Posts Tagged → White House
GOP House, White House far apart on budget
The White House is claiming a budget that proposes spending cuts – they say – that consist of $51 billion less in spending in 2011. The House GOP’s budget proposes over $102 billion. So that’s not bad; at least the White House is only half-way to the GOP proposal, right?
Well, newsflash, both budgets are lying. They reach those totals by including a proposed $40.8 billion thanks to a spending freeze. Only trouble is, that money was not close to being spent; it was “built-in spending increases” due to the “cost of inflation.” Because Washington doesn’t do zero-baseline budgeting like normal Americans; they assume everything they spent last year will be spent again, plus more for “inflation.”
So all that’s being truly cut is the so-called “inflation adjustment” increase. But it’s not real money, so it doesn’t count.
Between Harry Reid’s Senate plan and the White House, the Democats came up with only $10.5 billion in additional cuts. That’s nothing compared to the cuts the GOP-led House came up with; subtract the same $40.8 billion in fake spending cuts from their budget, and you are left with savings of $61.5 billion.
That’s nowhere near close on the White House’s part. So at least the GOP budget is somewhat aggressive. But aggressive enough? By my count, the GOP still owes the American people at least another $40 billion in cuts. Real, actual spending cuts that shrink the size of government. Either that, or giving us each a set of nice shoulder braces. That might work, too…
Nah. I’d still prefer the spending cuts.
White House trying to scare USA out of GOP support
When White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer isn’t railing against engineering jobs or otherwise wasting government bandwidth on his White House blog, he’s trying to scare Americans out of supporting the GOP. Naturally, that sort of thing’s his job; he’s an Obama Administration employee and he’s hardly going to be cheerleading the opposition.
But he’s also not being completely straightforward, either. Citing a single source, Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, Pfeiffer is actively attempting to suggest that House Republicans, if they regain power in November, will force “another government shutdown.” This, he divines by a general statement Westmoreland has made about how the GOP should go “toe-to-toe” with the Obama Administration should they regain power.
Well, what does Pfeiffer expect, for the GOP to rubber stamp everything Obama sends their way? Heck, he can’t even get Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to do that, and she’s supposedly his ally!
Pfeiffer is under the impression that America went through some sort of national nightmare back during the Clinton Administration when the House, led back then by Newt Gingrich, dared to challenge Bill Clinton’s budget priorities enough to refuse to pass a budget until more cuts were made.
I was an adult and lived through that time and, let me tell you something: not many people noticed that government was shut down. Most of us kept on going with our lived just fine without the Fed hiking taxes at every opportunity.
I’m not saying this is the GOP’s plan should they win; I have no idea. But even if it is… maybe it’s a good idea. Maybe if President Obama’s own party had the courage to say no to him every time he wants to pass a new stimulus package, they all might be doing a darn sight better in their approval ratings.
Ever think of that?
