For Anyone Who Missed it: The House Passed "Cut, Cap and Balance" on a 234-190 Vote Yesterday
On a largely party line vote, the House has passed a conservative deficit reduction plan known as "Cut, Cap and Balance" on a 234-190 vote. The bill includes caps on spending and a balanced budget amendment, but it has little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate and faces a veto threat from President Barack Obama… The Dems still have no alternative plan (but all of a sudden Reid and McConnell and the gang of Six are trying to cobble something together) as Obama says he’ll veto this bill if if makes it through the Senate… So who are the obstructionists?
Don’t do that deal…
Over the past week there has been talk about Republican leaders in the House and the Senate coming up with a compromise that will allow President Obama to raise the debt ceiling without the approval of Congress.
Don’t do that deal
One of the things that drive conservative voters nuts is that in the final hour, when things really matter, the GOP tends to give away the high ground that activists won the hard way by doing that deal.
The public is tired of reckless and wasteful spending by the government. They want real, honest solutions; solutions that cut spending. What they don’t want is the deal that allows some to say it increases spending, while others can claim it cuts spending; a deal that cuts taxes by one method of accounting and raises it by another method; a deal where one side points at the other and says “You did it!”
The American people want honesty, a straight deal.
Honestly? It wasn’t a brilliant masterstroke by the GOP leadership in the House or the Senate that suddenly has President Obama talking about cutting $4-5 trillion in spending. It wasn’t because House Speaker John Boehner made like Henry Clay with an impassioned speech that now has congressional Democrats in competitive districts puckering up their cheek muscles.
It wasn’t because the GOP came up with a nifty sounding plan, like Contract with America, that the GOP took back the majority in the House.
More than anything else, it was the hard work and countless volunteer hours of grassroots conservative activist around the country that made it possible to have a real discussion about cutting the size of government. They knocked on doors, went to rallies, wrote checks, stuffed envelopes and did the job of real leadership that informed and educated voters about the core principles that make this country go.
And the GOP came along for the ride.
If the Republican leadership in Congress abandons the moral advantage that those activists gave them, the sound they’ll hear in 2012 when voting starts is the sound of no hands clapping.
Make no mistake. There are more than a handful of Republicans in Congress who owe their seats to an unprecedented outpouring of support from Tea Party activists.
Ask Rep. Joe Heck, who won his race by about 2000 votes, if he needs those activists to show up for him in 2012. Ask Rep. Scott Tipton, who won his race by about 10,000 votes whether he’ll need those activists next time around. Ask Rep. Blake Farenthold, who won his seat by less than 1000 votes if he needs those activists to show up.
Obama and his friends have seriously miscalculated the public’s desire to have federal government intrude into their life. And the GOP will miscalculate if they think that the type of deal they cut in the spring to raise the debt limit will satisfy the base this time around.
It won’t. What they demand is that Congress does the job it was elected to do by taking the debt limit seriously.
The whole idea of having a debt limit was to act as a check against unbridled deficit spending, while allowing the Treasury Department some latitude in managing those debts. It was created for exactly the situation we face today.
While it’s true that Congress has already agreed to spend the money contemplated under an increase in the debt limit, it is wrong to say that Congress has approved borrowing more money in order to be able to spend that money.
Writing a check and cashing a check are two different things.
Right now, the account is empty. Congress can only approve putting more money in the account by a vote to increase the debt limit.
Congress has always had to approve the government’s ability to raise money via debt.
Always.
It should be no different now.
If they don’t approve it, the government is obligated to balance the budget at that point by whatever Draconian measures it has at its disposal. Only a liberal would conclude that the only option then is to default on obligations.
The idea that Congress would turn over the management of the debt ceiling to any president, yet alone one who has not been able to present and pass a real budget over three years shows that there are still some in Washington who have been in Washington way too long.
Who the heck got us into this jam in the first place? On which alternate universe does Obama become the guy to manage us out of the crisis he created?
There are a number of legitimate ways the GOP can approach the debt limit issue including balancing the budget.
But they must not, under any circumstances, do that debt deal.
By John Ransom
--> BTW: In 2006 Every Democratic Senator (Including Obama) Voted Against Raising the Debt Ceiling <--
Video: Jan Sarkowsky (and Obama) Says We are Too Dumb To Understand… When She Can’t Even Explain Her Lie… - Amazing!
Kucinich Video: Soc Sec Didn’t Create the Deficit…
Congressional Video - July 12, 2011
Full transcript inside. Runs 1 minute. Outstanding clip from the House floor. After the jump, there are three 1-minute clips - all from Kucinich this week on Social Security.
Transcript:
Social Security didn't create the deficit, but America's seniors are being presented with a fake Social Security crisis to try to trick them into accepting reduced benefits. Social Security will be able to pay 100% of its benefits through 2037 without any changes whatsoever.
So, why the panic today? If seniors accept cuts to Social Security benefits today, a surplus cash flow will build in the Social Security trust fund. According to the Congressional Research Service, "Social Security's cash surpluses are borrowed by the U.S. Treasury and can be used for tax cuts, spending or repaying debt."
Social Security benefit cuts are increasing taxes paid to Social Security or extending retirement age will give more money for tax cuts spending or repaying the debt. Except for one thing: Social Security money belongs to those who have paid into the fund, it's not the government's money to use it; it shouldn't be the government's money to play with.
Senior citizens should not have to accept a reduced standard of living to finance tax cuts for the rich. We must take a stand for senior citizens and protect Social Security and protect future generations from this raid on Social Security's funds.
Kucinich Video : Stop Playing Political Games with Social Security
July 13, 2011
Transcript:
Three months ago 276 experts on Social Security, the federal budget or the economy wrote to President Obama "to correct a commonly held misconception -- that Social Security somehow contributes to the federal government's deficit."
Despite the fact that Social Security has a $2.6 trillion dollar surplus and can pay 100% of its benefits through 2037 without any cuts or tax increases, President Obama declared yesterday that Social Security checks may not go out after August 2, presumably unless there is a deal on the federal deficit - - which has nothing to do with Social Security.
According to today's Washington Post, fifteen years ago Congress passed laws which stated Social Security did not count against the debt limit and gave Treasury clear authority to use Social Security trust funds to pay benefits and administration expenses in the event a debt ceiling is reached.
A fake Social Security crisis will do nothing to solve a real debt crisis, will undermine the public's faith in government and will create unnecessary anxiety among our elderly.
Stop playing political games with Social Security.
Video: "Social Security Has NOTHING To Do With The Debt Crisis!" Congressman Dennis Kucinich
No Matter How You Look at It… Obama Is Lying - There's Plenty of Money To Continue Paying Social Security If The Debt Ceiling Is Not Raised… Either Through the Revenue the Government Will Collect and Must Prioritize or From the Soc Sec Account That Should Be Full of Money (Per Obama and Kucinich)… But Seniors, You Are Being Played for Democratic Political Purposes! And Forget once ObamaCare goes into affect… you won’t get treatment for any major illness if are over 76… Wake up!
Related:
The Emperors New Balance Sheet
Big U.S. Banks Ate Everyone;s Lunch: Strategist
Wynn CEO Goes On Epic Anti-Obama Rant On Company Conference Call
Who doesn't love a good rant?
We certainly do, and as usual, Steve Wynn, the CEO of casino company Wynn Resorts, delivered on his company's quarterly conference call today.
Via Seeking Alpha, here's the crux of it:
I believe in Las Vegas. I think its best days are ahead of it. But I'm afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States. You watch television and see what's going on on this debt ceiling issue. And what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President and nothing's going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress. But everybody is so political, so focused on holding their job for the next year that the discussion in Washington is nauseating.
And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right. A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution. Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration.And it makes you slow down and not invest your money. Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America.
You bet and until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it's not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, God, don't be attacking Obama. Well, this is Obama's deal and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America.
The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest, their holding too much money. We haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody's afraid of the government and there's no need soft peddling it, it's the truth. It is the truth. And that's true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I'm telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he's gone, everybody's going to be sitting on their thumbs.
Later in the call, he rants again about how hard it is to visit America (due to Homeland Security and visa issues), and what that means for Chinese visitors.
Please call, fax and email your Senator(s) and tell the to pass Cut, Cap and Balance. Then it will be up to Obama…
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