Here is the straight dope on the budget deficit commission and their plans for our future.

http://delong.typepad.com/.a/6a00e551f080038834013488e3fd94970c-pi

For those budget peacocks on the right, here is the reality on America’s fiscal future.

1. The bottom light blue region is discretionary spending, which is everything not Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. It makes up about 10% of GDP, going forward, and as far ago as 1976, it was at 15%. Oh the horrors.
2. Social Security - the dark blue in the middle- will slightly cost more by 2032, and then flattens out for forever, or until we do another baby boomer event, and then 65 years after that, then social security’s cost will bump up for a generation again.
3. Medicare and Medicaid are the big, blue wedge that expands upwards forever.

Now, the great Senator Alan Simpson and his deficit busters look at that graph, and deduce that the problem is we need to cut social security and discretionary spending, and put a cap on government spending of 21% of GDP; which means they’re calling for a death panel type, government rationing of Medicare and Medicaid. There is no other way to meet their 21% goal and fully fund both programs. So the same people who went a Tea Partying on the Koch Bros. buses, screaming about govmint rationing just got it in spades. I guess the problem is, conservative voters want one thing, and they get duped time and again by conservative politicians.

They also have on the chopping block communist programs like schools on military installations for soldier’s kids.

How did they get here? If you go to the “tax reform” section, they list as their number one priority “lower rates” and last “reduce the deficit.” A Blue Ribbon Deficit Commission lists as their own priorities lowering tax rates first, and lowering the deficit last. This is why conservatives can’t be trusted. Of course, since the conservatives on the commission demanded tax cuts, they are a plenty, top rate down to 28%, corporate rate at 26%. Social security cuts for those making over $25,000 a year.

Yavapai Tea Bagger Forum

Yavapai Tea Party candidate forum, from Oct 2010, was a whole lotta simplemindedness wrapped up in anger, disgust, distrust, and a mockery of the vision of our founding fathers. The Tea Baggers’ vision for America was a call for personal responsibility and upholding the US Constitution. It was “lead” by a Mr. Gullitt (sp?) who is a self proclaimed Arizona Historian, and his opening statement he called for the audience “not to disparage” the candidates, and that the Tea Party was a “positive advocate for the prosperity of all Arizona.”

After that the rest of evening was the audience disparaging the Democratic candidates, and the Tea Party approved candidates talking about measures to undo the social safety net in order to impoverish most Arizonans.

The questions were

1. Jobs are our number 1 concern, what will you do to create jobs?
1. Paul Gosar talked about small business, bitched that banks weren’t lending, and kvetched Obamacare, and Fannie Mae/ Freddie Mac, and then called for lowering the capital gains taxes.
2. Rep. Kirkpatrick pointed out that the stimulus kept a lot of Arizona teachers, cops and firefighters employed, at which point the tea baggers began booing her. She also brought up her work with the feds to help projects that required no tax $’s, like her efforts to keep the Yavapai County fairgrounds open, which saved 300 jobs.
3. Ian Gilyeat talked about lower taxes.
2. Then he asked about support for Prop 106, the AZ anti Obamacare initiative.
1. Gilyeat opposes Obamacare, because he wants everyone to fend for themselves.
2. Gosar went on about tort reform, and that one size doesn’t fit all. But he never explained how the working poor are supposed to be able to afford healthcare, or how moral it is that so many Americans wind up both sick and bankrupt.
3. Kirkpatrick voted for Obamacare

3. Social Security; how do we balance social security with the need to balance the budget?
1. Kirkpatrick said we protect social security by creating jobs, which can include federal projects, and keep social security out of the hands of Wall Street.
2. Gilyeat wants to privatize social security, and have people work until dead.
3. Gosar, social security is a trust, restore all assets, and called for “working until the day I die.”
4. Border security?
1. Gosar is proud to be an American. Secure the border. Of course, since the border can never be completely secured, he has no plan for the 12 million illegal’s here already.
2. Gilyeat had some actual solutions: call up the national guard, the state raises their own militia to patrol the border, and get serious about Employer Sanctions law.
3. Kirkpatrick pointed out that the border is more secure than ever, which got more boos, and that she has been pushing to increase border and port security since she was elected.
5. 10^th Amendment / states’ rights question that meandered?
1. Gilyeat will defend states’ rights, states’ powers, repeal 17^th Amendment, because he wants to return to the good old days of corruption.
2. Kirkpatrck talked about supporting gun rights.
3. Gosar said he was a strong supporter of the 10^th. He was also against the 17^th amdt. Which leads me to wonder, if Gilyeat and Gosar are so strong on the 10^th, would they overturn Civil Rights legislation, the voter rights act, minimum wage laws, OSHA, the EPA, etc, etc.
6. 2^nd Amdt, Do we get to own law enforcement? That was the question, as I wrote it down.
1. Kirkpatrick has an A rating from the NRA.
2. Gosar says no ban on guns or ammo.
3. Gilyeat was a 2^nd amdt cheerleader.
7. Next was a question on manufacturing in the US,
1. Kirkpatrick talked about going green and solar power.
2. Gilyeat talked about our disadvantages with China, and that wages in China were $1.50 an hour, Mexico $2.50, and that until American wages come down from $20 / hr, things wouldn’t change. He actually said it in a way that he was arguing that US wages needed to come down. And it was his big applause line.
3. Gosar wanted less taxes and less regulations, which we did unde Bush. And I don’t remember the Bush years being a great time of job growth.
8. Another border security question.
9. In the early days, when congress convened, they were given an agenda, should there be penalties for actions outside the constitution? He was unclear on whom set the agenda; I’m sure he’s thinking the Tea Baggers ought to be the ones doing the agendifiying.
1. Gosar said congress was incapable to do oversight.
2. Kirkpatrick called for higher standards of ethics.