Subj : As the economy turns... down. To : ALL From : BOB KLAHN Date : Fri Feb 25 2011 15:37:48 The National Debt Defense budget cuts: The split within the GOP Best Column Did Obama 'trap' Republicans on Social Security? The president has been criticized for failing to cut entitlement spending in his new budget, says Glenn Thrush at Politico, but it may have been a smart political move... www.tinyurl.com/4goj6r4 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Financial Times FT.com Goldman sees danger in US budget cuts By James Politi and Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington Published: February 23 2011 18:08 | Last updated: February 23 2011 18:08 The Republican plan to slash government spending by $61bn in 2011 could reduce US economic growth by 1.5 to 2 percentage points in the second and third quarters of the year, a Goldman Sachs economist has warned. ... Chuck Schumer, the Democratic senator from New York, said: "This nonpartisan study proves that the House Republicans' proposal is a recipe for a double-dip recession. Just as the economy is beginning to pick up a little steam, the Republican budget would snuff out any chance of recovery. This analysis puts a dagger through the heart of their 'cut-and-grow' fantasy". ... Goldman, which is currently forecasting US gross domestic product growth of 4 per cent in the second and third quarters of 2011, also pegged the cost of a government shutdown to the US economy at $8bn in reduced spending per week, based on the experience of the federal closures of 1995 and 1996. .... www.tinyurl.com/4qval8x ---------------------------------------------------------------- Washington's Deficit-Hawk Pretenders We are live at The Week: Even if Republicans outdo Obama's spending cuts, they'll fritter it away on tax cuts and repealing health care reform: The Obama administration's proposed spending freeze promises to reduce certain categories of government spending over the next decade by $400 billion. This is a bad idea. It will cut not ... The Obama proposal looks to reduce debt 10 years from now, by $400 million billion. This theoretical House Republican proposal looks to increase the debt 10 years from now, by $150 billion. And over the past 30 years, Democratic budget proposals have by and large delivered what they promised. Republican proposals, by contrast, have all turned out to produce much bigger deficits than were pledged at the start. ... www.tinyurl.com/4l9eml9 www.tinyurl.com/6djqqkm BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn .... The Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed. --- Via Silver Xpress V4.5/P [Reg] * Origin: Since 1991 And Were Still Here! DOCSPLACE.TZO.COM (1:123/140) .