The GOP needs to hold firm and if Obama and Democrats refuse to allow the House budget to be voted on, passed and/or Obama vetoes the GOP bill that passed the House, then let them take responsibility for shutting down the government.We spend more than we take in. That is unsustainable. It truly is that simple.
In February 2011 the U.S. set a new record, for one month with a $223 billion shortfall (deficit), amidst a budget battle between the GOP House of Representatives that want to start with cutting $61 billion, the Democratically controlled Senate that only wants to cut $10 Billion and the Democrat in the White House, Barack Obama that sent a proposal to congress for a budget that at no point in the 10-year projections would the U.S. government spend less than it's taking in.
What is wrong with this picture?
Enough is enough.
The federal government posted its largest monthly deficit in history in February, a $223 billion shortfall that put a sharp point on the current fight on Capitol Hill about how deeply to cut this year’s spending.
That one-month figure, which came in a preliminary report from the Congressional Budget Office, dwarfs even the most robust cuts being talked about on the Hill, and underscores just how much work lawmakers have to do to get the government’s finances in balance again.
The Senate plans to vote Tuesday on competing proposals to cut spending, but Democrats have rejected GOP-backed cuts of more than $50 billion, and Republicans have ruled out Democrats’ cuts of less than $10 billion, meaning neither plan will draw the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster and pass.
“We’ve all done the math and we all know how these votes will turn out: Neither proposal will pass, which means neither will reach the president’s desk as written. We’ll go back to square one and back to the negotiating table,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat.
The GOP's cuts aren't enough but they are a start, the Democrats cuts are laughable and show clearly that Obama/Democrats have no desire to stop the out-of-control spending or to get our deficit under any type of control.
.....“The American people voted to cut spending, but they also voted for a change in direction. Defunding ObamaCare [and] defunding Planned Parenthood are part of the new direction the American people embraced in 2010,” said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) an influential conservative and former chairman of the House Republican Conference.
He would not specify a minimum level of cuts, but said, “Nobody wants a government shutdown, but the American people are losing patience, and I’m losing patience.” (Source)
Count me in as one of those people losing patience.
Vulnerable Senate Democrats are even starting to worry and stating publicly that Obama has "failed" to lead on cutting the deficit.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin ripped President Barack Obama on his budget proposals in a Senate floor speech Tuesday, a rare rebuke from a freshman Democrat who clearly is worried about the politics of deficit spending as he faces a tough reelection in 2012.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat, is more worried about saving federal funding for "Cowboy Poets" than he is getting our fiscal house in order.
The Politico files Reid's ridiculousness under the heading "Did Harry Reid just say that?"
In the middle of his tirade against House Republicans' "mean-spirited" budget bill on the Senate floor Tuesday, the Senate Majority Leader lamented that the GOP’s proposed budget cuts would eliminate the annual "cowboy poetry festival” in his home state of Nevada. (See also: Reid’s prostitution lecture bombs.)
Reid clearly has a soft spot for the Baxter Blacks of the poetry world and thinks Republicans don't.“The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1 … eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts,” said Reid. “These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy poetry festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.”
Talk about a WTF moment.
Dueling headlines: "U.S. sets $223B deficit record" and "Reid: Save federal funding for the cowboy poets!"
I saw those two headlines and just shook my head in amazement.
[Update] House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) pins the tail on the Donkey-in- Chief by asking "Where's the president's proposal" to cut spending?"
“I said to Mr. Daley, and I will say here, where is the president’s proposal? There’s a lot of rhetoric about meeting the Republicans and working with them … but then we see Leader Durbin saying that their – between $5 and $10 billion in cuts – has pushed the limit,” Cantor told reporters on Tuesday.
Via The Hill.
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