Republicans Officially Give Up Trying to Cut Spending

Source: Reason
Published: Oct 20, 2017
Author: Matt Welch
Post Date: 2017-10-22 14:27:28 by Hondo68
Views: 4211

After all that fuss from 2009 onward, Rand Paul is the last Republican left objecting to the continued growth of government.

After the rise of the Tea Party in 2009 as a grassroots expression of revulsion at government bailouts, spending, and Obamacare; after a series of insurgent Tea Party primary victories in 2010 over big-spending incumbents and hand-picked establishmentarians; after Republicans re-took the House that November thanks in part to that new jolt of fiscally conservative energy; after the House majority from 2011-14 successfully used its power of the purse to force debate and at least some temporary agreements on the debt ceiling, long-term entitlements, and year-on-year spending, and then after Republicans re-took the Senate and eventually the White House…after all this activity, when it finally came time for the GOP to stand up and demonstrate its values of fiscal stewardship and limited government, you could count the number of Republicans voting to restrain government spending on exactly one finger:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), was the only Republican no-vote in yesterday's 51-49 Senate approval of a $4 trillion budget resolution for fiscal year 2018. The resolution, more of a vague blueprint for the next decade, includes $43 billion next year for "Overseas Contingency Operations" (OCOs), a notorious budgeting gimmick that has been responsible for more than $1.7 trillion in off-budget spending this century. Quite unlike the deficit-neutral House budget resolution that passed two weeks ago, the Senate version assumes $1.5 trillion in new debt, and does not make the House's $203 billion in domestic spending cuts (the Senate's final tally is closer to $0).

So how did the fire-breathing fiscal conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus react? By agreeing to not even bother going to conference committee to reconcile the two different budgets, so as not to slow the grand prize of tax cuts by even a couple of weeks.

When given the chance to take seriously government over-spending, and the growth-stunting debt overhang that comes with it, only one Republican is on record yelling "Stop." As Ed Kilgore aptly noted in New York magazine, "all the GOP deficit-hawkery that reigned during the Obama presidency and early in the Trump presidency vanished literally overnight."

Not only that, the budget resolution's existing "cap" on defense spending is by all reported accounts a fiction:

Several senators noted that the discretionary toplines in the plan — which would limit fiscal 2018 defense spending to $549 billion and nondefense to $516 billion — have little meaning since most Democrats as well as Republicans see those limits as too low. […]

GOP and Democratic leaders and the White House have begun to negotiate a deal to raise the defense and nondefense caps, likely for two years, people with knowledge of the talks told CQ.

Great job, everyone.

Does it get worse? Sure. Check out the kicker to this Chicago Tribune article:

Under congressional rules, the nonbinding budget resolution is supposed to lay out a long-term fiscal framework for the government. This year's measure calls for $473 billion in cuts from Medicare over 10 years and more than $1 trillion from Medicaid. All told, Senate Republicans would cut spending by more than $5 trillion over a decade, though they don't attempt to spell out where the cuts would come from.

In reality, Republicans aren't serious about implementing the measure's politically toxic proposals to cut Medicare, food and farm programs, housing subsidies, and transportation. In fact, lawmakers on both sides are pressing to break open the measure's tight spending "caps" on the Pentagon and domestic agency operations and pass tens of billions of dollars more in hurricane relief in coming days and weeks[.]

As predicted in this space, we are hurtling fast toward taxcut-and-spend economics once more. Remember how the last time ended?

Here's a reminder from Nick Gillespie why we need less debt:

Photo Credit: CSPAN

Post Comment   Private Reply

#1: buckeroo    To: hondo68 (#0)

The GOP and Dems are all the same: Motto - How to FUCK a Nation.

buckeroo posted on 2017-10-22 14:41:48   Reply   Private Reply

#2: Hondo68    To: buckeroo (#1)

Drain the Swamp by raising the debt ceiling, cutting taxes, and increasing spending. MAGA 'till ya puke!

Hondo68 posted on 2017-10-22 14:56:01   Reply   Private Reply

#3: Hank Rearden    To: hondo68 (#0)

I've been telling friends and family for years that there's no hope for change - it has to collapse before anything changes, and then the changes will be forced by panicked politicians.

That's never good.

Hank Rearden posted on 2017-10-22 15:05:10   Reply   Private Reply

#4: jeremiad    To: Hank Rearden (#3)

There is a much worse scenario that changes forced by panicked pols. That is the one where the scenario has been plotted, planned and written into code in advance by the planners of said collapse.

jeremiad posted on 2017-10-22 15:11:51   Reply   Private Reply

#5: buckeroo    To: hondo68, A K A Stone, scruffy (#2)

This MAGA shit is a disgrace to America. That is why I voted for my dead dawg Scruffy as opposed to a pack of fuckin' liars.

buckeroo posted on 2017-10-22 15:17:41   Reply   Private Reply

#6: A K A Stone    To: buckeroo (#5)

Anyone who votes for a dog belongs in a mental institution. Especially an ugly carpet and piss shitter like scruffy.

I admit it suckeroo it was me that ki)led that ugly mutt of a hoind.

A K A Stone posted on 2017-10-22 15:27:53   Reply   Private Reply

#7: buckeroo    To: A K A Stone (#6)

Admit it, asshole, your vote for the D&R Party is akin to wiping your ass with shit paper. It goes into a septic tank as an another asswipe.

buckeroo posted on 2017-10-22 15:38:45   Reply   Private Reply

#8: GrandIsland    To: buckeroo (#7)

You choice wouldn't get any more done than Trump, dick breath... and your choice would have NOT built a wall. Stay in the 3rd world shit hole you live in.

GrandIsland posted on 2017-10-22 17:29:22   Reply   Private Reply

#9: buckeroo    To: GrandIsland (#8)

You [your] choice wouldn't get any more done than Trump, dick breath... and your choice would have NOT built a wall. Stay in the 3rd world shit hole you live in.

C'mon on down to Belize. I will buy you a steak dinner just so you have an idea about the quality of life.

buckeroo posted on 2017-10-22 18:52:28   Reply   Private Reply

#10: A K A Stone    To: buckeroo (#9)

We don't consider you to be American in deed and certainly not spirit. If you lived in China you would be a patriot.

A K A Stone posted on 2017-10-22 19:14:26   Reply   Private Reply

#11: sneakypete    To: hondo68 (#0)

Republicans Officially Give Up Trying to Cut Spending

No big deal. They were just pretending anyhow,and everybody knew it.

sneakypete posted on 2017-10-22 19:21:41   Reply   Private Reply

#12: A K A Stone    To: sneakypete (#11)

Ted Cruz, rand Paul just pretending. Most republicans support them. There are a few fakes though. Ok many but not most imo. On the tax cut issue.

A K A Stone posted on 2017-10-22 19:29:04   Reply   Private Reply

#13: buckeroo    To: A K A Stone (#10)

Why in the world would I "hang in there" with a gang of corrupt government officials that you repeatedly vote for?

I am free to choose what I want to do and certainly for my future. I am not stuck with a nation of non-compelling government officials that deny their own oaths to the constitution that they choose to wipe their asses on.

buckeroo posted on 2017-10-22 19:31:25   Reply   Private Reply

#14: A K A Stone    To: buckeroo (#13)

You're an insignificant gnat.

A K A Stone posted on 2017-10-22 20:23:18   Reply   Private Reply

#15: buckeroo    To: A K A Stone (#14)

At one tyme, you voted for John McCain as President of the USA, correct? What happened to your personal passion for this mother-fucker to operate as a representative for your perspective? You just through your hands up in the aire and gave up or did you move along with another fuckin' bullshiter?

Are you going to do this same old re-occurring political dance throughout all your life with no actual benefit?

buckeroo posted on 2017-10-22 20:40:33   Reply   Private Reply

#16: GrandIsland    To: buckeroo (#15)

Moving to a 3rd world Spick-hole has the same results as only voting R or D... dumb shit. It's not like you can support some hippie drug loving cop hating shitbag for pres from where you are.

GrandIsland posted on 2017-10-22 20:46:18   Reply   Private Reply

#17: buckeroo    To: GrandIsland (#16)

Unlike yourself of voting for silly idiots ruling your life doing nothing more than driving your tax base into the stellar regions without any benefit or control. I have no vote. I just pay for my liberty and freedoms without any obligation to worry about a careless government that sez, "I voted."

And the cost is significantly lower to myself and family while improving my life.

buckeroo posted on 2017-10-22 20:54:54   Reply   Private Reply

#18: Tooconservative    To: hondo68 (#0)

We're going to party like it's 1929!

Tooconservative posted on 2017-10-22 20:55:45   Reply   Private Reply

#19: Hondo68    To: buckeroo, A K A Stone, passed the litmus test (#15)

To: A K A Stone

At one tyme, you voted for John McCain as President of the USA, correct?

If I recall correctly Stone did NOT vote for McCain. Maybe Chuck Baldwin?

Hondo68 posted on 2017-10-22 20:56:39   Reply   Private Reply

#20: buckeroo    To: hondo68, A K A Stone (#19)

Stone really liked Palin. I am confident that is his reason for McCain.

buckeroo posted on 2017-10-22 21:00:14   Reply   Private Reply

#21: Fred Mertz    To: buckeroo, sneakypete (#20)

stinkyfeet had a hard-on for Palin early on, then she got schooled by McCain and crew - the establishment types.

Fred Mertz posted on 2017-10-22 22:28:07   Reply   Private Reply

#22: buckeroo    To: Fred Mertz, sneakypete, hondo68, A K A Stone (#21)

I liked Palin, too. But during her campaign she committed to another nation just as Trump has demonstrated: Israel. I wouldn't vote for these traitors to save Stone's life. They really are traitors.

buckeroo posted on 2017-10-22 22:40:23   Reply   Private Reply

#23: sneakypete    To: Tooconservative (#18)

Let's party like it's 1929!

ROFLMAO!

QUICK,SOMEBODY OPEN THE WINDOWS!

sneakypete posted on 2017-10-23 12:59:33   Reply   Private Reply

#24: sneakypete    To: Fred Mertz (#21)

stinkyfeet had a hard-on for Palin early on, then she got schooled by McCain and crew - the establishment types.

I have to admit I liked her at first,too. My only reservation was when she bragged about flying the flag of Israel in the governors office,along side the US flag and the Alaska state flag. That gave me serious reservations about her qualifications to be President.

I still think that if SHE had been at the top of the ticket,and McLunatic had been at the bottom of the ticket,that they would have won,though.

EVERY SINGLE TIME she would give a speech and score points against Bathhouse Barry,McLunatic would pipe up to apologize for what she said and say she wasn't speaking for him.

It became obvious to me that McLunatic had been paid to run to lose.

sneakypete posted on 2017-10-23 13:04:02   Reply   Private Reply

#25: Tooconservative    To: sneakypete (#23)

QUICK,SOMEBODY OPEN THE WINDOWS!

BTW, you may know that it was researched and that was exposed as a media myth. There were no records in newspapers or in police records of any bankers throwing themselves out of windows back in 1929. Another media lie, much like the one about old people being abandoned by their families to die on street corners which was used to justify establishing Social Security. Neither of these ever happened but a lot of people still believe those lies.

Tooconservative posted on 2017-10-23 13:18:32   Reply   Private Reply

#26: sneakypete    To: Tooconservative (#25)

BTW, you may know that it was researched and that was exposed as a media myth.

No,I didn't know that.

sneakypete posted on 2017-10-23 19:44:24   Reply   Private Reply