FedUpUSA

Archive for July 31st, 2011

PDF of John Boehner’s Talking Points To GOP House Conference

Pay no attention to the spin of the title, this doesn’t hold Obama accountable for ANYTHING.  As a matter of fact, it ensures Obama will be re-elected.

SUMMARY:

S&P and Moody’s stated 3 days ago, that unless real cuts were made, averaging at least $1.5 Trillion PER YEAR, a downgrade was imminent.  This doesn’t even come close…..AND he made sure Obama was untouchable for 2012.  Can’t wait to see how we’re going to NOT default when interest on our debt goes from averaging 2.5% to 14%.

Apparently, ignoring this mathematics, John Boehner capitulated to the political football passing….and even worse, he fumbled the ball. There were numerous times he could have at least gained the political upper hand to get something better than this.  Why?  SPENDING BILLS MUST ORIGINATE IN THE HOUSE and the House is where the most fiscal conservatives reside.  The option was always there to just do NOTHING.

Although failing to raise the debt ceiling would have forced very hard choices it was a far better scenario than what is going to happen when interest rates on the now $16.5 Trillion in debt goes up by a factor of 5 or more.  Up until now this has never been a matter of defaulting because we take in enough revenues to cover all the items on the ‘exempt’ list above.  Grandma didn’t have to miss her Social Security check and the military would have been paid.  NOW we’re going to be staring down the barrel of the default gun – as it WILL come when the downgrade comes.  We do not take in enough revenues to cover the interest on our debt if that interest is doubled – or WORSE.

Meanwhile, the blame for this outcome will be put on the Tea Party for failing to reach a better ‘compromise.’  While this is certainly NOT deserved, it is what it is, and why I say that this may very well destroy the Tea Party right along with the Republicans.

In one fell-swoop Boehner destroyed the Republican Party, ensured that Obama will be reelected and destroyed the country.   That’s some amazing sh*t right there.

If this is indeed what the ‘deal’is, there’s nothing really left to do except buy food, guns and ammo.  We’re all going to need it.

UPDATE: It now appears that defense is NOT ‘exempt’ – matter of fact, it appears that defense is targeted specifically.  The latest information is that 1/2 of the first $900 billion in cuts will come from defense and then 50% of the remaining cuts will come from defnse if there is no agreement on the second round of $1.5 trillion in cuts.  Mind you, all these are still over a 10-year period and will do nothing to avoid a downgrade or reduce the overall debt.  However, it appears the military, which is only 24% of our spending, will be the area that bears the brunt of the cuts.  While I agree military spending must be cut, the idea of leaving the 62% that is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and welfare untouched makes no sense to me.

The ‘deal’ appears to get worse and worse….

While you’re at it, you might as well get into the proper mood.

Do the Debt Ceiling Dance!

Hold your wallet upside down over your head; then do the “raise the roof” motion till all the $$ falls out.

“That’s all I’ve got in my pockets!”

One has to wonder.

Coburn has been called a “Tea Party Turncoat”, but is he?  How about Jim DeMint?

As I’m sure followers of my articles are aware, I’ve been extremely critical of what appeared to be a direct change from fiscal responsibility or anything like it (never mind cessation of knobbing the banksters) right into “GGG” – the shop-worn and tired “Guns, Gays and God” nonsense.

Well, perhaps some who claim to be “Tea” have realized that there’s no future in “GGG” if you try to use that as a sop for what you were elected to do?

Hmmmm….. maybe.

I have often said that when the facts change so do my opinions.  And it appears that perhaps – just perhaps – my opinions need to be revised, at least for a few Senators and Representatives.

Let’s start with Steve Southerland.  I’ve been very critical of him, going after him full-bore after what I considered a shameful and intentionally-misleading “presentation” he gave in Destin with Jeff Miller. He’s my “Critter” in DC, replacing the utterly worthless Alan Boyd this last election.

But he voted no on the Boehner bill.  While he did not completely explain what he would vote for in his press release, he did say this:

“I believe Speaker Boehner deserves credit for crafting the best solution he thought possible after enduring months of stonewalling and political parlor tricks from the President and Senate Democrats.  However, I am concerned that the House Budget Control Act hands President Obama a $900 billion debt limit increase without the guarantee of a federal balanced budget amendment or the trillions of dollars in spending cuts and caps necessary to protect America’s AAA credit rating.

Close enough for now.

Then there’s Coburn, who I Tickered earlier today.  His speech on the Senate floor needs to be heard by every American.  He’s spot-on and nobody in The House or Senate can honestly refute a word of it.  Kerry, who tried, simply made a fool of himself.  Click that link and watch it for yourself.  Yeah, he has been wrong before – TARP, for example.  But we all have erred and if we refuse to forgive sins when people’s actions change, we go nowhere as a country – or as individuals.

Finally, we have DeMint, who the AP is reporting on:

But unlike the fractious movement as a whole, DeMint is specific and focused on what change, exactly, he wants: passage — not just a vote — of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. Without it, he says, no consideration should be given to raising the nation’s borrowing limit. Even, he says, if the country runs out of money for paying all its bills after Aug. 2.

There it is.  The correct position, in my view, and exactly what those who originally began sending Tea Bags and otherwise raising hell have all been about since the beginning (myself included) – no more government “hot checks” and games.  No more “baseline” budgeting that would land you in prison anywhere except in Congress.  No more claims of “cuts” when they’re spending increases.  No more bailouts, which are simply more “hot check” games.  And no more providing services we are unwilling to fund with current tax revenues.

I’m sure I’ve missed a number of Senators and Reps in here and I can’t possibly cover them all individually – after all, there were other “NO” votes in The House.  Among them where Michele Bachmann and Connie Mack.  The full list of Republicans who voted against, all of whom can be presumed to be demanding an actual balanced budget, is:

Justin Amash (Mich.), Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Paul Broun (Ga.), Jason Chaffetz (Utah), Chip Cravaack (Minn.), Scott DeJarlais (Tenn.), Jeff Duncan (S.C.), Trey Gowdy (S.C.), Tom Graves (Ga.), Tim Huelskamp (Kan.), Timothy Johnson (Ill.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Steve King (Iowa), Tom Latham (Iowa), Connie Mack (Fla.), Tom McClintock (Calif.), Mick Mulvaney (S.C.), Ron Paul (Texas), Tim Scott (S.C.), Steve Southerland (Fla.), Joe Walsh (Ill.), and Joe Wilson (S.C.).

While there are still plenty of liars in Congress, including people like Jeff Miller (R-FL-1) who claim to be a “fiscal conservative” yet voted for Boehner’s fraudulent claim of “cuts” it also appears we have a few people who claim to be “Tea Party” affiliated and/or fiscal conservatives who have found religion.

I don’t care where they found it or why.  Maybe they read all the Tickers I’ve been faxing to them the last couple of weeks; some have gotten a whole load of them.  Maybe they sat down with Excel, as I’ve challenged everyone in Congress to do for four years, and simply run the numbers.  Some of them recently got a targeted “care package” coordinated by myself, Steph’s FedUpUSA and Bill Still, addressed and sent by a cadre of Patriots on Tickerforum who all deserve a standing ovation for their efforts – and maybe those Congressfolk actually read and viewed the material.  Maybe they heard a voice in a “burning bush” or maybe they woke up in a cold sweat and realized that all the lies, obfuscation and games were running out and their political necks were headed for the guillotine known as the “Ballot Box” next year.

Whether their enlightenment came in a church, in a field, reading Tickers, watching videos and reading printed letters, waking in a cold sweat, praying on their own or with others in the House as it was said some of them were doing before the Boehner vote, it doesn’t matter.  What matters is that it happened and that there is a small but growing group of Senators and Representatives who have had their “Come to Jesus” experience on what we must do as a nation.

If you’re a person of prayer, now is the time.  To stiffen these men and women’s backbones and enlarge their gonads.  Pray that a love of true freedom, fiscal reason and responsibility ring like brass church bells and their resolve not fail.  That the truth – the cold, hard mathematical truth that cannot be avoided and must be faced be explained to the American people head-on.  And that the very public and essential debate be held by and with the American people on exactly what services we are willing to pay for with taxes in the present tense, dollar-for-dollar, and that the Federal Government be cut back to exactly that size and not one federal employee or department beyond it.

Winston Churchill once said that “Americans will always do the right thing ….. after they have exhausted all of the alternatives.”

Well, we’ve exhausted all the alternatives.

It’s time.