Month: October 2013

…about these budget negotiations.  Why have them behind closed doors?  Why not have a video feed that people could tune into a watch?  I bet it would end up way way WAY WAY differently.  Then people could see things as they develop.

Now, I’m sure there would be details that need to be worked out.  For example, could they pause the feed?  Under what circumstance?  I can see the need for that…just like I can see the need for some off-camera discussion, etc…

image from vinoth chandar via flickr

Sequestration is the law of the land.  Heh

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/12/government-shutdown-sequestration_n_4091088.html

The barrycades were moved to the White House. 

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/13/Barricades-moved-WH

Obamacare looks great.  Yeah…..

http://blog.heritage.org/2013/10/12/readers-react-our-health-insurance-is-going-up/

…and I think I’ve got a spin on it that no one has brought up before.  From http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/10/11/rand-pauls-claim-that-there-is-no-reason-for-us-to-default/:

The debt ceiling is set at $16.699 trillion, for both publicly traded bonds and intergovernmental obligations such as Social Security, and the United States actually hit it back in the middle of May. But the Treasury has juggled money around in an effort to keep from going over the debt limit.

 I think what we should do is impeach Obama right now.  What is happening is  happening precisely because he didn’t cut any government spending back in May when the “real” debt limit was reached.  What should have happened then, in my opinion, is Obama report to Congress that the debt limit was reached and that he was having to reduce spending effective immediately.  He should have prioritized spending at that time to:

1) pay the debt interest
2) federally mandated spending (basically, everything that isn’t shut down now)
3) taken any and all surpluses and hold them back to extend the options to do 1 and 2 until Congress could (or would) raise the debt ceiling.

Instead of taking the fiscally responsible path, Pres. Obama continued the reckless spending and using accounting gimmicks (sort of like a family moving money from savings into checking).  He didn’t try to reign in spending or address the issue back then.  I think that means the ball is firmly in Pres. Obama’s court now.

Image from images of money via flickr

So now we see what Obama’s words mean:  squat.  He said in his “not press press conference” a few days ago that he would sign a short-term debt limit increase as long as it was clean.  Well, Bohner caved and offered Obama one.  What did the White House say?  Nope.

You know what I would have done?  Want to know?  Well, it doesn’t matter if you want to know or not because this is my blog so I’m going to tell you.

I would have gone to that meeting and after everyone made obligatory small-talk, I would have said something along the lines of “Barry, you’d better listen up (Well, I would have called him Mr. President but I’d want to call him Barry).  Here’s what’s going to happen:

1) We are going to continue to pass bills restoring funding to various government agencies.  We expect the Senate to pass them and you to sign them.
2) Either none of those bills will find ObamaCare OR we’ll fund it only if the American People get the same waiver as business did (a 1 year delay) AND all existing waivers/exceptions are done away with (including for congress and the President himself)
3) We have until the 17th of October to come to an agreement on this Debt Ceiling thing.  Today the offer is $1 in spending cuts for each $1 of increase.  Tomorrow, it increases to $2 to $1.  When we get to $5 in cuts to $1 increase, our offer changes to a real 1% budget cut each year for the next 10 years.  It will then increase each day to the deadline of 17 October.  This will be followed with a budget appropriate for FY 2014.
4) If you don’t like this, The Constitution requires you to make debt payments first (see the 14th Amendment).  This (show it) is a bill of impeachment already drawn up.  We will hold a vote the very next day following a missed debt payment.  You will be impeached.  
5) We understand that there may be cash flow issues.  We will vote an immediate “flex” debt ceiling increase to give the Treasury authority to borrow whatever is necessary to balance out these cash flow issues if you decide we are bluffing.

If those conditions are met, I’d pass the appropriate budget (see #3), send it to the Senate for a vote.

Why is this compromise?  Quite simply, the proposal I would want to ask for:

1) Increase of the debt ceiling by supermajority vote in both houses except in the case of declared war.  If that were the case, the limit would be automatically raised and the government could borrow unrestricted provided those funds are used in direct support of that war effort.
2) A balanced budget for FY 2014
3) A better than balanced budget with actual reductions of 1% for each year for the next 10 years.
4) Those savings (and any surplus) would be used to pay down the debt.
5) I’d have a plan for eliminating the debt in 50 years (reduction to 0). That would probably include further actual cuts in spending.  This would include a total reboot of the welfare state and social security.
6) Do this with no tax increases.  $3 Trillion in revenue is MORE THAN ENOUGH.

Anything less than that is compromise.  He can elect to have control over the cuts through the budget process OR we can force him to make cuts by not raising the debt ceiling.

[Update 2013-10-11 13:45:17] Charles Krauthammer agrees with me on the Obama lying part of this post (and he isn’t a conservative by any stretch of the means)

[Update 2013-10-13 08:42:35] Here’s an article yesterday that talks more about how Obama lied when he said he would sign a short-term debt increase bill

Image from barack obama via flickr

From this article on fox news about the scheduled trucker protest around DC

“The Washington Post reported Thursday evening that Virginia State Police were planning to deploy additional troopers Friday and throughout the weekend in case of any incidents or problems, but the group will be allowed to proceed as long as no laws are broken.”

What a weird way to phrase that: the group will be allowed to proceed. How nice of the government to “allow” the protest. That’s so gracious of them.  Since when are we expected to get permission for a lawful event?

Jeez……

Should I also point out that while veterans aren’t allowed to access the WW2 monument, a bunch of illegal immigrants were allowed to hold a protest on the Mall.

Image from -pod- via flickr