Tuesday - July 06, 2010

Stupide Dems Can’t Even Pretend Properly

Don’t know how I missed this one the other day, but hey, better late than never.

House Democrats ‘Deem’ Faux $1.1 Trillion Budget ‘as Passed’
by Connie Hair
07/02/2010

Last night, as part of a procedural vote on the emergency war supplemental bill, House Democrats attached a document that “deemed as passed” a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget. The execution of the “deeming” document allows Democrats to start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the pesky constraints of a budget.

The procedural vote passed 215-210 with no Republicans voting in favor and 38 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote against deeming the faux budget resolution passed.

Never before—since the creation of the Congressional budget process—has the House failed to pass a budget, failed to propose a budget then deemed the non-existent budget as passed as a means to avoid a direct, recorded vote on a budget, but still allow Congress to spend taxpayer money.

House Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) warned this was the green light for Democrats to continue their out-of-control spending virtually unchecked.

“Facing a record deficit and a tidal wave of debt, House Democrats decided it was politically inconvenient to put forward a budget and account for their fiscal recklessness.  With no priorities and no restraints, the spending, taxing, and borrowing will continue unchecked for the coming fiscal year,” Ryan said.  “The so-called ‘budget enforcement resolution’ enforces no budget, but instead provides a green light for the Appropriators to continue spending, exacerbating our looming fiscal crisis.”

Was this all over the news 3 days ago, discussed ad-nauseum by all the talking heads, then jeered at and allowed to fall by the wayside? Because I wasn’t really watching too much news over the holiday weekend, and I’m certain that Congress “deeming” themselves a PRETEND BUDGET would be earth-shattering news that would zoom to the top of the news cycle and stay there for at least ... 72 hours? But I personally haven’t heard a single peep. Not even on Fox. Wazzup wit dat?

I looked up the vote, and along with the numbers, all it told me was

H RES 1500 YEA-AND-NAY 1-Jul-2010 8:02 PM
QUESTION:  On Agreeing to the Resolution
BILL TITLE: Providing for consideration of the Senate amendments to the bill (H.R. 4899) making emergency supplemental appropriations for disaster relief and summer jobs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010

So I’m a bit befuddled here.

But Paul Ryan (R-WI) seems to understand the dealio and is more than a bit miffy:

“Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office rang the latest fiscal alarm with the release of The Long-Term Budget Outlook,” Ryan said.  “Today, Congress again hit snooze.  To avert a fiscal and economic calamity, Washington needs to wake up.”

“It is unclear how many more fiscal alarms need to go off before Washington takes action to avert our looming debt crisis,” Ryan said.  “Earlier in the month in testimony before the House Budget Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke emphasized the urgent need for a ‘fiscal exit strategy.’ Last week, Admiral Mike Mullen warned that our debt is ‘the biggest threat we have to our national security.’ Over the weekend, Europeans lectured us at the G-20 summit on the unsustainability of continued profligacy.  [Tuesday], the CBO reiterated what all but Washington Democrats understand: we are careening off a fiscal cliff.

Lucky for me the GOP put out a helpful pamphlet explaining that this was all smoke and mirrors, even though the smoke is a clear indication of an actual bonfire, and the mirrors are busy hiding the flames from people’s vision. Oh look, over there, a shiny unicorn! Ooooh, aaaah!

What House Democratic leaders call a “budget enforcement resolution” is in fact just another “deeming” scheme – one that concedes they cannot meet their most fundamental governing
responsibility: writing a congressional budget. They have created a masquerade that only advances their spend-as-you-go philosophy, accelerating the march toward a fiscal and economic crisis. They are doing so because a majority of rank-and-file Democrats cannot vote for a budget with trillion-dollar deficits. As even House Budget Committee Chairman Spratt has acknowledged: “You can say that that’s a lack of courage.”

The analysis below makes the following points:
* This is not a budget. The measure fails to meet the most basic, commonly understood objectives of any budget. It does not set congressional priorities; it does not align overall spending, tax, deficit, and debt levels; and it does nothing to address the runaway spending of Federal entitlement programs.

* It is not a ‘congressional budget resolution.’ The measure does not satisfy even the most basic criteria of a budget resolution as set forth in the Congressional Budget Act.

* It creates a deception of spending ‘restraint.’ While claiming restraint in discretionary spending, the resolution increases non-emergency spending by $30 billion over 2010, and includes a number of gimmicks that give a green light to higher spending.

* It continues relying on the flawed and over-sold pay-as-you-go [pay-go] procedure. Paygo – which Democrats have used mainly to raise taxes, and have ignored when it was inconvenient – does nothing to reduce deficits or restrain spending growth in existing law. The pay-go statute adopted in this resolution does not correct its fundamental flaws.

* Outsourcing fiscal responsibilities. The measure is another hand-off by the Democratic Majority of Congress’s power of the purse – this time relying on the Fiscal Commission created by the President to do Congress’s job.
...
Since enactment of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the House has never failed to mark up and pass its own budget resolution. The “budget enforcement” measure conjured up by the Democratic Majority cannot hide their unprecedented collapse in congressional budgeting. It creates skepticism in global financial markets that the U.S. government is even capable of managing its fiscal affairs. The uncertainty it creates inhibits job creation and economic growth.

This is far more than a failure of procedure or politics. It is an abdication of a fundamental responsibility by a Majority that is losing both its will, and its ability, to govern – and it is threatening America’s prosperity in the process.

What, so Obama’s Fiscal Commission is actually going to come up with the budget? Great! Since that’s Congress’s main job, we can do without them then. You’re all fired! Think of how much money that can save.

While Democrats try to claim their “enforcement resolution” is the “full equivalent, the full complement of a budget,” it is in fact a façade that attempts to hide their failure in the most basic function of government: passing a budget. This is not a budget, even in the most commonly understood terms.

* It does not set priorities, or account for spending demands. Like any budget, a congressional budget resolution is a blueprint for allocating resources among the government’s major activities. It is the only legislative vehicle that views government spending, taxes, and borrowing comprehensively: everything else is piecemeal. This “enforcement resolution” offers no blueprint for budgeting. It does not show how the House intends to meet the government’s major obligations – such as national defense, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, and so on – as laid out in a budget resolution. It
makes no choices among the broad categories of spending – which ones should get more funds, and which less. It leaves all the budgeting to someone else.

* It does nothing to control entitlement spending. The biggest problem in the budget outlook is uncontrolled entitlement spending – and this resolution does nothing to address it. The Democrats already have worsened the entitlement crisis, first by ignoring it, then by adding their $2.6-trillion health care program, among other things. The “enforcement resolution” simply endorses an already reckless spending binge.

* It makes no attempt to align spending, tax, deficit, and debt levels. The resolution fails to show how government spending in fiscal year 2011 will be financed – how much by taxes, how much by borrowing – and thereby ignores the alarming deficits and debt run up by this President and Congress. Under the President’s budget, debt held by the public doubles in 5 years (compared with 2008) and triples in 10 years; and by doing nothing, the Democratic leadership is endorsing that path.

Ok, so this is all Democrat shenanigans, and the Republicans are calling them on it. Wouldn’t that be news too? I mean, WTH, it’s only another trillion plus of new debt. It’s only our future. Isn’t anybody listening anymore? Don’t any of these journalists even want to tell this story?

Posted by Drew458     on 07/06/2010 at 03:50 PM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias • Politics •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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