Posted on 07/29/2011 3:25:15 PM PDT by free me
House Speaker John Boehner has a plan that he touts as slashing about $900 billion in government spending — shy of his original claim, only two days earlier, that cuts would amount to $1.2 trillion. It’s nonsense, of course. In Washington, unlike the rest of the known universe, a “cut” is a reduction in the rate of increase. There are never real cuts. In reality, Speaker Boehner’s plan would add $9.1 trillion to the national debt. It is a “cut” only in the sense that the Obama Democrats have rigged matters so that, if nothing changes, autopilot would add $10 trillion.
You could call this a cruel joke on a country that is already well over $14 trillion in debt — a country in which every newly born child opens his eyes as a debtor, well over $30,000 in the hole. But that would be premature, because I haven’t gotten to the punchline yet. The reason Speaker Boehner and the Republican establishment have suddenly stirred themselves to “cut” spending is their determination to keep the Ponzi scheme going. The “cuts” — less than $100 billion of which are real (the rest are consigned to the illusory “out years,” meaning they’re the responsibility of some future Congress) — are to be made in exchange for giving the government the authority to borrow another $2.5 trillion.
This will last only a few months because, at a rate of about $46,000 per second, the United States sinks $4 billion deeper in debt every day. But the $2.5 trillion stands to get President Obama through reelection without having much more attention called to his starring role in our dire straits.
To Thomas Sowell, the Boehner plan seems commendable because it would not only “spare the country a major economic disruption”
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
The more disinclined I am to support any compromise.
Very good article says it better than I could.
free me,
After seeing this Crappola I have come to the conclusion that these two parties are one and the same.
Time for the TEA party to take names and kick butt.
Time for real Conservatives or go fish.
Time to get this out of control gub mint under control.
Tea Party stand your ground.
If not here..WHERE?
If not now...WHEN?
The time is now. Lets expose all the statist rats for what they are.
McCarthy doesn’t understand the meaning of “don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”
He would shoot all his wad while the enemy was a mile away, and then when the 2012 election is upon us, he would have nothing left to shoot with. He would then be easily cut down by the enemy.
He claims to be so pure that he is nothing but principle, above mere political considerations.
The only way to save the country is to take the White House and the Senate in 2012. McCarthy’s implication that if we just stand on “principle” and not “politics” then Obama and Reid will magically come around and decide to save the country now, is absurd. The ONLY way to save the country is to win politically in 2012.
The only way to save the country is to take the White House and the Senate in 2012
And put your hope back in McCain, Brown, Lugar, Collins, Mulkowski, Graham, Snowe?
The 14 Gangster will rise from the dead. The 6 Gangsters will be around. Then u will have a total of 20 Gangsters flopping around like beached whales on a beach.
Good luck to you all on that.
I heard there were 22 brave House members who stood for America.
I’m starting to think you are right.
Well that’s an attractive argument. That’s why I fell for it the first time. Then Bush and the Republican House and Senate exploded spending and the debt. In his 8 years, only about 2 with a dem congress, we doubled the debt.
Almost 5 trillion.
I’m done voting for people who promise to do the job, then when elected, they move the goal posts: “wait until we win the next election, then we’ll do our job, we promise.”
Next year Lou Barletta, the subject of daily propaganda from MoveOn.org via radio commercials, is going to ask for my help and my vote.
As it stands right now, he won’t get it.
You didn’t read his entire article, did you? I agree with every word he said. It WAS measured. I won’t be. This bill is a disaster, and all it does is kick the can down the road yet again. What I’d love to know is, why are Republicans afraid to attack the Failure Obama? Are they ALL blackmailed?
Barletta’s my guy also. I’m disgusted. He didn’t seem to be the kind of man who would cave so quickly.
Actually liberals controlled the Senate for all but 2 years of the Bush term. The Dems + the New England RINOs held the balance of power except in 2005-06.
TNmountainman is right about the Senate.
I read the whole thing.
I love Andy McCarthy, I think he’s great. But he only gets half the puzzle.
There are two pieces to the puzzle of politics. First, figuring out what it is we should want, as a policy matter. Andy does this part very well.
The second piece is ACTUALLY GETTING what we want. Here, McCarthy is always in dreamland.
That some of the Republicans in the Senate were liberal has no bearing on the points I made that I can discern.
If anything it reinforces the idea that waiting to win the House,Senate and White House before doing anything is a false hope.
I know right? He’s famous for standing against illegal immigration. Yet he was a yes vote for Boehner from the start.
There is time for redemption but I don’t see how he could do it. I’m trying to think of a replacement for him already.
Too bad really.
There are two pieces to the puzzle of politics. First, figuring out what it is we should want, as a policy matter. Andy does this part very well.
The second piece is ACTUALLY GETTING what we want. Here, McCarthy is always in dreamland.
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See now this is perfectly logical. Seriously it makes sense.
Only it never,ever,ever works out that way.
I mean give me an example where it has. I won’t nitpick them, just throw some out there. I honestly can’t think of any.
If the Stupid Party were not the Stupid Party, they would pass an increase that runs out in September 2008.
And then we would be having this huge fight at the right time, and the election would be about Cut, Cap & Balance versus Tax, Borrow & Spend, and we might actually get a conservative in the White House and a workable majority in the Senate.
What the Stupid Party probably will do is give Obama an increase past the election in return for illusory “cuts.”
Then, Obama will run without having out-of-control spending and out-of-control debt rubbed in the face of the voters, and he and the MSM will run on race and class warfare.
Like Levin, I believe in fighting until the last nail is in the coffin. I just don’t get the reluctance to viciously but fairly attack the Punk for threatening to withhold SS checks. Were it Bush who said that, every Democrat would march on the Capitol steps and demand impeachment hearings. And they’d be right. I’m sick to death of our team being gutless. Bob
I can give you an example from just a few months ago.
In the fight over the continuing resolution, Andy “Dreamland” McCarthy wanted the Republicans to shut the government down if we didn’t get a real $38 billion reduction in spending, which is less than 1% of the budget.
Everyone with even half a political brain knew that shutting the government down would backfire on the Republicans. It was 18 months away from an election, and the whole continuing resolution fight would be eclipsed by newer issues, as it already has by this debt ceiling fight. All that would be remembered by voters is that the Republicans shut the government down for a while and then had to cave.
This debt ceiling fight is going to be eclipsed by other matters between now and the election.
The important thing is what are the main issues in the months running up to the election. That is when we need to have a fight with the Dems over debt and spending, if we want to gain power in the government.
That was a poor example as we didn’t get anything we wanted during the CR showdown. Nothing.
An example would have to show that when we finally did get the power we used it to fix something.
Anyway, we will continue to disagree on this strategy-wise.
The next fight will be when the current CR runs out, in about 2 months I think.
Can we at least force the dems to pass a budget?
The Dems play chess while the Pubbies play checkers. Just the failure to buy ad time to explain the Dems have broken their “sacred” social compact on Social Security is a huge missed opportunity. Even stupid people can understand that the Dems won’t guarantee SS payments even though payroll taxes would still be collected in a shutdown. We know theres’ no lockbox, but why miss the chance to pin down the opposition?
Agreed, and it’s even worse because SS is self financing through 2038 and would be unaffected by the so called “default”.
Read about it here if your not already familiar:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903554904576458294273264416.html
As someone else here said “The dems would have been gathered on the steps of the capital demanding impeachment if Bush refused to guarantee SS payments and prioritize”
They just don’t know how to win.
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