Deal Reached, Shutdown Avoided
[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here. Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]
At the 11th hour, a deal was reached. From the AP (so get yer screen caps ready, just in case…):
Perilously close to a government shutdown, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders reached a historic agreement late Friday night to cut about $38 billion in federal spending and avert the first federal closure in 15 years.
Obama hailed the deal as “the biggest annual spending cut in history.”
Yeah, Obama, it’s really easy to have the biggest spending cut in history when you had astronomical spending in the years before. Let’s go to the chart, shall we?
Yeah, a historically massive cut doesn’t look so impressive in context, does it?
They go on:
House Speaker John Boehner said that over the next decade it would cut government spending by $500 billion, and won an ovation from his rank and file tea party adherents among them.
“This is historic, what we’ve done,” agreed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the third man involved in negotiations that ratified a new era of divided government.
They announced the agreement less than an hour before government funding was due to run out.
So there you go, but I want to back up and repeat a line in that story:
won an ovation from his rank and file tea party adherents among them.
Well, this rank-and-file tea partier is not celebrating tonight. We haven’t reduced the debt by a single penny; we have only reduced the rate of increase of our debt. Let’s let Sarah Palin put this into a little perspective:
Let’s look at the numbers. We have a $1.5 trillion deficit this year. We’re paying $200 billion a year on our interest alone. That’s half a billion dollars per day on interest. And our $1.5 trillion deficit means that we’re borrowing $4 billion per day just to keep afloat. So, we pat ourselves on the back if we cut a billion dollars here or a billion there in discretionary spending, as we borrow $4 billion a day and pay half a billion a day in interest. The deficit for the month of February alone was the highest in our history at $223 billion. That’s more than the entire deficit for the year 2007. And there’s no end in sight. We’re not heading towards the iceberg. We’ve already hit it. Now we’re taking on water. We must find a way to get back to harbor to repair our ship of state before it’s too late.
I checked those numbers and although they are rounded off, they are basically right and bluntly you should read the whole thing. It’s very well put. So $38 billion in “cuts” isn’t terribly impressive when interest alone adds around $200 billion to the deficit every year. To use my own metaphor, we are in a car headed toward a cliff. We need to stop and turn around. And today they have agreed to reduce how much pressure we are putting on the gas pedal but not to apply the brakes or change the direction. I guess it will buy us a little time, so its better than doing nothing.
But it’s not much better than nothing and we should not let any of these idiots in Washington declare victory.
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
UPDATE BY PATTERICO: I’m OK with it as long as they go to the mat for Ryan’s budget.
bumble keeps setting the “historic” bar lower and lower
it’s kinda pitiful really
happyfeet (bf1611) — 4/8/2011 @ 9:42 pmMr. Worthing no offense but this conceit that we need Sarah Palin to put it all in perspective flies in the face of hundreds of comments right here at this very blog what have been saying for days and days that this whole debate about piddling cuts was much ado about nothing.
I don’t need the tundra queen of the obvious to splain it for me – I been paying attention!
happyfeet (bf1611) — 4/8/2011 @ 9:46 pmhappy, i just wanted an excuse to quote from her. it was a good facebook post on her part.
Aaron Worthing (73a7ea) — 4/8/2011 @ 9:50 pmyes she gives good facebook I never said she didn’t and I doubt I ever will
happyfeet (bf1611) — 4/8/2011 @ 9:55 pmAaron, you did that just to get Mr. Feet to act out again, didn’t you?
Simon Jester (5ee778) — 4/8/2011 @ 9:55 pmI have to take my sleeping pills there’s deliveries at the new apartment tomorrow and I have to be both bright-eyed as well as bushy of tail Mr. Jester so there’s that we need a song though.
brb
happyfeet (bf1611) — 4/8/2011 @ 9:58 pmhere this is a little hippy dippy but I always liked it for some reason and it fits my mood just at the moment
happyfeet (bf1611) — 4/8/2011 @ 10:00 pmhappy, its at moments like this that i turn up some alice in chains and scream along with it.
Aaron Worthing (73a7ea) — 4/8/2011 @ 10:05 pmI admire your energy
happyfeet (bf1611) — 4/8/2011 @ 10:05 pmhappy
also i like to play a violent video game. kratos is great as catharsis, for instance. blow crap up. run people over. shoot people in the head. it will feel good.
(meaning in video game land. don’t do that in real life unless you are in the military and you are like supposed to.)
Aaron Worthing (73a7ea) — 4/8/2011 @ 10:08 pmThe ship of state has already hit the iceburg; Boehner is rearranging the deck chairs while Captain Obama and Executive Officer Reid are working hard to scuttle the lifeboats. This will not be A Night to Remember. It’s a long way down to the ocean floor, and golf down there sucks, Mr. President.
navyvet (db5856) — 4/8/2011 @ 10:12 pmsomeday I’m going to become a hardcore gamer but I think I wanna wait another console generation honestly I have the same feeling about video games I had towards cell phones until just the past year or so – that ok this is neat but you can do better than that feeling
happyfeet (bf1611) — 4/8/2011 @ 10:14 pmTax and spend Palin who raised Alaska revenues and spending to heights not even Obama could achieve in as short a time
Still trolling for money on facebook
EricPWJohnson (6e7eff) — 4/8/2011 @ 10:28 pmSure, I’m all for one-fell-swoopism, but that isn’t what usually happens in a democracy. The difference this time is that things are moving in the right direction (or at least the second derivative is) which is a change lately.
As someone else pointed out today, the Tea Party has changed the debate. Instead of arguing about the size of the increase, we are actually arguing where to make major cuts. Hopefully, we can come to some compromise where both sides get their cuts.
As the Perot movement before it, the Tea Party has got the establishment worrying about being replaced, and they are just going to cut back once again. At least for a few years until we forget again.
Kevin M (298030) — 4/8/2011 @ 10:30 pmBTW, unless something really changes soon, Obamacare looks pretty dead.
Kevin M (298030) — 4/8/2011 @ 10:34 pmTax and spend palin?
Says a lefty who called Allen West and Tom Tancredo a racist for their opposition to islam.
BTW you have a problem with alaska’s constitution.
DohBiden (984d23) — 4/8/2011 @ 10:38 pmI don’t know where that chart came form, but it’s baloney. There hasn’t been a government surplus in decades.
In fact, the debt rose every single year that Bill Clinton was president, even with the Republicans controlling Congress.
There was never a surplus.
Or, to put it another way…Obambi and co. are lying through their teeth.
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo4.htm
Dave Surls (e969a9) — 4/8/2011 @ 10:48 pm“happy, its at moments like this that i turn up some alice in chains and scream along with it.”
You too?
I do that every time Eric starts blathering about Sarah Palin.
Sea of Sorrow is currently going full blast.
Dave Surls (e969a9) — 4/8/2011 @ 10:51 pmi see all the H8rs are out on friday night…
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 4/8/2011 @ 11:07 pmWhen you point out that Obama’s debt is four or five times the size of Bush’s debt you get this:
Arizona Bob (911aa5) — 4/8/2011 @ 11:08 pmObama had to do it to save the country. How’s that working out? Love those jobs created or saved.
Re: the “deal”
The minute we have a viable right wing political party in America, I’m dropping the Republicans like a hot rock.
They suck.
Dave Surls (e969a9) — 4/8/2011 @ 11:17 pm@Dave Surls
Sure the debt rose. Bonds went into the social security trust fund. But on a cashflow basis, there was a surplus.
Kevin M (298030) — 4/8/2011 @ 11:20 pmIf a right wing party was viable, there would be one.
Kevin M (298030) — 4/8/2011 @ 11:21 pmDohbiden
Facts still are a pesky stubborn thing, Palin raised taxes and spending to heights never ever seen before in Alaska
And you are right she is still blathering about things she didnt do – for the cash
EricPWJohnson (6e7eff) — 4/8/2011 @ 11:47 pm“Sure the debt rose.”
Yeah…because there was never any surplus in the 1990s (though they came close in 2000).
Not even once.
The OMB chart is a big fat old lie.
Dave Surls (e969a9) — 4/8/2011 @ 11:50 pm#24
Now I have Satriani’s Always With Me, Always With You cranked all the way up to 11, just to drown out the silly Palin-hatin’. The house is rocking!
And, the neighbors are probably freaking out, seeing as how it’s midnight and all.
Dave Surls (d8194a) — 4/9/2011 @ 12:01 am“Tax and spend Palin who raised Alaska revenues and spending to heights not even Obama could achieve in as short a time”
“Palin raised taxes and spending to heights never ever seen before in Alaska”
EricPW – Still peddling that debunked progressive narrative?
How much did Palin cut her last budget when oil prices declined? You never want to talk about that, do you?
Hey, did you hear all those corrupt Murkowski Republicans are trying to revise her Oil Tax deal? Big contributions from oil companies funding those guys, you betcha!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/9/2011 @ 12:15 amOnce again I will appear to ask, who cares? The US is facing a demographic transformation unprecedented in its history, probably in all of history. Within 40 years it has gone from being 88% European-American to about 60%. I really don’t care about how many imaginary ‘dollars’ are stored in some electronic account in a branch of the fed — they are quite literally meaningless. What I do care about is neighborhood after neighborhood turned into a barrio, spaces in our top universities going, not to the kids of the parents and grandparent who paid for the self-same universities, but to Asian grinds whse parents enroll them in test preparation courses at 5 years.
Perhaps it would be one thing if we could see benefit to the ‘state’ of the US of this transformation, but quite obviously there has been none. The white working class is driven out of places like California, those ‘brilliant’ H1-Bs we bring in only serve to increase outsourcing and turn our own kids to ‘safe’ professions like law.
Ryan’s budget is arguing over the bar tab while the Titanic sails into the Ice Berg of the dissolution of the people who actually created the US>
stari_momak (d5f987) — 4/9/2011 @ 12:27 amstari – Thank you once again for the Stormfront POV.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/9/2011 @ 12:44 am“I’m OK with it as long as they go to the mat for Ryan’s budget.”
LOL Sure you do. Rejection can be quite entertaining when you see the world through Goldwatered glasses. Not quite Lehrer but then history more often rhymes than repeats.
http://lyrics.wikia.com/Chad_Mitchell_Trio:Barry's_Boy
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 4/9/2011 @ 12:54 amDaley
If you cut one time 100 million and raise spending in the billions, forever every year – well – you can call it progressive peddling but those sticky facts…..
EricPWJohnson (6e7eff) — 4/9/2011 @ 1:30 am“Let’s look at the numbers. We have a $1.5 trillion deficit this year.”
Yeah, and that’s why we need to start knocking off about $2,000,000,000,000 in federal government spending per year…starting RIGHT NOW. Not next year, not next decade. Now.
Unless y’all a have hankering to live in the Soviet Union West, ’cause that’s where were heading.
Government spending, at all levels, is at 42% of GDP (or so), and at the rate it’s increasing, we’ll be into full blown communism (or more likely a variant of national socialism, since it doesn’t look like the liberals are going to liquidate the ownership class) in less than 100 years, if we don’t reverse the trend immediately.
And, it doesn’t look like the Republicans have the will to reverse the trend of an ever-growing government. They had a chance to do something about it in the 1990s, and despite all their noble words, did just about zip. Looks like it’s going to be a repeat performance now.
If they can’t get the job done, maybe we ought to start looking for someone who can.
Dave Surls (d8194a) — 4/9/2011 @ 1:30 amDaley
Palin was a Murkowski Republican with a no show 112,000 a year job, until they didnt give her a senate seat…
Palin was at the front of the Murkowski graft line taking a salary for something she was totally unqualified for
Guess ethics are situational
EricPWJohnson (6e7eff) — 4/9/2011 @ 1:33 amOh would you just shut the f**k up about Palin? Jesus f**k, son.
We get it – you don’t like her. You can shut the hell up now.
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 4/9/2011 @ 3:19 am“Facts still are a pesky stubborn thing, Palin raised taxes and spending to heights never ever seen before in Alaska”
Yeah, except, like a lot of Eric’s “facts”, that’s total hogwash.
Now, if you wanted to say that about Rick Perry over there in Texas, you would be correct, but if you said it about Sarah Palin you would be flat out wrong.
Sarah Palin was basically governor for two years and government expenditures (state and local) were at all time lows (since 1992), thanks to Murkowski and Palin taking over from the Democrats in 2003.
In 1998 state/local expenditures were at 32.8% of GDP, thanks to the Dems. By 2008, ten years later, and Palin’s last real year in office they had fallen to 26.6% of GDP. And, not too many states can say that. Murkowski and Palin actually got runaway government spending in Alaska under control, and even started reducing it a bit (or more correctly government didn’t grow faster than GDP, which is the best you’re ever going do, IMO). Expenditures started edging up again in 2009 when Parnell took over, but it’s still nowhere near as bad as it was under Knowles, and the Dems.
Meanwhile over in Texas, Governor Perry took office after the 2000 election (replacing you know who) and now tax levels/spending are about the same as they always were. State and local expenditures were at 14.7% in 1998, and ten years later they were at 15.8% This is not a good trend for those of us who want less government, instead of more, but it could be worse.
So, is there really any truth to what Eric is saying?
Well, no, actually, there isn’t. And, those of us who are familiar with Eric aren’t really too surprised.
If you want to analyze this stuff yourself, here’s where you need to go…
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/
If you want to hear a lot of silly nonsense…talk to Eric.
Dave Surls (d8194a) — 4/9/2011 @ 3:23 amAaron, you trivialize the accomplishment here. Yes, a whole lot remains to be done. But you seem not to take account of the fact that the GOP only controls the House. And even that is iffy, precisely because of people who insist on maintaining unrealistic short-term expectations.
Beldar (cd529f) — 4/9/2011 @ 4:22 amKeeping with nautical analogies, it’s hard to turn around a big ship, laws of physics with momentum and such.
There is the reality of “politics” as the art of winning arguments in the public debate in order to actually govern. It is a bit revolting, though, how one minute everyone is pointing fingers at the other person for being the bad guy, then the next minute everybody pointing finers at themselves for how much they accomplished with a “historic” action.
It would seem the next few months and the debate over the 2012 budget will be the main event. The big picture to win is the need to cut spending which is essentially the role of government in people’s lives, but the Dems will try to fight it on a million hills of what individual programs are so vital they cannot be cut, such as PP and NPR and cowboy poetry. Not clear what will be the “strategic weapon” (metaphorically, of course)that wins the debate.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 4/9/2011 @ 4:22 am“Aaron, you trivialize the accomplishment here.”
In ten years the feds have gone from stealing 18% of GDP to more like 24% of GDP.
Some accomplishment.
Just nor one I’m in favor of.
Dave Surls (d8194a) — 4/9/2011 @ 4:50 amI sure hope Paul Ryan sets the’bar’ high for spending cuts for FY12 cuz the Dems are a bitch to compromise with. He really should cut from $3.6T to $3.2T so the compromise is still worth something.
steve-oh (49fbaa) — 4/9/2011 @ 4:56 amPalin’s fantastic, but a disaster too — so many moderate women hate her guts — irrationally — but it’s still true. The media successfully destroyed her and moderate white women won’t vote for her, unfortunately, but it’s true.
Daley
Palin was a Murkowski Republican with a no show 112,000 a year job, until they didnt give her a senate seat…
Palin was at the front of the Murkowski graft line taking a salary for something she was totally unqualified for.
Proof, please. You accused her of a felony, no?
JD (3ee1ee) — 4/9/2011 @ 5:11 amThat was to the idiot-boy, not Daley. My bad.
JD (3ee1ee) — 4/9/2011 @ 5:12 amOK why am I not hearing anything about Planned Parenthood, which has been splashed all over the news the last 24 hours. Does this mean we are quietly funding it STILL. If we are not, this is a big victory. I sure would like to know.
Dianimal (ca6f78) — 4/9/2011 @ 5:33 amThe DNC and GOP have no interest in resolving the fiscal mess they have created over the past 7 decades.
They profit from the mess they created and continue to perpetuate. Why should they fix it?
The problem of unconstitutional acts and spending by the federal government is NOT going to be resolved in Washington, DC by the federal government.
They states or the people are going to have to force the federal government to cease and desist. It is going to take a constitutional convention to mandate a cap on spending as a percentage of GDP, a balanced budget and the elimination of the Federal Reserve. I don’t see that happening any time soon though.
I don’t know how long we have to do this but I don’t think it is decades.
My children are going to live a very different life in a very different nation…
WarEagle (f259cc) — 4/9/2011 @ 5:48 amJD
Palin was appointed to the commission on the oil wealth. Palin herself said she wasnt qualified
A simple google would tell you that. Another very simple google would show that under her she set the bar for state spending and taxing to an astonishing level
Another elementary google would also show that the conservatives in Alaska are trying to roll back the very tax and spend structure that she enabled
I mean JD, I heard you say the same thing, you, are not Palin, you work for a living, meet a payroll, run some business’s – why should I believe someone who has had nothing but cushy government jobs verses you – who’s worked for everything he’s got?
Sure I have no problem per se with what is said – you said the same thing JD, becuase you believe it and want the best for everyone, Sarah says it for profit
EricPWJohnson (6e7eff) — 4/9/2011 @ 5:56 am(big sigh). The GOP, again, has their head handed to them. There are so many “dohs” here that it’s hard to keep them straight. Let’s list just three:
1, Scheduled Friday, midnight, for shutdown which insures, 100%, talk radio is silent for days while the Dems blanket the public with their narrative and, doh! when is the “deal” done?
2. Failed to defund the Dems donors that take use tax money to fund operations while using donations to fund Democrat campaigns.
3. Let the Dems prepare the narrative and test responses so the battle for the 2012 budget favors them.
Last night number 1 got cranked up. I’ll bet you your greens fees that during the Master their will be special reports highlighting the sane saviour of government – Barack Obama.
When Obama wins in 2012, mark his victory march to April 8, 2011.
cedarhill (903f1c) — 4/9/2011 @ 6:16 amSo our budget increased 1.1% in ten years. You care to tell me how much our population increased in ten years,Dave Surls?
And don’t forget to include the 2 million illegals in Texas that the Obama administration claims to be taking care of.
So let’s see; the population of Texas increased to the point that we will have FOUR new Congressional seats. You do the math.
Oh, and what lovely balanced budget state do you hail from, Surles?
retire05 (8b1d52) — 4/9/2011 @ 6:26 amThe GOP REFUSES to fight the fight. It doesn’t matter who is in charge from Newt to Hastert to Boehner. They gain the reins of power and then act like they have no clue how to use the reins. That it happens EVERY TIME is an indication that this lack of willpower to use the reins of power to affect meaningful change should be a clue to anyone hoping that the GOP means anything they say.
The GOP “leadership” has no intention of making the fundamental changes necessary to save this nation from becoming a 3rd world basket case.
I figure we have a few years to find an alternative. If we fail, we can expect to raise our grandchildren in a place much like Cuba or Zimbabwe, assuming we live long enough to have grandchildren…
WarEagle (f259cc) — 4/9/2011 @ 6:29 amAnd Bachmann proved to be a weasel, having stripped out the EPA and PP riders, voted against the deal,
narciso (cfef6a) — 4/9/2011 @ 6:33 amYou’re crowing over this piddling deal, while they
negotiated away your right to a free breath, and
any real industrial development, re the EPA rider,
and national soros radio, will sing his praises,
one half of one third
ColonelHaiku (7f3425) — 4/9/2011 @ 6:46 amof government these losers
don’t say have veto
Palin may or may not have been qualified for a 100K job. But we KNOW that Obama is not qualified for his 400K job. And about 375 members of Congress aren’t worth a Zimbabwe Dollar.
That Palin posted something true on her web site neither makes it less true or her less of a person for stating the truth…
WarEagle (f259cc) — 4/9/2011 @ 6:47 amcolonel think Reps weak
ColonelHaiku (7f3425) — 4/9/2011 @ 6:49 ammust vote Boehner out before
the last teardrop falls
pee wee Johnson this
ColonelHaiku (7f3425) — 4/9/2011 @ 6:54 amtown not big enough for both
of us Sparks may fly
This is only the beginning, not the end. It’s a long war we’re fighting here — remember, the Nanny State took 80 years to build… And, yes, I know the urgency of it, but one budget battle — with only one-third control of the players — that has turned the conversation in the proper direction is a victory. Too small? Yes. But a victory, nonetheless. Next step? This year’s state and local elections. Then, the 2012 budget debate. Then, the 2012 elections. Win those battles, and we can accelerate the process, as we have to.
either orr (6713b4) — 4/9/2011 @ 6:55 amhappy still pick on
ColonelHaiku (7f3425) — 4/9/2011 @ 6:57 amPalin pick on someone your
own size like Oprah
Big Zero not know
ColonelHaiku (7f3425) — 4/9/2011 @ 7:00 amleadership if bit Him on
narrow black behind
We can’t afford any more “victories” like this!
“Cutting” $38 billion or $60 billion while you are borrowing $1,500 billion IS NOT A SPENDING CUT!!!
WarEagle (f259cc) — 4/9/2011 @ 7:05 amhttp://www.nationalreview.com/corner/264310/youre-kidding-right-andrew-c-mccarthy
narciso (cfef6a) — 4/9/2011 @ 7:14 amOur esteemed host added:
And the Republicans’ record on this gives you confidence how? 🙁
The realistic Dana (3e4784) — 4/9/2011 @ 7:21 amEPWJ wrote:
Apparently too complicated a google for you to have actually included the link, as proof of your statement.
The Dana who notices these things (3e4784) — 4/9/2011 @ 7:27 amPalin is a Murkowski Republican debunked one more time, spit.
EricPW just a smear merchant and oil company shill.
This is not a Palin thread.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/9/2011 @ 7:34 amthe whole dealio is very anti-climactic especially after breathlessly breathless National Soros Radio whipped up such a fuss
happyfeet (bf1611) — 4/9/2011 @ 7:51 amWhy does Bush only get 7 bars? He was in office for 8 years. Bush proposed a budget in FY 2009 that would have netted a deficit of about $1 trillion, with the Iraq & Afghanistan war still off budget. Putting the two wars on the budget like Obama did would have put his final deficit at ~1.15 trillion.
However that’s not the whole story. The 2009 stimulus dropped taxes $288 billion. That is included in the deficit figure above as it reduced revenue. It also added about $500 billion in appropriations (off-budget) for FY 2009.
Newtons.Bit (b78b37) — 4/9/2011 @ 7:59 am“So our budget increased 1.1% in ten years.”
That’s not an increase in the state budget, it’s an increase in the percentage of annual wealth production that’s taken and spent by the government.
If the percentage rises that means government is getting bigger, if it goes down, government is getting smaller, generally speaking.
I like people who make that percentage smaller, on account of I don’t like folks who take my money by force and spend it on things that don’t benefit me (as governments are wont to do), and I also don’t like a big giant government that tells me what kind of light bulbs I ought to be buying and stuff like that.
“Oh, and what lovely balanced budget state do you hail from, Surles?”
California…only they don’t exactly balance the budget here.
Our government expenditures have also gone up a bit the last few years, but our governments spend more than you folks in Texas. About 20% of GDP as opposed to 15%.
We have better weather, though.
Dave Surls (d8194a) — 4/9/2011 @ 8:05 amEricPW – Why not return to your unsupported smearing of Mitt Romney and how his incredible family wealth is responsible for every success he has enjoyed in life. Go.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/9/2011 @ 8:06 am________________________________________
The minute we have a viable right wing political party in America, I’m dropping the Republicans like a hot rock.
Keep in mind that the center of the socio-political spectrum in America has been gradually shifting left over the past 50-plus years. Some of that can be laid at the doorstep of insiders (ie, the “cocktail elite”) in places like DC, the folks who control the inner workings of the various political parties and organizations.
But much of that has to be directed at anyone’s spouse, SO, siblings, parents, cousins, uncles, aunts, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, co-workers, colleagues, etc, who are guilty of being caught up in the belief that “liberalism means I’m humane, generous, beautiful, sophisticated, tolerant and fair-minded!”
Or “I love balance, and I don’t care for leftism, but I’m also worried about the country shifting too far to the right! My perks and privileges (eg, Social Security) might be destroyed in the process!”
When scrutinizing politicians and the leading two political parties in the country, also keep in mind the following, referring to people who we all know personally who conform to the descriptions above and below.
Mark (411533) — 4/9/2011 @ 8:22 am
Surls Cali pols now
ColonelHaiku (7f3425) — 4/9/2011 @ 8:31 amcan carry concealed weapons
good they may need them
________________________________________
If anyone doesn’t understand what I’m describing in post #65, then notice the poll data below. IOW, an ongoing overly very large percentage of people in this country (46%) make up the foolishness or post-1960’s squishiness evident throughout modern society.
(And my previous comment of “when scrutinizing politicians and the leading two political parties in the country…” should have been followed by “ALWAYS keep in mind the following…” That’s because there is a lot of intractable left-leaning sentiments in folks all around us — ridiculously pervasive in blue states (eg, Calif, New York, Illinois) — which will only increase as the US becomes more and more like a cross between some country in central or south America and a nation like France/Spain/Greece.
Mark (411533) — 4/9/2011 @ 8:40 am
OK why am I not hearing anything about Planned Parenthood, which has been splashed all over the news the last 24 hours. Does this mean we are quietly funding it STILL. If we are not, this is a big victory. I sure would like to know.
Planned Parenthood funding, I think, was Boehner’s hostage for negotiation, just as the military was Obama’s. He knew he would have to give up something. Actually, I think he did it very cleverly as both the PP funding and the EPA funding will still have to be voted on by the Senate. There are 23 Dem Senators running for re-election next year and they will be torn about voting on those issues and on the Obamacare defunding.
As someone else put it, turning a ship around takes time. We did get the direction changed and the Ryan budget is the big deal. Had Pelosi been responsible, this would never have been an issue.
We still have 46% of the public to educate. Half of them are lefties and will never learn.
Mike K (8f3f19) — 4/9/2011 @ 9:03 amI’m extremely disappointed, but Obama successfully brought tremendous pressure on the right by threatening the families of the military.
We didn’t cut $100 billion, which was the promise.
And I realize that it is unrealistic to expect to be able to cut even a penny (which we haven’t really done) if the democrats control the Senate and white house and are ruthless enough to threaten the families of the troops.
So hopefully we win more power. Sadly, part of the problem I see is that we can win more seats if we nominate moderates, but those seats are less likely to be dedicated to the cuts.
I’m not lamenting that we didn’t get the tiny cuts promised. Fine. Let’s hope for Paul Ryan cuts (which are already being demonized pretty effectively). That is not going to happen until 2013, though. We’re well aware of the problem and its urgency, and we’re powerless to prevent it from getting even worse. In 2008, Obama promised to cut the deficit in half (in other words, he promised to increase the debt, just not as much as the last guy did).
The only way to save this country is to elect fiscal conservatives. So hopefully everyone plans to help make that happen.
Dustin (c16eca) — 4/9/2011 @ 9:04 amWill Murkowski, Collins, Snowe, Brown, vote against the EPA or PP, magic eightball would say no, so then we’re down for 43, Manchin, Nelson, you think they will budge, ‘the persuasion of power’ call it the Chicago way, works.
narciso (cfef6a) — 4/9/2011 @ 9:19 amPlanned Parenthood funding, I think, was Boehner’s hostage for negotiation, just as the military was Obama’s.
I don’t think our military and a huge swath of voters will soon forget that the President leveraged those who fight and serve to protect us. I know I won’t.
But no matter what, the left will always try to appear the winner:
Harry Reid, Feb. 3, 2011, on Paul Ryan’s initial offer of $32 billion in spending cuts:
“The chairman of the Budget Committee today, today sent us something even more draconian than we originally anticipated…So this isn’t some game that people have been playing. The House of Representatives [is] actually sending us some of these unworkable plans.”
Harry Reid, April 9, 2011, on a deal to cut $38.5 billion:
“This is historic, what we’ve done.”
Dana (9f3823) — 4/9/2011 @ 9:34 am*rolls eyes*
MSE (59c275) — 4/9/2011 @ 9:58 amLooks like we’re in for a few days of everyone under the sun trying to convince the MSM and the public that their side got shafted. The bottom line is this–the Dems just lost their edge on the government shutdown issue: everyone now knows that they aren’t willing to risk the public holding them equally or more responsible for it. . .at least until the stakes are higher, or they can find someone on the Republican side who attracts more notice than Boehner to try to make the central hate-object to attract the blame away from Obama and Reid.
==I don’t think our military and a huge swath of voters will soon forget that the President leveraged those who fight and serve to protect us. I know I won’t==
You are absolutely right, Dana, but the Rubicon has been crossed now, and you can bet the Dems currently in office will use that despicable tactic again as a bargaining chip in other budget battles to come. (defunding Obamacare, Ryan’s plan, the next full budget, etc.) It’s who they are.
elissa (740b44) — 4/9/2011 @ 10:12 amWho came out WAY ahead in the standoff? The Repubs did.
http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/04/09/who-won-shutdown-showdown-it-wasnt-even-close
elissa (740b44) — 4/9/2011 @ 10:35 amOK, Dana and Elissa, you clearly have a point that the GOP got close to what it wanted than the democrats did.
I still see this as quite disappointing. It sets the narrative as to what constitutes the moderate path. Next year, democrats can rightly say that Ryan (or whoever’s) plan is draconian on comparison to the ‘bipartisan’ result this year.
It’s not like the USA is much worse off with this result than they’d be with $100 billion (or the prorated 60 billion) cut.
I guess my only comfort is that I realize the republicans just don’t have the power to do more yet.
Dustin (c16eca) — 4/9/2011 @ 10:39 amI think the $38 million actually turns into $43 million on the domestic discretionary side since the Dems wanted to ADD $5 billion in defense spending from now to the end of the fiscal year. The GOP put up a baseline number for total spending for the remainder of the year, and said the additional $5 billion for defense would have to come from domestic discretionary.
THis is actually a decent number given the limited part of the overall budget that it has to come out of — something like only 17% of all gov’t expenditures — and it has to happen in only 6 months.
The fight over Medicare/Medicaid can’t happen until the budget battle for 2012.
shipwreckedcrew (436eab) — 4/9/2011 @ 10:59 amSometimes it takes a small tactical victory to turn the tide. Still took the Russians 2 years to expel the Germans after Stalingrad.
This is a win. A battle won. The war has just begun.
East Coast Chris (c31a9b) — 4/9/2011 @ 11:31 amDirector Sidney Lumet has died. Take a quick trip over to Althouse and watch the 4 minute video clip she has posted from Lumet’s film Network. It’s the classic “I’m Mad as Hell” speech. Brilliant. And timely.
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/sidney-lumet-rip.html
elissa (740b44) — 4/9/2011 @ 11:43 amBeldar
> Aaron, you trivialize the accomplishment here. Yes, a whole lot remains to be done. But you seem not to take account of the fact that the GOP only controls the House. And even that is iffy, precisely because of people who insist on maintaining unrealistic short-term expectations.
With respect, Beldar, what they did is trivial. At best it is figuring out who will blink first. which has value.
and if it is unrealistic to expect people to start actually solving the problem, instead of reducing the rate of making the problem worse, that is a bad sign in washington.
I won’t bash the republicans for compromising here. they only have one house in congress. But if i was in the leadership, i would at the very least make it clear that this was not anything to celebrate. Let Reid and Obama say, “yay us!” and then throw cold water on it.
Aaron Worthing (73a7ea) — 4/9/2011 @ 12:15 pmA.W. – Well, the Democrats did agree to levels of budget cuts which were recently demagogued as extreme, draconian, unacceptable, radical, and various other labels over the past couple of months. What changed?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/9/2011 @ 12:24 pmI wanted big $ cuts too.
But I’m willing to admit I’m not trained or talented in politics, nor do I tell doctors how to doctor, nor generals how to general. When untrained people express well-intended opinions in my area of expertise, they are rarely of any practical use. So it looks like more expert politicians are setting up the stage for the big battles, in ways I never would have thought of.
We were NEVER going to get PP, the EPA, nor big $. Read Ed Morrissey, AJ Strata, & Fox article.
Reading these articles has given me food for thought.
jodetoad (7720fb) — 4/9/2011 @ 1:03 pmAaron
I think the basic problem was three fold for the Republicans:
1) They failed to realize that Obama would never pay a penalty for not giving a damn about the military not getting paid. It’s a dangerous set up where the military is almost all the constituents of one party and the constituents of the other party would still vote for Obama if he went up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and relieved himself on it.
2) The media rapidly went into spin mode and the Republicans were getting blamed for using the military as a pawn.
Remember reflexively there is an American group psychosis out there that sees the Republican party as “The Daddy Party” and therefore they are the only ones held responsible.
3) The public has a short term memory problem they -a) either won’t remember this or b) will have faulty recall of the events-primarily because what matters is what CNN told them-which is how many degrees from reality?
It’s Heisenberg’s Principle of Observation-on crack.
madawaskan (fd190b) — 4/9/2011 @ 1:04 pmTo clarify point #1-
The Republicans also failed to realize that Obama would be so brazen that he wouldn’t care about having the appearance of not giving a damn about the military getting paid even right after the Libya excursion he initiated-
because he knew he would not pay a price for it.
It was a gross miscalculation but tell me –
if you saw that one coming?
No one would have really predicted that.
madawaskan (fd190b) — 4/9/2011 @ 1:09 pmHell
#4) as happyfeet says-Republicans mentioning abortion are “dorks” so we’ve got this stupid juvenile peer pressure thing to *appear* cool that also works on a lot of Republicans.
They were bailing left and right and it wasn’t in the pails of water mode it was rats off the ship-and I don’t know if I blame them after I saw the way the media went into hyperdrive mode.
You should have seen what CNN did with the interviews of one military spouse.
CNN: Who do you blame-who are you most angry at? The President or Congress?
Spouse: Congress…
CNN: OK thanks!
Spouse: Let me just say…
CNN: We’ve got to go…
Spouse: …after..Libya
CNN: Bye!
madawaskan (fd190b) — 4/9/2011 @ 1:17 pmNice cheap shot there, Aaaronn.
“Yeah, Obama, it’s really easy to have the biggest spending cut in history when you had astronomical spending in the years before. Let’s go to the chart, shall we?”
Yeah, let’s go to the chart you put up. It sort of depicts a credit card statement where someone had paid minimum for nearly a decade instead of paying it off when due and now, after someone else inherits the account, it’s pretty steep. And it’s all his fault in your parallel universe.
I expect you’d think that if Obama ended all taxation of all businesses and all taxation of anyone making more than $250k everything would take care of itself and we’d all drive Hummers, even WalMart greeters.
Yeah, right.
Larry Reilly (0e1b2d) — 4/9/2011 @ 1:35 pmLarry – Can you explain that in English?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/9/2011 @ 1:41 pmDamn, I hate it when people take a quote from me and then attach their own inconsistent words to it. Mr. Surls (#38), you’re rubbing me the wrong way, sir. It’s dishonest, and to see it from someone whose comments I generally agree with but always respect makes me disappointed.
Aaron, the cuts yesterday are small in comparison to the size of the problem. But they are not small on an absolute basis, and they are not small in comparison to any other spending cuts ever enacted, and they are emphatically not “trivial.” That’s as much of an overstatement as the Dems who are claiming that the Ryan bill is going to kill senior. Continually restating the obvious — and that which I began by saying — doesn’t advance your case. It does, however, tend to alienate your own natural allies. Why do you want to do that?
Whether it’s Aaron, Mark Levin, or anyone else who’s pissing all over this deal, I haven’t seen anyone — anyone at all — offer a convincing or even plausible argument for how they would have done it all better. By contrast, there is a very, very clear and recent historical comparison — 1995 — to demonstrate how overplaying this hand could have led to disaster at the next presidential election, which (as I keep saying, and nobody here is capable of disputing) is what really counts.
There’s no pleasing some people.
Beldar (cd529f) — 4/9/2011 @ 1:42 pmI think, btw, Aaron, that Speaker Boehner has indeed made it very, very clear that this is only the beginning. If you can find two continuous minutes of him celebrating this, I will be amazed. To the contrary, I know that when the deal was announced, he went out of his way to make exactly the point you say you’d have made if you were him.
I know you think it’s half a loaf. But why pee in it?
Beldar (cd529f) — 4/9/2011 @ 1:46 pmRemember more than half of America thinks the Senate is held by the Republicans and they have no idea of it’s primacy over the House.
Heck Conservative bloggers missed the supremacy of the Senate point last election cycle- there were plenty of posts positing some variant of
-“who cares if we lose the Senate.”
You can thank your teacher’s union for that.
Yes the public and some conservatives are that…”misinformed”.
madawaskan (fd190b) — 4/9/2011 @ 1:56 pmLet me try it this way, using something Aaron wrote in the original post above:
Tell me if there’s any way to get where we need to be which does not have exactly what you’ve just described as its first step.
Do you not hear me, and Speaker Boehner, saying again and again, “This is just a good first step”?
Why refuse to celebrate progress at all, or to commend those who’ve achieved it, just because it’s not all the progress we need nor all at once?
Beldar (cd529f) — 4/9/2011 @ 2:01 pm“…over the next decade it will cut government spending by $500-Billion…”
Over the next decade?
Are you morons on Capitol Hill sentient?
We need to cut government spending by at least $500-Billion THIS YEAR!
We’re running a defict of 16-Hundred Billion Dollars!
And then add to that next year, and each year thereafter, until a significant reduction in the NATIONAL DEBT is accomplished.
Yes, it’s a start, and we had better see additional reductions, or this will all come crashing down on our heads, and it won’t be pretty – especially for the political classes.
AD-RtR/OS! (b6e264) — 4/9/2011 @ 2:05 pmAD-RtR/OS! (#91), would that it were possible to cut hundreds of billions in FY2011. Yes, it needs doing. But it cannot possibly be done. There is literally no scenario, not even one full of best-case assumptions and magic unicorns, where that happens in FY2011.
If you expect that, or lead others to think they should expect it, you’re guaranteeing disappointment for yourself and them.
Disappointment and rage aren’t constructive. The fight has just begun. Will you quit it because it’s not won in the first battle? I don’t read you that way.
Beldar (cd529f) — 4/9/2011 @ 2:19 pmI love metaphors. I’m going to extend Aaron’s a bit further. We know who’s foot was on the gas, right? Barack Obama has been driving this car. It’s him who’s been mashing down harder and harder on the spending accelerator.
This deal pries his foot off the pedal.
No, of course it doesn’t reverse course. You know what happens when you wrench the wheel violently while the driver is still accelerating? You flip the car.
I don’t want to destroy our car. I want to get Barack Obama out of the driver’s seat, because we’re not going to reverse the car’s direction until that happens. And I want to stay alive long enough to accomplish that task, but he’s belted in — there’s that part of the Constitution which prescribes a four-year term for the POTUS.
You rightly emphasize the size of the remaining task. Contemplating that, and how much work needs to be done, what sustained efforts of will and faith and work must be mounted, can you not see some value in a little harmony? Can you spare no encouragement for our teammates, our duly elected representatives of the GOP, who’ve been down in the floorboards, grappling for Barack Obama’s right ankle while Harry Reid and Debbie Wasserman-Shultz were beating them about the head and shoulders?
Beldar (cd529f) — 4/9/2011 @ 2:26 pmHa!
No actually the GOP is in the back seat restrained (-by “the rules”) and Harry Reid is in the front passenger seat with a club (- the Liberal media) beaten’ the ever livin’ fertilizer outta Boehner.
madawaskan (fd190b) — 4/9/2011 @ 2:37 pmMeanwhile speaking of Harry Reid…
I’m not kidding do a poll of the American public-they don’t know the Senate is held by Democrats.
Show them a picture of Harry Reid- a significant majority would not be able to identify him.
Then ask that same American public to guess from Harry Reid’s picture if he’s a Democrat or a Republican and it would be-
Harry Reid is White and Nerdy– and most of them would guess that Harry Reid is a Republican.
(btw-the military when it came to this “pay issue” they weren’t calling the White House or Democrats in the Senate. The military gave up calling the Democrats probably a decade ago.)
madawaskan (fd190b) — 4/9/2011 @ 2:40 pmmadawaskan #89 – it is even sadder than that … look how many folk posting *here* keep talking about “The President’s Budget” with one phrasing or another …
Last time I checked, Congress is supposed to be responsible for the Federal Budget … to mangle an expression from a different milieu “The President Proposeth, and The Congress Disposeth” …
“Bush proposed a budget in FY 2009 that would have netted a deficit of about $1 trillion” – aside from the fact that it’s easy to type such stuff without providing supporting URL(s), it’s sorta hard to prove such a thing is meaningful anyway, given that, by 2009, Bush was guaranteed to be out of office … Newtons.Bit (who sounds more like Pelosi/Reid/Obama’s.Bit**) conveniently doesn’t say whether Congress at the time of the proffered proposal was Dem or GOP, and equally gratuitously omits what numbers Congress was offering as an alternative … while I suspect that the $1 Trillion Bush deficit proposal to be Dem Party propaganda, I *could * see it as having happened if Congress was proposing a $2-2.5T deficit and Bush’s pre-emptive counter was significantly lower …
As I recall, Bush had 5 chances to propose a budget to Congress when Congress (both houses) was GOP-controlled … Between Bush and GOP Congress, the US managed not to get into a Depression after 9/11 … that feat was apparently reserved for the arrival of the Dem Congress in 2007 followed by the Dem Occupancy of the Presidency in 2009 – talk about a double-dip !
My bet is *still* on the current economic experience going down, historically, as the Pelosi/Reid/Obama Recession (or possibly the Obama/Reid/Pelosi Recession) … fortunately, due to the 2010 election, we have *probably* been spared the full Depression experience …
(grin) Then again, if Trump substantiates his hints, it may go down as the Reid/Pelosi/Soetero Recession …
(Personally, I tend towards calling it the Numbnuts/Pelosi/Reid Recession – abbreviated to the NPR Recession …)
Alasdair (205079) — 4/9/2011 @ 3:12 pmLarry, your claims are the usual sort of economic flim-flam we get from Democrats who can’t even be honest enough to admit that they were too cowardly to even pass a FY2011 budget.
SPQR (26be8b) — 4/9/2011 @ 4:10 pmI like Tam’s comment:
SPQR (26be8b) — 4/9/2011 @ 4:11 pmWhen the old, tired, Business of America is Business social Darwinist Republicans were losing control of the country, back in TR’s era, and running through FDR, they did a lot of things that were indefensibly stupid, which contributed powerfully to the control the Progressive Left had over all political debate for decades.
Now, the shoe is on the other foot. It is the Progressive Left’s establishment that is losing control. It is the Progressive Left’s vision that has run out of practical application. It is the Progressive Left that is thrashing around, doing stupid things that will poison their political future for decades.
This is gonna be messy. It’s going to be hell to clean up. It will be easy to tell ourselves that the Progressive Left never amounted to much of anything but a criminal conspiracy. And we need to guard against that. There were serious societal shifts that the Old Guard Republicans of TR’s day weren’t ready to deal with, and the Progressive Left had a fair amount of sweet reason on their side, once. If we forget that we give our side a jump start of the process of calcification that will inevitable see us replaced with something young and dynamic.
C. S. P. Schofield (8b1968) — 4/9/2011 @ 4:26 pmNo-show $112,000 jobs are a big felony, no?
This whole budget BS is just that. All of this drama over 38 billion bucks or so, when the deficit is over 1.5 trillion.
Oh, and mary reilly the JournoLister is an incoherent imbecile, as always.
JD (d56362) — 4/9/2011 @ 5:24 pmA couple quick questions … Are these real cuts, or cuts based on Barcky’s prior budget proposal? Also, did I read that the deficit numbers used in the debate have been revised up to over $1.7 trillion? If that is the case, the catastrophic cuts which will kill women, children, old people, and minorities only cuts a portion of the rounding error and projections on the deficit, much less the overall budget. There are a lot of people in Washington, and elsewhere, that are not at all serious about getting our finances in order.
JD (d48c3b) — 4/9/2011 @ 5:50 pmOK, I just watched a bit of the 10 o’clock news to get a local flavor on the budget deal. Jesse Jackson said the cuts are “obscene”, and Jan Schakowsky said the whole thing was purely idealogical–an attack on womens’ health. Oh, and federal workers are marching around in the loop in protest. The one guy that the reporter stopped and interviewed knew there would be cuts, didn’t know yet who and which jobs were in jeopardy–but he is vewy angry and wants people watching to know that “this cannot stand”.
elissa (740b44) — 4/9/2011 @ 8:13 pm“Damn, I hate it when people take a quote from me and then attach their own inconsistent words to it. Mr. Surls (#38), you’re rubbing me the wrong way, sir. It’s dishonest”
Relax, Dude, it’s just a rhetorical device.
And, we haven’t accomplished a damned thing, except to slip further into the insatiable black hole of socialism.
The Dems got what they want, which is a massive increase in the size of government, and we took it in the shorts (unless your big dream is to spend half your life working for the government). Furthermore, Obambi & co. just showed they can employ naked blackmail, and the GOP will immediately roll over and give them what they want.
Some accomplishment.
Dave Surls (d0c509) — 4/9/2011 @ 10:57 pmWhat a deceptive little chart there.
The 2009 budget (like all budgets) are passed the previous year.
Kman (26c32e) — 4/10/2011 @ 7:36 amWhat a deceptive little masturbater you are.
DohBiden (984d23) — 4/10/2011 @ 7:51 amAnd yes you people insist Jan Brewer is anti-immigration when she opposes illegal immigration so i say again your a pathetic masturbater.
DohBiden (984d23) — 4/10/2011 @ 8:01 amRemember all that castigation about the evil GOP holding the budget hostage to their policy dispute over Planned Parenthood? Just propaganda.
Not that it will surprise anyone that people like Kman were here flogging propaganda …
SPQR (26be8b) — 4/10/2011 @ 8:17 amKman is just masturbating to his obama poster so don’t mind him.
DohBiden (984d23) — 4/10/2011 @ 8:25 amBeldar, I haven’t any inclination to give up –
I’ve been fighting this fight since I first read Barry Goldwater in High School in the Fifties –
but I am damn disgusted with the constant go-along/get-along mentality that the National GOP demonstrates.
We put new blood into place, and as soon as we blink, they go native, and they need to be replaced.
The system has become totally corrupt, and that corruption is the insertion of the Fed. Govt. into the daily lives of every American.
A Republic cannot survive when govt is 42% of GDP
(regulations – by most reasonable economic studies – account for a minimum of another 16% of GDP).
If the size and scope of govt at all levels cannot be scaled-back, we’ll just be another Banana Republic,
and we all should just content ourselves with whatever scraps our political-class betters deign to drop to us from the balcony.
Speaking of Banana-Republics, I see that the FIBS have arrested two City of L.A. building inspectors for accepting bribes for fudged or non-existent inspections.
The anti-business culture endemic within that city’s political culture (and rife all along the Left Coast) has finally broke through to rival what we see in the Third-World:
The only way that a businessman can survive/expand is to pay off the bureaucracy to get official permission to do what should be a no-brainer in a Nation of Laws where individual/property rights are respected, protected, and encouraged.
Welcome to 21st Century America!
AD-RtR/OS! (5b0e13) — 4/10/2011 @ 8:32 amKeep you powder dry, and close at hand.
Kman, since the FY2009 included Obama’s own stimulus bill, it is not deceptive to mark its deficit as belonging to Obama. But people who are utterly ignorant of recent history, or intentionally dishonest, would claim so.
SPQR (26be8b) — 4/10/2011 @ 8:33 amSPQR, in referring to Kmart, you could have stopped with “utterly ignorant“.
AD-RtR/OS! (5b0e13) — 4/10/2011 @ 8:37 amAnd yet, AD, I like to be complete.
SPQR (26be8b) — 4/10/2011 @ 8:42 am==We put new blood into place, and as soon as we blink, they go native, and they need to be replaced==
I have to go with Beldar on this one. The new House and speaker have been in place for three months. Geesh.
I’m pretty sure that most of us who comment here agree with you that we have been steadily going to hell in a handbasket since LBJ beat Goldwater and that much must be changed so our country can be salvaged. That’s over 45 years of social decline and building up the size of government and embedding of the welfare state that has to be undone. Most of us are not political naifs and know that parties bear blame. But Boehner and the 2010 House have been in office for three friggen months and the Rs do not control the senate or the presidency. Hmmm, it would have been really nice if we had managed to eke out control of the Senate, too, in the last election. That might have helped a bit, yes?
Most folks can’t even rid our little lawns of crab grass in three months. But we can at least get the eradication process underway and then doggedly keep at it.
elissa (93f15e) — 4/10/2011 @ 9:09 am“The 2009 budget (like all budgets) are passed the previous year.”
Kman – Hilariously wrong in this case. Don’t bother checking facts before blurting a knee jerk reaction. How’s that 2011 budget coming? What? Still not passed? There goes that talking point.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/10/2011 @ 9:26 amI love how the lefty 9-11 truthers are now calling birthers crazy.
DohBiden (984d23) — 4/10/2011 @ 9:35 am__________________________________________
but I am damn disgusted with the constant go-along/get-along mentality that the National GOP demonstrates.
I understand your reaction and frustration, but place that against the backdrop of the POVs of many of the people around you. Members of your family, and friends and acquaintances who vote on election day, or who reflect a good cross section of the public. Assuming you don’t live in a rarefied bubble, you must observe your fair share of liberal to “centrist” biases.
We live in a nation where the voting habits of people do have quite a bit of influence, and where many — too many — folks continue to believe (idiotically so) that liberalism represents niceness, generosity, sophistication, tolerance, wonderfulness, fairness and compassion—or all the quick and easy benefits provided by the local, state and federal governments.
John Stossell on Fox News has been airing a report the past few days on the way that so much of American society — across all socio-political boundaries — is full of, as he labels them, “freeloaders.” That we’re all easily seduced into becoming ambulance chasers (or closeted liberals) if enough dollars are dangled in front of our eyes.
Mark (411533) — 4/10/2011 @ 9:44 am“but I am damn disgusted with the constant go-along/get-along mentality that the National GOP demonstrates.”
AD – Absolutely. They need to remain laser-focused on cutting $100 billion out of the non-existent Fiscal 2011 Budget and keep creating bills which will be rejected by the Senate and vetoed by the President, especially since the fiscal year is already half over. Forget about organizing a strategy around Ryan’s budget and the concept of cutting entitlements until they have brought Democrats to their knees over Fiscal 2011. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Unconditional surrender by the Democrats! Take no prisoners!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/10/2011 @ 10:26 amMark Levin is my whiny ass Monday morning hindsight quarterback hero FOREVAH!!!!!!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/10/2011 @ 10:28 amYes and now the anti-war left want to ban islamophobia………..how special
Sorry for the O/T
DohBiden (984d23) — 4/10/2011 @ 10:32 amA reminder…
AD-RtR/OS! (5b0e13) — 4/10/2011 @ 12:34 pmI live in SoCal, and have been surrounded by “progressives” for far longer than I wish to contemplate;
and yes, I realize that Boehner & Co. have only been on watch for 3-mos, but the machinery of govt seems not to be moving any faster than it has, even though there has been some progress on some of the more egregious items bequeathed us by Princess Nancy – after all, the 111th Congress didn’t take any time at all cutting the funding for ACORN, and we’re still arguing about CPB/NPR?.
Legislation should have been fast-tracked through the House to excise the more egregious parts of the Obumbler/Botoxi/Dim-Bulb agenda from the Federal Leviathan, forcing the Senate to go on record supporting throwing good money after bad.
The battle in 2012 is for control of the Senate, and those 20+ Dems up for re-election – or to replace the ones who bailed – must be held to a standard that they themselves have constructed.
As to the White House, if the economy hasn’t markedly improved, and the inflation that we see building and know that must get worse, has brought us to our knees, there is no way on God’s Green Earth that the current whiny occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue can survive – in fact (if all the bad things happen that we think will – plus more Libya’s) there will be a strong Primary challenge to Obama from his Left, in the same manner that Carter was challenged by Kennedy, and that will probably spell his doom politically.
And, Levin is the quintessential RWTR spear-thrower – though his book Liberty & Tyranny was well received.
Levin has a voice for newspaper.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/10/2011 @ 12:53 pmFY2012 Budget (Ryan’s Budget):
This will be the fight of all fights, and it must not be turned from by the GOP in the House, as this is where they can (along with the authorization of an increase in the debt limit) seriously start to defund those aspects of the Leviathan that have out-lived (or never even lived up to their expectations) their usefulness.
AD-RtR/OS! (5b0e13) — 4/10/2011 @ 1:18 pmPass a serious budget that supports the enumerated functions of government, and puts the rest on a serious diet (TSA/ATF/EPA!) – if not setting them aside to fend for themselves (CPB/USPS/Amtrak/PP, and other NGO’s/etc), and let the Senate make what changes they wish, and then vote NO on the changes.
Let it be on the Senate’s head that a Budget doesn’t make it to the President’s desk, and if it does, that it reflects the will of the people who elected a new majority in the 112th Congress, and if the President can’t live with that reality, he can veto the budget and close down the Federal Leviathan – probably to the cheers and huzzahs of more people than he and his confederates wish to contemplate.
Ask me if I care that farmers in Iowa won’t receive their handouts for corn production – either support payments or ethanol subsidies….
Oh, Boo Hoo!
And, what a tragedy it will be if McDonald’s doesn’t get some form of export subsidy to send Big Macs overseas, and WalMart might not be able to support some plant in a Third-World Hell-hole to the degree that some obscure provision in Export-Import legislation allows them to.
(((please pass the tissue, I’m sobbing here, folks)))
This is a time for serious people to bear down, and accomplish serious tasks, or we will not have anything to be serious about.
But, Hey, I’m 69-years old, and I’m not going to live forever, so what the Hell do I care how you piss away the legacy that some of my, and your, fore-bearers left to us all.
If you feel like taking a dump at the picnic, why let common sense and decency stop you.
Good thing Teh Won is feeling enough heat over debt and deficit issues to convince him to of the need to address the nation over his “new” plan to reduce both on Wednesday night. Speech will apparently include entitlement reform.
Round One – Republicans
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/10/2011 @ 4:23 pmDaley – care to bet whether or not he demagogues and gives false choices and made up numbers and smoke and mirrors?
JD (d48c3b) — 4/10/2011 @ 4:53 pmJD, you had to even ask?
AD-RtR/OS! (5b0e13) — 4/10/2011 @ 5:04 pmJD – He will do all of the above. 100% certain. Important part is that address has been advertised as about cutting deficit and debt and including Medicare and Medicaid. His initial budget included no cuts. If he weasels again he is toast and I think he knows it. The polls and public sentiment are speaking to him.
Hey, but public infighting on Team R helps our cause!
OUTLAW!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/10/2011 @ 5:06 pmI do not think the president will have much of an TV audience for his address on Wednesday. He just can’t pull em in anymore like he used to when he was the messiah. I wonder which twenty-something speech writer will enlighten us. It will be boring and passionless. Barry will be hating every minute because he doesn’t really believe in any of it.
elissa (93f15e) — 4/10/2011 @ 5:18 pm