THE DEBT DEAL BY THE NUMBERS

[mikekohr]

$4 TRILLION The amount bond rating agencies agree needs to be cut from the annual deficits over ten years to get our fiscal house in order.

$3.2 TRILLION The amount the original Republican debt reduction plan proposed.

$4.2 TRILLION The amount President Obama countered the original Republican proposal with.
This would have consisted of a 4/1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases on the rich.

$2.2 TRILLION
The amount of debt reduction finally arrived at after the Republicans nearly drove America into default. Speaker Boehner used the Congressional Budget Office numbers as a baseline for the plan. The CBO’s numbers include the end of the George W. Bush tax give-a-ways to the rich which expire at the end of 2012. Elimination of the Bush tax policies will cut the Federal Debt by $3.7 trillion over a decade.
In effect this works out to approximately a 1/2 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases on the rich.
Only 1% of the spending cuts come into play in 2012, the other 99% coming in the out years. Under the enforcement mechanism of the bill, Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries, food stamps and other low income programs are immune from cuts.

98%

John Boehner is saying he got 98% of what he wanted in this bill. If getting schooled by President Obama, and positioning the Republican Party in 2012 as the goon squad for millionaires and billionaires is what John Boehner wanted I think he actually got 100% of what he wanted.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheet-victory-bipartisan-compromise-economy-american-people
http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2011/08/upon-further-examination.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2021517/US-debt-deal-Obama-declares-end-tax-breaks-wealthiest-Americans.html

[TheWraith]

1. "If getting schooled by President Obama was what Boehner wanted" :D

:rofl:

Too true. :) But what Boner really means is, "I got out of this with some dignity intact, and have maybe a 50/50 chance of not getting removed from the speakership by my own party."

[Cali_Democrat]

2. That Daily Mail article title cracks me up

"Obama declares end of tax breaks for wealthiest Americans as debt deal finally passes Senate"

Why do I have the feeling that the Republicans will call Obama a socialist and a communist when the tax cuts are set to expire? They will accuse him of being a tax and spend liberal and wanting to hike taxes on everybody.

Obama will then cower in the corner and agree to another Bush Tax cut extension.

[Dad Infinitum]

16. Then....

...we will be downgraded to BB+ and it will all be over.

[Raine1967]

3. "getting schooled by President Obama" ... priceless EOM

[MannyGoldstein]

4. But most of the tax increases are on working Americans

Don't you think that's a big problem in a depression?

[mikekohr]

6. If this was a Depression and and the richest 2% actually worked

for a living, maybe. But they don't and it's not, so no.

[Capn Sunshine]

10. You mean if they let the Bush Tax cuts expire?

is that what you mean by "Most" ?

[Recursion]

13. Obama would like to keep the middle class tax cuts -- unfortunately they cost $3 trillion

They're five times the size of the upper-class tax cuts. They'll probably have to go. Oh well.

[mikekohr]

19. Not True

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/blog/make-money/obamas-middle-class-tax-cut-yes-the-one-you-never-heard-of-may-expire/626/
Obama’s signature tax cut for middle class — titled Making Work Pay — expires at the end of this year. Republicans show no interest in renewing it. As a result, working-class and middle-class earners will pay a bit more in taxes in 2011, even if the Bush-era tax cuts are left in place.

This was the Rodney Dangerfield tax cut — it got no respect. Voters didn’t remember it. Republicans want to endorse Bush’s tax cuts, not anything that Obama did.

Extending Make Work Pay would cost $600 billion over 10 years. That’s a big ticket, but less than the $700 billion it costs to extend tax cuts for the rich. No matter. When the rich get richer, it’s better for American workers — just ask Kentucky Senator-elect Rand Paul

[flamingdem]

5. I wanna know when the bond rating agencies gained the right to tell us what to do

if they had their way, which they often do, we'd furlough most of the workforce and bring in Chinese workers for 50 cents a day.

They LOVE jobless recoveries and should be grateful for what they got, considering the disaster Wall St created.. now they think they can command respect.

[Capn Sunshine]

11. Don't forget 100% of them contributed to the melt down by calling toxic shit "AAA"

Because of his regulations he imposed on the Financial Sector, they clearly don't want Obama to succeed. In this they are a lot like DU.

[Pholus]

7. "Elimination of the Bush tax policies will cut the Federal Debt by $3.7 trillion over a decade."

Yup which is why they should have went LAST YEAR. As I remember, they got taken hostage and we rolled over.

So my question to you is what's different about it this time?

If anything the SOOPERcommittee will be as evenly deadlocked as everything else has been.

From: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/02/obama-hammer-in-next-debt-battle-with-gop-may-be-bush-tax-cuts.html

"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear this week that he won’t be appointing anybody who could be a “maybe” on the tax-increase issue, where only a “Hell no” will do. “Our first step will be to make sure those Republicans who sit on the powerful cost-cutting committee are serious people who put the best interests of the American people and the principles that we've fought for," McConnell said."

“Whatever happens in this next election, the Democrats will be weaker. The Republicans don’t need to negotiate anything with them,” Norquist said. “Why would you sit down and negotiate with someone who will have less clout in 18 months than they do now?”

[mikekohr]

8. Read the source material

The Bush tax give-a-ways to the rich sunset on Dec. 31, 2012. If the Super Dooper Committee were to extend them (they won't), the President has promised a veto. If he were to cave on that promise (he won't) the structure of the plan would require an additional $3.7 trillion in new taxes or $3.7 trillion in additional spending cuts. Not gonna happen. No way no how.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

9. Well reasoned and thought out!! n/t

[Pholus]

14. If true, cool. However, we'll just have to wait and see.

[brentspeak]

17. Thanks for the laughs

"If the Super Dooper Committee were to extend them (they won't)"

:rofl:

President has promised a veto.If he were to cave on that promise (he won't)"
:rofl:

[mikekohr]

18. I'll grant your cynicism if you acknowledge the facts

The key fact in this sub thread is the fact that the George W. Bush tax give-a-ways to the rich sunset on December 31st, 2012.

Given this fact, if the Bush tax give-a-ways for the rich were extended by both the committee and and the President not fulfilling his promise to veto such an act, the enforcement component of the bill would force an additional $3.7 trillion in spending cuts, or an additional $3.7 trillion in new taxes.

The first is all but impossible without devastating and crippling reductions in Federal programs including defense, SS, and Medicare. The second would never pass without substantial Republican support. Possible but as unlikely and improbable as the first.

[Fire1]

12. Look for tea partiers carrying torches and pitch forks! n/t

[mikekohr]

15. Postscript:

Within days of approval of the debt deal compromise the S&P rating agency downgraded the United States credit rating to AA from AAA. Had the Republican leadership accepted President Obama's original plan of a $4.2 trillion reduction in the federal debt over the next decade this downgrade would have been averted.
The strangle-hold the Tea Party has over the Republican Party has in this case exposed the American taxpayer to billions of dollars in increased interest payments due to this easily predictable lowering of our credit rating.
No sane American would deliberatly poisen their personel credit rating, but the Tea Party and the lack of courage and failure of leadership in the Republican Party has poisened our nation's credit and credibility.