No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for April 13th, 2011

Having Balls

by @ 20:05. Filed under Budget Chop, Politics - National.

When running for the 2010 elections, Republicans attempting to harness the Tea Party enthusiasm promised that they would cut $100 B from the budget.  Barely had they gotten elected and the Republicans backed off their $100 B promise and said they could only get something in the $60 B range.  When it came to actually getting an agreement, they managed to hold on to a cut that was advertised as $38 B, but quickly identified as only $14 B.

Now that folks have had a chance to read the actual legislation, it turns out that none of the previously touted numbers are the real reduction that Boehner was able to negotiate.  According to numerous sources, the actual amount of deficit reductions that Speaker, “We are going to cut $100 billion in discretionary spending next week” Boehner managed to get was only $353 Million…MILLION!

When it became apparent last year that the Republicans would retake the house I had conversations with several people who are much more knowledgeable of Republican leadership than I.  I told them my reservations about Boehner becoming speaker and how everything I had seen from him lead me to believe that he was another Washington lifer who would say or do what he needed to to keep his position.  I was told by several of them that Boehner was the “real deal.”  While now living in Kentucky, I agreed to be from Missouri and be shown that Boehner was a conservative.

No more!

I am now on record as saying that Boehner is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the Republican party.  Boehner is either a charlatan or ignorant.  Regardless of which, he is not worthy of leading a party’s effort that is overwhelmingly made up of a base that desires, no, DEMANDS reductions in government spending.

This continuing resolution needs to be voted down.  Boehner needs to be personally repudiated by any true House conservative for putting them in a position of having to support this sham of an agreement.

I hate Nancy Pelosi.  I despise everything about the woman.  Even with my level of disdain for her I give her props for one thing; she has a set of balls as big as two moons hung side by side.  Nancy has balls and Boehner is a eunuch!

Going from $100 billion of spending “cuts” to $18 billion of new spending – UPDATE – And maybe $20-25 billion of savings down the road

by @ 18:31. Filed under Budget Chop, Politics - National.

(H/Ts – Allahpundit and Ace)

The Associated Press (as carried by the Washington Post) reported on a Congressional Budget Office report of the purported $38 billion cut deal reached by House Republicans, Senate Democrats and Barack Obama last weekend, and found that not only is the actual outlays authorized only a (wrongly-estimated) $15 billion cut, but that the impact to the deficit is…wait for it…

…Wait for it…

$352 million (this on a roughly-$1,600,000 million FY2011 deficit).

But wait, it gets worse. While I haven’t been able to find the CBO report referenced by the AP, I did find a 1-page estimate of the FY2011 discretionary spending amounts in the deal. Take a good look at the number at the lower-right corner – $1,364,714 million (or if you prefer, $1,365 billion after rounding to the nearest billion). That is the total amount of outlays that will take place in FY2011, including $76 billion for “emergencies”. In FY2010, the federal government had $1,347 billion in discretionary outlays.

Fucking brilliant, Boehner. I hope this deal fails and the government shuts down, then I hope somebody primaries Boehner right out of his district.

Revisions/extensions (6:34 pm 4/13/2011) – Somehow forgot the link to the article. Fixed.

R&E part 2 (9:25 pm 4/13/2011) – National Journal dug up (H/T – Dad29) a further document from the CBO comparing the total discretionary spending outlays in the “deal” to those called for in all the previous continuing resolutions for this year. Roll tape of the bottom-line projected full-year outlays of the continuing resolutions that had ending dates in 2011:

  • The CR through 3/4/2011 – $1,361 billion
  • The CR through 3/18/2011 – $1,360 billion
  • The CR through 4/8/2011 – $1,359 billion
  • The CR through 4/15/2011 – $1,368 billion (fucking brilliant – a $9 billion increase just to “save” the federal government for a week)

Oh, did I forget to mention that even HR1, the supposed $100 billion $61 billion non-security discretionary-spending cut, had a total projected discretionary outlay of $1,356 billion (once again, higher than FY2010’s $1,347 billion)?

R&E part 3 (3:30 pm 4/14/2011) – (H/T – Jeff Dunetz) The CBO explains how, assuming Congress doesn’t simply add all the spending back in, there MIGHT be a cumulative $20 billion-$25 billion in actual spending reduction over the next decade versus doing nothing. Of course, once one figures inflation into that, even the $25 billion in savings down the road won’t match the $18 billion in new spending today.

Shorter Obama budget plan

by @ 15:45. Filed under Politics - National.

The classic galley ship scene from “Ben-Hur” describes perfectly what Obama thinks the budget needs to be…

Of course, there is one difference – unlike Arrius, I don’t think Obama will eventually tire of ordering ramming speed from we the rowers.

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