Tea Party Electees Struggle to Suggest Budget Cuts

MoonHowler

The Huffington Post:

Signaling how difficult it will be for the Republican Party to live up to its campaign promises of cutting spending while preserving the Bush tax cuts and not cutting benefits for seniors, Tea Party favorites Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sen.-elect Rand Paul (R-Ky.) struggled on Sunday to actually name any specific cuts they plan on making.

On ABC’s “This Week,” Christiane Amanpour repeatedly pressed Paul to move beyond “slogans and platitudes” to “direct information” on how the Republican Party will balance the budget and cut the deficit.

Paul immediately reiterated that he was going to push for a balanced budget amendment and said that cuts needed to come from across the board — including defense spending. Whenever Amanpour asked whether a specific program — such as Medicare, Social Security and health care — would be cut, Paul simply kept reiterating that he was going to be looking “across the board.” He was unable, however, to actually name anything significant that would be on the chopping block.

It’s easy to criticize when someone else has the ball.  Now the ball is in DeMint’s and Paul’s court, it isn’t quite as easy to do the slice and dice thing on the budget.  Those who criticized the loudest will continue to be questioned, every single day.  The clock started Wednesday, November 3.  We expect great results.  Surely those with the best sound bites can come up with a cut or two.  So far all I have seen is BS and blather.  It seems we have evolved some since 1789.

AMANPOUR: One significant one. No, but you can’t just keep saying all across the board.

PAUL: Well, no, I can, because I’m going to look at every program, every program. But I would freeze federal hiring. I would maybe reduce federal employees by 10 percent. I’d probably reduce their wages by 10 percent. The average federal employee makes $120,000 a year. The average private employee makes $60,000 a year. Let’s get them more in line, and let’s find savings. Let’s hire no new federal workers.

 

Where is he getting these figures from?  How do we not hire more federal workers?  Someone today said to cut FBI agents.  Get serious. 

Rand Paul Supporter Curb-Stomps Moveon.org Woman’s Head: Don’t Tread on HER!

adultgirl

This unsavory, violent story has been developing for a few days now. 

 

This behavior is simply unacceptable and illegal. Several names surface here–Lauren Valle of Moveon.org was the victim. Tim Profitt, Bourbon County campaign coordinator (for Paul) has admitted to being the head stomper. Mike Pezzano of Frankfort, Kentucky was allegedly the man who threw Valle to the ground.

I had intended on just posted a 1 minute clip of what happened. It seems that those clips have been removed by youtube.com. That usually happens when a complaint has been filed.

Profitt issued the following statement:

“I’m sorry that it came to that, and I apologize if it appeared overly forceful, but I was concerned about Rand’s safety,” Tim Profitt told The Associated Press.

The Paul campaign has issued a series of statements, the latest being:

“The Paul for Senate campaign is extremely disappointed in, and condemns the actions of a supporter last night outside the KET debate. Whatever the perceived provocation, any level of aggression or violence is deplorable, and will not be tolerated by our campaign. The Paul campaign has disassociated itself from the volunteer who took part in this incident, and once again urges all activists — on both sides — to remember that their political passions should never manifest themselves in physical altercations of any kind.”

Hopefully, this violent incident will serve as a notice to all involved in the political process that thug behavior is totally and unequivocally unacceptable. Mr. Profitt and Mr. Pezzano need to be dealt with by the legal system. Ms. Valle needs to do what she needs to do.  There are times when throwing an individual posing a threat to a candidate might be acceptable–this is NOT one of those times.  There would never be a time when stomping someone’s head or back of the neck would be acceptable. 

The Gadsden Flag, “Don’t Tread on Me,”  which used to be one of my favorite historical flags, has suddenly taken on a new and much more literal meaning.   It doesn’t matter which ‘side’ any of the players were on or who was supporting whom.  Its an example of bad behavior–behavior that we, as Americans, disdain.