House GOP prepares stopgap spending bill to avoid shutdown

The Hill ^ | 13 Feb 13 | Erik Wasson

[SkyPilot]

House appropriators are finalizing a stopgap spending bill to prevent a government shutdown after March 27, and the bill could see a vote before the end of February.

House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said Thursday that he is crafting a continuing resolution at the current level of spending, thereby separating the issue of a government shutdown from the question of how to deal with automatic sequestration cuts.

The stopgap spending bill would be set at the current level of $1.043 trillion for the entire fiscal year that began Oct. 1. It would specify that the $85 billion sequestration is allowed to take place unless it is separately turned off.

The bill would contain full-year appropriations bills for the Defense department, and also cover military construction and veterans' affairs spending.

By going from a stopgap bill for these areas to a detailed appropriations bill, Rogers hopes to help the Pentagon cope better with the effects of sequestration. The CR alone was slated to cause an $11 billion shortfall for the Pentagon's operations and maintenance account and the Rogers plan would allow the Pentagon to work around that limitation.

Impacts were projected to affect matters from Joint Strike Fighter procurement to the building of medical facilities to treat wounded soldiers.

[CharlesWayneCT]

We didn’t raise taxes. By budget, taxes were going to go up more. So the deal in January actually increased the deficit, which they then had to pay for by setting up a continuing resolution that slightly cut spending.

All the big deficit numbers were ASSUMING that all our taxes were going back up to pre-bush-year values.

It’s sad that a small decrease in the rate of growth of spending is considered a “rapid draw-down”.

The military was going to have some shrinking pains anyway, because they weren’t going to keep spending a lot of money for support personnel in this country for the wars we aren’t fighting anymore.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Cutting entitlements will also “slow down the economy”. The federal government has been adding a trillion a year to the economy by borrowing the money. It’s just a macro version of the problem when a family keeps using their credit card.

One day, they are maxed out, and realize they have already spent all the money they are going to make next year — and maybe even the year after that. Coming to terms with the idea that you have to work 2 years without spending a dime before you can even break even is a harsh reality.

But the only way out is to stop spending. And when you do, now your “economy” has shut down. You aren’t spending, so the stores you buy from aren’t able to employ people, and they lose their jobs, and they can’t spend, and it’s a hard thing.

But not as hard as trying to keep going until you are 3 years in debt.

We’ll survive the sequester. It’s not the right way to cut spending, but it’s better than not cutting spending.

[SkyPilot]

Charles,

While I respectfully agree with you that entitlement spending would have economic impact as well, and that our borrowing and over spending is out of control, I fundamentally disagree with your premise that cutting the military to this degree with sequestration is an acceptable avenue. It isn't.

The Republicans have done great damage already towards their reputation as the traditional vanguards of the military, and they continue to do even more damage to that end every day.

The entire sequestration scam is a blatant attempt to do "something" - and the Faustian bargain only touches discretionary spending and leaves all automatic spending (which is 62% of the budget) consisting of entitlements virtually unchange. The Democrats took entitlement spending (the greatest problem we have) "off the table" and the Republicans agreed. It was political and fiscal madness.

Even if we fiscally pummeled the military completely, and zeroed out her funding, look what we have:

The Republicans do want entitlement reform, the biggest problem right now is Medicare. Obama won't go along with it. He did agree in 2011 to raise the age from 65 to 67. That would have solved sequestration and a host of over budgetary problems all by itself. But, now the White House has said they refuse to even discuss it.

So here we are, playing the game that we can balance 3/3rds of the budget by playing with 1/3rd of the budget, and of those 1/3 cuts, the Pentagon takes 50% of them even though they are about 17% of the budget.

Moreover, we are punishing the most loyal child in the room - the US military. No organization has sacrificed more or answered the call as much as the US military, and it is the one organization paying the biggest political price.

I know why the Republicans and Democrats would rather scream at the captive audience of the Deputy Secretary of Defense and the Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of staff at a hearing on Capitol Hill. They much prefer that than to tell a bunch of 65 year olds they must wait until they are 67 to collect Medicare. Or telling Social Security recipients their COLA will be computed to be less.

But that is what we must do.

I really don't have a problem with the other $600 Billion in cuts to domestic agencies. In fact, I would eliminate half the departments. But the keg they are tapping is naitonal defense, and they are doing it indiscriminately, broadly, and unequally.

From a morality standpoint, not a fiscal one, this action is absoulutely immoral for a nation to take.

Every single department of the military is affected by these cuts (they say the wounded warrior program is exempt, but that means little). Every aircraft, hospital, and even TRICARE for the military, families, and veterans is affected.

And all because we can't tell Americans that their entitlements are out of control?

Our nation is going to pay a terrible price for this shortsightedness.

[SkyPilot]

Apologize - here is the chart showing spending and debt with the military funding completely eliminated.

[palmer]

When do you think they should cut defense and by how much? Can’t a few billion here and there add up to 50 billion? It is pretty myopic to think otherwise. Defense is very myopic, we don’t need billion dollar nonprofits like MITRE full of useless twits. You said in another thread we need airbases in Europe and elsewhere. Does that require 80,000 personnel in Europe and over $3B a year? Your whining is endless but your solutions are sparse.

[LibsRJerks]

Our nation is going to pay a terrible price for this shortsightedness.

**
Shortsightedness? How about blistering stupidity and selfishness? This country deserves what it’s going to get —a state of increasing vulnerability to attack — meanwhile, we fatten up illegals and deadbeats on welfare, and old folks who bought into this communistic plan - who will eat up the last crumbs while the REST of us face future bankruptcy as the benefits will eventually just shut off anyway.

What a country. We’re hurtling now it seems, into third world status. Our leaders are immoral, evil and inept. But we sit here and do nothing about it, so who are we to complain?

[JCBreckenridge]

Tell it to all the FReepers who balk at cutting medicare and social security. “It’s not an entitlement”. Yes, yes, it is.

Even here, medicare and social security > funding for the military.

[JCBreckenridge]

Yeah, we young people are f***ed.

[SkyPilot]

This country deserves what it’s going to get —a state of increasing vulnerability to attack — meanwhile, we fatten up illegals and deadbeats on welfare, and old folks who bought into this communistic plan - who will eat up the last crumbs while the REST of us face future bankruptcy as the benefits will eventually just shut off anyway. What a country. We’re hurtling now it seems, into third world status. Our leaders are immoral, evil and inept.

Amazing, isn't it?

I just don't understand what the Republicans are doing these days. We know what the Democrats are, and what they stand for. Why are the Republicans so bent on destruction?

You're right about the state of the nation. We are in serious, serious trouble. We need God.

[SkyPilot]

Even here, medicare and social security > funding for the military.

Yes, unfortunately, that has been a painful education for me.

[Cheerio]

Now, he is going to cut troops - big time. He could care less about them.

It seems like you are correct. He is more interested in arming the CIVILIAN Army to be used against the "bitter-clingers".

stockpiling by DHS of more than 1.6 billion (with a 'b') bullets.

[SkyPilot]

You seem to have a real, personal vendetta against the MITRE Corporation. I worked with a few of them back in the 1980's. Not particularly useful, some of the were. And yes, I agree - vastly overpaid on that contract. They were sort of "Uber-Contractors" in that they thought of themselves as contractors, but better than DoD civilians.

Cut them some? Sure. Why not. But Sequestration is an across-the-board meat ax that cuts into (primarily) O&M funds for the military.

Guess what? During this go-around of Sequestration (and we get to look forward to 10 years of this mess), the contractors make out much, much better than the military and DoD civilians. The DoD civilians will get furloughed, the contractors will fare much, much better.

We do need airbases in Europe. Yes, it is expensive. We spend $3B a day on liberal garbage in this country. For the strategic advantage and operational capability they provide this nation during crisis and wartime, that is worth every penny. I am sorry you don't feel this way, but it is the truth.

[palmer]

MITRE is just an example which I use based on my experience, not a vendetta. I have a bit of experience with a couple of the national labs and they are a little better but have much of the same problem which is essentially grabbing for as many defense dollars as possible without ever honestly self-evaluation (never mind external) whether they can actually accomplish the work. My own employer is guilty as well. I am myself guilty of writing proposals for which I could not perform the work (even though I thought I could). Fortunately I have a colleague who is the gatekeeper on that now.

The broader point is that the defense industry is a pork-filled mess and needs the meat ax, not a little tweaking. It's too bad if, as you say, contractors will not get cut under sequestration. They need to be cut.

My experience with DoD civilians is that they are very inefficient, not because they want to be, but because they are mired in the bureaucracy. Telework is a joke and real work often only takes place a day or two a week. Often they will simply twiddle their thumbs for a week or two while someone higher up holds up the work for some stupid reason. My experience with active military is limited. The worst of the worst in my experience are various groups whose only job is paperwork and they can't turn around a document in less than a month or sometimes many months. Those groups are on bases in various parts of the country that are politically protected.

The biggest picture is that the military could easily meet its mission on 1/2 or less of the current budget, but it's not possible due to a million feifdoms and politically-motivated interest groups. It's a mess. If I had a choice I would fire everyone and start over.

[Monorprise]

What is the point of deadline solutions if your just going to ignore them.

For the love of god and country just let the cuts take place!

We should only be so lucky to have Washington bug out of our lives for a few days. But even federal republicans treat that like some kind of apocalyptic. I find theses republican to be the lowest of the low.

I will not vote or campaign for theses ‘republican’ lowlifes. They can and should rot in hell next to their beloved democrat & socialist colleges.

[Monorprise]

I don’t know about you, but seeing liberty drop like a fly in the self made imperial capital of Washington.

I don’t value the Federal military, for it is at the end of the day nothing more than Washington’s brutal enforcer.

I know most of the officers & personnel of the army are good men & women who believe in liberty. But i also know that they all will be forced to answer Washington’s call to impose tyranny upon their own people one way or the other.

So I do not support funding this organizational, Let the patriots of the army, & air-force join their state’s national guards. Let them answer more to the honest convictions of their own hearts rather than the corrupt edicts of a lawless Washington.

[Monorprise]

Do you honestly believe that foreigners are more of a threat to our liberty than our own Washington D.C. at this point?

If you do then you have simply traded one theoretical tyrant for anther very real and very effective tyrant.

I for one do not fear China one iota as much as I fear the imperial edict of Washington.

China has yet to mandate my behavioral, nor tax me into poverty, nor crush my opperunity. Washington has already done all of theses oppressive things.

To put it bluntly:
To China I am at best a distant rival.
To Washington I am a slave.

Who do you think should I fear and resent more?

[Monorprise]

Your right of course That medicare and “social security” are unaffordably expensive “entitlement” but your also not doing justice to the fact that these entitlements have been sold to a lawless majority and forced upon the rest of us as “investments”. Much like a casino entices you to “invest” in their product.

Even then the Federal Government’s employees in black robes acknowledged that theses were merely taxes with no obligation on the part of Washington to keep it’s politicians political promises.

It mattered not then just as it matters not now for most people(the “mob”) hears only what their political leaders say and sees only what they get in the hear and now.

The whole point of a Constitutional republic was to severely limit what political leaders could do in the hear and now so that people would at least see the truth.

But when that Constitution was made subject to the sole discretion of 9 hand picked Federal employees in black robes it largely ceased to exist as any “law” ceased to exist when the one bound by it can simply choose to disregard his bindings.

So dispute efforts to keep up apperences reminiscent of the early Roman empire the Federal Constitution and the Federal republic it once defined are dead.

This fact could not be made more clear than the effective boundlessness of Washington as they themselves defined it.

We need to be preparing the political landscape for a Republican revolution, not continue to wast time & money playing their pointless power game.

Surely you must recognize that a sad but necessary part of that will involve the downsizing and/or dismantling the Federal military machine.
Like it or not this machine has in the past always proven to be little more than a tool of Washington, not liberty, and certainly not the now dead Constitution.

(When is the last time a military officers successfully refused an unconstitutional order by the president?)

The Constitution means nothing at all when it is so easily and callously swept aside by those who have sworn to uphold it. The oath theses men take is but a joke for most, and a self-serving joke for them who wear black.

[Monorprise]

“Now, he is going to cut troops - big time. He could care less about them.

It seems like you are correct. He is more interested in arming the CIVILIAN Army to be used against the “bitter-clingers”.

stockpiling by DHS of more than 1.6 billion (with a ‘b’) bullets.”

Obama’s civilian army will win too unless we organize ourselves against them, they will simply pick us all off one by one.

We may need to transform part of our political movement & organization into a military type organization of something similar to Minute men in effect on the local level. (Men a thousand miles away cannot help you defend yourself.)

To do this we must establish a system of commutations & coordination. Preferably something that Washington will have difficulty decifering and halting. But that preference at this point is of course a distant 2nd in priority to usability & universality.

[familyop]

Our defense is one of the few right purposes for government spending. Federal funding to state and local civilian governments is too high (pork). There are extreme numbers of planners and inspectors doing nothing except plotting and scheming detrimental efforts against production and property rights. There’s nearly no building development happening except for federally funded projects.

There are increases for salaries and ever more hiring in public education, while most schools see fewer children each year. As our population gets older, social services is no more than a support for drug abuse (and its associate, alcoholism). Funding for environmentalism and animal worship is deleterious and shouldn’t be happening.

There’s plenty of money for our military forces. It needs to be rightfully stopped from going to useless/counterproductive civilian programs.

[familyop]

Meanwhile, it appears that there are endless funds for "empowering" government day care babysitting.

Obama to push universal preschool proposal
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2988474/posts