Budget Standoff Basics
Posted: April 7, 2011 Filed under: Domestic Policy, Economy, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics, We are so F'd, Women's Rights | Tags: Toxic Republicans 14 Comments
Pirates of the Rich and Crazy
Is it just me or does John Boehner seem like he’s in over his head?
I thought I’d dig up some references for you on exactly what a shutdown of the Federal Government means and what’s at issue here. ProPublica has a great FAQ up with some basic facts on what will be impacted, what won’t be effected, and what’s at stake. Here’s a short summary from them of the Status Fail.
The GOP and the Obama administration are currently locked in a standoff over a difference of $7 billion to $30 billion—a miniscule amount of the total $3.5 trillion budget. (OMB Watch, an open government group, has a thorough account [1] of the budget battles that led up to this point.)
The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein has a simple summary [2] of the GOP’s budget proposal, put forward by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan on Tuesday: It lowers corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy, extends the Bush tax cuts permanently, calls for repeal of both the health care law and Dodd-Frank financial reform law, and freezes discretionary spending at 2008 levels.
The Obama administration has offered to cut $33 billion from current spending levels but hasn’t given many specifics about what those cuts would entail
The biggest issue that appears to be happening is that Boehner keeps changing the bar and is being forced to say no deal on certain cuts demanded by folks like their religionist base on items like Planned Parenthood Funding. Steven Benen asks if Boehner is actually willing shut down the government over the minuscule funding for Planned Parenthood. This is definitely not Barbara Bush’s Republicans around the beltway these days. Also included in the hostage negotiations is the Clean Air Act. Republicans want to stop the government from monitoring air pollution. Hell, this isn’t even Richard Nixon’s Republicans.
Republicans want to cut off Planned Parenthood and gut the Clean Air Act, but instead of pursuing legislation to achieve their goals, they’re insisting that this be part of the budget. Democrats can’t go along with this nonsense, and John Boehner is too weak a Speaker to tell his caucus to act like grown-ups, so the entire process is unraveling.
This has led to talk about the GOP shutting down the government over abortion, but even that’s not quite right — Planned Parenthood is already prohibited from using public funds to terminate pregnancies, and has been for many years. What we’re talking about here is Republicans shutting down the government over access to contraception and family planning services.
For all of those folks that thought the Republicans weren’t ready to go crazy over their crazy, extremist religious views, this should wake them out of their stupor. These folks are trying to shut down access to birth control by screaming abortion. This kind of mean and stupid should hurt. You can also check out WT for a long list of what kind of things will be shut down or go unpaid because the xtian Taliban hate Planned Parenthood. They must hate soliders because that’s one of the groups of people that won’t be able to get paychecks either.
IRS tax audits would be halted in their tracks, this weekend’s National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in Washington canceled, and national parks and the Smithsonian shuttered if Congress can’t reach agreement on annual spending and the government shuts down at midnight Friday.
The military, federal law enforcement and other key officials would still be at work, earning pay – except their paychecks would be halted until the government funding stream is turned back on.
The Federal Government’s personnel bureau has posted information about which Federal employees will be furloughed. There’s an old study up on what happened the last time the Republicans shut down the government under Newt Gingrich that appears to be the blueprint for Federal Response. The ProPublica site contains a series of links to a lot of information on these topics in particular. They cite a NYT article for this information.
The New York Times has a handy list laying out how various government services might be affected [16]. Some things that would continue mostly unaffected are military operations, the Federal Reserve, the postal service, and Medicare and Social Security payments. An accompanying story also outlines some potential scenarios [17] in more detail:
The National Zoo would close, but the lions and tigers would get fed; Yellowstone and other national parks would shut down. The Internal Revenue Service could stop issuing refund checks. Customs and Border Patrol agents training officials in Afghanistan might have to come home. And thousands of government-issued BlackBerrys would go silent.… In any shutdown, the government does not completely cease functioning, of course. Activities that are essential to national security, like military operations, can continue. Air traffic control and other public safety functions are exempt from shutdowns. Federal prisons still operate; law enforcement and criminal investigations can continue.
The Hill has just quoted Harry Reid as saying he doesn’t think a shutdown will be averted. Again, the issues don’t seem to be the level of spending, it’s appeals to climate deniers and members of the xtian Taliban that seem to be at issue here.
Reid blamed a partisan dispute over Planned Parenthood and other hot-button ideological issues for the stalemate, while Republicans said they had offered reasonable spending cuts and Democrats were to blame for the impasse.
…
“The two main issues holding this matter up are the choice of women, reproductive rights, and clean air,” Reid said. “These matters have no place in a budget bill.”
Reid said the president and Democratic leaders would not give any more ground in the talks.
“We have given everything that we can give,” he said
Frankly, this has gotten worse than even I imaged it could be. Clearly, people that are voting Republican have brought such extremists to the House that it’s unlikely negotiations of any kind will be successful unless Boehner cracks a whip. At the moment, all he appears to be doing is dithering, drinking, and crying.
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skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Bamm-Bamm’s Budget Plan
What leadership! Obama-style:
To hide away the longest while,
And dither ’til the very last –
Until the time is almost past.
Then ride in at the end of day,
Adopt whatever plan’s in play,
Proclaim its merits as your own
And say debate is overblown.
As evidence I would submit
The budget, dragging bit by bit,
O’er months of fruitless talks, and yet
The President played hard to get.
He named Joe Biden as his man:
Joe had a meeting, then he ran,
To meet the Russians overseas
And charm them with his expertise.
The President then saw the need
To hand the reins to Harry Reid,
Who could not of his own accord
Get Boehner and his team on board.
And now the President is mad.
He wants a deal and wants it bad.
So in a fit of hope and change
He takes off for the golfing range.
But on his way he first insults,
By saying they should be adults,
The very men who have displayed
The will to work, while he has played.
Was watching a ridiculous segment on CNN where the “Man” on the streets, actually a woman, gave passerby’s a list of false choices where they’d have to cut “big ticket” items that make up the majority of the deficit. Needless to say the two she hyped as needing the most cuts were Social Security and Medicare.
We all know the truth concerning these programs but apparently Americans do not. Essentially, if they start cutting these programs and continue to collect the medicare and social security taxes they’ve just instituted a tax hike on the poor and the middle class in order to sustain their tax cuts on the rich.
Republicans are so reprehensible. I just can’t believe they keep on with this crap. It is sickening beyond all concept. To want to cut medical services to the elderly, to cut programs for the poor, the needy or the disabled in order to sustain tax cuts for people who don’t need them or to maintain the military budget is just completely evil.
Americans better start waking the fuck up. At this point we have the most corrupt and ineffective government in the world. I don’t know the malfunction of those who say they are conservatives but they need to get with the program and figure out what a government is for.
I live in Texas and am continually amazed every time some card carrying Republican that I know needs a government service and then whines when it isn’t available. These people are freaking deluded and out of touch with reality.
Freaking deluded and out of touch with reality would be an improvement. I can’t believe Boehner is not going to pay soldier’s families over Planned Parenthood funding. These people are crazy! They want to force us into some theocratic state where only the most extreme religious fanatics and the rich that can avoid them get anything!
ya DK i here ya the pubs not going to pay soldier’s i think my be the straw that breaks the wing nut hump.
Matt Taibbi has a piece on Ryan’s “plan,” but it’s kind of weak, IMO. Taibbi refers to SS and medicare as “entitlements,” and compares his own wealth to David Brooks’.
Taibbi’s dad is a broadcaster, but I hardly think he is as rich as David Brooks. It makes Taibbi sound like Obama talking to Joe the Plumber.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/tax-cuts-for-the-rich-on-the-backs-of-the-middle-class-or-paul-ryan-has-balls-20110407
Entitlements is an abused term. It’s a legal term for having to meet a criteria to qualify for a benefit but it’s been used pejoratively for so damned long as free loading that I wish so-called progs would just quit using it.
I read over at Uppity Woman last night or night before that Spitzer had a rethug guest that he finally got to admit that Ryan’s cuts in Medicare just so happened to match the wanted cut in taxes to the rich.
Just a coinkydink of course.
I do find this a succinct description, however:
Headline from Firedog Lake
Reid: Government to Shut Down “Over Social Issues: Women’s Health, Clean Air”
By: David Dayen Thursday April 7, 2011 9:42 am
So will the president reiterate this to make it a point to the nation.
I believe I read that he’s headed out of town.
Hee hee hee…that description of Boner is right on. He is a horrible Speaker. Say what you will about Pelosi, but she certainly knew how to keep the House in line.
This is what happens when you negotiate (that is, give away) the non-negotiable. The O-man already gave away the store (and any bargaining position) with the tax cuts back in December.
Meanwhile, O must have the goods on the Dems who still retain some vestige of liberalism. He’s turned them all into spineless wonders.
It would be so easy to explain Social Security and Medicare (and Planned Parenthood services) to the masses. The fact that people don’t understand is because, once again, the Dems have failed to articulate the rationale for these programs. And that’s because O and his team do not want the programs. And won’t allow any simple explanations.
Let the gov’t shut down. Explain in 30-second TV spots what the Repubs are doing. So effin’ easy. What a bunch of losers. Every last one of them.
And where is the O-Man? On his way out of town, says Dak. What a great leader. Godlike, no?
Exactly. Any hope for the Dems standing up to the GOP was lost when he gave in to those tax cuts. I should say when Obama showed his true colors, by extending the tax cuts to the rich. We are truly f’d and it seems like it will only get worse.
Wait until you see this video and learn what the Koch Brothers have been up to for years.
Koch Brothers – The Kochtopus