Tentative budget deal reached which includes $33 billion in spending cuts
Nothing has been confirmed, but George Stephanopoulos is reporting that his sources have told him that a tentative budget deal has been reached which includes $33 billion in spending cuts. If this is true and we couple these spending cuts with the combined $10 billion is spending cuts from the two continuing resolutions this brings the total spending cuts to $43 billion–less than half of the cuts that the Republicans promised the American people while running for office in 2010.
The Republicans were swept into power on the premise that they would stop the out of control spending in Washington and would cut $100 billion in spending, but it appears to me as if the Republicans seriously displayed their hand and threw away all of the momentum they had gained on this issue during the campaign season. If the Republicans were serious about cutting $100 billion they would have begun negotiations with a number much higher than that in order to allow the compromise to be closer to the $100 billion mark, yet the Republicans didn’t even open up the negotiations with the promised $100 billion, settling for $61 billion instead. This was the beginning of their downfall.
Shortly after negotiations began on the budget the Democrats began warning the American people that the Republicans were setting up the possibility that the government would have to be shut down because they refused to compromise with the Democrats. This was done simply to intimidate the Republicans–still leery of the repercussions from the government shutdown in the 1990’s–and it worked. As a matter of fact, it worked twice. The Democrats were basically challenging the Republicans to shut down the government and the Republicans blinked.
The Democrats in the Congress, as well as the president, will now be able to claim a tactical victory on the budget because they were able to claim that they cut the budget while at the same time spinning it to say they were able to avoid the “draconian” cuts that were proposed by the Republicans. Meanwhile the Republicans are going to have to go home and explain to their constituents why they failed them.
America's Watchtower 
The day the last CR was passed with cuts of $6 billion our national debt increased $72 billion. How much the national debt has gone up sense then I do not know. And now our boys and girls are going to settle for another $33 billion. wow! That’s progress. The Tea Parties need to make another march on Washington and take some megphones with them.
LikeLike
Yep, it’s time to call out the troops, this is simply not acceptable! There is nobody in Washington who is willing to make the tough political decisions.
LikeLike
It’s time to take the GOP establishment to the woodshed.
LikeLike
Yes it is, I guess we will have to let our feelings known once again in 2012.
LikeLike
Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you make promises you don’t know how to back up. President Bush 41 made the same mistake. Politics is never about absolutes, and compromise is the way the Framers intended the US government to work.
It was pretty arrogant of the T-Party people to attach a number to the budget cuts – if they’d just said “We’re going to stop the increases in spending and start cutting,” without promising any specific number, they’d have taken some knocks for not having a goal, but they’d be in better shape now.
Shame on them, too, both for thinking in absolutes and encouraging their constituents to do so, in a pluralistic society.
Take good care and may God bless us all!
TGY
LikeLike
Would Pelosi beg to differ with you.
LikeLike
Oh, without a doubt – she and leader DeLay are exemplary of politicians who talk up compromise until they’re in leadership positions, and then all the idealistic talk goes out the window.
Under Reagan and Bush 41, partisan politics drove the debate, but there was debate, and especially in the Reagan years, the leaders of their parties – Reagan and O’Neill – made certain to maintain a cordial and productive relationship.
It was during the Clinton years, IMO, that the absolutist approach to policy-making became the standard, and it was driven by Speaker Gingrich and the 1994 freshman GOP class in the House.
Have a glorious day, and may God bless us all!
TGY
LikeLike
I am afraid you are right, they made the claim but they obviously didn’t have the data behind it or they would have known exactly what to cut when the time came. But they didn’t and they could only come up with $60 billion and once they started below their original promise it was all over.
LikeLike
I’m still wondering what happened to that CBO report. There are billions more in cuts available that wouldn’t hurt anybody. Makes me think nobody in Washington is serious about cutting spending.
LikeLike
I know! It is frustrating that this CBO report seems to have fallen by the wayside and I fear you are right; nobody is taking this issue seriously and if we don’t do somethign soon we will be in real trouble.
LikeLike
Very true indeed. Although, since we’re blaming parties in this post, it is the Democrats’ fault it’s gotten this far. As has been said before, if they had done their job last year and passed a full budget, instead of trying to make the freshmen Republicans pass 1.5 budgets, then we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with. That doesn’t negate the Republicans’ accountability in not passing this bill, but it does balance the argument of: “If A didn’t happen, B wouldn’t have happened and C didn’t need to happen”.
LikeLike
A good point; Democrats did not want to pass a budget before the 2010 election because they feared an even bigger slaughter at the polls so they “kicked the can down the road” and now we are in this position.
LikeLike
The Republicans and RNC are absolutely inept on conveying the conservative message to the people. They are weak, afraid of their own shadows and now this only makes them look weaker. The Democrats might have a terribly flawed political ideology, but they damn sure know how to sell it to the people…even if they have to lie about it. Words have power and the Democrats have mastered the power of words. This is why we continue to spend, trillions of dollars over our budget, bankrupting our nation. Maybe its time we seriously consider a third option; a conservative party.
LikeLike
My 2 cents, it’s not yet time for third party. We’ve only had one major election cycle, which has done some good. The majority of that good, btw, is on a non-federal level and so we have not fully realized the extent of that.
I feel impatient too, but then, I’m the sort that stands in front of the microwave yelling, C’mon ON!
Should we be disappointed by the number $43 billion? Yes of course. And really, who cares about whether politicians should/should not frame arguments and promises in absolutes–that is completely beside the point. The whole $100 the GAO says is wasteful spending is not enough either. The $500 billion that Rand Paul proposed is not enough either (which he also admitting, callng the $500 non-entitlement stuff a “start.”)
Do we have enough time to eat the whale in the small bites that seem required here?
Dunno. Makes it interesting, anyway. And perhaps we need that sense of urgency just to get us doing anything at all . . .
enough rambling LOL
LikeLike
I understand what you are saying but right now I am so upset that if we nominate another candidate like John McCain I am fully prepared to vote for another candidate. I am tired of being played for a fool by the Republicans and they are not going to fool me again.
LikeLike
I am growing more and more frustrated with the Republican party and if we do not nominate a true conservative candidate I am fully prepared to vote for someone else, even if that means returning Barack Obama to the White House. I will no longer compromise my ideals.
LikeLike
That’s the problem that we had in the 90’s and the last decade. The GOPers would come home every election cycle, PROMISE to be conservatives, and then return to the RINO reserve after election day.
I’m with you. It’s time to stop compromising. We get the kind of government that we tolerate…any I’m becoming pretty intolerant.
LikeLike
It is sad that it has come to this Matt, but we have been burned too many times in the past to sit by and let it happen again!
LikeLike
Ah yes, well. If the second post-Tea Party election cycle (2012) does not offer a good conservative presidential candidate, then I too will be revising my opinion. I may want to leave more than just the GOP at that point . . . .
LikeLike
One would argue, politicians are nothing if not salesman. One of the basic rules of salesmanship is, “Underpromise and overdeliver.” Apparently, the GOP missed that class.
I really don’t care anymore, shut the damn whole thing down! This government is out of control and sometimes drastic action must be taken. I care not for any of the consequences of such action – a complete DEM sweep in 2012, so be it – the Dems are winning now when we have a majority in the house, who gives a crap if it switches back.
LikeLike
I agree, shut it down and let the chips fall where they may!
LikeLike
For some reason, they are not making the Senate take a vote. The House already voted a bill, let the Senate stick there neck out for one. Even if the House backed down in the end, make them take a vote.. come back and then do a compromise. The GOP is not making there case one wit.
LikeLike
That is a great point, why hasn’t the Senate voted on the original bill?
LikeLike