The Debt Ceiling Debate: The Obama vs. Boehner speeches (Videos)

I just got through watching both Obama's and John Boehner's speeches. Again, I feel like vomiting over the whole foolish mess. With Obama's ridiculous lies about Social Security and Boehner's foolish entertainment of Democrat's disingenuous compromises, I am rapidly losing hope that America will dodge this bullet.

Of the two speeches, Obama's was clearly the worse. Obama's speech could have easily been spliced together from his past speeches over the last two years. It was the same old dog and pony show we have seen over and over again.

• Class warfare, complete with evil corporate jets - check.
• One sided shared sacrifice - check.
• Blame Bush - check.

and the list goes on and on.

No where in Obama's 15 minute speech did Obama offer a clear cut path plan of action. Instead, it was the usual dump it all in Congress' lap and then take to the podium to play the role of college professor. Of course in doing so, Obama made his usual massive contradictions. Like this gem:

[...]In the past, raising the debt ceiling was routine. Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, and every President has signed it. President Reagan did it 18 times. George W. Bush did it seven times. And we have to do it by next Tuesday, August 2nd, or else we won’t be able to pay all of our bills.

[...] But the new approach that Speaker Boehner unveiled today, which would temporarily extend the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts, would force us to once again face the threat of default just six months from now. In other words, it doesn’t solve the problem.

So, Reagan had to deal with 18 extensions of the debt ceiling over 8 year, which breaks down to less than 6 months intervals and the economy thrived under those conditions. However, a six month extension today would be catastrophe? This is why Obama is so disingenuous and phony.

Boehner is once again talking the talk but failing to walk the walk. Boehner would not be in the pressure cooker had he declared way back in November that the debt ceiling was not going to be raised. Had he taken that stance eight months ago, he would have had eight months to defuse all the liberal arguments, scare tactics and power plays. He would have been in the position of demanding Democrats start coming up with their cuts to go along with the Republican cuts. The markets would have known months ago that America was not raising its debt ceiling and that it was going to use the next eight months to seriously tackle the problem, rather than try to mash something together in less than a month.

The CBO's scoring of Boehner's plan clearly shows that Boehner is more concern about the political aspects of the debate than actually forcing real change. Pity for all of us.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: The Washington Post
Via: WhiteHouse.gov
Via: The Right Scoop
Via: Politico

Boehner wins, but America still loses

From what I have been reading, it appears that quite a few people are saying Speaker Boehner has won the budget showdown. They all point to the fact that the national conversation in Washington has changed from wild deficit spending to spending cuts (albeit tiny ones).

This may all be true in the political sense, but in reality America still sits perilously close to an economic disaster. We are still spending hundreds of billions of dollars we do not have. The amount of money we are borrowing daily will soon eat up these cuts in no time flat. Yet, here are our so called "leaders" talking about "historic cuts".

I think part of the problem in Washington today is that there aren't many who can take in the big picture. Too many lawmakers, pundits and the media class focus on the little skirmishes and daily back and forth without taking into account the effect on the nation as a whole. 

Paul Ryan's budget plan is the first attempt in a long time to bring the big picture in focus. Unfortunately after watching this shutdown showdown, I don't have a lot of faith in seeing anything close to Ryan's plan being acted upon.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Drudge Report
Via: National Review
Via: Fox News

Shutdown Averted! Historic Spending Cuts?

Politico: After a long day of trading offers, the White House and House Republicans reached agreement Friday night on a budget framework that would cap 2011 appropriations near or below $1.050 trillion while cutting domestic and foreign aid by more than $40 billion from the rate of spending at the beginning of this Congress.

Behind the closed doors of special meeting of the Republican Conference, Speaker John Boehner presented the package to his party as at least an agreement in principle and said at one point: “We have a deal.” The Senate should now feel confident enough to move ahead with a stop gap spending bill to avert—or at least shorten—any shutdown beginning at midnight.

In a joint statement with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Friday night, Boehner announced: “We have agreed to an historic amount of cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year, as well as a short-term bridge that will give us time to avoid a shutdown while we get that agreement through both houses and to the president.”

Speaking on national television with the Washington Monument as a backdrop, President Barack Obama announced the deal shortly after 11 p.m. [MORE]

I just cannot believe how these bozos pat themselves on the back for not spending $40 billion dollars more of borrowed money and then have the brass to call that historic!

What exactly did Weepy Willow Boehner get out of this deal anyway? The riders for Planned Parenthood and the EPA were scrapped, and whatever spending cuts he got are still woefully inadequate for saving the nation from a debt crisis. Weepy Willow even allowed Obama to escape the funding the troops trap!

If Republican want to have any hope of enacting anything remotely similar to Ryan's budget proposal, it is very clear that tougher, bolder and braver leadership will be required. Boehner simply isn't up to the task.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: Politico

Via: The Washington Post

Reid to Boehner - Ditch the TEA Party

The Hill: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Monday urged Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to ditch members of the Tea Party and cut a deal with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.

Reid insisted it is those GOP internal divisions that are threatening to shut down the government after April 8, in less than two weeks.

“For the sake of our economy, it’s time for mainstream Republicans to stand up to the Tea Party and rejoin Democrats at the table to negotiate a responsible solution that cuts spending while protecting jobs," he said.

Last week Reid put $7.5 billion in discretionary cuts and $3.5 billion in mandatory savings on the table as a counteroffer to the $51 billion in additional cuts the GOP is seeking.

This week Democrats are mulling raising the offer to $20 billion. But Democratic aides insist it is the divided GOP that must make the next move and come back to the negotiating table, not Democrats who must continue to negotiate with themselves and up their offer. [MORE]

Reid is trying to use the TEA Party as the reason for a government shut down. It won't work. Anyone with two eyes can see that the piddly little cuts Democrats and the Republican leadership are playing with are completely inadequate for tackling the deficit. So pretending that "progress" could be made if Boenher abandon the more sizable (but still inadequate) cuts the TEA Party wants is absurd.

The fact that Democrats have gone from zero cuts to a possible $20 billion, pretty much tells us that they are finding it harder and harder to resist spending cuts. Had the Republican leadership not been so "compromising" about cuts, Reid would probably be negotiating much more sizable cuts by now.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: The Hill

John Boehner on Federal Worker job loss: "So be it"

Washington Wire [emphasis mine]: House Speaker John Boehner expressed little sympathy Tuesday for federal workers who lose their jobs as the result of Republican budget cutting.

“In the last two years, under President Obama, the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs,” Mr. Boehner told reporters Tuesday morning during a press conference in the lobby of the Republican National Committee, according to various news outlets. “If some of those jobs are lost, so be it. We’re broke.”

Republicans in the House are considering legislation on the floor this week that seeks to slash $62 billion from the federal budget by the end of September. Those reductions – which face significant resistance in the Democratically controlled Senate – would result in drastic reductions at just about every federal agency.

Republicans campaigned on the promise to cut federal spending in the run-up to the 2010 election. That pledge, if enacted, will inevitably result in job losses at the federal and state level. But Mr. Boehner’s “so be it” line marks a coarse reversal from his more sympathetic “Where are the jobs?” mantra from the last election.

The associations that represent government workers are scrambling to minimize the pain as cost-cutting takes hold in Washington.

Ah, but there is a huge difference between private sector jobs and government jobs.  Private sector jobs are paid for by the wealth that is created from free enterprise.  Government jobs are paid for taxpayers and those taxpayers have been taking a beating with forclosures, unemployment and rising prices.  Government employee salaries at this point is just another burden on their backs.

So while no one wants to see anyone lose a job, government jobs at this point come at a very painful price.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Washington Wire

Nancy Pelosi knocks John Boehner for crying

New York Times: Ha. What about John Boehner, the Ohio Republican who is expected to succeed you as House speaker in January? Did you see him tearing up on election night as he addressed his supporters?

You know what? He is known to cry. He cries sometimes when we’re having a debate on bills. If I cry, it’s about the personal loss of a friend or something like that. But when it comes to politics — no, I don’t cry. I would never think of crying about any loss of an office, because that’s always a possibility, and if you’re professional, then you deal with it professionally.

Does this woman ever listen to what comes out of her own mouth? Really it wasn’t even a year ago she was blubbering over the violence of the 1970’s.

 

Thank God the gavel is out of her crazy hands.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The New York Times

The Friendly Skies: Boehner to fly commercial jets

Politico: House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday he intends to take commercial flights home when he moves up to speaker in the new Congress.

“Over the last 20 years, I have flown back and forth to my district on commercial aircraft, and I am going to continue to do that,” he told reporters.

 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, took heat in 2007 when she started flying an Air Force jet that could go nonstop back to her congressional district in California.

This is a nice gesture on Boehner’s part that will go a long way in help to repair the image of Republicans.  However, it is just that a gesture.  If Republicans want another wave in 2012, bigger fiscally conservative moves will be needed.

If Democrats decide to keep Pelosi, Boehner should publish the cost of his first flight and compare it to what Nancy wasted on one of her Air Pelosi flights. It will serve as a nice reminder why Democrats needed to be shown the door.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Politico

Videos: Have you seen these?

When MSM attacks

Robert Gibbs sounds like a cheesy manager at a disreputable store trying to shuck and jive a customer out of a refund. Helen Thomas does a far better job calling out Gibbs than Chip Reid does. Sadly both Chip and Helen are finding out that old saying; "you reap what you sow".

Where da jobs at?

With new and higher unemployment figures out today, this is the question that Republicans need to start asking everyday and loudly. This video is a good start, though maybe a wee bit too cutesy.

Videos: Did you see these?

Saracuda Strikes Back

ZING! Take that Senator Horse Face! I don’t know if you noticed it, but Governor Palin has made a very quiet, but much needed transformation. After months of taking BS from the left, she starting to fight back and very effectively I might add. First, with her interview with Hannity and her "I Told Ya So" moment, then turning the tables on Letterman with her interview with Matt Lauer and now giving John Kerry a better tweak then he gave her. Memo to GOP: Stop wasting your time pushing boring RINO losers, Palin is the real deal!

Mr. Filibuster!

Kudos to GOP Minority Leader John Boehner for using House rules to create a mini filibuster of the Cap and Tax bill! Unlike the Senate, filibusters are not used in the House, however leaders speeches are not timed, so Boehner used his privilege to read Weasel Waxman’s 3 am amendment for about 1 hour. Notice how Weasel Waxman tries to shut Boehner down. Sadly another important piece of legislation harmful to the American economy passes in the House WITHOUT BEING READ!

Bachmann chooses Liberty

This is one impressive woman. She follows the Constitution and understands that her role is to SERVE the people and not dictate to the people. When 2010 comes around the left is going to try to take her out. Don’t let it happen, give generously and volunteer to do virtual phone banks. Reps. like Bachmann are an extremely rare fine these days.