Boehner's a Liar. Ditch the Plan. [Truman North]

The great thing about the debt ceiling is that everybody's got an opinion. My thanks to the head Ewok for granting me the floor to express mine.

The current Boehner deal is less than meaningless. It's an insult to you. Boehner is grabbing your daughter, spitting in her mouth, and then burning your house down. All the while talking about how he's all about doing the right thing.

Let me reiterate, as I have been for the last day or so on each of these threads:

The CBO does some stupid things. Like assuming an approximate 7% increase in federal spending year over year as normal, even without any new programs or departments. Like making 10-year budgets, when only one year really matters, because it's impossible for one Congress to bind another.

Let me give you some small idea of how screwed up Washington math is, and how much it favors those who are in power over those of us who foot the bill with our blood and treasure:

If we JUST CAPPED SPENDING-- spent the same amount next FY as we did this FY,

the CBO would score that as a $9.5 trillion dollar cut.

So before anyone can claim we're "cutting" anything, the number they are talking about has to exceed $9.5 trillion.

The Boehner plan, with all its actuarial tomfoolery, claims to cut something in the neighborhood of $850 billion.

And only $20 billion of that is this year.

So John Boehner is saying to you that spending $20 billion less than Obama's opening offer is worth giving him a blank check for a trillion and more.

As long as we're going to go on playing for the "long game" it's meaningless to even try to put together a plan. Just let the Democrats do what they want to, since the difference between what they're going to do and Republicans' counteroffer is less than a rounding error.

My point is, either we fight for this, or we die like dogs. What the House is doing is not fighting.

The elite Washington Republican insiders have a very tough tightrope to walk: They have to make you believe that they're fighting for your interests, while making damn sure that they're not fighting for your interests. Because your interests are directly opposed to their interests. Money is power. The power to tax is the power to rule. Not represent, but rule.

And now we're seeing just how representative our government is. The conservative movement achieved a nationwide landslide for the GOP. And what did we get for it? $352M in allocated spending de-allocated during the asinine CR (and don't get me started on those filthy bipartisan statist backslappers passing a continuing resolution rather than stating their priorities in a budget document), and $20 billion unspent in exchange for an extra trillion borrowed. Unless, you know, Harry Reid says we get less and we like it.

Pretty awesome work for eight months in office, TEA movement Representatives! You just saved us... about 54 hours of government borrowing. Not spending, just the borrowing we do in 54 hours.

How much time and money did you spend getting these schmucks elected? Hours? Thousands? However much it was, that's time and money you could have spent with your family that you will never get back. And our kids and grandkids are not only still slaves, but the Congress is forging new links on their chains as we speak.

Mr. Speaker, the only rational position for a reasonable man acting prudently to take is to honor those who made his rule possible and not raise the debt ceiling. It is politically rational because the House has already given the Senate and the President a choice: Do it like Americans want you to do it, or leave the debt limit where it is. Not only is it politically rational, it is the only choice that obeys the laws of economics: There. Is. No. More. Money. Somebody already spent it.

Drop the act, Boehner. Send the House home.

posted by Open Blogger at 07:38 PM

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