Some consider the Nation’s Capital as “Fantasyland on the Potomac”. Other outsiders are “Fed Up” with the Federal City. It's better to consider D.C. as “the District of Calamity” (sic).
After the way that Establishment Republicans acted in their profligate $1.3 TRILLION for the remaining six months of FY 2018 in the Omnibus spending bill, one wonders if how Republicans ought to be portrayed.
Traditionally, the Grand Old Party's symbol is an elephant (remember?). Cynics charge that they should be exposed as RINOs. But considering they way many Congressional Republicans change from being a fiscally conservative party when they strive for power and then profligately spend when they are in charge, perhaps they would be better depicted as conservative chameleons. But can they survive if the proverbial swamp is drained in the District of Calamity (sic).
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has some harsh words for his Republican colleagues who are pushing for the six month $1.3 TRILLION spending bill to avoid another government shutdown. But this is not the first time he has rebuked Republicans for the hypocrisy about governmental spending and the broken budgetary process.
To illustrate how Republican Congressional Leadership is acting like the Surrender Caucus in allowing full funding for President Obama's unwise and extra-constitutional actions with Obamacare, Executive Amnesty and the Iran Nuke Deal, Senator Cruz resorted to a football analogy.
Senator Cruz has not endeared himself with his colleagues for calling them out on show votes which are meaningless but letting government growth legislation pass without objection. But if Cruz can successfully convey this Congressional Kabuki show to primary voters, he may score with frustrated populists, Tea Party Conservatives and RON Paulesque "conservatarians".
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) gave a revealing interview to a Kentucky television station regarding his "leadership" style and priorities.
McConnell bragged how under his helm in the 114th Congress, the Republican leadership has brought order to disorder and been more productive. There are 10 times the number of roll call votes than under the last term with ex Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and the Senate is on the road to passing a budget on time, which Democrat Senate had been unable to do five of six years under the Obama Administration. Furthermore, Senator McConnell bragged about allowing for bipartisan votes, and he specifically cited the Iran Nuke Vote.
Consequently, Leader McConnell will not fight to stop Planned Parenthood funding. The so called Leader lamented that the votes simply were not there to override a veto. Too bad, so sad.
Apparently, Mr. McConnell does not appreciate the overwhelming anger of the Republican base about a do-nothing Congress which stands for nothing.
Senator McConnell conveniently forgot about Senator Rand Paul's effort to attach a Planned Parenthood defunding amendment to the highway bill, which was virtually a must pass piece of legislation. The Republican Majority Leader followed his predecessor's practice of filling the amendment tree so that no amendments (other than what the Majority Leader preferred) could be attached.
Instead, Senator McConnell promised a "stand alone" defund Planned Parenthood vote, which inevitably fell short of attaining cloture, meaning that the bill would never be finally voted upon, but phony conservatives could still say that they voted against Planned Parenthood to their gullible constituents while on the hustings or in town hall meetings.
For budget reconciliation votes, there is a special mechanism (the Byrd rule) which does not require a cloture vote to cut off debate. So theoretically, a budget with a Planned Parenthood defunding rider could pass and land on President Obama's desk, where it is likely that America's most pro-abortion Chief Executive would veto the budget. Which would mean that Mr. Obama would be responsible for closing down the government to support Planned Parenthood selling baby body parts.
But the Republican establishment is scared of its own shadow much less the prospect of having a government shutdown blamed on them. So seemingly, the GOP Congresssional "leadership" (particularly in the Senate) will acquiesce to anything to avoid that outcome.
Senator McConnell's profile in cowardice in prematurely waving the white flag on the budget shows that he cares more about a hollow set of accomplishments instead of standing for life, law, or principles. Aside from more roll call votes, how can Senate leadership in the 114th Congress be distinguished from the Democrats. President Obama gets everything he wants. If there is legislation which rubs him the wrong way, the Republican establishment in the Senate caves when Mr. Obama "threatens" to take out his veto pen.
At this point, Mr. Obama is a lame duck who should have waning influence even within his own party. Admittedly, Planned Parenthood funding might be a major fight, but it would be worth it to a principled party. This is not a new law outlawing abortion, it is enforcing existing law on fetal pain partial birth abortion and outlawed abortion practices, which the Center for Medical Progress have show that Planned Parenthood is flagrantly flouting the rule of law.
During the WYMT-TV Issues and Answers interview, Mr. McConnell seemed proud to endorse upcoming Iran Nuke Vote. There are strong prospects for passage but it may not garner the 2/3rds vote for a veto proof majority. Using McConnell's same logic, Republicans should fold up tent and give up because it will not be signed into law.
Of course, the Corker/Cardin procedure ignores proper procedure that a binding international agreement (treaty) must have 2/3rds yea votes (instead of disapproval by 2/3rds). But even if the Iran Nuke vote fails to block enactment, a strong show of disapproval would give the next President indication of the unpopularity of the Executive Agreement. Similarly, passing a budget with a Planned Parenthood defunding amendment might not stand in the short term, but it would lay down a marker for the future. But that involves standing for principle and not feathering one's nest for the next time to try and hoodwink Republican primary voters.
As elites in the District of Calamity (sic) seem increasingly out of touch, it is worthy to point out some guide posts. Senator Ted Cruz's July floor speech exposing the perfidy of Mitch McConnell regarding the Ex-Imp bank showed the duplicity of establishment Republicans to the base. The current front-runners in the Republican Presidential race are all outsiders (Trump, Cardin, Fiorina and Cruz) running on a Washington Is Broken meme. Avoiding hard votes, like Defunding Planned Parenthood may make big time contributors happy but it bodes poorly with the well-informed base who vote in primaries. And in the end, when it comes to choosing between a progressive and a progressive lite, why not choose the real thing, because you know what you are getting and it won't be a lie.
Over the last four years, Republicans have been painted as obstructionists as House bills have been passed and died in the Democrat controlled Senate because Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) as Senate Majority Leader did not want votes which would embarrass the President and force a veto. In the six years of the Obama Administration, the Senate only passed a budget from regular orders once, the rest being Continuing Resolutions.
In the 113th Congress, the House passed a budget early in the cycle, but which contained a rider which prohibits the Department of Homeland Security from expending funds from the Obama Administration's extra legal Executive Amnesty program. Senate Democrats refuse to allow debate on the budget, much less block a final vote, as they hope to pressure the Republican Majority to cave in order to avoid an entire shutdown of DHS at the end of February . Of course, most of DHS are essential workers so a hypothetical shutdown would just involve 33,000 administrative workers.
Judging from the tough talk from Speaker Boehner, the House majority won't back down. But the Lamestream Media will still find a way to frame Republicans as being dangerous obstructionists.
As the former deadline for signing up for Obamacare passed on March 31st and the White House could claim that 7.2 million Americans started applications on Healthcare.gov, the Obama Administration sought to celebrate. The Obama White House requested a prime-time slot slot to trumpet this achievement, but were roundly rejected by the television networks. It is surprising that the lackey Lamestream Media did not consider this Obamacare announcement to be, in the words our national treasure Vice President Joe Biden, "a big f***ing deal." So President Obama shared the news of supposedly achieving the magic mark
Still, President Obama was feeling full of himself when speaking the next day before students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. After giving kudos to himself for the Obamacare achievement, Mr. Obama went on to characterize House Budget Chairman Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI 1st) ten year budget as a "stinkburger".
What a way to win friends and influence people! President Obama is such a leader that he can denigrate and punish his political enemies in a charming slight. Hope that he does not need opposition support to legally enact any legislative initiatives during the remainder of his term.
However, when the golden propaganda is not laden on the serving of public policy, it calls into question what really is the stinkburger.
For example, the Obama Administration is content that 7.2 million people enrolled in Obamacare. But there are two problems with relying upon those statistics. Simply because one started an application does not mean that one will enroll. This is why the deadline has been extra-legally pushed backto April 15th if you say that you tried signing up before March 31st. How apt!
Yet one is not actually enrolled until your first month's premium is cashed and 20% of those supposedly signed up are eloping from their efforts at Healthcare.gov. Then there is the nasty reality coming from a Rand Corporation report that only 23% of Obamacare enrollees previously had no insurance (or 858,298 people). Moreover, only 53% of previously uninsured individuals have paid for their insurance.
These ratio questions will be of paramount importance as insurance premiums for the second year are calculated. If there are too many heavily subsidized participants, or not enough young invincibles to compensate for older Obamacare enrollees who need more costly medical care, then insurance rates will skyrocket. However, the Obama Administration has given itself a delay in reporting 2015 premium increases until after the mid-term elections. Is this a coincidence or more politically convenient?
House Budget Committee Chairman Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI 1st) was one of the initial speakers at CPAC 2014. Ryan's restrained rhetorical style along with his general remarks did not fire up the crowd as Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) with their early morning speeches. However, Rep. Ryan did have one well wrought out zinger which illustrated his overall point
The House Budget Chairman quipped that: "Right now, the U.S. tax code is ten times longer than the Bible with none of the Good News." It was a great line to try to soft pitch House Ways and Means Chairman Representative Dave Camp's (R-MI 10th) controversial tax reform over-hall plan. Regardless of how one feels about the particulars on the policies, it is aimed at cutting away bureaucratic red tape and allowing taxpayers to keep more of their own money.
But instead of debating how a Big Brother bureaucracy is burdening Americans and forcing a Statist will upon individuals, much of the media nit-picked as the chain of knowledge for the source on his "brown bag lunch story." The Left's tizzy tactics illustrates Ryan's point that the left is out of ideas and would rather demonize their opponents instead of engaging in debate.
By virtue of his position as House Chairman, Representative Ryan is part of GOP House Leadership. But his bold budget plans do not show a Cocktail Party complacency which plagues many GOP elites. Based on the tepid applause at CPAC 2014 as well as his eighth place finish (with 3%) in the CPAC Straw Poll, Ryan can not count on the conservative base for support in a prospective Presidential run this cycle.
That being said, Rep. Ryan is a respected representative who can bolster the notion that Conservatives are the ones with ideas, and perhaps actuate that with Republican majorities in Congress.
After Republicans succumbed to the bipartisan siren song in the joint budget by House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI 1st) and Senate Budget Committee Chair Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Tea Party types and the Conservative base is flummoxed. The measure passed 332-94 in the House and passed cloture 67-43 in the Senate.
The first real budget that has been passed by Congress during the Obama Administration also promised to not cause another government shutdown. However, this two year budget came at a cost of surrendering all real Sequestration savings which were won in August 2011 for fictional accounting rounding errors in a decade. It also took away a tool from the Senate minority of requiring cloture votes for future budgetary increases. In addition, it raised outlays by government employees and beneficiaries such as combat veterans for health care. But there were no government programs cut. Yet despite the modest budget proposal, House Speaker John Boehner attacks conservatives and cries "Are you kidding me?" when questioned if he could have gotten a better deal.
This Pyrrhic political by the GOP calls to mind what they really stand for. Is the GOP in Washington dominated by the Cocktail Party, which goes along to get along and will not stand up against programs which they will campaign against during the general election? Does the G.O.P. still stand for the Grand Old Party? Maybe it should mean Get an Orthopedic Procedure sometimes called spinal replacement therapy.
As March Madness begins in earnest today, President Obama took the time before his quick Spring Break trip to the Middle-East to fill out his NCAA March Madness Brackets.
The Celebrity-in-Chief then taped an ESPN segment to explain his choices--
While the POTUS picks have been one in four during his tenure in the Oval, it calls for an even basic question--why is he wasting time on inconsequential items when he has a nation that he should be governing?
The law requires that the Executive Branch submits its Federal Budget by February 1st. As it stands, the Obama Administration won't have it done by April Fools Day.
Perhaps we could profit from the POTUS picks and make up the sequestration shortfall. But considering that he chose safe picks: Ohio State, Florida, Louisville and Indiana, it won't have much of a payout. Unlike if someone chose in Paddy Pool chose Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio in the Conclave Championship --The Sweet Sistine. The man who became Pope Francis paid off at 33-1.
We do not need bread and circuses. We need leadership from Washington. A couple of weeks ago, President Obama went through the motions of a Capitol Hill charm offensive. Then he cracks wise against Congress when setting foot on foreign soil. It make one wonder if he is serious about the responsibilities as the Leader of the Free World, or if he just seriously enjoys the spotlight and the trappings of the Oval Office.
It may be sold as the Tree of Life, but that bitter fruit of taxes is actually the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Blaming the tempter won't work either as the public will be made to remember the vow breaker not the insidious instigators.
Gorging on the fruit without having a disciplined diet (like spending cuts and a Senate approved budget) should get both banished from the garden but that is unlikely in the District of Calamity.
Jackasses should realize that the $570 million jackpot would have only funded the federal fix for 86 minutes, so Lotto Luck with that plan of living on the fiscal edge. h/t: Dana Summers
As American teeters at the edge of the fiscal cliff, and most of the Lamestream Media gave saturation coverage to Powerball mania, it may be instructive to use the lotto fever paradigm to explain the futility of “soaking the rich” via President Obama’s unceasing class warfare campaigning as governing strategy.
As the Heritage Foundation’s graphic illustrates, even confiscating all of the lucky Lotto winners gross (granted government already takes around 50%), this would only fund the Federal Government for 86 MINUTES.
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If the American public thinks that by soaking the wealthiest one percent, it will balance the budget, then lotto luck. If they are able to engage in critical thinking, it would behoove them to determine what is someone’s “fair share”. Moreover, since the Obama Administration has defined millionaires downward to just $200,000, they should discern how low the label of the wealthy will go when seizing true millionaire’s incomes only funds the government for around just 100 days. As Ayn Rand observed in Atlas Shrugged: “If you don't know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.”
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