IS THE BUDGET AGREEMENT A DEAL OR A SCAM?

 

I find myself asking the same question of our Speaker of the House that I asked not all that long ago. Where is the “leadership? Where’s the courage of standing by your convictions? I remember that old adage that says, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Unfortunately, it would seem that such is not the case when it comes to our present leadership team in the House. Because with these guys, when the going gets tough, they simply cut and run. At a time when we have a common, low-life thug in the White House and a thoroughly corrupt and patently dishonest creep in charge of the Senate, I cannot help but think that Speaker Boehner squandered an ideal opportunity here. An opportunity to show everyone that without a doubt he stands very firmly on the side of the American people. So, will the strategy that we recently witnessed by the Republicans prove to be the same impotent strategy that we can come to expect from Boehner and the House Republicans in future battles what have yet to be fought? Once again our team seems to have chosen to take the coward’s way out. I mean, just who was it that we were seeing out there doing all of the “celebrating” after this supposed “deal” was cut? Barry, “Dingy” and Boehner, that’s who. What about the American people, those who once more get to take it in the shorts? Did we see any celebrating there? In a brief interview, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Hill that the agreement was "as good a deal as we could get." Was it a deal as good as we could get, or one that was perceived as being simply too difficult to make better? Did Boehner simply take the easy way out and hope that we would all just go along with it?

Look, the truth of the matter is that the federal debt increased by a whopping $54.1 Billion just during the eight days that preceded the arriving at this supposed “deal” struck by Barry, “Dingy” and Boehner. A "deal" that we are told will cut $38.5 Billion in federal spending for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, which runs through September. Much is being made about the fact that such an amount has never been cut before, why, this is historic. What is truly historic is the massive amount of debt we have now incurred in an effort for Democrats to buy votes from their rather low rent constituents. It is a debt that was $14.2101 Trillion on March 30, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, and $14.2642 Trillion on April 7. Since the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1, 2010, the national debt has increased by $653.4 Billion. And we’re supposed to see the cutting of $38.5 Billion as being some kind of a landmark or even historic accomplishment? No, I think not. After all is said and done, I find myself in complete agreement with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R.-Minn.), who leads the Tea Party Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives and was one of 27 Republicans that voted against this latest budget "deal." She expressed adamant opposition to the deal agreed to late Saturday night by these same three clowns and for very good reasons. The most important one of which is that this $38.5 Billion in cuts outlined in the Boehner-Barry “Almighty” Deal are less than 6 percent of $653.4 Billion in debt incurred already this fiscal year. An anemic 6 percent, man now that is a deal. But for whom, exactly?


She made her bone of contention with the "deal" very plain in a Twitter message, “Make no mistake: I oppose this negotiated deal,” that was sent out at about 11:00 am on Saturday. “It does not: Cut enough spending, stop funding Planned Parenthood, or defund Obamacare.” She also said in a statement that, “The deal that was reached tonight is a disappointment for me and for millions of Americans who expected $100 billion in cuts, who wanted to make sure their tax dollars stopped flowing to the nation’s largest abortion provider, and who wanted us to defund ObamaCare.” Adding that, “Instead, we’ve been asked to settle for $39 billion in cuts, even as we continue to fund Planned Parenthood and the implementation of ObamaCare. Sadly, we’re missing the mandate given us by voters last November, and for that reason I voted against the Continuing Resolution.” You go girl! It would seem that conservative women are now, how shall I say it, better “equipped” than many of the men who claim to stand for conservative principles. If all we're going to do is to allow this president to simply waltz in and make demands without him offering up any flexibility or a willingness to give up some of his grandiose government expanding programs, then what was the point of the last election? You'd think that a fella who supposedly "taught" the Constitution, would be a little more aware of how our system is supposed to work. Or maybe he just sees himself as being above that pesky old Constitution. It's nothing more than an impediment that prevents him from doing what he knows is best for us. Sadly both the Constitution and the rule of law have both taken rather a severe drubbing under this president. And even sadder, far too many Americans don't seem to care all that much.


If we can cut through the BS here for a moment we'll see that almost half of the budget cuts, some $18 billion, in the budget pact with Barry don't involve cuts to agency operating accounts spending hawks like to target. They involve cuts to so-called mandatory programs whose budgets run mostly on autopilot. Such cuts officially "score" as savings that could be used to pay for spending elsewhere, but they often have little real impact in terms of cutting the deficit.
They include:


—$2.5 billion in leftover highway money unavailable under current budget caps.


—$500 million from reforms to the Pell Grant program.


—$3.5 billion in unused Children's Health Insurance Program funds.


—$5 billion in "phantom" savings from capping payments from a Justice Department trust fund for crime victims. Under arcane budget rules, appropriators can claim year after year the full amount of money in the trust fund.


—$400 million in similar savings from capping a Treasury fund to help pay for the department's crime-fighting efforts.


—$2.2 billion in cuts to subsidies for health care cooperatives.
So, if this is the caliber of "leadership" that we can now come to expect from here on out from those that we chose to put in charge just this past November, then I fear all is certainly lost. Future generations may now be on the verge of being cast headlong into that 1000 years of darkness so eloquently referred to by Ronald Reagan. I'm sure we all remember those heartfelt words, "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done." But if there are now only 27 House Members who possess the necessary backbone to stand up to the cheap Chicago hood that we now have in the White House, then what chance will those of us who are fighting to save our country, have in our efforts to stop him? If we let this insanity continue unabated, how will we be able to look into the eyes of our children and tell them that yes, we did all that could be done to save their futures. There are monumental budget battles looming just over the horizon that still remain to be fought, such as on the debt ceiling and on the 2012 budget. If our team can be expected to so quickly throw in the towel the second they meet the slightest resistance, or to rapidly raise the white flag of surrender at the first sign of some political bloodshed, then how are we to expect that they are willing to fight aggressively for we the people in these very important battles? Despite what Boehner and the Republican leadership may claim, that some great victory was achieved here, it was not judged to be a victory by fiscal conservatives as a whole, but as being more of a slap in the face. This “deal” is seen by many as being strike one against the current House leadership. Depending on how they decide to come down on the debt ceiling, that may prove to be strike two. And if specific action to seriously reduce spending in the 2012 budget is not taken, then that may very well prove to be strike three. And the likely result then would be to say bye-bye to Boehner and the Republican Majority come the next election. So now we wait and see.