Posted on 11/22/2011 10:16:51 AM PST by 92nina
...After staying resolute in their pledge to not raise taxes and negotiating $1 trillion in cuts off the bat, House Republicans blinked on the BBA, bringing the weakest version available to the floor for a vote.
We have always warned that a weak amendment that does not require a super-majority to increase taxes will result in more harm than good indeed, it is a pure fiction that in an era of $1.5 trillion deficits (and $15 trillion of debt) that Congress would be willing or able to cut spending rather than raise taxes to close this budget hole. Throw in the silence in the weak BBA regarding enforcement, and you have a court-mandated tax hike that allows members of Congress to continue unbridled spending without having to get their hands dirty with tax increases.
Interestingly, most Republicans argued that only a weak BBA would secure the necessary Democrat votes to pass the House. The figment of near-passage in 1995 bolstered the illusion that Democrats had somehow revised their tax-and-spend creed by 2011. Regardless that the BBA was clearly DOA in the Democrat-controlled Senate, conservatives linked arms to push the weak BBA to the floor, believing House Democrats would join their phalanx.
This fantasy failed to play out again; only 25 Democrats crossed the party line to support the BBA, while four Republicans (notably, taxpayer champion and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan amongst them) voted against the BBA. Republicans needed double the amount of Democrats to vote for the amendment and all Republican votes to fall in line to secure passage. Even more painfully, of the TK Democrats who were both serving in 1995 and today, 7 Democrats who voted for the BBA in 1995 opposed the amendment on the floor last week...
Read more: http://www.atr.org/house-vote-weakens-chances-strong-bba-a6604#ixzz1eSUzNftk
(Excerpt) Read more at atr.org ...
Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious
I am frankly tired of symbolism like this. It seems whenever House Republicans want to stir up those of us in the “base” they hold some symbolic vote on BBA, marriage or whatever. Why not just put your foot down and not give Obummer the money to spend in the first place???
Somehow I doubt the RSC was enthusiastic about this BBA. Problem is that the House Leadership is convinced they’ll lose any government shutdown fights.
I don’t know the answer to that. At one time I thought try another government shutdown, it’s not 1994 and people are tired of overgrown government. But this bunch is so craven and ruthless with only one goal in mind, retaining power, that I wouldn’t put anything past them. I could even see them withholding Social Security checks even though there would be absolutely no reason to do so.
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