Says it all.
Yes, I overslept this morning and didn’t have time to write a full post. Enjoy the cartoon and consider how accurate it is.
Category Archives: Government Spending
How did we get here and are we winning?
The short answer for today’s title is, by bumbling and…maybe, yes. Two articles appeared today in the internet news. One was an interview given by a House ‘Pub leader, name withheld, and the other was an article in Business Week. I have no reason to believe either are incorrect.
To the first question, how did we get her? The ‘Pub House leadership, Boehner, Cantor, et. al., were incredibly stupid over the summer. They had been working deals all through June, July and August with Harry Reid. The fix was in. Boehner would cut funding for Obamacare in the CR and Reid would block it. Boehner would then respond with a gimme—cut the medical device tax and delay implementation of Obamacare and Reid would buy that and all would be well, the rest of Obamacare would be funded like the dems wanted.
Surprise! Surprise! Reid blocked the second offer, too. He said all or nothing. While the back and forth continued, time ran out and the shutdown occurred. Byron York recounts an interview with one of those ‘Pub House leaders. We entered the shutdown like the Union and Confederacy accidentally bumping into one another and starting the Battle of Gettysburg.
GOP congressman: We stumbled into war over Obamacare
By BYRON YORK | OCTOBER 6, 2013 AT 3:02 PM
On Thursday afternoon, as the government shutdown entered its third day, a Republican member of the House sat down with a group of reporters in an office building not far from the Capitol. He spoke on the condition that he be referred to only as a House lawmaker, but without betraying the agreement it’s fair to say his was a perspective well worth listening to. The congressman walked the group through a set of issues involved in the shutdown — the continuing resolution, House-Senate relations, the coming debt limit talks, and more — but what was perhaps most striking was his frank talk about how the GOP leadership got itself into its current predicament. What became clear after an hour of discussion was that the House Republican leadership’s position at the moment is the result of happenstance, blundering, and a continuing inability to understand the priorities of both GOP and Democratic colleagues.
The congressman began with an anecdote from the Civil War. “I would liken this a little bit to Gettysburg, where a Confederate unit went looking for shoes and stumbled into Union cavalry, and all of a sudden found itself embroiled in battle on a battlefield it didn’t intend to be on, and everybody just kept feeding troops into it,” the congressman said. “That’s basically what’s happening now in a political sense. This isn’t exactly the fight I think Republicans wanted to have, certainly that the leadership wanted to have, but it’s the fight that’s here.”
When the September 30 deadline for funding the government was still weeks away, the lawmaker explained, he never thought Republicans and Democrats would fail to reach agreement on a continuing resolution. “To be honest with you, I did not think we’d be in a government shutdown situation,” he said. “I’m surprised that we’re here.” The congressman frankly admitted that he never saw the intensity of the party base’s opposition to Obamacare that came to the fore in the August recess. “I think that probably the Cruz phenomenon had a lot to do with that,” he said, referring to the campaign by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz to raise support for an effort to defund Obamacare. “I think it disrupted everybody’s plans, both in the administration and certainly the House Republican leadership.”
As the congressman told the story, as August progressed — and Cruz, along with a few Senate colleagues, the Heritage Foundation, and others, ran a high-profile campaign to stir public opinion against Obamacare — the House GOP leadership was mostly unaware of what was going on. “They got surprised a little bit by the Obamacare thing,” the lawmaker said. “This was something that blew up in August. Nobody really saw it coming — probably should have a little bit, I’m not being critical of anybody in that regard, on either side of this — but it just happened.”
Even after the events of August, and the rise of Cruz forced House Republicans to take notice, GOP leaders had little understanding of the course that the conflict, both inside the House Republican conference and with Senate Democrats, would eventually take. “I never thought defund, and honestly, I never thought delay, would work,” the lawmaker said. “I think the Democrats very much need the exchanges to come on and work to finally create a constituency for [Obamacare]…so I never thought they would agree on that.”
At this point Boehner’s carefully engineered plans went awry. Reid continued to insist on no negotiations, following Obama’s orders.
Still, the lawmaker thought Senate Democrats, and Majority Leader Harry Reid, would make some sort of concession on a lesser aspect of Obamacare. “I do think, though, when Boehner sent over delay and [repeal of the] medical device tax, I think he thought he’d probably get back medical device, and that would have probably been enough right there,” the congressman said. But Reid and the Democrats steadfastly refused to consider any change to Obamacare, surprising Republicans again.
…
“Instead, it’s no, we’re not going to negotiate, we’re not going to negotiate, we’re not going to negotiate,” the lawmaker said. “Which means effectively you’re going to try to humiliate the Speaker in front of his conference. And how effective a negotiating partner do you think he’ll be then? You’re putting the guy in a position where he’s got nothing to lose, because you’re not giving him anything to win.”
The result of Reid’s intransigence, coming after multiple Republican miscalculations, was that both sides dug in. Whatever chance there had been of a settlement before — and there really wasn’t much of one, once the events of August began to unfold — there was zero possibility of a deal as September 30 approached. So the shutdown that House leadership never expected came. And it lasted more than the few days some predicted. And it is still going on as the October 17 deadline for raising the nation’s debt ceiling approaches. The crisis that House Republican leaders didn’t see coming is now consuming them, with unpredictable consequences. “We’re not in a situation that has been planned out and war-gamed and plotted, OK?” said the congressman. “We stumbled into a situation like Gettysburg that nobody planned, and all of a sudden each side is feeding more troops into it, and it’s turning into a much bigger deal.” — Washington Examiner.
The ‘Pub leadership also hadn’t factored the massive pressure generated by their rank and file—not only from the conservative Representatives, but from the Tea Party organizations and the masses of conservative voters.
The second question in the title is still unanswered. If you listen to all the State Media organs, the ‘Pubs are losing at every point. If you listen to some recognized business analysts, the ‘Pub may be winning.
Five Reasons Republicans Think They’re Winning the Shutdown
Until minutes before the clock struck midnight on Monday, it looked as if House Republicans might lose their nerve and pass a clean continuing resolution to avert a shutdown. Such was the pressure from such moderate Republican representatives as Pete King of New York and Devin Nunes of California, some not-so-moderate Republicans too afraid to speak out publicly, and Republican pundits who recognized that the party has no strategy for victory. In the end, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his caucus went ahead and jumped. So far, they’ve survived.
It may well be that this is a Wile E. Coyote moment, the kind that ends with a precipitous plunge to the bottom of the canyon. But it’s clear that the swift, severe blowback from voters that might have chastened Republicans and forced a hasty retreat hasn’t materialized. During August, I spent a lot of time with the Republican hardliners who forced the shutdown. I checked back with some of them on Monday and Tuesday to get their take as to how things are going.
They’re in good spirits. Here are five reasons I heard for why they think they’re winning this standoff:
1. Markets have remained calm. As clocks ticked toward shutdown, there was some trepidation that the stock market might plunge on Tuesday morning, as it did after the House rejected the first TARP vote back in 2008. Instead the Dow Jones industrial average rose 62 points.
2. They’re getting “messaging wins” against Democrats. While the shutdown is ostensibly over the GOP’s demand to delay Obamacare, the Republican House has forced a series of votes—such as today’s to restore veterans’ benefits—that are uncomfortable for Democrats because they can’t do the politically popular thing and vote “yes” without undermining their party’s imperative to hold firm.
3. Harry Reid can’t help himself. On Wednesday, the Senate Majority Leader, who is a notoriously clumsy and undisciplined speaker, seemed to callously dismiss the plight of some children who are being denied cancer treatment at the National Institutes for Health while the government is shut down. You can watch the clip here.
4. Obamacare is off to a rocky start. On Tuesday, the health-care exchanges that allow people to sign up for insurance were officially unveiled—and promptly crashed. There still appear to be major technical problems days later. Ironically, news of the shutdown itself overshadowed these snafus, which is probably a break for the White House. But given how this whole mess was driven by Republicans’ insistence that Obamacare would be a disaster, they are encouraged to see this trouble.
5. Obama looks nervous. This one’s a matter of interpretation, as several of the conservatives I spoke with willingly conceded. But they took the president’s interview with the New York Times‘ John Harwood, in which Obama warned that Wall Street should not be complacent about the prospect of default, as an attempt to spook the markets. (I kind of did, too.) Obama would do this, they believe, only if he was getting nervous. On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 137 points.
So who is correct? The MSM Obama propaganda organs or Bloomberg Business News? I’d like to believe Bloomberg but no one, at this point, really knows. Erick Erickson of Red State is another who thinks we’re winning.
What we do know is that the big battle hasn’t yet arrived. On October 17, 2013, we will have reached the national debt limit (if we haven’t already and Obama hasn’t told anyone.) Boehner has said that any legislation that raises the debt limit will include defunding Obamacare (something I find hard to believe given Boehner’s cowardly record.)
Mark Levin believes Obama will use the 14th Amendment to arbitrarily raise the debt limit and continue funding Obamacare. ABC News echoes that warning. The ‘Pubs are, so far, ignoring his warnings.
Ted Cruz has pressured Boehner to cut Obamacare from the debt limit talks and has become the de facto leader of the House providing leadership to the younger House conservatives that Boehner has not. It’s not surprising the article below gives credit to both. Boehner is grasping at any straw to keep his Speakership, a position that is endangered by his ineptitude.
John Boehner, Ted Cruz: Upcoming debt-ceiling vote will have conditions
By David Eldridge, The Washington Times, Sunday, October 6, 2013
House Speaker John A. Boehner and other Republicans made it clear Sunday they expect compromises from Democrats on spending in exchange for raising the country’s debt ceiling.
“We’re not going to pass a clean debt-limit increase. I told the president there’s no way we’re going to pass one,” Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said on ABC’s “This Week.” “The votes are not in the House to pass a clean debt limit. And the president is risking default by not having a conversation with us.”
Sen. Ted Cruz echoed the speaker’s comments and pushed back at President Obama, who has dismissed demands for concessions as blackmail and insisted repeatedly that he will not negotiate with Republicans over the current government shutdown or the upcoming debt-ceiling vote.
“The debt ceiling historically has been among the best leverage that Congress has to rein in the executive,” Mr. Cruz, Texas Republican, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“Since 1978, we’ve raised the debt ceiling 55 times. A majority of those times — 28 times — Congress has attached very specific and stringent requirements,” he said. “Many of the most significant spending restraints — things like Gramm-Rudman, things like sequestration — came through the debt ceiling. So the president’s demand to jack up the nation’s credit card, with no limits, no constraints, it’s not reasonable to me.”
I don’t believe Obama will cave. He can’t and still maintain any credibility. He’s willing to create another Constitutional crises believing the ‘Pubs will, once again, cave to his and Reid’s demands.
However, this time, the country is becoming more and more united in their opposition to the tyrannical acts of a government out of control. If Obama follows through with his threats, I can foresee acts of open rebellion.
Just what would Obama do if several million protesters arrived at Washington, DC, not to gather at the Mall, but to gather at the White House and the Capitol building? Obama, the leadership of both parties and the DC government would all collectively panic. It doesn’t take a clairvoyant to know what would happen next.
Spite!
The government has been shut down for a day now and what’s happened. Obama ordered barricades erected around the WW II and other memorials around DC to prevent WW II vets from making a pilgrimage to their memorials. Yesterday, those vets moved the barricades aside and toured their memorial regardless of the threats of arrest from government peons.
Good for them.
Today, they plan on visiting the Lincoln memorial. Already, government employees are hard at work erecting barricades around it as well.
There is no reason for these memorials to be barricaded. They are in the open. If the concern is about trash and trash pickup, I’d bet there are plenty of civic organizations willing to step in and keep the memorials clean.
No, the only reason for this is spite. Spite by Obama against those who won’t support his socialist agenda and spite against anyone who may, at some time, oppose him.
If the administration and democrats really want to enrage the nation, all they have to do is to arrest these 90-year old veterans. Many are in wheelchairs and in fragile health. If one of them dies as a result of the mishandling by government goons, I have no doubt, many more, veterans and non-veterans, will be marching to Washington. I saw a passing notice that the Oathkeepers are mobilizing to help these veterans overcome their obstacles.
There are some others who are protesting the shutdown. Who are they? Union government workers, sitting on their butts on the curb holding signs. For many, this is the same activity they do while on the government payroll.
We only have to look at the ‘non-essential’ percentages to see the waste in government. Ninety-five percent of the IRS, Department of Education, the EPA, Department of the Interior, and many more departments and agencies have massive ‘unessential’ number of employees. I expect, if the shutdown continues, some of these will be declared essential…to satisfy the unions if for nothing else.
In the meantime, Harry Reid and House democrats continue blocking every proposal. Fund the military—blocked, remove the Obamacare subsidies for Congress—blocked, fund individual agencies like the Border Patrol—blocked. The democrats can’t blame the ‘Pubs for this shutdown. It has been carefully orchestrated by Reid and Obama.
So, as I write this, what is the headline on Drudge?
WWII VETS THREATENED WITH ARREST
Honor Flight of Northwest Ohio has a trip scheduled to depart from Toledo next Wednesday, October 9.
“We will make the call this Friday to determine if the flight is still a go, or if we will have to re-schedule,” Armstrong explains.
He says they are considering going ahead with the trip even if the government is still on shutdown, but when he called the parks service, he was told they would face arrest. “I said, are you kidding me? You’re going to arrest a 90/91-year-old veteran from seeing his memorial? If it wasn’t for them it wouldn’t be there. She said, ‘That’s correct sir.'”
When Armstrong asked for her name, he says she did not give it to him and then promptly hung up the phone.
Blatant tyranny.
Boehner betrays us again.
Rant mode: ON
Once again, John Boehner has sold us out by orchestrating the passage of another Continuing Resolution to continue increased federal spending. His excuse? It confirms the “cuts” required by Sequestration. I also note my local Representative, Vicky Hartzler, vote to pass this abomination.
Bull!
It’s the ‘Pub establishment continuing to push us down to financial ruin because they haven’t the guts to face the real issues of government—SPENDING!
House OKs funding to run federal government; vote will keep workers on job till Oct. 1
With deadline fatigue setting in, a bipartisan House voted Wednesday to fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year, which would head off the potential for a government shutdown later this month.
The 267-151 vote also reaffirms sequestration — the $85 billion in cuts all sides agreed to as part of the 2011 debt deal, but that only took effect last week and are now beginning to disrupt government services.
“They are going to occur. And they’re the first and appropriate step for getting our fiscal house back in order,” said Rep. Tom Cole, Oklahoma Republican.
Fifty-three Democrats joined with 214 Republicans in supporting the bill, signaling a strong bipartisan interest in avoiding a government shutdown.
So, federal workers can continue getting paychecks!? Why should they be protected when millions in the private sector are not? Let them go without like those unemployed across the country—as someone said, let them “share the pain.”
I note the government “was shut down” a week or so ago when a blizzard hit. All those deemed “unessential” and told to stay home are the ones we don’t need, obviously. Let’s cut them from the budget. The government will operate just fine.
We will only see real spending cuts when we stop this so-called Continuing Resolutions. Until then, nothing will be done and the federal debt will continue to grow.
Addendum: They also funded that Great Abomination, Obamacare.
Rant mode: OFF
The End of the Story…
The Cass County Commissioners ended the horror story of the Cass County Broadband Initiative Monday of this week. The initiative was sold as bringing high-speed internet to everyone, every rural resident, in the county. Unfortunately, the supposed return on the county’s investment was a fantasy. The initiative would never have been self-supporting and would have been a fiscal anchor in the county’s budget for the foreseeable future. I’ve written about this project before, here and here, as well as having a few Letters-to-the-Editor published in our county newspaper.
In a 2 to 1 vote, on Monday of this week, the Commissioners voted to disband the project.
Unfortunately, the spending can’t end yet. While the project existed, it put the county deeply in debt. The county will have to cover those debts or declare bankruptcy. The up side is that no more money will be thrown down the rathole.
The legal investigations on where the money went, for what, and who benefited, is ongoing. Several millions are still unaccounted for. At least three, at my last count, former county politicos, are under investigation. The FBI is involved because some of those missing funds were provided by the USDA.
For the last forty years, Cass County has been controlled by a political oligarchy—mostly democrats. That ended in 2010 when the ‘Pubs won all three commissioner seats. Unfortunately, one, the newly elected Presiding Commissioner, was ousted by the democrat Prosecutor, and the other two ‘Pubs were members of the oligarchy. Nothing changed except for the political labels. The only member who espoused conservative principles was the one booted out.
The vote to end the project did not go by party lines. Jeff Cox, the ‘Pub Presiding Commissioner, and Luke Scavuzzo, the dem South Associate Commissioner, voted to end Broadband. Jimmy Odom, the ‘Pub Northern Associate Commissioner, voted to continue spending and the project.
Scavuzzo had originally been in favor of the project. In favor, that is, until it was disclosed that the county did not own the Right-of-Way on the roads that were to be used to lay the fiber. The county had been maintaining these roads but did not own them. When the cost of adding easements for the fiber was added to the existing cost projections, it was too much.
I didn’t vote for Luke Scavuzzo. He’s in the county south and I’m in the north. I must say that he has impressed me since his initial appointment a year ago and his actions since winning his current position last November. Not that I’d vote for him. He’s still a dem.
Still, in this case, Luke Scavuzzo has demonstrated fiscal restraint and good practices. I wish I could say the same for the other ‘Pub associate commissioner.
Here’s the official report as it appeared in the Cass County Democrat Missourian.
Cass County broadband project dies
By Bethany Bashioum, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013
The Cass County Broadband Project initiative has lost all of its steam.
Cass County Commissioners decided Feb. 25 that there is little to no feasibility left for the county’s broadband project, and made the decision to ultimately kill it during a public meeting by a 2-1 vote.
The project, conceived two years ago, looked to build a broadband fiber network in order to bring high-speed Internet access to 11,592 households and 701 businesses in rural areas of the county.
But after swiftly moving through a short list of other agenda items during Monday’s meeting, Presiding Commissioner Jeff Cox entertained a motion to approve a resolution in regard to the county’s Request for Proposals with general contracting firms to take the broadband fiber to homes in rural Cass County.
Associate Commissioner Jimmy Odom made a motion for approval, but the question quickly died due to the lack of a second.
In response to the previous motion, the following agenda item, a resolution to authorize the publication and release the broadband project’s RUS Form 515 became moot.
A few moments later, Cox then asked the Commission for the authority to disband the project.
Associate Commissioner Luke Scavuzzo seconded the decision.
In a brief statement, Cox cited a number of reasons for his decision after spending nearly two months studying the project.
Part of the decision, he said, was linked to the issue that although the county has requested a 60-day extension to the United States Department of Agriculture for the county’s 2011 audit as well as releasing a reimbursement of $326,000 that the county has spent on recent engineering costs.
Cox said that to date, the USDA has refused to release those funds.
“USDA funding is still frozen and we’re continuing to incur engineering costs that are not being reimbursed from the federal government,” Cox said. “We’re basically at the point where we can either take the monies out of the general fund to pay the engineers or we can just default on our contract with the engineer. Or, we can take the money out of the Certificates of Participation, which are supposed to be used for non-USDA eligible costs.”
…
When Cox opened the floor for the other commissioners to voice their perspectives, Odom, who has supported the project for it’s prospect to enhance economic development in the county, said he wants to hear more about the audit issues and why the USDA funds aren’t being released.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in government where we’re that far behind and I would like to know why,” he said.
On the other hand, Scavuzzo voiced his disapproval of the project, but thanked Freeman for her work.
…
Concluding the discussion, the Commission carried the vote to disband the project 2-1.
Cox and Scavuzzo voted in favor of ditching broadband.
“Initially, what I will be doing will be notifying all the parties involved now that the Commission has given me the authority to do that,” Cox said. “We will then have to deal with getting all those final bills paid.”
Cox said that there are few options available to deal with the debt that’s been accumulated, one being that it can be rolled into the county’s existing COP funds since the county is already paying the full interest on those funds.
“I think we need to return our focus to providing the core services that county government is responsible for,” he said. “I think it’s important that we get out now while we still can afford to do so.”
The county should have never gotten into this project. Jeff Cox restated that this project did not fall into any core responsibilities of the county government.
“I think we should return our focus to providing the core services that county government has a responsibility to provide, such as road and bridge and law enforcement. The things that the people in the rural areas, that this initiative was meant to help, are the people that I have seen hurt the most out of all of this because all the money that has been diverted from those core services.”
Plan B?
The news is filled with warnings and portents of the government running off the fiscal cliff. When you ask members of Congress the consequences, no one knows. Nor, does any seem to particularly care if it makes the other side look bad.
The dems want more—more taxes, more spending, more power, more debt. The ‘Pubs want…? I’m not sure what the establishment wants. We continue to see beltway insiders scream, “give the democrats what they want! Then we can blame them when it all fails!” It’s beginning to appear the real goal is to score points against the other side all the while the ones who are harmed are the taxpayers.
The Republican party is supposed to be for smaller government, lower taxes, less spending. John Boehner is for anything that will make him look good in the media…or at least less bad. He could not care less how his actions impact the taxpayers as long as he gets his portion of face time in the media and can blame someone else for his failures.
Pundits say the ‘Pubs should follow Plan B. Apparently Plan B is to give Obama what he wants.
If you believe that the best way to get a deal you want is to always negotiate from strength, then Republicans may just finally be coming to an adequate negotiating strategy on the fiscal cliff. The New York Times reports that Republican leaders are considering giving President Obama what he wants on higher tax rates now while leaving the fight over entitlement spending till Obama needs to come to them for a debt limit hike early next year. —The Washington Examiner
Like the clashes over increasing the debt earlier this year, Boehner and McConnell are content to kick the can, once again, down the road. Anything as long as they don’t need to make a stand.
According to media sources, if the ‘Pubs follow Plan B, all they would be doing is to postpone any difficult decisions until we, once again, reach the debt limit. THEN! Then they would make Obama toe the line. It seems to me the last time Boehner and McConnell were in that position, we ended up with Sequestration. Never forget, Sequestration was McConnell’s brain-child. He mentioned it in a press conference and the dems jumped all over it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Boehner caved on Obama’s demand to be allowed to raise the debt limit without Congressional authorization. When we have spineless, non-leaders in Congress, they will do anything rather than taking a stand for taxpayers. Why not? Taxpayers aren’t members of the Ruling Class. Taxpayers are there to be bled while Congress spends…more…and more…and more…without restraint.
One act the ‘Pubs “could” take to help stem this fiscal tide is to remove Boehner and McConnell from their power positions. I’ve suggested to a number of Congressmen that Paul Ryan would make an excellent Speaker of the House. Boehner should be reduced to the Chairman of the House Sanitary Committee. Perhaps then he can wallow in his favorite muck.
I urge you to call your Representatives and demand they vote against John Boehner for Speaker. We need a Speaker who is a leader and is willing to go head-to-head against Obama and the dems. Boehner has neither of those abilities.
Friday Follies for November 30, 2012
Obama’s minions have been in “secret” talks with the GOP congressional leadership on how to divert our approach to the fiscal cliff. What the White House wanted and what they offered in return made McConnell laugh out loud.
Obama wanted more taxes, no commitment to any spending cuts (unless it was to the military), and authority to raise the debt limit at will—no Congressional approval required! Quoting Dave Ramsey, that would be giving a drunk a drink.
White House ‘Cliff’ Offer to Boehner a ‘Break from Reality’
By Billy House, Updated: November 30, 2012 | 8:00 a.m
Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Thursday rejected a White House plan to avert the so-called fiscal cliff at year’s end that would generate nearly $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue over the next decade and require Republicans to allow Congress to relinquish its control over the nation’s statutory borrowing limits.
“A complete break from reality,” is how the plan, delivered to Boehner and other congressional leaders by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at their Capitol offices, was described by a congressional Republican aide familiar with what was proposed. President Obama’s liaison to Congress, Rob Nabors, also was at the meetings.
Yes, your read that first paragraph correctly. Obama wants congress to give him complete authority to spend and borrow without regard to the debt limit—in short, there would be no debt limit other than what our creditors were willing to give us. It would be a fiscal disaster.
We need to keep the pressure on McConnell and Boehner to reject Obama’s offers. Obama will never cut spending regardless of any agreements. He has done that many times before. Obama lies. Democrats lie. They will never honor any agreement except when it is what they want.
The real danger is that McConnell and Boehner will revert to their normal spinelessness and roll over again. We must make the establishment GOP more afraid of us than they are of the dems.
***
Speaking of the fiscal cliff, more and more analysts and pundits are saying, “Do nothing.” According to them, the fiscal cliff is a myth created by the 2011 Budget Control Act. Boehner and McConnell sold the GOP a bill of mythical goods and allowed Obama and the dems to defraud the country. That act was limited to only discretionary spending—35% of the national budget while doing nothing to the big entitlement ticket items.
The GOP establishment is really afraid of being accused of shutting down the government if they don’t cave once again. Get real! The media and the dems will make those accusations anyway! Expect the demagoguery.
The government has been shutdown before and the world didn’t end. A year or so ago a blizzard hit the east coast including Washington. Most of the rank and file government employees were told to stay home. Only the “essential” workers had to report to work. That makes it easy where to cut. Cut those who didn’t have to go in to work, keep those who did have to report for work.
Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel discussed the GOP’s media fears in their column today.
Everyone in Washington fears the fiscal cliff. The White House has no interest in going over. Democrats understand they’ll never have more power than they do now. Delaying a budget deal until after January means getting less of what they want.
Republican leaders, meanwhile, live in fear of another 1995 government shutdown. When two sides fail to reach a deal, the media blame Republicans. That’s the lesson Republicans learned 17 years ago. They shudder imagining the headlines if negotiations were to break down next month: “Norquist-controlled GOP forces America off cliff.” Nothing terrifies them more than that. They’ll do anything to avoid it, as Obama knows well. (Hence his advantage.) — The Daily Caller.
Krauthammer urged the ‘Pubs to stand their ground as well.
Krauthammer urged Republicans to take the short-term hit on the fiscal cliff, and said eventually Obama would be held accountable for the consequences. — The Daily Caller.
Krauthammer declared that Obama’s demands were worse than those given to Lee at Appomattox and Lee had just lost a war.
“It’s not just a bad deal — this is really an insulting deal,” Krauthammer said. “What Geithner offered, what you showed on the screen, Robert E. Lee was offered easier terms at Appomattox, and he lost the Civil War. The Democrats won by three percent of the vote, and they did not hold the House
. Republicans won the House. So this is not exactly unconditional surrender, but that is what the administration is asking of the Republicans.”
“This idea — there are not only no cuts in this, there’s an increase in spending with a new stimulus,” Krauthammer continued. “I mean, this is almost unheard of. I mean, what do they expect? They obviously expect the Republicans will cave on everything. I think the Republicans ought to simply walk away. The president is the president. He’s the leader. They are demanding that the Republicans explain all the cuts that they want to make.” — The Daily Caller.
Yes, some business sectors would take a hit. Some government contractors would take a hit. The GOP would be blamed, again, for shutting down the government. But if that is what it takes to get ALL government spending on the cutting table, so be it. It is time to get our governmental house in order and we know the dems won’t do it.
***
Continuing on today’s theme, I’ll leave you with this parting thought from Michael Ramirez.