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The Budget and the Republicans
A little wanton money, which burned out the bottom of his purse.
— Sir Thomas More, Works [c. 1535]
Five hundred million dollars seems like a lot until one realizes that it’s only a small part of an approximately $3.6 trillion dollar budget and viewed in that light it’s hardly worth mentioning except in a column such as this. It is also a testimonial to the endurance of earmarks.
One of the many things Republicans decided should wait until the new Congress took charge in 2011 was the adoption of a budget to run the country. The old budget died officially on September 30, 2010, but unlike run of the mill dead things, a continuing resolution gave it life until it would be replaced by a new budget no later than March 4, 2011 or Republicans in Congress decide that the federal government doesn’t need to be funded and permit it to shut down. That happened when Bill Clinton was president and the result was a Democratic take over of the House of Representatives the next time the voters were given the opportunity to express their opinions about the government shut down.
Republicans may be dumb but some of them, at least, are not stupid. (They demonstrated that by reading the U.S. Constitution aloud on the floor of the House the day after being sworn in, thus showing a skeptical public that at least they know how to read. Whether they can govern is placed in doubt given the folly of this undertaking.)
The passage of the short-term budget resolution funds the federal government at fiscal year 2010 levels. As the New York Times reported, there are lots of consequences of simply coming up with a short term fix.” Two examples make the point. John Nester, a spokesman for the Securities and Exchange Commission said the commission is forced to cut back enforcement and market oversight. The IRS’s efforts to update its computer system will be further delayed. (For more than 13 years the IRS has been trying to update its computer system. In January 2010 it announced that instead of completing the task by 2012 as had previously been promised, the update would not be completed until somewhere between 2018 and 2028. It now says its efforts will be once again delayed.)
Not all the consequences of the failure to agree on a new budget are bad. For one thing, the Republicans are now firmly in control of the House and by March 4 the brighter of the new members will have figured out how to be Congress people and will be able to make better budget decisions that they think people want than the former Congress would have made. In addition to giving the new Congress the right to set priorities, another beneficiary of the delay is Alliant Techsystems (ATK). It will receive $165 million that it would not have received had a new budget been adopted.
In 2009 President Obama cancelled the Constellation moon program. Part of the program included funds for the development of a first stage solid fuel rocket for the Ares I rocket. Since the Constellation has been cancelled that rocket will not be built. The Orlando Sentinel says the technology on which work is now continuing will probably never be utilized. The $165 million that ATK is receiving is part of the $500 million that the failure to adopt the new budget is costing NASA. The reason for the continuing expenditure is found in 70 words in the 2010 budget that was adopted by Congress. According to the Los Angeles Times those words were inserted into that budget by a champion ear-marker, Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R. Ala.) to protect work on the rocket being done at Marshall Space flight Center in Alabama. They say that NASA cannot shut down the Ares project until a budget for 2011 is adopted. According to the Times, NASA says that it has “been spending an average of $95 million a month on Ares I.” (Senator Shelby who has been responsible for the continued funding of the moribund program, has been a prodigious ear-marker throughout his Senate career. In 2008 he secured $427 million in earmarks for Alabama and in 20009 he obtained $322 million. At the end of November 2010 when the Senate held a vote to impose an earmark ban on the entire senate for two years, Senator Shelby was among those who successfully blocked the imposition of such a ban, thus insuring that earmarking would continue, at least until the new Congress convened.)
As noted at the outset, $500 million wasted is a drop in the bucket in the overall scheme of things and will be more than made up for by the $100 billion Republicans promise to cut from the budget as soon as they get around to figuring out where the cuts will come from.
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20 Comments so far
Show AllIf the federal gov. long term shuts down does that end the wars, end domestic surveillence, Homeland security, CIA, overseas bases, USA torture, special forces, bank bailouts, support for WTO and NAFTA, no child left behind, insurance mandate,corrupt fed politians?
Then let her rip, shut it down forever!
Agreed! Just like the banks are too big to fail, I would add MSM to you suggestions. Here is a little something that is too big to be ignored.
Ibanez foreclosure case analyzed. (massachusetts ruling against the banks)
http://foreclosureblues.wordpr.../
This is easy to understand.
Video: Highlights of Maine attorney Thomas Cox on foreclosures. Congressional testimony.
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2011/01/08/video-highlights-of-maine-attorney-thomas-cox-%e2%80%9cforeclosed-justice-causes-and-effects-of-the-foreclosure-crisis%e2%80%9d-pt-2/
If this doesn't anger you nothing will.
Shelby wears the perpetual sneer of an old southern sheriff and the pomposity of a Grand Wizard. A full scale investigation would rock his complacency. I would bet the house that he is probably one of the biggest crooks in Congress.
So now all of a sudden because the House is Republican controlled, it is supposed to be a legislative threat. Odd how during the last two years, virtually none of the House versions of any major bill (exceptions may exist in last week period of the most recent lame duck session) were enacted into law because the Democratic controlled Senate held more legislative power and wouldn't pass the House measures, which represented more of what the public wanted. Also, when the Democrats controlled the House, the media seemed to blame the House when legislative fights between the House and Senate threatened the passing of a bill.
We will see how this plays out. Are Obama and the Democrats going to use the weaker chamber as an excuse to stay to the right? Will Democrats use the same tactics as Republicans used as a minority to stop legislative efforts in the House? Who will the media blame during the inevitable clashes between the Senate and the House? I ask these questions only to provoke thought as I think the answers are predictable.
Both parties - and all parties, past and future - are always looking to move as far right as they possibly can, because that is where the money is and money is what the game is about, not voters and most certainly not "ideas."
This article is pathetic.
The author would have us believe that it was the republicans who enabled the republicans to take control of the budget process.
There is only one team playing in the ballpark. The hardest part of their game is maintaining the illusion that there are two teams, but with articles like this selling us (wormy) peanuts, we are going to need more "beer" to keep us in the ballpark.
The concessions stance is where they make their money anyway.
I heartily agree.
Well said Birdbrain,
Couldn´t you find a better handle than Birdbrain?
All this talk of repugs and dems is futile and pointless. Remember the hope for change that everybody had when Obomber was "elected"? What changed? Where are those hopes now? I agree completely, "There is only one team playing in the ballpark".
"Jorge1"
Thank you.
No. My experiences with wild birds leads me to believe that I am thinking rather highly of myself. Calling someone a birdbrain is only seen as derogatory if you believe the PR that says humans are superior.
While I do have great sympathy for humans, I have great distrust of the notion that any species - which consumes so much, has so many crutches (both psychological and physical) and is so detrimental to so many of our relatives - is to be trusted, much less superior.
I share you sentiments.
Speaking of birds, there is a species of bird now officially classified as a 'tool user'. Originally, only primates had been considered 'intelligent' enough to use tools. The web site is called "The scientist" and it has a recent section on animal behavior. It shows a video of a cute little bird walking along a shoreline. It goes over and picks up a small piece of bread but does not eat it. It takes the bread and drops it in the water and waits. If nothing happens, it fishes the bread out, walks a little further down and drops it in a again. Eventually some tiny fish approach the bread and the bird fishes them out. He's fishing! I watched him eat three fish.
See for yourself:
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57909/
Birds are much smarter than people think. And now they are now dying because of mankind's stupidity.
Crows are also good at making tools.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/04/0423_030423_crowtools.html
I heard a bird professional on the radio who was talking about the bird die offs. She stated that it was a common occurrence in nature and that die offs in those numbers happen about once a week worldwide. The recent trend of media interest likely happened because the die offs happened in a short time frame so close together geographically. She noted that this doesn’t indicate an increase of overall mass bird die offs overall. The reasons for bird deaths include bacterial infection from birds drinking tainted water such as from farm runoff. She also explained that the birds that died from the fireworks likely resulted from being startled at night. They cannot see well at night so if they get startled, instinctually their first reaction is to fly downward. They hit objects such as trees and roofs she said which results in the physical trauma observed from their carcasses.
Thanks FOR BOTH.
OBSERVATION what a beautiful gift from evolution, thanks for that.
No Terror No Torture Just Truth.
I read an article in The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper reporting on the announced budget cuts to Military spending.
They referred to the cuts as draconian and drastic detailing how they intended to cut 78 billion over 5 years.
Thats about 15 billion a year.
Out of a military budget that is 700 billion if one takes the official figures and closer to 1 trillion when ones throws in all the hidden costs.
A 2 percent cut is draconian and already I have seen right wing websites post how this shows a lack of support for the troops and how this will compromise US security.
That 2 percent CUT is miniscule. The cut is about what Canada spends a year on its military in total.
That was not the worst of it. The article cited a spokesperson who said these cuts were predicated upon the USA being able to bring back troops from Afghanistan and Iraq as the wars on terror were wound down.
Right now in Canada we "progressives" are doing everything we can to stop our "get on the war money bus" Conservative government (read Repuglican) from spending 16 Billion on F35 fighter jets. That works out to 2133/Canadian. Many of us are EXTREMELY PISSED OFF, and of course most Canadians aren´t paying attention. I find it very depressing that my government is also being drawn into this war for money madness. Incidentaly Sr. Birdbrain, I love birds too. haha. Too bad that the eagle is so fitting a bird to describe the US. It´s a predator.
I think Canada is buying the jets as a FAVOR to the US arms merchants. The jets are a bust. They are overly expensive and already obsolete in Military terms.
So as to ensure that they can sell some of these to other countries , Mr Harper is doing his pals a favor.
More superficial clap-trap. If I want this sort of fluff, I will watch MSNBC or CNN.
The author needs to do a bit of in-depth analysis and forget the easy assumptions, forget the invalid assumptions.
We are living in an era where War Criminals are given prizes, where one set of war criminals give de-facto pardons to the previous war criminals.
Where the Oligarchical puppet-masters: the Banksters gamed the system and made 100s of billions, then crashed the system by fraudulently inducing people, comapanies, municipalities and states, into taking on mountains of debt; then re-packaging the fraudulent debts into "investment instruments" (weapons of financial destruction) and selling them for even more profits. What's more, the good folks at Goldman-Sachs sold short on certain stocks they knew would crash because they knew the system was crashing, and made huge profits.
When the system crashed the political whores and puppets not only gave them a get out of jail free card, they were awarded trillions for their efforts. They then celebrated by giving themselves billions in bonuses.
In order to make more trillions available to the Banksters, the Fed has given them QE2 - virtually free money to crash the system again. So we aint seen nothing yet.
The assumption that there is any rule of law, democracy, fairness, or justice is clealry false.
We live in a Kleptocratic Oligarchy. We live in a financial dictatorship where Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein and Ben Bernanke are the real bosses yet none of those slimeballs are accountable, they are not elected, they are in fact above the law.
We live in a sort of neo-Feudal system where the Emperor and his court are above the law and the Corporate/Bankster Mafia who have the judges and politicians in their back pockets are above the law. The new aristocracy is entrenched, now bow down and say "yes m'lord" and don't you dare make eye contact.
We live in a criminal, immoral, corrupt and decaying carcass of an empire.
Amen!
Lets get the historical facts straight. Republicans created the vast majority of the national debt through tax cuts(top marginal rate was 75 and Reagan cut it to 28) starting with Ronnie Ray-gun.
Clinton diminished the deficit and debt by taxing the rich--not enough in my opinion.
Bush 2 recreated the Huge deficits we have today and increased the debt massively by cutting taxes on the rich.
Conclusion: TAX THE RICH! And all the debt problems vanish within a decade, Real simple. Top marginal rate should be 90 percent like it was after WW2.
Problem solved. You only need a fifth grade education to grasp this...