"Why is Timothy Geithner mum on spending cuts?"

[WhiskeyGirl]

It is obvious why Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is making no headway in his one-sided argument that the debt ceiling just needs to be extended [“Treasury to tap retiree programs to help pay bills,” news story, May 16]. If he were truly serious about the predicament, he would have done the following: (1) come out strongly in favor of a spending-cut requirement along with the extension of the debt ceiling; and (2) had a serious discussion, not just issued a fiat, about what would have to be done if the debt ceiling limit were not lifted — because it’s his job to do so.

Mr. Geithner is not talking at all about the equally devastating effect out-of-control spending has on the economy. Without curbing that, raising the debt ceiling will hasten our economic instability. Mr. Geithner claimed we would default, when the reality is that federal revenue comes to roughly $2 trillion a year — enough to keep necessary government agencies solvent without defaulting on bonds.

read more here - http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-is-timothy-geithner-mum-on-spending-cuts/2011/05/17/AFDZ227G_story.html

How much could get cut by month end?  Dept. of Education?  HUD?  I think 80% of government spending is waste, fraud, and abuse...

Who profits on America's debt?  Names?  Maybe there are some conflicts of interests?  Who owns all the foreign accounts that make trillions?

[WhiskeyGirl]

"Treasury raids your pension - but don't worry, Geithner says"

For the past few days, the government has been brushing up against its $14.3 trillion debt limit. To buy time and free up more borrowing authority, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has resorted to time-tested maneuvers involving two of the biggest federal retirement funds: the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund (CSRDF), which provides benefits to retired and disabled federal employees in the Civil Service Retirement System, and the Thrift Savings Plan's Government Securities Investment Fund, better known as the G Fund.

I'm wondering why he could take this money, and Social Security has an empty trust fund, filled with government IOUs...

Amid record budget deficits, Boehner said, "we should be talking about cuts of trillions, not just billions," Closed-door talks led by Vice President Joe Biden have so far produced no agreement. On a separate front, hopes of a grand bargain took another blow this week, when a leading conservative, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla, bolted the so-called "Gang of Six," a bipartisan group of senators trying to forge a legislative package to cut future deficits by $4 trillion over 10 years.

How about ending Obama's 'insignificant' wars?  The undeclared ones?  How much money would that save?  Redeploy those troops and equipment along the border with Mexico.   Turn back the invasion.

read more here - http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20110521/BENEFITS02/105210301/

[WhiskeyGirl]

Washington — One of Dictionary.com’s definitions of blackmail is “to extort money from (a person) by use of threats.” Substitute “taxpayers” for “person” and you have what the White House and congressional Democrats are doing with the debt ceiling.

In case you weren’t paying attention (and too few are) the United States officially reached the debt ceiling on Monday. Treasury Secretary Tim (“I forgot to pay my taxes”) Geithner informed Congress of difficult decisions he was forced to make to keep the country solvent, which is a joke. How can a country be considered solvent when just the interest on the debt amounts to more than the entire gross national product of many countries?

Why isn't Geithner renegotiating the debt?  Asking creditors to take like ten cents on a dollar, like the automaker bond holders?

Possibly the most profound remonstrance concerning debt came from Thomas Jefferson, who said, “I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.”

...

Commenting on the debt ceiling having been reached, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said it “further highlights the failed leadership and reckless spending that has our country heading toward a Greece-like day of reckoning. We are better than that.”

read more here - http://www.hollandsentinel.com/opinions/x1555986913/COLUMN-Blackmailing-taxpayers

Who are the America's debt ceiling billionaires?  Trust funds?  Conflict of interests?