A case for more aggressive spending cuts, and the potential pitfalls of the GOP “pledge”. Bill Wilson, Americans for Limited Government:
So far, however, House Republicans have only promised to cut discretionary spending to 2008 levels, citing $100 billion in instant savings. Let’s assume for a moment they manage to get that done, get it through the Senate, and get Obama to sign a budget with those savings. If that’s all Congress is ultimately able to cut in from the Fiscal Year 2012 budget, assuming revenues remain flat, the current annual budget deficit would only be reduced from $1.3 trillion to $1.2 trillion.
And if that’s all House Republicans fight to cut, they will own that deficit when it’s reported in fall 2012, just when they will be going back to the American people asking for the reins of power for the presidency and the Senate (if they don’t win that body this year). But long before then, the damage would have already been done to their political fortunes and the nascent tea party movement that catapulted them back into power.
That is the danger. In short, if Republicans now reclaim the House, and in 2011 submit a budget that includes a $1 trillion-plus deficit, they will be hoisted on their own petards in 2012. They will have broken their pledge to “pay down the debt” right out of the gates by not even attempting to balance the budget.
By then, it’s quite possible the total national debt will have already soared past 100 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, which currently stands at $14.578 trillion. Those harboring the faint hope that will not cause a political earthquake the day it happens need to think again. Consider what the American people have had to put up with from Washington since the financial bailouts began in 2008, and then ask the question: “Will the American people accept a gross federal debt that is larger than the entire economy?”
It will be a political catastrophe, even more so for those responsible. Do Republicans really want the blame for that? Or would they prefer to have the ability to hold accountable those who stood in the way of balancing the budget?
[…]
Whatever it takes, House Republicans should fight to get a balanced budget to the Senate, all the way holding individual roll call votes on individual spending cuts. At every opportunity, they could expose members who consistently vote to keep spending at unsustainable levels. This would set the table for everything that happens next.
They have nothing to lose by trying. On the Senate side, the reconciliation process could conceivably be used to avoid a filibuster. And, if it passed, by July, 2011, Republicans could hand-deliver a balanced budget to Obama. Let him veto it. Let him be the one to threaten to shut the government down. But as Americans were preparing to celebrate Independence Day, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and all of those new, younger leaders could take the airwaves, declaring the nation’s independence from foreign creditors like China.
It’d be good politics, but more importantly, it’d be good policy.
For, there is more at stake than partisan politics, D’s and R’s. The fate of future generations, their prosperity, and the hopes and aspirations of their children and their children’s children are all on the line. The American people cannot afford for the new Congress to come into power in 2011, only to watch as they simply nibble around the edges of the cataclysmic $13.67 trillion national debt.
More than anything, on Tuesday, the American people will be voting to rein in this massive, unaffordable, out-of-control government. They will be voting to save their beloved country from financial ruin. If they now choose to send Republicans back into the majority, the GOP can ill afford to disappoint them.
Thus far, the feeling around these parts is that our strategy should be to elect conservatives in an effort to help them take over the GOP establishment from within the party proper, much like the New Left did in its years-long “progressive” takeover of the Democrat party, turning liberalism into “liberalism”; but the problem is, our economy is on the verge of collapse, and we may not have the time to spend in such a prolonged electoral endeavor.
The Republicans have one last chance here, as far as I’m concerned. If they fail us — or are seen as unwilling to work toward the goals adopted by the conservatives and independents who are mostly responsible for electing them — I think a third-party movement is likely, with the Rockefeller wing of the GOP left to run that party, and the conservatives and classical liberals moving on to something less cynical, craven, and intellectually ineffectual.
I’d prefer to call that new party The Outlaw party, but then, I’m not exactly unbiased on the subject, now am I…?
I disagree that the Tea Party movement will be damaged in this scenario. The Dems will try to paint it that way, but I don’t think it will work. More likely, anyone who fails to behave properly will find themselves eliminated during the primaries.
I’m on a kick of being hopeful, but I’ll probably return to gloom and doom some time next year, if not sooner.
Maybe we need leather, tats, chains and bikes in Congress to shake things up.
Hulk SMASH!
Now that would be an awesome development indeed.
I couldn’t agree more on the need for swift action, and the urgency of the situation. The GOP does have to deliver on their promises during theis campaign of fiscal responsibility. They have to find a way to get it done, and I don’t see any better strategy than Wilson is putting forth; that is taking a roll-call vote on each major budget item as a stand alone part of what could later be presented to the President as an all encompassing passage. And perhaps as important is that it would be visibly living up to one of the promises that the GOP made in their recent pledge, albeit an “inside baseball”, procedural one.
I know that there are some here who percieve me to be perhaps too much of a team R loyalist at times; it’s because I believe in the ideals they claim to stand for.
But JeffG is correct to note that at this juncture they’ve promised the majority of the American people, who seem to have awakened to the danger of the path we as a nation have gone down over the last 50 years and more quickly over the last decade, to get things back on track. If they are seen as being timid, or being more concerned with keeping their phony-baloney jobs then all bets are off…
I’d hate to see the GOP reduced to a rump party filled with only soft-statist Rockefeller types. That would be a group I could no longer affiliate with.
It’s put-up or shut-up time for the GOP. Unwittingly perhaps, in their Pledge they’ve given the folks who are backing them in this election a scorecard by which to measure their willingness to keep their promises. I for one hope they have the fortitutde to not only live up to those promises, but go further and make some real “progress” towards re-aligning our government with the system envisioned by those who founded it.
Bill Wilson 2012
…our economy is on the verge of collapse, and we may not have the time to spend in such a prolonged electoral endeavor.
This is a big part of the reason why I’m supportive of efforts to take over the GOP from within. The GOP structure is already in place; if we can take over the machine from the bottom up, it saves us from having to re-create all the infrastructure in a brand-new party. I’m hopeful, if not fully confident, that this is the most efficient means to the ends we hope to achieve.
This isn’t to say that it’s a perfect arrangement. The GOP has thoroughly pissed away the value in its brand, and we’ll inherit that problem along with the label. We also have a whole hell of a lot of jobsworths, slackers and carpetbaggers to brush out. Plus, there’s the very real chance that efforts to reform the party will fall short — there’s plenty of powerful entrenched interests whose collective apple cart we threaten to overturn.
Should the current path prove unmanageable, you bet your ass I’ll get busy building a new infrastructure. I’m way better at that sort of thing than I am with the whole hearts-and-minds thing, anyway.
The silver lining, as it were, is that after the economic collapse, most of these extra-Constitutional redistribution schemes will stop.
Yeah, I’m a real “up” person.
but the zero people had something to say the other day about this no?
one of yous guys linked
The zero-growth thing, where the budget is simply frozen and not allowed to increase more than a few percent per year, would work fiscally, but not politically. It was put forth more as an argument against the notion that one must increase taxes and decrease current spending to (eventually) balance the budget. The problem is, it would take until after Obama’s 2nd term comes to an end before the budget would go into the black.
The video is here.
founded it!
oh. I remember that one too Mr. cranky… that one is predicated on Obamacare being repealed.
“Yeah, I’m a real ‘up’ person.”
A man has to be up to get anything out of a certain kind of congress, doncha think?
You ever hear the phrase “talking his book”?
Interesting point about Republicans & why they should not want to win on Tuesday.
Let’s face it, normally 98% of congress members get re-elected each election. This time, they are talking about “Only” 90% getting re-elected. So, is anything really going to change that much?
If you like a great book to read then read this one cause it’s about each of us & possibly destiny calling on us. I recommend it as a thriller.
http://www.booksbyoliver.com
I’m like most & tired of both political parties. Even TIME had an article about possible civil war after the elections. Democrats are terrible losers & have a history of civil unrest. It should be interesting after the elections.
That’s a phrase I’m unfamiliar with bh,
Is it a midwest thing?
Democrats are usually afraid of guns, so what are they going to go to war with?
the new black panthers and bill ayers are the muscle for the sissies
It means if you own a bunch of soybeans, you constantly mention how awesome soybeans are and how everything else is practically poison.
soybeans make you grow titties
Thanks bh,
So are you saying that’s what Wilson is doing in this piece?
I think the idea that there will ever be enough honest and principaled Republicans willing to cut enough pork in their own districts is laughable.
I just hope the son of a bitches can draft a reasonable enough budget to get the economy to limp a little faster.
Me and Squid should start giving seminars in cynicism I’m thinking.
…in their own districts to balance the budget is laughable…
What that should have said.
Nah, Bob. I was talking about the breathless zerohedge piece.
“Democrats are usually afraid of guns, so what are they going to go to war with?”
Isn’t it obvious? They’re going to bash our heads in with all those stockpiled War Is Not the Answer signs they couldn’t give away.
I get it bh,
I must admit to only having discovered them via JHo a couple of years ago. And it does seem like there is a mindset there of fiat money and a coming economic armageddon.
So I see what you mean about discussions regarding effects of mounting federal debt on the economy supporting their ideas.
it’s mostly just to say it’s a good idea to remember that the fed will have a lot to say about the policies Team R may or may not want to pursue… inflations change everything… I assume. I don’t actually ever remember any. But I assume the inflations make it hard to cut this program or that program or social security or anything and then bam we’re all doomed
I have nothing seriously against the general mindset over there, Bob. Extreme critics are often the best safeguards.
But when we hear outright falsehoods like, paraphrasing, “it’s now a simple fact that the primary dealers are in control of fiscal policy”, it’s time to giggle a little.
The House can shut down a budget but it can’t do too much beyond that.
Personnally, the GOP leadership in House and Senate should do a long term plan for reducing government, that means discretionary spending to all agencies, sane reductions in defense, and most important, significant roll backs of entitlements.
Here is an easy one. Obama has decreed the Bush Medicare expansion as being too expensive. Okay, call him on it and get rid of it. Let him veto it after he said it was bad. The GOP would show it is serious about rolling back spending if it started with a entitlement expansion it sponsored.
The Fed doesn’t control fiscal policy, ‘feets. Congress does. The tail doesn’t wag that dog. It’s not even attached to that dog.
And doing that gives the GOP the ability to then take on Obamacare later on (it could be a tusnami on Tuesday but Obama still has the veto, either the GOP gets a super majority or rid of Obama before getting rid of health care expansion).
hey kids c’mon let’s go whip that deficit’s ass!
Sure thing Mr. Boehner be right there let me get my deficit-whipping pants on!
Good idea, Mr. Ryan! Let’s all put our deficit-whipping pants on!
Yay!
Then again, , it may all just be an illusion. Perhaps happyfeet really is just part of John McCain in some two dimential universe. Freaky.
The concept is too disturbing. I would recommend heavy drinking.
On inflation, it doesn’t make it harder to cut this or that program. It simply makes it easier to service the debt from those programs.
But, inflation is also a great way to lose your job in Washington. Not just because you’re diluted your voters’ savings you’re also pissing off extremely large and well funded interests who aren’t happy to see their customers losing their purchasing power for imported goods.
If inflation was such a cost free cure-all for politicians I can guarantee you that the money in my wallet would lose half it’s value… every second.
you’re diluting your
I’m hoping to hear that kind of talk myself happyfeet.
And if it makes you feel any better, you can bank on Ron Paul at least holding hearings on that activities of, if not outright auditing, the Fed.
I may be pollyanish, but I feel optimistic about the next incoming Congress.
The only thing that gives me pause is what the lame duck bunch will do out of spite.
I’m hoping to hear that kind of talk myself happyfeet.
And if it makes you feel any better, you can bank on Ron Paul at least holding hearings on that activities of, if not outright auditing, the Fed.
I may be pollyanish, but I feel optimistic about the next incoming Congress.
The only thing that gives me pause is what the lame duck bunch will do out of spite.
Drat! double post…
how do you cut food stamps during inflations? how do you cut social security? I hate old people as much as anybody, but with the corn crop not coming in and all I don’t want them to starve. Necessarily.
There’s an echo in here.
When the real inflation hits and the retirement and savings accounts for everyone from the lower middle to upper upper aren’t keeping pace, people will order their priorities regarding other people’s problems quite differently.
And, I’d say those on social security will be more receptive to budget cutting to shift money to themselves when they finally realize that the monies are finite.
People still get to vote in private.
Social security? As offensive as it sounds, means test it, although I don’t think a tremendous number of really wealthy folks are collecting anyway.
Food stamps? That one is tougher. Maybe through the use of food banks administrated by private groups, traditional faith based ones and local community based ones.
Medicare has an estimated 60 to 100 billion dollars worth of fraud each year! As well as some effed up rules that, at least in my thinking, only increase their costs.
Also medicare part d. I’m pretty sure that private insurance companies would be only to happy to take over that market; and probably deliver the same level of benefit for less outlay. At the very least you could allow the purchase of cheaper generic drugs and imports from Canada-as long as they were proven to be as effective.
until card check gets passed in sanfrannan’s lame duck
doom i say
Oh that’s just priceless. Time and civil war.
Please. Someone email the link to Brian Kiteley. So he can write TIME and ask them never to review one of his books, or mention him in any way. As a matter of deeply-held progressive principles. They must be shunned for even floating such barbaric nonsense!
Remember: one of the things that really “troubled” Mr Kiteley about my site was my “inflammatory” mentions of the possibility that we’d one day in the future (I first wrote about it in ’05, I think) be fighting a “bloodless” civil war in this country (mostly, I envisioned a kind of neo-federalism and libertarian redistributing of populations — you know, CRAZY WINGNUT shit).
And now Time raises the issue? HAH!
I’d email the link myself but he’d probably just delete the missive without reading it. His email: bkiteley@du.edu
You know how we’re often saying that everyone should pay taxes because then they’d have skin in the game and wouldn’t want to waste money on everything under the sun?
That’s inflation. It affects everyone. The entire voting public is going to get mugged. I’ve heard that that results in more conservatives.
It looks like there’s going to be an unusually large freshman contingent. I’ll be eyeballing them. And there’s some good ones in there already, like Jason Chaffetz. The question is, ultimately, how stupid are we? Can we wake up and smell the coffee? Stay tuned.
Inflation smells like particularly acrid coffee.
whip inflation tomorrow
or the next day – whenevs
muzzies will luvs some sharia whippings
levin’s on a roll tonight
What if Team R wins the House? Propaganda whore Viv Schiller’s National Soros Radio says it threatens to kill Barack Obama’s bipartisan dream.
Barack dreamed a dream in time gone by
OT: is anyone else — hearing the collusion attempted between the Crist camp, Obama, Clinton and Meek to lock Rubio out of the Senate — put in mind of the collusion of McCain and Huckabee in WV to lock Romney down to an ultimate defeat?
link
Nah, Clinton hasn’t wondered out loud whether or not Rubio thinks the devil and Jesus were brothers.*
Btw, did McCain ever comment on that?
the 1st arab and 1st “black” president are shucking meeks for the 1st orange senator
Meanwhile Team R’s big tenter, Lisa Mxtlpldlk, has forced the leading pro Miller host of the air, by threat of a lawsuit, but O’Donnell is the problem? So which other spendings do you cut, Mr, pickachu
Yeah I heard about it sdferr,
Based on what I’ve heard, on TV and in pront, it was never really a done deal though; that there was some misunderstanding. Clinton seems to be backing away from the story now, and Meek contends that there never was any agreement to begin with. And nothing seems to be coming out of the White House.
I’m guessing this won’t help Crist or Meeks any though. The Democrats might be a bit demoralized by the whole thing.
I don’t know of any direct address by McCain on the subject, but there is a bit of evident indirection (perhaps the work of McC’s campaign underlings in this contemporaneous piece of news reporting).
John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell are keeping lisa murkowski’s seat toasty toasty warm for her.
They like the cut of that whore’s jib.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/blogs/political-animal/7331-talk-radio-host-off-the-air-after-rallying-listeners-to-run-for-senate
I can’t say that I agree they like “the cut of her jib” happyfeet,
I’m not sure why they didn’t remover her committee chairwomanship after she declared as an independant running against Joe Miller; but up until that point there was really no reason, was there?
I’m not defending Princess Lisa, in fact I did a post ridiculing her sense of entitlement to the Alaska Senate seat at Dan’s place recently, but to have removed her because she lost a primary might have been seen as aquixotic and pandering manuever.
Should she have been there in the first place? Maybe not. But with few Rethugs in the Senate who should have been in charge instead?
they lurrrrrv her they want to climb on top of lisa and do their rethug business and then go get a tasty steak with a baked potato and come back and climb on top of her again and she’d like it too cause she nuffin but a dirty laskan ho
I may have made some of that up
11/3/10
start culling the “safe” rethug rinos like upton
Some barakke murkovkke
mmmm
spicy
“they lurrrrrv her they want to climb on top of lisa and do their rethug business…”
OK, this is pretty effin’ funny, but considering who this is referring to I definitely need some serious mind bleach.
Tawny port might work as a substitute…
This is why Palin confuses me. I like much of what she does.
What about her appearance confuses you bh?
She campaigned and endorsed Miller in the primaries. And there’s no love lost between her and Princess Lisa. Does it involve the discomfort that would exist were Princess Lisa to win the Senate and Palin was to do what would push hf over the edge?
Don’t mean that to be bait, btw. I just don’t get it.
We know that there’s been a bit of tension between the Palin camp and the Miller camp regarding his lukewarm statements in regards to her possible ambitions. Yet, here she is, continuing to support the upstart over the establishment choice when it matters the most.
So, why won’t she go full OUTLAW and acknowledge that there are plenty of other people who are essentially indistinguishable from Murkowski?
she such an enigma but really isn’t that why we love her so
ohnoes she going rogue!
now lisa you gon get it you gon get it good and hard
She actually is to me. I don’t get her. I don’t feel like I can predict what she’ll do with any real confidence.
I like that about alternate kingmaker DeMint.
She may do that in time bh, when the opportunities present themselves. Right now she has the opportunity and context to unload on Princess Lisa.
And I think it’s shows character for her to stand behind Miller, even when he was perhaps overly cautious and non-committal in his answer as to her qualifications to be President.
According to historians, Jefferson wanted to demure to Adams and let him write the Decalaration. Adams is said to have told Jefferson (paraphrase), “Everyone hates my guts because I’m an annoying asshole, and will reject what I write out of hand just because it’s coming from me!”. I’d say it worked out well for everyone involved.
Very much like with Adams and Jefferson she’s aware that she can be polarizing, and had the race not become close in the last few weeks would not have risked any adverse effects of her appearance.
At least that’s what my intuition says.
OUTLAW!!!
sarah does what she perceives to be in her best interest… if Miller loses in her home state her kingmaker bona fides get dinged all up
Would some sort of vague simplisme — some banalité — suffice to explain ex-Palin (vis a vis McC anyhow)? Like she just doesn’t want to think about it so she won’t?
She’s going to be rallying for O’Donnell on Sunday as well. it makes sense, that you have to take down
the machine, at the root, it’s how her whole career has gone, Carney, Stein, Ruedrich, then the Murkowskis.
I’m not getting what you’re asking sdferr,
But then again, maybe I’m thick as a brick tonight.
3rd party party
bye bye rocky rethugs
Well you have to recall about that exchange, is that Todd made the first endorsement of Miller, and she followed, as for McCain, she still has respect for him, and chalks up that garbage to the staffers
like Wallace, Schmidt, and Berman, (the last came up with that Diva line)
I guess I’m merely aiming at the unpredictability bh alludes to in Palin, as pivoting on Palin’s own internals, “feelings”, to use the ordinary term, stuff that we can’t see, ever. Or to put it another way, our expectation of predictability in her is on account of a demand for a foolish consistency in the non-Palin mind. She don’t give two shits, so long as she can get away with it, and, so far, so good.
While thinking ‘feet’s answer is also possible, I do accept this answer as also possible, Bob..
In fact, it might be one of the better examples of principles in this cycle. (I’m going to challenge your characterization here.) Miller, being principled, wasn’t willing to say that Palin was the greatest thing ever (or talking his book for a thread connection). Then, Palin, being principled, was willing to say that Miller was still the right choice in this race. From my perspective, that’d be the feel good story of the year.
Because, in both instances, they’d be loyal to ideas rather than people. Or, alternately, they’d be loyal to the people with the ideas they’re hoping to represent rather than the other people who might have a bit of power and influence to help them along the path to power.
Again, this would contrast with her other decisions. So, again, I don’t get it.
Which leads us to sdferr’s explanation.
I see sdferr,
I do think she operates on instinct and intuition and much as analysis. I don’t agree with happyfeet that her calculus always revolves around her benefit, especially not advancing any “kingmaker” status; if that were the case she wouldn’t be risking it for Miller in Alaska nor O’Donnell in Delaware.
My impression is that she has an old fashioned sense of honor and obligation; in my thinking this easily explains her loyalty to McCain, regardless of their ideological disagreements and stylistic incongruencies.
I believe she has an old fashioned, and religiously based, sense of right-and-wrong. And more selfless (as much as a politician can be!) than self-serving; which also easily explains her resignation as Governor of Alaska rather than see her governance undermined, and family ruined financially, by a never-ending string of fatuous and gratuitous lawsuits. I believe this nature to put the needs of others before her own is also a function of her religious beliefs.
And really, in a society that has become increasingly selfish and self-centered her actions do seem unpredictable and out of the mainstream. She’s no stoic, to be sure, but merely old-fashioned and religious, and a person who practice what she preaches.
Am I the only person in this community that considers the administrative and regulatory moves executed by this administration as a pre-planned attack on the Republic?
We are way past needing to balance a budget.
Entire agencies must be abolished and public sector unions must be broken.
How many here (who still have jobs) have gotten a look at their benefit choices for the coming year?
Energy, raw materials, and food staple costs are going to explode – by design – the first weeks of January. Food markets futures are already melting down.
Barry wants to be in India after the election because nothing says “Fuck you sucker” like a middle finger flung the other side of the planet, backed up by forty airplanes worth of entourage your great grandkids are indebted to pay for.
This bastard wakes up every day laughing; they still don’t get it!.
Have a fine one.
…finger flung from the other side of the planet…
*sigh*
Well bh, I think that principle and integrity are the main ingredients in character, which is why I chose to use that word; probably not a smart admission on a wordsmith’s site where I’m but a humble engineer/math geek. :)
nah some folks are stupid comments above reed et al. yo reed you be powerline paul loser?
If her hierarchy of principles goes loyalty to McCain first, adherence to limited constitutional government second, something’s fucked up Bob.
I agree TMJUtah.
It’s premeditated on Obama’s part.
I’m not doing this for naught”
*”*
sdferr,
I’m not getting how her agreement to campaign for McCain this year violates the idea of limited government. Was his Democrat opponent more of a Constitutionalist?
I personally have no doubt about her committment to limited constitutional government, at least based on what I’ve heard her say and write publicly.
But that’s only my opinion.
What in hell are you on about this time newrouter? What are you calling me out over tonight?
oh yes tell us more
umm reduce the size of the fed gov’t by 65% now? not some bs about bipartainshit dude!
Sorry, Bob. I was unclear. The characterization I was changing was Miller’s. That maybe he was also being principled by not fawning over Palin who had clearly just buttered the one side of bread.
Newrouter, fuck off. I find your witless contempt for Bob to be nauseating.
The sheer volume of regulatory burden that has been dropped in big premeditated chunks is what has got me spooked. Critical parts of nationalizing healthcare – lumping in the student loan market comes to mind – and the 2500 pages of financial “reform” that showed up on a Thursday and got signed by Tuesday (like there was not a weeeeee bit of FTC/FCC/IRS stuff on the shelf already) are far, far beyond the modest work ethic so far displayed by our speech reader- in- chief.
Nope. It’s not incompetence or merely poor policy. It’s intentional.
Funny thing is, I think that Bill Clinton gets it. It is to laugh.
Where have you seen me talking about some “bipartisanshit”, dude?
Put up, or shut up.
Bob – tawny port is a good call. I, however, am slef-administering a bolus dose of Bombay Sapphire once the kids get to bed…
Then you double down on sdferr.
So, fuck off again.
You’ll note that everyone pretty much ignores you while they enjoy speaking to Bob and sdferr. Why do you think that is?
bh,
You may be right when you say that both have showed a great amount of principle through this exercise.
new may have dipped into cynn’s wood alcohol supply?
So, when is Ben Stein going to complain about Merdecowski acting like a third-world dictator?
TMJUtah,
Personally I still can’t figure out which bill is more damaging to rank-and0file Americans, Obamacare or that sham they call Financial reform.
It’s premeditated for sure, which is why everything else was of a lesser priority; even amnesty!
no i don’t want you in the same fox hole
Colonel John,
I know Bombay Sapphire is one of your favorite flavors, verrrry smooth; but I’ve heard you mention tawny port as well.
Do you do those double-fisted or alternate between the two?
i want to nuke the proggs and you?
Alright you incoherent insult-machine. Enlighten me then, which one of those abominable pieces of legislation do you think hurts all of us folks worse?
What sort of conservative would so easily insult those who have earned respect?
That’s like choosing between smallpox, bubonic plague, or hemorrhagic fever, pick your poison
things are easy when
maybe explain O! and his tribe. “Sweet blossom come on, under the willow, we can have high times if you’ll abide
We can discover the wonders of nature, rolling in the rushes down by the riverside.
She’s got everything delightful, she’s got everything I need,
Takes the wheel when I’m seeing double, pays my ticket when I speed
”
maybe take a gun to a knife fight loser.
like chris cristy and immigration or the 9/11 mosque
Said the insane man to fighter pilot.
I’m talking about you shit-talking Bob and then John. I’ve yet to meet the conservative who doesn’t show a certain base level of respect when appropriate.
Disagree, fine. This tone though?
We’d probably be fighting in person right now.
I have no idea what the heck you are talking about newrouter. But as far as bringing a knife to a gunfight? Well bro, look in the mirror, because that’s what you’re doing when you bring your crude and baseless insults into an otherwise thoughtful discussion.
No one here has ever treated you that way, especially myself. I don’t know what problem you have with me or anything I’ve ever said, and probably never will since you don’t seem to be able to articulate it.
So why do you insist in acting the way you are right now? Because here’s a clue my man, anger, rage, and insults, that aren’t backed by reason but only feelings is exactly what the proggs bring to the discussion.
So what will it be? A coherent discussion, or are you just gonna do like O! says and get up in their face?
phew, for a second there it looked like newrouter was going to go to dueling mushrooms at fifteen paces.
be smoove like Mr. hudson
I love beer. I do. Wait, this isn’t the Alcohol2you forum? My bad.
“Beer,” he said. “Beer and Irish Whiskey, and keep it coming.”
He had some serious thinking to do.
Fin
I always think of stuff too late. That was my very late entry for the “hint fiction” thread.
Worked for me cranky-d! ;-)
if this isn’t the most adorable thing you every seen than you seen some pretty goddamn adorable shit
oops… this
http://http//www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=448505023434
A song for this election season.
Okay, I like the Dev person.
So do I, forgotten sockpuppet.
Sarah Palin asks: Lisa, are you going to shut down my Facebook page for writing this?
Nope. It’s not incompetence or merely poor policy. It’s intentional.
Amen. I’m also thinking that the more pages in the Bill – that is, the more verbiage – the more it can be interpreted to justify or allow anything on the part of the Central Gov’t while protecting nothing in the case of each individual. I was thinking that was pretty much the strategy with the EU “Constitution”, which was only ~1000 pages.
Needless to say, it’s all trash.
Aaronovitch speculates that conspiracy ideology is the last defense of those who fear that their existence doesn’t matter.
Except that in fact it’s the first and only defense of Progressives, who not only fear but also know that their existence is meaningless, so that we must then be brought to their same level via their necessarily destructive controllism, which thereby brings about the very leadership/Governmental “conspiracy” they have projected to begin with.
Way to go, Proggs!
Or to be more blunt: conspiracy theories are history for stupid people.
– In reference to the Palin/Miller thing. Third possibility.
– She may have asked him not to play up her possible run, plain and simple.
– There are many reasons for keeping her cards close to that pretty chest. A break up of the GOP, premature announcement. Timing is important, timing in politics is critical.
– So they could be in complete agreement behind the scenes, there is no “problem”, and thus her continued support, for this and other reasons. makes sense.
– I think the Lefturd media saw a possible chance to make some hay on the memo’s and ran with it. Since cult celebrity is their holy grail, they’re scared shitless of her.
So the Dems have a donkey… the Repubs an elephant….
What would the “OUTLAW!” Party have?
ARMADILLO!
Keep the tax cuts and don’t pay for them? Don’t ask political questions.
Nothing will change. Why would it?
Say you got elected. You got elected in a righteous fury, by a nominally populist movement. What’s your first instinct? Will you question your every move WRT constitutional modesty? Will you do less in order to accomplish more?
Unlikely. The brash triumphalism is misplaced. Not but a few weeks ago people were satisfied by squishes in order to win. This won’t change.
This was a fight lost decades ago. If you’re seeking a target to blame you’re on the wrong side. It’s not the media, or Fox News, or liberal control of academia, or because we dropped the gold standard. We’re fucked because people made ironclad promises years before the current active middle class were born. It’s done. It’s over.
It won’t change. Nothing at the stage where tragedy culminates can. The bitter fruit planted by generations past will blossom and grow. Change requires pain; the targets of the pain will not acquiesce quietly. In the end, we’re all selfish. Freedom for me, but not if it hurts! Let somebody else hurt. I paid my dues. I paid my taxes, that benefit belongs to me; I served my country, that benefit belongs to me; I was oppressed by my country, that benefit belongs to me; I voted for hope and change, that benefit belongs to me; I voted for the other guy, why don’t I have a sweet job with bennies?
It will fail. Failure doesn’t reverse. It breeds reactions, always searching for the personal advantage; which breeds, by necessity, more failure.
The change hoped by Democrats will be mirrored by the change hoped by Republicans. The unchanging quest to acquire power will continue.
Nothing wil change.
AJB makes short bussers look like Einstein.
Keep fucking that football, AJB….. only a couple more days.
Tick tock, tick tock….
The only way to get a balanced budget is to cut the military, and the average American moron has been bought and sold on the idiotic notion that we existentially require a massive military empire, costing more than all the world’s militaries combined. As long as we are that intensely stupid, we will continue to decline. Cut the military – 50, 75, even 90% – and we fix every problem we have, without a worry in the world. Just like that.
JMJ
Peace, love, dope!
Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
I say cut the bastard 110%.
That way we’d all get a rebate.
“Cut the military – 50, 75, even 90% – and we fix every problem we have”
So… we cut the military 90%. How does that fix the problem of a nuclear Iran? Or a nuclear North Korea? Or an expanding Chinese military threat against allies like Taiwan and Japan?
Hell, cut the military that much and the only question would be which country would invade first… Mexico or Canada. Maybe they just meet in the middle and divide the spoils.
Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life Jersey.
that we existentially require a massive military empire, costing more than all the world’s militaries combined. As
Except China’s, right?
There’s a reason for the fact that our military is larger, and costs more, than the rest of our allies put together. I’ll give you a minute to think about it.
Keep the tax cuts and don’t pay for them? Don’t ask political questions.
Gee, I wonder why a politician doesn’t want to talk specifics regarding where she’d cut.
This is a morning for pondering.
Bob, One or the other, port or Bombay – my choice, cut off by a stomach flu ridden 9 year old, last night was to be Bombay. But if I had a bottle of Dow’s or Graham’s 10 year old Tawny, it would have been a rough choice to decide on one or the other…
“Beer,” he said. “Beer and Irish Whiskey, and keep it coming.”
He had some serious thinking to do.
Fin
Excellent work, Cranky.
I get that the “beer” represents the Germans and how they’ve chosen the proper path of refusing bailouts, and how that’s proven to be a better path than our debacle. But I’m flummoxed on what whiskey represents?
whiskey is a product of the South, and they say the Dems have lost the South … am I on the right path?
I bet I could point out 10% of the DoD we could chop and not suffer one whit of degredation of combat power. Let us just say an awful lot of GSA folks, contractors and the like would NOT have a merry Christmas. But the entitlements are the ones driving the train into Bankruptcy Gulch. Medicare and Social Security could swallow the Pentagon and look around for a second course with no effort at all…
LTC John, sitting over here as part of the contracting monstrosity you refer to… I agree with you 100%. The amount of inefficiency and waste that I have personally witnessed just makes me shake my head in sadness. I will say that I do my best to make sure my little kingdom (I’m the Lead) tries to be a good steward of the taxpayer’s hard earned money. I honestly feel like the service my contract is providing is making a difference and saving soldiers lives… but overall a 10% pruning wouldn’t be bad for focusing people’s attention on weeding out the waste.
By the way… I sent Jeff a mash-up video I created in my off-time to forward to you (I don’t have your e-mail). Hope you like it… and thank you so much for all you do!
When I was in high school one of the teachers tried to have us do a federal budget simulation game — in which fully 50% of the budget was defense spending.
Now, this was the late ’70s, and I wasn’t old enough to vote yet, but I already knew defense spending wasn’t anywhere near half of the federal budget. But I guess Social Security being “off-budget” would distort matters somewhat.
Remembering that guy I get pissed off all over again. Stupid fucker. As I recall he quit teaching before I graduated and went into retail.
‘Claw – I am more oriented toward the procurement contracts – when the current fight winds down, the field guys, like yourself will be back home and all good (thanks for helping our guys out there!). The folks cost overrunning ships and planes, etc. are always tapping down our $ too much. Plus, how many GS-13s, GS-14s and GS-15s do we need for all the useless parts of the DOD anways (environmental office, diversity, etc)? And many GOs could get poleaxed too – and the reduction in aides, straphangers, staff, etc would help. But, I ain’t SecDef, so my grand plans go nowhere…
Good Lord!! Let congress ‘balance the budget’ but that will only mean more taxes paid each of us.
Just read a great book about Americans finally standing up to tyranny & it’s a thriller but so real. It’s about us & possibly our destiny in history. I recommend it.
http://www.booksbyoliver.com
Pundits say that “ONLY” 90% of congress will be re-elected this yr. (before it was 98%). So, is there really going to be much change? With France & England in civil unrest, America will experience the same if the economy is not fixed. The Republicans probably have a no-win job in January.
I’ll look for the film ‘Claw!
Or, ‘Claw you could just send it to my AKO – you see my forst name, and Tango Alpha Mike Mike Echo Sierra the last.
“first”
Well I would vote for you for SECDEF…
Cost overruns have ALWAYS been my personal bugaboo since my Navy days… I always thought that tight monitoring of quality standards along with decreasing profit margin the longer the contract goes over might get people in the right frame of mind.
“Oh… you say your two years behind schedule?”
“Say goodbye to 2% of your fee… and if you try to cut any corners on quality, you won’t see another government contract. Ever.”
I coulda been a SECDEF…. Heh!
Roger that on the AKO
The budget is so bloated and out of wack that cuts across the board are needed.
I would start with Congressional staff.
Defense should be cut. Some. You cut every federal agency some percentage. But cuts to defense and the government agencies won’t get the job done, entitlements must be reduced. Means testing on social security and medicare. Higher eligibility age.
Joe, I’d waive my right to collect any Soc Sec if I could get a 50% reduction in what I paid… I’d put the difference inn my 401(k) and IRA and laugh.
Profiteering on military contracts is a fact of life. Darius had to find ways around it.
Concerted efforts to fix it make things worse. Starting in the Fifties or before, we built up the “military standards” and “contract monitoring” systems for just that purpose, and the result was a bureaucracy that made it well-nigh impossible to get stuff to the guys at the pointy end, for anybody to make any money doing that without major political connections, sucked up a huge fraction of the money to support itself, and got so Byzantine that there were always more ways to get in through the cracks and game the system. Over the last decade we’ve developed ways to get over, under, or around the procurement system, making it possible to field new gear without waiting for the responsible bureaucrats to retire, but what they are is systematized versions of old Master Sergeants & Chiefs’ Informal Procurement System, and major stuff still has to go through Proper Channels, adding at least a decimal point to all the costs and turning everything into rule by committee.
You can see the same thing in the “welfare fraud” business. The bureaucracy notionally empowered to insure compliance sucks up somewhere around ten times as much money as “welfare Cadillacs” ever did, and the fraud goes on as enthusiastically as ever.
I’m not at all sure what the solution is. I’m not at all certain that a solution exists, in fact, but if a solution does exist I can guaran-god-d*ned-tee that it does not involve setting up standards and regulations and a bureaucracy to enforce and monitor them.
Regards,
Ric
#150: Carin, the fact that I specifically chose Irish whiskey should point you in the direction of lower business taxes.
Whoa,
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/?q=hole+pale+blue+eyes&vid=EB146C68C570A0ACF7D5EB146C68C570A0ACF7D5&docid=289213448740&FROM=LKVR5>1=LKVR5&FORM=LKVR3
Some of the most tortured and depraved people create some kinda art.
This is one fucked up bitch. But I think she’s the real thing when it comes to rockin.
By the way, Steve May is opening a new 688 club (Of interest to Bmoe and Stephanie at least)…at 714 Spring.
Comment by LTC John on 10/30 @ 7:11 am #
Joe, I’d waive my right to collect any Soc Sec if I could get a 50% reduction in what I paid… I’d put the difference inn my 401(k) and IRA and laugh.
Brother, I here you I put as much in my 401k as I can. Unfortunately our social security payments are just a disguised tax that has been spent away over the years.
My bad. “I hear you.” I need my coffee.
Bernie Maddoff went to jail for what he did. Congress gets a pass on social security. How is it any different?
donald. I am not much of a courtney/hole fan, but she seems to have a Keith Richards kind of constitution for partying.
I feel sorry for her kid however.
Catch the wave.
One really should not cut and paste the whole thing.
Colonel John is right about some of the areas where defense can safely see reductions without any concomitant reducion in force readiness or effectiveness. Too many GS-ers, many of double digit grades, are involved.
At my last duty post I was attached to a research and development group associated with Navy strategic systems-’nuff said…
Understandably there were a large contingent of civilain scientists and engineers, federal employees all, in our group. I begrudge none of their presence, and truly, they were many of the most accomplished leading minds in their individual disciplines; indeed, at many top ranked academic programs for engineering some of these folks literally wrote the textbooks the students were working from, and over the years had personally led, or participated in, many ground breaking technological efforts.
But there were also a large number of administrative staff that allegedly handled clerical, accounting, and other support services. In reality, they spent much of their days as follows: Arriving at the crack of 0930, they would promptly caucus and decide where they were going for breakfast. After that exercise they would spend much of the rest of the morning deciding where they were going for lunch. Following a leisurely lunch, they would come back and concentrate on surfing the ‘net or discussing the travails of their personal lives at the watercooler. By 1630 many were getting out of dodge…
Most of these folks were long-time GS-ers, with plenty of time in grade; hell, some of the senior secretaries were making more money than I was!
And the sad fact was that whenever it was crunch-time, and there was a pressing matter that needed clerical support, we would call up the MCPO and have him send over some “administrative warfare specialists” to get things done; generally enlisted personnel who couldn’t leave until the job was done, or we released them, and who made a paltry fraction of what the professional goldbricks were paid. It wasn’t just a job, it was an adventure…
We could have gotten rid of all of the support GS-ers and used the sailors full time, and would have been better served all around. But, as is well known to those familiar with federal employement, it would have taken an act of congress to accomplish that. To have done so, just in that particular section, would have saved uncle sugar more than a cool million dollars.
And don’t get me started on the vendors, like Lockheed, at the trough…
Shhh, Carin.
The only reason we have enemies is we have the most guns. Get rid of our military, and the rest of the world won’t hate us so.
Then we can get on to the REAL work of eradicating conservatives. I think big ovens should do the trick…
Exactly! Look how much better off we are after our President went around the world apologizing for our arrogance.
OT:
About “The Rally”.
We can and should have the most powerful military in the world. But politically and also practically, we can be more efficient. Our debt service alone is about a third of the budget now. This is unsustainable. The British used to have a powerful military too, but they managed to destroy it by over spending and lack of fiscal restraint. So yeah, I would cut some military, in a sane manner, but I would cut a lot more from entitlements and discretionary spending.
There is no fixing the budget unless medicare is drastically cut, Obamacare and the Medicare prescription drug plan are repealled, and social security is trimmed back to be self sustaining.
Bob Reed is spot on. There are lots of people in the government whose jobs are mostly justifying their own department’s budget (so they keep their jobs). Let’s just say there is an inherent conflict of interest in doing that.
And as bad as it is in the military, it is worse in other agencies. I am all for an across the board cut in department spending and forcing them to make hard decisions on priorities, personnel, etc.
But the people need to realize the feeding trough of government programs has to be scaled back.
I resemble that!