Free Republic

Washington (CNSNews.com) – House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that conservative Republicans who oppose anything less than the significant budget cuts they promised their constituents were acting like “dictators” and were to blame for stalled budget negotiations. Harkening back to the government shutdown of 1996, Hoyer blamed what he called the “perfectionist caucus” for refusing to compromise, then and now. “The last time government shut down President Clinton was President of the United States,” Hoyer told reporters at his weekly media briefing. “And what happened then was the perfectionist caucus thought they would be the dictators and do it...

You can’t say they’ve been slow to act. Since the 112th Congress first convened on January 3rd of this year, the U.S. House of Representatives has been aggressively pursuing an agenda of cutting government spending. With the passage of bills that repeal Obamacare, de-fund NPR, and discontinue federal subsidies for special interest group Planned Parenthood (just to name a few), the House has demonstrated that it “got the message” in last year’s election. And now it’s time for Speaker of the House John Boehner, the man who has led this frenetic charge, to take direct aim at the most obvious...

Where’s the separation of church and state when you need it? According to Nancy Pelosi, there may be no such concept, since government offices have “biblical power to cure” illnesses. Pelosi made this remark while responding to the budget cuts proposed by Republicans in Congress that include the NIH, as CNS News reports today: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the House Republicans’ proposed cut to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget would hurt biomedical research’s “biblical power to cure.”Pelosi, speaking at a press conference on Capitol Hill celebrating the first anniversary of...

According to earthly logic, if you got a raise of 10 percent last year, but this year you got a raise of only 8 percent, you still got a raise. On Planet Washington, that qualifies as an indefensible slashing. So when the GOP actually cut $4 billion from the budget last week, the Democrats acted as if it was an involuntary amputation. Now the GOP wants to cut $61 billion of discretionary non-defense spending from the total budget of $3.7 trillion, and Democrats are responding as if this will spell the end of Western civilization. But given their terror of...

CNN interviews Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles on the budget debate taking place in Washington between Republicans who want to cut 1.6% of the budget in FY2011 and Democrats who want to cut no more than 0.28% of the budget. Both chairs of Barack Obama’s deficit commission scoff at the entire debate, pointing out that neither cuts would amount to a hill of beans in controlling the spiraling debt of the United States. Simpson and Bowles emphasize that the debate has to shift from discretionary spending to entitlement reform, and that certain established interests (cough-cough-AARP-cough) are doing their best to...

Democrat raises fears about GOP budget cuts forcing kids to become criminals. As the fight about cutting federal spending in the budget gets nastier and the GOP and the Democrats dig in their heels, some politicians are getting more extreme in their rhetoric. One of them, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in particular is using fear mongering tactics to make an emotional appeal to whomever is out there in the public and will lend her his ear. According to the Florida congresswoman, if cuts to childcare are made, then moms everywhere all of a sudden won’t be able to send their kids...

Students at University of California, Berkeley chained themselves to a perch on the ledge of a school building for nearly 8 hours yesterday. The students were protesting to make their demands known about budget cuts to public education. Protestors also gathered below the students, police later set off pepper spray to encourage the crowd to leave. After 9:00 last night the students ended their demonstration after coming to an agreement with authorities to avoid being arrested. School administration agreed to host a town hall meeting with students to discuss their concerns about budget cuts.

If public-school teachers spent more time teaching in classrooms and less time community-organizing in political war rooms, maybe taxpayers wouldn't feel as ripped off as they do. Before the Big Labor bosses start complaining about "teacher-bashing," let's be clear: An increasing number of rank-and-file teachers feel exactly the same way. Retired New York teacher Vinne Cusimano, who was required to pay forced union dues in order to work, wrote me this week after receiving the March 2011 edition of his union's monthly publication. The cover of the New York State United Teachers magazine reads: "Defend What Matters! Educate. Collaborate. AGITATE."...

Spending cuts approved by House Republicans would act as a drag on the U.S. economy, according to a Wall Street analysis that put new pressure on the political debate in Washington. The report by the investment firm Goldman Sachs said the cuts would reduce the growth in gross domestic product by up to 2 percentage points this year, essentially cutting in half the nation's projected economic growth for 2011. The analysis, prepared for the firm's clients, represents the first independent economic assessment of the congressional budget fight, which could lead to a government shutdown as early as next week. Nonetheless,...

Remember the German economic boom of 2010? Germany’s economic growth surged in the middle of last year, causing commentators both there and here to proclaim that American stimulus had failed and German austerity had worked. Germany’s announced budget cuts, the commentators said, had given private companies enough confidence in the government to begin spending their own money again. Well, it turns out the German boom didn’t last long. With its modest stimulus winding down, Germany’s growth slowed sharply late last year, and its economic output still has not recovered to its prerecession peak. Output in the United States — where...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- A faster, high-tech seafaring tank for U.S. Marines has hit countless setbacks and cost overruns during the past two decades, and now it is one of the pricier items on the Defense Department's budget-cutting list. Even the Marine Corps' top brass agrees the estimated $12 billion program has to go. But that doesn't mean the debate is over. A group of Republican lawmakers is questioning the Marine Corps leadership's sudden change of heart over the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. Generals have long said the amphibious tank under development had come to symbolize the force's very identity and...

Via Ricochet, here’s a nice clip that I’m going to call “Why I Drink.” To get in the proper frame of mind for viewing, fetch yourself an alcoholic beverage and sip slowly while comparing the increase/decrease numbers in this new poll from Pew:Not until we reach the last line do we find a plurality in favor of cutting spending, and even that’s exceeded by the combined number who want to keep humanitarian aid the same or even increase it. No wonder Obama thinks a spending freeze is good enough: The public quite clearly agrees with him.As for tea partiers, yes,...

Another Solano Board of Supervisors meeting where the welfare budget gets stuck under the chopping block. Boo frickin' hoo! For years they grew their socialist monster and now it must be cut! Solano Communist County is not happy when I speak! When I show up, they send in whole platoons of armed plain clothes deputies! They know I have evidence of police misconduct in Suisun so they are "scared" and see me as a "threat". What rubbish! Truly a COMMUNIST Government of big spenders and zero results! More videos to come!

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Hundreds of millions of US taxpayer dollars have been wasted on everything from doughnuts to rockets, auditors told Congress Thursday as budget-minded lawmakers prepared to slash science funding. For example, hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent each month on a NASA program to return Americans to the moon, even though the US space agency, Congress and President Barack Obama have agreed not to proceed with it. Old, rundown buildings are draining 300 million dollars a year from NASA in repair costs alone, and at least one space telescope project has run billions over budget, more...

The “revolt” ends in triumph according to Roll Call, as quoted by K-Lo at the Corner: House Republican leaders have agreed to a key conservative demand that they make good on their campaign pledge to reduce fiscal 2011 spending to $100 billion less than President Barack Obama’s budget request, GOP aides said Wednesday.According to a GOP leadership aide, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and other leaders are working with Republican appropriators, the Republican Study Committee and other conservatives on a “unified” strategy to reduce spending beyond the $74 billion in cuts they had already planned. The cuts, which would only...

The (GOP proposed) cuts are nevertheless wide-ranging. According to the proposal, Republicans want to cut the following: -- $169 million from nuclear energy  -- $593 million from the Internal Revenue Service -- $74 million from the FBI -- $379 million from NASA More at Fox News I think the $379 million cut for NASA is supposed to be the set-aside for bribing Muslims. Also, $169 million for nuclear energy?!? That's just whats being cut...what is the number they get now? I don't want to pry...but....how are we spending so much on energy we don't really produce? At the risk of compromising...

Following a contentious vote Tuesday night, the House Appropriations Committee will move forward with a GOP proposal to cut tens of billions in federal non-security spending for the remainder of the fiscal year (through September). The move puts Republicans one step closer to bringing a continuing resolution to the floor that will replace the one that expires on March 4. The 27-22 vote broke down by party, with two notable exceptions: GOP Reps. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.) and Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.) joined with Democrats and voted ‘no’ in protest over cuts they viewed as insufficient. Republicans very nearly lost...

Sacramento - Democrats are divided over whether to reveal to the public exactly what might be cut from the state budget if voters do not approve tax increases and extensions to help close California's $25.4 billion deficit. Gov. Jerry Brown has challenged Republicans in the Legislature to put taxes on the ballot in an attempt to stave off what he says will be deeper budget cuts. But Brown so far has refused to tell people exactly what they would be deciding.He has said he does not want to appear to be threatening voters.The state Senate has requested that the Legislative...

Gov. Rick Perry will ask the Legislature on Tuesday to indefinitely suspend funding for four Texas agencies and consolidate the functions of dozens more as part of a sweeping budget plan that would make deep spending reductions across state government. Funding for the Texas Historical Commission and the Texas Commission on the Arts would be eliminated altogether...

Yeah, ok, he proved this YEARS ago...but I'm just sayin'... “We are happy to work with Republicans; we recognize that there has to be some long-term financial austerity,” Reid said. “We’re not burying our heads in the sand; we recognize we need to do some things,” he added. But he called a proposal by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to cut this year’s federal budget by $32 billion “unworkable.” More at The Hill This is why people from Nevada can't be in charge of money. The deficit isn't some slot machine. A 32 billion dollar cut is...