WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!? I have an intimate knowledge of the budget process! Don't believe me? Ok fine, I'll prove it. Here's how it's supposed to work.
February the President presents his budget to Congress, his Santa list if you will. It's all the cool shit he wants but IN NO WAY expects to get. Both houses of Congress send the proposal down to various committees including the...wait for it...the Appropriations Committee. They part it out to various sub-committees to slice and dice. What comes out is 10 or 12 spending Bills which are hashed out, amended, reconciled etc. etc. until every last power player gets something they can crow about back home in Bumfuqington, Idaho (no YOU da ho). If they can't get a budget done (which is the new normal under Democrats) they just do a "continuing resolution" which means overtime for the last budget. It could be a day, a month...whatever.
But what happened this time is the Republican leadership, Speaker Boehner and Mitch McConnell really couldn't bring themselves to vote on anything that might smell of true fiscal discipline and they certainly didn't want to piss off the Chamber or somehow screw up the 2016 elections (or a hundred other things cowards think about when they have to make a decision) so they kicked the can down the road to the point an "Omnibus" was necessary. In other words all these individual appropriation bills were lumped into one. In this case it was sorta like a group gang-bang on conservative principles (you knew you were getting screwed it's you just didn't know who's penis it was).
The Democrats loved it!
“I said I would not accept a lot of [conservative] ideological riders that were attached to a big budget deal, and because of some terrific negotiations by the Democrats up on Capitol Hill and I think some pretty good work by our legislative staff here… it was a good win. We met our goals”. President Barack Obama.
“We wanted to get rid of sequestration, we were able to do that. The Omnibus deal caps off a successful year for Senate Democrats”. Harry Reid.
“Well, if you would’ve told me this year that we’d be standing here celebrating the passage of an omnibus bill, with no poison pill riders, at higher [spending] levels above sequesters than even the president requested, I wouldn’t have believed it, but here we are,” Democratic Sen. Chuck Schemer.
So where did the Republicans go wrong, assuming of course they in fact believe they screwed up? Well first thing they did was announce that a government shutdown is "off the table". Their goal was to show everybody that they can make "government work". Well guess what? They ain't the fuqing government, they are the Congress. The administration administers the government. Their job is to steer the government in the direction the people want it to go through the legislative process, specifically the budget. No money no harebrained leftist schemes like importing half of Syria. See how that works? By proclaiming that their only leverage would absolutely, positively NOT be used was first a negation of their duty and Constitutionally mandated authority and secondly an act of incompetence and cowardice the likes I've never seen. Or...OR there is another possibility. And that is they are liars and cheats and are now the Republican wing of the Progressive movement. My bet is on number three.
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6 comments:
Hammer:
A slightly different perspective of what may be going on:
https://medium.com/soapbox-dc/the-omnibus-dilemma-b2bd52cdaf34#.gfambmd28
NOTE: I posted this about a week ago, but folks were probably too busy w/ last-minute Christmas shopping to take note. :)
The recent budget deal and the pronging that the conservatives received is another reason why the outsider who can't be named on this blog is vastly outpacing the people who can be mentioned here. People are tired of business and scams as usual - which would be carried forward by Clinton and Bush (Clinton-lite). And it explains Bush's dismal poll numbers in the 2-3% range. The mainstream is no longer representing the people that they claim to represent. They are bought men and women...wholly owned.
It's usually this way to a lesser degree. Things have become particularly rapacious and the voters know it.
How about instead of wanking about the process Hammer gets involved? Why not go to the Hill and try to make a difference? Again you demonstrate the lack of insight into how the process works. Shutting the government down solves nothing. It has long term consequences to the military as far as O&M and acquisition spending. The presidency is invested in incredible power via the veto pen. Elections have consequences and we need someone right of center in the Oval Office even if it is a so called "RINO."
Here is the right answer: The omnibus is relatively insignificant compared to the entitlement spending on social security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Ryan is one of the few legislators out there that is willing to touch entitlements. However, nothing will happen if the democrats control the presidency.
So wank about the RINOs all you want. Hell there are true blue conservatives out there that are being smeared as RINOs by people who have never bothered to do anything about it besides get paid. Populism is for liberal asshats. Republicans and conservatives are about improving the country.
Well, let me start by saying I've spent some time in the British Isles and "wanking" in no way means complaining, however whichever definition you may choose I've certainly done my share of both. Now, what's the problem with complaining? Isn't that the purpose of a political blog, to complain about policies one may disagree with? Plus there's complaining for the sake of complaining (women typically) and then there's complaining with a purpose and goal in mind. Newt Gingrich was such a complainer. Back in the day he would take the floor of the House and give these two hour speeches to an empty room (apart from C-Span) after all the other Congressmen were back in office into the 25 year old single malt Scotch or their 25 year old "secretary". At first they thought it hilarious...until they didn't. You may recall he went on to lead the most productive Congress (for a conservative) in my lifetime, all with a DEMOCRAT in the White House.
You see Newt was doing the fundamentals, he was educating the voters and winning the argument BEFORE THE VOTE! He shut down the government twice during the Clinton Administration and both times he got pretty much what he wanted even though the press and Slick Willie portrayed both as BIG Democrat wins!
Guys like you kill me, you think the politics are all on the Dems side in a shutdown. Tell me, did the 16 day shutdown in '13 hurt the Republicans in the '14 midterms? There's your first clue Sherlock. What the press says and what the voters think and do are two very different things.
Boehner and Ryan did NOTHING this year to educate the voter. Neither made an argument against doing anything and everything the Democrats wanted and at the end of the day they gave them anything and everything they wanted. In fact if they made any argument at all it was as to why they had to rollover and take it up the ass. And if you're so damned worried about the damage a shutdown would do to our defense then sport you got some issues yourself. Obama has fucked up our military like nobody I've ever seen. Our veterans are treated like shit, our nuclear arsenal (what's left of it) is not maintained properly, our troops are getting killed in wars where the rules of engagement are you can't shoot until a 7.62 is firmly lodged in your brainpan and Obama has (incredibly) armed ISIS and is very likely giving nuclear technology to Iran.
The point is, NOT taking this opportunity to break Obama, which I believe in this current political atmosphere is absolutely doable, is just encouraging him to run rampant his last year. This was a great opportunity missed to cut the bastard's political head off and have him slink our of office with his Muslim tail between his legs! Now that he knows Ryan is a pussy leading pussies, he's off and running. Thanks to idiots like you.
Here's the deal, and even you should be able to understand this. This Omnibus sucks! You're wing of the party has screwed things up royally. You want to start another war in Iraq but refuse to stop Obama from bringing radicals Muslims HERE! So I can only assume you wish to fight these people on the steps of the Capitol. Brilliant plan. Planned Parenthood is just alright with you. They took OUT funding for our piece of shit, inadequate souther border wall THAT HAD ALREADY BEEN NEGOTIATED! They increased worker visas, increased corporate welfare, gave money to sanctuary cities. There's so much shit in the bill it could have been written by Pelosi and Reid...and probably was.
The bottom line this is not going to be an "establishment" election and I'm tired of lecturing dolts like you. Next May, after you see what we do to your slick-ass, Chamber of Commerce backed candidate, come back and we'll talk.
The sad part is that we are on the same side. I get the frustration but discretionary spending is the short game. Billions sounds like a lot of money until you get into OMB and CBO numbers that talk about trillion dollar deficits. That will take the heavy lift of all Republicans and some Democrats to get it done. Not many members of the Freedom caucus have taken a leadership role on entitlements. Ryan stuck his neck out on entitlement reform and they hung it around his neck in the 2012 election.
There is no "breaking" Obama without collateral damage. I love the sound of it. I love the sentiment behind it. There is no way to do that without harming the country. Obama has literally nothing to lose. He can shut the government down the rest of his term for all he cares. Actually there is a way to "break" Obama. Elect an R president and reverse all of the Obama era executive orders. Get "RINOs" like Bryan McGrath in major policy positions in DoD. Get an R president and retain the senate and have him sign the bill to repeal Obamacare that the "RINO" led house has passed 40 times.
Lastly, I'm active duty military so my contribution to the political process is voting my absentee ballot. I will vote for whichever R that is going up against Clinton. If I were a D I'd find a way to vote like 10 times.
I used to play poker with a guy like you. The only time he'd bet was when he had a lock hand. He eventually stopped playing. You know why? Because he wasn't worth a shit and he lost his ass, that's why.
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