Search






Jeff's Amazon.com Wish List

Archive Calendar

November 2024
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  

Archives

BREAKING: "No Government Shutdown: Officials Agree to Deadline Deal"

GOP caves:

The agreement would cut $37.67 billion from the 2010 budget and keep intact funding to Planned Parenthood, sources from both parties told ABC News.

“We protected the investments we need to win the future,” President Obama said after the deal was struck. “At the same time, we also made sure at the end of the day this was a debate about spending cuts — not social issues like women’s health and the protection of our air and water. These are important issues that deserve discussion, just not during a debate about our budget.”

So, the GOP, after promising $100 billion in cuts, gets crumbs — barely 1% of the total budget, which includes $1.65 trillion in new deficit spending. The Dems lose virtually nothing, and prove they can back down GOP leadership over what amounts to statistically insignificant spending cuts.

And for his part, Obama gets to say he saved the air, the water, and women’s health — and kept the government running with a steady hand by keeping both parties focused on the budget, not “ideological” issues.

Well then. Way to brandish that 2010 Tea Party mandate, fellas! Like Vikings!

But not to worry. This was all very strategic and tactical. Genius in its long-term maneuvering. Pragmatically saving bullets for the really big battles and so forth. That’s right: we’ll get ’em next time, troops, you just wait and see!

CHARGE!

Whatever. I’ve had it. Third party or bust for this vermin.

49 Replies to “BREAKING: "No Government Shutdown: Officials Agree to Deadline Deal"”

  1. Seth says:

    A 3rd party is probably the only credible way left to advance a conservvative agenda. The GOP seems to be too far gone to stage a real fight.

    Simply put, the GOP blinked thus validating the tactics used against them. The Chicago way works.

  2. Spiny Norman says:

    Some leadership there, GOP. Remember who won the election in November? Hint: you’re not Nancy Botox’s bitches anymore.

    On a side note: “vermin” is not a strong enough term for that corrupt piece of garbage. “Chuck You” Schumer can, well, chuck himself.

  3. Silver Whistle says:

    There’s only one thing for it – the whole sorry mess has to come down.
    (h/t norm)

  4. bh says:

    Not that even a hundred billion would have meant much of anything. But, it might have at least counted as a baby step.

    I think I’m going back to being dispirited.

  5. McGehee says:

    What I’m telling people is this: Obama and the Democrats were willing to let servicemen and women overseas go unpaid to protect taxpayer funding for Abortion, Inc.

    That needs to come back and bite them in the ass later, GOP or no GOP.

  6. Obstreperous Extremist says:

    Fuck em. Fuck em all. We have two progressive parties and no classical liberal party.

  7. […] WE WON! Well then. Way to brandish that 2010 Tea Party mandate, fellas! Like […]

  8. serr8d says:

    Glass half-fullerisms:

    President Obama’s 2011 budget called for a spending increase of $40 billion. Tonight, he touted a bipartisan agreement on “the largest annual spending cut in our history” — some $38.5 billion [emphasis added]. All told, he got $78.5 billion less than he originally requested.

    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) didn’t want to cut anything at first. But bowing to political reality, eventually ponied up about $4.7 billion in cuts. He ended up with $33.8 billion less spending than he wanted. And he called it an “historic” accomplishment. (Not surprisingly, the left is appalled).

    House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), on the other hand, initially proposed $32 billion in spending cuts. House Republicans, led by an undaunted freshman class, bumped that number up to $61 billion ($100 billion off the president’s budget), before settling on $38.5 billion. That’s $6.5 billion more than Boehner asked for to begin with, and $5.5 billion more than the $33 billion that Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats claimed had been agreed to less than two weeks ago. It remains to be seen how much of that will be cuts to discretionary spending, but all told it would appear that we’’ll see a substantial reduction in baseline spending that will yield hundreds of billions in savings over the next decade.

    But unlike Obama and Reid, the speaker didn’t quite feel the need to pat himself on the back over it.

    Standing waaaaay back and looking at the (lack of) carnage, we won a pretty good handful and now have an opportunity to set up for the next battles. We’ll have to get behind the Tea Party supporters who are the ‘front line’ and deride the ‘soft’ pragmatics. But when even Michelle Bachmann said we’d done enough, it was time to take what we’d won and prepare for the next battle.

    Meanwhile, Democrats demonstrated their willingness to throw our military under the bus whilst fighting for their rights to kill their unwanted children.

  9. Darleen says:

    If the LA Times is any indication of how the MSM does and will continue to frame this in front of the voters who only pay attention to politics one month out of voting time, is that the GOP is hell bent on screwing everyone in an extremist effort to push seniors into poverty, reward the top 1% of earners and keep women from health services because of anti-abortion extremism. They are also touting that “voters” are having “buyers remorse” over putting Republicans back in the House.

    and man’o’man, are they attacking Paul Ryan!

    If nothing else, that’s what we have to attempt to counter in messaging to voters.

    TEA Parties need to be much more organized and ready to take the facts directly to the voter, because no MSM is going to give them – including Ryan, Bachmann, Palin – any direct coverage. All they will do is talk about them and their “extremism”.

  10. guinsPen says:

    Standing even further back, we destroyed twenty-nine Japanese aircraft and five midget submarines at Pearl Harbor.

    Our glass? Half-full.

    And even Michelle Bachmann gets it wrong sometimes.

  11. serr8d says:

    We have only a small percentage of the House of Representatives (27 core Tea Party representatives, including Michelle Bachmann, who did vote against Obama’s 2010 budget after all) who couldn’t do everything we wanted at once. The $38.5 B we wrested from Obama is a far cry from $61 B we wanted, but it represents a sea change in narrative: Republicans forced the Petulant President and Harry Reid’s Democratic-controlled Senate to cut the damned budget. Obama and Democrats are probably looking back on their October decision to ignore the 2010 budget until after the election (to avoid getting shellacked even more than they did) and wishing they’d had the balls to force it thorough when they had both houses; now, they can only look back and despair.

    Oh, and Midway came later, as will the 2012 Paul Ryan “Fat Man”.

  12. B. Moe says:

    After a 27% increase of an already grossly unsustainable budget in two years, ther is no fucking way to call a less than one percent decrease anything but absurd.

    It ain’t a victory.

  13. McGehee says:

    The flaw in the Pearl Harbor analogy is, that attack took less than a single day.

    The attack on our nation’s financial future has been going on, depending whom you ask, for two — no, 50 — no, 80 — no, 98 years. Whoops, make that 150.

    On that scale, I should hope we can compare this to some later battle. Maybe Guadalcanal.

  14. motionview says:

    … and made preparations to pass the proposed bill next week.
    Theoretically we can still kill this deal. There were 54 Republicans who voted against the last CR. If these 54 Republicans were to again vote “No” I’d think the Dems would let the vote fail.

  15. motionview says:

    oops, serr8d my 54 was from an earlier vote Mar 15, your 27 is more recent and probably more accurate.

  16. serr8d says:

    Since we’re on the Pacific Theater, this bit of Japanese anime is spectacular. Tactically, we lost this; strategically, not so much.

  17. guinsPen says:

    Conceived, planned and executed in a single day.

    Check.

  18. Jeff G. says:

    The $38.5 B we wrested from Obama is a far cry from $61 B we wanted, but it represents a sea change in narrative

    Spin. They pledged 100. Which wasn’t enough. They got 38. Which is spent in less than a week.

    There is no moral victory, no symbolic victory, nothing. There is only crushing debt, political cowardice, and now, GOP spin.

  19. guinsPen says:

    Andrew Stiles phrased it Boehner Wins Big.

  20. McGehee says:

    Conceived, planned and executed in a single day.

    You know that’s not what I meant.

    MALICIOUS RE-INTERPRETER!

  21. serr8d says:

    It’s a ladder we’re fighting on. We fought and now can take a step upwards; with many more to go. But one step upwards, however small, is better than an overreach and a crushing defeat in 2012. Remember, we are fighting Loochers, who still have the right to vote, and are easily corrupted with the promise of material goods (free gas! food! health care!). They could care less whether they bring down the nation’s structure completely, just as long as they can have unfettered access to Statist Teat.

  22. Jeff G. says:

    It’s a ladder we’re fighting on. We fought and now can take a step upwards;

    You made the President look like a leader; you reneged on your promise; you got less than 1% after coming in on a mandate of fiscal sanity.

    Loss.

    Overreach? There IS NO OVERREACH at this point. Either we fight or we don’t; either we stand for principles and make the case or we don’t. Not a victory here. You’ve strengthened the President and shown the Dems you’ll back down. You’ve told the media you fear their messaging. Crushing defeat in 2012? Yeah. Because people like me — who brought you back to power — are ready to tell your candy asses to fuck off.

    I won’t be responsible for enslaving my child. Which means I won’t give my vote to someone who will — no matter how slowly he promises to do it.

    Loss.

  23. newrouter says:

    oh good some symbolic gestures

    House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, agreed to remove the Planned Parenthood provision in exchange for an agreement that would allow Congress to take up the funding issue separately.The Republicans also won inclusion of a provision that will require the Senate to vote on a bill to de-fund the health care reform law.

    link

  24. Seth says:

    I wish I could buy your interpretation serr8d, but when the GOP strikes a deal knowing full well their rivals have a lap dog media at their disposal to spin it as somehow a Democrat victory, it’s a little remiss to dial in anything less than what they campaigned on when they’re likely to face the same bare-knuckles tactics again – being as they just validated for the Democrats that such tactics do, indeed, work. I’m just going with the GOP’s track record here: over promise, under deliver.

    My take:
    * The GOP is unlikely to get the military taken off the table for future budget battles – the GOP lacks the votes on their side of the aisle, and the military proved too valuable a hostage this go around.
    * The Ryan budget is not likley to pass without being watered down greatly, as the GOP has proved they lack the vision and fortituted to go to the mat when it comes to a fight.
    * Obama and the Democrats use the media to spin any future cuts as somehow their own victory – as absurd as that is – and the GOP will continue to fail to articulate a coherent counter message.

    I hope I’m wrong about the above, but as I said, I’m going with the track record here. All this will come to pass because the GOP is allowing their rivals to pick the terms of the battle. Sun Tzu warned against this sort of thing.

  25. Jeff G. says:

    oh good some symbolic gestures

    Exactly, newrouter. Those are DOA in the Senate and everyone knows it. Why ask for it? Cynical political cover.

  26. Seth says:

    The Republicans also won inclusion of a provision that will require the Senate to vote on a bill to de-fund the health care reform law.

    They won nothing. They always could have advanced a bill that would have defunded the health care reform, and the senate would have had to vote on it. In fact, they got less than nothing.

    It’s a symbol, alright…just not in the way they hoped.

  27. Seth says:

    Jeff: I agree, they are DOA…but that doesn’t mean such measures shouldn’t be advanced. Make them vote against it.

    My issue is that they gave up so much to advance measures they always could have advanced anyway!

  28. cranky-d says:

    Boehner would argue that the Senate does not have to vote on any bill they receive, and that now they will have to vote on defunding ObamaCare. It’s still symbolic because they will vote against defunding.

    I have the feeling the Dems will go back on their word even on something like this, and the GOP will take it and ask for more, because they are pussies.

  29. Jeff G. says:

    Exactly, Seth. They didn’t win the right to advance those. To pretend they did is a joke. This whole thing is a joke. Boehner announced up front he wouldn’t shut down the government. Then he started with a lowball number.

    GOP “leadership” works almost like a line of succession. Not interested. These are cowardly hacks who have known nothing but spending and being bullied.

    I’m looking elsewhere.

  30. bh says:

    My apologies if this has been linked already but this is apt.

    Btw, I missed it the first time, but SW’s link at #3 is worth a listen for a good laugh.

  31. Jeff G. says:

    McCarthy is spot on, bh, but read the thread. The GOP warriors are so proud of their victory and so angry at Andy for asking the impossible.

    Standing up to the Dems and for principle and making your case? IMPOSSIBLE! Take what you can get. And if it takes 10 days to obviate what you just did, why, then you’re a fiscal hawk for 9 days!

    WINNING!

    Explains the popularity of certain right-wing opinion outlets, that’s for sure.

  32. serr8d says:

    I remember 1994, when the government shut down. Democrats used that (false narrative that Republicans cause it) to propel Clinton to re-election in ’96. Of course we have to slap away at the GOP stalwarts who would give ground, I’m never saying that we shouldn’t. And, we have to shove Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget as far up their asses as we can.

    I’m thinking we’ve just a bit better footing, having taken away the ‘they shut down the GOVERNMENT!’ line from them this time around.

  33. Jeff G. says:

    We picked up two Senate seats in 1996.

    Clinton won because we ran Dole.

  34. narciso says:

    I’m with you Jeff, they won a deal with Obama and Reid, Bwahaha, btw, Bachmann really proved her colors last night, and not in a good way, Chip Dillard all the way.

  35. Jeff G. says:

    Bachmann was consistent. She’s said the whole thing doesn’t matter because the numbers are small. And she’ll vote against a CR.

  36. Darleen says:

    I just posted a clip of Mark Levin calling this a “Historic sham” …

    can we get him to head up the TEA Party?

  37. Jeff G. says:

    I posted that, too, Darleen.

    Shit.

  38. […] the one hand, we have me, Levin, McCarthy, Cafe Hayek, and that crowd of purist ideologue extremists; on the other, we have […]

  39. Darleen says:

    Jeff G. posted on 4/9 @ 11:34 am
    I posted that, too, Darleen.

    Shit.
    *************
    Hey, POMTA (pissed off)

    ;-)

  40. serr8d says:

    Some LeftLibProgg reactions…

    @ezraklein: The resolution includes rider prohibiting dc from using own $ to help women access abortions. So pp escaped, but dc didn’t.

    @chrislhayes: Wow. This is bizarro world. LET’S JUST KEEP CUTTING! LET’S CUT IT ALL! LET’S SEE WHAT THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE THINKS ABOUT IT!

    @ezraklein: Shorter dems: these cuts we’ve been resisting and denouncing for months are historic and we’re proud to be passing so many of them.

    @ezraklein: Listening to this speech, you’d think Obama was the one arguing for larger cuts.

    @ezraklein: Boehner’s the political winner here. Managed his caucus. Got dems to agree to more than expected. Averted a shutdown. He was very effective.

    @MSignorile: It all went exactly according to GOP plan: Demand super super extreme agenda, then settle for merely super extreme agenda.

    @marcambinder: Boehner may have caved, but Obama and Reid are now celebrating a budget they roundly trashed months ago.

    @mbrownerhamlin: RT @davecatanese: So did Obama just take credit for the “largest annual spending cut in our history”?

    @brianbeutler: RT @speechboy71 Obama bragging about largest annual spending cut in history is maybe lowest moment of his presidency

    @SamSeder: Millions of Americans asking how long after the start of austerity until the confidence fairies make them rich!

    @DavidCornDC: If spending cuts are good/historic–per Obama & Reid tonight–why not have more? Can Ds escape this simplistic take-away? What’s the pivot?

    @fshakir: On senate floor, harry reid thanks u.s. chamber’s tom donahue by name for making budget deal happen.

    @ddayen: It’ll be fun when job growth reverses over next few months, and GOP blame it on not cutting spending enough, and Dems go grumble grumble

    @JC_Christian: rt @speechboy71 At a time of 9% unemployment both parties are working together not to create jobs but to reduce spending & cut econ growth

    @GloriaFeldt: RT @blogdiva: the abused wife syndrome befits the Democrats

    (Stolen from an unnamed, unlinked leftard I follow)

  41. Entropy says:

    They could care less whether they bring down the nation’s structure completely, just as long as they can have unfettered access to Statist Teat.

    And when the structure collapses, there will be no statist teat and they will change or die.

    Which right now, is prolly 2020, maybe 2018 the way we are going, and republicans, for the last 30 years and counting, have still yet to do dick about it.

    All of which is to say I’m not terribly worried.

    Nor do I think I will feel compelled to vote for Donald fucking Trump or Mitt Romney.

    We don’t need no water let the motherfucker burn.

  42. […] rained all over the parade as well with what I think are some pretty predictable objections. Jeff Goldstein wrote that Boehner got “crumbs”.Take those objections for what I think they are — cries of despair from earnest and […]

  43. guinsPen says:

    You know that’s not what I meant.

    I know, I just liked the way it sounded.

  44. guinsPen says:

    In the spirit of civility I suggest one should clear one’s cob-webs.

  45. guinsPen says:

    Hale comma, well met!

  46. guinsPen says:

    Question.

    Is it nicer to humbly suggest, rather than merely suggest?

  47. […] losers. Obama saved the country. There’s your story. Just as I predicted it would […]

Comments are closed.