Boehner wins, but America still loses

From what I have been reading, it appears that quite a few people are saying Speaker Boehner has won the budget showdown. They all point to the fact that the national conversation in Washington has changed from wild deficit spending to spending cuts (albeit tiny ones).

This may all be true in the political sense, but in reality America still sits perilously close to an economic disaster. We are still spending hundreds of billions of dollars we do not have. The amount of money we are borrowing daily will soon eat up these cuts in no time flat. Yet, here are our so called "leaders" talking about "historic cuts".

I think part of the problem in Washington today is that there aren't many who can take in the big picture. Too many lawmakers, pundits and the media class focus on the little skirmishes and daily back and forth without taking into account the effect on the nation as a whole. 

Paul Ryan's budget plan is the first attempt in a long time to bring the big picture in focus. Unfortunately after watching this shutdown showdown, I don't have a lot of faith in seeing anything close to Ryan's plan being acted upon.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Drudge Report
Via: National Review
Via: Fox News

Shutdown Averted! Historic Spending Cuts?

Politico: After a long day of trading offers, the White House and House Republicans reached agreement Friday night on a budget framework that would cap 2011 appropriations near or below $1.050 trillion while cutting domestic and foreign aid by more than $40 billion from the rate of spending at the beginning of this Congress.

Behind the closed doors of special meeting of the Republican Conference, Speaker John Boehner presented the package to his party as at least an agreement in principle and said at one point: “We have a deal.” The Senate should now feel confident enough to move ahead with a stop gap spending bill to avert—or at least shorten—any shutdown beginning at midnight.

In a joint statement with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Friday night, Boehner announced: “We have agreed to an historic amount of cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year, as well as a short-term bridge that will give us time to avoid a shutdown while we get that agreement through both houses and to the president.”

Speaking on national television with the Washington Monument as a backdrop, President Barack Obama announced the deal shortly after 11 p.m. [MORE]

I just cannot believe how these bozos pat themselves on the back for not spending $40 billion dollars more of borrowed money and then have the brass to call that historic!

What exactly did Weepy Willow Boehner get out of this deal anyway? The riders for Planned Parenthood and the EPA were scrapped, and whatever spending cuts he got are still woefully inadequate for saving the nation from a debt crisis. Weepy Willow even allowed Obama to escape the funding the troops trap!

If Republican want to have any hope of enacting anything remotely similar to Ryan's budget proposal, it is very clear that tougher, bolder and braver leadership will be required. Boehner simply isn't up to the task.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: Politico

Via: The Washington Post

Hill Poll: More Americans would blame Democrats for government shutdown

The Hill: Twenty-nine percent of likely voters would blame Democrats for a government shutdown, compared to 23 percent who would hold Republicans responsible, according to a new poll conducted for The Hill. [...]

Republicans have a substantial edge among independents: Thirty-four percent would blame Democrats, while only 19 percent would blame the GOP.

However, there are dangers for both parties, the poll indicates. A plurality of voters, 43 percent, would blame both Republicans and Democrats if the lights go out at midnight on March 5. Forty-five percent of respondents said neither party would benefit politically from a shutdown. 

I am rather surprised that the numbers are not stronger.  Despite the endless comparisons to the 1995 shutdown, the situation is completely different today.  Today, the nation is on the fast track to bankruptcy and many Americans know it.  Thus, Democrats refusing almost any cuts makes them look highly irresponsible.


Seeing so many Americans willing to blame both parties, tells me that Republicans have not done a good job telling Americans are true financial situation.  Again we need an adult to step forward and tell the nation the truth ...We're Broke!


Via: Memeorandum
Via: The Hill

House Republicans and Senate Democrats cooking up compromise to avoid a shutdown

I swear, I don't think there is a complete pair of balls in the entire Republican leadership.  Can someone please explain the logic or necessity behind this?

CNN: Washington (CNN) - With funding for the federal government set to expire in less than two weeks, Senate Democrats and House Republicans are in discussions to avoid a government shutdown, a Senate Democratic leadership source told CNN.

News of the negotiations comes a day after several Republican lawmakers indicated they might accept a short-term spending bill as long as it included at least some spending reductions and not necessarily the deeper cuts the House approved last weekend.

Let me see if I can understand this.  The Republicans promise $100 billion in spending cuts in order to get elected.  Once elected, they chicken out and can only come up with $60 billion. Now with $60 billion on the table, they are willing to do less for a mere extension?  At this point I have to ask, why even bother cutting at all?

To make matters worse, even some of the new TEA Party Republicans are losing their testicular fortitude.

CNN has learned House Republican leaders are pushing them [conservative freshmen] to accept only modest cuts in the short-term to avoid a government shutdown. They've made the pitch in staff-level discussions, one-on-one meetings between leaders and freshman lawmakers, and a group meeting Friday with more than 70 freshman Republicans and Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy, according to two freshmen who were there.

It appears the hard sell is working.

Rep. Tim Scott. R-South Carolina, a Tea Party-backed freshman who was elected by his colleagues to serve as liaison to the House GOP leadership, told CNN Monday, "the time is short for the Senate to come up with on a long-term solution so we are prepared for a short term conversation on a short term [spending bill]."

Another Tea Party-backed freshman, Rep. Raul Labrador. R-Idaho, said he is on board, but only to a point.

"After one or two short term [spending bills] you do start losing some freshman, and I'm one of them," Labrador said. "We can't continue to fund government at this rate. The reason we came to Washington, DC is to let people know we want stability back in the system. You can't legislate by short term spending bills."

This is completely unnecessary. Let the shutdown happen. Then we can finally have the knock down drag out debate over whether or not we need to cut back or spend ourselves into oblivion. Judging from the early poll results in Wisconsin, I say this is a debate the GOP need not fear.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: CNN

Via: Rassmussen Reports

What happens when the government shuts down?

Yesterday the Republican controlled House voted 235 - 189 for a new Continuing Resolution containing some $60 billion in spending cuts. This new Continuing Resolution is to replace the one that runs out on March 4th.  Senate Democrats are not supporting the House's new CR.  Without a new Continuing Resolution, the government must shutdown.


So, what happens when the government shuts down? Does granny have to eat dog food because Social Security stops mailing her checks? Will your house get foreclosed on because my mortgage payment is late due to the Post Office closing? Will America be invaded because there is no Border Patrol?  


The answer to all of the above is NO!  This is because, despite the term "government shutdown", the government doesn't completely shutdown. Essential services and personnel will still continue to function throughout the "shutdown".


Unless Obama orders the Office of Management and Budget to redefine the meaning of  "essential services and personnel", these are the services and personnel that will continue to function.

Big Government [emphasis mine]: The CRS report is explicit regarding those government services that will not be disrupted. Cut and pasted directly from the report:

Essential Services and Personnel

A 1980 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum defines “essential” government services and “essential” employees as those:

1. providing for the national security, including the conduct of foreign relations essential to the national security or the safety of life and property;
2. providing for benefit payments and the performance of contract obligations under no-year or multi-year or other funds remaining available for those purposes;
3. conducting essential activities to the extent that they protect life and property, including:

• medical care of inpatients and emergency outpatient care;
• activities essential to ensure continued public health and safety, including safe use of food, drugs, and hazardous materials;
• continuance of air traffic control and other transportation safety functions and the protection of transport property;
• border and coastal protection and surveillance;
• protection of federal lands, buildings, waterways, equipment and other property owned by the United States;
• care of prisoners and other persons in the custody of the United States;
• law enforcement and criminal investigations;
• emergency and disaster assistance;
• activities that ensure production of power and maintenance of the power distribution system;
• activities essential to the preservation of the essential elements of the money and banking system of the United States, including borrowing and tax collection activities of the Treasury; and
• activities necessary to maintain protection of research property.

Let me be absolutely clear here. There will be no disruption in Social Security, welfare, civil service retirement, or any other kind of open-ended mandatory program payments. The mail will not stop because the Post Office is largely self-funding (with you know, those stamps you buy to mail things with). Air traffic controllers will not go on furlough, jets will keep flying, the Border Patrol will keep on attempting to secure the border that Janet Napolitano wants unsecured, and our military will stay in the fight, however poorly and treasonously led by the current Commander-in-Chief.

Will there be adverse effects? Absolutely. We are talking about a government shutdown. But they are not the dire consequences Democrats are hyping. The only people who will really notice the government shutdown are government workers themselves, and most importantly, Congressional Democrats.

Notice that the CRS Report link is directly from the Democrats’ House Rules Committee website. So the Democrats know all this, but they blatantly lie about it. They have an advantage in doing this because the media relentlessly echoes their message.

Do not allow the media or hyperventilating Democrats scare you into believing that the world will come to an end if the government shuts down.   I advise you to go to the Congressional Research Service report and read for yourself exactly what true effects are of a government shutdown. 

Via: CNBC News

Via: Big Government