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Posted on 07/26/2011 5:00:49 PM PDT by RummyChick
Fellow Conservatives:
I have troubling news. I’m very careful about criticizing my party’s leaders, but what is happening in Washington right now cannot be ignored. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has abandoned the Cut-Cap-Balance Act and is now pushing a new plan that is nearly identical to the one proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
The Boehner-Reid plan gives the President an immediate increase in the debt limit and only promises to cut spending in the future. It violates all three principles of the Cut-Cap-Balance Pledge because it does not substantially cut current spending, it does not truly cap future spending, and it does not require the passage of a strong Balanced Budget Amendment before raising the debt limit.
In short, I oppose the Boehner-Reid plan because it won’t balance the budget and stop the debt that is destroying our country.
The Boehner-Reid Plan
You will hear many claims about this plan over the next few days as it is pushed through the House and Senate. Some of these claims will be true, but many will be false. Here are the facts. The Boehner-Reid plan:
* Provides two increases in the debt limit — $900 billion and $1.6 trillion — totaling $2.5 trillion. It gives the President an immediate $900 billion increase given that Congress does not vote to disapprove it. It gives the President another $1.6 trillion increase next year if a bill written by a new Super Committee passes both houses and becomes law.
* Reduces spending by only $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. This amount won’t even come close to balancing the budget, as the debt is expected to grow by as much as $10 trillion over the next decade. The plan also reduces spending by only $6 billion in 2012. Considering that our government currently spends $10 billion a day, $6 billion is far too little to cut over the first year of the plan.
* Calls for a vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment but does not require its passage. Without passage of a strong Balanced Budget Amendment, Congress will never break its addiction to spending.
* Makes it virtually impossible to stop the debt limit from going up. The debt ceiling increases can only be stopped if Congress passes a resolution of disapproval and then votes to override the President’s veto with two-thirds support in the House and Senate.
* Creates a new, 12-member Super Committee to write another “grand bargain” to reduce the deficit by at least $1.6 trillion. It does not, however, prohibit the Super Committee from writing a bill to raise taxes and destroy jobs. The bill can then be fast-tracked through the House and Senate with no amendments.
Why It Should Be Rejected
After reviewing the details of Boehner-Reid plan, I cannot support it. It won’t balance the budget and stop the debt. Even if the cuts called for in the plan were real, the debt will still increase by $7 trillion over the next ten years.
* It won’t protect our AAA bond rating. According to financial reports, this plan will not reduce long-term spending by enough to prevent a downgrade. If we lose our AAA rating, it will create higher interest rates and cause our debt to grow even faster.
* It will likely result in higher taxes that will destroy even more jobs. The unemployment rate is over 9 percent. We cannot afford to lose more jobs when so many Americans are struggling to find work.
There are some in my party who think I should ignore the flaws of the Boehner-Reid plan, bite my tongue, and support my party’s leaders. If I thought this were a political game, that might make sense. But the future of our country is at stake, I don’t believe this plan will save it, and I have a moral obligation to say so.
The Way Forward
Fortunately, there is a much better solution.
The Cut-Cap-Balance Act would balance the budget, stop the debt, and protect our AAA bond rating. This legislation passed the House with bipartisan support but was blocked by Democrats in the Senate.
The votes in the Senate for Cut-Cap-Balance are there if Republicans stand firm. 23 Democrats in the Senate have expressed support for the Balanced Budget Amendment at some point in their careers. They’re blocking it now because they believe Republicans will blink and agree to something much less.
And that’s exactly what will happen if the Boehner-Reid plan is passed. It gives the big spenders in Washington everything they wanted — an increase in the debt limit, phony spending cuts, and a mechanism to pass tax increases.
Please call your senators today and urge them to oppose the Boehner-Reid plan and to demand passage of the Cut, Cap, Balance Act.
Just cut the damned budget, dammit!! Quit dinkin around with “deals”!!
The super committee does it for me. I do not care what else is or is not in the bill. A super committee is the reason to kill this and any other bill.
In fact today the official congressional analysis said the plan would produce less than $1 trillion in spending cuts over the coming decade.
Boss Hogg (Haley Barbour) has been making calls all day in support of Boneheads plan. Of course, this was before the CBO scores came out and once again, like the CR Deal, the numbers don’t match what Bonehead and Cantor have been saying. Allen West and Paul Ryan must feel like fools for supporting this sham, before the CBO numbers came out. This trickery will not set well with conservatives.
They know now, they cannot trust Bonehead and Cantor.
The Grand Old Bastards are playing footsie with the Democrats again and selling us out. Again.
My theory is this is about a power struggle between RINOs and Tea Party.
Karl Rove is in the background orchestrating Jeb Bush. Jeb Bush signaled he could run in the future.
Demint has been very vocal about Boehner’s closed door shenanigans.
A lot of people thought CCB was just a ploy to placate the base BEFORE Boehner pulled the Asian Market Emergency stunt.
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Zing!!
rachaelmbade Rachael Bade
After 5 hrs of debate on the rule for Boehner’s debt ceiling proposal, Rules decided against setting a rule... changes to come.
3 minutes ago
»
Rachael Bade
rachaelmbade Rachael Bade
Dreier and Slaughter at each other’s throats on whether or not Reid agreed to Boehner’s debt proposal at any point.
3 hours ago
Would not be the first time....
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Boehner will say that since Reid couldn't deliver a realistic compromise that he's going to work with Demint to get democrat support for a realistic bill that will pass in both the House and the Senate.
This is the opportunity to break a group of democrat Senators off from the democrat leadership in the Senate. To have the Senate repeatedly vote down anything that can pass in the House is a death sentence for democrat Senators who aren't from totally leftist states. The Senate will end up accepting and passing a compromise that is almost identical to the original bill but with more cuts. That will lay the whole thing in the lap of little Barry who will have a tantrum and veto it. After that, the democrat party will dissolve into an every man for himself scramble.
JMHO
But I guess he decided to throw that all away.”
His spine fell through his A$$hole and took his stones with it. Snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Damn RINO!
Graham will vote “no” when he knows it won’t pass anyway. I want to know how he’d vote if he was the tie-breaker.
EWErickson Erick Erickson
A friend just emailed me that the word in DC is that @JeffFlake is “a firm no” on Boehner’s plan.
nationaljournal National Journal
BREAKING: House vote tomorrow on Boehner #debt bill postponed, @nationaljournal has learned. Developing.
This just takes the cake:
FiestaBuckeye Tim Adams
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel:”We’re here to change DC-no more smoke &mirrors,no more ‘phantom cuts’ foxnews.com/politics/2011/… Integrity matters
now
You’re right, Jim.
Why can’t someone propose a bill that reduces EVERY department, every agency, every D.C. offices annual spending by just 1%?(for starters)
One lousy percent.
IRS, Post office, FDA, State, FBI,ATF,Secret Service, etc.,etc.
Corporations do this to their departments routinely. I’d like to see the dollar numbers on potential savings.
Oh, okay.
GAME ON, RINO a**holes! This time we're not retreating...we're RELOADING!!
Too bad it’s not next Wednesday. I’ll in DC all next week
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