Heh: Congressman Proposes Cutting Funding For Obama's Teleprompter

Think he'd wield the veto pen on that? You betcha.

The House formally began debate, which is expected to last three days, Tuesday afternoon following some wrangling over the hundreds of amendments lawmakers want to attach to the package. More than 400 amendments were filed Monday night. Among them were a proposal from Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., to eliminate funding for the president's Teleprompter and one from Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, to strip funding for the alteration, repair or improvement of the executive residence of the White House and instead divert that amount to deficit reduction.

Womack pulled the proposal because he couldn't determine an actual figure about how much money it would save.

It would save me some Blockbuster Video money, because the president would give me all the lulz I need. That shit would be hi-larious.

But this is serious:

The House reading clerk will begin reciting all 359 pages of the continuing resolution. Members will be allowed to offer amendments at any relevant portion of the bill, introducing each amendment at very specific points of the bill as it is being read. In other words, if they are talking about defense, it has to come at the defense portion. Each amendment has to be offered at the precise clause, sentence, comma, jot or tittle where it is relevant. If not, the amendment is not allowed.

Many Democrats have accused Republicans of going too far in their 2011 budget plan.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday that the GOP was using a "meat cleaver approach to budget cuts."

But Ryan said the party is trying to counteract the overspending they see out of the administration. "The president wants to lock in these really high spending levels. Twenty-four percent increase in base government spending, 84 percent on domestic agencies, when you count the stimulus. We want to pull back all those spending agreements that he's trying to lock in. There's the impasse," he said.

The Rules Committee (held by Republicans, of course) blocked Steve King's proposal to defund ObamaCare, claiming some question about whether or not that was allowed. (??? -- What? Why wouldn't it be?) I wonder if they were influenced by this bad news:

Most Americans, 55 percent, disapprove of the plan to cut off funding to the new health care reforms, and just 35 percent approve. Among Republicans, approval rises to 57 percent. Forty-nine percent of independents disapprove, and 38 percent approve.

Yeah, this is one of those times we're going to have to go ahead and ignore the hegemony of the wishy-washy ill-informed we-want-our-cake-and-eat-it-too independents. This is what we ran on, this is what we must do.

There's some good news. The freshman Tea Party class, one of their number notes, is serious -- they're not messing around.

The decision to move forward on entitlement reform wasn’t a direct reaction to the recent “revolt” over the $100 billion in spending cuts, but that fight was certainly on everyone’s mind. “The hundred-billion issue was a good reminder that putting forward a budget that fails to balance, ever, and does nothing to address the central challenges, did not have a chance in hell,” says one House aide. Of the freshmen, he adds, “These guys are serious, they don’t mess around.”

A senior GOP House aide tells NRO that the leadership is willing to move now on entitlements because the “will is there” in the conference. “We have the 218 votes needed to support entitlement reform,” he tells us. “While raising it now provides an important contrast, to be sure, we would not be bringing it up if we did not have the votes. We know the conference will back it if it’s included in the budget. The leadership knows they have to lead and there is no one better than Paul Ryan to take charge. The sense in the conference is, ‘let’s be serious.’”

The Democrats are just as serious on budgetary matters, they want you to know.

Democratic Representatives meet with cartoon aardvark,
who teaches them about colors, shapes, and don't touch the poopy.

posted by Ace at 06:14 PM

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