Posted on 09/26/2011 6:56:51 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
After all the debt ceiling theatrics that dominated the summer — and the collective sigh of relief at their conclusion (even though the final deal was not a real solution!), it was easiest to forget the federal government was still running on stopgap measures and not an actual budget. Better to forget that than to immediately and wearily wind ourselves up for another heartbreaking round of championing salvific spending cuts only to eventually make painful political concessions that would ultimately shove all meaningful work onto a nebulous future Super Committee.
So, here we are again, facing a government shutdown. Is this emotion I’m experiencing in regard to it ennui? If it is, time to snap out of it — because a CNN poll shows a plurality of Americans would blame Republicans if the government did, indeed, shut down. That was true in March of this year, too, but Americans would blame GOPers by even greater margins now than they would have then. In March, 36 percent of those polled said they would blame the president and 46 percent said they would blame Republicans. Today, just 33 percent would blame Barack, while 47 percent would blame the GOP.
That would be fine if Republicans were to blame. But they’re so patently not. To go back a bit, the government has had to resort to Continuing Resolutions in the first place primarily because Democrats last year failed to pass appropriations bills and because the Democrat-controlled Senate still refuses to pass a budget. But even the specifics of this particular case ought to cause onlookers to blame the Democrats. The House — true to the trend it set long ago — has already passed a measure to fund the government through Nov. 18, but the Senate refuses to pass the bill as is. The problem? The Senate objects to any kind of offsets for disaster relief funding.
More details from The Wall Street Journal:
The Senate initially wanted to allocate $7 billion for disaster relief next year, but ultimately Democrats agreed to the $3.65 billion figure set by House Republicans. Republicans want to offset that spending with a $1.5 billion cut in a program that provides loans for makers of high-efficiency cars and components, which Democrats say has created or protected about 40,000 jobs. Republicans also want to cut $100 million from a program that provided a loan guarantee for the solar-component company Solyndra LLC, which has since gone bankrupt and whose practices are under investigation.
In other words, Democrats would rather derail the government than cut funding to a couple of government programs, including the program that yielded the questionable loan to Solyndra.
The Senate right now is voting on an amendment offered by Harry Reid that would eliminate the offsets. If the amendment passes, the Senate will likely go on to pass a bill that would fund the government through Oct. 4, passing the buck back to the House. But as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has explained, to vote for the Reid amendment is to succumb to the argument that we must borrow more money just to be able to provide disaster relief.
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democrats are threatening to shut down government because they insist that disaster funds be borrowed, not offset,” Sen. Paul said. “In other words, the Democrats are insisting we must increase our national debt by borrowing new funds or they will shut down the government.”
“Only in the bizarre world that is Washington, could anyone insist that we borrow more money rather than do the responsible thing and find budgetary offsets for new spending,” he continued.
Heritage Action has keyvoted the roll call on the Reid Amendment — and rightly. Its likely passage — and the likely Senate passage of another stopgap measure that won’t be acceptable to the House — doesn’t change that the threat of a shutdown could be averted once and for all if Democrats would just do what they are legally obligated to do and pass a budget.
Update: One last thing — the CNN poll doesn’t even offer Americans the option of blaming Senate Democrats. That’s a little misleading, don’t you think?
Update (AP): Whew!
In a step back from the brink, Senate Democrats and Republicans have agreed on a continuing resolution that would include $2.5 billion in disaster aid funding and which would eliminate the chance of a government shutdown next week.
Even while Senate Republicans were filibustering a continuing resolution and disaster aid bill Monday, Senate aides in both parties said they had reached a deal on compromise legislation with reduced disaster aid funding. The chamber will invoke cloture on a new “clean CR” with about $2.5 billion in disaster aid funding, rather than the $3.65 billion in the latest continuing resolution that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., offered Friday. Senators will then immediately pass the bill. The bill also lasts through Nov. 18. The Senate is also expected to pass on Monday a continuing resolution lasting one week. The House is expected to approve the one-week continuing resolution by unanimous consent on Thursday. The House will then approve the longer CR next week.
Most modern Americans are really A dumb bunch. They don’t have an IQ high enough to warrant the further continuation of there freedom. They can’t do math, They don’t have common sense. They certainty can’t pick honest, and moral people to rule their government. It is really quite hopeless, with the end result being only a matter of when it will all come crashing down, and not if.
Even here on FR their are so many people who have no clue what the “Honest” Capitalist Bankers and politicians have done to them. They have no idea what is going on right under their noses.
Americans don’t pay attention. They don’t research the facts. They just take whatever the government and the MSM, and whatever click they in are feeding them, and believe it is all true. When it all comes down they won’t have a clue who is responsible or how it happened. But they will still be all ears when the crooks, and the socialists tell them what to do.
Unfortunately, due to their ignorance- Those that do understand are going to suffer the loss of all; right along with them.
Well, a gub’mint worker or dem would “blame” the Republicans, while a conservative would “praise” the Republicans.
The poll was of course skewed by it’s wording.
I as a conservative would neither blame the dems nor the repubs. There is no blame to go around. Blame is for when something is wrong, and there is nothing wrong with shutting down the gub’mint when it is out of money.
I wonder what the result would be if they asked “Who should be praised more for the shut down of the wasteful government? The dems or the republicans?”
Hi Tina. Okay if I call you Tina? Good, thanks. Sort of an unusual name for a journalist. What is that? No! I would never think that “Tina” referred to the size of your brain.
No, my concern is for your memory. Just for the fun of it, how many times in 2011 has arrogant Dictator You Lie Obama run out of money? I know, I know, it was one of the Bushs’ fault. No, I can’t remember which one either. My how time flies!
Well, I can see that you don’t remember so I’ll tell you that the answer is two plus one more coming up real soon. Yeah, I saw where Sheriff of Nottingham Timmy Gee told You Lie that his pen was running out of red ink. Yep, that would be 3 debt ceiling destructions, and it is only September! I know! Obama is having the time of his life!
Okay Tina, let’s see if you know who signs the checks for the Feds? Okay, while you are thinking about that, let me ask if stewardship, responsibility and accountability are words that are ever used anymore by you?
The call it “blame”, I call it “credit”.
Take that how you will :)
If thats how the American people feel then we won’t be able to cut any serous spending ever. Too many people want goodies and nobody wants to pay for it.
Makes a man marvel at the wondrous simplify of natural economic where an individual is incapable of spending more then he or she has by virtue of not having. It takes the invention of goverment and with it the collective purse that lets a man so easily and carelessly obligate anther to pay his or her debts.
And so our children are made slaves to a state to a past and people they had no influence or control over. The very concept of justice must escape the Government which can impose debts upon folk not even born.
More and more I agree with Thomas Jefferson No generation has a right to incur anymore debt then they can pay in their life time. Federal Debt should be immediately redistributed to the States and from there to the individual tax payer/voter. Which is a nice practical way of saying there should be no Federal debt.
In any event I sure hope the silver state(Nevada) is enjoying the 30 pieces they were promised by Harry Reid. The rest of us are all paying for it!
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