Month: February 2011
SSDD: Republicans Proposed Same Cuts in 1995
Let me read you a news story about some of the proposed budget cuts. Republicans are proposing cuts in youth training and education programs, foreign aid, assistance to homeless youth, federal subsidies to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Head Start, energy assistance for the needy to pay their fuel bills. That’s a list from 1995. So Republicans now are proposing a very similar list of cuts that go after the programs that they have always targeted, things that conservative voters don’t like very much, that liberal voters do. So in that sense there is Republican unity.
Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal Constitution columnist, appearing recently on NPR’s “Tell Me More.”
The Tea Party’s Job-Killing Budget Bill
The House tea party caucus put its dominance over Speaker John Boehner on display last week when it pushed him and his hapless leadership team to the edge of the political ledge on the issue of budget cuts.
Here’s the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis on Friday of the ramifications of the tea party cuts were they to be enacted:
After the House Appropriations Committee detailed $74 billion in cuts last Wednesday, a number of conservative members demanded $26 billion in additional cuts to make good on the “Pledge to America,” bringing the total level of cuts relative to President Obama’s FY 2011 budget request to $100 billion. A full $100 billion cut to discretionary spending would likely result in job losses on the order of 994,000, using OMB’s GDP projections (CBO’s projections are based on current law) and assuming a fiscal multiplier of 1.5.
The new GOP budget proposes cutting non-security discretionary spending by $81 billion relative to the president’s $478 billion request for 2011. Non-security discretionary cuts of this magnitude would likely result in job losses of just over 800,000. (2/15/2011)
But over the weekend, looking at the bill as passed, the Associated Press reported that it called for $60 billion in cuts, which, if so, would represent a significant defeat for the tea party caucus. Even at that level, the cuts will likely produce direct job losses of 650,000 in government layoffs, which would likely trigger to another 325,000 layoffs, mostly in the retail and service sectors — nearly 1 million jobs altogether — according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress.
Government of One
Gov. Rick Scott’s used to getting his way,
He doesn’t care what the lawmakers say.
When he gets out of bed
The first thought in his head:
“Well, who am I going to piss off today?”
Justin Bieber Is Smarter Than a Republican
You guys are evil. Canada’s the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don’t need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you’re broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard’s baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby’s premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home.
–Canadian pop star Justin Bieber16, proving he is smarter than America’s Republicans.
Bye WI, Hello OH
To Ohio Wisconsin’s Democrats have fled.
They’d rather run than put the budget to bed.
There are mobs in the street
As Republicans bleat:
“Bring home those dastardly cheeseheads!”
