Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Ranting... Raving... (A quick look at the latest federal budget news)



Using an ABC News piece as my jumping off point:

A massive $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the government through October and finally put to rest the bitter budget battles of last year is getting generally positive reviews from House Republicans eager to avoid another shutdown crisis with elections looming in 10 months.

* OF COURSE IT IS...

(*SIGH*)

Veteran Republicans said the favorable response to the all-encompassing spending bill reflected the desire of the rank and file to avoid a repeat of the politically damaging budget standoffs with the White House that led to last year's 16-day partial government shutdown.

* SURRENDER... THAT'S WHAT REPUBLICANS DO - OFTEN SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY.

The government closure sent congressional approval numbers plummeting and roughed up Republicans in particular.

* BULLSHIT. IF ANYTHING THE SHUTDOWN DAMAGED OBAMA. IT SHOWED HIM FOR THE PETTY, MEAN-SPIRITED PHONY IS WHEN HE DELIBERATELY CAUSED PAIN TO PEOPLE IN PURSUIT OF POLITICAL POINTS. TRYING TO SCREW THE VETERANS HURT HIM! (BUT OF COURSE THE GOP LEADERSHIP WAS TOO DAMNED STUPID TO SEE THE TRUTH...)

"The shutdown educated — particularly our younger members who weren't here during our earlier shutdown — about how futile that practice is," said House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky. "There is a real hard determination now that we will reacquire and use the power of the purse that the Congress constitutionally has been given."

* I'D APPLAUD IF HAROLD ROGERS WERE TO DROP DEAD.

Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., said the bill would get "our country off this notion of shutting the government down" and would allow Republicans to "keep the spotlight on some other issues that affect the other side that we think are very important," a reference to the health care law that's weighing politically on Democrats.

* SAME WITH WOMACK.

Tea party favorites like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, were slow to criticize the measure...

* "SLOW TO CRITICIZE?" FOLKS... DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE? IT INFERS HE DID INDEED CRITICIZE THE MEASURE... BUT... BY PUTTING IT THIS WAY THE SCUMBAGS WRITING AND EDITING THE STORY HERE CAN AVOID HIGHLIGHTING WHAT HE SAID IN OPPOSITION.

(*SPITTING ON THE GROUND*)

Cruz was a key force in the politically disastrous strategy to shut down the government over funding of so-called ObamaCare.

* AGAIN, FOLKS... NOTICE THE SHOT... THE SHOT ALIGNED TO A FALSE PREMISE. (THIS IS WHY YOU'VE GOT TO READ THE MSM WITH A CRITICAL EYE. THEY'RE USUALLY TRYING TO MANIPULATE YOU AND THEY'LL USE EVERY DIRTY TRICK IN THE BOOK TO DO SO.)

The massive measure contains a dozens of trade-offs between Democrats and Republicans...

* WHILE NO DOUBT SCREWING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE...

...as it fleshes out the details of the budget deal that Congress passed last month. That pact gave relatively modest but much-sought relief to the Pentagon...

* MEANING HIGHER SPENDING...

...and domestic agencies after deep budget cuts last year.

* MEANING HIGHER SPENDING... PROBABLY MORE THAN MAKING UP FOR THE "CUTS" OF LAST YEAR. (THUS... NO REAL CUTS... THEY'VE BEEN UNDONE... IN "BIPARTISAN" FASHION.)

* FOLKS... I JUST WANNA CRY. I PRAY THAT THERE ARE PATRIOTS OUT THERE WITH MORE COURAGE THAN I MYSELF POSSESS. (OF COURSE I'M NOT CALLING FOR VIOLENCE... BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE A CRIME...)

Western Republicans from timber country were anxious about a cutoff of funding of federal payments in lieu of taxes to towns surrounded by federal lands but were reassured that the payments would be extended though separate legislation.

* MORE SPENDING...

(*SNORT*)

Gulf Coast lawmakers praised a provision aimed at delaying federal flood insurance premium increases from new flood maps that have proven faulty, but the provision left in place other reforms enacted in 2012.

* I DOUBT THE "REFORMS" WENT NEARLY FAR ENOUGH. (FOLKS... UNDERSTAND... NOT ONLY DO SUBSIDIZED INSURANCE RATES SUPPORT IRRESPONSIBLE CONSTRUCTION... BUT YOU AND I PAY FOR THE SUBSIDIES WHICH ALLOW THE RICH THEIR OCEANFRONT HOMES AND ALLOW BUSINESSES TO RACK IN THE PROFITS WHILE COUNTING ON BAILOUTS IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG.)

The GOP-led House is slated to pass the 1,582-page bill Wednesday, though some tea party conservatives are sure to oppose it.

Democrats pleased with new money to educate preschoolers and build high-priority highway projects are likely to make up the difference even as Republican social conservatives fret about losing familiar battles over abortion policy.

* ABORTION HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING. (AGAIN... SEE WHAT I MEAN? THE WRITER AND/OR EDITOR JUST THREW THAT REMARK IN...)

The bill would avert spending cuts that threatened construction of new aircraft carriers and next-generation Joint Strike Fighters.

* MEANING IT WOULD CONTINUE TO FINANCE DEFICIT SPENDING AND EVER-INCREASING DEBT LAID UPON THE BACKS OF NOT ONLY OURSELVES, BUT OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN.

* AGAIN... FOLKS... PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO HOW THE WRITER/EDITOR ATTEMPTS TO MANIPULATE READERS INTO THINKING THIS BILL IS A GOOD BILL!

It maintains rent subsidies for the poor, awards federal civilian and military workers a 1% raise...

(*MASSIVE MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)

...and beefs up security at U.S. embassies across the globe.

* OH, PLEEEASE... WHAT BULLSHIT!

The Obama administration would be denied money to meet its full commitments to the International Monetary Fund but get much of the money it wanted to pay for implementation of the new health care law and the 2010 overhaul of financial regulations.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

"This agreement shows the American people that we can compromise, and that we can govern," said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. "It puts an end to shutdown, slowdown, slamdown politics."

* AGAIN... NOTE... THE AUTHOR OF THIS STORY MIGHT AS WELL WORK FOR MIKULSKI OR SOME OTHER BILL SUPPORTER. (WHERE'S THE BALANCED REPORTING? WHERE'S "THE OTHER SIDE" OF THE DEBATE?)

The House vote is expected less than 48 hours after the measure became public, even though Republicans promised a 72-hour review period for legislation during their campaign to take over the House in 2010.

* YET ANOTHER SHOT... (BUT A FAIR ONE...)

* AGAIN, FOLKS, THE BOEHNER-MCCONNELL LED GOP IS NOTHING MORE THAN A "ROGUE" DEMOCRAT SPECIAL-INTEREST GROUP.

On Tuesday, the House by routine voice vote approved a short-term funding bill to extend the Senate's deadline to finish the overall spending bill until midnight Saturday. The Senate was expected to follow suit. The current short-term spending bill expires at midnight Wednesday evening.

The measure doesn't contain in-your-face victories for either side.

* BOTH PARTIES WANT MORE SPENDING AND ARE WILLING TO KEEP ADDING TO THE DEBT TO GET THEIR WAY.

* THOUGHT OF THE DAY: "IF ONLY THE TERRORISTS WOULD LIMIT THEIR ATTACKS TO U.S. POLITICIANS..."

The primary achievement was that there was an agreement in the first place after the collapse of the budget process last year, followed by a 16-day government shutdown and another brush with a disastrous default on U.S. obligations.

* BULLSHIT. JUST A PLAIN DIRECT LIE. (WE'VE BEEN OVER THE WHOLE DEFAULT THING...)

* FOLKS... AGAIN... UNDERSTAND... YOU CAN'T TRUST THE MEDIA FOR EVEN BASIC HONESTY. THEY'LL LIE WHENEVER IT SUITS THEIR ENDS. THEY'LL LIE VIA OMISSION... AND THEY'LL LIE VIA COMMISSION.

After the shutdown and debt crisis last fall, House Budget committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., struck an agreement to avoid a repeat of the 5% cut applied to domestic agencies last year and to prevent the Pentagon from absorbing about $20 billion in new cuts on top of the ones that hit it last year.

* MEANING RYAN WORKED WITH MURRAY TO UNDERCUT 2010 REPUBLICAN ELECTION PROMISES AND TO SUPPORT DEMOCRAT SPENDING MEASURES IN RETURN FOR DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT FOR REPUBLICAN PET PROJECTS! DISGUSTING!

* FOLKS... I'VE TOLD YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN... PAUL RYAN IS NOT WHO YOU'VE BEEN TOLD HE IS. PAUL RYAN IS A PIECE OF SHIT... A BOEHNER REPUBLICAN. PAY NO ATTENTION TO WHAT HE SAYS... PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT HE DOES... TO THE ACTUAL PROPOSALS HE MAKES THAT ACTUALLY GET VOTED UPON WITH A HOPE OF BEING PASSED.

At the White House, President Barack Obama expressed support for the bill...

* AND DOESN'T THAT JUST TELL YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW...???

...and urged Congress to "pass that funding measure as quickly as possible so that all these agencies have some certainty around their budgets."

To be sure, there is plenty for both parties to oppose in the legislation. Conservatives face a vote to finance implementation of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and Wall Street regulations, both enacted in 2010 over solid Republican opposition. A conservative-backed initiative to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions was dumped overboard...

* OF COURSE IT WAS! (AGAIN... BECAUSE IN REALITY A MAJORITY OF "REPUBLICANS" ARE LITTLE MORE THAN WHAT WOULD HAVE PASSED FOR "CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRATS" A DECADE OR SO AGO.)

...and social conservatives failed to win new restrictions on abortion.

* AGAIN... THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ABORTION. ABORTION IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT TOPIC. (AND THE AUTHOR/EDITOR OF THIS PIECE KNOW IT! BUT THEY WANT TO MUDDY THE WATERS SO THEY THROW IT OUT THERE.)

Democrats must accept new money...

(*GUFFAW*)

* OH... WHAT A FRIGGIN' HARDSHIP!

(*STILL LAUGHING*)

...for abstinence education programs they often ridicule, and conservatives can take heart that overall spending for daily agency operations has been cut by $79 billion, or 7%, from the high-water mark established by Democrats in 2010.

* SMOKE AND MIRRORS ACCOUNTING, FOLKS - NOTICE "PROGRAM" SPENDING... NOT "OVERALL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES."

(*SMIRK*)

That cut increases to $165 billion, or 13%, when cuts in war funding and disaster spending are accounted for.

* FOLKS... AGAIN... DON'T GET SUCKERED INTO A THREE-CARD-MONTY GAME. CUTS HAVE BEEN REVERSED. SPENDING IS BEING INCREASED. THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE.

Money for Obama's high-speed rail program would be cut off — a defeat for California Democrats — and rules restricting the sale of less efficient incandescent light bulbs would be blocked.

* LIGHTBULBS? WE'RE REALLY GONNA FOCUS ON LIGHTBULBS? (FOLKS... AGAIN... PLEASE DON'T ALLOW YOURSELVES TO BE EASILY MANIPULATED! KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BOTTOM LINE...!!!) AND AS FOR THE HIGH SPEED RAIL PROGRAM... HOW MANY BILLIONS HAVE BEEN POURED INTO IT SINCE THEY CAME UP WITH THE IDEA? (NOTICE THE REPORTER DOESN'T ADDRESS THIS QUESTION...)

Democrats are more likely to climb aboard than tea party Republicans, but only after voting to give Obama about $6 billion more in Pentagon war funding than the $79 billion he requested.

* GEEZUS...

(*BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL*)

The additional war money is helping the Pentagon deal with a cash crunch in troop readiness accounts. Including foreign aid related to overseas security operations, total war funding reaches $92 billion, a slight cut from last year.

* SHOULDN'T IT BE A HUGE CUT FROM LAST YEAR... AND SHOULDN'T LAST YEAR HAVE BEEN A HUGE CUT FROM THE YEAR BEFORE? FOLKS... JUST IMAGE WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THESE FUNDS ARE PISSED AWAY, STOLEN, SCAMMED, OR SIMPLY WASTED THROUGH INCOMPETENCE?

(*JUST SHAKING MY NOW BRUISED HEAD*)

At the same time, the bill is laced with sweeteners. One is a provision exempting disabled veterans and war widows from a pension cut enacted last month.

* NOTICE THE ARTICLE DOESN'T SPECIFIC MEANS-TESTED BENEFITS OR NOT...

* AND AGAIN... BACK TO SMOKE AND MIRRORS ACCOUNTING... "EXEMPTING...FROM A PENSION CUT ENACTED LAST MONTH!"

(*CLOSING MY EYES*) (*MASSAGING MY TEMPLES*)

The bill contains increases for veterans' medical care backed by both sides and fully funds the $6.7 billion budget for food aid for low-income pregnant women and their children.

* THE BREEDERS... THE WELFARE CLASS...

* AS FOR THE VET'S CARE... WHY CAN'T CONGRESS SIMPLY PRIORITIZE THAT OVER OTHER SPENDING - CUTTING FROM OTHER PROGRAMS TO FUND VETERAN'S CARE? ANSWER: THEY DON'T WANT TO! THE JUST WANT TO SPEND AND SPEND AND SPEND... DEFICIT SPEND... ADDING DEBT TO DEBT TO DEBT...

Yet the National Institutes of Health's proposed budget of $29.9 billion falls short of the $31 billion budget it won when Democrats controlled Congress. Democrats won a $100 million increase, to $600 million, for so-called TIGER grants for high-priority transportation infrastructure projects, a program that started with the 2009 stimulus bill.

(*SILENCE*)

The spending bill would spare the Pentagon from a brutal second-wave cut of $20 billion...

* NOT BRUTAL. NOT BRUTAL AT ALL.

...in additional reductions on top of last year's $34 billion sequestration cut, which forced furloughs of civilian employees and harmed training and readiness accounts.

* SO... BANKRUPTING AMERICA IS PATRIOTIC...

(*SNORT*)

* AGAIN... FOLKS... THIS IS MARKETING - NOT REPORTING.

It also contains a longstanding provision blocking the Postal Service from ending Saturday mail delivery and closing rural post offices, a rule that's taking on greater importance as Congress contemplates cost-cutting steps for the post office.

* DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE POST OFFICE...

* FOLKS... AGAIN... BOTTOM LINE... TO THOSE WHO SAY "VIOLENCE IS NOT THE ANSWER" I REPLY... BUT IS A SLOW, PAINFUL, DEATH SPIRAL PREFERABLE TO AT LEAST TRYING THE METHOD OUR OWN FOUNDERS CHOOSE? (YOU DO REALIZE THAT "VIOLENCE" IS HOW WE CREATED THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA... RIGHT?)
 

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