Thank goodness the Dems came on board. Otherwise the Weekly Standard, Karl Rove, Mike Huckabee, Jen Rubin, and the rest of the “serious” conservatives dismissive of the fringe extremists wouldn’t have gotten this thing passed. From the Daily Caller:
With a rush of last-minute votes on the bill to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year, House Democrats provided the votes to save a spending bill that was forged by Republican House speaker John Boehner, President Obama, and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid late Friday to avert government shutdown.
A total of 59 Republicans defected on the vote, reflecting a continuing fissure between Boehner and the right flank of his party. The last time Boehner faced large scale dissent from his own side, during debate over a stopgap spending bill, 54 Republicans broke ranks.
Revelations about the fine print of the spending deal released at 2:00 AM Tuesday, combined with a score from the Congressional Budget Office which showed the legislation would not reduce the federal deficit, drove the defections by conservatives anxious to cut spending further, congressional sources say.
Counteracting those forces was the fear Republicans, if they torpedoed the deal without a safety net to stop government shutdown, would face total blame for the fallout.
Of course, had they stuck to their guns initially — when they had leverage — they still would have been blamed, but that blame would have been less plausible.
This was so poorly played that, again, I think it’s time we start pressuring for a change in leadership.
The fact is — and regardless of the cover they got from the inside-the-Beltway GOP cheerleaders — these guys shied away from a fight in which, to ensure that the government continued to subsidize what have essentially become abortion mills, Obama chose not to fund military pay, even as welfare checks would still go out and unemployment insurance payments wouldn’t be affected.
And John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and McCarthy couldn’t muster the will to fight that.
So here we are. $352 million of a $3.6 trillion dollar budget “cut.” What’s that, 1/10th 1/100th [Thanks to R G] of 1 percent?
Jungle cats!
(thanks to mojo)
Paraphrasing Honest Abe: “If General Boehner does not want to use the new Congress, we would like to borrow it for a time.”
Women have a right to abortion mills!
BRB, killing myself for typing that.
Everybody familiar with the WSJ.com’s James Taranto and his running “Two Papers in One!” gag about the NY Times?
Here’s my version:
I feel for you Jeff. It’s hard being a premature anti-good-man conventional wisdom conveyor.
You know, you’d be rehabilitable, if only you weren’t such a violent fringe extremist.
Maybe you should try hiding behind an institutional voice!
When faced with the opportunity to lead with principle, flush with confidence from the election that brought them to power , or cower in fear of lying liars and the lies they tell, the GOP leadership wet itself, and declared victory from underneath the bed.
America has had prouder moments.
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In order to lead successfully, you kinda have to subscribe to the same principles as the people you seek to lead, don’t you?
The leadership doesn’t want to lead. Placate, suborn and discourage, sure. Leadership? If they really wanted to lead, they wouldn’t be career
politicians, legislators, would they?From a purely self-interested, careerist perspective, it might actually behoove Boehner et. al. to help Obama along by protesting more so than resisting his agenda actively. After all, the higher the likelihood of his re-election, the greater the probability of keeping the majority, if only to “check and balance” Hope and Change v. 2.0, and thus holding on to the perks that come from being in that majority.
In case anybody needed another reason to support term limits.
“In order to lead successfully, you kinda have to subscribe to the same principles as the people you seek to lead, don’t you?”
I want them to lead according to the principals they swore an oath to, described in the Constitution, and according to the Declaration of independence.
“The people” can kiss my ass. This ain’t the French Revolution.
“The people” can kiss my ass. This ain’t the French Revolution.
Um, what about “We the People”? Can They kiss your ass too? [grin]
My point, inelegantly expressed I guess, was that you can’t expect leadership to come from the Congress.
I don’t want to be led by Congress. I want to be represented in Congress. They should be looking to us for guidance; not vice-versa.
Why don’t more people understand this? I know, I know — it’s what we get when we let Social Studies classes be taught by Elementary Education majors.
I had some hope that this bill would get killed by the Republicans who haven’t gone establishment yet. So much for that idea.
the steny hoyer rode in to save the bonerfag
Of course, had they stuck to their guns initially — when they had leverage — they still would have been blamed, but that blame would have been less plausible.
Less plausible to whom?
They still would have been blamed AND they would have a better deal on the books.
“what about “We the People”? “
“we the people” are too into the fetishism of low taxes to wanna kiss my ass.
It’s “them the pinko commie fags” that vex me. =)
“you can’t expect leadership to come from the Congress”
Since the House of Representatives, which we (R’s) hold, authorize all federal government spending, I don’t know where else to expect leadership to stop the unsustainable federal government spending.
It’s kinda why I took the trouble to vote.
your spinelessness is showing
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Look at that strawman: thinking it “best” to shut down the government, vs. keeping the option open as a bargaining chip — and as a principled response to a useless “compromise” promoted as cuts — are two different things. And you have to be a very timid, very status-quo humping, very non-principled “conservative” to keep trying to blow this ridiculous sunshine up out asses while trying to read real conservatives out of the movement by labeling them extremists.
Nah, that would be 3.6 billion. This is 1/100th of 1%. 1% of 1%. Figure if the budget was $1000.00 they/we changed it to $999.90.
Already changed it, didn’t I?
“Figure if the budget was $1000.00 they/we changed it to $999.90.”
you gd extremists can’t you see we’ve begun the process? rome wasn’t destroyed in a day.
Hmmm, not on the page that I saw as I wrote that, though it is there now. I did scroll through the comments to see if it was mentioned and didn’t see any.
“You have to be a very driven, very confrontational, very ideological person to believe it is best for the country that the government to shut down because legislators have failed to press a point about immediate deficit reduction. ”
somehow being a very driven, very confrontational, very ideological person who is trying to bankrupt the country is ok with johnpod.
That post by Podhoretz is remarkable. And he seldom writes anything worthy of notice.
He calls the budget a trick. Then he cautions against purity tests. Which is it, moron? Either it was a trick and people reacted to it as such or it’s a worthwhile deal and unreasonable people are holding the deal-makers to an unreasonable ideological standard. Can’t be both.
Love the condescension from these people. Just can’t get enough of it.
I use to think they just didn;t recognize the superior strategy (that damn earnestness again): Pass what you believe in. Let the Senate stop it or Obama veto it. Then you negotiate. We would have had your back.
Now it’s clear that this is what they believe in.
They certainly give us scant reason to think otherwise, motionview.
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I think Squid Brand™ pitchforks will be selling like … pitchforks.
OT: got a 45# blob in the mail today. I have a long way to go before I lift that thing, let me tell you. Take the 30# and add 50% in weight and size. It may as well be a boulder.
don’t worry bonerfag still working on the 0.00001 # blob. orangeman needs inspiration.
give the bonerfag some due
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moore
I received a forty-six pound cheese-wheel today, Fed-ex, and the damn thing’s already gone.
“give the bonerfag some due”
Newrouterrrr (said with tilted head and raised eyebrows)
Are you getting soft on us? ;)
“Are you getting soft on us?”
the small business orangeman should go back to small business in ohio. perhaps a hooters outside cincinnati.
also, the bonerfag gave up useful card in not shutting down the gov’t. he could extended for a week in exchange for covering the military for the rest of the fiscal year. the next week he could have eliminated entire executive branches of the gov’t such energy, education, et al. next eliminate obamacare funding. no the orangeman played the “safe” option. squandered is not the right word for what this idiot did in the last 4 months. lame johnpod/lowry/rubin game playing is what he did.
also i think bonerfag is ok in 1997. today people with a pronounced ideology like baraky are
called forrequired to join this battle.Whatever happened to brave men? Are we that emasculated?
“Are we that emasculated?”
well bonerfag did the 1990’s thing with the newt. the dude likes the power. these a-holes watched what happen since 2008 and their first thought was what kind of drapes for the office of pelosi. orangeman done this shit for 15 years. best he could do don’t cha know on the cr. primary him now and cantor and mccarthy. we have to attack the loser big gov’t types in the rethug party. otherwise have a cupcake.
As is said, read the whole thing.