It’s what passes for high drama in America’s most parasitic city: Washington, D.C., home of the takers, not the makers, lair of the folks that make dependency this country’s biggest growth industry. “Government shutdown averted at the 11th hour!” (Make that “shutdown,” in quote marks, since nothing would have, you know, actually shut down, more’s the pity.)
The president, right on cue, was out there beaming, praising himself: “Americans of different beliefs came together. . . .” Thanks to me, B. Obama, we just worked out the “biggest annual spending cut in history.”
How big? $38.5 billion trimmed out of government operations through September. $38.5 billion out of — remind me, what’s the total budget? In 2010, U.S. federal spending was about $3.5 trillion.
This is what $38.5 billion looks like written out:
$38,500,000,000
This is $3.5 trillion:
$3,500,000,000,000
In other words, this “historic” spending cut is a little over 1 percent of federal spending. Lunch money. Not even lunch money: it’s the change, without hope, that you get back after paying for lunch. Pathetic. It is just a couple percent of the nearly $1.5 trillion deficit forecast for this year, which turns out to be $414 billion higher than its previous estimate, which came last August. (Feeling dizzy? The national debt at the end of December 2010 was $14 trillion.)
$38.5 billion in spending cuts. “White House, Congress Cheer Deal,” read the headline. Who would doubt it? Hey, we’re pretty good guys, aren’t we? Three cheers for us!
$38.5 billion. John Boehner wanted $61 billion, but settled for $38.5. In Washington, that’s called a “compromise” and is hailed as “visionary” and “historic” (Harry Reid’s phrase, so you know it must be a joke).
This is a breakdown of federal spending in 2010, courtesy Wikipedia:
Notice anything? Social Security and Medicare/Medcaid account for more than 40 percent of federal spending. The former came into being as a temporary emergency measure during the Depression. It is now the largest government program in the world. The latter was one of Lyndon Johnson’s gifts to the nation: a species of government-funded health care that accomplished two things: 1) the institution of a metastatic and almost comically inefficient government bureaucracy and 2) the dependence of huge swathes of the American public on government, i.e., taxpayer largess. We’re told that nothing can be done about either program — they’re sacrosanct, meaning, of course, that the politicians who might do something about them are too timid to try.
This was doomed from the first moment Boehner announced that he was not going to “shut down” the government. I don’t know where he learned how to negotiate, but I do know this, he has spent most of his life in the minority, and doggone, he acted like it during this whole process. He is the General Meade of the Republican party…he had everything at his disposal and could not land the “coup de grace”. I suspect we, like Lincoln, will have a few hit and misses before we find our “U.S. Grant”. But find him/her we must. Michelle Bachmann and Paul Ryan immediately come to mind as replacements for our Facilitator of the House. They don’t seem to be trained in the same go along to get along mentality as the current one, and they seem to know a little more about negotiating. Let’s change this general before we really lose big time in the next major confrontation: Budget 2012.
Boehner is NOT the problem! The broken ‘SYSTEM’ is the problem! The congress has not been there doing the traditional constitutional work of the ‘nation’ for a very long time. The systems of process have been corrupted by an infiltration of socialists for decades and corrupted compromise allowed for decades by the GOP.
The government is ‘people’ voted into office by people so its not like a piece of mechanical equipment you can simply repair or rebuild, The people are broken…not the government! In other words, our country is broken from the bottom up….not the top down!
“In other words, our country is broken from the bottom up….not the top down!”
I could not agree more. The entitlement mentality has been so deeply & so thoroughly entrenched in our society for so many years now, I don’t see how any pol or group of pols, no matter how headstrong & intrepid in their approach to even scratching the surface toward reversing this, will ever manage to forge a reasonable budget plan without having a large contingent of the American public squealing at the top of their lungs from the mountaintops about it.
Until enough people embrace the philosophy that personal responsibility should be a core principle, there will be no hope at all of reining in these publicly-funded programs to a reasonable level. Just not gonna happen.
bobbcat…people are sadly fickle when they so boldly stand in denial to proclaim they’re NOT in fact, demanding national socialists. Most haven’t a clue they’re happy and expecting recipients every day of their personal, community and States existence. They only want to point to the most popularized and exposed national socialist programs such as social security, medicare and medicaid. They ignore that their car loans, home loans, business loans, education, downtown and community grants, waste water treatment plants, emergency services, community capital projects of every sort, hospitals, education, utilities and on down the long, long list are government subsidized to their benefit.
I shant ramble on as I’m so glad to see another who understands the facts.
“They ignore that their car loans, home loans, business loans, education, downtown and community grants, waste water treatment plants, emergency services, community capital projects of every sort, hospitals, education, utilities and on down the long, long list are government subsidized to their benefit.”
Don’t make it sound like dear ol’ Uncle Sam is so good-hearted that he is doing this for our “benefit”. It’s a money laundering operation, taking from us with one hand and giving it back with the other to buy votes, and state politicians love it. And you are right about the average citizen being inured to the Federal governments extension of its tentacles into every aspect of our society. We are a herd of timid, industrious animals and the government is our shepherd.
Boehner is NOT the problem! The broken ‘SYSTEM’ is the problem! The congress has not been there doing the traditional constitutional work of the ‘nation’ for a very long time. The systems of process have been corrupted by an infiltration of socialists for decades and corrupted compromise allowed for decades by the GOP.
The government is ‘people’ voted into office by people so its not like a piece of mechanical equipment you can simply repair or rebuild, The people are broken…not the government! In other words, our country is broken from the bottom up….not the top down!
Hmmmm! Seem even the PJM system is a bit flaed also.
Back in Feb. the deficit at year-end was predicted to be $16.45 trillion. The cuts should make that $16.06 trillion. Yippee. OK, maybe a little less since the CRs cut a few billion as well, but anybody who thinks these cuts are going to save the dollar is a serious pollyanna.
Ouch, that’s the deficit was projected to be federal deficit that was projected in February to be $1.645 trillion at year’s end etc.
The article and most of the comments would have a point if the Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress and the White House, but they do not. Now Boehner could have gone to the mat and shut the government down which the LSM would have spun as doing it just to defund Planned Parenthood. That would have been the public relations disaster the Democrats were hoping for.
The debt ceiling limit is coming up soon and that is the time to go to the mat because the public is very upset about the amount of debt. The vast majority do not give a damn one way or another about funding Planned Parenthood and NPR one way or the other. They do care about increasing the debt and even they can see the connection between raising the debt ceiling and more debt whereas NPR and Planned Parenthood are two drops in the bucket of federal spending so the connection is not made.
Raising the debt limit in return for MASSIVE cuts in spending is something the Republicans can sell. If the Democrats refuse to do that and the government shuts down, the public will blame the Democrats because then the issue is crystal clear to everyone but the 27% of the populace professing to be liberals. If Boehner and the Republicans cave on massive cuts to spending in return for raising the debt limit then and only then do we have the right to scream about their betrayal.
It is apparent that the Democdats still control the House. We hear compromise, but compromise means whatever Harry Reid wants. Make you a bet, that Ryans Budget is dead on arrival. There will be no 2012 budget and it will be spending as usual. They claim that they hear us, but all they hear is the beat of their own drums. Another cave in by the Republican leadership or should I say lack of leadership.
Right you are L.E., but there’s more. Increasing the debt ceiling in plain speak means handing professional politicians, Dimocrats and Republicans another handfull of blank checks on into the future in exchange for even more empty promises, until the house of cards finally comes tumbling down.
Failing to increase the debt ceiling does not mean that default is inevetible. It means that less spending must take place in order to fund what should be funded before the ever increasing handouts take place.
The money that goes for PAYOFFS TO POLITICIANS could be stopped and applied to meeting the debt obligations of the U.S. Otherwise the debt continues to grow and the interest on the debt grows accordingly.
Those who believe in the tooth fairy are for the most part folks who believe that the Republicans are serious about righting the sinking ship. In my humble opinion, they are wrong on both counts.
The debt ceiling will be raised, members of both parties will congratulate themselves and the corrupt politicians will continue to reward all of the parasites who participate in the Play That Never Ends because nothing changes except the faces of the Actors.
But then on the other hand young folks, keep hope alive. That’s really all that’s left here when communism fails as it has throughout the world and throughout recorded history.
you are correct Roger the republicans were played. they don’t have the power to force things but they should make the stand.
Our politicians are so worthless it’s unf….believable! I’m so p… I shouldn’t even be posting. I’m thinking it’s time for states to break and go their seperate ways but maybe I’ll feel different tonight after I’ve had a few drinks. I doubt it.
Oh for Pete’s sake. It is not like the GOP controls the government, you know? If you check, they control 1/3, in other words they are still out numbered. Vastly out numbered when you add in the Dems media allies.
Time was short. The Media was beating the drums that the GOP would be responsible for shutting down the National Zoo. Unconfirmed reports are that camera persons were already at the front gate ready to get video of wailing toddlers who were denied entry this morning. TIC. But, it illustrates the problem.
Paul Ryan has brought forth a bold plan. It is time to get past this debacle of a skirmish and concentrate on the war.
Judge the House and its leadership by what the do on the 2012 budget.
How about just a modicum of fairness and adult perspective?
Oldflyer: You’re right about the PR war (cameras at the gates of the National Zoo). Wolf Blitzer (whom I never watch but caught as I was channel surfing last Sunday) was reporting that in a gov’t shutdown the internet would be exposed to cyber-attack!
Feckless Republicans MUST get the messaging prepared BEFORE the budget issue comes to a head; they’ve got to have their arsenal at the ready to CHANGE the message from shutdown (real or imagined realities, as per the zoo and internet) to asking at the very least this one question: Is it worth it to your family to have the zoo opened if you knew it’s costing you $45,000 a head? Why don’t the Republicans make government spending PERSONAL? Where are the ads of Joe and Mary sitting around the kitchen table lamenting how their newborn grandson, Toby, just come into the world, owes the U.S., as his part of the national debt, $45,000? And the last line should read: Isn’t that taxation without representation? Isn’t that what 1776 was all about?
I’m sick and damn tired of Republicans being, mostly, part of this spending scam; and all because they are either in on it themselves and only make token criticisms of it or they are useless as being the opposition party; either way, they’ve proven themselves USELESS.
Oldflyer has it right. To which I would only add: it’s by and large about the middle class (that would be us), who pay most of the taxes and receive (are entitled to?) most of government’s benefits. Of course we haven’t really paid for what we’ve gotten, hence the decades of borrowing to close the gap between expenditures and revenues. But the national credit card is about maxed out, and the interest payments alone on the debt will be ruinous. With borrowing no longer an option, the question becomes one of whether we want to reduce government spending, or, whether we would like to see it continue and thus pay more—much more—in taxes in order to keep the redistributionist state humming.
Gugliemus: “it’s by and large about the middle class (that would be us), who pay most of the taxes…”
Uh…….I beg to differ.As of 2003, the share of TOTAL income taxes paid by the top 1% of wage earners rose to 34.27% from 33.71% in 2002. Their income share (not just wages) rose from 16.12% to 16.77%. However, their average tax rate actually dropped from 27.25% down to 24.31%
Don’t take my word for it, read the IRS’s numbers (you’ll need Excel):
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/04in06tr.xls
Secondly, the “National Credit Card” is FAR BEYOND “almost maxed out”. One has but to look at the splendor that is
http://www.USDEBTCLOCK.org
to see that the jig is up. It is those numbers (particularly the Unfunded Liabilities) to see that in reality (when you look at all the sets of books that the criminals in Washington keep) we’re beyond talking “almost maxed out”. In reality, what “We The People” owe on the Unfunded Liabilities alone are more than the ENTIRE WORLD’S GDP. That amount of money does not now nor has ever existed. These numbers are REALITY that ALL politicians in D.C. are aware of. Compromising in the face of those who will gladly destroy our financial system for the chance to rebuild it in the image of their Marxist Utopia (ala Cloward & Piven) is TREASON. If Speaker Boner doesn’t have the STOMACH (in between his tears) to actually keep the PROMISES that he and his fellow RINOs made last year while those of us in the Tea Party poured every ounce of our energy into doing everything possible to make the election of 2010 a DEFINING MOMENT in our Nation’s history, then he must GO. Period.
He has shown Comrade Obama and his Progressive Ilk that he has neither the spine nor the integrity to stand for the American people. He is a gutless liability who will gladly roll over while apologists living in Delusion-ville (many posting on this very page) continue to excuse his gross incompetence and lack of testicular fortitude. Perhaps they’ll continue shaking their pom-poms and beating the “Yay Republicrats!!” drum, however those of us with actual principles and comprehension of the dire predicament that our Nation finds itself in will have NONE of it.
Oldflyer:
If you apply adult perspective, you will realize that a promise by politicians to balance the budget and get the national debt under control over a 36 year period is utter nonsense. Facing reality is more important than applying adult perspective in this case because there are no adults left in the two major political parties and the bills can’t be paid with perspective.
Oldman
What happened over this budget “fight” played right into Nancy’s, Harry’s and Barack’s hands perfectly. The budget was due just prior to October first 2010. This meant that tough decisions needed to be made just before the elections. If those decisions were made, in order to (a). make the spending sustainable, or (b). make all the entitlement available as promised, a substantial portion of their base would be upset,thus making what losses they did take a drop in the bucket.by not addressing the 2011 budget, and losing the majority in the House, where ALL spending originates, they have place the burden on the Republicans. By caving at this point,and not defunding Obamacare at this point, and a majority of the public not knowing when this budget was due, they can dance in the isles, pointing fingers at the Repubs, saying see they can not get anything done, or if Boehner would have drawn the line in the sand, the dance would be “Look, the mean GOP is denying services to everybody except the rich.”
If a real cut in the budget happens for 2012, there will be an outcry from the public akin to building an oil well. Yes it needs to be done, but not in my backyard. A real budget will most likely be passed, but the end result will most likely be , unfortunately, the re election of King Barry, the majority lost in the House, and a unsurmountable minority in the Senate.
Just my humble opinion
If a government shutdown includes only “unnecessary services” (military pay not included in my book), why does it take 800,000 people to perform them and why don’t we just cut them permanently?
Oh…nevermind….
They could have saved more if they banned all illegal aliens from all programs. They could have saved more by reducing our contribution to the UN and sending no aid to unfriendly nations.
I am not collecting Medicare or Medicaid but by grouping the two together is offensive. You have drunk the Koolade on that one. Medicare is paid for by the participants in advance,from MANDATORY contributions. Medicaid is strictly welfare paid for by working people so slackers can see a doctor.
The Tea Party may be a start but just a start.
End economic programs for the poor, disabled, and infirm????
Then how would Obama ever get elected to ANY office?
Shouldn’t these “disadvantaged” voters have the voting benefit of TWO VOTES, instead of an unjust one vote?
This, in Obama’s words,
Seriously; If the misappropriation of funds were to cease, such as the revenues from the Post Office, Social Security, Medicare, and other ‘dedicated’ funds, this would have an immediate impact on the budget.
But, this would take someone in Congress willing to go against the accepted policy of misappropriation of these programs. That would be like a gang member trying to quit his home ‘club’.
Boehner has to go.
If the country’s situation wasn’t so dire, I would say that it’s time for a 3rd party.
But since the most important thing, by far, is to purge obama, we just have to swallow the rage and not upset the Republican’s Ruling Class apple-cart until we get through 2012.
And yes, I know this has made fighting for Ryan’s plan a joke, but even more important than that plan is getting rid of obama. Nothing compares to getting rid of obmaa.
If it takes Trump to do it, so be it.
The Republicans have always been inept politicians. They are pathetic as attorneys, too. They couldn’t even toss a perjurious philandering liar out of office.
I would suggest that to establish a third party, we disband the Republican Party first. Before we disband the GOP, however, we’d need to establish a platform, identify contributors, create an infrastructure.
Either that, or we grab the GOP and shake it and slap it around until it comes to its senses.
Isn’t that what we did in November 2010?
I agree that things could have gone better, but the republicans can only do so much with the overwhelming democrat presence in government. It’s not only the elected ones, but the entire DC structure, and the media, and all the supporting organizations.
At least the republicans have shown a willingness to step in the right direction. What needs to happen is for us to get a republican senate and house, and keep purging the rinos.
What will probably happen though is that conservatives will be so angry that they’ll vote the democrats back into office.
Mr. Kimball:
What did you expect? A “magic wand” to undo overnight the DemocRat spending pattern of the last 4 years, (and especially of the last two?).
Tell me something, when you’re driving your car, do you accelerate right up to white line on the street where the stop sign is and then slam on the brakes, expecting to instantly stop your vehicle?
This CR deal cuts spending…it CUTS spending!
Would you have rather that the dingbat Pelosi had done her job and passed a 2011 budget and be dealing with THAT,(thankfully unopened), can of worms?
I agree with another commenter here on PJM, this has been the cartoon before the feature presentation. The DemocRats’ favored federally subsidized “charities”/campaign money-laundries are on notice that next year is going to be rough…right in time for when the Alleged Hawaiian’s re-election campaign really heats up, too.
The other fact is that tactically, this prepares the public for the next time the Dems get intransigent and threaten to let the Fed shut down. Boehner managed to compromise on specifics and still get spending cuts, so it will be the GOP who appears to be the adult and reasonable crew, should the government shutdown card get played again.
Sure…putting taxpayer dollars into PP’s coffers is irksome, but look at how much money they spent on commercials just to keep their federal “fix”. They littered Fox News with their sludge…and that ain’t cheap.
And the EPA is on notice that their off-mandate campaign to ban everything that Greenpeace doesn’t approve of is also a dry-hole.
In fact, if I worked at EPA, NPR, CPB or any of the Leftist QuaNGOs, I’d be freshening my resume about now.
“This CR deal cuts spending…it CUTS spending!”
So, sounds like you would have been happy with even a $1 million cut. Compared to a $3.7 trillion budget, $38 billion is peanuts. Let’s not forget they promised to cut $100 billion.
“And the EPA is on notice that their off-mandate campaign to ban everything that Greenpeace doesn’t approve of is also a dry-hole.”
After this “compromise”, I wouldn’t be too sure. And by the way, where does defunding O-care stand? I’m expecting more “compromises”.
Ryan’s plan doesn’t cut 6 trillion, except by comparison and only over many years. It increases our debt, albeit modestly less so than the Dems would like. The current compromise of the Republican’s “pledge” shows that Ryan’s plan will not hold up. They won’t even try. It is just there starting point for negotiations. And, like the pledge, it is a pathetic starting point. We still have many RINOs to knock out before we can do anything. The Dems had a minority block in 1/3 of Wisconsin and they fought hard and wrenched big concessions out of an already modest Republican agenda. The House Republicans control 1/3 of the federal government, through which all new spending MUST pass. In other words, they hold a 100% veto. Either they don’t want to use it or they are pusillanimous. Either way, the leadership must go.
I have to wonder if it was all a scam. They know their budget cuts are crap, so they delay down to the wire and get us all frightened about a government shutdown. They make it about the shutdown, not the actual contents of the budget. Then, with their eleventh-hour deal, they have us all feeling thankful that the shutdown was averted. Thank you, Congress! I’d almost believe it if I thought the Republicans and Democrats could cooperate enough to pull it off.
Even Ryan’s numbers show spending ten years from now as HIGHER than it is now. Supposedly under his plan we will recover economically so that we can succeed in paying more tax revenue into government as part of our economic growth.
But what I want to see is a government getting SMALLER!!!!!!!!!!!
I want to see a government running the way the constitution designed it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No “Department of” crap, except for State and Defense! States should do education, highways, welfare and public assistance, states should do EVERYTHING that is not SPECIFIED in the constitution to federal government. Isn’t that what the amendment specifically says? If it ain’t in the constitution, federal government is not ALLOWED to take charge of it? “to the states severally” it says.
Obama has spent 1.5 trillion more this year than was paid in to the federal government. That should be a CRIME. SOMEBODY PLEASE WRITE THE BILL THAT CUTS THE 1.5 TRILLION! And give us a balanced budget amendment.
While I typed this, my country put me and my fellow taxpayers in debt by tens of millions of dollars more than when I opened up the comments window.
Actually it works out to $374,809 per minute, or $22,488,584 per hour or in a day $539,726,027!
I don’t see this situation the same way that Mr. Kimball views it; I’d agree with Bilgeman that this is a prelude to the real issue of the deficit and a balanced budget – something that the Democrats have refused to deal with. Why?
Because their agenda is short term power: they plan to change the infrastructure of the US to a statist socialism…and then…blame any problems on the GOP. At the same time, their agenda is to increase their voting bloc by increasing the proportion of citizens dependent on govt funding. This includes not only the bloated civil service but also, increasing and maintaining dependencies among illegals, hispanics, blacks, low income.
This confrontation along with Ryan’s budget has, I think, opened up the situation to the public, shown how indifferent the Democrats are to the fiscal deficit crisis, and how their key focus is only on making people dependent on govt funding…in return for votes.
The next steps are the key. The Democrats have been boxed in to supporting dependencies – women’s ‘rights’, public service unions, illegals etc. They are boxed into emotionalism…and are not dealing with the realities on the ground: the cost of gas (Obama, in his Let Them Eat Cake mode, says – ‘get used to it or buy a new car); the increasing cost of food; the inflation. None of these are being dealt with…and these are realities.
Can the Democrats survive if boxed into a world-of-emotion..while reality flings itself at them? I have my doubts.
These drunken Democrats on a shore leave junket with OUR MONEY, have been at the wheel for more than 4 years.
This may be a small victory for the Republican minority, but, a victory all the same.
Although a ‘short term’ fix, but, consider this a rehearsal for the same show next year. It ain’t gonna be any easier.
So now, who, at the government printing office, is getting the overtime pay for sending out the corrections for the military LES’s? Was this factored in?
SHUT DOWN AVERTED, SMALL VICTORY FOR GOP
The reckless party of SPEND BABY SPEND-until we reach the ideal promised land of social justice heaven in an unsustainable nanny state of economic ruination-suffered a setback last night in the battle over America’s fiscal future. The road to national solvency had to begin somewhere; and yesterday John Boehner and the GOP took the first small step. Foward to Ryan’s trillions!
I agree with your comment.
It had to start somewhere, and it is a positive thing, as long as it will be followed by true cuts in the 2012 budget.
Are you arguing that it is clearly a win for the guy who ended up where he started? And his own party wanted double what he actually got? I think we call that a “draw.” Nobody’s happy. That means it was a compromise , not a win for one side but if I had to pick I would say the Dems came out more ahead.
Gee whiz Mr.Torn, you must be really, really sad today!
Wisconsin?
No shotgun approach today? Channel Michael Richards. He’ll help you out.
My my, so much Torn Up whimpering rage.
I don’t have the numbers exactly right, but the whole hyperventilatin’ thing going on in DC this week was put in perspective for me when it was pointed out that the billions in dispute amounted to the interest on the national debt in the last minute.
(I’ve likely exaggerated that, but you get the gist.)
Through their posturing, Schumer, Pelosi et al. have gained in creepiness and raised their stupidity marks, if such were possible.
yes it is like that …an incredibly small amount of money. it may be that until the 2012 elections there is little that can be done. still I think the republicans should have stood on principal and closed the gov. …not unlike what Dick Morris has been advocating.
if they cave on this they will cave on the debt ceiling and the next year ‘s budget.
Spin the spinners. In the end, this is simply a disaster for the GOP. This is simply a disaster for the GOP. The step by step:
1. The Dems got a teeny, tiny bit of spending removed.
2. The spending “cuts” were for things no one really cared about – name one!
3. Their taxpayer supported MSM component, NPR, is safe for this round.
4. A huge campaign donor using taxpayer monies to offset their donations to the
Dems, Planned Parenthood, gets to continue their Dem contributions effectively still using taxpayer money.
5. The Democrats made the deal on Friday. Why Friday? Planned to enable their
narrative to go forth while talk radio is down for the weekend.
6. The drumbeat reaches a crescendo with MSM and Sunday shows touting the Dems as the true, thoughtful, cutters and wise spenders. They saved you!
8.Obama becomes the savior of the Nation by forcing those damn GOP fools to be
reasonable.
9. The Dems have fully tested their playbook and know which ones work in this environment.
10. The stage is now set for the narrative of the 2012 budget fight and Obama’s re-election has been greatly enhanced. Expect his approval rating to bounce, big time, by Monday.
What should the GOP done? First they should have gone after “Tier One” programs
that are nothing more than taxpayer funding Democrat campaign operations. It’s a battle they could and should easily win. It would have been both a strategic and a tactical win. Hands down. I.e., the House passes a bill to fund the entire remaining 2011 FY at the current rate but defund things like Planned Parenthood, NPR, CPB, etc. Then simply start on the 2012 budget. Let the Dem controlled Senate and the Executive justify shutting down government to save their donors.
Then, for FY 2012, start passing individual department/agency bills. Let Reid do whatever he wishes with them. Don’t even have discussions with the Senate until after they pass their spending bill(s). It becomes Reid’s problem. The House can pull a Pelosi and just say, “we’ve done our job – it’s all up to you”.
Exactly.
The 800 lb rinos have started their diet by giving up lettuce for breakfast after agreeing that giving up lettuce AND celery was far too risky.
Makes sense.
I think everybody is missing a critical point. This is not a battle…or should not be at any rate…over the budget. This fight is, or should be, between the anti capitalist socialists and the anti government constitutionalist folks. Spending is NOT the problem! A broken government is the problem!
If everybody lets the populist rhetoric of BOTH sides of the political bureaucrats and media types be a diversion then all this just becomes an irrelevent pissing contest to be repeated over and over and over and….well, I hope you get the point!
Its far past time to attack the cancer and not just the symptoms of the cancer!
yes this is about ideology.
producers verse parasites. but the parasites (democrats/progressives/socialist/marxists) are like many parasites doomed to kill the host
You’re right! And I’m so irritated decade after decade that the folks on the right side (constitutionalists) get so distracted and become ruderless in the water. The constitution gives to the people and the States, methods for dealing with an out of control unconstitutional government and…I’m NOT talking about the voting process of elected government officials.
Until a majority of the ‘people’ to whom the constitution gives the ultimate power and authority decide what they want America to be…something new and void of the constitution or remain a traditional constitutional nation, nothing is going to change in the federal government. As it is now, the majority of people have surrendered their constitutional power and authority to the federal government and the congress has surrendered its constitutional authority to the Executive Branch. Simply put we’ve become and unconstitutional nation…at least, in so much as the founders intended.
All this government spending rhetoric and bean counter strategies, is nothing more than a diversion dog-n-pony show, ignoring the real disease of causation(s).
Again, our nation is broken from the bottom up…not the top down! The overwhelming majority, even those on the ‘right-side” in denial, have become classic B. F. Skinner conditioned lab rats…conditioned to societal and centralized government socialism. What to do?
“We The People” sounds good until you get down to the REAL people; Hyphenated Everything, gays, lesbians, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Athiest, Latino, Black, Liberal, Conservative, Independent, union, non-union, etc. etc. And no group has any respect for any other group.
This government has more special interest groups to single out, intimidate, and pander to than you can imagine.
You ever try herding cats?
Our Congress has assured itself there will always be plenty of disorganization in this country, to keep much of any type of rebel movement to a minimum, and easily extinguished.
There aren’t enough people around that can make a cohesive group to get mad as hell and refuse to take this crap anymore.
The people have been successfully fragmented and suppressed.
Writing angry remarks to outrageous articles describing incompetence, corruption, and overt criminal activity of our elected ‘leaders’, is about all that is going to ever take place.
“This war is lost”.
Such sad times for what was one of the greatest nations on earth. The last chapter to the great American experiment is now being written and it is 180 degress from what the founders and so many earlier generations had wished for….in fact, they made such great sacrifices for their expectations of future generations. SAD!!
Its a failed nation of people…not a failed government!
Semper Fi Patriot!
One of the male talking heads at MSNBC Democratic Party Television was weeping on-air over the possible cuts to murderous Planned Parenthood — just think of all of the Liberal women who would have died.
Conservatives may not have won this skirmish, but they didn’t exactly lose either. Our times are near; we shall prevail. Don’t let the faint-of-heart discourage us.
This transition from adolescent, narcissistic government to mature, honest government will take time, although, as Roger’s essay implies, we don’t have a great deal of time before we’ll go bankrupt.
Planned Parenthood; Where is this any of the Federal Governments business at all?
This is nothing but a shell organization for Democrat Campaign fund money laundering.
Where’s the Constitutional authority for this federal program?
And while I’m on this trend; Where’s the Federal Governments authority to regulate the homework my grand child has to do for any of these ‘progress’ tests? Since 1965, the ‘Elementary and Secondary Education Act’, has grown into one of the largest programs to receive federal funding; $281 billion under 2010 budget.
Where’s the Constitutional authority for this federal program?
On second thought, that this deal stinks to high heaven — more business-as-usual in Washington. As Mark Levin is saying, the numbers don’t add up. Even in this relatively insignificant skirmish, we’ve been scammed by both parties. Boehner is not the leader Conservatives and the country need right now.
Our Glorious Leader, President 0.0 went to the Lincoln Memorial yesterday to talk about how wonderful it is that all of us can “just get along.” I wish the Republicans had just one of Ann Barnhard’s balls.
Well, the perpetual optimist, I gather when the congressional tax conflict ( the budget expression for class, gender, and tribal conflict) is over something significant, like trillions of dollars for bailing out bad real estate loans, rather than mere trifles like canceling the moon shot and doing Muslim outreach instead, I presume the centrist republicans will actually shut down the spending?
And…as for the pie chart above….well that is more populist diversion! (Sorry Roger)
The real number folks should be addressing is approximately $63 + TRILLION dollars of debt racing towards $100 TRILLION each day. Surely folks should be alert enough to understand that only a very small portion of the government budget is ‘FUNDED’ anymore, thus, the problems we are in.
Wake up folks and get past all the false diversions and get on the right page!
I emailed Mr. Boehner, back when this all started, I warned him that the Democrats would never agree to the $100 billion, and that his compromise at $61 billion would be rejected by the Dems also, forcing the government into continuing CRs that would result in even less budgetary savings, And so here were are at a “historic” $38 billion “compromise”
While it may be the best we could get, this also portends less savings than the Republicans are calling for, when we get to argue about increasing the debt limit, and the Ryan roadmap for the 2012 budget. The Dems will hold us hostage, with the Senate and the White House under their control. We are not going to get the budget cuts the country needs to avoid disaster unless Republicans control the Senate and the White House. If that doesn’t happen in 2012, the future of the country is in dire jeopardy. Crisis has to be what the Dems and Obama want. How could anyone with any sense of responsibility to the country continue spending what we do not have? This is purely about the Dems, their political power, and their desire to fundamentally transform America into a socialist government, and they smell blood in the water.
And am I mistaken, or doesn’t the House have the power of the purse, and the ability to shut spending down without the approval of the Senate or the President? If so, why the charade by Boehner?
Leftist Democrats are like Bond villains. There are no limits to the extent and levels they will go to destroy America as we know it.
President Oddjobs, never held a position in his life where he had to make a budget, meet a payroll, sign the front of a check…he openly mocks middle America having to pay gas prices, says they “cling” to religion, and calls them “enemies”.
Pelosi Galore, the little Miss Muffet who gives speeches at Tuffets rather than doing any of the grunt work for her curds and whey. She has trouble with understanding that six million seniors missing meals cannot stem from a program that has only a third that many even enrolled, but she apparently does not want to comment on the trillion dollar spider hole that chased her away.
Rosa Klebb Napolitano, America is dealing with the very real SPECTRE of someone who cares less about securing our borders being put in charge of making sure we turn Arizona into the UN and we are suing our own states.
Eric Dr. No Holder, has not found an American law that protects citizens from intimidation at the polling booths if you look like ANY of your ancestors once voted Republican. Dr. No says “absolutely not” to protecting any bitter clinger types, who are enemies of this administration.
Max Soros Zorin, while not holding an official position, the puppetmaster is pulling all the strings behind the scenes a Nazi experiment in humanity gone bad.
Barney Blofeld, the original Dr. Evil, he took down Fannie Mae with his boyfriend on the inside, ran a prostitution ring in his basement and the bloviating Barney Blowhard was one of the prime reasons for the mortgage meltdown that has our economy teetering on the brink.
Chuck Schumaranga, the man with the golden tongue, at least to the lapdog media for whom he gives lessons in what to say, how to say it and in Paul Krugman’s case how to be overwrought and wrong in every sentence.
Van Jones Orlov, a czar in the making who wants to take over the Western World for communism, but is foiled before he gets his plot off the ground. He replaces all the real energy with phony bio-fuels and works for OctoPelosi, a gang formed by Pelosi Galore. (see above)
cfbleachers: Hey thats pretty good stuff.
cfblleachers. Perfect. Post it elsewhere and everywhere. Mockery and refusing to take their pomposity seriously…is a great tactic to take them off their high ladders..
who is james bond then?
“who is james bond then?”
I am not sure at this point. I am, however, a bit perplexed at how mild the response has been of my fellow countrymen at the mountain of lies pushed forward by the Democrats and their shrieking tantrums. They have become so common and yet seem more outrageous, they deserve their own name.
Democrantrums?.
We seem to be frightened to a state of paralysis by the very real prospect that our nation has been brought to the brink of financial ruin…yet, our response has been…tepid. We are not standing in defiance but shrinking in resolution that “our side” has no hero to rally behind. In a phrase, we are shaken, not stirred.
The Republican lineup look like a bunch of extras at a SAG convention, and sag is an adjective not a noun.
There are 348 candidates for the leading role and no front runner. Maybe someone currently running in 007th place, will come to the fore, but we are already in Act II, Scene IV and we have not identified a protagonist, much less a James Bond.
Boehner is too weepy, Pawlenty and Daniels are too sleepy and the rest are too sheepy.
Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio and Chris Christy feel they are not ready.
We need a hero. Most likely a military man. A man of uncommon intelligence and valor. Who does not revel in the spotlight and is not a glory seeker. I guarantee you, he is not a household name. We need to find him and ask him to save us. He is not in the current limelight, he is not in the footlights, he is in the shadows, being a real man…as we speak.
I always read your writings and then hang my head in sorrow, wishing you were preaching to folks really in the game as they proclaim. Sadly, that is NOT the case.
The nation and government is broken from the bottom up….not the top down! The people, by majority, still define and select the government in America. For forty-five years the majority (voters of both parties) have defined and supported the transformation of America to socialism and expanded and centralized government. Half seemingly don’t deny it while the other half denies their demands of federal government responsibility for more and more of their States, communities and daily lives. Millions think because they don’t yet partake of social security, medicare/medicaid, food stamps, SSI, etc., they’re not conditioned and happy recipients of national socialism. Nothing could be further from the truth!
All this tough rhetoric found on sites like this represneting the ‘right and conservatives’ is frivolous until they begin talking about taking back and restoring the government through the constitutional empowerment of the people and the constitution itself….and I’m NOT talking about the voting process. When the people begin to speak to individual responsibility for their finances and necessities versus employer and government provided benefits of health care, saving programs, retirement, life insurance, etc., they will catch my serious attention. When the people begin to seriously address the needed reforms to care for those legitimate citizens who are legitmately infirmed and aged without resources for adequate survival, they will get my attention.
All this government spending rhetoric is an irrelevent diversion from the real disease destroying America. In fact, it represents a sad dishonesty and denial of the real problems! The core problem is within the people….not the government! The big question is, what are the people willing to do and sacrifice to really restore traditional America…besides run their mouths, IF they come to see and understand the ‘REAL’ problems and their constitutional options?
very well stated T.T.
regards
Please, no Christie, unless beheading is your cure of choice for fiscal insolvency!
What a joke. The GOP is congratulating itelf, looks to me more like Army of the Patomic under McClellan.
Well Bachmann voted no, so did some others. We said (Tea Party) that 2010 was the opening round, these folks up there still don’t get it. So Primary season will be busy.
This vote may also decide whether some potential GOP candidates get in or not. This may tip the balance for Palin, Bachmann, Trump (who knows if he is serious) possible one or two others. Far as I am concerned the more discussion -or yelling the better.
Every politician should be checking their six!
@cedarhill:
I’m afraid it’s worse than that. The Ryan budget resolution will be non-binding, even if it is passed by the Senate. SocialistO will never sign it, anyway – he is in the middle of his 2012 reelection campaign! When the House Republicans pass an appropriations bill for some sector of the government which defunds part of the massive bureaucracy, the Senate will refuse to pass it and will insist on another continuing resolution to keep it running while they “negotiate”, with the threat of a “government shutdown” unless Republicans agree. They now know that the House Republican leadership will accept minor changes and cave to avoid a shutdown.
I think we are faced with 1 1/2 years of continuing resolutions, while the Republicans position themselves for 2012 as the party that will “really do something about the size of government” if they just get more senators, representatives and the White House.
Folks, this was just one battle in the war to reduce government. It has taken 70 years to get us to this place, and it will take a long time to dig out. Personally, I’d call the budget battle at stalemate. We got a little, they gave a little. If we trully wanted to get $100 B in cuts, the opening bid should have been $200 B. No matter what figure the Rats come up with, the Demons will wail and moan like its the end of the world. But We have the Demons on defense and that is good.
Donald Trump is taking it to the Prez. over his birth certificate. Personally I find it refreshing that at least one potential politician will demand that Obama prove he is a natural born citizen, instead of guessing, hoping, or supposing.
So, the next battle is over the debt celing. If the Rats play their hand correctly, they could get a balanced budget amendment passed. But one needs to have teeth to make it stick, plus no new taxes. We are Taxed Enough Already. So pass the tea and on to the next battle. You see, without the debt celing lifted, the Demons do not get their spending. So it could be check and mate.
Not surprisingly, John Boehner and the Always Willing To Go Along / Get Along Republicans caved yet again last night and managed to cut a whopping $38.5 billion dollars in another wheel spinning … continuing budget resolution. Not really a surprise. This is more of what we can expect when the schoolyard bully keeps stealing your sister’s lunch money week after week and all her big brother can say is – “(uhhh) I’m sorry, Butch. That’s all she had today. (err) We’ll have more for ‘ya next week. We promise. OK?”
Yesterday, while waiting to see at what point the Republicans would, once again, bend and accomodate, I wrote a little commentary and attached an eye opening graphic that showed exactly, in visual detail, how large a Trillion Dollars is. I’m not able to post it here, but I can tell you, it’s REEEALLY big. When viewing the enormous hole this current administration is sinking us into, you’d come away with a clearer idea of how piddly a mere $38.5 billion is from a Trillion and a Half Dollar budget.
It ain’t reeeeal big.
But to get a better idea of how nah-dah this latest resolution was for fiscal conservatives, President Obama indicated his initial satisfaction with the deal and said -”Today, Americans of different beliefs came together” – while “Leader Harry” muttered that the settlement was “historic.” Although not quoted, Jerry Seinfeld might have described it as “just more Ya-Dee-Ya-Dee-Ya-Dah.” See, when you cut through the foobab and feldergarb and begin pondering the Democrat’s post settlement response, it seems to me if Barry and Harry were smirking,(and they were) that ought to tell you everything you need to know about what Mr. B. actually gained: Not much. As of this morning, taxpayers will still be funding abortions (except in Washington D.C.), the EPA is still around to tell us what kind of light bulbs to use, and all that initial funding for Obmacare remains in the mill. That is unless the Boehner Squad can manage to get those 60 majority “Yea” votes in the U.S. Senate. But I’m not holding my breath.
So what again did Americans actually come together on? As far as I can see, the only thing linked was Speaker B. gripping hands around ankles one more time. I guess that’s what Barack meant when he exhorted earlier in the week: “Republicans need to be flexible.”
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a Tea Party to attend.
The leadership huffed and puffed and blarneyed around the Capitol. In the end they tore off their outer garments to expose their French military uniforms. They then ran to Harry and BO and surrendered without firing a shot, as usual. Republicans are like Pavlov’s dog. Keep ringing the bell.
Why were the negotiations only between these 3 clowns? Boehner was foolish to put himself in the corner alone with those 2 jackals with no back-up.
We got hosed. The Republicans had acknowledged they had one chance to establish their credibility with the Tea Party.
They blew it.
Cutting $100 or $60 or $38.5 billion was always peanuts. What was ALLWAYS the real battle was what programs were cut and what those cuts stopped the administration from doing. Defunding planned parenthood was largely symbolic in that it would be years before any effect on the number of abortions if ever. Perhaps defunding PP might have forced it to reduce the amount of money it launders for Democratic campaigns. Cutting even $100 billion would have no appreciable effect on our deficits. Allowing the EPA to exist in general and regulate carbon in particular will cost us hundreds of billions. Allowing the FCC to implement net neutrality even after a court has ruled they have no jurisdiction will stifle innovation and lead to less freedom. There are other Riders that were crucial to thwarting the coup de tat.
But perhaps the most crushing defeat for Conservatives and our Republic is that the government wasn’t shutdown. Shutting down the government is an important goal in and of itself. It is the only weapon we had, now the Bolsheviks know we are afraid to wield it. As soon as possible the Republican needed to engineer a shutdown over something trivial, like naming a mailbox just to prove they were willing to be that petty merely to prove a point. That’s how you fight and win when the odds are completely against you. When your weapons are limited but powerful there is no substitute for a ruthless, brutal if necessary, dedication to the task at hand.
The Republicans have established beyond dispute that they are spineless cretins, cowardly poltroons, sheep in wolf’s clothing, scrofulous dilettantes effecting the attributes of leadership with none of the qualities.
Judas!
The government media is fawning over the orange one’s “one heck of a spending deal.”
Apparently Obummer spiked Boehner’s cigarettes with some of the Kenyan pot his brother sends him from back home.
How about a bunch of you quit crying? You sound like 5 year old kids bawling because you mother wouldn’t let you eat your whole birthday cake by yourself? Politics is played from strong hands, not busted flushes and 4 card straights. Your constant caterwauling feeds the liberals and the MSM like crack to a crackhead.
The Republicans control the house. Tell me what creative political strategies you have that make it possible for them to force the senate and the president to do their bidding.
When the active duty military pay became an issue there was no way they could not pass some sort of a compromise. You same crybabies would have been whining about that too.
Grow up. Politics is not always about short term gains.
Many of us are tired of politics “as usual”. If we wanted politics usual, we would not have voted during the last election, and Boehner, the leader of the minority, would have been kissing up to Pelosi. It’s “politicians” like you who got us into this situation. This isn’t about politics. It’s about the future of this country.
Bravo Roger, as usual.
It’s not just a matter of concern for the United States. Thinking people the world over, that is, those not from the bien-pensant chattering classes, know that as goes the survival of the US, so goes the survival democracy and the rule of law, and the world’s bulwark against the revival of barbarism and tyranny.
This is something that the chattering classes of the west only perceive dimly, or choose from malevolence not to acknowledge at all (even though It’s one of the lessons of the 20th century). They will never give a straight answer to the question: who would you prefer as the most militarily powerful nation on earth: the US? Russia? China?
I for one look upon the decline of the US with foreboding.
well, the first voting battle in the ‘war of the posers’ has been fought to a draw. nothing has really changed.
el presidente vacations right until the last minute, saunters in and claims victory. reports are he will soon be on paid vacation again. where ever it costs the most to go. he sends his regards.
pelosi galore shakes her thang pressing the flesh until zero hour, then axplains how the doms will disreagard any internet laws they don’t like, and will of course continue to spend uncle sugar under the table.
reid ‘em and weep doesn’t have to play any cards for a short while, then he will be caught bluffing. that is, if this game lasts that long. the odds are not favorable.
meanwhile, back at the raunch, the good guys … well, that is the $14.2 trillion question, what will they do?
me? martini anyone? present shaken, future blurred.
Not only IS he the problem, he represents the old guard who refuses to learn new tricks, such as leadership, instead of compromise. And you can tell that the opposition feel the same way. They played him like a fiddle. He is the problem because of the authority he has assumed. He was voted in by the House, but he IS the leader of the House. That concentrates great power, if only he would use it. He is afraid of all the wrong things. That’s why I call him the General Meade of the RNC. Meade had a lot of power too, and blew it!! Was the system “broke” then? The system is not broken. It has been ignored, abused, misrepresented and bypassed. That is what the Tea Party is insisting on, that we return to a Constitutional government,not one run by a minority of statists. Yes, Boehner is the problem. The sooner we can remove him the better we will all be!!
“Pathetic” is the perfect word.
Does Boehner know what this ‘compromise’ is going to make voters do in November of next year? You bet he does. If he had gotten a shutdown he would have taken a little heat for it—mostly from MSM lackeys—but not a great deal. Dems would have been blamed the most for it. But the magnitude of blame would have been much less than what was heaped on Republicans in ’95.
cfbleachers,
I think you have described the perfect man for the job and the fact is…we have Him. The Lord is the one who can and does pull all the strings anyways.
He will pick up and put down as He chooses. Why not ask Him?
When things look quite desperate, they are really nothing to Him. And that includes a trillion dollars.
He is now on the earth, walking among us and can do whatever He chooses. I say we ask Him to be the One to save us. There is none better.
I saw Him at the gas station yesterday. He was shaking his head at the high prices.
Math Made Simple.
100 is 100.
72 it NOT 100
61 is NOT 100
and 38 is definately NOT 100.
I knew that the Republicans Learned NOTHING AT ALL when they proposed 61 billion in cuts instead of 250 billion in cuts.
Essentially speaking, they are crowing about victory because by Punting on First Down, they caught Democrats unprepared!
Gotta disagree, here. The new Republican congress was brought in on a promise to cut $100bn from the budget this year. When you add up the incremental cuts that we’ve won over the various continuing resolutions and this budget deal, we’ve got $79bn down. That’s probably more than any of us expected would actually materialize. On top of that, we’ve still got a major battle left to wage, with the debt ceiling. If we can get even $11bn out of that, that makes 90% good on the promise… something that nobody in their right mind would have believed could happen when they control only one third of the decision-making bodies.
In the end, the debt ceiling will have to be raised. There’s no way around that. But if we can get more concessions for it, then all the better.
Should the cuts be deeper? Damn straight they should. I consider even Paul Ryan’s plan to be a down payment. But the fact is, this deal changes the trajectory. It’s in inflection point. Now the slope of the line is concave down, even if it’s still positive. We cannot win this all at once. But if we keep fighting, bit by bit, we’ll get there.
Look, Obama’s in dire straights because he went too far too fast. Let’s not make the same mistake. Every round of cuts gets the public used to the idea. Every round of cuts puts the democrats back on their heels and pisses off their base. Yes, in the end, we have to play politics. Why? Because if we don’t, then the democrats will take over again, and the curve will go concave up again.
My recommendation is, instead of excoriating Boehner, take a wait-and-see approach. Keep the pressure up. Let him know that his position is only secure if he keeps the trend going AND INCREASING. If the GOP can cross the $100bn mark, give him credit. Then raise the bar. That’s the only thing that’s going to work. Immediate and shocking cuts aren’t POSSIBLE, given the current congress. We’re conservatives. We know the difference between real and make-believe. Accept what is real and work to change what is possible in 2012. Continuing to pitch a fit because Boehner didn’t do what couldn’t be done isn’t going to help.
Disappointment, again, that the Repuplican Congress can not seem to show any spine…the amount agreed upon is just a silly pittance thrown out there for all to see how inept our so-called leadership operates. Why would anyone wonder when people get FED UP with the charade of our elected officials and just turn off politics in their lives. They still go to vote though – just less informed. Very sad commentary. The people screamed out at the last election – Congress seems to have NOT heard the people adequately.
This was anything but a victory. “Yet this was in fact an armistice, a temporary truce and not a permanent peace between the government of Great Britain and the self assertive colonists.” – Christopher Ward, The War of the Revolution…..Republicans tossed away their biggest (dare I say only) bargaining chip. Boehner demonstrated weakness. While this does not hand Obama the 2012 election, it gives him room to boast to the great uninformed masses.
This is not unlike the post exam consultation, with the proctologist telling you there are no polyps but he lost his watch. Then you find out it is a pocket watch.
This is only a beginning. This had better be the first battle of many more to come. Ours problems did not begin with Obama and they will not end with what,s his name. Even if we got the 100 billion, would we be crowing victory and patting ourselves on the back and the job would be done? We need to be in this for the long haul and get busy on the next move and not shoot ourselves in the foot over what’s his name.
Ryan’s proposal was far from being the only serious proposal. Actually the RSC proposal was much better, cutting 9 trillion in the next decade, instead of just 6 trillion according to Ryan’s plan.
Besides that, Ryan is not credible. He voted for every possible big government program in the book, from Medicare part D, No Child Left Behind, TARP 2008, additional stimulus spending in July 2009 (to the tune of almost 200 billion). And we are supposed to believe anything this guy says, and to consider him a “fiscal hawk” and someone who is going to lead the effort to dismantle the big government? Give me a break. He is just a puppet of the Republican DC fraternity, just like the editorial page of WSJ, NRO and Heritage Foundation. A proven “Bushista”!
Two words for the Budget Compromise – VERY PATHETIC! And for the guy (or gal) who posted that Boehner isn’t the problem, that the system is broke,….Boehner, sadly, is part of the system and he must go. He obviously doesn’t have the guts or balls to take this fight to the Democrats. And it IS what they people said they wanted last November. Doesn’t seem to matter to anyone that’s in an elected position. But that WILL change! And Boehner’s days in the House are numbered! He had his chance and HE BLEW IT IN A BIG WAY! ACTIONS (or lack of) HAVE CONSEQUENCES! Boehner is just the newest McCain, Snowe and Collins in the Party!
Eric…Okay lets all just concede that Boehner is the problem with the government since he’s has the say of what gets passed, how its passed and by whom it is passed….and congressional process is frivolous.
Using your theory we only need to elect one person for each house of congress in the same way we elect a president…but wait! That wouldn’t shift the power in ‘your’ favor either, since the people sent a democrat to the senate and office of the president. Guess we’re still stuck with the constitutional congressional PROCESS afterall…huh?
The States don’t elect their representatives to go to congress and be led by a party dictator upon arrival. Likewise, NO party nor persons within a party, can just push the congressional process aside as they wish to accomplish what they want. Your comments are short sighted or you’re ill informed of how the government and congress works.
Assuming Boehner got passed everything you desire in the house side, it would be dead upon arrival in the senate….before ever entertaining the presidents veto pen. The ‘conservative’ folks had better wake up and get smart before they destroy any possbility of the GOP gaining any meaningful control of the government forth coming! Washington is all about adversarial strategy by influence peddlers and if you don’t like the way government processes works for the country then, rather than irrelevent personal attacks maybe get smart and take back the government using the constitution and or amemdments to it. Anything else is a waste of time!
The good ship America has a gaping hole beneath the waterline. Slowing the flooding by 1% is meaningless, especially as we cintinue to sink deeper, approaching a point of no return.
I agree with Mr Kimball. This ‘deal’ is pathetic.
Dear Dr. Bones,
Did you notice anythin’ here?
For instance, that Roger, freelord of Simon Pajama in the neopeerage — ¡an’ World’s Greatest YaleoDrama™ist! — supposes that the crew to which he has perverted is spposta smash Social Security an’ Maim Medica* in One Swell Phoop, in a single annual budget. Not altogether unlike the late Dzugashvili is his freelordship. Or would be if he understood the numbers he slings.
Well, you and I do not pick our politics up out of the e-gutter, so let me stick rather to the YaleoDrama™urgic implications of the freelordly latest. Trivially, it appears that the YD™ product is exempt from arithemtic as such. Where that leaves the so-called Aristotelian unities, I do not believe one can pronounce on the present evidence, but there is enough to let us discuss the matter a little.
His freelordship exhibits a bracin’ contempt for the unity of time in particular, an’ moreover exhibits it in the course of quarrelin’ with one of his own scenic figments, the one who “has gone to the trouble of showing us the way out of fiscal catastrophe, release from which is the _conditio sine qua non_ of recovered prosperity and, at the end of the day, the means of helping anyone, ourselves first of all, but also” … maybe even the Bad Poor. Maybe. A little.
Now the YD™ figment in question is plainly labelled “Paul Ryan,” and, considering that his freelordship fantasizes expressly about a “Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s ‘Roadmap for America’ budget proposal,” I don’t see how the alleged proposer can be (a yaleorepresentation of) anybody but the Smirk of Janesville itself. [*]
To be sure, fictionists were putting ‘historical’ characters up on the scaffold and making them do all sorts of unattested things long before Columbus and Leif Ericson discovered Neohaven. Pre-yalies have even appeared as characters (sort of) in their own pscenarios. Massa Rodge innovates here in a way that makes an even more Brechtian mishmash that Bert himself, for the real Ronpaulryan I (the smirk that pays taxes, or rather tribute, to the fiend Sam) is rather a good friend to the Unity of Time. Thus the premier YaleoDrama™ist manages to be. not just quarrelin’ with his own figment, but — quarrelin’ with it about a YaleoDrama™ological .point.
I doubt the pajamaclad wombscholars an’ freedowndumbees will have much taste for so cerebral a neogenre. I’m not even sure I do. That, however, is strictly his freelordship’s look-out.
I do wonder a little whether his freelordship attempted to read the document he fails to help us comprehend. I found the Congressional Budget Office review of the CliffsNotes™ version of R4AF (“the legislation that you introduced today [27 January 2010], as modified pursuant to specifications provided by your staff) a rather hard slog, full of prose-challenged prose of the ‘as modified pursuant to specifications provided by’ sort. Still, like His Holeyness of WI-01, and unlike Massa Rodge, they do allow one to place most of their sentences chronologically with a fair degree of certainty.
The bureaucratic style seems, however, to exclude a great deal of what you or I or the Master would account literary criticism. Though every individual wingnuttism is datable, the Matthew Arnolds and Saint-Beuves of C. B. O. never point out as a general proposition how reluctant to get started His Holeyness — or perhaps the small people on the hire-archical staff, the modifiers pursuant — are to actually get started. Quite contrary to the impression exuded by Massa Rodge, the roadmapsters don’t propose to touch the Social Ponzi Administration much, and Medicare only startin’ eleven years hence.
So there is a puzzle for you, sir: assuming, as mere ivy-league courtesy to Neohaven, that his freelordship is in fact qualified to bark about this topic at all — that he waded some of that bleak pixfree verbiage, I mean –how come he is not barkin’ “¡Faster Please!” almost as loud as Grand Ayátalláh Mikey Bin Ledeen barks it at the evil Qommies?
To be sure, if I overestimate the freelordly diligence an’ the squire of Simon Pajama has in fact proceded on the basis of journalistic acounts, whether American or Foxcuckoolander, that could fit in with the PJ worldview easily enough. Though untainted by wombscholarship an’ freedumbin’ down, lieberals and demonocrats cannot find the verbiage in question either easy or delightsome, plus, even if we did, naturally we would prefer not to encourage complacency on the part of our weaker siblings. Maybe His Holeyness an’ the pursuant smirklings are in no big rush, but they are scarcely dictators over Wingnut City an’ Rio Limbaugh/Port Ste. Lucie. It is not reasonable to expect any of our guys (with the possible exception of Comrade Greenwald and a few other cranks) to report accurately what is in the _Kritik der reinen Verwesung_ unless there is some advantage involved beyond mere accuracy. [**]
Healthy days.
–JHM
___
[*] Nor do I see how his freelordship could have made it clearer that he can’t tell — or does not condescend to care about — the difference between a practical budget an’ a Thirty Year Plan in the path of Party an’ Ideology.
[**] What the Janesville Smirk was really up to is an interesting question. If I had to guess based on the present unsatisfactory materials, I would suppose what we have here is rather an attempt to establish the _señorito_ a reputation for bein’ Serious, than to map US out any particular roads to ruin’. This seems to have been accomplished, unfortunately.
As to what really comes next, roadmapwise, naturally it is for the genuine TopPercenters to decide that, not a smartass hired hand like Smirk. Perhaps Peter, Freelord of Concord, will now take the helm an’ try to cut off the Bad Poor without a cent *before* the freelordly last will an’ testament becomes operative: “¡Death Tax, thou shalt die!”
Or whatever.
“$38.5 billion in spending cuts and Harry Reid declares an “historic” occasion. In fact, the “deal” was not so much a compromise as a capitulation on the part of the Republicans, but what else is new?”
This points to 2 questions I’ve had since Friday night: how is this a “compromise”, and where is Mr Boehner’s leadership here? The Repubs went into the negotiations wanting $61 billion in cuts, defunding Planned Parenthood and control over the EPA. The Donks wanted the already agreed upon $31 billion and nothing about PP or the EPA. Boehner comes out with $38.5 billion (less than 25% of the differences) and a vague “commitment” to look into PP and the EPA later this year.
Wow, did he get everything he wanted, or what!?!
I am disappointed that we didn’t get more cuts, but that we got CUTS at all is a major step in the right direction. There are going to be more opportunities for more cuts before the Nov. 2012 elections, the 2012 and 2013 budgets, at least one and more likely several debt level increases. All will provide opportunities for further cuts.
The TEA party is working, we are winning.
If you don’t show up with your sign at your local TEA party rally on 4/15 you have no right to rage.
Two things I noticed.. the “discretionary ” spending is almost as much as Social Security which people have paid into for all their working lives.. discretionary spending is a lot of pork to help the politicians get voes back home..
Also noticed how casually Medicare and medicaid are lumped together as if they are equal.. once more most retired people have paid into medicaid when they worked and continue to pay for Part B out of their Social Security checks.. where medicaid is health welfare for people living for the most part on the governments dime..
They are not the same and they are not funded the same..
Teresa…..Millions of American’s, citizens and non citizens, not close to retirement age gaming the system, draw benefits of social security (disability) which triggers additional benefits such as medicare/medicade, SSI, food stamps, housing assistance, education benefits, day care assistance, etc. Then add to that the millions of women with children who become eligible for medicare/medicaid, medicare payment assistance, childrens health care, dental and vision along with all the other aforementioned benefits. Check out the list for what can qualify for social security disability.
Fifty-eight million people draw social security and all the other affiliated entitlement benefits. IF eligibilty were to be ‘reset’ back to the original legislative requirements before LBJ changed the game, social security and keeping medicare, would be quite sustanable.
["Until last year (2010) Social Security took in more payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits. It lent the surpluses to the rest of the government.
Now that Social Security has started to pay out more than it takes in, Social Security can simply collect what the rest of the government owes it.... Feb 26, 2011, Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and trustee of the Social Security trust fund."]
Again, if only the aged, 65 and above and ‘legitimately’ infirmed ‘citizens’ without economic resources to adequately care for themselves were eligible the entitlement side of government, it would not be a problem. The millions of irresponsible but otherwise able bodied freeloaders on the rolls are the problem! Likewise, with a cleaned up and reset system, I have NO problem with seniors being means tested for eligbility.
Right on Roger. Of all of today’s commentary on the greatest non-shutdown in history, you hit the Boehner on the head.