-
We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.
Senate Poised for Showdown on the Budget
- Thread starter jlmadyson
- Start date
Hayabusa Rider
Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Yes. Cut funding to Iraq instead of college loans.
umbrella39
Lifer
Not at the expense of the poor it isn't.
Darkhawk28
Diamond Member
Didn't the recent tax giveaways to the ultra rich already wipe this all out anyway?
Darkhawk28
Diamond Member
I'd say some are one, some are the other, some are both and a select few are none.
Darkhawk28
Diamond Member
My great, great, great grandchildren will be paying for this war.
dullard
Elite Member
You feed my porker and I will feed yours. 🙁:thumbsdown:
techs
Lifer
Curbing spending???
You're joking right?
This bill is less than a needle in a haystack.
It is nothing but a propaganda ploy so Republicans can claim they are trying to cut spending even as the neo-cons move forward with their plan to provoke an economic crisis in this country.
Shame on the Republicans!
You're joking right?
This bill is less than a needle in a haystack.
It is nothing but a propaganda ploy so Republicans can claim they are trying to cut spending even as the neo-cons move forward with their plan to provoke an economic crisis in this country.
Shame on the Republicans!
CaptnKirk
Lifer
What you got
<WashPost>
MAYBE THERE'S been an uglier end to a congressional session than the closing days of the first year of the 109th Congress. But for undemocratic maneuvers, skewed priorities and capitulation to powerful lobbies, this week sets a particularly low bar for congressional behavior. Vice President Cheney has rushed back from an overseas trip to cast what could be a tie-breaking Senate vote to pass the budget package. Here's hoping a last-minute change of heart will kill this deal and make his trip for naught.
"An exercise in budget discipline," acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) called the agreement to save close to $40 billion in mandatory spending over the next five years. An exercise in self-delusion and the power of special interests is more like it. Start with the pretense that this Congress has buckled down to tackle the deficit. It hasn't. The $40 billion in budget cuts -- much of which doesn't consist of cuts at all but of money raised by things such as selling off the broadcast spectrum -- is, if Republican leaders get their way, to be followed by an even greater amount in tax cuts next year. So the 109th Congress will have added to the deficit, not trimmed it. Lawmakers got around their self-imposed spending caps by labeling expenses such as flu preparedness as emergency spending. Some discipline.
Moreover, the cuts themselves underscore the absence of congressional will to inflict real pain -- especially on those who write campaign checks. Gone in the final version were provisions that made cuts at the expense of insurance companies and drugmakers. When Ohio House Republicans threatened to walk over Medicare cuts that would hurt a home-state manufacturer of medical oxygen tanks, those were stripped out as well, The Post's Jonathan Weisman reported. Remaining, though smaller than originally envisioned, were cuts in Medicaid and child support enforcement. In the Senate, where the vote balance is precarious, Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) seems to have agreed to switch his original vote and support the measure after White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove helped sweeten the deal by reversing a cut in sugar subsidies, according to Congress Daily. While Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter described the agreement as one "to hold one's nose and let it go through," we're hoping he concludes the odor is too strong.
As unattractive as the substantive choices lawmakers made were the procedures they resorted to. Drug companies were given special protection against lawsuits for flu vaccines -- a provision put in the defense spending bill after members of the conference committee signed what was supposed to be the final agreement. Whether or not this provision is a good idea, it's not one that should be crammed into a take-it-or-leave-it, must-pass measure without a single member of Congress having a separate chance to consider its wisdom. Lawmakers engaged in a similarly undemocratic dodge when they stripped the provision on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the budget package -- it wouldn't have passed the House otherwise -- and tacked it onto the defense measure.
No lawmaker heading home for the holidays should feel that there's much to celebrate in this frenzy of backroom dealmaking and dishonest posturing.
<WashPost>
MAYBE THERE'S been an uglier end to a congressional session than the closing days of the first year of the 109th Congress. But for undemocratic maneuvers, skewed priorities and capitulation to powerful lobbies, this week sets a particularly low bar for congressional behavior. Vice President Cheney has rushed back from an overseas trip to cast what could be a tie-breaking Senate vote to pass the budget package. Here's hoping a last-minute change of heart will kill this deal and make his trip for naught.
"An exercise in budget discipline," acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) called the agreement to save close to $40 billion in mandatory spending over the next five years. An exercise in self-delusion and the power of special interests is more like it. Start with the pretense that this Congress has buckled down to tackle the deficit. It hasn't. The $40 billion in budget cuts -- much of which doesn't consist of cuts at all but of money raised by things such as selling off the broadcast spectrum -- is, if Republican leaders get their way, to be followed by an even greater amount in tax cuts next year. So the 109th Congress will have added to the deficit, not trimmed it. Lawmakers got around their self-imposed spending caps by labeling expenses such as flu preparedness as emergency spending. Some discipline.
Moreover, the cuts themselves underscore the absence of congressional will to inflict real pain -- especially on those who write campaign checks. Gone in the final version were provisions that made cuts at the expense of insurance companies and drugmakers. When Ohio House Republicans threatened to walk over Medicare cuts that would hurt a home-state manufacturer of medical oxygen tanks, those were stripped out as well, The Post's Jonathan Weisman reported. Remaining, though smaller than originally envisioned, were cuts in Medicaid and child support enforcement. In the Senate, where the vote balance is precarious, Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) seems to have agreed to switch his original vote and support the measure after White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove helped sweeten the deal by reversing a cut in sugar subsidies, according to Congress Daily. While Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter described the agreement as one "to hold one's nose and let it go through," we're hoping he concludes the odor is too strong.
As unattractive as the substantive choices lawmakers made were the procedures they resorted to. Drug companies were given special protection against lawsuits for flu vaccines -- a provision put in the defense spending bill after members of the conference committee signed what was supposed to be the final agreement. Whether or not this provision is a good idea, it's not one that should be crammed into a take-it-or-leave-it, must-pass measure without a single member of Congress having a separate chance to consider its wisdom. Lawmakers engaged in a similarly undemocratic dodge when they stripped the provision on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the budget package -- it wouldn't have passed the House otherwise -- and tacked it onto the defense measure.
No lawmaker heading home for the holidays should feel that there's much to celebrate in this frenzy of backroom dealmaking and dishonest posturing.
DealMonkey
Lifer
Well, it's good to see the GOP is playing Grinch this year and sending up a big F-U to the poor. Nice, that's what Jesus would have done, right?
Does virtually NOTHING to curb the massive deficit. Targets the poor at Christmastime. Check. This is the tiniest little token when compared to massive GOP deficit spending over the past few years and yet the R's and Bush will fall all over themselves in self-congratulatory flagellation. :|
Does virtually NOTHING to curb the massive deficit. Targets the poor at Christmastime. Check. This is the tiniest little token when compared to massive GOP deficit spending over the past few years and yet the R's and Bush will fall all over themselves in self-congratulatory flagellation. :|
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes + WCL Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 24K
-
-
