ABC’s Stephanopoulos Fact Checks McConnell: We’ve Already Confronted The Spending Problem

[DonViejo]

By Jeff Spross posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Jan 6, 2013 at 11:48 am

This morning on ABC’s This Week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) reiterated what has become the go-to Republican talking point in the wake of the fiscal cliff deal: That the issue of taxes and new revenue is finished, and will not be re-opened. “Now the question is, what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting our country and our future,” McConnell said.

But this time host George Stephanopoulos pushed back. He pointed out that since last year Congress has already cut $1.5 trillion in spending, without any counter-balancing hikes in tax revenue until the fiscal cliff deal:

STEPHANOPOULOS: The President has said he’s willing to engage in more discussions over the sequester and the government shutdown, but that would also include new revenues. You say that the tax debate is over.

McCONNELL: Oh yeah, the tax use is finished, over, completed. That’s behind us. Now the question is, what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting our country and our future? And that’s our spending addiction. It’s time to confront it. The President surely knows that. He’s mentioned it both publicly and privately. The time to confront it is now. We have to engage.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me just interrupt you there. In the last year in the Budget Control Act, the Congress actually cut $1.5 trillion in spending. That’s more than was raised in revenue in this last fiscal cliff deal. So are you saying that any discussion of revenue is completely off the table going forward? You will not accept any new revenues in any new deal?

McCONNELL: Yeah, absolutely. The tax issue is behind us. Now the question is, what are we going to do about the real problem?

-snip-

read more + video:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/01/06/1403521/abcs-stepanopoulos-fact-checks-mcconnell-weve-already-confronted-the-spending-problem/

[Lil Missy]

1. Posturing. n/t

[The Blue Flower]

2. What are we going to do about the real problem?

Judd in 2014.

[BlueStreak]

3. +1

[Scuba]

5. + another

[Voice for Peace]

6. yes!

http://www.justjared.com/2008/06/03/ashley-judd-great-debater/

[GoCubsGo]

8. If I was a KY, she'd have my vote.

[Historic NY]

10. The real problem Republicans.

[drm604]

4. This seems to be the latest talking point.

It must be from Frank Luntz or one of the right-wing "think tanks".

Personally, I think that the current "real problem" is the Republican Party. Until they start engaging in some real thinking and analysis (as opposed to spouting talking points) they're not going to be contributing to any real solutions.

[AndyA]

7. "The Real Problem"

That would be the wars, the Bush tax cuts that favored America's wealthiest over and above all others, and the big pharma bill...all of which are Republican acts.

The "real problem" is the war mongering, elite loving, big business-controlled GOP in Congress.

[NPolitics1979]

9. Republicans philosophy for Parents to support their children.

Instead of asking their Boss Monty Burns for a raise or asking a wealthy friend or relative to help them out, They are telling Working Poor Parents not to spend any money for their children's education,healthcare,housing,- demand that their poor uneducated children get minimum wage jobs for the rest of their life.
Their wealthy CEO boss or wealthy friend or relative continues their sense of arrogance and entitlement.
Somebody needs to tell the successful people who claim they graduated from an top tier college-4year program with high grades and was able to get hired couple of months after they graduate and complete their internship on their own without any assistance and nobody bailed them out when they made foolish decisions-that they are fool of crap. We need to continue treating rich people like crap.

[grahamhgreen]

11. Sorry, raising taxes to Greatest Generation levels is the best way out.

That and cutting defense

[annabanana]

12. And stopping subsidizing the oil industry....

The greed knows no bounds

[frazzled]

13. Our response to Mitch: Then all spending cuts are off the table.

We've already confronted those.

Two can play at this game.

[Igel]

15. You know what that $1.5 trillion in spending cuts are, right?

Part is sequestration.

Part is also the caps put on some discretionary programs. They've looked at what the current caps would dictate and then project what spending *would* be, given their assumptions, without the caps.

That not what 90% or more of people think "budget cut" means. Caps are what people wanted--not just (R)--in the late '00s, and it's a relatively painless way of getting out of a budget mess, presuming there's enough economic growth. It's a relatively painless way of gradually resetting priorities.

But they're not budget cuts, where you reduce funding levels.

[pnwmom]

16. A cap IS a cut -- to a future budget, though not the current one. It's still real,

and it's still a cut.

If we cap unemployment benefits, for example, even though the number of unemployed was increasing, that would be a real cut to the beneficiaries.

If we cap school lunch program funding even though there are more children and food costs are increasing, that's a real cut, too.

How many people would agree that capping Social Security COLA increases would be "painless"? Not many.

[Cha]

14. "The BIGGEST PROBLEM Confronting our Country" is republiCONS like

slippery mitch mcconnell whom the US media finds it necessarey to put on all the damn Sunday GAS BAG shows.

Freaking Gagmonger.