The Speaker Pulled Off A Victory

Just about anyone with an opinion and an audience has weighed in on the outcome of the budget negotiations between Speaker Boehner representing the GOP and Democrats Harry Reid and Barack H. Obama.  Many on the Republican side feel that the Speaker "caved in" and "blinked" first.  Others feel that he did a fine job in his first real face off with the Democrat majority.  Two Sisters From The Right agree with Thomas Lifson, writing for the American Thinker that the GOP came out of this first skirmish with the winning hand.  There are yet bigger battles to come and we should stand fast and support those whom we've chose to represent us.  In the end, Speaker Boehner won more concessions for the GOP than anyone else has before regarding budget cuts.  We don't know what went on behind the closed doors of negotiation.  Nor do we know what bargaining powers the Speaker had.  We do know that the president tried to hold our military hostage - a ploy that failed.  In our opinion, Speaker Boehner did just fine.
Two Sisters



A.F. BRAMCO summed up the politics best with this cartoon.
Via ComicallyIncorrect.com 



The GOP did just fine

by Thomas Lifson

American Thinker   

"There is more good in the budget deal than is revealed in the budget cut number agreed on last night. Measured against the size of budget cutting necessary for the future, the numbers are small, to be sure, but this number was a tactical, not a strategic engagement. The key to the matter is momentum, principle, and precedent, which set up the strategic environment for 2012.
Andrew Stiles at NRO correctly points out the extent of the Harry Reid cave-in.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) didn't want to cut anything at first. But bowing to political reality, eventually ponied up about $4.7 billion in cuts. He ended up with $33.8 billion less spending than he wanted. And he called it an "historic" accomplishment. (Not surprisingly, the left is appalled).

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), on the other hand, initially proposed $32 billion in spending cuts. House Republicans, led by an undaunted freshman class, bumped that number up to $61 billion ($100 billion off the president's budget), before settling on $38.5 billion.

That's $6.5 billion more than Boehner asked for to begin with, and $5.5 billion more than the $33 billion that Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats claimed had been agreed to less than two weeks ago. A.J. Strata highlights the much bigger win that has been foreordained by the fine print, not conveyed in the number alone:
The budget number is pretty good, mainly because it kills programs instead of lowering their budgets for 6 months. so those 6 month numbers expand and grow in the coming year (snip) [emphasis added]

Obama even admitted in his speech infrastructure projects were being ‘delayed' (i.e., de-funded in 2011). Once de-funded, they will not be back any time soon. As fox News reports, this is a lot farther than the Democrats said they would be willing to go when this all started. (snip)

However, Boehner must have had an incredible stick in those negotiations, because Reid and Obama agreed to put things to vote in the Senate which everyone deemed impossible just last week. That is the truly amazing part of what Boehner pulled off yesterday:

The agreement reached with Senate Democrats guarantees a Senate debate and vote on legislation that would repeal President Obama's government takeover of health care in its entirety. The House passed such legislation in January as part of the Pledge to America...
The agreement with Senate Democrats guarantees a Senate debate and vote on legislation that would end federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

The last thing Reid or Obama want is a vote in the senate on Obamacare (or Planned Parenthood). But now they are going to have to vote and this is huge. If this happens, and 4 of those 23 red-state Democrats up for reelection in 2012 vote against Obamacare, then the President will have to veto a bipartisan bill that lines up with the overall will of the American voters. What could be better than isolating Obama and Obamacare from the will of the people and Congress heading into 2012?

The conclusion is inescapable that the Democrats realized they would be blamed for a shutdown, at least as much as the Republicans. The ploy of holding the troops' paychecks hostage stands as one of the dumbest political moves of the Obama presidency (and that is saying a lot). Sure there would be pictures of families turned away from the Washington Monument, but these would pale in comparison with the pictures of families near military bases unable to pay the rent or buy groceries, going into paycheck advance lenders and payting 22% interest in order to put food on the table.

One thing the American public will not tolerate is using our brave military heroes as political pawns.  Congratulations to Speaker Boehner, who, with "one half of one third of the government" pulled off a victory."



Copyright 2011 - American Thinker

The Democrats' Rebellion: December 2010

Unless something goes awry, it looks as if those of us who celebrate Christmas might be able to do so with one less concern on our minds.  It appears that a compromise has been reached by Congress to allow us to go into the new year with a government that has not been shut down by pig headed Democrats. 

Most of us recall December 2009.  That was when the Democratic Congress led by the queen sow, Nancy Pelosi stayed in session until December 24, while they bribed, cajoled, and pushed through one of the worst pieces of legislation in the history of our country -- Obama's Healthcare bill.  Readers might remember that Speaker Pelosi announced that we would have to wait until the bill passed before we could know what it contained.


Many analysts have spent most of 2010 reading, studying, dissecting  what has become known as Obamacare, and the majority have concluded that the bill will be a disaster for Americans.  In fact, at the time of this writing we are still waiting for a judge to decide on the constitutionality of the bill.  Twenty states have filed suit against the bill which will more than likely have to be settled by the Supreme Court.  Since the last two Justices on the court are Obama appointees,  the thought is not very comforting. 


These recollections bring us to today's main topic:  "The Democratic Rebellion of December 2010"


When Obama surprisingly reached an unexpected compromise with GOP leaders that would extend the so called "Bush Tax Cuts" while at the same time extending unemployment benefits, not everyone in Congress was in agreement.  Members of both parties had reservations about this newly found bipartisanship.  Republicans as well as Democrats stated that they would not support the compromise, even if it was for the good of the country.  Feeling left out of the negotiations, the very same Democrats who had so many times met behind closed doors, completely excluding Republicans, decided to revolt...and revolting they were, we might add. 


Led by Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi,  House Democrats decided that they would not support the President's compromise, and Pelosi vowed not to bring it up for a vote in the House.  Instead, they proposed a 1,924 page spending measure which was filled with more pork than Jimmy Dean's sausage factories. When television journalists and commentators began to read what some of the earmarks included in the bill were, it was astonishing. 


Frankly, it is  an outrage that these men and women who have been elected to represent the people of their individual states would engage in such frivolity merely out of pique because they felt they had not been consulted by the President.


There is no place for wounded vanity or revenge in the United States Congress. Throughout these negotiations the Democrats have behaved as resentful children, not the responsible adults they must be to hold high office in this country. Did they not hear the voters' message on November 2?  Are they not in touch with the American people, their constituents?




Americans are tired of big government encroaching in our lives. Some of us are particularly tired of serving as the government's own private piggy bank by being constantly taxed.  During a time when our country is facing an extreme financial crisis, and our solvency is in question, we have no time to be playing games with a 1,924 page pork laden bill written out of spite.


Consider if you will that the bill they were refusing to pass extended the unemployment benefits for those who have lost their jobs during these tough economic times. All of us have had to tighten our belts at home. We live with the uncertainty of what the future holds for us and future generations. Not enough can be said about the appalling behavior of these Democrats. If anything, they have demonstrated a true lack of regard for the example they have set to the young people of America who follow the news either on their own or as school assignments.


On Wednesday Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell filed a one page resolution to accept the compromise that the president had reached with the GOP that would extend the so called "Bush Tax Cuts", instead of the 1,924 page additional spending bill introduced by angry Democrats.

 

After Senator McConnell made that speech Nevada's Democratic Senator and Majority Leader, the despicable Harry Reid, gave an an angry and insulting speech on the Senate floor in which he said “I don’t need to hear the sanctimonious lectures of Sens. Kyl and DeMint to remind me of what Christmas means,” Reid's speech was in response to Senators Kyl and DeMint who called Reid "The Grinch" and stated that he was disrespecting the Christmas holiday by threatening to keep Congress in session through the Christmas break.

We really don't care how angry Harry Reid was at the president or the Republicans in the Senate.  His use of the word "sanctimonious" applied to those who celebrate Christmas was unpleasant, offensive, and yes, disrespectful to Christians.  We venture to wager that when speaking about a holiday other than a Chistian one Mr. Reid would have taken pains to be more politically correct, and not refer to those who observe a religious holiday in such terms.

 

Early Thursday evening, after realizing that he might not have the votes and support of some Republicans who had considered voting for the Democrats' bill, Reid gave up on the nearly $1.3 TRILLION bill which included $158 billion to keep the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars going.  This is a bill that should never have been proposed or written. 

This rebellion by the House Democrats in particular has presented them in a most unflattering light.  Hopefully, Americans who have supported these malcontents, and who can reason  for themselves will now see why voters went to the polls in droves this past November.

At 12:47 a.m. on Friday Breitbart reports that U.S. legislators  approved Obama's  deal with the GOP which extends middle-class tax cuts for two years and jobless benefits for 13 months. " A day after the Senate passed the package by an 81-19 margin, the House of Representatives followed suit 277-148, sending the measure to Obama to sign and reap a restorative bipartisan victory six weeks after an elections rout. "

All the acrimony and disagreement could have been averted if all the parties involved had put the interests of the country and the American people above their political ambition and their ideology.  If the Chief Ideologist of them all, Barack Hussein Obama can agree to a compromise, then the members of his party should have given him their support.   We are reminded of the Michael Ramirez cartoon printed earlier in this blog that shows the donkey holding a gun to his nose.  That is exactly what the Democrats did.  They showed the country that they are so narrow minded and petty that they're willing to "cut off their noses to spite their faces."

We hold high hopes for this new crop of Senators and Representatives going to Washington in January.  Much is expected of them, and they will be held accountable by those who voted them in office.  Two Sisters From The Right have every intention of monitoring their votes, and their comportment.  We don't ever expect to  see a ridiculous tome of 1,924 pages of irresponsible spending ever again.  Those to be sworn in the new Congress have been given a mandate.  It was loud, and it was clear.  Never forget that they are there to represent us -- We The People.