The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

[Priceless]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

The GOP is starting to tell us where they would like to cut:

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, will unveil the bill in a speech at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday morning.

Jordan’s bill, which will have a companion bill introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican, would impose deep and broad cuts across the federal government. It includes both budget-wide cuts on non-defense discretionary spending back to 2006 levels and proposes the elimination or drastic reduction of more than 50 government programs.

Jordan’s “Spending Reduction Act” would eliminate such things as the U.S. Agency for International Development and its $1.39 billion annual budget, the $445 million annual subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the $1.5 billion annual subsidy for Amtrak, $2.5 billion in high speed rail grants, the $150 million subsidy for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and it would cut in half to $7.5 billion the federal travel budget.

But the program eliminations and reductions would account for only $330 billion of the $2.5 trillion in cuts. The bulk of the cuts would come from returning non-defense discretionary spending – which is currently $670 billion out of a $3.8 trillion budget for the 2011 fiscal year – to the 2006 level of $496.7 billion, through 2021.

Going back to 2006 levels would reduce spending by $2.3 trillion over ten years. It is a significantly more drastic cut than the one proposed by House Republican leadership in the Pledge to America last fall, which proposed moving non-defense, non-mandatory spending for the current fiscal year back to 2008 levels, which was $522.3 billion. Jordan’s proposal includes the recommendation from the Pledge for the current fiscal year, which ends in September.

The proposal would cut the federal work force by 15 percent and freeze automatic pay raises for government employees for five years.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

So, he only found 330 billion in waste? That's it?

NPR was an easy target. Transportation is an easy target. Republicans hate trains.

 

[unofan]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

So, he only found 330 billion in waste? That's it?

NPR was an easy target. Transportation is an easy target. Republicans hate trains.

Funny how they target Amtrak and "rail subsidies" but made no mention of roads or other "auto subsidies" - which make up a far bigger chunk of the budget.

 

[Priceless]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

So, he only found 330 billion in waste? That's it?

NPR was an easy target. Transportation is an easy target. Republicans hate trains.

I think it's very bold of him to gut mass transit at this point in time. Next he should encourage Americans to turn up the thermostat and buy more oil.

He's probably in for trouble when he tries to cut Medicaid though...people get testy when the government gets involved with their favorite programs.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

Funny how they target Amtrak and "rail subsidies" but made no mention of roads or other "auto subsidies" - which make up a far bigger chunk of the budget.

I don't think it's unfair to ask these folks where all the waste is that they keep talking about. I only see 330 billion listed there. Across the board cuts are a cop out for someone who can't find things to cut. You cut an entire program you eliminate funding for it forever. You cut it 15% and as soon as the money starts rolling in they ask and get more money.

Not only that but it's the big stuff that needs the cuts. This across the board "discretionary" cut doesn't do anything. The across the board cuts need to be in the big areas and be permanent. Social Security, Medicare, Defense. The discretionary stuff needs to disappear entirely. This proposal is meaningless.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

I don't think it's unfair to ask these folks where all the waste is that they keep talking about.

"Waste" is one of those evergeen strawmen that everybody will be against (who is "for waste"?), every administration since Washington has promised to cut, and nobody has ever found despite all the posturing and blue ribbon committees. I'm sure we've spent more money looking for waste than we've actually realized in any cuts.

To the degree that there's ever any waste found at all, your spending is waste in contrast to mine which is of course a fundamental national interest.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

"Waste" is one of those evergeen strawmen that everybody will be against (who is "for waste"?), every administration since Washington has promised to cut, and nobody has ever found despite all the posturing and blue ribbon committees. I'm sure we've spent more money looking for waste than we've actually realized in any cuts.

To the degree that there's ever any waste found at all, your spending is waste in contrast to mine which is of course a fundamental national interest.

That's true, but I'm sorry, this time that's just not good enough. These people want to balance the budget. So, balance the ****ing thing. You hate trains, fine, but cutting the train budget isn't going to do anything to balance the budget.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

That's true, but I'm sorry, this time that's just not good enough. These people want to balance the budget. So, balance the ****ing thing. You hate trains, fine, but cutting the train budgets isn't going to do anything to balance the budget.

Who says they want to balance the budget?

Can you imagine how many political contributions would have been lost by both sides if abortion had not been kept on the boil as a political issue for the last 40 years?

As long as there's a crisis, there's something to run on. Good lord, imagine if they had to run on their own merits. Half of Congress would be vacant due to a lack of qualified candidates. But anyone can run when The Republic Is In Peril (tm).

 

[Priceless]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

Who says they want to balance the budget?

Can you imagine how many political contributions would have been lost by both sides if abortion had not been kept on the boil as a political issue for the last 40 years?

As long as there's a crisis, there's something to run on. Good lord, imagine if they had to run on their own merits. Half of Congress would be vacant due to a lack of qualified candidates. But anyone can run when The Republic Is In Peril (tm).

Look, just be afraid of the people I tell you to be afraid of (it may be Blacks, Browns, Asians, the gays or another group) and accept that it's the fault of whomever I say it is (the Democrats).
There. Isn't that much easier than thinking for yourself? Now run along and get ready for The Big Game (or The Big Race or The Big Whatever).

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

Look, just be afraid of the people I tell you to be afraid of (it may be Blacks, Browns, Asians, the gays or another group) and accept that it's the fault of whomever I say it is (the Democrats).
There. Isn't that much easier than thinking for yourself? Now run along and get ready for The Big Game (or The Big Race or The Big Whatever).

You forgot to sell me gold stocks, too. This exercise is pointless unless you're outraging all the way to the bank.

 

[Priceless]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

You forgot to sell me gold stocks, too. This exercise is pointless unless you're outraging all the way to the bank.

I obviously need to practice.

Go buy some duct tape!

 

[walrus]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

Pursuit of happiness is why the Feds can make me buy Health Insurance
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[joecct]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

I don't think it's unfair to ask these folks where all the waste is that they keep talking about.

FOUND IT!!

 

[WeWantMore]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

Pursuit of happiness is why the Feds can make me buy Health Insurance

These must be the smart people Gohmert was talking about.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: Repealing Obamacare is unconstitutional.

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[5mn_Major]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

FOUND IT!!

Maybe its time to institute pic restrictions on message boards...

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

#1 priority from what I heard during the election campaign was jobs. I have yet to see a jobs bill out of the House.

 

[WeWantMore]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

#1 priority from what I heard during the election campaign was jobs. I have yet to see a jobs bill out of the House.

How many bills has the House passed in total? They've been in session for barely 2 weeks now with the Giffords thing and all that. I don't get the infatuation with moving fast fast fast.

Of the bills that have passed, repealing the health care bill would create jobs, if it could get through the Senate and through a veto. That's not happening, but that can't be the House's concern.

A plank in the GOP jobs plan involves the President issuing an executive order on regulations- Obama just did that.

Read the rest of the platform, there's plenty of ideas in there, all of which I'm sure will be introduced over the next few weeks.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

How many bills has the House passed in total? They've been in session for barely 2 weeks now with the Giffords thing and all that. I don't get the infatuation with moving fast fast fast.

Of the bills that have passed, repealing the health care bill would create jobs, if it could get through the Senate and through a veto. That's not happening, but that can't be the House's concern.

A plank in the GOP jobs plan involves the President issuing an executive order on regulations- Obama just did that.

Read the rest of the platform, there's plenty of ideas in there, all of which I'm sure will be introduced over the next few weeks.

Repealing Health Care would generate jobs? Really? That's funny cause the Bush Tax Cuts didn't generate jobs so I'm wondering what your evidence is that repealing Health Care will?

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

Repealing Health Care would generate jobs? Really? That's funny cause the Bush Tax Cuts didn't generate jobs so I'm wondering what your evidence is that repealing Health Care will?

Just remember that everything the Dems do destroys jobs because it's the Dems. When the same HCR package that Obama got through was a Republican proposal in the 90's, it would have created jobs and saved money. Now that a Dem did it, it destroys jobs and costs money.

It really reduces conservatives' anxieties that they already know what the answers are, so any actual reality is just retconned back to that storyline. That way they never have to worry about falsifiability of their premises. They can, literally, never be wrong.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress - A Congress divided shall not cry!

repealing the health care bill would create jobs

Did you use your crystal ball for that?