Sometimes the courage and the vision of Democrats can be astounding. Take for example the case of Reps. Peter Welch, Jim Himes, John Adler, and Gary Peters (“WHAP” for short), visionary Democrats indeed. WHAP want to fix this here thing called the deficit, and they have a plan that will truly amaze and shock you. . .Here’s the background. WHAP are concerned about the deficit. They are doubly upset that the Democratic leadership and those evil Republicans don’t have the courage to address this issue. Said WHAP: “We have been growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of action and talking about specifics and putting those on the table. We’ve been frustrated with both Democratic leadership and Republicans.”
Well, WHAP is through waiting. They're mad as heck and they're not going to take it much longer. So they’ve decided to form a working group to propose “major cuts” to spending in areas like defense, energy, housing and agriculture! Wow, a “working group.” Sounds like the battle cry of a visionary, doesn’t it?
So what “major cuts” are these deficit hawks talking about? Why, they’re proposing cuts that could be as high as $70 billion over ten years!
What? No applause? Come on people, that ain't small change! That's $7 billion every year! Wait a minute. . . that's less than 0.4% of the $1.7 trillion deficit. Hmmm. Technically, that's not even change then, much less small change. In fact, you'd need three times as many cuts before you could even get a whole penny's change back on your dollar. What a joke!
Yet, these jackasses seriously think this is meaningful: “Our leadership hasn’t put any serious budget cuts on the table so we had to take matters into our own hands. We’re upset.”
Astounding.
I can’t even find the words to express how laughable this is. And it’s all the worse that they seem to think this is somehow courageous: “We’re lying to ourselves and our children if we say we can maintain our current levels of entitlement spending, defense spending, and taxation without bankrupting our country.” Yes, and you’re lying to yourself if you think this makes the slightest difference. What WHAP is proposing is less than a rounding error in government accounting. This is trying to empty the ocean by removing one bucket of water. And the fact that they can’t tell the difference between this and a real cut is truly telling. Are they so stupid or have they become so corrupted that they genuinely think a 0.4% cut is meaningful?
Actually, I don't think so. I think this is a political ploy. These guys represent Republican-leaning districts, and this is an attempt to let them go home and claim that they are standing up to the Democratic leadership with "real" spending cuts. Once re-elected, they will propose tax increases to actually cut the deficit, and will claim that their cuts just weren't enough alone. Basically, this an attempt at deception. And the media is supporting their plan by reporting this with a straight face.
So it probably won't surprise you that they're talking tough about their leadership (and the Republicans) who are standing in the way of this fly turd that they're throwing at the Obama-Debt: “We have no support from our leadership, and to this point neither they nor the Republicans have put their money where their mouth is on spending cuts.”
You courageous dears! How brave to stand up to your party on this vital issue. Why, you're almost as brave as those dudes who stopped those red-coated guys when they did that thing way back when. You know the ones, they were on Showtime. And I'll bet you four would have stood up to Hitler too, right? Maybe with a strongly worded letter. . . or two? Your courage astounds!
In any event, if you want to know what’s wrong with the Democrats (and a lot of Republicans), this is it. These jerks think they’re being courageous by offering spending cuts that are so laughably timid that words fail me in how to describe how trivial they really are. Yet, they think this is a huge step. And their leadership won't even support this level of cuts.
Sad. . . pathetic. . . liberals.
Sad ... pathetic ... liberals. LOL, I am with you Andrew.
ReplyDeleteMSM will laud them. Fortunately MSM has become a joke, so most people will see this as campaign rhetoric.
Every year, we get politicians saying, "Vote for me!! This time we will attack the deficit!!" Note it is attacking the deficit. Not what caused the deficit. Too much spending everywhere. What cuts do they propose? Cutting defense, because the world loves liberals, and our country now. Hehehehe
Paraphrasing Clinton, "I tried as hard as I can, but I can't find anything to cut!!"
Though Alan Simpson is a Washington loving statist, I love his homespun colloquialisms, he said something to the affect of, “That amounts to a sparrows belch in a stiff wind!”
ReplyDeleteAusterity moves in Washington will require taking a chainsaw too these insane budgets, 10-20-30% cuts across the board, eliminating entire departments, education, energy, etc. Eliminate the play-toy of all Washington statist, repeal the 16th Amendment, and replace the tax code with a Fair or Flat Tax, I prefer Fair Tax. Repeal the 17th Amendment and remove some of politics of the senate, and this would instill a form of term limits as well eliminating fiefdoms like Byrd, Kennedy, etc. while restoring the senate to it’s original intent, as a cooling saucer for the heated rhetoric of the house. Thought provoking read Andrew, but this kind of crap really pisses me off!
Joel, Very true, and excellent paraphrase.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, if you were counseling someone who was bordering on bankruptcy and they came to you and said, "I'm serious about saving myself, I've prepared cuts in my budget equal to $40 on every $10,000 in my budget," would you take them seriously?
The MSM won't ask that, they'll just congratulate these guys on having courage.
Stan, I personally like what you're saying, BUT what you're talking about is a nonstarter. As soon as you say "change the Constitution," you lose everyone except for a handful of people. You're also tilting at windmills because you'll need support from liberal states. . . which ain't happening. So basically, you're setting yourself up for failure by promising an impossible goal and you're losing the public in the process.
ReplyDeleteYou'll also find that there is no support for eliminating departments. The public simply doesn't want the government torn apart, they want it "fixed."
The better plan is to start with across the board cuts (and not fake Washington "cuts", which are "slowing the rate of increase"). Then you start combining programs and zeroing others out by simply starving them of funds. Finally, you privatize as much as possible so that the government basically becomes a small cadre of managers who are overseeing various private contractors rather than a vast bureaucratic work force.
Andrew, I agree. But our leaders also use that "bankruptcy" analogy and say "But I am REALLY serious about getting out of debt, so if you will just let me borrow MORE money to spend, I will get myself out of debt! I swear! I know it will work this time."
ReplyDeleteI have always advocated an across the board cut not just in budgets, but also salary and benefits cuts (or layoffs) for all Federal employees. If they don't like it they can always take their chances in the private sector. There are plenty of people looking for jobs that a nice government position would be just lovely.
And really how many government agencies have been closed down once they have been opened?
Bev, I agree. They're like drug addicts or alcoholics pleading for money and using the condition they put themselves into as a basis for their plea. It's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteAs I said my deficit article and my Republican Agenda article, an across the board cut in salary and a layoff of government workers is in order, as is an across the board budget cut. Of course, that doesn't get them the tax increases they want so that they can keep playing Santa, but that's the problem.
It's time that the government started to act like the private sector. And, as you say, if they don't like it, they can move to the private sector and make way for people who are willing to work for those still-highly-inflated salaries.
And if the current crop of politicians won't do it, then we need new ones.
Andrew: This is probably only the beginning of liberal Democrats claiming to fix the economy with spending cuts that amount to what my sister used to refer to as "a piss in the Pacific Ocean." They will claim to be fiscally responsible when in fact they're fighting a forest fire using buckets with holes in them. And they'll probably need to hire more federal bureaucracy employees to implement the "cuts," thereby raising the debt by double the amount of the cuts.
ReplyDeleteLawhawk, I agree. This is nothing but PR. They want to be able to claim that (1) they aren't like their leadership, so vote for me Republican-leaning district, (2) "we already offered spending cuts," unlike the Republicans, (3) "we offered cuts, but they weren't enough so we need more taxes," and (4) as you point out, "cuts" are never really cuts in the government -- they will move these programs and the people (probably with promotions), thus making the situation worse while claiming to have made it better.
ReplyDeleteI just hope more people catch onto this story and how pathetic this level of cuts really is before they can start making these claims.
In fact, the Republicans should turn this on them to show voters what these Democrats (and their leadership) think amounts to "cuts." Clearly, they are not competent to handle budget issues.
andrew, i ♥ this post. mostly because it's DRIPPING with sacracsm, which by now you know i lurvs, but also because it's so on the money (albeit a tiny child's beach bucket spilling over with money). saddest thing about the blathering of WHAP is that many uneducateds or just plain stupids, will point to them to "prove" the dems are about cutting costs.
ReplyDeletepathetic doesn't even cover their idiocy. sheesh.
I guess the qustion is "who are the Republicans running against them, are they any good, do they understand the ploy, and will they be financed well enough to drive this point home? If they voted for porkulus, healthcare and GM bailouts, if I was running, I would just shove that right up their . . . well, you get the idea
ReplyDeleteThanks Patti, I know that you are indeed a connoisseur of sarcasm!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the sad thing is that many people will hear "the Democrats are proposing spending cuts" and they'll simply accept that as a sign of fiscal responsibility.
The Republicans really need to ridicule this idea before it takes hold!
Jed, I'm not sure who is running against them, but they have been handed a golden opportunity here to really take these guys apart. They better use it. I know I would be blasting them for this pathetic gesture, and like you, I would be linking it to the bailouts and the spendarama that Washington has been engaged in during the past couple years.
ReplyDeletePatti, but these are also the same people who honestly believe that Obama actually cut their taxes. I'm still waiting for mine. But then again, there are so many people out of work that, I guess, many of them will be paying little or no taxes this year. That's a "tax cut" of sorts.
ReplyDeleteOf course, come January when the Bush tax cuts sunset, they may sing a different tune...But on the bright side, they can blame Bush when their taxes go up! Always looking for that bright side...
Bev, I don't even know what to say! On the one hand, you're right -- all those unemployed people did receive a tax cut. But I can't see this being how they expected to get it? Wow!
ReplyDeleteAs for Bush, yeah, I guess we can blame him for not making his own tax cuts permanent right?
I think my head might explode now...
Don't forget that is over a ten-year period or...
ReplyDelete$4 a year for $10K. 33.333¢ a month.
To save $70 billion in one go they’ll have to spend $17 trillion in one year:
$17,000,000,000,000.00
That's the crime in Office Space - using a rounding error to steal - because people wouldn't notice.
Now playing...
Federal Thrift
A new oxymoron from the DNC.
Ponderosa, That's a great reference for this! That is the crime from Office Space! LOL!
ReplyDeleteI think it's ridiculous that they've started speaking in 10 year plans and people are accepting it! First, it makes the numbers sound so much more impressive than they really are. Secondly, most of the numbers are faked that far out anyway. There is no guarantee they will ever follow through with the plan over ten years, and (especially in the later years) the "savings" are just estimates based on inflated estimates of cost.
In other words, if a hamburger costs $2 today and I assume it will cost an additional $2 a year, then I can claim I will save $22 if I cancel the final hamburger. That's totally fake -- nor will anyone actually pay attention to see if I follow through! It's all fantasy.
Andrew - Sorry, please do not explode your head...I promise I won't think like a liberal again! But I warned you...
ReplyDeleteThat you did Bev. LOL!
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad we can't harness the "brain power" at placed like Huffpo into creating science fiction. The plots would be pretty amazing.
Nice article. This highlights what's wrong with Washington. They think they can fool us with token cuts and then they'll demand tax increases when their BS cuts don't work. The American public isn't that stupid.
ReplyDeleteSo typical for Democrats and a few RINOs. This reminds me of when McCain really thought he was making a killer point about cutting a few billion dollars worth of earmarks. He really didn't seem to get that what he was proposing was nothing compared to the deficit.
ReplyDeleteEd, I agree completely. And if they aren't thinking tax increases (but really when are they not), then it's still a problem that they think has any meaning. As we've all pointed out above, this is nothing more than a fly speck of a plan and yet they are talking like this will save the future. It's either the most cynical politics you can imagine or it shows a mental defect on their part.
ReplyDeleteMega, This is exactly like McCain's earmark garbage. I remember him vividly during the debate when he kept saying he was going to cut a few billion in earmarks and the moderator said -- but that's nothing compared to the deficit itself, and his response was "it's corrosive." Huh? The man was a fool. So are these four.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for WHAP the market is going to enforce the real budget cuts they don't have the courage to do.
ReplyDeleteWhen the inflation hits that money won't be worth anything.
Individualist, That's very true. And we're seeing that in Greece and Spain right now, where they have no choice but to make previously unthinkable cuts before the market destroys what is left of their credit and starts a death spiral that results in near total collapse.
ReplyDeleteI would really like to see people call these guys out for this stunt. If they are serious about genuine cuts, then they'll respond well by offering actual cuts. if they don't, then they aren't serious. And if this is just politics as usual, then they deserve to be savaged for thinking we would buy into this.