to stand up to the Boehner House when the debt ceiling debate begins.
I sent this to the President and my congressmen today.
Mr. Boehner has clearly said that he intends to cut $100B from discretionary non-security spending - and it looks like that will be his price for agreeing to allow the government to function at all.
Mr. President, If you do not mean for this to happen, you need to get out in front of it now and center the debt ceiling and spending discussions on what you do want to accomplish. Just as importantly, you need to identify the things you will not accept and will veto, and you need to back that up with actual vetoes as necessary. If you wait for a bill to reach your desk before you respond, it will be too late. Use the power and prestige of your office to shape the discussion up front while public opinion is still somewhat malleable. Don't wait for Fox News, Ms. Palin and Mr. Boehner to take control of the discussion.
Compromise has its place - but trading off huge spending cuts to essential programs in exchange for an increased in the debt ceiling is not a compromise worth making.
From today's news:
Obama aide: Don't 'play chicken' with debt ceiling ...
The chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Austan Goolsbee, says that refusing to raise the debt ceiling would push the country into default — and a far greater economic crisis than Americans saw in 2008.
Chicken is a game you can win on this issue - but only if you play. Unfortunately, your statements and actions leading up to the passage of the December tax bill said pretty clearly that you will negotiate with hostage takers in order to prevent harm to the hostages. You've set the precedent and given Mr. Boehner's House all the reason they need to "play chicken". If the past is indeed precedent, you will most likely give them the spending cuts they demand in return for an increase in the debt ceiling.
I'm horrified at what will happen when we try take $100 Billion from social programs with no cuts to defense and no tax increases. Defunding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is clearly first on the agenda. Beyond that,
"Cutting non-security discretionary funds by $100 billion means a 21% annual reduction in the part of the budget that includes funding for education, health and human services and housing and urban development, among other things, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank."
And this is probably just the beginning - I expect Social Security and unemployment insurance to be next on the chopping block if this continues.
I hope you do not mean for this to happen. (About the only "hope and change" left from 2008.) The country's middle class and lower class have sacrificed enough - declining real wages for 10+ years, unemployment, housing price declines, foreclosures, bankruptcies, loss of medical insurance, abysmally low savings rates thanks to the Fed and more. The upper class has not shared in this sacrifice - the concentration of both wealth and income in the top 10%, and especially the top 1%, is at a record high not seen since the Depression. Banks have been bailed out and the so-called recovery is benefiting corporate profits and balance sheets, not working Americans. The economy has turned upside down and is sinking. It only looks like a recovery because the keel is still above water.
You passed up the opportunity to begin to increase taxes in December. I don't know how to recover from that in time for the debt ceiling increase. Tax policy needs a basic reform and taxes need to go up. I do know that we cannot afford to turn around and take $100B from "discretionary" social spending - it is anything but discretionary to the people that rely on it.
Sincerely,