BA Spending Daily October 22, 2012

Spending Daily | October 22, 2012

New Poll: Overwhelming Majority Say National Debt Has Direct Impact on Personal Finances
Public Notice today released the results of a national survey of likely voters on the issues ofdebt and spending, as well as which presidential candidate is more trusted to manage a family budget. On the question of whether the national debt has impacted personal or family financial situations, an overwhelming majority (88%) said it did, with a significant majority of seniors (61%), Independents (58%) and middle class families (58%) saying it had a “major impact.”  The survey also found Americans were split between Mitt Romney (47%) and Barack Obama (46%) on who they trusted more to manage their family budget.  Across key constituencies such as middle class families, Independents, seniors, married women and those likely to vote, however, Romney maintained an edge. Click here to read the full polling memo.

Debt Threatens National Security
Jeanne Sahadi writes in CNNMoney, “The national debt is not on the official agenda for Monday’s presidential debate on foreign policy.  But it may as well as be. A chorus of former military leaders, current administration officials and fiscal hawks have all labeled the country’s debt a threat to national security. ‘A nation with our current levels of unsustainable debt … cannot hope to sustain for very long its superiority from a military perspective, or its influence in world affairs,’ Admiral Michael Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last month.  The concern: If the debt continues to grow unbridled, the U.S. government will be constrained in its ability to pay for what it wants to do militarily and diplomatically. And it could limit the country’s leverage with foreign powers.”

“Lawmakers have ‘fiscal cliff’ menu’ of options from failed debt talks”
The Hill reports, “When Congress gets down to business on the ‘fiscal cliff’ after the election, they won’t have to look far for proposals to reverse it. Lawmakers already have a menu of policy options leftover from several rounds of bipartisan negotiations on the deficit, including the talks held last summer by Vice President Biden and the work of the failed congressional ‘supercommittee.’ Aides say lawmakers don’t need to reinvent the wheel to come up with a ‘down payment’ on the debt that could be part of an agreement to at least replace the $109 billion spending cut, known as sequestration, set for 2013.”

European Deficits Shrank, Debt Grew in 2011
The New York Times reports, “European countries sharply reduced their deficits last year, official data showed Monday, even as their overall debt grew, as governments pushed ahead with austerity measures in the face of the euro crisis. The deficit of the 17 euro zone governments fell to 4.1 percent of gross domestic product in 2011, from 6.2 percent in 2010, Eurostat, the E.U. statistical agency, reported from Luxembourg. The euro zone’s debt as a percentage of G.D.P. rose to 87.3 percent at the end of 2011 from 85.4 percent a year earlier.”

Republican Hammers President on Deficit and Unemployment
The Hill reports, “Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) hammered President Obama on Saturday for not reducing the $1 trillion budget deficit and the unemployment rate, arguing that his policies have ‘done little’ to jumpstart the economy. ‘With the school year under way across the country, it is not comforting to think that the class of 2012 who were freshmen along with this President graduated without knowing what it was like to be in high school without the term ‘trillion dollar deficit’ being ever present in the news,’ said Flake during the GOP’s weekly address. Flake argued that Obama’s ‘prolonged and record setting federal spending’ hasn’t produced results, noting that home values have dived more than 10 percent and gas prices have doubled during his time in office. ‘President Obama undoubtedly inherited a fragile economy, but he’s done little to improve it,’ Flake said. ‘In fact, rather than take a lesson, his answer to persistently weak jobs numbers is pressure to spend another half a trillion taxpayer dollars on legislation that would fail to even take steps to deal with the economic slowdown.’