Bernanke Says U.S. Needs Budget Deficit-Cutting Plan Soon

[OhioChick]

Source: Wall St. Journal

APRIL 27, 2010, 12:47 P.M. ET

WASHINGTON—Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday the U.S. needs to soon come up with a plan to cut the budget deficit, urging President Barack Obama's debt commission to look at how the tax system can be changed.

Speaking to the bipartisan commission, Mr. Bernanke stressed that an economy is stronger when taxes aren't too high and are collected in an efficient, equitable and transparent way.

"At present, a broad consensus exists that the U.S. tax code does not satisfy these criteria and is in need of reform," Mr. Bernanke said in prepared remarks to the first meeting of the commission, which was hosted by Mr. Obama.

"I suspect that it is too much to ask the commission to review the tax code in detail, but a full picture of our budgetary dilemma will require attention to the strengths and weaknesses of our current system of raising revenue," the Fed chief said.

The commission is chaired by former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson and former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, and includes Republican and Democratic lawmakers from the House and Senate. The group is expected to make recommendations on how to reduce the budget deficit by Dec. 1.



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471204575210003110044456.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us

[villager]

1. "And what I mean by 'budget-cutting' doesn't include the Pentagon, of course

...but rather, those pesky programs benefiting kids and such."

[Demeter]

2. Bernanke Is the Largest Asshole in Office

outside of Larry the Cable Guy Summers and Little Timmy Geithner

[harun]

21. I saw him the other day crowing about entitlement programs, why don't

these guys just say we can't afford the most expensive military in the history of Earth.

That would be the day.

[No Elephants]

28. He's a Republican. What do you expect?

[notadmblnd]

3. How bout we seize all the bankers millions and put the money they stole toward the deficit?

[DJ13]

4. How about he gets his banker buds to repay the bailouts that created the deficit?

Of course, thats not going to happen.

Obama's bullcrap "commission" will "recommend" slashing our remaining safety nets into tatters instead of reducing expenditures on defense and increasing the taxes on the top 20% of Americans.

Were being sold down the river.

[AlbertCat]

5. Ending two useless illegal wars might help a little...

... then we can stop making things to fight the USSR

and perhaps Exxon and the now politically active churches, and ALL businesses owned by churches could pay their taxes.


Then we could all have enough left over for a vacation!

[bossy22]

10. the majority of our military expenditures fall under the catagory of

human resources.

I find it so fascinating that many posters here don't see what the military is to 3 million americans- a JOB. add the defense industry in and that total goes to about 4 million. So that is 4 million americans that rely on the U.S. defense budget to make a livelihood for themselves. Undoubtly cutting the budget would lead to a downsizing of the military industry and the addition of more people on unemployment; which is what this country does not need at this moment.

Now this also depends on where you cut- if you cut the operating budget (which pays for the wars), this is not that bad at all as long as you keep base line budget intact.

But in other news- the best thing to do would probably get rid of the bush tax cuts and promote job growth. Those two things would bring the deficit under control

[Thor_MN]

24. So we couldn't employ those 4 million people to do something useful?

I suspect that the amount of money spent to keep the average military person equipped and employed vastly exceeds what it costs to keep the average government employee working.

We could create more jobs than the military creates to repair our infrastructure, using many of the skills of military, AND lower costs. While W pissed off much of the planet, we do not need to outspend the #2-#24 militaries combined.

[No Elephants]

29. There are other pursuits to which these "job" holders might devote their energies.

We have to make it acceptable in this country to spend on something other than "defense."

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

37. That's a $100B of it. Now, about that other $900B...?

[wilt the stilt]

6. End Bush's tax cuts

Why his tax cuts extended until 2010 is bullshit. He should not have that much influence into the next President's fiscal policy. Tax cuts should never be allowed to extend into someone's else's term.

[kelly1mm]

25. The congress set the phase out date, not Bush per se. nt

[No Elephants]

30. I'm guessing Congress did as Bush asked. Besides, the same principle applies, regardless of which

branch set the date, whether in reality or only technically.

Fixing tax/money policies that far into the future probably isn't all that sound anyway. Government needs flexibility, without having to cook the books, as Bush did.

[kelly1mm]

35. Totally agree about cooking the books. The reason the tax cuts

expired after 10 years was that the Senate used reconciliation to pass the Bush tax cuts. As we all have learned recently, reconciliation gets past the 60 vote margin rule to end filibusters. One lessor known rule about the reconciliation process is that any law passed using the process has an automatic 10 year sunset provision. That was why all the health insurance reform legislation budget numbers were calculated using a ten year window and why some of the criticism about the cost was somewhat valid in that it assumed the program would end in 10 years (the 10 years of taxes / 6 years of benefits argument)

[TacticalPeek]

7. Fuck you, Ben.

[liberal N proud]

8. Only if they start with the war machine

[liberation]

9. The wars are funded, and the rich got their bailouts, so deficits start mattering all of the sudden.

Good grief, why don't we just print more monopoly money like the capitalists do?

[Dappleganger]

11. That's easy: bring our soldiers home and de-fund illegal wars. nt

[krkaufman]

12. First step is to roll back the tax code to where it was when we last had a surplus ...

... by rolling back the Bush tax cuts, all of them.

[PSPS]

13. We're about to be IMF'ed

Of course, this "commission's" true purpose will be to find a way to eliminate social security and medicare and anything else that serves ordinary people instead of only the wealthy and their corporations.

The real solution, of course, would be to return to the tax rates and tariff policies of the Eisenhower or Kennedy or even Nixon administrations. The economy and middle class were at their zenith during those years.

[Lagomorph]

14. They better do something....

...and soon.

Our tax structure won't support the government that a majority of Americans voted for.

Earmarks turn necessary legislation into a shoplifting enterprise.

A lot of the "tax relief" we see on the federal level has been more than picked up at the state level.

[No Elephants]

31. Bingo. Most stuff and services provided by government costs money.

We are going to pay for it, one way or the other.

And forget cutting "waste and fraud." No one ever really does that anyway.

[librechik]

15. audit the Fed

maybe something will fall out of the sofa cushions

[chill_wind]

27. Dodd's been very busy watering that down. n/t

[No Elephants]

32. His parting gift to America. But, face it, he's a good ole boy who is not acting alone.

[CHIMO]

16. Is He

Stating the problem? Or his solution?

[Odin2005]

17. Let's start with the Pentagon, you twit.

[indypaul]

18. Governments can meet financial obligations three ways

1. Taxation
2. Inflation
3. Repudiation

Take your pick.

[neverforget]

19. Amazing how deficits only matter under Democratic Presidents.

:eyes: And fuck you Ben!

[chill_wind]

26. Isn't that the truth!

+1000

[w4rma]

20. Shutup Bernanke. (nt)

[unkachuck]

22. hey bennie....

....we listened to you before the melt-down and you were wrong....did you take a course at night-school or something?

[chill_wind]

23. Someboy please tell me again why Pres Obama

really pushed for his reappointment.

Oh- that's right:

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Summers all recommended to the president that Bernanke be retained, according to the administration official.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082403291.html

Ben "it will be contained to subprime" Bernanke Warns of Debt Crisis
Tuesday, 27 April 2010 14:01

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, who famously missed the housing bubble and then insisted the problems in the housing market would be contained in the subprime sector, warned the country about the need to contain deficits in testimony before President Obama's deficit commission today. It would have been helpful to readers if reporters had noted Mr. Bernanke's track record so that they would be better able to assess the importance of his remarks.

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/

[No Elephants]

34. Everybody knows Democrats are incompetent when it comes to money and "defense."

Well, everybody in the DLC/New "Democrat/Third Way movement, anyway. Hence, Bernanke and Geithner, who presided over the hugest financial fuck ups in our lifetimes, have the positions they do in a Democratic administration.

Bernanke, of course, has the same position he had under Dummya and Geithner, former chair of Wall Street--er, I mean, the NY Fed--has moved up in the world. And all it toook for Timmeh was changing his voter registration from Republican to *wink, wink* Independent. Surprised Paulson isn't still around, too.

And a Republican is Secretary of Defense, the same Republican as was in charge under Dummya.

Becausse, as anyone with half a brain can tell you, the economy and military spending/wars were among the areas in which the Dummya administration excelled most.

[No Elephants]

33. Wait. His plan for decreasing the deficit is to loweer taxes, but it's too much

to expect the Commission to review the tax code?

:wtf:

So, they don't really know the tax code, but they're sure it's wrong and changing it would fix everything?


Jeebus, no wonder Republicans have no faith in government. Just look at how they approach government. "We don't need no damn actual knowledge of what we're talking about. Just employ our bywords, 'lower taxes, cut entitlements and never question military spending.' Case closed."

[fasttense]

36. Bernanke, or Berniac (like maniac), said nothing when the bushes

were borrowing to beat the band. How convenient for him to start complaining about the deficit now.

And if the man had half a brain, he would know that no nation in the history of the world has ever gone bankrupt from providing jobs and social services to it's citizens. However, there is a long tradition of nations going bankrupt from fighting wars and conflicts.

Maybe the man should open a history book once or twice a year.

[chill_wind]

38. kick.