Posted on 04/13/2011 9:34:03 PM PDT by kristinn
National Review calls it "strike one" for John Boehner's speakership. The numbers are stunning. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the budget deal for FY 2011 struck by Speaker of the House Boehner, Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Barack Obama will reduce spending by a paltry $352 million.
The $38.5 billion spending reduction deal announced late last Friday night by Obama, Boehner and Reid has been exposed upon analysis as smoke and mirrors.
A comparison prepared by the CBO shows that the omnibus spending bill, advertised as containing some $38.5 billion in cuts, will only reduce federal outlays by $352 million below 2010 spending rates. The nonpartisan budget agency also projects that total outlays are actually some $3.3 billion more than in 2010, if emergency spending is included in the total.
The astonishing result, according to CBO, is the result of several factors: increases in spending, especially at the Defense Department; decisions to draw over half of the savings from recissions; and cuts to reserve funds and and money for mandatory-spending programs that might never have been spent.
To make matters worse, the military is still being played as political pawns by both Boehner and Obama in the budget showdown.
The weeklong funding bill voted on early Saturday morning in the House only funded the military thorugh April 15, meaning that should the smoke and mirrors deal for funding the government fail to pass the troops are back in limbo as far as pay.
A Defense Department statement issued April 11 states troops will receive full pay on April 15th, but is silent on pay for May 1st and beyond.
A stand alone bill to ensure the troops get paid regardless of whether a budget is passed has been bottled up in the House by Boehner who refuses to allow the bill to be voted on.
According to the Thomas Web site at the Library of Congress, H.R. 1297, the Ensuring Pay for Our Military Act of 2011 sponsored by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) has 161 sponsors. Gohmert's bill would authorize pay for the troops through December 31, 2011 so as to protect the troops from a similar situation come the end of FY 2011 September 30th. A companion bill in the Senate, S. 724 by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), has around 80 sponsors.
According to Thomas, the bill was introduced by Gohmert on March 31, 2011. That same day the bill was referred to the appropriate committees where it has languished at the discretion of Boehner:
Latest Major Action: 3/31/2011 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
A Facebook page set up by a military veteran/spouse to support the bill has garnered over 1,800,000 supporters.
Rather than bring Gohmert's bill to the House floor, Boehner used the troops as pawns in the budget debate last week when he tied their pay to cutting federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Obama threatened a veto. The deal struck between Boehner and Obama kept the funding for Planned Parenthood but only funded the troops for a week pending a vote on the entire deal.
National Review published an editorial this evening retracting the editors' previously stated support for the deal. The conservative publication accused Boehner of selling the deal on "false pretenses" and called the deal "strike one against the speakership of John Boehner."
Erick Erickson at Red State published e-mails form Boehner's office complaining about Erickson's criticism of the deal. In one of the e-mails, Boehner's office admitted the deal only cuts spending $353 million this year, but claims longterm cuts in the billions:
"353 million in the next 6 months, but 315 billion over a decade. For example from the story: “CBO does credit a move to eliminate year-round Pell Grants with generating more than $40 billion in deficit reduction over the coming decade from both mandatory and appropriated accounts, though just slightly less than $1 billion this year."
Erickson responds:
So . . . we are only cutting the deficit $353 million this year? I haven’t been talking about the next decade. No one has. And $315 billion over the next ten years is one grain of sand on deficit beach. This year’s deficit is $1.5 TRILLION.
I’d just point out that John Boehner said on February 11, 2011, “We are going to cut $100 billion in discretionary spending next week. Write it down. $100 billion in discretionary spending. And we aren’t going to stop there.”
Oh, lastly we also know the spending baseline went up $3.3 billion.
The AP notes that the deal actually increases overall spending when increases in defense spending are included:
The Congressional Budget Office estimate shows that compared with current spending rates the spending bill due for a House vote today would cut federal outlays from nonwar accounts by just $352 million through Sept. 30.
About $8 billion in immediate cuts to domestic programs and foreign aid are offset by nearly equal increases in defense spending.
When war funding is factored in, the legislation would actually increase total federal outlays by $3.3 billion.
In an article published before last year's election that gave Republicans solid control of the House, Newsweek speculated that Boehner would make a "good" speaker becuase he is a "dealmaker." the article quoted a former Boehner aide:
"John is, more than anything, a dealmaker," says Republican consultant Kevin Madden, a former Boehner spokesman. "He uses his personal and political power to make deals."
John ... you trusted them ... you f***** up!
Actually, considering the lack of honor and trustworthiness of the leadership on one side of the aisle ... and the stupidity and lack of courage of the leadership on the other side of the aisle ... we should probably consider it a major victory if spending doesn't increase significantly as a direct result of their budget reduction negotiations.
I’d say it is in fact Strike One once news of these gimmicks came to light. Time will tell if he gets the other strikes. He has time and opportunity to redeem himself - but it is entirely up to him.
There are many around here that are perverts and not wanting to discuss this with any sort of maturity, however, as you can see from a few of the above posts...as though any criticism of theirs can be taken seriously with that kind of behavior.
We need a bomb thrower...
Yeah, Boehner got HOSED on this one. What remains to be seen is how he reacts to it.
If he’s grown a pair, then Obama/Reid screwed up BIG-TIME, because the big fight is still ahead, and coming on fast, the debt ceiling increase.
I can see him saying a deal is a deal, even if he got screwed. But if he’s got the balls to stand up and say here’s the line in the sand, no further, we might have a chance of actually getting something done.
He should resign but he will call this a triumph and victory.
lol.
The GOP is one big bad joke.
The budget is going to increase and it HAS increased already. They will keep building on it instead of facing reality.
Even if it stayed the same as this year, we are so far in the hole that we might never get out
While that statement may be silent, the military is not getting paid right now - I know this for a fact since my son serves...
Thus confirmed: Boner is a go-along-to-get-along castrated weakling. Toss him out. Replace him with Michelle Bachmann, who has more testosterone than this pansy, paradoxically.
We're already there my FRiend.
Sometime, try to amortize the debt amounts presented by an organization such as U.S. Debt Clock using any reasonable assumption for growth in tax receipts and reduced spending. It can't be done. Default is inevitable! And that's not including the cost of "contingent" and/or "off-balance sheet" obligations such as unfunded pensions, GSE's (e.g. Fannie and Freddie), Medicare, Medicaid, etc.). The U.S. is hopelessly, unavoidedly, irreversibly broke.
After you crunch the numbers, refer to any economic history text to see what happens to countries who default on their debt obligations. And be advised that if you do, you won't sleep again for at least a week.
I totally agree.
We need to end all entitlements and slash government spending to the Constitutional bare-bones.
To say that Boehner's "deal" stinks to high heaven, is very much an understatement!
I'd also like to point out who Kevin Madden is: a political advisor for Mitt Romney in 2008, so the fact that he was a "former Boehner spokesman" is very telling as he's also worked for another "dealmaker" -
How much less, then, do ordinary people understand the that the GOP organization, the bulk of the the Republican Congress critters, and most of the Conservative media are also puppets of the global masters? To catch a whiff of Boehner being interviewed by Hannity on the drive home was to throw in the towel on the fantasy that this will end well. They are almost all useful idiots, either bought and paid for, or without a complete set of vertebrae between the lot of them.
Where did you get the photo of Ed shultz Dinner?
I came to the realization many blue moons ago when we had so-called leaders like Trent Lott and Orin Hatch always embelishing their comments of their “Friends” on the other side of the aisle before speaking about an issue at hand.
They are all on the same team playing good cop vs. bad cop against us, We The People. Their ultimate goal is the outright death of the constraints of the Constitution which limits their siezure on power and wealth. Rush did an excellent piece on this reality when playing the words of each side during the 2006 debt debates and the one starting now. In many cases the same people 180° on the same issue.
I say that as a generality of politicians and also have to go on record to say there are exceptions and we know who they are. Allen West is but one of the shining examples.
“John is, more than anything, a dealmaker,” says Republican consultant Kevin Madden, a former Boehner spokesman. “He uses his personal and political power to make deals.”
To say that Boehner’s “deal” stinks to high heaven, is very much an understatement!
I’d also like to point out who Kevin Madden is: a political advisor for Mitt Romney in 2008, so the fact that he was a “former Boehner spokesman” is very telling as he’s also worked for another “dealmaker” - Mitt Romney!
BUMP THE ABOVE.
Boehner is Romney’s stalking horse.
Their PLAN:
Ruin America and all other GOP candidates
so Romney can be nominated.
He was complicit in the fraud, or he was snookered—Either way, he’s demonstrated he’s not up to the job.
Both he, and his butt-boy Cantor, need to be recalled now.
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