by Smitty
via Granite Grok
Category: Budget
Must-Read Post Of The Day
by Smitty
Tom Blumer over at Pajamas Media has a crucial outing on the federal budget:
Here are two important but little-known and underappreciated points about the Super Dupers’ failure which cannot be emphasized enough:
- None of the alleged “savings” under discussion (really reductions in projected spending increases) would have kicked in until the beginning of the 2013 fiscal year almost ten months from now. According to an Associated Press report, the “automatic” cuts noted earlier (if anyone believes they’re really going to happen) won’t begin taking effect until January 2013. In other words, contrary to the expectations of most, everyone involved apparently agreed during August’s debt-ceiling debacle that fiscal 2012 would be off-limits. Now, apparently, so is the first quarter of fiscal 2013.
- Even if they had met their definition of super success, the $1.2 trillion involved would have reduced projected 2013-2021 spending of $40 trillion (Page XI at link) by only 3%. Spending for fiscal 2011 was $3.6 trillion. According to the CBO, if spending runs on autopilot for the next ten years — who’s to say it won’t, given that the government has already gone without a budget since April 27, 2009? — fiscal 2021 spending will be $5.4 trillion. Given the tendency to push most savings to further-off years, a “successful” Duper deal might have trimmed that to $5.2 trillion. Big duping deal.
Study the whole thing. And keep in mind that the budget affects the economy, which is The. Central. Issue. of the 2012 election, orbited of course by foreign policy, border security, the culture wars, &c.
And Barack is going to whine that he inherited the wound. Sure, and poured in a lick of salt. But when sober citizens attempting to address the real problems are thrown out of the halls of Congress. . .
Is Congress, Unexpectedly, Robbing Us Deaf, As Well As Blind?
by Smitty
Dell Hill points to Director Blue’s post about the dirty truth of the nearly 1,000 Days of Budget Silence:
Doug Ross’s asserts:
What Democrats and big-government Republicans aren’t telling you is this: the Obama-Pelosi-Reid “one-time Stimulus package” was built into the baseline, which means each year that the Obamacrats can avoid writing a budget is another year that this cash furnace can continue burning your children’s money.
but that is less than clear.
If I understand the implication correctly, including Stimulus loot in the Baseline and then not bothering to do a new budget means that the Senate is essentially a re-enactment group, staging #OccupyResoluteDesk’s 2008 heist annually, as the last passed budget stands until superseded. That is less than clear from the text of the legislation, but it says in
SEC. 301. EMERGENCY DESIGNATION.:
For purposes of Senate enforcement, all provisions of this Act are designated as emergency requirements and necessary to meet emergency needs pursuant to section 204 of S. Con. Res. 21 (110th Congress), the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2008.
One gets the prodding sensation in the bowels that the seemingly innocent phrase ‘For purposes of Senate enforcement’ may be the sort of magic spell that can turn an Oldsmobile Delmont 88 into a submarine, IYKWIMAITYD. Ah, the 110th Congress, you shall ever live in infamy.
Trying to end on a humorous note, these budgetary gymnastics, at a high level of abstraction, are like Joe Satriani’s fingers, as a young John Boehner attempts to grasp where it’s all going. Relevant passage starts at 0:46
Stupor Committee A Study In Farce.
Yet Mitt’s Ad ‘A Deceitful And Dishonest Attack’? Maybe Santorum Can Help
by Smitty
Ultimately, the committee did not succeed because we could not bridge the gap between two dramatically competing visions of the role government should play in a free society, the proper purpose and design of the social safety net, and the fundamentals of job creation and economic growth.
Well, that is about as dispassionate, and un-finger-pointy as you can get. Socialism, misery codified as policy, is dying, and demands company. The good news is that the enumerated powers are as straight as a plumb line, showing which federal tasks should be retained, and which should properly be returned to the states. The bad news is that the federal graft has been too tempting on both sides of the aisle to permit proper carrying out of what must be done.
And yet, for all the billions and trillions of illegitimate acts by this Congress, to say nothing of the Administration, we’re supposed to get excited if Mitt Romney, arguably, packs an ad more tightly with information than necessary, and leaves some significant contextual details for the text of the post.
See, the snippet used in the Romney ad referencing talking about the economy being a losing plan was actually from a campaign stop where Obama was quoting a John McCain staffer in 2008.
Oh, that #RebelRomney.
One is tempted to think that the kerfuffle over the quotation sourcing was a test on the part of the Romney campaign which the Obama campaign is failing. More attention is drawn to the ad, and the catastrophic absurdity of this administration by pointing out the dodgy choice of quotation. Anyone who has read the Obamateurism posts at Hot Air knows that, if we had $100 for every time that #OccupyResoluteDesk had said the kind of thing for which we’ve seen Herman Cain pilloried, neither the deficit nor the debt would be of particular concern.
Unfortunately for Mitt, the air of inevitability, the slick soundbites, the centrist posturing, and the media echoes coming from their location in the tank trigger associations with none other than BHO’s 2008 campaign. “Repeal ObamaCare” looks good on a bumper sticker, but if the motive for doing so isn’t founded in a sincere desire to go after federal entitlements hammer and tongs, then we can expect the bad ideas informing both RomneyCare and ObamaCare to return like a communicable disease in an ObamaVille.
What is needed perhaps, is someone who has some experience, yet runs with more of and outsider feel. Someone with character as impeccable as Romney, but who manages not to exude the Ruling Class smarminess. Who doesn’t sound like a condescending Tom Brokaw acolyte when he speaks. Who is not running a ball-control offense campaign, as if winning means avoiding mistakes. I mean, of course, Rick Santorum.
Having the last burst of attention right before the caucuses could give him the momentum he needs to win Iowa — so, why is his boomlet next?
“Some would say because I’m the only one left to get a boomlet,” Santorum says while laughing. “I would say because if you look at the attention that’s been paid to the other candidates, and the knowledge that people have of other candidates, I think we are probably the least known candidate in the race here in Iowa and so as people are looking around … my strong sense is that people are going to start examining the only candidate they don’t know much about, and I think when they do, obviously I feel confident that we will do well.”
He says he also hears quite often, “We love you Rick. We think you are great, but we are not sure you can win.” He asks those voters to keep him on their list, and as candidate after candidate has their moment in the sun and then plummets, he believes they will come back to him.
“I see a momentum and it won’t be a momentum moved by the press, it will be a momentum by folks that are actually taking the time to analyze the candidates,” Santorum says. “From the very beginning of this campaign I’ve described this as being on an episode of ‘Survivor’ and you just want to stay on the island and be able to be there and hopefully be the last person standing when it comes down to caucus day. That’s been our game plan, that’s what we have been working on, working under the radar.
Barack Obama represents the culmination of a century of Progressivism. It’s all been crap. Does Mitt Romney represent a sufficient break from the Progressive tradition to recover America? The bets seem rather hedged in Mitt’s case. Hence the search for alternatives. Newt? Who would argue he’s less of an insider than Mitt? Does the scholarly delivery indicate Newt has done enough soul-searching to repent of his wayward ways? Maybe.
Santorum offers a solid, conservative candidate, in contrast.
Update: hopefully the left will spring to the defense of this personally insulting introduction of Michele Bachmann. Or is this old tune the new tone? Via Riehl.
Update II: linked at The POH Diaries.
Update III: linked at The Rio Norte Line.
Sen. Schumer’s Deed Shall Live In Infamy
by Smitty
Chuck Schumer appears to have achieved a full metamorphosis: he may be the first Senator to have achieved the full odiousness of the British Parliament which the Founders opposed. From a Freedom Works email:
We observed all the rules. Senator Mike Lee reserved the room for us weeks in advance. Every “i” was dotted and every “t” crossed. But when Senate Democrats got word that we planned on doing their job for them … that we planned to suggest real cuts to the budget … well, that’s when they got scared and pulled the plug.
Tyranny!
I submit that every right-thinking blog should post this video, and increase the pressure on Congress. The Tea Party Budget is all about doing the job that Congress abdicated. Senator Schumer should be disciplined and ejected, so that his falsehood is no longer a drag on our government.
Update: linked at Dell’s Bottom Line.
Update II: linked at Garnette’s View.
Update III: linked at Marfdrat and The Vail Spot.
Muscular Statesman Harry Reid Drips Testosterone And Leadership Everywhere In Remarks On Stupor Committee
by Smitty
Oh, who am I kidding? I’ve seen firmer lumps of bread dough. Like the Nobel Committee, one engages in wishful thinking in the hopes of altering the outcome. Unlike the Nobel Committee, one keeps one’s expectations of the American political class well below zero, for minimal surprise.
The Stupor Committee was never anything more than an admission of failure. When was it ever going to do anything but fail? The only questions of interest are:
- Will further means of avoiding the budget problem be discovered?
- Will the #Occutards offer enough entertainment that the propaganda media successfully divert attention from the dismal failure of Congress?
- Will enough ways be found to bribe the American people with their own money be found to somehow drag Obama across the re-election line?
- Will Peter Schweizer’s book drive enough anti-incumbent outrage to bring down the Ruling Class?
Update: linked at Daily Pundit.
The Tea Party Budget
by Smitty
For a printout and a quick glance, The Tea Party Budget scoops Congress in general and the Stupor Committee in particular. Sure, #OccupyResoluteDesk, as well.
To achieve these goals, our plan, among other things:
- Repeals ObamaCare in toto.
- Eliminates four Cabinet agencies — Energy, Education, Commerce, and HUD — and reduces or privatizes many others, including EPA, TSA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.
- Ends farm subsidies, student loans, and foreign aid to countries that don’t support us — luxuries we can no longer afford.
- Saves Social Security and greatly improves future benefits by shifting ownership and control from government to individuals, through new SMART Accounts.
- Gives Medicare seniors the right to opt into the Congressional health care plan.
- Suspends pension contributions and COLAs for Members of Congress, whenever the budget is in deficit.
Kind of like the ancient military recruiting ad: “What a great place, it’s a great place–To Start!”
This blog calls on all the GOP candidates to either (a) substantially adopt this plan or (b) offer substantive reasons why not. Note that (c) ignore it will be interpreted as an admission of “Yes, I’m a Ruling Class Tool”.
Sadly, I don’t expect any of the GOP candidates to locate the intestinal fortitude to do much with this. Which is why I’ll probably write in Sarah Palin in the primary.
Admittedly, Ron Paul has already offered ideas along some of these lines. Running with this could be Rick Santorum’s breakout chance, since Herman Cain is all about Cool #9.
As far as people already in office, the gutless surrender monkeysSenate managed to wet itself rather than pay attention. No sympathy here. If you’re an organization like the U.S. Senate, headed by Gollum Reid, and you’re the better part of a thousand days into blowing your job off, you look really, really stupid if you admit that some common-sense conservatives could do in 36 pages what your impotent organization couldn’t even get halfway to failure on for less than 2,000.
via Instapundit
Soon, Most Of The Federal Budget Will Be A Blend Of ‘Disastrous’ And ‘Emergency’
by Smitty
If I may scrape attention briefly away from contestant #753 on the Herman Cain Allegation Show, Heritage reports the following cheery bit about the Budget Control Act:
Then there is Loophole No. 2: In addition to the “disaster” funds [loophole #1], the BCA still retains the uncapped “emergency” credit card. So Congress could obligate all the $11.3 billion for “disasters” and still spend without limit later in the year on other “emergencies”—making a total mockery of the BCA spending caps.
That global warming you feel running down your back? Ain’t rain, mister. I was contending a bit with a colleague a couple years back. “They’ve got to pass the emergency extension to unemployment benefits,” he said. I tried to explain that, if everything is an emergency, then nothing is an emergency. If you reward disastrous situations, you will, oddly, perversely, create more disastrous situations.
These two flagrant gimmicks are among six spending limits exemptions in the BCA. The others are overseas military activities, technical changes in concepts and definitions, continuing Social Security disability reviews, and efforts to control health care fraud and abuse. But the disaster and emergency maneuvers are worse than the others, because they are so easy to abuse and because lifting the spending caps for them leaves more room to maintain status quo spending levels for everything else. Congress can pretend to be disciplined and claim austerity, but never really cut spending and reduce the size of government—demonstrating flagrant disregard for the budget crisis that the debt ceiling confrontation was supposed to address.
Neither the Democrat, nor the Democrat-lite party has shred #1 of any interest in driving the Progress bus anywhere other than off the cliff. So, in lieu of leadership, we get brinksmanship. Per the Wikipedia link:
If Congress fails to produce a deficit reduction bill with at least $1.2 trillion in cuts, then Congress can grant a $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling but this would trigger across-the-board cuts (“sequestration”) of spending equally split between security and non-security programs. The across-the-board cuts would apply to mandatory and discretionary spending in the years 2013 to 2021 and be in an amount equal to the difference between $1.2 trillion and the amount of deficit reduction enacted from the joint committee. The sequestration mechanism is the same as the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. There are exemptions—across the board cuts would apply to Medicare providers, but not to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare beneficiaries, civil and military employee pay, or veterans. Security programs include the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Nuclear Security Administration, some management functions of the intelligence community, and international affairs from the U.S. State Department.
Well, ain’t that just ducky? #OccupyResoluteDesk just loves him some crisis, and that’s exactly what this will be by the 23 November deadline for crisis maximization. Boehner and Reid, both old-school pols, will engage in ballet on finger-point, rather than just put it to the American people: the infinite pockets of Progress have hit bottom. It’s time to just admit it’s freaking over, deal with the fallout, and move on to real recovery.
Which may help explain why contestant #754 is up. Something to do with shrink tubing and a hair dryer. Shiny!