Why the Republicans are the problem in the budget crises

The difficulty for House Speaker John Boehner and other Republican leaders is that rank-and-file Republicans' views on the budget question are starkly different from those of the public at large.

In this Gallup Poll, the majority of Republicans nationwide, 51%, want the people in government who share their views to hold out for a budget they agree with rather than compromise. 

This compares with only 27% of Democrats and 29% of independents who say the same.

We have discussed this before and Obama mentioned this during this presidential campaign. Republicans are far more ideological than Democrats and have a 'my way or the highway view of politics." This is what Speaker Boehner is running up against with the Tea Party freshmen.

Rep. Allen West is a perfect example of  Tea party Republican ideologue that sees the world in blacks and whites. See the previous article on West's ideological comments on the budget crises which he tries to compare to Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler.

source: Gallup.com

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Politico 44: Obama's late night update on the budget negotiations

They call him no drama, Obama for a reason.

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DCCC: What House Republicans Woke Up To This Morning

Apr 06, 2011

Yesterday, House Republicans proposed a partisan plan to end Medicare as we know it. Here's what they woke up to in newspapers around the country.

Prosperity for Whom? [New York Times Editorial]
“If the House Republican budget blueprint released on Tuesday is the “path to prosperity” that its title claims, it is hard to imagine what ruin would look like. The plan would condemn millions to the ranks of the uninsured, raise health costs for seniors and renege on the obligation to keep poor children fed. It envisions lower taxes for the wealthy than even George W. Bush imagined: A permanent extension for his tax cuts, plus large permanent estate-tax cuts, a new business tax cut and a lower top income tax rate for the richest taxpayers. […] The deficit is a serious problem, but the Ryan plan is not a serious answer.” [New York Times, 4/6/11]

CBO: GOP Budget Raises Health Costs For Retirees [Associated Press]
“Most future retirees would pay more for health care under a new House Republican budget proposal, according to an analysis by nonpartisan experts for Congress that could be an obstacle to GOP ambitions to tame federal deficits.  […] "A typical beneficiary would spend more for health care under the proposal," the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in an analysis released late Tuesday.” [AP, 4/6/11]

Rivlin: I don't back 'Ryan-Rivlin' plan [POLITICO]
“Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) touted the help of former Clinton advisor Alice Rivlin — “a great, proud Democrat” — in promoting a key Medicare provision in his budget proposal Tuesday. The only problem? Rivlin said she told the Republican she doesn’t support the final version of the measure he wrote into his budget — a provision Ryan referred to generally as the “Ryan-Rivlin” plan when rolling out his sweeping economic blueprint.” [POLITICO, 4/6/11]

Medicare Cost Would Rise for Many Under Ryan Plan [Wall Street Journal]
“The House Republican plan for overhauling Medicare would fundamentally change how the federal government pays for health care, starting a decade from now, likely resulting in higher out-of-pocket costs and greater limits to coverage for many Americans.” [WSJ, 4/6/11]

Obama: We Don't Have Time for Budget Games

Associated Press Apr. 05, 2011. 02:31 PM EST

President Barack Obama says he believes a budget deal is still possible that will avert a government shutdown this weekend. He says failure to reach a deal would be disruptive at a moment when the economy is beginning to gain ground. 




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MoveOn.org: Congressional budget will devastate Florida

 Make Florida for the living, too. Call Senator Bill Nelson

Heads up: Congress is debating a budget plan that would be devastating to Florida. Will you pass this along?

Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio need to hear from all of us about it right now, before they cut a deal in the next few days.

Please spread the word about all of these proposed cuts to Florida:

• $64 million would be cut from federal funds for clean and safe water in Florida.
• 6,100 Florida children would be immediately cut from Head Start, which provides comprehensive early childhood development services for at-risk children ages zero to five.
• $368 million would be cut from Pell Grants, affecting all 565,000 higher education students with those grants in Florida.³
• Job training and employment services would be effectively eliminated for 5,700 dislocated workers, 6,000 low-income adults, and 15,000 youths age 14 to 21.
• $9.6 million would be cut from law enforcement assistance, taking cops off the beat.

It's especially galling when the same budget protects tax breaks for corporations like GE and the very rich.

Just last night the news broke that Congress may be close to striking a deal on the budget. Now is the only time we can influence the outcome. 

Can you call Senator Nelson and ask them to oppose these cuts in the budget? You can pick one of the cuts in this list to highlight in your call.

Senator Bill Nelson
Phone: 202-224-5274

You can try the other Florida senator, too. Good luck!

Senator Marco Rubio
Phone: 202-224-3041

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White House White Board: OMB Director on the President's Budget

Posted by Jesse Lee on February 13, 2011 at 10:00 AM EST
In this White House White Board, Jack Lew, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, explains how the President's Budget will help then government live within its means, while still investing in America's future.

Look for much more detail here at WhiteHouse.gov Monday afternoon.



According to the Huffington Post, the presidnet's budget will bring bad news to the working poor, the middle class and graduate students.

The president is proposing a budget to congress that attacks programs that assist the working poor, help the needy heat their homes, expand access to graduate-level education and undermine community-based organizations. 


Obama's new budget puts forward a plan to achieve $1.1 trillion in deficit reductions over the next decade.


Those reductions, about $100 billion each year, are achieved mainly by squeezing social programs.

A deal struck to extend the Bush tax cuts for just two years, meanwhile, increased the deficit by $858 billion dollars. More than $500 billion of that constituted tax cuts, with billions more funding business tax breaks and a reduction in the estate tax.

Roughly $56 billion went to reauthorize emergency unemployment benefits. 

The Estate Tax cut let  50,000 more millionaires and billionaires off the hook for this tax. The Estate Tax was passed during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt in 1915.

The president's budget was expected to mostly target "non-defense discretionary spending." This makes up less than one-quarter of the overall budget. 

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Huffington Post: Austan Goolsbee Hopes GOP Will Discuss Budget 'In An Adult Way'

Dan Froomkin HuffPost Reporting froomkin@huffingtonpost.com

Austan Goolsbee

Austan Goolsbee, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, singled out the GOP's public relations campaign against "out-of-control government spending."

Rightardiaa has run several of Goolsbee's Whiteboards on our blog. 

Speaking at an Aspen Institute roundtable, Goolsbee said the Republicans calling for immediate but unspecified spending reductions are intentionally confusing the nation's long-term deficit problem with the short-term deficits due mostly to the recession.

We have known for 35 years that we have a fiscal imbalance that is associated with rising healthcare costs and the ageing population." 

(Republicans) "keep saying and implying that it's about discretionary spending" even though "everyone in the know knows that's not correct.

Goolsbee also said too much focus on the long-term deficit can lead politicians to lose sight of what's required in the short run.


"The most important thing is to get growth," he said, warning that poorly-chosen or excessive spending cuts could instead endanger the recovery.

This is not the moment that you want to be saying, "OK, let's pull the rug out from under the recovery." Goolsbee added:


The problem with deficits is that you have to pay back the money, not that they drive up the interest rates.
 
Rightardia agrees. The basis of Keynesian economics is that the government should increase spending and cut taxes during an economic crises.

Defense spending would be a good place to look for waste because defense spending benefits a small cadre of defense contractors.


A good example is the US nuclear program. Very few US corporations are involved in this billion dollar industry in the production of nuclear weapons. Of course, the US just signed another START treaty with Russia to reduce out nuclear arsenal by 30 per cent.

Will the 'nuclear defense budget" be cut by one-third? This budget was actually increased by $5 billion for he next five years for modernization and another $600 million in funds was added to maintain the US nuclear complex next year.


Republican John Kyl started lobbying for even more nuclear modernity funds immediately after the Senate started working on the START treaty. Kyl said on the Us nuclear modernization commitment:


Most experts believe it’s going to require a little over one billion a year for at least ten years, so you are in the order of 12, 13, maybe 15 billion over the course of 10 or 12 years. 



Will the GOP also attack programs that have nothing to do with the current financial crises like Social Security and Medicare? You betcha!


source: http://www.cullmantimes.com/local/x2072622472/Beason-Dems-don-t-want-to-solve-illegal-immigration-problem

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On the other hand infrastructure programs like railways create lots of local jobs. it put contracting companies back to work. the recovery is making slow progress and this is not the time for a meat axe in Washington.

DCCC: The Incredible Shrinking Republican Budget Promise

Yesterday, Budget Chair Paul Ryan finally offered a plan to fulfill the Republican promise to cut government spending but the promise completely fails to meet the target they set for themselves. Below please find a brief history of the Republican pledge to cut the budget:

The Original Republican Pledge….
$100 billion

“We will put government on a path to a balanced budget and pay down the debt with a plan to … Cut government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels saving at least $100 billion in the first year alone.” [A Pledge to America, 9/22/10

The Revised Republican Pledge….
$74 billion

“On Thursday, Ryan said he would cap total appropriations at $1.055 trillion - $74 billion less than the budget request Obama submitted to Congress last year…” [Washington Post, 2/3/11]

The Re-Revised, Pro-rated Republican Pledge…
$58 billion

“…they plan on pro-rating that $100 billion dollar number to $58 billion in non-security savings from the money President Obama asked for in the 2011 fiscal year budget.” [MSNBC, 2/3/11]

The “We Didn’t Realize How Hard This Would Be” Republican Pledge…
$50 billion

“…Republican leaders are scaling back that number by as much as half…” [New York Times, 1/4/11]

The Republican Proposal
$32 billion

“House Republicans pledged Thursday to slice more than $32 billion from agency budgets over the next few months…” [Washington Post, 2/3/11]

Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said:

House Republicans delivered on 30 percent of their budget promise, which by the standard of any school is an “F” failing grade.

 

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Politico: Reconciliation will marginalize the Senate GOP

By CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 2/23/10 8:29 PM EST

An idea that seemed toxic only weeks ago — using a parliamentary tactic to ram health reform through the Senate — is gaining acceptance among moderate Democrats who have resisted the strategy.

The subtle shift among this small group of centrist senators could mean the difference between success and failure for health care reform — giving Democrats a potential road map for passing a bill that had been left for dead after the Massachusetts Senate defeat.

That mood in the Senate was matched Tuesday by a growing momentum for President Barack Obama’s health care proposal in the House, where Democrats were beginning to coalesce around the view that getting something for health care is better than nothing at all.

These shifts couldn’t come at a better time for Obama ahead of Thursday’s health care summit. The White House has signaled he’s prepared to use reconciliation, which would require just 51 votes to pass health reform.

The Democratic strategy for selling the public on the tactic, especially if no Republicans sign on to Obama’s plan is simple: The GOP made us do it.

“Obviously, if the minority is just frustrating the process, that argues for taking steps to get the public’s business done,” said Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). Bayh was one of the leading voices against the procedure after the Massachusetts election, calling it “very ill-advised.”

“At the same time ... Republicans would probably shut the place down, but you could argue they are doing that anyway,” Bayh said.

Bayh’s remarks Tuesday came a day after Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) cited Republican obstructionism as a reason why she could embrace the parliamentary maneuver to pass health care reform. Last month, she said she was leaning against reconciliation.

“I’m staying open to see how these negotiations go forward,” Landrieu said. “I’ve not generally been a big supporter, but the Republican Party, the leadership, has really been very, very, very disingenuous in this process.”

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said he doesn’t prefer reconciliation, but it may be the only way. 


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source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33398.html

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Budget bill and sidecar bill needed to pass health care legislation

The health insurance budget bill in the Senate will only need 51 votes. The second sidecar bill that will change insurance regulation may require 60 votes.



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