A Coming Government Shutdown?
As detailed in my previous column, despite appearances to the contrary, the federal government’s spending on its regular operations is wildly out of control, tax collections are flat, and the fiscal year 2010 out-of-pocket deficit was much higher than it was in fiscal 2009.
So what are the chances of meaningfully turning this around? Even with Republican majorities in the House and Senate, the task ahead is Herculean.
Nothing illustrates the difficulty ahead more than an October 28 item in the Associated Press by Julie Hirschfeld Davis, with help from Laurie Kellman. The AP reporters’ write-up makes it clear, just days before the midterm elections, that the presumed GOP congressional majority and the party’s somewhat likely Senate majority will be spending much of the next two years in a knock-down, drag-out fiscal fight with President Obama, his party, and his press apparatchiks. With the battle lines already being drawn, it becomes difficult to imagine how this gets resolved without a repeat of the federal government shutdown the country experienced in 1995. This wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, but if it happens, the outcome needs to be different from 15 years ago.
AP’s reporters are clearly gearing up for the battle (key scare words bolded):
Republican leaders, ever more confident of their chances of winning control of the House and possibly even the Senate, have begun plotting a 2011 agenda topped by a push for more than $100 billion in spending cuts, tax reductions and attempts to undo key parts of President Barack Obama’s health care and financial regulation laws.
… Most agree a marquee item on a new GOP majority’s agenda would be an aggressive package of spending cuts, on the order of $100 billion or more, that could also be paired with steps to block implementation of key parts of Obama’s health care law and new financial regulations.
… What’s less clear is how Obama would respond, and whether a turbocharged Republican majority could muster a bipartisan compromise, especially when its freshman class will probably have little appetite for following any established party position or leader.
… On health care, there’s little doubt that a Republican majority would quickly set a vote to ax the overhaul law – a symbolic move that has no chance of succeeding given Obama’s veto pen. The GOP would then follow up with attempts to block key elements of the measure by denying the money to implement it.
Let’s first deal with the pathetic reportage from the AP’s Davis and Kellman. Then I’ll look at the bigger problem.
“Plotting”? After two years of unaccountable czars, union intimidation of and violence against private citizens, congressional non-transparency (remember “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it”?), and legislators skipping town without even passing a budget, it’s Republicans who are “plotting”? The rest of us would refer to what the Republicans are doing as “planning.”
“Tax reductions”? Since the reporters don’t reference anything else, one has to assume that they are writing about keeping the tax increases scheduled for next year (popularly referred to as “letting the Bush tax cuts expire”) in place. Folks, if the increases are cancelled or postponed, taxes won’t be reduced. They’ll stay the same.
“Bipartisan compromise”? Given that the president has justified his consistent refusal to retreat from his positions by saying, “That’s what elections are for” (as if anyone besides a small cadre of progressives in the know and of others who researched him and knew the truth had any idea of what was really coming), here’s my one-word response: Why?
“Ax the overhaul law”? That’s a really clever allusion to violence, Julie and Laurie, but the rest of us know it as “repeal.” The reason what we refer to as ObamaCare needs to be repealed is because it isn’t an “overhaul law” at all — it’s a statist takeover of about one-sixth of the economy.
Finally, there are the supposedly “aggressive” spending “cuts” of $100 billion or more.
A look at data taken from the Congressional Budget Office’s August Baseline Budget Outlook and the final Monthly Treasury Statements from fiscal 2008, 2009 and 2010 quickly reveals that a $100 billion reduction in planned spending is not only not enough, it’s not even a “cut”:
First, on the receipts side, the CBO thinks that collections from all sources are going to increase by 22% in fiscal 2011, and by 37% in two years. Given that actual collections have trailed CBO’s projections by over $100 billion in each of the past two years, and that the economic recovery (if it’s even fair to call it that) has been anemic, I don’t what else to say except, “You cannot be serious.”
On the spending side, note that fiscal 2011 spending as the CBO defines it is projected to be 7.5% higher than the year just ended, and an obscene 36% higher than it was just four years ago. Even if the Republicans reduce fiscal 2011 spending by $100 billion or so, outlays will still be about 4.5% higher than 2010. This is what Davis and Kellman refer to as “cuts.” It is obviously nothing of the sort.
Davis and Kellman (conveniently, I believe) are forgetting that the GOP’s Pledge to America is calling for a return to the level of spending seen in 2008, exempting national security. After considering a bit of inflation, that would amount to about $3.2 trillion, representing a legitimate and long, long overdue cut of about 7% from fiscal 2010.
Can anybody seriously look at the numbers above and claim that this can’t or shouldn’t be done? Even though the answer is obviously “no,” Obama, Democrats, and the press will scream bloody murder. The president, who despite RINO Republicans’ wishes is not prone towards any kind of compromise, will likely veto anything that doesn’t keep the spending spigots wide open. It is reasonable to believe that he would let the government shut down rather than give in to the GOP Congress.
If this happens, will it work? It did last time, for the Democrats. The Gingrich Congress caved. The GOP congressional majority never regained its fiscal mojo, and eventually became a congressional minority because of it.
But this time may be different. The stakes are much higher. The national debt held by “the public” (i.e., except for amounts owed between federal agencies) will be about two-thirds of gross domestic product by the end of 2011. If trillion-dollar deficits continue for the rest of the decade, it’s virtually certain that the public debt-to-GDP ratio will hit 90%, a figure many economists consider a tipping point. At that juncture, it becomes very likely that investors will either refuse to continue to buy government bonds or will begin demanding much higher interest rates for doing so. Massive tax increases, hyperinflation, or worse will become likely scenarios.
The new media-driven, tea party-inspired portion of the electorate seems to get that. If enough of the rest of the voting public does, an Obama shutdown scenario could blow up in his and his party’s collectivist faces. Recently, we’ve learned that even if his union supporters “go French,” there’s a chance they’ll get taken down by fatigue.
Regardless of whether the confrontation occurs, our national solvency is clearly at stake in the next few years. There will be little if any time for rest after November 2.
There is a huge difference between 2011 and 1995. In 1995, there wasn’t much of an Internet, there was only Rush Limbaugh on Talk Radio, and there was no Fox News. Today the Internet has exploded in both size and capability, there are a huge number of conservative talk show hosts on Talk Radio, and there IS Fox News on cable TV. And another big difference is that the public understands the budget problems we face and WANTS Congress to do something about it. If the new conservative Republicans are forced to shut down government because of Obama’s stubborness, then the public will understand because they will see that the Republicans are standing firm on the main issue they were elected on, which was the reduction of spending. Democrats can only cry wolf so many times before people get wise and stop listening to them. The American public sees the financial disaster we face and understand what needs to be done. Unfortunately, Obama does not.
Well, I remember, back in ’92, the Perot campaign. He was campaigning against the debt, and a lot of folks voted for him for that very reason. His candidacy got enough of the vote to keep Bush Sr. from getting re-elected. What matters is that the Pubs fully embrace fiscal discipline. Folks will notice.
What the new media does is counters the spin, which is very important. One must expose the lies. Unfortunately, folks like my Mother still get their info from the Old Media. It will take much time for the New Media to reach its full power.
Your article would have been more convincing if you had actually said what is written between the lines: i.e., democrats are actually part of a bigger picture with shadows of communism and marxism. It is true that the muslim terrorist who is squatting illegally in our white house has ‘driven the car over the cliff’, but in the passenger seat is George Soros, his string-pulling-handler. The muslim terrorist is not smart enough to take down America. He is fully backed by Communist Party USA, a cancer that has been eating at America’s soul for the past 40 years. The very first thing the GOP needs and should be required to do is arrest, try, convict and execute the muslim terrorist and ALL of his co-conspirators. America will be stronger for the effort!
I understand the temptation to do a pre-election victory dance, but it’s not just premature; it’s counterproductive. We’re not in the end zone yet; spiking the ball too soon could hand it to our opponents. Let’s focus on getting the result we want from the balloting; questions about how to approach the upcoming conflicts with Obama and his remaining minions won’t become urgent until 1/3/2011.
If you want to explore an important side issue, how about the need to find a way to discipline the remaining RINO senators? You know, the ones who practically slaver at the chance to get a not-hostile mention in the press, or a five-minute chat with Obama where he can demonstrate how “post-partisan” he is. If we can get those wild horses penned in the conservative corral, we can prevent a whole lot of mischief. Otherwise, the potential for disaster, both legislative and PR, will remain high.
DO IT!
We do not have 2 years to wait. We MUST get our house in order or we are pretty much doomed. The previous Repubs and certainly this latest crop of Dems have spent us to doomsday.
And its just around the corner.
Just to start, clawback the unspent TARP, any unspent porculous and rescind or defund any spending to implement the mess called zerocare.
That saves trillions right there. And thats the low hanging fruit.
The solution is to start passing “mini” spending bills on day 1. Pay for the National Park Service, pay for Medicare, etc. Do NOT pay for Obamacare. Be specific with each bill, if necessary, spend down to the individual hourly worker. Have the House pass a rule that doesn’t allow move than 3% change in any spending bill out of a joint House-Senate committee recon. Keep track of Revenue less what’s been spent. Then, presuming 1 trillion is “essential”, the issue then becomes, sometime around mid-year, “we’re broke – do we increase taxes, borrow from our kids or do without?”.
Cedarhill,
I agree that spending should be decoupled from omnibus bills and should be individualized department by department. Let’s take it a few steps further. Certain departments and agencies should be defunded all together and alternatively, smaller grants should be offered to the states directly. Ultimately, alot of federal funding should be terminated all together with a corresponding reduction in taxes for all filers. The federal government needs to be substantially reduced with power being returned to the states as the founders intended. If states wish to tax and spend the citizens will have better ability to control what goes on at the local level and vote for or against greater state spending.
Agree with both you and cedarhill… put forward SMALL appropriations bills that make it clear what is being defunded. If Obama vetos them, he is showing that he is absolutely unwilling to cut anything. Then ramp up to whole departments that are squandering tax dollars and should be handled by the states instead, and communicate to the American people why we can’t afford it. Obama will certainly veto those bills… but we’ll know where everyone stands.
This is the way to go, it will prevent the MSM from lying about what is being done, as far as defunding departments, I have heard some people calling for the budgets of regulatory agencies to be cut in half, a move I think would work.
Ironically, the Budget Act of 1974 will assist. This law, passed to prevent Richard Nixon from “impounding” money appropriated by Congress that he didn’t want to spend, will allow a conservative Congress to control spending by preventing Obama from spending more than appropriated. Those unanticipated consequences get you every time.
Do NOT pay for more than 10% of the 141,000 Department of Commerce employees. Do NOT pay a penny for the Department of Education. Treat the other departments and agencies just as harshly.
Is a government shutdown some sort of problem?
Shut it down. Fire the lot of them. We’ll figure out who to rehire, on our terms, after the bankruptcy proceedings before the judge – who in this case will be the American people as it is supposed to be.
Let them eat slop.
A government shutdown is not a problem. It’s a dream come true.
the last time republicans shut down the government it help get clinton re-elected.
The Government shutdown of 1995 did not help re-elect Clinton in
1996 – nominating the fossilized RINO Bob Dole did. That and the fact
Clinton thru in the towel on his own progressive agenda and signed off on
Republican legislation (capital gains tax rate cuts, welfare reform etc.).
There isn’t one important piece of ‘liberal’ legislation that Clinton
was able to advance after the Government shutdown. By that point Clinton
was pretty much politically neutered. And don’t forget the Republican
Congress also forced Clinton to accept balanced budgets, something
he never would have accomplished, much less desired, on his own. The
Republican spend-a-thon only started in earnest when Bush II arrived
on the scene.
Yes, I would have to say Republicans were so damaged by the Government
shutdown that they finally lost control of Congress ALMOST 10 YEARS
LATER!
Thomas,
This isn’t “shut down the government”, this is defunding the unnecessary. This government needs to be trimmed by at least 30% for starters. Additionally, we need an Article 1, Section 5 convention to permanently trim the power of Congress, the Executive Branch, and, most importantly, the Judiciary. If delegates are selected for a convention my bet is that Congress will propose amendments sua sponte, rather than face the prospect of an Article 5 convention. Many are fearful that the liberals could hijack a convention. Very unlikely, since they are in such a small minority when you measure state by state. The convention needs to outlaw deficit spending, except in time of war, outlaw the Supreme Courts interpretation of the Commerce Clause as stated in Wickard v Filburn and its progeny, and otherwise restrict the ridiculous expansive interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
That would be a start. I would love to hear what other ideas are out there. Mine would torpedo alot of the keynesian insanity that is bankrupting us now and get the Feds further out of ordinary citizens lives.
Those who oppose liberty need to reread the Constitution. We who advocate what the Founders believed are not Nazis, nor are we radical. Those who believe in progressive ideals are the radicals. They are the ones who imagine things that are neither Constitutional nor American and are attempting to make it law.
The Democrat Party has hired Barry Soetero as their bus driver and tour operator, and he’s driving for the nearest canyon to careen into.
This is jihad, plain and simple. Barry has demonstrated he is willing to commit suicide and take the Party with him.
Unfortunately, it wrecks too much of our Countries foundation, in the process, but it might be worth it. The United States has recovered from worse catastrophe’s.
If there is ANY legislation that needs to be put through OUR Congress, it’s ratifying a BUDGET, before Congress addresses any other legislation.
The juvenile delinquent’s in Congress and the White House, have had way too much freedom with OUR MONEY.
#7, cybergeezer, right on, still many Normal people haven’t caught on. It’s deliberate, destructive, and malicious. In other words, it’s liberalism for real, in all it’s ugliness and you can call it anything else you want because it’s root is collectivism and hate, full force.
Tiny, little liberals on the Net and in the sewers love it for just that reason.
Here is a very brief list of the freight train that is presently racing down the tracks, headed right for the entire U.S. economy should Congress under any leadership fails to act:
•The best estimate is that as of December 31, about 15 million Americans who lost their job through no fault of their own will lose all unemployment benefits because Congress hasn’t acted to reauthorized unemployment funds.
•Homelessness is already rising (some estimates put homelessness at rate of 30% greater then 2009) and this will increase dramatically
•We’ve already seen a growing rate of foreclosures and if unemployment insurance is not continued we will see an accelerating rate. Unemployment benefits have been the only thing that has allowed many to at least continue to meet their mortgage payments and refinance their mortgages to more affordable levels. If Congress doesn’t reauthorize unemployment benefits, there will be even more foreclosures. The effect on the housing market of even more foreclosures will only add to the housing disaster and some economists are actually saying that this alone may cause a double dip recession.
•The economic stimulus created by the expenditure of unemployment insurance benefits will disappear. Without spending on the local level, there will be no hiring and may even be more layoffs.
The issue is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue or an Independent issue. It is an American issue.
With unemployment levels as high as they are today and projected to continue at least until 2012, we can no longer assume these people are misfits who refuse to work or find jobs for themselves. We must realize this is a unique situation that requires emergency, out-of-the-party-box solutions. Unless the U.S. Congress acts millions of Americans and their families will become wards of the state, especially the elderly poor, those out of work between the ages of 55 and 63.
We must cut spending if by no other means than by simply taking every line item and reducing its budget by equal percentage points, similar to what the British have just done.
Secondly, Congress needs to reauthorize and extend benefits until 2012, or until unemployment levels decrease to 7.5% without increasing the deficit. I think it only reasonable to suggest using some of the Bush tax cut extensions as a means of addressing this goal. By permanently extending 85% of the middle class tax cuts and 75% of the “wealthy” tax cuts, funding can be procured to create a new WPA (Works Project Administration) type program (complete with drug testing) that would include a new “must work” provision for those wishing to extend their unemployment benefits beyond 99 weeks.
But our greatest challenge lies in our need to see the present high unemployment levels as an extension of the economic crisis Congress faced back in October, 2008, and deal with it with the same resolve and dispatch for the common good of all.
By allowing the government to shut down completely, instead of selectively, will be a recipe for another Republican disaster similar to the Gingrich shut down. Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, Unemployment benefits, food stamps, et cetera, must this time remain functional, as well as Defense.
ex animo
davidfarrar
This country doesn’t need another FDR style WPA. It did not work then and it won’t work now. The reality is what this country needs is to privatize unemployment insurance. A minimum base provided by the employer and the balance to be chosen and paid for by the employee. The level of coverage is then decided by the beneficiary.
The problem with the present system is that it pays enough to discourage a large number of recipients from taking whatever jobs there are available at any given time while encouraging people to wait and see if times get better or the job they want becomes available. If one has been collecting unemployment for 99 weeks one hasn’t been serious about taking whatever jobs are available. And the longer the gap between jobs the less likely an employer will hire all else being the same. It denotes a mentality employers don’t want in their employees.
David Farrar,
“…about 15 million Americans who lost their job through no fault of their own will lose all unemployment benefits because Congress hasn’t acted to reauthorized unemployment funds.”
Any and all of those 15m who voted for Obama or any Democrat did not lose a job through “no fault of their own”. It was their fault. ALL Obama and Dem voters deserve to be the first to lose their jobs.
I hope they never get jobs as good as the ones they lost and that they never get a penny more of unemployment.
Non-Obama or Dem voters, they are the real people who lost jobs through no fault of their own. May they prosper abundantly.
Show me in the constitution where it allows for Unemployment payments. If anything that is a states issue. But I’ve seen way to many people say they will start looking for a job when they unemployment runs out.
Just a minor editorial comment, Tom… your “key scare words” didn’t get bolded on my browser. Ya might look into that.
Oh, man! You made me stop my video game, turn off my iPod, look away from the TV to read that!
Quit killin’ my buzz….everything’s fine. Obama is the man….the ONE. Just leave me alone.
If it didn’t have a printing press, the Federal Government would be a deadbeat already. Revenue bills originate in the House. Don’t fund the stuff we don’t need.
If Education got nothing, will the schools close? They worked, better actually, when I was a kid and the Department of Education didn’t exist. What’s Obama going to do, veto all the other spending bills?
They have run out of our money. The world cannot afford what this administration is spending – squandering. It’s the new slavery – economic, no whips. We work, they spend.
Tom Blumer wrote, “key scare words bolded”
No they’re not. I’m not just nitpicking, judicious bolding of keywords aids my comprehension. In this case it would also help tie the words to your analysis (as you intended).
Great post, by the way.
Sorry about the initial lack of bolds. There was an error between the operator (me) and the keyboard (mine), either in prep or transmission. Doesn’t matter which; just glad it’s fixed.
I think you attribute too much gumption to the Republican “leadership”. Even with the “young guns” on board, the Republican “leadership” will cave as they always do. Eric Cantor just did a preemtive surrender:
Eric Cantor says no government shutdown
We must cut spending if by no other means than by simply taking every line item and reducing its budget by equal percentage points, similar to what the British have just done.
Exactly. Gore everyone’s ox at the same time. It’s the only way.
venividivici:
Gore everyone’s ox at the same time, and axe everyone’s Gore at the same time!
The federal budget needs to be formally tri-sected into National Security spending, Social Security and Medicare spending, and everything else.
On-going military and other national security operations need to be fully funded for national security reasons.
Social Security and Medicare spending needs to be fully funded because that money is being returned to people were forced to pay into the systems. The fact that congressional criminals stole the money and spent it on other matters means that many officials should be imprisoned or executed, but it does not mean that the people who were forced to contribute for decades should be forced to sacrifice now.
Everything else in the budget should be reduced to whatever level is necessary to balance the budget. If the White House must be sold and the Obama crime family forced to live in tents by the Potomac, so be it. If every foreign embassy needs to be shut down, too bad. If the massively corrupt and criminal federal agencies need to be closed, good. If federal bribes to local schools have to be eliminated, so much the better. If illegal aliens have to have their anchor babies at home, perfect.
Every federal worker hired since Jan 2008 should be fired on day 1. Every raise given to a federal worker since Jan 2008 should be rescinded immediately. Every dime contributed to a federal pension since Jan 2008 should be paid back. Every White House employee that exceeds the number in Jan 2008 should be fired. Obamacare should be 100% defunded. 100% of unspent Stick-it-to-us spending should be defunded. Congressional staffs should be reduced by 90%. All Congressional perks, including Piglosi’s 747′s should be immediately defunded. Congressional pay should be reduced by 50% (at least) immediately. Every government regulation that has any bearing on private business written since 2008 should be revoked.
Felony investigations should be started into the personal wealth of every member of Congress whose wealth has increased since they took office, including officials who lose in 2010. Particularly Harry Reid.
That should be enough for the first week. Then, the criminals need to get serious about cutting government costs.
If the Republicans don’t get serious about this from the first minute, the wave election in 2012 will dwarf the wave election in 2010, and in 2012, it will be the Republicans who will be losing their sinecures.
(1) Make each Federal department come forward and present their requested budget to Congress. Congress should tell each department that they must cut a minimum of 10%. Congress should fund each department as a separate bill.
(2) Social Security and Medicare — eligibility for each program should be increased by 6 months each year henceforth until the eligibility age is raised to 75.
(3) Congress should declare that any regulations written by executive branch departments shall have no penalties attached, and that any regulation that should have a penalty attached (financial or imprisonment) requires a separate law passed by Congress.
As unsophisticated as I am, I say cut every expenditure by 15%. How many households have had to do that in the last 2 years? If the citizens can do it and still scrape by, so can the government.
You cannot convince me that this is not the one thing we need to do immediately.
I agree with cedarhill that spending bills must be specific. Rather than shut down the federal govt in a show down, the congress should make sincere efforts to keep essential programs and services going, and let Obama take the heat for vetoing bills that pay for social security but don’t include all of his pet projects.
Shutting down the federal government in a show down imposes real hardships on many people and will not strenthen the movement to reduce the size of federal government. GOP needs to avoid getting sucked in to a street fight with Obama- the only options he should get are (1) veto a bill providind essential services or (2) sign a bill providing essential services only.
The last gov shutdown amounted to a vacation w/ pay, if memory serves; employees were paid up for their lost pay. (to be honest, I’d pay them all to just stay home)
I can’t figure out why anyone is buying our debt as things now are. My fantasy, short of a real government shutdown that resets the lunacy, is for people to choke us to death by not buying our debt; to save us from ourselves.
The GOP strategy to combat the MSM and the Democrats is simple: no more massive spending bills. Authorize programs within departments now. Sweep all the non-controversial stuff into omnibus bills. Then force small, individual bills up for debate and make Democrats take votes and defend their votes.
The EPA expansion of carbon enforcement budget? Up for a line item vote.
The IRS expansion to support ObamaCare? Up for a line item vote.
The GOP doesn’t have to shut down government. Just the parts they don’t approve of.
Other than police, fireman and emergency services, which are all local, what does the federal government do that already is being done at the local and state level? There is nothing in the constitution that mandates that the feds control everything we do. we are paying for government 4 times over at the local, county, state and federal level.
And all we seem to get for it is a bunch of folks who’s only job is to ensure that we obey their dictates whatever the cost. We’ve had the war on poverty for decades with nothing to show for it. Ditto the war on drugs. The government seems to feel that if someone living in the mountains of montana is unhappy, then a program must be started and funded to remedy this. It’s getting to the point where there wont be a single aspect of life not regulated and charged for. I for one, would welcome a government shutdown. what they dont spend during this time should be rebated to the taxpayers. At least then, i can use the cash to get or do something i need instead of sending it off to federal employees who get paid better than i and have a better benefit system than i could ever dream of.
The congress passes an appropriations bill and the president vetoes it. Who has shut down the government? Constitutionally it is clear that the president has done it. Who gets stuck with the blame? This is an open question. It depends on the public relations skills of the congressional leadership vs the president and it depends on who controls the media. The Boehner/Cantor team is not going to make the pr mistakes that Gingrich made and Obama is an order of magnitude less skillful than Clinton in manipulating the public. There is now Fox News. The left’s monopoly over the media is broken.
Also, suppose we have continuing resolutions for the current level of spending. Obama will not have funds to implement Obamacare and other high priority initiatives. He will have to compromise to get what he wants. Continuing resolutions won’t do the job.
I saw Carmen Reinhart testify at the deficit commission (cspan) and there was much confusion over the debt question. The Pols wanted 90 percent ratio to be the public debt to gdp…but her data did was NOT based on that…it was based on Gross Debt.
For one thing, given the disparate datasets she was building this was best for an apples to apples comparison.
Secondly, the interest on the debt has to be paid, whether public or intragovernmental. So the bad news is that our gross debt is 13.7T..so do the math.
Obviously, the left would love for the R’s to take the bait…the media would be shrieking out the windows that their beloved is being victimized by the right wing hooligans.
And, I wonder if there might just be an out and out constitutional crisis. EPA is going to regulate carbon, HHS is going to regulated h/c…if congress tries to defund these activities, O will continue them anyway
i think the left/media will rally around the notion unitary executive (and blame it on Bush!!!!!
Just as a reminder, Germany looked at all the arguments for “stimulus” a couple of years back and said, “no, thanks.” They’re already done with their recession and are experiencing growth.
Mr. Blumer, your ‘..the pathetic reportage from the AP’s..(insert ANY AP writer name)’.
This is an oxymoron of EPIC proportions, Sir.
Anyone who continues to receive their news via AP wire.. may God have mercy on your soul..! hahaha
The only thing that will ‘work’ is for us to elect politicians who will actually follow the Constitution as written and as meant to be understood. It was not written for lawyers, SCOTUS justices, or ‘Constitutional scholars’; it was meant for the average citizen to read and understand. Read it. Understand that it was meant to strictly limit the Federal gov’t. Realize that ~90% of what the Fed gov’t does now is unConstitutional, including Soc Sec, Medicare, involvement in education, welfare, regulation of firearms…the list goes on. The debate should be on how to most equitably and survivably END Soc Sec; not how to ‘fix’ it. Great swaths of Fed regulation should be repealed. It should be a simple matter for rich man to sink a hole into the ground, suck up some crude, build a refinery, and turn it into gasoline. It should be easy for the average man to start a small business. The problem with our unemployment rate should be that it’s too low, with businesses screaming for workers. No Fed involvement in welfare means any state stupid enough to take money from some waitress to pay for some deadbeat’s food/housing will get what it deserves: more deadbeats.
Last I checked, NO is not a four-letter word. Indeed, the Republican Party should proudly wear the label of the party of “NO!” Say NO to waste, NO to deficits, NO to pork-barrel spending, NO to tax increases, NO to ever-increasing government power, NO to corruption.
A Republican takeover of the House will mean that the best tool that we have for saying NO to all of those evils is to cut off their funding. The House initiates spending bills. No spending bills go out unless funding is removed from those things that are clearly not authorized by the US Constitution. If Obozo wants to hold his breath and turn blue, just let him! The government can just go ahead and shut down until he goes ahead and signs a bill that does not fund waste, fraud, and abuse.
The States can manage on their own until that time. This may very well prove to people just how little we need the federal government!
The idea of cutting only $100 billion from a multi-trillion dollar federal budget is equivalent to me saying I’m going to max out my credit cards, but I’ll skip my daily Starbucks coffee run tomorrow to make up for it.
Federal deficits simply can’t be brought into line with tax receipts (much less paying down the national debt) without slashing the three elephants in the room: Social Security, Medicare, and military spending. We can’t be the world’s policeman and we can’t afford to pay for the medical care and pensions of a senior population due to explode over the next twenty years.
So what’s the answer? Bring troops home from non-combat areas (it’s time Europe and Japan learn to defend themselves, and we need to stop enabling the welfare state), and phase out unconstitutional entitlements, at the very least return those duties to the states per the Tenth Amendment.
A word for all the wanna-be economic experts who miss the most salient point:
When there is no money it is quite easy not to spend.
People will not trust a four flusher the second time around, they will want to wait to see what the louse does when there is nothing to eat.
The government has gotten too big to not fail. It’s just a wind-powered dildo.
Time to kiss stupid goodbye.
“Unemployment benefits have been the only thing that has allowed many to at least continue to meet their mortgage payments and refinance their mortgages to more affordable levels.”
Perhaps. Although I would guess that if people didn’t buy a house with 3% down (subsidized) and 45% debt-to-income qualifying on both incomes, a few months’ unemployment wouldn’t have been the difference between living in your own house and on the street.
20% down, 35% DTI maximum, and several months’ expenses in the bank used to be the norm before buying a house. You should never buy a house at more than three times your yearly income, but here we saw school bus drivers buying half-a-million dollar McMansions whining about not being able to keep up with their interest-only and neg-am loans.
Perhaps if we hadn’t pursued a speculative housing bubble where people turned their houses into ATM machines, fueling an unsustainable rise in prices, we wouldn’t see people struggling to keep up with payments using unemployment checks.
Perhaps if our Congress hadn’t strong-armed banks into giving loans to people that had no business taking them, and thereby encouraging banks to wrap up those toxic loans into fraudulent mortgage-backed securities, the housing market would have remained stable and non-creditworthy borrowers would have continued to rent.
But, leadership reflects the people that elected them, and this is a society of instant gratification, consumerism, and get-rich-quick schemes. The housing bubble reflects that. The way to reverse it is not only to shutter the banks that made the bad loans (as opposed to bailing them out with money we don’t have), but foreclose en masse, force the housing market correction that needs to happen (not the anemic one we got), and let responsible and financially prudent people take possession.
This is the dilemma the Republicans face especially if they sweep and assume control of both Houses with Barack Obama still at the helm in the White House.
If the Republicans once again succumb to the considerable pressure sure to come from the media and the Demoncrat thugs, duly elected or appointed by Obama, the considerable momentum that resulted in an election tsunami in 2010 will be all but lost in 2012.
If the past two decades are any indicator, from now until then and beyond any and all Republicans will be described as complete, fatuous, incompetent idiots, tools of Wall Street and the “filthy” rich and all Republican policy initiatives will be described as schemes and plots orchestrated for the express purpose of exploiting children, the elderly, the sick, the poor and the “working men and women” of America who will be cajoled into “throwing the bums out” in 2012.
And, if 2008 was any indicator, Americans whose political views are informed by sound bites, innuendo and concerted character assassinations by charismatic, if shallow, news anchors, talk show participants and the Hollywood elite offered up throughout the years and especially around an election when perhaps three or four days of cursory review is considered sufficient to make intelligent political judgments, will, once again, be duped, perhaps for the last time as “Americans” as we think we understand what that means.
This is an on going war that demands warriors, Republicans who have the gumption to go head to head with these snakes in a wide open format directed at all Americans. Bipartisan, bishmartisan……….shove it. “Bipartisanship” the collective whine of the Demoncrats when in the minority, means Republicans fold and the Demoncrats get their way. Now, according to Obama, Republicans can come along for the ride as long as they sit in the back of the car. I guess the great unifier forgets that Rosa Parks brought an end to that practice.
We’re not buying the Demoncrat version of bipartisanship. John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Trent Lott, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, et al have to be marginalized until they can be removed when up for reelection. The new blood must not allow themselves to be co-opted as per Mr. Lott who should be thoroughly ashamed of himself though, more likely, he’s of the opinion that his incumbent, elitist view is that of the majority in the Republican Party.
We don’t have to shut government.
We do have to renegotiate pensions, cut salaries and layoff government workers.
Great! Let start with you. We’r e cutting your salary in half. Reducing your pension in half. Thanks for agreeing to this patriotic sacrifice.
What is needed, is amnesty for all drug crimes where the prisoner has served
over five years of a term, as long as no deaths occurred in the competition of
the crime. We have way too many people incarcerated for non- violent drug crime.
We can no longer afford to house,feed, and medically care for both the drug felons and the aging prison population,both of which could be better addressed in a different setting such as home confinement. It is time to stop
mandatory sentences of many years to non-violent crime. It destroys the felon,
and his family,and we are all paying for it.At a time when money is scarce.
sentencing people to terms of many,many years at a time when society is
legalizing some drug use, and is considering making all drug use legal.
What too many people are losing sight of is the allegory of the frog and the scorpion. It should be painfully obvious by now what kind of creatures the Republicans are. As someone pointed out years ago, the struggle between the Democrats and the Republicans is not over how much power the government will have in your life, but over who will wield it.
Government shut-down? That’s not a bug, but a feature.
What needs to be done — and the Republicans not only have no desire to do it, but will us the hostile media as cover for their cowardice — is to return to our Constitutional roots and — as noted above — fund only those operations that are specifically authorized by the Constitution. The only people who will lose in that scenario will be the parasites, both in and out of government.
Get the government off our backs and we’ll do just fine, TYVM.
some absolutely wonderful, concise posts here!
Thanks! to all of the ‘clear thinkers’ out there.
on an ‘aside’: “then” is used to indicate TIME… “than” is used to indicate CHOICE…
I presume the incorrect usage is a result of all that $$$ poured into the edu. system..
You only need one “dot” at the end of a sentence. And you meant assume and not presume. I guess you were home schooled.
LOTS of great ideas here. My humble contributions:
1. Establish “YouClose” the next evolution of “YouCut.” Let us vote on which Federal offices, functions and “services” (sark) to close down this week, next week, the week after …
2. START with 15% cuts across the board (Joe, #17). In truth, most businesses and households I know have cut most/all fat from their budgets and some have reduced outlays by 30% or more. It hurts, but it can be done.
3. Force all governmental functions to track, report and balance income v. outlays exactly the way private business has to. Budgets must include all the FSEs and other funny-money functions the Feds are so fond of hiding and not tracking.
4. As a point of good faith, the first action of the R-controllled Congress should be to reduce federal salaries at all levels by 15% … or more.
5. Less is more. Less government, fewer taxes, more freedom, more prosperity for all.
Be serious you people. Do you really think that a nation of people who are so deep in sin that they think God actually approves of them are going to see anything other than total and complete destruction and death? Do you really believe that the economy is going to come back for a nation of people who love to tell lies and to be deceived themselves? Do you really think that a nation of people who couldn’t care less about God is going to prosper and continue to raise future generations just like themselves? http://www.wsbtv.com/news/25568419/detail.html Get real. This nation has already committed suicide, sexually, financially, spiritually, militarily and every other way you can imagine. Obama is not big enough to kill America, but the fact that he and the rest are in office is exhibit A showing that America has already committed suicide. The women swoon at his feet just like Bill Clinton and then they and the homo’s go to the polls and vote in more of their own kind while the rest of the country foolishly sits back and acts as if these people have the right to destroy traditional wisdom and traditional values. Forget recovery. It’s not going to happen. Next event on the calendar is the time of God’s wrath and justice. The day of God’s grace and mercy toward those who have persecuted and mocked His saints are over.
buckle your seat belt the next two years is going to be a bumpy ride
I prefer the Republicans not be labeled as the “Party of No” but rather as the “Party of HELL No”.
I’m for it, cut away. But we had better be ready for demonstrations, strikes, and retaliation by the takers in our society. The Dems will get them revved up and organized. We will have scenes like France & Greece.
We still have to do it.
That’s the problem with conservatives; everything is inevitable.
Rossi? Lose. Buck? Lose O’Donnell? Lose Fiorini? Lose. Whitman? Lose. Angle? Lose. Paladino? Lose. Miller? Lose. Johnson? Lose. Kasich? Lose. Dudley? Lose. Quite a dent in the dream, sorry, but as your sensei I had to prepare you.
your sensi, a bright lad like you should have enumerated the wins, as well the loses configured in your imagination. A bit of a gap there, no?
Do you feel better? If you do I’m sure you will realize in due course that imagination may take flight but leave the dreamer unprepared for the crash.
Prepare yourself loser.
How may of those I listed are you willing to say will win?
Your sensei, may I suggest out of the goodness of my heart that you stop making a fool of yourself. You have come a long way down since brightly noting that two periods are not necessary at the end of a sentence, or not knowing that in some contexts presume & assume may be synonymous. You strove for brilliance in your suggestion that a poster take a cut in salary and benefits, taking what in your tiny mind you thought was a rapier thrust, & ignoring differences of substantial proportions, which would be lost on you were I try to point them out to one who may be beyond redemption.
Then you manage to top your previous exercises in polemic, of which the less said the better, or have I already done that, and contrive to evade the essence of my wasted first response to you.
Buffoon, it isn’t who wins, it’s who wins the most, it’s the how much, not the who, it’s the change in seats & not just the names, that’s the pay off.
If everybody you name loses, and you got to pick the names, what difference does it make, there is substantial agreement on the issues in any case. Some named may win, most may lose, but thay’s why you picked them. The real and greater loss, can you grasp this, will be the one suffered by the Dems, and the trash we’re saddled with in the WH. Think !
Ah yes, imagination. “Imagination may not make fools wise, but it will make them happy”. Pascal
Don’t bother me again buffoon.
Bothered are you? Let me help. You’re incomprehensible. But I applaud your efforts to not end a sentence with a preposition, something up with which I will not put. Other than that, your vaguely disproportionate whine reveals only your lack of depth.
re Jay:
Yes, the US has a lot to answer for, but don’t forget: by the Biblical record, God has had mercy on even more wicked nations than we. We may even be seeing His hand at work bringing this nation to repentance as we see more and more young people turning to Him. In the process many are even ‘rediscovering the Book of the Law’, if you will pardon the comparison, as they read and understand the Constitution, which was surely a gift from God, as devout men who worshipped Him imbued it with His principles. Perfect? No, only His Word is perfect. But if the citizenry will read, understand, and enforce the principles of the Constitution, as they read, understand, and put into practice His Word in their lives, this nation might yet survive a while longer, and perhaps once again become a light to the world.
Thanks Doc. It’s a nice thought for those who are into self delusion.
60 million unborn babies killed? Gay and proud, say it loud as the national anthem? Women voting for their favorite pervert on election day in the name of women’s rights? Public mention of God punishable by jail and fines? Jesus said that Sodom and Gomorrah would have repented in sack cloth and ashes, but that is not happening here in the United States. When God sends a prophet to warn cities and nations to repent, He doesn’t tell them to get back to their nations constitution and rediscover their own spirituality. His message is always that doom imminent.
It has been said by numerous preachers in the last 40 years that if God does not destroy America, then He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. But I don’t think God is going to be apologizing to anyone.
Anguish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGMG_PVaJoI&feature=player_embedded
Keep in mind that it is the House that certifies the Articles of Impeachment. Praise Jesus and God bless Darryl Issa. He will be a subpoena factory come January.