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| Via PatriotPost.US |
Congress reconvenes tomorrow to consider two district judge nominations. On Friday, the Senate amended H.R. 1363 by unanimous consent to extend the previous continuing resolution to fund the government through Thursday and cut $2 billion in spending. The Senate then passed the bill by voice vote. The House voted 348-70 to concur with the Senate amendment, sending the bill as amended to the president for his signature.
In the wake of Friday’s agreement on spending for the rest of the 2011 fiscal year, it’s worth reflecting on how far Democrats were forced to come from their initial offers on how to respond to Americans’ message to Washington to get the country’s fiscal house in order.
During the first week of February, Senate Democrat leaders, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, Majority Whip Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, and Patty Murray, wrote to House Speaker John Boehner to urge him not to make serious spending cuts, but to raise taxes. The Democrats wrote, “We are concerned that some of the cuts you may propose could undermine future growth just as our economy is beginning to recover. Instead, we urge you to consider ending a number of tax loopholes and other subsidies that benefit big oil and gas companies. Closing these loopholes would save the federal government more than $20 billion over 10 years.” In other words, at a time of rising gas prices and tight budgets for families and businesses, Democrats were urging tax hikes on oil and gas rather than cutting federal spending. Or, as The Weekly Standard’s Michael Warren put it, “That's $20 billion in ‘closed loopholes’ (read: gas taxes) with absolutely no spending cuts.”
In early March, after the House and Senate had agreed to a beginning of $10.5 billion in cuts, Durbin, the 2nd-ranking Democrat in the Senate, proclaimed that “the limit.” Fox News’ Chris Wallace asked him, “[T]hen you're saying $10.5 billion in domestic, non-defense discretionary spending, that's it?” Durbin replied, “I think we've pushed this to the limit. To go any further is to push more kids out of school, to stifle the innovation which small businesses and large alike need to create more jobs.”
And while the final agreement is for around $39 billion in cuts, Senate Democrats had once called cuts of $32 billion “extreme,” “draconian,” and “unworkable.” Back in February, The Hill reported, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blasted a House Republican proposal to cut $32 billion from 2011 spending levels as ‘draconian’ and ‘unworkable.’” And Chuck Schumer held a press conference to declare, “I understand Republicans have deeply held views on how much we should cut. I think I happen to think some of their cuts are extreme and go overboard. But every week they keep upping the ante and proposing extreme cuts.”
And yet over the weekend, Democrats including President Obama were praising the deal. Even Ezra Klein, the dedicated liberal blogger at The Washington Post points out, “You would never have known that Democrats had spent months resisting these ‘historic’ cuts, warning that they’d cost jobs and slow the recovery.” Klein adds, “The Democrats believe it’s good to look like a winner, even if you’ve lost. But they’re sacrificing more than they let on. By celebrating spending cuts, they’ve opened the door to further austerity measures at a moment when the recovery remains fragile. Claiming political victory now opens the door to further policy defeats [for Democrats] later.”
As The Wall Street Journal editors observe, “The political gains are also considerable. When Mr. Obama introduced his 2012 budget in February, he proposed more spending on his priorities in return for essentially no cuts. Two months later, the debate is entirely about how much spending to cut and which part of government to reform. Democrats were forced to play defense nearly across the board, obliged to defend programs (National Public Radio) that were once thought to be untouchable shrines of modern liberalism.”
Rep Ron Paul (R-TX) while not agreeing with the Democrats, posted on his website, "The Nanny State Can't Last: Last week, Congress and the administration refused to seriously consider the problem of government spending. Despite the fear-mongering, a government shutdown would not have been as bad as claimed. It is encouraging that some in Washington seem to be insisting on reduced spending, which is definitely a step in the right direction, but only one step. We have miles to go before we can even come close to a solution, and it will involve completely redefining the role of government in our lives and on the world stage. A compromise was struck at the last minute, but until Democrats agree to rein in entitlement spending, and Republicans back off the blank checks to the military industrial complex, it all amounts to political gamesmanship. Unfortunately, the compromises always seem to be just the opposite. Instead of the left agreeing to cut social spending and the right agreeing to cut military spending, the right agrees to more welfare and the left agrees to more warfare. In spite of all the rhetoric, we will go deeper in debt, the Fed will print more money, and the value of the dollar will continue to plummet. . . ."
CNSNews reported that Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) says there's "no question" that government spending cuts are necessary and "long overdue," but he laments that the almost $39 billion in spending cuts agreed to late Friday were achieved in exchange for continued funding of the Democrats' health care law. House Speaker John Boehner agrees the deal struck late Friday was “imperfect,” but he sees it as a “first step toward getting spending under control.” In addition, "Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who leads the Tea Party Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, expressed adamant opposition to the spending deal agreed to late Friday night by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV.) and President Barack Obama. “It does not: Cut enough spending, stop funding Planned Parenthood, or defund Obamacare,” she tweeted on Saturday.
After the agreement was announced Friday night, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said, “This is an important first step, but just the beginning of what we need to do to get our house, our fiscal house, in order. . . . Once we get through this process by the end of next week, we will move on to a much larger discussion about how we save trillions, by enacting hopefully on a bipartisan basis a budget that genuinely begins to get on top of this problem. And the problem as we all know is $14 trillion in debt, and over $53 trillion in unfunded liabilities. The President has asked us to raise the debt ceiling. And Senate Republicans and House Republicans and I hope many Democrats as well are going to say, Mr. President, in order to raise the debt ceiling, we need to do something significant about the debt.”
Gary Bauer sums up the situation: "The bottom line is this: We are not in this mess because of John Boehner. We are in this mess because the Democrats still control the Senate and the White House. They also have a liberal media that twists the facts and distorts what conservatives are trying to do.
I know a lot of folks are disappointed with this deal. But we will be devastated if Obama is reelected and Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House again after the 2012 elections. [We must work] hard to make sure we win the bigger battle down the road. We are working to make sure that instead of 47 senators, we have as close to 60 as we can, working with a conservative president and a conservative House majority to make America a 'shining city upon a hill' once again."
Tags: Washington, D.C., continuing resolution, Federal spending, 2011 Fiscal Year, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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