Ask yourself this question, “What specific spending programs will the so-called debt reduction plan being proposed by Speaker Boehner actually cut?” You can’t answer that question because the proposal won’t cut spending on any specific program. Ask yourself another question, “What specific spending programs will the so-called debt reduction plan being proposed by Senate Majority Leader Reid actually cut?” You can’t answer that question either because the proposals being advanced by both parties are long on promises but short on specifics?
We seem to have forgotten that the executive departments cannot spend one penny on anything that the Congress has not first appropriated. Every penny of federal spending has been authorized by the United States Congress through an appropriations bill passed by both houses and signed into law by the President. The Treasurer of the United States may sign the check but it is the Congress and not the current administration that spends the money. If spending is to be cut it is the Congress and not the President that must do the cutting and that is true whether the money spent comes from revenue or from borrowed funds.
That is why the current drama in Washington is just so much political theatre.