Posted on 06/16/2015 4:12:43 AM PDT by GIdget2004
Congress is slowly paddling toward a government shutdown.
The fight over government spending that has dominated much of the decade, calmed for two years because of a bipartisan deal, is roaring back to life.
Democrats are adamant that Republicans back off their plans to increase defense spending without doing the same for nondefense programs. They argue the GOP is using a budget gimmick to funnel more money to the Pentagon without raising spending limits on healthcare and social welfare programs.
To try to force the party’s hand, Senate Democrats say they will block every annual spending bill unless Republicans agree to a budget summit.
Republicans, for their part, say they have no intention of caving to Democratic demands.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) say they won’t convene a budget summit and warn Democrats could earn the wrath of voters by blocking bills to fund the military.
Unless someone blinks, none of the 12 annual spending bills will be approved by this summer — leaving Congress on the brink of a shutdown in late September.
The finger-pointing has already started.
“Democrats once thought it was insanely radical for Republicans to oppose too much spending, but now think it’s perfectly reasonable to shut down the government when the spending bills don’t spend enough,” Boehner stated in a Monday memo to reporters.
“We’re headed for another shutdown,” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) said of Republicans last week. “They did it once, they’re going to do it again.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Rather than “compromising” by spending more on defense and non-defense, we should compromise by cutting defense spending and cutting non-defense spending.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
I’m glad you said it first. 600,000,000,000 should be enough to build the mightiest military ever seen. There’s probably 150 billion of waste in there.
If we cut everything by 15 percent, we could erase the deficit this year.
And instead of hitting SS, we could decimate the ranks of federal workers.
Oh yeah, but Pelosi said there is nothing left to cut. While one out of five federal workers spend the day working for their union. The rest watch porn.
Shut’r Down!
“Republicans, for their part, say they have no intention of caving to Democratic demands.”
For the first couple hours or so...
“Republicans, for their part, say they have no intention of caving to Democratic demands.”
If true, that’ll be a first!
The military has already taken quite a few hits.
Somehow, the Democrats can never imagine cutting any of the social (i.e. redistributionist) spending. It has ballooned during Obama’s reign, but Democrats refuse to touch it.
Then, the repubs should (but likely won't) turn this into a discussion about being ready to fight ISIS. Simplify it by saying the dems want to cripple our efforts to keep ISIS at bay.
If the media weren’t in bed with Big Government, it would not beat the drums for keeping that ship of fools in power. If polls came out that showed that the GOP was getting credit for shutting down this gaggle of grifters, instead of blame, there would be no “problem” with shutting down this corrupt perversion of our Constitution.
Just for fun, if you were directly affected by the Cruz-led shutdown over funding nobamacare, post the reason here.
Why do I expect only {crickets}?
Time to invoke the Reid Rule and unilaterally end the filibuster for budget votes.
You obviously have no future in politics.
You obviously have no future in politics.
You can say that again. I have no future in politics because I would spend tax dollars as carefully as if they were my own money.
“Just for fun, if you were directly affected by the Cruz-led shutdown over funding nobamacare, post the reason here.”
I was on a camping vacation in the southwest. The national parks were closed by the administration so we could not visit or camp in several parks. My wife and I changed our plans on the fly and stayed in state parks instead.
For us it was a minor inconvenience as we are young enough to have another chance to see the national parks we missed. However, in an Arkansas state park campground we met an elderly couple in their mid 80’s returning home from their last trip in their motorhome. Before meeting each other decades ago, one had seen the north rim of the Grand Canyon and the other had seen the south rim. They had decided to make their final RV trip to the Grand Canyon so they could share the experience of seeing the north and south rims of the park together. They waited six days at the entrance of the park, hoping they would get in but on the 7th day had to turn east to return home. The cost of Mr. Cruz’s shutdown, which accomplished nothing, was the dream of this couple.
As I reflect on this experience, had the GOP backed Cruz and forced Obama’s hand, the Cruz led shutdown would have been worthwhile. However, given that going into the effort Cruz knew he didn’t have backing, I don’t think his efforts were worth the cost of the dream to that old couple or the inconvenience to the tens or hundreds of thousands of US citizens whose vacations were disrupted by the loss of access to the nation’s parks.
I expect to be excoriated for the above statement so flame on.
Republicans, for their part, say they have no intention of caving to Democratic demands.
YAWN..
Lucy wants to play football.
I won’t excoriate, but I will disagree.
Cruz did not shut down the parks. Obama did that. Cruz did what he could to “raise consciousness” about the issue, while the rest of the republicans decided they didn’t want to play to win.
I’m sorry the couple couldn’t realize their dream, but the cost of doing nothing is high for all of us. The skirmish was lost, but preserved the battle, and hence the war, IMO.
Shut it down! It can only help!
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