Republicans Duck and Cover on Spending Cuts
This week, Republicans swept to power by promising to cut, in the words of Indiana's Mike Pence, "runaway federal spending." But when it comes to putting taxpayers' money where their mouths are, Pence, incoming Speaker John Boehner, future Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Michele Bachmann and much of the cowardly GOP's top-brass refuse to say what budget cuts they will actually make. And now to add insult to injury, many of the leading lights of the Republican Party are waiting for recommendations from President Obama's deficit commission, a panel whose creation they opposed.
For months, Republicans have refused to "man up" to the draconian budget cuts their tough-talking campaign pledges would necessarily require. Pressed by NBC's David Gregory last month, Mike Pence could not "name the painful choice on a program that you're going to cut." Asked seven times by Chris Wallace of Fox News, failed GOP California Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina responded only, "you're asking a typical political question." Even as he touted the "GOP Pledge to America," Speaker-to-Be Boehner dodged Wallace as well:
Let's not get to the potential solutions. Let's make sure Americans understand how big the problem is. Then we can talk about possible solutions and then work ourselves into those solutions that are doable.
That charade has only continued since the election. Within 24 hours, Cantor, Bachmann and Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn all did the duck-and-cover on spending cuts. With defense, Social Security and Medicare (not to mention interest on the national debt) off the table, the unexplained GOP pledge to cut $100 billion in "discretionary" spending would necessarily gut the departments of Education, Transportation, Interior, Commerce and Energy by more than 20%.
And as was on display on Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN Thursday, the comic cowardice of the ersatz Republican spending hawks has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime. Refusing to reveal what Boehner described as "lot of tricks up our sleeves in terms of how we can dent this," Republicans are now saying they will wait for President Obama's deficit commission to weigh in.
To make that point, Cooper showed a Meet the Press clip of Texas Senator and NRSC head John Cornyn using President Obama as a human shield:
DAVID GREGORY: What painful choices to really deal with the deficit, is Social Security on the table? What will Republicans do?
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX), CHAIR, NATIONAL REPUBLICAN SENATORS: The president has a debt commission that reports December the 1st and I think we'd all like to see what they come back with. And my hope is they'll come back for the bipartisan solution to the debt and particularly entitlement reform, as you -- as you've mentioned.
But I --
DAVID GREGORY: But wait a minute, conservatives need a -- a Democratic president's debt commission to figure out what it is they'd want to cut?
Former Bush chief of staff Andy Card also argued that discretion is the better part of valor when it comes to Republicans and their budget machismo:
I do think it's appropriate to wait for the -- the wisdom that might come from this debt commission. They're going to have to make some tough recommendations and see how the president reacts. I think it's much too early to be talking about specific program cuts that are only designed to inflame the debate rather than be constructive and really bringing discipline to the government. The president is the one that will have to propose a budget. Congress will have to react to it.
As it turns out, the new Republican majority lack both courage and a sense of irony. After all, the deficit commission was established by President Obama's executive order after a bill to create it was filibustered in the Senate by 53-46. That defeat came only after several Republican Senators voted against the very bill they once supported. As Politics Daily summed it up:
This reversal early this year involved six Republican co-sponsors of such a commission who voted against their own Senate bill. The six were McCain, Brownback, Mike Crapo of Idaho, John Ensign of Nevada, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and James Inhofe of Oklahoma. McConnell had once supported the idea, but he too voted against it. The bill required an up-or-down vote on the commission recommendations. McConnell and others said they feared the panel might suggest raising taxes.
And so it goes. Aside from Paul Ryan (whose plan to privatize Social Security and Medicare made him a GOP pariah during election season), virtually the entire Republican leadership team tried to run out the clock before Election Day without ever detailing the spending cuts they claimed to champion. Now, these same born-again deficit hawks are too afraid to stand on their supposed principles. The first move in the game of budget chess, they insist, is Obama's.
Vice President Dick Cheney famously said, "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
And Cheney also said the Constitution is just a piece of paper .
abide by it, he may have been right.
As a famous Gomer once said, "Surprise, surprise, surprise."
It's clear that Obama will simply HAVE TO cut Social Security, because after all, the deficit commission (that just happens to be stacked with anti-SS-istas) said so. Woe, woe is he!
It's not like this entire scenario was planned, I'm sure it just worked out that way by chance.
On the upside, I suspect the "compromise" will only screw those just starting out paying into SS, and the cap will be raised to, oh, let's say $150,000. We progressives will simply have to accept that this is the best that could be done, after only 2 years and with the Republican obstructionists.
Wants to receive Social Security, then they need to vote for candidates that will protect it. As a senior citizen, I want to see Social Security be available to all Americans when they come of age, including my grandchildren, great grandchildren etc...
find a progressive candidate to run against Obama and get him out of office. Obama with a Rethugligan congress is his biggest wet dream. He is controlled by the corporate overlords. I am approaching retirement as well and I want my kids and grandchildren to have the same benefits as well. The problem right now is getting them to vote. IMO
Except of course, the defense budget. They'll have to gut all other spending in order to pay for the upcoming war with Iran, if Lindsay Graham, John Bolton and the other chicken(shit)hawks get their wish.
Cut the War on Drugs budget. Especially after it has been found that the CIA is a major player in the international drug trade. Planes crashing, taking advantage of opium production in Afghanistan.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
a plane the CIA leased many years ago for rendition transport crashes with drugs on board and that makes them drug dealers. That's a bit of s stretch. Who was leasing it when crashed? I hope no car you ever rent gets used subsequently in a major crime like that or you could be in big trouble.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Cut the budget for the war on drugs and the private prison industrial complex. Cut the CIA's budget. Quit paying off foreign drug dealers like Karzai's brother etc.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
anything about the CIA. Unless, of course, you just think they would never do such a thing.
has essentially been unlimited since 9/11 why would they?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Here's the truth of the matter: [PIC]
http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/greenberg/...
"It is absurd to say our country can issue bonds and cannot issue currency. Both are promises to pay, but one fattens the usurer and the other helps the people." -- Thomas Edison
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
As I explained afte the Tea Party rolled out its "Contract from America" in April, the right not only can't name major cuts they would make. Their balanced budget talk, if acted upon, would produce fiscal suicide:
From "Tea Party 'Contract from America' a Fiscal Suicide Pact":
Sadly, the Tea Party's fuzzy math doesn't work. Put another way, you can't get there from here.
For starters, the Bush tax cuts the Tea Party wants to make permanent (10) are largely responsible for the expanding deficits in this decade and the next. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) detailed, the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 accounted for almost half of the mushrooming deficits during his tenure. And as another recent CBPP analysis revealed, over the next 10 years, the Bush tax cuts will contribute more to the U.S. budget deficit than the Obama stimulus, the TARP program, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and revenue lost to the recession - combined. (Ending the so-called "death tax," which impacts only 1 in 500 estates, will drain billions more per year from the U.S. Treasury.) An AP chart last fall of data from the Congress Budget Office show the explosion of federal debt that will ensue if the Tea Baggers and their Republicans get their way.
Of course, a balanced budget (3) could theoretically still be achieved if the Tea Partiers were willing to make draconian budget cuts to the $3.8 trillion federal budget proposed by President Obama. But these ersatz fiscal conservatives won't make the choices. We know this, because they told us so.
A quick note on the basic math of the budget. President Obama's proposed $3.8 trillion budget for 2011 is forecast to produce a $1.3 trillion deficit (down from $1.6 trillion in 2010). National defense and Social Security each come in at $738 billion. Medicare totals $498 billion, while Medicaid and other health care services add $260 billion and $25 billion, respectively. Throw in the required $251 billion in required interest payments on the national debt, and those portions alone of Washington's bill total over $2.5 trillion. Meanwhile, given that the Bush tax cuts accounted for half of the deficits during his tenure and more than half over the next decade, the Obama budget rightly calls for letting the Bush tax cuts expire for Americans earning over $250,000. (For more details, see this convenient New York Times interactive budget chart.)
But as a new survey from the CBS and the New York Times made clear, the Tea Partiers themselves have taken the big ticket items off table when it comes to budget cuts:
If defense, Social Security, Medicare and the required interest on the national debt are untouched, that's over $2.2 trillion. Somehow, Tea Partiers would have to magically cut $1.3 trillion of the remaining $1.6 in FY 2010 spending.
The key is "have to." After all, the Tea Party "Contract from America," like Grover Norquist, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich and legions of Republicans past and present, want a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution. Norquist's "starve the beast" dream of drowning government in a bathtub would be realized.
For her part, 62 year old Tea Party support Jodine White acknowledged to the Times:
She's far from alone. A recent poll by the Economist found that the only area of the federal budget which more than one-third of Americans supported cutting was foreign aid. "Bummer, then," Ezra Klein of the Washington Post wrote, "that it accounts for less than a single percent of the budget." (For more on this stunning chart of what Americans are willing to cut versus where their government actually spends their money, see Annie Lowrey.)
Because then they can't just use the blanket phrase "government spending" if it's clearly defined. Plus, each and every Republican - even the crazy ones like Bachmann - know that the spending they WANT to cut will come largely from their base's pocket. They'll wait to do those things until very close to 2012, if not after, to avoid having their illogical and uninformed base backlash against them.
The GOP's 2010 comeback strategy relied heavily on ensuring that the economy did not prosper under the Obama Administration.
I hope less and less journalists continue to give these guys the benefit of the doubt and underestimate their capacity for evil. Damn.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Those journalists will say whatever they are told to. Chris Wallace even tarnishes his family's journalism and ethics record because his employer tells him to and he does. The media in its current form must be replaced in the long run. Corporate control is bad for everyone.
I sure hope you are not only now figuring that out Geronimo .
He with the snappiest catch phrase or best sounding sound bit wins elections now and the best part is(for them) that nothing that you say has to be true.
If you exclude the arm forces and the post office then the number of federal employees is about 1.7 million which is about 1.1% of all workers. There are about 21 million government employees in total in American. So the size of local and state government is 11 times the size of the federal government. So if people are truly worried about the size of government then they should focus on their state and local government first since they are the largest chunk of the pie.
The Republican party wants to hurt the Federal government's ability to enforce the law - particularly when it comes to their business backers. At least with the states there's always certain ones who are friendly to corporations even if the liberal states aren't. And business feels they can push the local governments around easier than the Feds. Imagine: global mega corporation versus the Texas State Attorney General. What do you think he's gonna say to big oil or big pharma? I know, first words, "What is thy bidding, my master?"
"if people are truly worried about the size of government"
The Republican party is not worried about the size of government. Especially when they run it. They are worried about the power of the American government to fulfill its job of protecting the American people versus the power of organized lies and multi-national corporations to dominate the American people. So what if they SAY they care about government spending. That was to get elected.
None of this means a hill of beans to the public becuase the GOP will continue to blame the Democrats for every woe and the Democrats are incapable of messaging anything even when an issue is handed to them.
It make the republican look serious about controlling government spending but the republicans know that it will never ever pass. It will be more of a constraint on the republicans since they often run the largest deficits. The next time they propose it the democrats should just not vote so that it can pass and go to the states.
Hmmm. Come on, now, you Tea Party, Constitution-worshipping people: is this how the Constitution says things are supposed to be run?
Article One, Section Eight talks about how Congress "shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States", but there isn't one word about the Executive Branch participating in that at all.
Section Seven says "All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives". Nothing about the Executive Branch there, either.
About the best one can do in order to involve the President in the budgeting process is to quote Article Two, Section Four, where it says "[the President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient".
The GOP is cowardly refusing to say what they would cut to reduce the deficit. So now they are saying that they are gonna wait for the recommendations of Dubyama's deficit commission on December 1? So great, they will be allowed to spin all of the tough cuts on Dubyama all the while saying that they only accepted those recommendations in the name of being "bipartisan." Dubyama will be blamed and they will just hammer him with it.
The GOP is already backtracking on spending cuts. They will not cut out ear marks. They were all talk when the Democrats are in power but once they the GOP get power their ideas about spending change.
The stupidity of the American People is boundless.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Of course, had Obama not hired Rahm and all the other GOP wannabee a**holes as advisors, and worked with ball less Harry to shove the Filibuster up the GOP's arse, they could have done what they promised in 2008, made the psychotic republicans actually filibuster against the people and the country, and we wouldn't have a revitalized GOP with a House majority.
I still believe we are only in the beginning stages of the 2nd phase of the revolution; gutting the DLC corporate power structure from within the democratic party. The psychotic republicans will implode again, because they are stupid, evil, and their horrid destructive policies can only be peddeled for so long. Especially with the state of the country now.
Obama, and the rest of the DLC must be replaced in 2012, otherwise, even if democrats do win again, the DLC will turn them into losers once again overnight. That's what the DLC does - it gets republicans elected.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
a tax on candy and soda was removed--one that was put on to help balance the state budget. A prop levy in the largest county, aimed at funding emergency agencies--defeated. School funds in Seattle where there's been school closures--fugedabout it. And the worst, an initiative intro'd by the evil selfish greedy scum sucking Tim Eyman, requiring 2/3 majority in the state legislature for any tax increase, passed. And the town of Mukelteo, had a red light camera system which people claimed was not an enforcement measure but a tax--voted away.
So guess what assholes sitting in the line for the ferry boats started crying and minging on about when told ferry runs will be dropped because the tax shit is catastrophic (the ferry system is part of state highways--heavily subsidised by taxes from everyone)--"I didn't know that would happen, that Eyman's bill would make it so we couldn't raise the ferry fares or impose tolls on highways (putting several projects in jeopardy--projects which have already been in the planning for a decade or so, already had millions in taxes spent on them)." I can only hope a judge looks at his new 'law' and throws it out. But Eyman's been burned like that before. He probably has a lawyer vet his bullshit now. But I knew ferry boats would come up first.
Really you assholes? You just hear no taxes and vote for it? Now the gov isn't talking about cutting funds to programs, she's talking about cutting programs--in their entirety. The King Co sheriff--she's probably going to have to cut 70 positions, including the newest officers just hired, ones who had lots of tax money spent on them for training. And of course, idiots here in Seattle are going to scream like wounded eagles when the school cuts start rolling through and their kids are in 40 student classrooms.
And what do the loser Thugs in this state say? The gov isn't thinking outside the box. She needs to look at cutting healthcare and other benefits for state workers, for a start.
I hate these "Don't tax me, bro!" Thug motherfuckers.
me-oww!
"Don't tax me, bro!"
Excellent. Well done.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
And now to add insult to injury, many of the leading lights of the Republican Party are waiting for recommendations from President Obama's deficit commission, a panel whose creation they opposed.
President Obama providing unsolicited political cover to the GOP in the interest of being bipartisany.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Remember Joseph McCarthy? "Trust me! Right here in this briefcase I have all the evidence I need to prove the charges I'm making!" But of course what he had there was a sandwich and a bottle of bourbon.
Richard Nixon? "Trust me! I have a plan that will end the Vietnam War. I'm not going to tell you what it is, though, because that would tip our hand." But of course there was no plan.
Currently? "Trust us! We've discovered a way that you really can have a free lunch! And breakfast, dinner, and midnight snack, too! You'll never again have to pay your fair share to obtain the things you need to keep you and the nation strong."
"Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them."
—Walter Kerr
Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you might get
Ex-Lax...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The answer is quite simple....Republicans have no idea what to cut and they won't cut much
What they will do is cut federal employees salaries so that they can look "cool" to their base....all the while cutting salaries of hard-working, low-paid employees AND getting NOTHING DONE WHATSOEVER to help the financial issues of the country
republican/gop turds just don't float.
Mountebank .
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mounte...
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