Sunday, April 10, 2011

Who Won the Shutdown Showdown?

FoxNews.com believes Republicans won the shutdown showdown:
While Republicans wanted to cut more spending in& Saturday's early morning compromise to keep the government open, they think they got the better of the deal.

Here's why: HR1 was originally to seek spending cuts of $32 billion until Tea Party conservatives insisted on more than $ 60 billion. House Speaker John Boehner won more cuts than he originally sought and got the Senate to agree to votes to defund the health care reform law and groups like the nation's largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood - once votes Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said he'd never allow to come to the floor.Back on February 3, Reid called $32 billion in cuts 'extreme' and 'draconian.'
As I blogged earlier this week, the cuts are below what I was hoping for. The FoxNews post goes on to mention this history:
The history of offers on this bill goes something like this. Democrats first offered no cuts, then $4 billion, then $6.5 billion, then $33 billion, then settled at $38.5 billion.
That stands in contrast to the $100 billion in cuts that Tea Partiers were originally promised in October. That number was confirmed as recently as February. It looks to me like Fox has the history wrong.

While I'm disappointed that there weren't more cuts, I think Brooks Bayne nailed it with this tweet yesterday:
@brooks bayne: i'm not dying on this hill. 2012 is where i'm focusing and i suggest you do the same.

5 comments:

Thomas said...

The non-democrat American people are the losers. The Democrat controlled 111th Congress passed their dream legislation using every dirty trick known to man. This legislation was written by some talented but decrepit congressional office holders (Barney Frank et al) and has been built upon for years just waiting to be passed with a veto proof majority. Need we remind ourselves what happened? The Democrats at the congressional and administration levels are connected in strategy and purpose of being. The Clinton people and now, the Obama people (the sixty leftist radicals funded by communist radical Soros) are on a roll. They have passed legislation that not only solidifies their firm control over elections and real governmental power for the next generation, but they also are now funded to the nines with the huge tax increases that they have slated. Need we remind ourselves of the of the soon to be repealed Bush tax cut and the soon to be implemented 2010 Healthcare Act tax increases? Throw in immigration reform in 2012-13 with a Speaker Pelosi (even as I type, she is jetting around the world getting her marching orders) and Majority Leader Schumer, and you have another smack down on the obviously disorganized GOP. The Tea Party is what is left of the most non radical best educated generation in US History and they are being shut out of the GOP and the process. The GOP is filled with ingrates who serve only to attain a title and then disappear. Where are the mountain of Bills in the waiting when the GOP took the House? Non-existant. Where is the leadership in the Senate last year and now? Non-existant. The Democrat playbook is calling for holding the status quo. They did not anticipate the Tea Party and are actually scared if the Tea Party can actually get more organized and funded. The GOP established congress that has been in power since Clinton are feckless and easily manipulated. The only hope for a true back stop to the Democrat Machine is a huge Tea Party win in 2012 and the WH ( veto proof majority!). But as we see, no organization, playbook, talking points, community organizing, non-profit organized help and Presidential candidate no-shows from now to November 2012 all points to a huge Democrat victory, the current spending levels kept intact paving the way for the next wave of programs and party hand outs, another Speaker Pelosi House and a Schumer Senate with Obama in the WH all over again. Unless the Tea Party message is adopted by the GOP and reiterated at every TV interview, every Media interview, every GOP gathering, the GOP stands to be the minority party for the next 50 years filled with the likes of Boehners(his golf game and lifestyle and history book entry is all that matters) and McConnels (the porkulus maximus in the classical Steven's mold). The GOP platform now and until further notice is to use every dirty trick available to defund Obama Care and preserve the death tax rescinsion, then to balance the books with higher taxes on wall street speculators and bankers( Bring back Glass-Stegal!) and oil company tax credits etc and over seas domestic corporations to bring them back home.

freespeak said...

I am forwarding this information. What do you think?



What is the FINAL NUMBER? The FINAL NUMBER total budget for FY 2011 after the cuts?



From The Washington Times as linked through The Drudge Report:



http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/8/congress-reaches-dea...



Excerpt: The spending cuts amount to $78.5 billion below what Mr. Obama had requested for 2011. The final number means discretionary spending will total $1.049 trillion this year, with $513 billion for the Defense Department. End Excerpt



Why is every news agency ignoring the bottom line grand total budget for 2011 that ends this coming September 30th? I’ll tell you why.

WE’VE BEEN SCAMMED



We have NOT been operating on Fiscal Year's 2010 Budget of $3.55 trillion. You know as we have been led to believe the so called Continuing Resolutions meant, yeah, that with them we would operate at last year’s rate for 2010.



See Wikipedia for 2010 figure:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget



Don’t think we are cutting from last years $3.55 trillion, oh no, we are cutting from Obama’s proposal.



We have been operating on Obama’s budget as he proposed on February 1, 2010.



From the Republican Caucus: The Committee On The Budget



http://culberson.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/PresidentFY20...



Excerpt: Total Spending. Even with a decline in spending due to the repayment of most TARP funds and the eventual spend-out of “stimulus” funds, spending reaches a record level of $3.8 trillion in FY 2011. The budget does not include the spending impact of the Administration’s cap-and-trade proposal. Even so, spending is still 23.7% of the economy at the end of the decade (the historical average is 20%). End Excerpt



From the Wall Street Journal archives



http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/Obama-budget-2011....



See Flash Player Pie Chart giving total outlays of $3.834 trillion for FY 2011



From Wikipedia



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_States_federal_budget



Excerpt: President Obama Submitted February 1, 2010 $3.82 trillion total expenditures for 2011. End Excerpt



Let us use the $3.82 trillion figure and subtract the largest reported total cuts given in the Washington Times as $78.5 billion, or 0.0785 trillion. On subtraction the final figure for 2011, that every news agency is avoiding reporting to We The People, is $3.74 TRILLION. Guess what? That is almost $200 BILLION more, NOT LESS, than fiscal year 2010. And we are being sold a bill of goods that there have been huge, record setting, spending cuts.



Yes a $200 BILLION increase is being sold as a cut.



WE’VE BEEN SCAMMED

dsm said...

@thomas, @H.C.,

I know that the the debt compromise wasn't enough. Thanks for putting some numbers to it. My main point is that we have to retool and gear up for 2012. Yes, it's frustrating that we haven't made more progress, but that's just the reality of electoral politics. The fight we're waging for fiscal responsibility will take years, maybe decades.

Do NOT be demoralized by last week's budget compromise. Rather get energized about the long fight ahead with an eye toward 2012.

freespeak said...

Thanks, good answer...needed that.

Zotta's Perspective said...

John Boehner and the Compromise
The Federal Government averted a shutdown and some people are calling it a historic event. How is it a historic event? Is it because Barack Hussein Obama, The Messiah, is President? The Federal Government has shut down in the past, and sometimes it has not shut down, so where is the historic event? A historic event would be a first time occurrence or something extraordinary. This was neither.
Anyway, it seems like Speaker John Boehner caved and the Federal Government will not shut down. He did not want to take a stand and compromised like he did when he signed onto the Stupak Amendment, which guaranteed the passage of Obamacare. As part of the compromise the Senate assured him they will take a vote on defunding Planned Parenthood and Obamacare. What? Democrats have the numbers in the Senate. Apparently, Boehner can't count.
As I stated, the Democrats control the Senate. They have the numbers. Claire McCaskill voted for Obamacare to get to the 60 votes, and then voted against it when they only needed a simple majority. So how do you think the vote is going to turn out? Does anyone honestly believe these Statists are going to vote to defund Obamacare and Planned Parenthood?
As for the troops Boehner should have thought about them when they did the first CR and attached the Rider then. Barack Hussein Obama, on the other hand is quite the despicable person, because he was willing to holdout paying the troops. He signed a memo on 4/7/2011 stating if there was a Government shutdown the troops would have their payments delayed. Obama is a Community Agitator, not a leader and from the looks of things Boehner is not much of a leader either.
Many people said this was a small battle and they are alright with the compromise stating wait till they get to the bigger fights. If they can not stand up and win the small fights, why would you think they could win the bigger ones.
It was the Democrat/Statists that were forcing the issue of a shutdown and Boehner blinked. Reiterating, we have Obamacare because Boehner signed onto the Stupak Amendment and got many other Republicans to go along, otherwise Obamacare would have went down to defeat. He showed his hand weeks ago when he said he would not want to shut down the Government. Boehner better not play poker, because he shows his hand.
Statists Reid, Pelosi and Barack Hussein Obama were derelict in their duties by not passing a budget in 2010. Now, they want to fault the Republicans for not passing the budget and are using scare tactics against the American people.
Some politicians and Tea-Partier’s were concerned with who would get the blame for a Government shutdown and they were concerned with what the so-called Mainstream Media and the Statists would say about them. The so-called Mainstream Media, aka. propaganda wing of the Obama Administration and the Statists will denigrate the Tea Party people and the Republicans no matter what. The Tea Party and Conservatives should not worry about what the MSM and Statists have to say about them, instead they should use alternate sites to get their message out.
This country has survived before living through a Government shutdown. The Statists complained about 800,000 to a million Federal employees would be furloughed due to the shutdown. Nevertheless, they did not mention the millions of people unemployed right now due to their rhetoric and policies.
John Boehner took on the mantle of being Speaker of the House. It's unfortunate that people are put into leadership positions, because it's their turn, not necessarily because they are leaders. Boehner showed his true colors with the crying, but more importantly with his selections for Committee Chairmanships. Therefore, Boehner needs to stop the crying and lead. If he is incapable of leading he should step down.