Did GOP Lose First Round of Budget Battle?
It’s been six weeks since Republicans passed their budget to finance a slimmed-down government: aside from defunding Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio, can you cite any significant federal programs that were axed?
From the moment they passed their first budget, Republican insiders decided to run the contest as a numbers game, and this may have been a classic miscalculation. Republicans promised $100 billion in cuts even before Rep. John Boehner was handed the speaker’s gavel, but it has never been clear where this $100 billion number originated. Nevertheless, it became the standard for judging success.
Unless Republicans change their spending narrative away from numbers, they will lose the larger budget debate: only a focus on themes and values will win the hearts and minds of Americans. Unless the GOP can touch independent Americans who are fearful we are moving towards national bankruptcy, they will lose the most important political cause of our generation.
In retrospect, it does appears the $100 billion figure was the product of typical inside Washington calculations. Big round numbers sound good to the public. Former President Bill Clinton once vigorously campaigned for the funding of 100,000 new police officers. Why 100,000? Because it sounded like a serious anti-crime number. Yet it was a number picked out of thin air.
Even when Speaker Boehner reduced the amount to $61 billion, it was a mystery number. What did it mean? What major (liberal) spending programs were to be eliminated?
Without any substance or vision, this number was malleable. Democrats seized on it and began offering numbers lower than $61 billion. First $10 billion, then $30 billion, and finally $38 billion in cuts. The numbers moved here and there over the weeks, but the national debate never became more than a green-shaded accounting conversation.
The Democrats and the president didn’t play the game the way Republicans expected. Instead of engaging the Republican budget, they went silent. They either completely ignored the House budget bill, acting as if it never happened, or they branded it a fantasy written to appease “extreme” Tea Party members. The media assented.
The president, in his usual style, remained completely detached and aloof. Conveniently ignoring the fact the Democrats never passed a budget when they had the majority, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said the budget impasse was because of incalcitrant Republicans. This drove Republicans nuts, but they could never find an offensive game plan.
How did Republicans go from winning spectacular November victories to being on the ropes in the spring? There are many private explanations, including Speaker Boehner and Senate Minority Leader McConnell’s penchants for behind-the-scenes negotiations.
In early March, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) handed a gift to Republicans. Last year Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) was able to enact a small rider mandating the GAO issue an annual estimate on governmental waste: the GAO identified $200 billion in waste from duplicative programs alone. The Wall Street Journal reported:
The U.S. government has 15 different agencies overseeing food-safety laws, more than 20 separate programs to help the homeless and 80 programs for economic development.
This was an opening for the Republicans — they could address government gone wild. They could launch an offensive tied to their budget. But Republicans did not relentlessly hammer Democrats about the report, and President Obama even tried to attach himself to it, saying it also was his priority to end wasteful programs. The story died.
REPUBLICANS MUST RULE WASHINGTON
I was for a government shutdown and wanted Republicans to show more grit and take negotiations to the brink. I believe we would have won the shutdown and $20 billion more in cuts. But support for this was weak. Of the 241 Republicans in Congress only 28 had the guts for such a thing. Being that most Republicans opposed a shutdown and that the spendthrift left controls the White House, Senate and MSM the $39 billion in cuts was a victory of sorts over the party of SPEND BABY SPEND. A defining moment in turning a corner on national bankruptcy this wasn’t. Nothing significant can be achieved until Republicans rule Washington.
I’m not sure if it’s because we have so many republicans of French descent or they’re just used to losing. But the adults need to tell the children “NO!”; The children in this case being the spoiled national socialists who have broken America’s financial back with uncountable give-away programs, “help for the poor”, etc.
With government jobs in the nation now doubling that of manufacturing jobs, just how, exactly, does anyone expect to pay all the government workers? And, it also stands as testimony that a larger majority of people than ever is willing to sacrifice freedom in order to have a guaranteed public sector paycheck.
I read where many teachers in Wisconsin are all hurt and insulted because of the nation’s general contempt for their public sector union ways. Yet they fail to realize they are a drain on the economy and I wouldn’t care if they worked 7 days a week, every week of the year; They cannot be paid more than the taxpayers can afford and that means very little in the grand scheme of things. Otherwise, privatize our education system in toto and the best schools will have the best-paid teachers…and the bar for both teacher and student performance will be much higher.
“Oh”, you say, “But little hyphenated last name child won’t get the same opportunity as the ‘rest of the kids’ and ‘what about the poor’?”
Well, 1)little hyphenated last name will get whatever their parents can afford to spend. If recognized as having great potential, then there will no doubt be scholarships offered. As for ‘the poor’? Well, that is a sad misnomer in this nation nowadays. “The Poor” have more money, more things, and more free time than I ever had. Maybe no buying that fancy flat-screen TV and the obnoxious cellphone with all the features woould go a long way to paying tuition for your young’un(s). Then, there’s not having more kids than you can afford…and adoption as an option.
But, welcome to the world as it is…free stuff for everyone….paid for by the hard work of others. Yay! Socialism! Hurray!
“Whose idea was it to start with a number ($100B) rather than programs?”
And what exactly, without the Senate or the Presidency either one, did you expect them to do?
Instead of just slowing the growth, they actually cut into past spending levels. I hope they can put us on a path to eliminating Social Security and the like, cutting spending over thirty years or so to the roughly 1/3 to 1/4 of the budget that is actually constitutional.
I hope over that time frame they means test Social Security (which is going away anyway, make it cheaper and show it for what it is in the meantime), get rid of the mortgage interest deduction, get rid of federal welfare programs, and put in a flat income tax with no deductions other than per capita, and get rid of Wickard V Filburn inspired regulatory agencies.
I don’t want them to do it in only one year, because the shock and dislocation of doing it all in one year would make the housing market collapse look pretty good by comparison.
A 180 degree change in direction with only one weakly held house of Congress is pretty good.
If we the voters can get going and deliver more Tea Party types in the Congress and get the Senate and Presidency next year, then I think at least a quarter of what I outlined above will happen. That alone will be good enough to make the century after a very happy place for us.
Boehner is just another Republican WIMP! So afraid that the media won’t like what he says or wants done. So afraid he’ll lose his position in government. What he aught to do is push for a law that requires the federal elected representatives of the people to abide by the same laws we have to abide by, be put under the same health care we are and abolish their retirement. And that should just be the start. As for 100 billion or whatever number they came up with (I heard $60 Billion before this article) they should have been trying for $600 billion in real cuts and another $600 Billion in the next budget. So maybe they compromise at $300 billion or even $200 billion, the country would be a lot better off than with less than $100 billion.
agreed
The GOP always surrenders preemptively. The main thing is to reassure the great unwashed that no no we won’t shut down the gummint; not we’re all about to go over the falls because of big criminal spenders in both parties and we’ve got to stop spending! So of course they lose. They’re already preemptively surrendering concerning raising the debt ceiling. Yes yes we’ll go along with it but certain conditions will have to be met. So they’ll lose that one too. And we WILL go over the falls.
Secession is ultimately the only way to get out from under a centralized federal government run amok.
Remember, it’s not $39bn, it’s a cumulative $79bn. That’s almost a B, given their promise. When’s the last time anyone’s even kept 80% of their promise?
And we still have one more big fight. If the GOP can win $21bn in this next bout, they’ll have kept their promise and will have earned some credibility for expanding their role.
Always keep the pressure up, but don’t be afraid to recognize when they do something right. These guys are fueled more by praise than by fear.
You’re happy they wimped out? They should have tried for 10 times what they asked for. Good grief people, that’s the kind of attitude that got us where we are now.
Richard, you hit on an enormously important point here…and it is going to get lost in the jungle of details, I’m afraid.
The Republicans suck at delivering a coherent message. They are not just outmaneuvered every time, they are outflanked, out-thought, out-strategized and out of their element.
They are facing an opponent (leftist fiscal lunacy) that could be defeated by a lobotomized monkey and they are losing the message war.
True, it is a rigged game…with the Red Propaganda Media (RPM) revving up the engine to new lows of infamy, alternately distorting and hiding key facts from the American public.
But, even with that disadvantage, the Republicans play the stumbling, bumbling, fumbling fools and jesters…making the nefarious game of destroying capitalism while blaming the party that putatively stands in defense of it for the results of the intentional sabotage.
Inspector Clouseau would be proud. Republican pratfalls and slapstick blundering aside, we…the ones that leftists love to look down their haughty communo-socialist noses at…pay the price for this message war debacle.
For as much as most of the center-right distrusts the communo-socialists, they don’t and won’t put the whole of their eggs in the Republican trust basket.
Therefore, “they” have a side that is pulling on the same end of their rope. We don’t. We can’t rally around a message that is garbled, disjointed, incoherent and muddled.
We can’t rally around a 1000 page, quarter century long, eye-glazing numerical smorgasbord.
“They” want to crush capitalism and “redistribute” wealth by punishing the “haves”…forget for a moment that they are destroying the country, our security, the economy and our standing in the world. Forget for a moment that they define the “haves” as anyone who is not a communo-socialist.
“We” are a ragtag bunch, lead by nobody, inspired by nobody, trusting in nobody, pulling on the rope in fifteen different directions and essentially rudderless. We don’t have a cohesive brand identity.
They can divide and conquer based upon our differences and they do so repeatedly.
And don’t mistake this for accident. They are winning the message war. And it’s going to be the ruin of this land of ours, because we are letting them.
“The Republicans suck at delivering a coherent message.”
I think you’re being too kind. They can always be counted on to forfeit the narrative before the fight is even enjoined. Everything the unworthy GOP has is attributable to the conservatives in the Tea Party and Talk Radio.
Isn’t Repetition a great game?
All the nation is a stage, and all the politicians merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and each in his or her time plays many parts.
Angelo Codevilla said it and now it’s time for Donald Trump to say it again. They are our betters and our masters, and we collectively, allow them to be.
Go Donald Trump, call them out. You might very well be the last man standing in the once United States of America.
Politicians use buzzwords, catchy phrases and big, round numbers because that is what the most of all voters understand the most of all. Politicians know that is those slick, little silver bullets that instantly doom the best of their carefully detailed and planned programs, legislation and careers.
Using Mr. Pollock’s methodologies, “15 different agencies overseeing food-safety laws, more than 20 separate programs to help the homeless and 80 programs for economic development” 200 billion dollars would be converted into 2 programs, both of which could easily wiped out with one, silly slip of the tongue made by the best politician in town. On the other hand a lot of chops can be made away from 200 billion without destroying entire programs.
What amazes me more than anything is the eternal, internal rush of the Conservatives and Republicans to go after their own with a killing mind rage for vengeance any and every time everything doesn’t go exactly, precisely the way that each one of them wanted it to.
For me, paying any serious attention to the liberal Democrats is out of the question, but tuning in to a person or show that consists of someone vigorously bashing government workers, pounding on their microphones like lunatics, heavy breathing or raving and screeching like tribes of wild beasts running through the jungle does nothing but make me go for the “off button” pronto.
Through the years I’ve heard hundreds of callers and read thousands of opt-ins explain this to the more prominent “right wingers”; yet here we are on another normal day, bitching about the failures and shortcomings of Mr. Boehner while the Shining City on a Hill burns away.
Gee, that sounds a lot like Rush Limbaugh. I know he claims to only being an entertainer but in doing his show he unjustly lumps all the government workers into the same bag and throws the same garbage at them. And that is just as wrong as going the other way. Government workers are just like everyone else. They have a job to do. Some do it well, others don’t. Some are honest and have honor, some don’t. Stereotyping is wrong whether it’s done against blacks, whites, asians government workders, doctors, lawyers etc. They are all people and like all other people they have their foibles. I am a retired government worker after many years of giving the best I had and would still be doing so except that they let me have an early retirement to cut costs. It’s the politicians for the most part who make us look bad. We do our jobs under so many stupid rules that it’s almost impossible to do a good job sometimes. Like the military many of us have chosen to serve our country the best way we know how and we all take an oath, to protect and defend the constitution of the U.S.A. and we, for the most part, have the same level of personal honor as any other citizen. Bashing us because we choose to serve is not the way to make us your friend. I have been a registered republican since the days I realized what a horrible mistake I made voting for Jimmy Carter. I’m the one you see on these posts ranting about abolishing all the unconstitutional programs and agencies. All the talk show hosts who lump Government workers together and bash us is doing everyone a huge disservice. I’ve quit listening to Rush because of his rants against hardworking Americans who made a choice to serve you. Most of us do the best we can.
Re: Chris in California.
Limabuagh isn’t the only one bashing government workers. There is Levine and Hannity among many others.
Government workers are a favorite target because by law they cannot fight back. But the dirty little secret is much more ugly than that. The real peeve is tax payer funded, over paid government employees that are black or members of other minorities. None of them have the guts to come straight out with it, but if you listen to or read between the lines across a period of time the picture gets clearer every time they speak or write about government workers. As far as I am concerned there isn’t any kind of human behavior that is more common than this.
Alas, in the end the sad truth of it all is that the entire thing is a sicko game that perpetuates itself indefinitely at your and my expense while it makes them very wealthy.
Ask yourself, when is the last time there was any significant improvement to our country at large or to your life and family as a result of what some politician or talk-show host did?
Hence, “Did GOP Lose First Round of Budget Battle?” Who cares..?
Compromise got us here. Apparently compromise will keep us in our current fiscal mess. McConnell’s hero must be Henry Clay (KY), The Great Compromiser. Good , bad, or indifferent, McConnell will cut a deal. Boehner isn’t strong. Stuck with these old line Republicans, THE ONE and Reid, we must build a grass roots party that can defeat those who will compromise principle to get a deal.
1st of all I am not a Republican, Tea Party, and certainly not a liberal. I am an individual. I have learned long ago that man can only create a mess and is not capable of fixing anything. To complain that the current people who was voted into office would actually do what they said they would do is pure nonsense. If you want things to do the way they need to be, then do things yourself. Be a John Galt, because I am John Galt.
The GOP, in my *mumble* years of experience, has always wanted to be loved and has NEVER gotten over the sting of “heartless.” Words hurt tender GOP feelings and they still stupidly believe that they can make Democrats love them. *Newt!*Cough!*
Dogs and Cats; ain’t never gonna happen.
Oh, I could gas on for 1500 more words with all sorts of cites and proffered links, but the truth is that the GOP does not enjoy being in leadership because it sets them up as targets for more stinging words. And because they have so little regard for their own base, they feel unsupported and alone up there in D.C.; they embrace their psychological captors, the Media, and seek all the love they can from the enemy.
And Obama let them do all the heavy lifting on the budget, guaged the public support and will now step in and assume the “serious about the budget” crown. You could weep for joy at the sheer triangulation of it.
Stockholm Syndrome. They feel empathy for their captors, who truly are the heartless and cruel, not to mention racist and sexist. All we need to know was written by George Orwell, “1984″. Off by a few decades but more clear now than ever. So long as Big Brother says you’re happy, then you’re happy, etc.
Personally, I think the republicans need to stop worrying about being liked. It’s perhaps the worst acquired human characteristic I have seen in my own history, where the WWII generation did their own thing but didn’t really care what others thought, except when it came to their (hippie) kids and that was the big argument “What will people THINK!!??” *GASP* and now, unfortunately, that line of mental disorder is acid-etched into the minds of the children who were teens between ~1960 and 1975.
Fitting in is what is considered “cool” but I have always attested that it’s perhaps the biggest way a person has of being “pathetic”.
Boy you got that right!
The gop,as they always do,folded,their cards.with a winning hand,dealt to them,by the american electorate!!!For fear of losing,their percieved pot of pork,and earmark gold,at the end of their rainbow.Fear of losing their next election.Intimidated by political correctness.These are not leaders,or shepherds!they are pimps,whore’s,and sheep!!!other than a chosen few like jim demint,in the senate,and rand paul,marco rubio,and michelle bachman in the house!!!Most of the ol’guard,elitist class,in the gop.are content with being liberal lapdogs.even content with being in the minority.as long as they can,waller in the fruits of the labors,of the american taxpayers.like liberals.they are buy,and sell,human traffickers,picking winners,and losers.redistributing the civil,and human rights,opportunities,property,lives,and liberties of,those who,produce,and promote,independence,personal responsibility,productivity,and prosperity.giving it to,and propping up those who dis-respect,and destroy the same!!!Jimmy Joe.”The Liarfryer”
The strategery: Fund NPR? Fund CPB? Fund Planned Parenthood? Fund ACORN-like groups? Fund, fund, fund all the Dems pets and donors.
Pollock is right – it’s themes, slogans, and presentation that win the battle of politics. How can anyone, in bad times, vote to fund Planned Parenthood (PP) where all they’re doing is diverting donations to campaign to kill babies?
This first budget dust up should have focused on PP, NPR and other really, truly wasteful stuff on the theme of we must get Lean and Mean to fact these Hard Times. Cannot affort paying for people to wage campaigns, etc.
No matter how RINOs and analysts see it, this sets the stage for another vicious retreat for Boehner in round two.
I agree that the Republicans need to go after programs root and branch, because that is the only way to gain credibility and authority to address entitlements.
As a senior, I know that hits on Social Security and Medicare are unavoidable. I will accept these as necessary to putting the public fisc on a sound basis, even though I could claim that the government will be breaking commitments it made when it took my payroll taxes all those decades.
But damned if I will agree to sacrifice my interests so that either party can continue to fund its favored pork and crony captialism, ranging from NPR to cowboy poetry to green energy to public employee benefits.
Rather clearly, we have a Prisoner’s Dilemma problem which is easily solvable if the necessary bargains can be made, and absolutely intractable if they cannot.
Again, the Republican did not disappoint me when they displayed, yet again, their incredible ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
If your vision is so clear, and you have all the answers, Mr. Pollock, please run for office and join other Tea Partiers who left civilian life in order to save this country.
It is not the beginning of the end. It is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
For the first time in my lifetime, a party that controls half of one-third of the government has altered the trajectory of spending. It’s not enough. It’s not victory. It is a start.
Our alternatives are to whine and quit, or to press harder and smarter for more. The tax eaters will not quit. This hole took decades to dig. We won’t fill it this year or next. I won’t live to see the end of deficits, but I won’t stop fighting for my children’s futures.
The Republican leadership isn’t. PP and NPR? $31B? When we need to be defunding EPA, DoEd, and most other rent-seeking extensions at every level of gov’t? Elected officals come and go; the bureaucracy remains, and grows inexorably more powerful. Congress will pass over 66,000 new federal laws THIS YEAR. We, all the readers here, cannot collectively name twenty.
I saw a sign carried by protesting “workers” in Ohio. It read: Protect those who protect you. The slogan left out the part about OR ELSE! Police, Sheriff, 1stResponders, Firefighters, et al.
Every GoP candidate, not a member of the TEA Party caucus, should be voted out asap. What could be their rationale? How can that be anything but compromised principles? The TEA Party is the voice that speaks most directly for the taxpayers/rentpayers/slaves/malcontents.
ANY compromise with evil, only benefits evil, and the damage is cumulative.
Now, why wouldn’t every Republican at every elected level remain FURIOUS and VOCAL that the Once promised he would veto the bill, thereby shutting the Gov’t, if it contained a rider that paid the troops, shutdown or no? So our national security is clearly a hostage. From the Republican side, I hear crickets.
Because to the Republicans – most of them at least – it is ‘business as usual’ working in closed-door meetings to reward their friends and punish their enemies. State and local Republicans are even more ‘business as usual’ than are the national office-holders. The Tea Party folks had to start their own ‘not-quite-a-party’ because local GOP regulars, like the ones at primaries who deal with the voters, discouraged if not outright ran off new people from participating in the GOP at the local and State levels. Why? Because it would interfere with the handing-out of favors and punishing of enemies that both parties thrive on to have new-comers who ‘don’t understand how things work’ and so would either delay the usual rewards and punishments or would out-number the ‘regulars’ and so derail all of the gravy trains. Give up on the GOP. There is about a 1% chance of any genuine change at the Federal level and about a 0% chance at the state and local level. Don’t be fooled by all of the fuss over the government employee unions; other than reducing the scope of their bargaining with the state, nothing has changed and the state budgets are still in the crapper. Much smoke and yelling and light and heat; no action, no changes for the better, just different bunches of state and local political hyenas cracking our bones for their feast.
The GOP needs to get a clue on the role of the House: it starts all funding for the government and is the most responsive part of government due to its short terms.
The idea of ‘defunding’ something is that it is taken for granted that it is funded in the first place. That is true of existing budgets, but not future ones. No Congress can tie the hands of a future Congress to spend anything: that is the way the the system is designed.
Budgeting by agency and department was the way it was done before the 1960′s and unitary budgeting. Unitary budgeting allows horsetrading and continued growth by backslapping arrangements via ‘negotiations’. Budgeting by piecemeal allows individual departments and agencies to be funded. Or NOT FUNDED.
The Senate can scream, the President can veto and the House can say: we are trying to balance the budget and these things we are not funding are towards that end. If you want something back in, something else will go. The American people give us $2 Trillion per year in taxes and expect us to live within that budget and that is what we are doing.
For 2012 the solution is: piecemeal budgeting to keep payments on debt and the few essentials going as given in the Constitutions. That is pay for the named branches of government, DoD and its agencies, Dept. of State, parts of DHS, parts of commerce, the mint, USPTO and probably the GAO along with a few other cats and dogs. After that see what is left. Once you run out of money, stop writing appropriations bills, the job is finished for the year.
Can the GOP actually figure this out? It is simple, easy to state, easy to do, fulfills their duties and requirements and that’s about all that we need.
For all the ‘smart’ people in Congress, they sure can’t figure out something simple.
They will never do that. They don’t have the fortitude.
And that is the problem in a nutshell. A householder with any sense starts with income and then subtracts necessities. When you run out of money you determine what you have to cut or find a way to add income. If you have some left over you can have some amenities. What part of that is rocket science?
The GOP leadership is no less part of the ruling class than the Democrats. The still “don’t get it”. The Tea Partyer’s are fed up with both of them.
Smoke and mirrors. This time from Boner instead of Little Lenin.
Is anybody really surprised?
They’re in the same class. The Ruling Class.
I knew they were going to loose when the whole thing started.
Promise = 100 billion. Okay, now you are elected, you said you learned your lesson (which you obviously didn’t) so Cut 100 billion as promised.
Nope. We’ll play the Pro Rata game. That means we don’t have a backbone, like always, and are going to try to placate the base with some dazzling spin.
The Tea Party wanted politicians that “Mean What They Say” not give lip service. If the Republicans Meant what they said, their proposal would have been for $250 Billion in cuts.
That way, when the democrats acted in a manner that everyone, except the Republican leadership, expected them to act they could have “compromised” to $100 Billion and been meeting the democraps more than halfway.
But Not to be.
They still haven’t learned Not To Betray the Base!
exactly.
Where I come from, making your starting point the entire amount promised is called…stupid.
Adjusting it down before the first negotiation is called…being a short-timer.
Accepting less than 50% of that is called…losing your job.
If you keep going nickel/dime instead of programs and cabinet consolidations and eliminations (I would not miss the EPA, for example) the longer you keep northern Virginians employed and appreciative of Obama’s defense of the budget. The margin of victory or defeat in the 2012 electoral college could depend on her 13 electoral votes.
i have always felt the starting point needed to be equivalent to the $800 billion stimulus fiasco (if it was so easy to get this figure then it can be that easy to get rid of it)
therefore the repubs should have been starting at a nice round figure one trillion
the libs would have been screaming bloody murder if there was a penny cut anyway so might as well go for the jugular, let the libs shoot it down, then start the debate
the bottom line is what we have all known— not only get rid of the rest of the statists in the next election but rinos as well
yes, this is why the whole thing is so surreal.
Little Lenin added a trillion in annual spending, and we shaved 3.8% off of it? Maybe. And usually sane people are calling that a victory?
I can’t wrap my mind around the magnitude of the stupidity. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard of.
Behind the scenes, Obama and the handlers have got to be poking themselves in the ribs, slapping their knees and giggling uncontrollably.
“How did Republicans go from winning spectacular November victories to being on the ropes in the spring?”
The Democrats are much better at organizing a solid front and driving home their singular message – truthful or not. The Republicans have never shown the talent for ‘group-think’ to the extent that Democrats do. Group-think requires one to be in lock-step (total agreement) with their leadership. Republicans tend to act independent of their leadership. Nowhere was this more apparent than with Paul Ryan trotting out his 10 year plan during the food-fight over the current budget battle. Why could he not wait? He may well be a numbers guy but he has no PR skills – apparently.
The real fight comes with the hiking of the national debt numbers that will undoubtedly go to the wire next month. Boehner has already mentioned that there had better be some big concessions made by the Democrats or there won’t be any hiking of the national debt. Excuse me Mr. Boehner but you’ve already blinked.
I doubt he will take the Democrats to the mat on this one – he certainly didn’t do it on the budget for this year. Cutting less than 1% of such a bloate budget? COME ON!!! If he doesn’t have the guts to see the government shut down for even a day how the hell can he allow the government to quit borrowing for a few days and possibly default on a few loans coming due?
Lets face it – our last hope for a reasonable budget was the current crop of Republicans – and they have shown they do not have the backbone to buck the Democrats and their buddies – the MSM with their opinion blitz – in any meaningful way. The last thing Boehner and company want is to lose their precious jobs – but losing the nation may be their legacy if they can’t find the steel within themselves to do the job we sent them to do.
This is nothing more than politics as usual. The Republican politicians call it “compromising”. A $3.7 trillion budget, and they get $39 billion out of the Democrats? The budget was padded to begin with. The Republicans got zero. The deficit for this year is projected to be $1.4 trillion. Without the cuts it would have been $1.439 trillion. See much difference?
Arguing over the bar bill on the Titanic.
I heard Boehner on Fox News saying the cuts were from what Obama “wanted”. It’s all smoke and mirrors.
The author is right on. If we look at Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution the federal government is performing dozens of tasks that should be the states responsibility under Amendments 9 and 10. The progressives have expanded state responsibility to an unrecognisable degree.
Now that we are insolvent as a country it is time we rein in the federal leviathan and rediscover the concept of limited constitutional government and a small r republic. Whole departments and programs need to be eliminated or turned over to the states. The entitlement programs need to be block granted to the states or phased out all together.
In 1900 the federal government consumed 3% of GDP. Today it is about 30%. If you wonder why we are falling behind the Pacific nations, thats why.
Pollock has framed the debate. Well done.
The house passed a budget. Why didn’t Boehner just tell Reid “we sent you a bill, act on it. Pass it, pass one of your own and go to a reconciliation conference or don’t pass it. But the ball is in your court.”
But instead they got caught up in play tug of war with Reid and Obama.
Boehner needs to resign as speaker. He’s a disgrace.
The Republicans continue to display their ineptitude at communicating their message, as a means to control the agenda. Even when they held the majority in both the Senate and the House, the minority Democrats still seemed to control the show. So, the question in my mind is, are the Republicans able to govern effectively, and use the power granted them by the voters to fix the country’s problems.
The Republican strategy was all wrong from the start. They should have started with the $200 B identified as duplicate programs. No, they aren’t defunding Planned Parenthood, NPR, PBS nor the National Endowment for the Arts. But, an opening bid of lesser controversial and already identified as duplicate programs would have a whole lot harder to defend and demogogue. So, after the wailing and gnashing of Democrat teeth, we could have negotiated down to a real,substantial number; something in the range of $100 B or more. Not the flimflam that mostly makes up the $38.5 B.
The second strategy should have been to pass a military funding budget much earlier in the process and way before the deadline date. The rationale would be “we have to fund Obama’s three wars”. Proclaim it loudly and often. Then I would have broken up the budget into pieces and attached spending cuts to each piece. Call it death by a 1,000 cuts.
Most of all, Boehner should have openly stated that the Democrats could shut down the government if they wanted, but if that what it takes to get cuts; then so be it.
["can you cite any significant federal programs that were axed?"]
Of course not! The American ‘people’ have no interest in taking the head off the snakes thats threateing America’s very existence! Americans are to busy feeding the snakes while at the same time declaring they’re not feeding the snakes….especially, the GOP/Conservative folks!
Efforts today, that can simply be reversed by tomorrows election cycle, is a wasted and moronic strategy!
The ‘people’ and the government ignoring the constitution is what has brought us to the brink of destruction. The ‘people’ and the government resturning to the constitution is the only thing that can restore America and save us from this brink. Bean counters trying to ‘temporarily’ deny a few pennies here and there is………………you can fill in the blank!
The intellectuals of both sides have succeeded in down playing the nations ['real debt'] so that a few billion or even a few trillion looks like major efforts in the direction of saving the country. The real [unfunded] liabilities/debt of the nation is $63 trillion dollars and racing upward by the second….literally!
The same political and social intellectuals deceive the ‘flock’ with rhetoric of some conceived “growth’ models that is going to restore America’s prosperity conquering the popularized $14 trillion dollar debt they only want to talk about. There remains NO economic base in America to sustain the driving liabilities ALL people of ALL policitcal and social pursuations demand and rely upon today from their unconstitutional government.
The only hope in my ignorant opinion, is to restore a constitutional government using the constitution. Reduce the size and authority of the federal government, by amendments and the fiscal brink we’re headed for can be reversed with certainty and systemically over time. Isn’t this where the ‘conservative tea party’ movement started from?
Doing this does NOT mean disregarding the ['legitimate'] infirmed and aged without economic resources, some assistance that is sustainable. It would mean however, restoring a constitutional military resulting in huge defense spending cuts. It would also mean removing the government authority to regulate the private sector economy [beyond] that of the original intent behind Article I, Section 8 Commerce Clause…..terminating the [single] driving force of special interest corruption in the federal government and private sector capitalism. This also would return to the States and the people, their constitutionally mandated rights and authority!
Anything less than this is misdirected and wasted effort that can simply be reversed by an election cycle and majority in the congress and the executive branches of the federaql government.
I believe that the program killing comes up with the 2012 budget. My understanding of the House strategy was to get the government funded with some cuts for the current year — thus cleaning up the mess left by Pelosi.
Next, they would pass the framework for the various appropriations committees — aka the Ryan plan. Obama won’t even get to veto that — its just a resolution.
Then, the House would take up and pass many many individual appropriations bills within that framework — rather than the traditional eight (I think). Constitutionally, all spending measures HAVE to start in the House.
As a result, the Senate/Pres. would have to complain WHY a bill didn’t include X, Y and Z. The House will say, we will pass a bill for that later (maybe).
What can Reid do? Filibuster a spending bill, because it doesn’t contain alot of non-germane garbage?
What can Obama do? Veto a bill that doesn’t contain alot of non-germane garbage?
Politics of this don’t work for them — unlike the government shutdown, which they could pin one big thing on the republicans.
What can the media say? It’s extreme to fail to load up bills with all sorts of nonsense?
Without the giant appropriations bills of years past, they can’t force yea votes on pork-laden obaminations. Every agency, even every program can be debated on its own merits.
Boy do I pray your correct. The need to cut very deeply at the federal level and restore power to the state legislatures and the citizens is an important 1st step. The conservatives in the House have one chance with the public and that is now.
Cut programs and departments. Remind people that we lived just fine without these things in the past and that they will be able to keep more of what they make and have far more political power if they make local government the prime authority.
Conservatives will win if we can articulate this messsage. We will all lose if we go bankrupt, and the poorest amoung us will suffer disporportionately if that happens.
Poor old Boehner; He’s about as qualified for his job as Obama is.
But, Boehner is a nice guy; Just not gifted with the smarts to handle the job. Totally unlike Obama.
Unfortunately our Heros haven’t the heart for the job. They all went to Washington to spend taxpayer money, make it for themselves and bask in the limelight. Now the Dems have changed the previously comfortable atmosphere to an existential crisis. It’s no fun to cut the budget. Leadership that relishes this fight will be necessary to make progress.
Many probably share your concern that the Republican leaders may not have what it takes to win the battle against runaway spending. It is likely they do not have an undivided party, do not have a fire in the belly, and are not ready to free and support the political talent necessary to win the overall battle. And in addition to what Roger cited, the Dems also manipulated the Republican leaders by claiming they were being led around by the Tea Party upstarts. That one may have really worked.
The Ryan budget, which speaks to Medicare, etc. reform while leaving Social Security for later, is probably a good way to start, but needs a Unifying Cause to gain bipartisan citizen support for it. The Unifying Cause is it is for our children and their children. The sacrifices needed to be accepted by the public, are for our children and their children to keep the same level of freedom that we were given by our parents..
The selfish Democrats never once planned to ever pay down any debt during their lifetime until the voters elected a Republicans House majority. It appears Democrats hate their children and wish to keep living well on money their children will be forced to pay back. Has any Democrat spoken to the children and explained to them why the Democrats want them to pay back our debt? Perhaps Mr Ryan, or someone who comes across as well, could have a national discussion with the children and explain what he is trying to do for their benefit.
Shutdowns, Budgets, and Babies
THE DEAL: The devil always lurks in the dirty details and, as specifics emerge on last Friday night’s eleventh hour settlement of the budget stalemate and threat of a government shutdown, it’s becoming clearer by the day that Republicans were snookered–again. President Barack Hussein Obama may have been the primary snookerer but Speaker John Boehner earned the prize as head of the snookered.
It was made to appear by both sides of the aisle that the spirit of compromise, the essence of politics, carried the night. By Saturday, the president was taking credit for cutting spending by “historic” amounts, the GOP was gloating that it had cut $38.5 billion from a bloated budget, and there was peace and tranquility on Capitol Hill.
Call it smoke and mirrors or compromise, it all boils down to distortions and lies.
Obama was hauled kicking and screaming to the cuts, the Republicans had sold out their original demands for $100 billion in spending, the deficit had already increased 15.7% or by $829 billion in the first half of fiscal 2011, the IMF is issuing warnings on the credibility of America’s borrowing, and the GOP demonstrated by its capitulation on Friday that all its noises about cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security entitlements and the nation’s crippling $14 trillion long-term public debt were just that, noises lacking substance.
The party of fiscal integrity has lost one more strategic battle and its general, John Boehner, in office twenty years now, has proven he is just another old Washington hack, part of the problem devoid of any solutions.
It will be a busy, and challenging, rest of the week for the Speaker. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4127)
Nothing but insultingly bad theater. The Dems successfully manueved the spineless Boehner into an OMG -Shutdown- corner. Who the hell really cares if the Gov. shuts down? only the Dems who get the paychecks.
Whoever said… Arguing over the bar bill on the Titanic is right!
How ’bout a 25% across the board cut on everything including all federal employee salaries and pensions…that is what I call Shared pain.
the conservatives need to STOP begin reactive to the progressives and their lies.
GET out in front of it. call them liars and thieves and marxists …because that is what they are.
don’t fall into the trap of responding to their words.
Had he been serious about cutting spending Speaker Boehner had strong disincentives against exaggerating his cuts and raising Dimmi hackles an order of magnitude.
Plainly the lies were intended to deceive his supporters to the detriment of cuts. He refused to employ the only tenace at his disposal, the threat of shutdown.
He has no stomach for battle and only hopes to survive. Euthanize him.
Apparently, you haven’t been paying attention. The people with 10+ year careers in Washington are out of touch with the average person. Just because they have an (R) after their name on C-SPAN doesn’t mean that they are in touch. Boehner and the other republican senior leadership are just as clueless about what’s really needed as the long-time democrats.