After 2 years of hounding Nancy Peloski and President Obama, the NY Times reports trouble in River City, at least as far as the House Republican majority goes:
Under pressure to make deeper spending cuts and blindsided by embarrassing floor defeats, House Republican leaders are quickly discovering the limits of control over their ideologically driven and independent-minded new majority.
For the second consecutive day, House Republicans on Wednesday lost a floor vote due to a mini-revolt, this time over a plan to demand a repayment from the United Nations. Earlier in the day, members of the party’s conservative bloc used a closed-door party meeting to push the leadership to go well beyond its plans to trim about $40 billion from domestic spending and foreign aid this year, demanding $100 billion or more
On Tuesday the new Republican leadership was forced to pull a trade assistance bill off the floor and the Patriot Act failed to be extended. When asked about all the bumps in the road, House Majority Leader John Boehner responded:
Speaker John A. Boehner conceded that the fledgling majority was encountering turbulence. “We have been in the majority four weeks,” Mr. Boehner said. “We are not going to be perfect every day.”
After all the criticism of the other guys, the Republican Majority needs to get it right. What will the next ‘swing and a miss’ be? These folks are finding out that the easy part of the job is to sit on the sidelines and criticize, ridicule, and bring down others. Those who were called RINOs hopefully are sitting back laughing now, especially those who lost their seats because it looked soooo easy.
These guys get the same break from me that they offered the other guys. I don’t recall President Obama getting 4 weeks before the criticism began. I think that started on day 2.
Welcome to Washington. Now get with the program!
“Those who were called RINOs hopefully are sitting back laughing now, especially those who lost their seats because it looked soooo easy.”
It hard because theyare attempting to do their job and do what they promised. Those that lost their seats did have it “sooooo easy. ” It’s always easier to spend money that doesn’t belong to you.
I don’t expect you to give them any slack. The Tea Party won’t. We didn’t say that it would be easy, just necessary.
Unless you want to live in a third world nation, be prepared to spend some money. If you want to live in a third world nation, find one. Stop trying to destroy ours.
GOD BLESS AMERICA. This is what a Congress is supposed to be about. Not party line votes but independant minds working for and against one another. I have hope!!
But when it was the other guys, were you quite as generous, Marin? I don’t recall you being so.
^5… :>)
@Moon-howler
Sooo, we were living in a third world nation in 2008? Cutting spending back to 2008 will cause us to live in a 3rd world nation? Its our continual overspending that will turn this nation into a 3rd world nation.
If we are spending all of our money on SS and Medicare and healthcare, who paves the highways? Where does that money come from? Who pays for the military? Where does that money come from? Do we continue to borrow 42 cents on every dollar we spend? Right now, SS and Medicare take up 57 cents on the dollar. That means that our entire tax base is now paying for it. EVERYTHING else is borrowed money. So how can we afford 1.2 TRILLION in DEFICIT spending?
Marin wasn’t quite as generous because the Congress was being overly so with OUR money.
I don’t recall seeing much disagreement with the -D’s when they were in power. Pelosi/Reid said jump and the -D’s jumped twice.
I see disagreement and debate in Congress as a GOOD thing. Something we just haven’t seen in a long, long time.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Flights-g316066-Caracas_Central_Venezuela-Cheap_Discount_Airfares.html
You too can thrive in a glorious worker’s paradise while basking in the South American sun.
LOL. I have a very shiny new moon rock, untouched by human hands for you – CHEAP.
What are your sources that we pay 57 cents on the dollar for SS and medicare? YOu do realize that the BULK of all tax revenue on teh federal level is siphoned into the MILITARY. The Pentagon has NO PUBLISHED BUDGET, they ask and they receive.
Jesus christ in a handbasket, you honestly think that the measely cuts in spending will make miracles? You have absolutely no inkling the kind of cuts that must be made to balance the US budget – and those cuts include road paving, medicare, schools, infrastructure AND SO ON. And here you are bitching about social security and medicare – a government pension plan to keep old people from wandering the streets in rags, and a national medical program that makes sure people have SOME form of medical care in old age, or if they are severely disabled.
So WHAT is the GREATEST NATION ON EARTH doing???? We are selliing off our cities, lands and resources to the HIGHEST bidding foreign “investors” for pennies on the dollar to make just ONE YEAR balanced with a budget.
This nation is in an economic meltdown and the vultures have descended sweeping up, via DISASTER CAPITALISM, all this nation can offer. The politicians in charge are the cheerleaders and admin assistants making this happen. The HOT LANES around the beltway – financed and OWNED by a DUTCH firm….Chicago’s parking meters…OWNED by an ARAB company and leased for 70 years for the tune of 10 billion …. $$$$ of which did not even fill the city’s budget shortfall. Did you know the PA TURNPIKE IS FOR SALE?????
So please, keep babbling on about the left and how evil they are, while your Repub cheerleaders with their democrat knob-shiners are greasing the way for the wholesaling of this nation – CHEAP.
Speaking Spanish may seem like a sweet memory considering the amount of $$$$ China holds over us. Ever study an Asiatic language?
But please, keep pimping the conservative mantra of “LESS SPENDING ON EVIL SOCIAL PROGRAMS” It makes the job the bitches in DC that much easier to do, because they know you’re preoccupied with the sideshow.
And the Germans are buying the New York Stock Exchange.
Wow Bubba, those were pretty powerful words.
You are right, the military gets the first bite. What I resent is the average military Joe and Jane live a spartan life. However, the top brass gets to sit on the gold toilet seats. That all needs to change.
If the bitching about medicare and ss keeps up, there is going to be a huge amount of ass kicking from the boomers. The boomers have paid into the system most of their lives. Being trivialized now does not set well. And the Boomers more or less invented telling people to go F- themselves. Our parents usually had better manners.
http://www.federalbudget.com/
SS = 750 billion
health and human services = 860 billion
total = 1.61 trillion dollars.
Here, let’s simplify it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget
Mandatory spending: 2.0 trillion (actual 2.009)
Discretionary (military, etc.) 1.368 trillion
42% of budget is borrowed = 1.414 trillion dollars.
therefore, total income from domestic taxes, etc, is being spent on
# $695 billion (+4.9%) – Social Security
# $571 billion (−15.2%) – Other mandatory programs
# $453 billion (+6.6%) – Medicare
# $290 billion (+12.0%) – Medicaid
# $164 billion (+18.0%) – Interest on National Debt
# $11 billion (+275%) – Potential disaster costs
“You do realize that the BULK of all tax revenue on teh federal level is siphoned into the MILITARY. The Pentagon has NO PUBLISHED BUDGET, they ask and they receive.”
“The HOT LANES around the beltway – financed and OWNED by a DUTCH firm….Chicago’s parking meters…OWNED by an ARAB company and leased for 70 years for the tune of 10 billion …. $$$$ of which did not even fill the city’s budget shortfall. Did you know the PA TURNPIKE IS FOR SALE?????”
For one thing, these deals were made by DEMOCRATIC STATE or CITY governments so as to cut GOVERNMENT costs. Chicago’s shortfall is a spending problem, not an income problem. Those pensions are expensive. Ain’t capitalism wonderful?
Yep. I’m talking about cutting EVERYTHING because we have no more money. We have overspent. We are in debt and digging. Social Security is a ponzi scheme. Medicare was supposed to cost a couple of billion. They were off by just a little….
But, again, I just mentioned cutting spending back to 2008 levels, for now. I don’t really think that the country was falling apart in 2008. So don’t get your knickers in a twist. I’m not talking about cutting ONLY social programs. I want to reduce everything.
Congress needs to determine what can be jettisoned, because we are sinking under the weight of this debt and huge deficit spending.
Really? That’s why we get ALL the gear we ask for. That’s why bases are never closed. That’s why the F-22 is replacing the F-15 one for one. That’s why we have ever growing manpower. That’s why we have a 600 ship flee…oh, wait. No we don’t.
Yes there are black budgets. But the military budget is published. Unless, of course, you think that both parties, for years, just lie to you about the budget. The BULK of DISCRETIONARY spending is in the military budget. Oh, that’s right. THAT is part of the Constitutional responsibility of the federal government.
And I support cutting THAT budget too.
This:
Really? That’s why we get ALL the gear we ask for. That’s why bases are never closed. That’s why the F-22 is replacing the F-15 one for one. That’s why we have ever growing manpower. That’s why we have a 600 ship flee…oh, wait. No we don’t.
Yes there are black budgets. But the military budget is published. Unless, of course, you think that both parties, for years, just lie to you about the budget. The BULK of DISCRETIONARY spending is in the military budget. Oh, that’s right. THAT is part of the Constitutional responsibility of the federal government.
And I support cutting THAT budget too.
Was supposed to come after this:
“You do realize that the BULK of all tax revenue on teh federal level is siphoned into the MILITARY. The Pentagon has NO PUBLISHED BUDGET, they ask and they receive.”
Sorry. Hope it makes sense now.
Think I’m radical?
Take a look: http://ajacksonian.blogspot.com/2011/02/when-you-don-raise-debt-ceiling.html
He’s got some good points. I don’t agree with all of it.
Want to raise money for the gummint? End the illegal drilling moratorium in the Gulf:
Billions of dollars in potential oil revenue that could help close the federal deficit is being lost as a result of President Obama’s anti-drilling agenda.
Production in the Gulf of Mexico – which normally accounts for about 30 percent of all U.S. production – is expected to drop this year by 220,000 barrels per day, according to projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
With oil currently at $90 a barrel and the royalty rate at 18.75 percent, that equals $3.7 million in lost revenue each day.
If the agency projections hold over the course of the year, the federal government would lose more than $1.35 billion from Gulf royalty payments this year.
I am pleasantly surprised to hear that the Patriot Act wasn’t extended. Good job, Repub’s! Who’d of thunk the Repugs would do something like that.
Starry,
I notice that the Democrats cheerfully extended it when THEY were in power…..Did you complain about them?
Were you cheering when the Dems extended it? I think not.
@Cargosquid Eric Holder specifically requested that the three most contentious parts of the Patriot Act remain in place. Starry must have missed that little detail. The White House wanted it extended.
Actually, no, I wasn’t because I wasn’t a fan of it. I complained about it when it was enacted. And you didn’t answer my question.
I didn’t cheer when the GOP enacted or extended it. Remember, I’m the one on here calling for the dismantling of the Dept. of Homeland Security.
I don’t really think that the country was falling apart in 2008. – I almost spit my coffee. Thats about the same time that McCain said our economy was strong.
Pat, I think that its a far cry between “falling apart” into a 3rd world state, as described above, and the recession that we are in. And the recession is not because of too little gov’t spending.
So Cargo, what on earth are you going to do with all the seniors who rely on that ss as pretty much their only income?
I don’t want to hear ponzi scheme. SS has been around for generations. Look forward. As for medicare, what are you going to do with all the seniors? What are you going to do with all the people?
Its easy to say to cut those 3 programs. 2 of them many people have paid in to for 40-50 years, Medicaid? Are we going to let people die on the streets? You left out other forms of welfare that usually go along with that medicaid.
As for medicaid, those who want to do away with that had better come up with a plan real quick. I hear that Congress wants to defund Title X programs that provide family planning and birth control for poor people. So explain to me how THAT is going to work, human nature being what it is. Better bring in someone to tell all those poor folks and tell them to stop doing the deed.
The boomer lobby is going to make the tea party look like the mad hatter if anyone messes with their social security or their medicare. Medicaid folks are on their own. That should not even be lumped in with SS and Medicare. That has been paid for by the workers of America.
One of the things to be cut is $250M in DOJ grant funding that puts more policeman on the street. That should certainly help things.
@Juturna, what mental midget decided that one? Public safety should never be compromised for someone else’s political agenda, even Corey Stewart’s!
Cargo – your numbers are impressive, however they do NOT support your claim of 57 cents on the dollar.
“For one thing, these deals were made by DEMOCRATIC STATE or CITY governments so as to cut GOVERNMENT costs. Chicago’s shortfall is a spending problem, not an income problem. Those pensions are expensive. Ain’t capitalism wonderful?”
So you have no problem with cities and states selling off state lands and utilities to foreign investors. Oh and FYI – as for FEDERAL LAND, you may wish to take a gander at how our NATIONAL PARKS out west have been opened up to private firms for fracking and fuel exploration. NOT NATIONAL companies, or a national service, but private industry on your dime and mine. And no, capitalism blows goats – at least the monstrous form it has turned into these past 40 years. BUt we are not a true capitalist nation. We are socialist for business and Objectivist for the people.
The Free Market isn’t Free…..
“Yep. I’m talking about cutting EVERYTHING because we have no more money. We have overspent. We are in debt and digging. Social Security is a ponzi scheme. Medicare was supposed to cost a couple of billion. They were off by just a little….”
We will have to agree to disagree here. Show me a thriving state where there is no healthcare for the poor, elderly and disabled….and has no retirment for its people when they reach old age. Show me ONE SUCCESSFUL nation like that.
“But, again, I just mentioned cutting spending back to 2008 levels, for now. I don’t really think that the country was falling apart in 2008. So don’t get your knickers in a twist. I’m not talking about cutting ONLY social programs. I want to reduce everything.”
And I am saying again, I don’t think you have any clue as to how much we need to reduce! You like paved roads, right? You like having electricity, right? HOw about sewage treatment and trash removal? HOw about fuel for your car and heat in the winter? All of these things are funded via tax – their infrastructure, their subsidies, etc. The amount of cash needed to cover these BASIC necessities is enormous. This nation needs to seriously cut back because the REPO men are at our door….CHINA, UAE, India, Russia, etc. And what is teh FIRST thing that gets cut? SOCIAL PROGRAMS when they are needed most. Cut the defense budget, close a few bases overseas. LEAVE the graveyard of empires, Afghanistan. The maintenance of an empire is something we CANNOT afford. START THERE.
and this:
“End the illegal drilling moratorium in the Gulf:
Billions of dollars in potential oil revenue that could help close the federal deficit is being lost as a result of President Obama’s anti-drilling agenda.”
Production in the Gulf of Mexico – which normally accounts for about 30 percent of all U.S. production – is expected to drop this year by 220,000 barrels per day, according to projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
PRODUCTION DECLINE – BECAUSE THERE IS NO HUGE NOUGAT OF OIL UNDER THE GULF! Mexico’s Cantarell field has been in steep decline for the past few years, VERY CLOSE to these US fields and you think that drilling MORE will make the oil happen. *shakes head* They are (if not already) tempting to violate teh NAFTA treaty, for they agreed in it to export the bulk of their oil gains to US, EVEN IF they didn’t have enough for themselves. Canada agreed to the same.
The amount of oil estimated in ANWR is to be about 10 billion barrels – that is a SIX MONTH SUPPLY for the US at current rates of consumption. And then there is the whole PEAK OIL thingy.
If you think Peak Oil is a myth, I suggest you browse the MANY upon MANY reports from the World Bank and IMF on that “mythological” phenomena and what it means for economic forecasts in our near future and for national stability of the “western” world. Of course if you don’t want to pay for those, you can go to your local library and check out Twilight in The Desert by Matthew Simmons. It is ALL THERE FOR YOU. Drill Baby Drill is a fool’s slogan.
Well just ask the denziens of Manassas Park (of which I am a happy FORMER resident). The Park went into near chernobyl meltdown because of bad investing, investing the national government and state governments encouraged them to do to raise the $$$ for their public works. But see, funny enough, that BIG INTRUSIVE government you berate, decided to get out of the Wall Street regulation business and repeal a few acts to prevent economic meltdown…Glass Stegal to be one. And then there was the whole PONZI scheme of the derivitaves market based on falsified AAA status loans. Yep – the park knows about them too…..
To say the economic mess we are in is because of social security, medicare and “bad spending” is akin to blaming a wino’s drinking problem on his bar stool. Yeah, it may play a small part, but the bigger picture is what went down on Wall Street and how our government bailed THEM OUT and let us ROT in their wake…and now they say we have to give up medicare, social security, infrastructure improvements, and on and on to GET BY. Excuse the EFF outta me, but seems as if whenever there are cuts to be made they are made FOR THE PEOPLE at the EXPENSE of the people for the betterment of the companies that hold up our banana republic.
Frankly, I am still amazed that there are people who, like you, still buy the old paradigm of “smaller government will solve all our woes” The government is no longer for the people and by the people it is for the CORPORATE entity. The Government as we knew it was drowned in the bathtub sometime around 2005.
It is quite Orwellian really….some are more equal than others….corporate citizens vs. the people.
And Cargo – let me add this. If I sound pissed off, it is because *I AM* Not at you, not at anyone on this board, but at the whole clusterphuck this nation has become and how utterly befuddled the people are, because they LET THEMSELVES be led astray – and I include BOTH political persuasions in this (Right AND Left). Each cling to a press outlet they consider TRUTH, and each one leads them down the SAME path:
Hate your opposing neighbor
Divide YOurselves from each other in the body politic
Ignore things you “cannot understand” and let US explain it to you
Sit, comment and be IMMOBILE – this is the land of Disney, you can expect a happy ending (though whether it will be for you is TBD)
Argue the accepted talking points and “facts” presented to you
….
So don’t take it personally if it seems like I am yelling. I am in my own way online, but not at you personally. And if I sound condescending, I appologize. I do not mean to!
Is there a Democrat to blame?
Effing ALL of them.
Good to know that ALL Democrats are at fault? Anyone else or just them?
All Republicans as well. The whole lot. Bought and paid for by the corporate sponsors who sent them to office.
Good. I agree.
I am still trying to figure out what people think should happen after a recession.
@Not Me, Bubba
It is your concentration on the idea that cuts are being touted ONLY to social spending. If I was off by a percentage point on the 57% – total 3.368 trillion. 57% equals 1.91 trillion. Social programs equal 2.009 trillion….so, yeah, I was right, if you include the whole thing. That’s why I changed it to the Wiki source. I couldn’t find my original source.
I’m advocating cutting everything, INCLUDING military. Why do you keep harping on the SS, Medicare, etc as the only cuts? Did I say that we need to get rid of them? Would I like to see them reformed and SS canceled? Yes. Not gonna happen. At best, the SS funds turn into private T-Bill accounts.
When, not if, we run out of money, Social Security will either be cut or changed. The fund is now in negative numbers for income. Medicare costs for the government are driving the HCR idea because the government wants to shift the medicare costs to the insurance companies. That was even mentioned in the plan.
“Show me a thriving state where there is no healthcare for the poor, elderly and disabled….and has no retirment for its people when they reach old age. Show me ONE SUCCESSFUL nation like that.” I can’t show you a thriving state WITH ONE. Name one. Europe is broke. Japan? Stagnant.
Frankly, I’m not following you here: “And I am saying again, I don’t think you have any clue as to how much we need to reduce!” You seem to be saying that I’m not cutting enough, yet you seem to be angered that I’m cutting too much?
You do realize that the overbearing government, as you call it, is a major part of the reason for the housing fall? It was their idiocy and greed for power and money that removed Glass-Stegall, demanded that banks push loans to unqualified borrowers, and then refused to reform the regulatory agencies that over saw them. When I’m talking about the spending, I’m talking about the bailouts, stimuli, TARP, earmarks, foreign aid, necessary bases, military operations with no goal of victory, SS reform, Medicare Reform, welfare reform, etc.
You talk about the infrastructure, etc as if I’m advocating no more taxes? If we cut spending in other places, then we have more assets to allocate to such things as infrastructure. As for the Peak Oil….is that an excuse for not exploring domestic energy sources. I read about the drilling in the National parks,etc. Ok. The appropriate government authorities failed to get control of the mineral rights underneath. Perhaps they can go to court? I don’t know. However, the truth is that energy needs will continue to grow. What do you propose since further exploration is out? The comment about the drilling moratorium is still true. It prevent needed revenue from EXISTING oil fields, with oil in them, from being used.Jobs are gone and the industry is weakened for years.
Actually, it sounds as if we are talking past each other. You and I both seem to agree that cuts are needed and spending is out of control. You seem to be complaining that I am advocating either not enough cuts or just cuts in social programs.
I don’t mean for this problem to be fixed in one year. But, if we don’t, your prediction of 3rd world WILL come to pass. Cutting back to 2008 fiscal year levels is a START. THEN we look at actual, deep reform. We’ve added 5 trillion to the debt since the 2009 fiscal budget.
I seem to be missing your point. I know that you feel even bigger cuts are needed, but feel that those cuts will turn us into a 3rd world country. Am I right? Why should these cuts do this? Do you feel that revenue dedicated to these things will be gone, even if we cut spending? What’s your fix? You’ve seen mine.
@Moon-howler
Um….people become employed? We all have more money? Stocks go up? Gold goes down? Foreclosures stop? Republicans get elected 😉 ?
My gosh, the game has barely started, and the audience is already yelling itself hoarse. Right now it’s just a shakedown cruise in the Congress. Can we at least wait until there are some actual proposals on the table before we start in with the long knives on each other? This looks to me to be a huge budgetary/debt problem, and we had better make up our minds that we are all going to have to give on some things. Let’s hope we can find the compromise key and end up with all of us still standing.
Moon — I tend to agree that, at some point, we are going to be hearing the Boomers screeching and howling. But, if we do not get our fiscal house in order and soon, their fuming and flustering may well be about how to squeeze blood out of the proverbial turnip.
Historically, there has been some tweaking involved to help us over a recession. Stocks have gone up. I don’t like finger pointing but the bottom fell out under George Bush. I don’t really think it mattered, though.
@Wolverine,
The fix had better not come on the backs of the boomers.
House finds $100 Billion to cut. Democrats say that its a meat ax taken to spending instead of a trim. On a Trillion plus dollars deficit. 100 billion is less than 10 percent of the deficit spending. On this years budget.
They should have completely defunded the unconstitutional HCR bill, AND found these cuts. THEN they would have had $200 billion in cuts.
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/143641-tea-party-wins-house-gop-spending-bill-cuts-at-least-100-billion