A Bit of a Rant

We hold a veto on spending which we refuse to use. We just A) approved a business-as-usual increase in spending, and B) funded ObamaCare for the duration by not forcing this prick to make choices. He gets everything he wants–we just wrote him a blank check for it. The supposed cuts amount to trying to slow your father’s Oldsmobile by cupping your hand out the window. It’s crap.

The reason all revenue bills must start in the House is to grant an “opposite end” veto as a check on the size of government. It is of course a fact that we only hold “one half of one third of the government”, but it’s the portion that really matters when it comes to choking this pig. We own the … Continue reading

Hugh Hewitt Oddly Surprised By Democrat Shenanigans

Hugh Hewitt is not happy with the deal reportedly shaping up between “Congress” and the White House:

Sunday, July 31, 2011 Preparing to Defend Defense Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 5:20 AM

Automatic cuts to Defense are tantamount to threatening the national security.  If Democrats were simply obstinate and ran the clock down, they would put Republicans in the position of choosing between tax hikes and destructive cuts to defense spending.

via HughHewitt.com Blog : Hugh Hewitt : Preparing to Defend Defense.

Please don’t look surprised.  You chose this outcome when you prioritized short-term market fluctuations, which you admitted were not rational, over the long-term effects:

Friday, July 29, 2011 … Continue reading

John Kerry Scores an Own Goal

I agree with Senator John Kerry:

“You know the Chinese are looking at us right now and they are just gleeful and incredulous at the way in which one of the great competitors is imploding on itself, because a group of absolutists and extremists don’t understand the implication of what they are doing, and prepared to hold the entire economy hostage and it is unprecedented of anything I have seen in all of the time I have been in public life, and I think it is damaging and dangerous and reckless and irresponsible,” Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) told MSNBC.

via Kerry: Tea Party A “Group Of Absolutists” Who Don’t Understand What They’re Doing | RealClearPolitics.

I just disagree with him about precisely whom the Chinese find so … Continue reading

Rush to Conservatives: I’m damn proud of you | The Right Scoop

Boehner 3.0 passed, Senate killed it, and now Reid will replace it with a craptastic compromise.  This is the sell-out we are bracing for.  But it doesn’t have to be this way.  We did win, after all.  We have a veto on spending.  If we show the fortitude required, the Democrats will crumble.

RightScoop currently hosting a great clip from Rush:

Rush says that the only reason we have Boehner 3.0 is because of the Tea Party members in Congress and because of us conservatives who made our voices loud and clear, and he says he’s damn proud of all of us. And then he turns it on.

He blasts the leadership for doing Obama and Reid’s bidding and says we should not be the lifeline to getting … Continue reading

President Arafat Rejects Boehner's Camp David Offer

John Boehner is a good man.  But his anger, while justified, engenders no sympathy from me.  He hollered the following, thumping the podium:

Boehner said the bill was necessary “after I stuck my neck out a mile trying to get an agreement with the president of the United States.”

“But a lot of people in this town can never say yes. This house has acted and it is time for this administration to put something on the table, tell us where you are.”

via Boehner Goes Irate On Dems Prior To GOP Passing Another Bill To End The “Crisis” (Video) | Red White Blue News.

There he is, angry that he has no idea what constitutes the negotiating position of the Democrats.  Angry and alone, unable to … Continue reading

Boehner Opposes Group Fighting ObamaCare

[UPDATE: John Boehner has stated that elements of this, such as the Jom Jordan re-districting retribution,  are just a rumor.  As much as I wish to support the Republican Speaker by virtue of the job, it is not inconceivable that “just a rumor” would be enough to get him past a crucial vote.  A spokesman for Jim Jordan, for example, did not seem quite convinced that there was nothing behind it, choosing his words carefully “We would hope that standing strong in favor of lower spending and balancing the federal budget would not be a reason to eliminate the district of a sitting member of Congress.”  Hardly confident. — hbd ]

STOP the Boehner-McConnell-Reid-Obama series of bills!  These are stalking horses for Democrat control so that cowardly Republicans … Continue reading

DeMint to Force Another Senate Vote on Cut, Cap, Balance

YES!  This is what the damned House needs to support.  The House passed Cut, Cap and Balance (CCB), and the Senate tabled it.  They did not kill it.  Tabling a bill leaves it in limbo until it is actually killed, rescued, or the session ends (IIRC).

“The bipartisan House-passed Cut, Cap, Balance bill remains the only plan on the table, the only one that preserves our AAA rating, and is only four Democrat votes away from a Senate majority to end this debt crisis,” said Senator DeMint. “I will work to force another vote on Cut, Cap & Balance next week because the President and Democrats have not offered the American people any other viable solution.

via Sen. Jim DeMint Vows to Force Another Vote on Cut, … Continue reading

Dollar/Years Proposal

This is not rocket science; it is basic math.

Do you see the horseshit in here?  From Eric Cantor’s blog:

In its first year, 2012, the revised bill cuts $22 billion as measured against the latest CBO baseline (while the original bill cut just $1 billion), and in the second year it cuts $42 billion (while the original cut $16 billion). These are still very small numbers in the scheme of federal spending, but the greater front-loading actually matters a lot. One reason is that the 2012 and 2013 budgets are the only ones that will actually be under the control of this congress. But even more important is the greater reduction of the baseline itself since, as we’ve witnessed in the … Continue reading

Tea Party Lessons Learned for the GOP

I do not like Speaker Boehner’s bill, although I thank him for much of what he has accomplished so far.  But we need not bother to fight and make gains if our effort is to be thrown away with lousy, worse-than-status-quo bills like the one currently under consideration.  Among its problems are several assumptions baked into it:

  • Must raise debt ceiling: what an awful place to start negotiations
  • ObamaCare need not be de-funded in whole: if it were being de-funded, I am sure you would have told us
  • CBO baseline acceptable starting point for calculations: as opposed to raw spending
  • 2011 an acceptable baseline year: as opposed to 2008 or 2007.
  • “Supercommittee” acceptable in our form of government: as opposed to merely legal, if even that
  • Americans … Continue reading