E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe AP: “A Republican plan for the 2012 budget would cut more than $4 trillion over the next decade, more than even the president’s debt commission proposed, with spending caps as well as changes in the Medicare and Medicaid health programs, its principal author said yesterday.” More: “Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, part of a six-member group of Republicans and Democrats forging their own budget proposal, said that the lawmakers would be looking for real balance in Ryan’s plan and wanting all options considered. ‘I think we’ll come at it differently,’ Durbin said on ‘Meet the Press’ on NBC. ‘The idea of sparing the Pentagon from any savings, not imposing any new sacrifice on the wealthiest Americans, I think goes way too far. We’ve got to make certain that it’s a balanced approach and one that can be sustained over the next 10 years.’"
“House Republican leaders are privately warning Speaker John Boehner that they may not have the votes to pass a six-month spending bill with significantly less than $61 billion in cuts, and they are chafing at his closed-mouth style of negotiating,” Roll Call reports. “According to sources close to the issue, during a leadership meeting this week Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.), Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) reiterated their concerns with Boehner’s handling of the talks. According to these sources, Boehner’s fellow leaders are concerned that a smaller deal will not muster the 218 Republican votes needed for passage. In fact, several sources said that at one point McCarthy bluntly warned they would lose a significant number of GOP votes if the deal is based on $33 billion in cuts.
“Each of the 87 House Republican freshmen faces the same choice heading into the climactic week of the 2011 budget battle — to fight or fall in line,” The Hill writes. “The freshman class, vaunted for its unprecedented size and its Tea-Party ties, has been caught between party leadership nudging it toward compromise on one end and anti-spending activists clamoring for a clash on the other.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) doesn’t believe there will be a shutdown, but he says it’s the Tea Party that’s standing in the way: "The Tea Party is the group standing in the way," he said. "They are extreme. Any group that says you don't cut oil subsidies to companies making billions and billions of dollars...and at the same time, says cut student aid...I believe they're extreme."
Roll Call looks at freshman Sen. Mark Kirk’s (R-IL) emergence as a key foreign-policy voice among Republicans.
Leave a Comment:
And at the Tax Evasion Always Party rally in DC (all 200 of them) they were seen shouting "Shut it down, Shut it down." I guess they realized that if the shut down occurs after the 1st, they'd already have their SS checks.
The Democrats' plan is outlined in President Obama's FY 2012 budget proposal and its 10-year forecast on spending and debt.
$13 trillion in new gross debt will be added to the $14 trillion already on the ledger, and debt service payments will rise to $844 billion annually.
Hmmm...maybe the President ought to take a second look at the Plan his own debt commission offered him if he doesn't like what Paul Ryan's come up with.
Because the plan outlined in the President's FY 2012 budget really blows chunks.
I know that RIGHT. LOL.
Maybe Eric Cantor can just get the House to vote for it again and it would automatically become law. Cantor=one big loser.
Chuckie Schumer's still reading from the canned talking points abou the Tea Party, even after we all heard how phony it all is:
"They are extreme".
Extreme... right, Chuckie. Keep reading the prepared scripts, while adults in the GOP try to save the country from bankruptcy
Hey Bob,
If you check the facts, Bill Clinton handed George W. Bush a small budget surplus and a public debt of $5,727,776,738,304.64. During the Bush Administration, the Republican Congress ran the public debt up to $10,626,877,048,913.08 (and counting) before handing that amount to the next Administration (plus about $2 trillion in spending from the last few months of the Bush Administration, which occurred on Obama's watch). In addition, the Republican Congress passed the largest increase in entitlement spending, in the Medicare Part D benefit, which they said would cost $40 billion over the next decade, and amount that is actually $737 billion (according to Medicare). My Congressman, who prides himself on being one of the most conservative in that body, voted for over 90% of the spending bills Bush signed into law. I wrote to him repeatedly about the deviation from his campaign promises, but got those "write to me about any other subject" form letters. Not a single one of my Republican friends wrote to their representatives during this Republican spending spree. Please tell me your behavior was different.
All this talk about concern for the debt is mostly "BS"...and political posturing.
"canned talking points"? You mean, like.... "job-kililng health care reform"? You mean like that? Like other's don't live by these 'canned' talking points, Bobbie? Serriously??
@Bob-- they are extreme! Do you have a problem with a politician speaking the truth?
I don't mind them speaking the truth as long as those on the left understand the truth when they hear it. Like almost 50% of the people last year did not pay income taxes--yet the top 5% of taxpayers paid in 85% of all the money taken in by they federal government in income taxes. Yet you want to tax them even more. Maybe we should look at Bruce Springsteen and Warren Buffet. Both seem to get out of paying their taxes.
Speak the truth--we spend too much--we tax too much--we have too many entitlements.
What you are entitled to--life, liberty, and the "PURSUIT" of happiness--not the right to be happy.
This guy hasn't a clue its the 2008 failed play book ...He makes no mention of dropping the senate /congress pay and benefits to 35k no benefits no retirements ...he isnt listening to what the people want ! Also no mention of closing the pentagon and cutting the military budgets .We should have one military service who is cross trained to fly plane's sail ships be a foot soldier..etc not all these different branches ..No mention of all foreign aid being stopped ... until the Americans are fed and housed and have health care ...this guy is way to young and a political hack at best ... once again NOTHING from the Rethuglicians !
A balanced budget will require tax increases and spending cuts. The plan to cut expenses to the bone has at times broken sucessful business. A sucesful plam requires both growth and control of expenses. Growth can be achived with increase national employment, higher corporate earnings and modest tax increases.
Spending Cuts and Layoffs of Bloated Govt Workers..................and to stop funding Unions.
Salt,
I will agree that we need more revenue and less spending. But we don't have to increase taxes, we could just have a flat tax of 17% without deductions and at the lowest income per tax bracket today, our federal government would bring in more than $15 billion dollars more in income tax revenue.
Plus, if more people had jobs, then there would also be more income tax revenue.
Big Bear.
To many people benefit from the current tax structure, both rich and poor. I thought the same way in the 80's about the flat tax. 30 years later and where are we on that type of reform. It would be easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than to completely reform the tax system. I can support tax code reform, but not on the back of the middle class and definetly not on stealing the social security money to fund the general budget.
Salt,
I think they already stole the SS money. I am a reformer. We need to reform the tax code, we need to reform SS,--a pay out what you pay in system--make it a supplement to one's retirement, not their retirement. So they can get through the hard times. But like you, I have campaigned for these things since Carter, and where are we. Still allowing Warren Buffet to pay less in income taxes than his administrative assistant.
Someday the people will wake up.
Want real cuts in defense? Get out of Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq. We have troops in about 130 countries. Bring them all home. That should all total a nice cut. But, of course, we can't cut too much as Obama might want to arbitrarily get us into another war.
By the time the Iraq and Afghan. Wars are completely paid for, the price we paid for Libya will be a cake-walk for the Taxpayers. You are missing a lot information regarding those two wars, do you know that we have a shortage of man-power, to point that President Bush contracted Firms to Iraq and Afghan, those contractors were fighting along with our Solders, there were more contractors than Solders, and getting paid more money than our solders. SEARCH "List of Firms Contracted to Iraq and Afghan.", read it what you find on WIKIPEDIA.
Holy tempest in a teapot Batman!
Good for Paul Ryan to have the back bone to put such a comprehensive approach out there for people to work with. Republicans have their ideas on the table, so where are the ones from the Democrats... .nowhere to be found! What we need is no new tax increases without major spending cuts. Any tax increases should then only be prompted by removing all the ridiculous tax write offs that companies have and also all the special interest individual tax exemptions that have bloated the tax regulations. In short, cut spending big time like Paul Ryan has suggested and then reduce the exemptions in the tax code to get everyone paying taxes again (even bloated companies like GE that has been getting corporate welfare through all the new Obama "initiatives." By removing most of the exemptions in the tax code and maybe we can reduce tax levels even more for everyday citizens.
By the way, the MSNBC article seems to equate what Shumer working w ith five other democrats and Republicans is trying to do on the current 2010/2011 budget debacle to the 2012 budget that RYan is just introducing. Shumer's credibility is already shot given that he has been given the "extreme" talking points and continues to try and define negotiation results that have not occurred just to try and make the democrats not look like the obstructionists that they are in thecurrent negotiations. When are we going to see what the Democrats are putting on the spending cut table.... have not seen any specifics other than a "number' that means nothing!
Damn, the GOP, ala Ryan really do believe this stuff. Though more like the Mad Hatter. They refuse to engage in a debate as to what it means to live in an affluent western democracy, beyond how can they make sure the rich get richer.
Boehner will get this budget passed with Democratic support. I don't think now is the time to cut spending because of a fragile economy but if he needs Democrats to pass it, it should be trimmed to about $20B in cuts and let the Republicans eat Republicans with the bigger budget battle to come.
Awesome. For the past two years Republicans said the sky was falling because Obama was going to institute a European style, socialist VAT tax that will crush our productivity...LOL...and that's what the "genius" Ryan wants.
Almost a year ago when Obama floated it, "The value-added tax suggestion was immediately met with outrage by Republicans." (see the FoxNews story from April 7, 2010).
Republicans are a fraud.
In Wisconsin the reputation of "Richie Rich Ryan," and his economy for the rich only is well known in many Progressive Circles. "Richie Rich Ryan," is very good friends politically and economically with "Whacky Walker." The "Richie Rich Ryan" budget plan is not going to include tax cuts for the Middle Class. It will be infested with huge tax breaks, and even larger corporate tax loop holes for large companies. The Wall Street Bankers, large corporations. and large insurance companies are dancing in their streets of gold. The "Gross Odd People" (GOP), and the "Really Not Competent" (RNC) have the economic blood of the Middle Class on their hands. The "Richie Rich Ryan" budget plan will be published soon America. Read the fine print very carefully my fellow citizens. As for the elderly, the disabled, union workers, and teachers at all levels will flip the bill for this budget. The "Brainless Bush" Tax Cuts should have been repealed. The Wall Street Bankers, large corporations, and the large insurance companies lobbied heavily in Congress against this idea. The "Richie Rich Ryan" tax cuts, huge tax loop holes and lowering of the tax brackets for the very rich will be paid for by the Middle Class. What " Richie Rich Ryan," and his "Tea Begger" buddy "Whacky Walker" do not comprehend is that the Middle Class is now broke! In Wisconsin, the "Progressive Movement" went to sleep, and was whoke-up to an political/economic nightmare.
bob, if you believe this country can go bankrupt then you better do more research and quit listening to fox noise? we are not broke. we could never be broke. social security is well and as a trust fund can not be part of the deficit. wake up!
Close those military bases in Europe and Japan that were the result of WWII. These bases are 65 years old and need to be closed. Pull out of Nato. Let the Europeans supply their own defense instead of depending on the USA to defend them. European countries cut their defense budgets, and take the savings to supply wonderful health care to their citizens because the good ole USA will pay for their defense. The USA can't afford to supply health care to our citizens because we pay 70% of NATO costs.
Well Mr. Ayn Rand aka Paul Ryan is trying to fulfill his randian wet dream. Someone should tell Mr. Rand that his high priestess was a partaker of both Social Security and Medicare.
This guy is an idiot and would love to know how he is in politics and would love to know which idiots elected him into his position