Government shutdown averted; long-term solution still necessary
By JR Hoeft | Saturday, April 9th, 2011 | PolicyRepublicans and Democrats managed to come together on a short-term federal budget, but it is only inching in the right direction when it comes to our deficit spending and national debt.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Under the deal, the GOP won budget cuts of $39 billion for the remaining six months of the fiscal year, far more than either party had expected a few months ago. Democrats managed to hold off Republican demands to strip funding for the new health-care law and for a range of other Democratic priorities. GOP provisions to cut all federal funding to Planned Parenthood of America and National Public Radio also were dropped.
Several of Virginia’s congressmen commented on the matter:
Rep. Rob Wittman (VA-1):
“I support this effort to avoid a government shutdown and ensure the troops and their families do not have to worry if their paychecks will stop. Denying pay to our troops and their families because of political wrangling is unconscionable. These men and women risk their lives to defend our freedom here and overseas. Their families make sacrifices each day; we cannot deny them safety and security here at home, too.
“Federal spending is out of control and endangering the future prosperity of this nation. These are tough decisions to be made, and while the final package is not perfect, my goals remain: to cut spending, keep our government running efficiently, and pay our troops. We can do all these things – no excuses. Congress must do its job in the coming days to meet these goals.”
Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA-9):
“A government shut down has temporarily been averted. Despite controlling the House, the Senate, and the White House last year, the Democrats failed to even pass a budget for 2011. Now we’re here at the eleventh hour cleaning up their mess. I applaud Speaker Boehner for his tireless efforts in an attempt to get the Senate to cut spending.
“Late tonight, Congress passed a short-term Continuing Resolution that will prevent an immediate government shut down, cut an additional $2 billion, and continue funding for the entire government through mid next week. This will provide the necessary time for a final CR for the remainder of 2011 to be drafted and voted on by the House and Senate. While we have been advised of the major details of a CR for the remainder of the fiscal year, I am eager to review the fine print included in this deal.”
Rep. Robert Hurt (VA-5)
“Tonight’s short-term resolution continues funding for our troops and continues our commitment to cutting spending. I look forward to the work ahead as we seek to get our fiscal house in order to reduce the debt, grow the economy, and create jobs for all Central and Southside Virginians.”
Of course, moving the ball down the field seems to be the last thing on Tim Kaine’s mind. Here’s a campaign email from the former DNC chair:
The impending government shutdown is unacceptable. Not only will it cost taxpayers more in the long run, but it’s foolish to play dice with our economy just when we’re seeing the first signs of recovery. What’s more, it’s going to hurt Virginia’s many federal workers and military families at home and abroad.
“Impending”? Shows how “in the know” Kaine is – looks like the president and the Speaker were able to find common ground and avert Kaine’s doomsday scenario – much like Governor Bob McDonnell was able to balance the budget without raising taxes as Kaine had proposed.
Kaine continues:
The impending shutdown shows us one of the primary flaws in how Washington works – or rather doesn’t work – today. Speaker Boehner shouldn’t allow our country’s budget to be held hostage by a small group with an ideological agenda trying to score political points. Republicans and Democrats need to work together to make progress on fiscal responsibility. Shutdowns, stunts and politically motivated brinksmanship aren’t going to move us forward.
Again, wishful thinking – Kaine seems to WANT a shutdown for political gain. Rather, a solution was brokered and the country HAS moved in the right direction, albeit only inches when we have miles to travel, because people like you and me have demanded that government live within its means.
The debate will continue, but it is clear Kaine still doesn’t get why it has to happen.
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About the author
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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25 Responses to "Government shutdown averted; long-term solution still necessary"
OK, let’s see you Republicans get all the cuts you propose without an electorate backlash.
How about me? Well I want to see Paris Hilton suffer a little bit before I see Grandma suffer a whole lot.
I want hard work to pay off like it should, but I do not see Paris Hilton bending her back to make a living. Did you see the “real life” episode where Paris was confounded by dealing with real life?
David, the republicans failed the electorate.. miserably. Last night the three branches of government reloaded the Tea Party movement ammo boxes. We are armed and dangerous and new rino recipes are looking sooo good that now were gonna work on convert us some vegans this fall.
The latest recipe for Rino stew is very bland without the addition of fermented Arugula and raspberries – a couple of tons should do the trick. About an hour before serving add a truck load of diced Elephant trunk. The brown nose variety are more readily available, but the colorful ones that cry a lot can be used too. Be careful not to add them to the pot too soon because, like calamari, they tend
to toughen if over cooked. Fried, they do lend a wonderful crunch to the dish. Oh, and do not bother with the meat on those back legs – the hams are somewhat less tasty due to the bruising from nov 2!
@LD,
Seems like there’s some anger issues to deal with, have you thought about seeking counseling?
John, what LD and the press minions of the left avoid mentioning is that the debt increased by the same amount over 4 days from monday thru thursday that was cut friday night… In 8 days we took on 54B more debt.. Whoever is fooling themselves thinking that $38.5B was meaningful just does not get it. LD mentions real life suffering and that is what our electeds have merely ptolonged.
JR Said
“Weak. If Speaker of the House John Boehner is using $33 billion as an acceptable number for spending cuts, he’s at least $67 billion off.”
The question is if 33B is weak why is 38B is strong?
I don’t have any snap judgment about whether this is the beginning of the end or the beginning of the beginning but here are some observations.
1. If you announce ahead of time that you can’t bear the thought of a government shutdown then it is surprising that the Repubs got even this much. (This raises the question of whether hardball would have worked even better.) On the other hand the Dems were quite prepared to make these cuts and the riders Boehner got mean very little. Look how excited and cheerful Obama looked. Did he look that way after the tax rate bill? did Holder look happy after the Gitmo flip? Yes the Dems threw DC under the bus but they are still going to get their electoral votes. The various Obamacare and Dodd-Frank audits are going to be stalled and subverted and the media will bury whatever comes out later.
2. If you make no real preparations for the PR battle over a govt shutdown then the behavior in Item 1 makes more sense. I thought they had a good plan B of funding the troops for FY11 and cutting 12B. Why wasn’t that included in the last CR that passed a few weeks ago? Why not include paying the Federal workforce in the last CR that passed? Why didn’t the RNC prepare ads explaining things ahead of time to counter the leftist media?
3. If the Repubs show such aversion to a shutdown here does that make their job tougher on the FY12 budget and the debt limit?
4. Is it (cynically) tactically more effective for the Repubs to “lose” these battles leading up to the 2012 election to prevent the Dems from running out like Obama did to take credit for budget cuts and reform? Or will it fracture the Repubs more than it hurts the Dems?
As for LittleDavid, it is interesting that every leftist I’ve ever encountered lives in the exact same fantasy world. Leftists all really do think that they can “punish the rich” with their little paperwads. The rich did get punished in 2008. So many of them went to the same class warfare Dems the leftists adore and got reimbursed. I recommend that David look up the timelime of the AIG bonuses that got paid in 2009 despite Obama’s “outrage”. The payments were engineered by the Dems and approved by Obama after he did a little “posturing and emoting” for the cameras. Why aren’t leftists mad at Franklin Raines (Fannie), George Soros, Nancy Pelosi John Kerry etc. Aren’t they rich? Why aren’t they mad at Geithner, Kerry etc for tax evasion? You see leftists don’t really hate the rich they just think they do.
Leftists also worry exclusively about political gamesmanship as in David’s comment about electorate outrage. The electorate showed outrage in Greece Portugal and the UK? Does that change their financial situation or just make it worse? Leftist voters (but not politicians) do believe that a few rich people can pay for everything forever.
Here’s a question. If Repubs are killing women and seniors and starving kids by returning to 2008 budget levels then didn’t the Dems who put together the original 2008 budget do the same?
So, where in my post, Valentius, am I proclaiming this was a strong compromise? I merely said it’s moving the ball down the field and we have a long way to go.
I’m being consistent.
And, yes, this is still weak. It still isn’t the $100B we were promised.
I’m sorry JR I didn’t mean to imply that You were inconsistent in any way. I was just reviving the previous thread on this subject. I noted that you said 33 was weak and was asking the question to the general that if 33 was weak whether we should consider 38 strong or at least good enough?
$100B was weak but it was part of the GOP pledge. Our party has failed us. The authors of the pledge to America have become shrinking violets. The document is worth review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHRMUCZgL9Q&NR=1
If that is too much, try this:http://youtu.be/_Rl1xgT3REE
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while thinking “this time it will be different”.
Watch the markets on Monday. There is a serious run on the dollar in progress. IMO it owes its ferocity to Congress’ unwillingness to tell the dependency classes that we’re out of money.
I know you guys don’t follow the financial markets; your comments here make that very very plain. We had a grace period with the first $1,000 Billion + deficit. If we had done it just once, and then de-regulated and lowered taxes enough to stimulate real economic growth, we could have gotten away with it. The world’s investors would have understood and supported us in it. Instead, we zombified the banks, which are still walking dead.
But, since Congress got away with it once, they now believe they can get away with it forever. And that is exactly how they continue to behave. Nothing short of an outright dollar collapse will convince them. The R’s love their militarism, empire and weapon systems, while the Ds love their wealth redistribution. They both love big government. And so it shall be, until it can’t be anymore, which is sooner than any of you think. That is plain by now.
Watch USDX, though it is mostly a sham, since it measures the value of worthless USD fiat against other nations’ almost equally worthless fiat:
http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DX&v=w
Watch the commodity currencies USD/AUD and USD/CAD, and the “other” traditional flight to safety currency USD/CHF crosses, WTI, and the precious metals. Just watch. In fact, you can start watching Sunday night when Tokyo opens.
http://www.netdania.com/Products/live-streaming-currency-rates-foreign-exchange/real-time-quotes/QuoteList.aspx
The markets will not like this. The CBs can and might anticipate this and conduct coordinated intervention (e.g. BoJ is printing like a bunch of fevered dervishes to try to promote Japanese exports and to avoid needing to cash in USTs to pay for reconstruction), but I suggest you guys start checking the currency and PM / oil markets a couple of times a day from now on.
JJ,
Actually most here probably do. I don’t think anyone here other than the leftists minimizes the problem. However, you need to realize that big countries almost never collapse overnight no matter how badly they are run. They can always do stopgap maneuvers. Read the history of the later roman empire for the techniques. That’s what makes the leftists complacent.
Do you think the Euro is rising because everyone now loves a currency used by Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain etc? No its because if you want to dump dollars the Euro is the only currency large enough to absorb the flood. Yes people can buy gold too but its hard to carry around. If something else happens overseas money could rush back.
You are right that the US political system is sick. Its no secret that when people try to grab more and more from others a country is headed for financial hard times and autocratic government. This applies to a corrupt oligarchy or the masses.But don’t think that things happen on some election or legislative schedule either. Conservatives need to become educators not rely on providential events to rescue them.
Jamie, it is amazing how few people see what you are explaining in clear english.. Boohoo Boehner is being lauded as if some kind of modern day hero for cutting a sliver off the leviathans budget. The foreign creditors and currency sharks will move in for the kill.. they don’t care as much about our touchy feely domestic politics, especially the asia/pacific creditors..
I am amazed this board is so quiet today. wtf
Turbo, maybe it’s because we’re speechless. I never thought I’d see the day when after working hard and raising six children, partially raising four of my grandchildren, unless there is a drastic miracle, there in no way in hell my seed will have the life I’ve had.
Can public approval polls go negative?
That being the case, Kathy, we need to support a candidate that will resist the seduction of big business and big government.
Do you take a chance on a real fiscal conservative like Jamie Radtke or do you put your blind faith and vote behind George Allen that did NOTHING to prevent the real estate/credit crunch when he could have?
Despite 25 REPUBLICAN senators raising the alarm that something was amiss with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and signing a letter by Hagel to then majority leader Frist for regulation, Allen wouldn’t sign and took a blind eye to it. Check out the following link. It is a long article. If you scroll to the bottom and click for the rest of the article to be revealed, you will see George Allen’s name mentioned SEVERAL times.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27266607/ns/business-us_business/?fb_ref=story_header&fb_source=profile_multiline
We don’t need to rehire a proven disappointment.
Boehner blinked. Period. But they got a worthless promise from the Democrats to vote on Obamacare.
Right. Oh yeah, the Dems will reneg on their “signature” legislation.
I supposed the GOP will get serious now, right? And now they are in a really strong position to do some serious negotiating, right?
Our country’s economy is going over a cliff at the speed of light, and they think incrementalism will work? And the GOP let the Dems use the military as human shields.
Serious kudos to Scott Rigell (VA-2) for standing firm and not buying into the party line.
Last time I checked, Karen, our economy was growing at a reasonable rate, americans were increasingly back at work, private employment is growing, unemployment is down, private corporations are flush with cash to invest, the stock market is on a roll, americans are saving, our 401ks are back where they were at the collapse of the period of irrational exhuberance. Now, you and the tea party can howl at the moon, but the electorate will be in a much different place in 2012 than they were in 2010. Now, if the tea party and their allies in the republican party cause the nation to go back into recession by irrational cuts before the nascent recovery is on more solid footing, you and your allies will not even be a footnote in history. So enjoy your moment in the sun; it’s almost over.
Let me get this straight…we have a $1.6 trillion deficit.
On one hand, we have the Planned Parenthood and NPR, proudly supported by Mike Barrett, the Democrats and the media. And on the other, we have our troops getting paid and Little David’s trucking paperwork getting done.
The media and Democrats decide that we must fund abortions and another media organization, and the Republicans (or the Tea Party) are on a Social crusade? I’ll gladly stand behind not funding abortions and another media organization to pay down our national debt.
Even though I don’t think people realize how corrupt Washington DC and the news media is… If you don’t, you should now. Has the media always been this blatantly corrupt?
Let’s note that we have measly 2.8% nominal avg growth almost 2 years out from the (technical) end of a recession while borrowing almost 45% of our budget and experiencing rising inflation and high long term U6 unemployment. It’s one thing to have 7% growth and inflation quite another 2.8% annual growth and inflation. Even Gallup polling is starting to question the govt numbers which reduced U3 unemployment by a point with statistical manipulation (Gallup has a flat line for over a year a bit above 10%.) The Obama printing press is paying for entitlements and public sector union benefits and going overseas, not seriously funding any real investment. And education is not an investment when leftists are in charge of it. Just take a look at the international test scores. Of course Mike’s irrational exuberance doesn’t seem irrational to him. He thought Jimmy Carter was great too.
Today’s headlines from the thankful NPR.
Budget Details Slow To Emerge, Even To Congress
“It’s a not a very pleasant experience to be forced to vote for something before you know the contents of it,” says Rep. George Miller, a Democrat from California.
“We did our votes in the wee morning hours, and that was really it,” he says. “We have not had any other contact with leadership, with any other members of the conference, other than seeing people here at the Reagan airport.” — Allen West, a GOP freshman from Florida.
Well there ya go! “We had to vote for it in the middle of the night so we could find out what we voted for.”
And you people still think the GOP or Dems are on your side. Bah! Bah! Bah!
valentinus: … 2.8% annual growth and inflation.
In other words, in economic terms this is negative real growth. Inflation is higher than the so-called “growth” number; the economy looks bigger but buying power is falling. When you couple that with the fact that the deficit is 11% of GDP and the claimed “growth” is 2.8%, you see the shape the economy is really in. And no one is doing anything about it. No one seems willing or able to do anything about it.
Wanna know a secret? Real growth could be possible, but that would require the government to release their choke hold control of the economy, stop bailing out stupid but politically-connected insiders and Wall Street charlatans and banksters, let losers take losses (other than just the middle class), and let actual free market economics take hold.
And they are absolutely unwilling to do that. It’s not “in the cards.” TARP was Wall Street’s way of showing me they could use Cantor to steal as much from me as they wanted. Wisconsin was the left’s way of saying they’ll fight to the end for their right to steal from me. With the republican failure to take them on at the national level and address the deficit, it’s over. There is, and will be, no resolution.
We are in for a brief series of “stop gap measures” which will all fail quickly. What we are experiencing is called a “reserve currency shift.” By stop gap measures I assume you mean things like capital controls, restrictions on expatriation of wealth, seizure of private 401(k) and IRA accounts, nationalization of pension funds, and nationalization of timber and mining assets, etc. Right?
Crisis just ahead.
It is almost 4am HKT.. Any dare devils up for watching their opening bell at 9pm EST?
http://forex.timezoneconverter.com/index.cgi?timezone=US/Eastern;
Sydney, 6pm eastern Sunday night.
Tokyo, 7pm eastern Sunday night.
Yes, the forum herein reflects the basic strategy; republicans must promote, and if necessary, help to create conditions which emphasize the negative in our economy and our fiscal situation, that is, of course, until they win. Perhaps other more experienced commentators have witnessed this in the past; that is, a major party actually rooting against our interests. No matter that they helped cause the great recession and at the time opined that deficits simply don’t matter. I believe we are now on a firm foundation for a real, solid, recovery, one based upon on strengths and our character, not the latest financial instrument designed to transfer wealth. If the republicans do anything more to jeopardize that, they will deserve their defeat in 2012
Mike: I believe we are now on a firm foundation for a real, solid, recovery
Do you understand how thoroughly you destroy any hope of credibility you might have when you make statements like that one? It’s impossible for me to take anything you say seriously; your comments are completely trapped in the left-right paradigm. Reality is not a factor.
We are deficit-spending 11% of GDP in order to achieve 2% GDP “growth.” We are deficit-spending so much that we can’t even borrow it fast enough, the Fed has to print up the difference and lend that to us as well.
In a ridiculous attempt to draw attention away from their incompetence, the “mainstream” Ds and Rs argue about $30 Billion in cuts as part of a $1600 Billion deficit and concentrate the public debate on emotional issues like abortion and health care for poor women.
Meanwhile, the republic burns, and my wallet along with it. It seems the Ds and Rs both want myself and my children to be debt slaves forever, just for alleged different reasons.
Well yes, Jamie, my posts herein have been consistent that to keep the nascent recovery in progress, deficit spending is a must to make up for the drop in private spending caused by the collapse of our financial system. Along about 2012 however, we need to begin a phased transition to “pay go” much along the program laid out by Senator Mark Warner and his bi-partisan team. This will involve a gradual reduction of the percentage of spending compared to GDP, which can be assured by less spending and by increased investment and production in the economy. The point is, enforced austerity can collapse the economic recovery, and that is the last thing business people like me want to see.
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