{"id":6076,"date":"2011-07-02T01:25:28","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T16:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/haakondahl.com\/blog\/?p=1396"},"modified":"2011-07-02T01:25:28","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T16:25:28","slug":"cut-cap-balance-a-bunch-of-unicorn-poop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/cut-cap-balance-a-bunch-of-unicorn-poop\/","title":{"rendered":"&quot;Cut, Cap, Balance&quot;  A Bunch of Unicorn Poop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/likebox.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpages%2FTea-Party-to-GOP-No-More-Pledges%2F114310088660989&amp;width=200&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;show_faces=false&amp;border_color&amp;stream=false&amp;header=true&amp;height=70\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:200px; height:70px;\" align=left allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>[Update: 19JUL2011: Cut Cap and Balance is going for a vote as early as today, in the House.  I support it fully.  I am pleased with the fight so far shown by the Speaker and the Leader, and while I do not agree with everything, I can hardly make that my condition for support.  We must offer support whenever possible, and be blunt about when we feel support is not possible.  I sincerely think that efforts such as refusing to &#8220;sign any more damned pledges&#8221; makes for a more attentive GOP and a Republican presence worth defending and expanding in Washington.  Who knows: they might even pull off the cut and the cap this time.   I might justsign the next pledge, if they can manage not to fold on the debt cap.  SO FAR SO GOOD.<br \/>\nI meant what I said when I said I wouldn&#8217;t sign this pledge and I didn&#8217;t.  I mean what I say when I say I support Speaker Boehner and Leader McConnell right now.  Time will tell.]<\/p>\n<p>Republicans are asking for support in their &#8220;Cut, Cap, Balance Pledge&#8221; because they think we have forgotten their little escapade earlier this year:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8211;\tRoll back non-discretionary spending to 2008 levels before TARP and stimulus (will save $100 billion in first year alone)<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\tEstablish strict budget caps to limit federal spending going forward<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Look familiar? \u00a0Those were included in the &#8220;Pledge to America&#8221;. \u00a0See that first one? \u00a0That&#8217;s &#8220;CUT&#8221;. \u00a0And the second? \u00a0&#8220;CAP&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Republicans had to be scolded and shamed into even beginning to honor these commitments, and then used all the mealy-mouthed, weasel-worded Washington beltway creative accounting tricks and even more creative language to try to fool us into thinking that they were cutting.<\/p>\n<p>They retroactively decided that 2008 levels meant non-defense discretionary only. \u00a0 Then, because it took so long for them to get their stuff together, they pro-rated that down to something like $58 Billion. \u00a0Then with the Democrats ludicrous budget wishes (not a budget, after all) in hand, or at least in mind, they subtracted their proposed budget from the unproposed often rumored Democrat budget to come up with a meaningless difference of $74 Billion. \u00a0But by that time, the actual value of the cuts (from current actual budget to Republican plan) had shrunk to about $35 Billion!<\/p>\n<p>[pullquote]A cut of less than zero percent[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n<p>All these numbers were bad enough, but the words made it worse. \u00a0They started saying that what they meant was Calendar years, and that they were not pro-tating it so much as they were counting 12 months from the day the bill passed, which is crap. \u00a0Not one single person in Washington, D.C. uses a rolling year as the basis for calculation. \u00a0Fiscal years are all that matter. \u00a0Then came a fusillade of elliptical equations in which skimpy cuts were projected out over a large number of years, then back-figured into a lesser number of years (or something), which of course did not add up. \u00a0 At one point, the CBO scored the Republicans cuts as negative, saying that other sources of growth would result in the FY2011 budget being larger than 2008 levels no matter what. \u00a0A cut of less than zero percent. \u00a0The CBO and the GOP disagreed mightily, and the whole mess died a quiet death as the Tea Party gave up on the GOP.<\/p>\n<p>But the Tea Party has not given up. \u00a0We just know who is listening and who is not.<\/p>\n<p>So I am not interested in signing any GOP pledge now, unless it is a pledge to unseat Hal Rogers, the 16-term &#8220;Prince of Pork&#8221; whom Boehner installed as the chair of House Appropriations. \u00a0I do not want to hear what Boehner has to say unless it is that he is resigning.<\/p>\n<p>I can SMELL the deal being cooked up between Republicans and the White House. \u00a0These soft-shoed Washington party boys are going to fold like lawn chairs. \u00a0Haven&#8217;t heard a peep from McConnell. \u00a0Boehner I think spoke to some Democrats on Sunday morning. \u00a0 This is the same kabuki they pulkled while lying to us the last time, and preparing to fold.<\/p>\n<p>I say no to your damned pledge.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"pld-like-dislike-wrap pld-template-1\">\r\n    <div class=\"pld-like-wrap  pld-common-wrap\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-login.php\" class=\"pld-like-trigger pld-like-dislike-trigger  \" title=\"\" data-post-id=\"6076\" data-trigger-type=\"like\" data-restriction=\"user\" data-already-liked=\"0\">\r\n                        <i class=\"fas fa-thumbs-up\"><\/i>\r\n                <\/a>\r\n    <span class=\"pld-like-count-wrap pld-count-wrap\">    <\/span>\r\n<\/div><div class=\"pld-dislike-wrap  pld-common-wrap\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-login.php\" class=\"pld-dislike-trigger pld-like-dislike-trigger  \" title=\"\" data-post-id=\"6076\" data-trigger-type=\"dislike\" data-restriction=\"user\" data-already-liked=\"0\">\r\n                        <i class=\"fas fa-thumbs-down\"><\/i>\r\n                <\/a>\r\n    <span class=\"pld-dislike-count-wrap pld-count-wrap\"><\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p>[Update: 19JUL2011: Cut Cap and Balance is going for a vote as early as today, in the House. I support it fully. I am pleased with the fight so far shown by the Speaker and the Leader, and while I do not agree with everything, I can hardly make that my condition for support. We must offer support whenever possible, and be blunt about when we feel support is not possible. I sincerely think that efforts such as refusing to &#8220;sign any more damned pledges&#8221; makes for a more attentive GOP and a Republican presence worth defending and expanding in Washington. Who knows: they might even pull off the cut and the cap this time. I might justsign the next pledge, if they can manage not to &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/cut-cap-balance-a-bunch-of-unicorn-poop\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[234,240,244],"tags":[273],"class_list":["post-6076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-politics","category-conservative","category-freedom","tag-mainfeed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}