fiscal year 2016:
(A) New budget authority, $1,021,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $340,000,000.
Fiscal year 2017:
(A) New budget authority, $1,010,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $460,000,000.
Fiscal year 2018:
(A) New budget authority, $1,075,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $539,000,000.
Fiscal year 2019:
(A) New budget authority, $1,211,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $497,000,000.
Fiscal year 2020:
(A) New budget authority, $1,179,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $470,000,000.
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $1,195,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $476,000,000.
The Republicans begin to show their true colors when you look at the deep cuts they plan for Commerce and Housing Credit.
Fiscal year 2012:
(A) New budget authority, $14,317,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $16,275,000,000.
Fiscal year 2013:
(A) New budget authority, $4,040,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $2,611,000,000.
Fiscal year 2014:
(A) New budget authority, $508,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$13,986,000,000.
Fiscal year 2015:
(A) New budget authority, -$2,609,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$19,417,000,000.
Fiscal year 2016:
(A) New budget authority, -$3,260,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$23,459,000,000.
Fiscal year 2017:
(A) New budget authority, -$293,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$23,592,000,000.
Fiscal year 2018:
(A) New budget authority, -$261,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$25,981,000,000.
Fiscal year 2019:
(A) New budget authority, -$222,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$17,547,000,000.
Fiscal year 2020:
(A) New budget authority, -$128,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$17,992,000,000.
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, -$196,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$19,650,000,000.
The silent killer in this budget is found at §502 of H.Con.Res. 34. Social Security is not funded out of General Revenues. Social Security has its own revenue stream and is not, by law, allowed to borrow money. The Republican Budget wants to micro-manage Social Security, on an annual basis, to permit an expedited process for cutting Social Security. That is something new. That is something bad, very, very bad.
Paul Ryan's template for slicing and dicing Social Security, and Lynn Jenkins is on board with this, is the Bowles-Simpson proposal. That came from the Fiscal Commission, otherwise known as the Cat-food Commission, because it will force senior citizens to rely on generic Kibbles and Bits for nutrition.
Now remember that Congress can't just cut benefits, but for any year where Social Security is out of a 75 year balance, then they bring out the butcher knives. And Bowles-Simpson wants to cut benefits for the poorest, they want to slash benefits for 60% of the very low wage earners. Republicans want to raise the full retirement age to 69, with earliest eligibility at age 64. Bowles-Simpson and the Republicans want to negate cost of living inflation by using a new statistical tool called the Chained Consumer Price Index (C-CPI) by the Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS).
The BLS says this C-CPI "index employs a superlative Tornqvist formula and utilizes expenditure data in adjacent time periods in order to reflect the effect of any substitution that consumers make across item categories in response to changes in relative prices." Well, that's about as clear as mud! What is lucid is the Republican plan to use the C-CPI to slash $108 billion in benefits over the next decade.No thanks Lynn, you see the poor, the underemployed, the elderly, those needing housing, or seeking an education as dependent on the government. I see them as citizens. I see them as persons. I see them as "We the People" and your plan to cut their Social Security is despicable.
Representative Jenkins then tries to tell me how good H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011, is. Please. This is the knee jerk Balanced Budget Amendment bill. It is a rotten idea. Please read the Washington Post's article in the Post Partisan section written by Robert J. Samuelson on July 18, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/a-balanced-budget-amendment-bad-idea-for-many-reasons/2011/07/18/gIQAZ8nNMI_blog.html.
Or listen to the short and simple advice from The Incidental Economist who agrees that the Balanced Budget idea doesn't hold water, http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/balanced-budget-amendment-is-a-bad-idea/.
The Baltimore Sun, on its opinion page says "Amending the Constitution won't move us toward a balanced budget anytime soon, and it will rob us of needed flexibility in hard times." Read Phillip Joyce's op-ed at http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-07-21/news/bs-ed-budget-amendment-20110721_1_budget-amendment-balanced-budget-balance-act.
The people know what the answer is. Eliminate the Bush Era tax cuts for adjusted net incomes above $250,000. Make responsible cuts to every department in the government. Pass jobs bills now to get people back to work now. Quit taking the American economy hostage by partisan stunts such as refusing to raise the debt limit. The debt limit is never about new spending, it is always about paying for what we've already spent.
The difference between Lynn Jenkins and the mainstream of Eastern Kansas voters is clear and stark. In my memory I can still hear the weekly call from my pastor, before we passed the collection plate. "Where your heart is there also is your treasure." Good logic tells me if I follow the money going into Lynn Jenkins war chest that I'll find that which fuels her heart. You can review that information at http://www.opensecrets.org/.
From where I am standing, it sure looks like Lynn Jenkins could benefit from a heart transplant.
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