Posted on 04/08/2011 8:46:01 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON – Perilously close to a government shutdown, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders forged agreement late Friday night on a deal to cut more than $37 billion in federal spending and avert the first closure in 15 years.
Obama hailed the deal as "the biggest annual spending cut in history," and House Speaker John Boehner said that over the next decade it would cut government spending by $500 billion.
"This is historic, what we've done," said the third man in the talks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“I got a feeling the GOP isnt popular here tonight, they are complaining about it at DU too.”
Well, if that’s the case, then it really is a middle-of-road compromise, neither side really likes it ... where the dead skunks and yellow stripes are.
Boehner did a pretty good job overall getting what he got at the end, but he was dealing with snakes and liars and a media ll set to pump up the Dems and blame the GOP, so he had to get the best deal he could and save his powder for the bigger fights. GOP’s early mistake was coming in with $61 b from the get-go instead of the $100 b they needed to do (and promised), they needed a higher opening bid and
(2) they needed to get the Senate on the record.
As far as I can tell, we have one leader - Boehner.
Reid is a do-nothing spendaholic clown and Obama is the Pres—ent.
Once again, we see in the 2012 budget the House is moving first, and will have to bring Reid and Obama kicking and screaming towards some semblence of fiscal responsibility... it wont be easy.
"the third man" ... looks like Dingy Harry has finally recieved his official demotion.
It is becoming evident that as time goes on, the Republican Party has a plethora of "so-so" candidates, with no real stars yet, and it is past time that star candidates have blossomed into frontrunner status. I like many of the presumed candidates, but apparently none have the balls to adress the issues that Trump has so successfully raised, with the possible exception of Palin and Cain.
This is a joke. This just somewhat limits the budget increase and we have a lot of damn work to do if this is all we can get out of these elitist, gumby spined Repubicants.
I’m very underwhelmed by this in the face of the trillions of dollars we owe China.
I missed that one. But I bet it was good.
You got West? I got Honda! Wanna trade?
I'll say it yet again. This budget is $231B larger than last year's. There was no cut. The only thing that got cut were the Dem's ambition to grow government even faster.
With "cuts" like this government spending will double in only 11 years.
My heart is settin
Same here.
We still have to get up every morning and do what we can. Even if it means fighting off the discouragement. This is our finest hour.
West is the best! We’ll keep him here in south Florida where, God knows, we need him!
Heck of a Job....
And the Democrat Senators up for election in 2012 are gonna have to go on the record with votes on stuff they had hoped to avoid.
The Republican goal was never to meaningfully cut the budget and reduce spending. It was to avoid a government shutdown at all costs. Why?
Riot insurance!!! EVERYTHING the RINOs do is f*cking riot insurance! A real cut in the budget would have affected welfare payouts like the earned income tax credit, or cuts to the SSDI welfare program which would have resulted in tens of thousands of drunks and druggies rioting in the streets because their supply of free federal dollars for life had suddenly been shut off. Just like the recent riots in Athens and London when those governments announced draconian budget cuts impacting the entitlements crowd.
This “coverup” and kowtowing to entitlement thugs and welfare crooks has been going on in America since the sixties. If we don’t take our medicine and end the riot insurance programs—even if it means insurrection in the streets having to be put down by federal troops—we will lose this nation. We are already being held hostage by foreign countries and their pernicious economic strategies. but we are also being strangled by our own domestic welfare mobs as well. It’s time to man up and rid the country of this terribly immoral fear we have of ever offending or inconveniencing those who are holding a knife to our throats.
So what's your point? That's the current math in Washington DC. A socialist Dem is in the White House and a Democrat runs the Senate. The GOP controls only 1 of 2 Houses of Congress. We will not get 100% of what we want for the simple reason that Obama and Reid wont sign off on it.
The trick is asking for even more than what we want, and then 'cutting a deal' that gets the max of what we can get. Compromise and hardball.
I say the House should have passed the Tea Party budget and left town until thousands of unpaid soldiers showed the Senate Dems and Obambi a better way forward.
Nice theory, but the media and Dems were ready to make sure the Govt 'crisis' would fall in the lap of the GOP, and showed an eagerness to have that happen. Boehner was smart not to givem them that ammo, smart too to get what he could and preserve his powder for another day. If we are going to have a shutdown, lets do it over something BIG, not small.
2% of a loaf is better than none at all?
The GOP took this deal because it was the best they could get without shutting the government down when shutting the government down is what it will take to get anything meaningful.
It also means the 2012 budget won’t do any better because they won’t shut it down on Oct. 31 either.
It should have been shut down NOW.
Hope the 2% crumb don’t choke you.
2% would be $2 B.
They got WAAAAAY more than that.
Exactly.
You sound reasonable.
Earlier this evening I was thinking that I would offer to give up the riders for the whole original $60B, not what Boehner got. But you could see that many house conservatives wanted to finally get this funding out of the way to move on to other battles. Funding the government, especially the military with endless short term continuing resolutions is extremely wasteful.
If Boehner ran into a suicide shutdown battle without knowing how to win like load-mouth Newt did, he would have been crushed and had to have caved like Newt did and give up everything. Many here were beating the drum for shutdown but never offered a real scenario of winning; just like some in 2005. At least Boehner doesnt boast and make idiotic statements that can be used to beat up Republicans like Newt did.
So I dont think much different than yesterday or last year. More battles ahead. Boehner is no hero type, he pushed TARP in 2008 and they shouldnt have kept him on in 2009. So I dont expect much.
“Earlier this evening I was thinking that I would offer to give up the riders for the whole original $60B, not what Boehner got.”
That’s what I would have aimed for as well, especially as the Dems were claiming the numbers were agreed. I have no idea why they allowed the cut levels to get that low, but from the President’s POV, it’s off $70b from his proposal, so they felt they moved that far, and the GOP moved much less (only $20b).
I do know that if Reid had done a Senate bill, the negotiations would have been much easier, simpler, and more to GOPs benefit. The whole “White House negotiation” setup was a scenario to squeeze Boehner to cave, and IMHO he held up pretty well under it. It was a compromise but not a cave.
“The Republican goal was never to meaningfully cut the budget and reduce spending. It was to avoid a government shutdown at all costs. Why?”
Wrong, the GOP goal was to make a downpayment on spending cuts and fiscal responsibility in FY2011. They did that.
Another goal was to defund Obamacare. They didnt do that. Other policy goals will have to be fought another day.
The GOP goal was never to shut down the Govt, but ‘avoiding’ it? Well the House passed HR1 in Feb, and passed a short term CR this week. The GOP managed to get some of their goals met and did it without a govt shutdown.
The Dems did not publish a budget, they left it for the Republicans. It will forever be known as the largest deficit in history, and passed by Republicans....of course over the objections of the Democrats. He who writes history wins. Guess who will write the history?
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