Get an axe.
[Update: This post is already half obsolete. It appears that the fiscal hawks succeeded in getting the big spenders’ attention, who now swear, swear that they will cut $100 Billion from 2011. I still say it’s too late for Representative Hal Rogers, whose quote about federal layoffs indicates that he does *not* get it, and that he never will. Fiscal conservatives pointed out his unsuitability for the Chairmanship of the Committee on Appropriations when his name first came up for it, and they have been proven right.
I do not advocate a “reign of terror” wherein our own party must run each day fearing the gong, but the combination of timing, importance, centrality to our whole GOP effort this session, and the flaming disconnection evidenced by Congressman Rogers make this a commendable adjustment. Sack him! his failure is no accident–he does not want to cut the budget. ]
GOP leadership has failed. We were promised $100 billion in cuts in 2011. This was reduced to about $70 billion based on a pro rata approach for the months remaining in 2011, and which finally landed as $32 billion. Adding insult to injury, Chair of the House Appropriations Committee “Prince of Pork” Hal Rogers (R-KY) “warns that cutting more now risks forcing layoffs of federal employees.”
Rich Lowry at NRO:
We’re hearing that the Republican Study Committee and GOP freshmen were almost in open revolt at the Republican conference this morning over the initial round of cuts set out by Paul Ryan. The Ryan ceiling falls shorts of the headline number of $100 billion set out in the Pledge, and is therefore considered vastly insufficient
Diane Ellis hit the nail on the head with her own headline for that piece: “GOP House Freshmen Reject Ryan’s Scalpel, Call for Axe“. My first time seeing Ricochet.com, by the way. Nice site.
Here’s my take on it. Either Hal Rogers goes, or John Boehner does. Because fiscal conservatives saw this coming, warned about it, and House leadership assured us that they got the message. Well no “we might have to lay off Gov’t employees” they did not.
Mr. Speaker, I am calling for Hal Rogers’ chairmanship to end now.
