Democrats Will Demagogue GOP Budget Cuts

New Poll Confirms Country is Clearly Progressive
New poll out indicates that the country is clearly, massively, overwhelmingly progressive. While they talk about cutting so-called entitlement programs in Washington, the American People have completely different priorities. When asked what's the first thing they would do to balance the Budget, Americans had an unmistakably clear answer -- raise taxes on the rich. It came in number one by a mile, with a whopping 61 percent. If that wasn't progressive enough, cutting defense spending came in numb...

Rev. Jesse Jackson: GOP goes after most vulnerable
After holding the country hostage to force continued Tax Breaks for the wealthiest Americans, Republicans are now announcing their second priority: cutting Government Spending, particularly the part that goes to the most vulnerable of Americans. In the Republican New Year's radio address, incoming Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire announced that for newly elected Republicans, "Job One is to stop wasteful Washington spending. . . . The American People sent us to Congress with clear instruction...

The $100 Billion Question, Part 2
My guess is going to be those Spending Cuts are going to be a lot less than $100 billion, especially for anybody with 2012 aspirations. Of course, that would explain why most of your 2012 GOP prospective Candidates are out of office right now, but all the GOP House will be facing voters again in two years as well. Many people knowledgeable about the federal Budget said House Republicans could not keep their campaign promise to cut $100 billion from Domestic Spending in a single year. Now it appe...

Why Californias Budget Gap Isnt as Bad as Low-Tax Arizonas
Yahoo! Buzz Both states have the same obvious imbalance — they spend more money than they take in — but for different reasons. While California spends too much money, Arizona doesn’t raise enough taxes. The paper is a reminder that when it comes to Budget Deficits, opposite politics often produce the same result. The Brookings paper by Matthew Murray , Sue Clark-Johnson , Mark Muro and Jennifer Vey examines four western states — Arizona, California Colorado and Nevada R...

When Spending Cuts Get Real
More adventures in Republicans grappling with the fact that actual spending programs are popular. Here's Paul Ryan refusing to say what programs he would cut: MEREDITH VIERA (HOST): You say Discretionary Spending — give me specifics. Where are you going to cut? Are you gonna cut transportation, education, Medicare — what are you going to cut? RYAN: That is what is gonna happen in the appropriations process down the road. So I can't tell you the answer to that because, as a Budget c...

Republicans take over House, dilute cuts
By Thomas Ferraro and Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON | Wed Jan 5, 2011 12:45pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans scaled back plans for deep cuts in Government Spending as they took power in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, diluting a key promise that helped them to victory in November's election. A senior Republican also signaled the party could work with the administration of President Barack Obama, a Democrat, to avert a Debt crisis in the coming months. "Our spending has caught up...

Republicans Push Obama, Dems on Spending Cuts
Republicans became the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, and they said they're ready to do what voters screamed for on Election Day -- and that's to stop the spending. This effort may lead to some brutal battles between President Barack Obama, Democrats on Capitol Hill and the newly-empowered Republicans. Politicians always make promises to cut spending, but the new Republican majority, backed by Tea Party power, may have the fervor and numbers to really do it....

Analysis: With GOP running the House, the debate shifts to budget cuts
Meredith McDermott/Hearst Newspapers Speaker Nancy Pelosi This report was written by Carolyn Lochhead of the Washington bureau. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hands her gavel to Republican Rep. John Boehner today, ending two years of Democratic one-party rule in Washington and the start of a new period of divided government that is likely to be dominated by Republican promises of Budget Austerity. Asked to reflect on her four-year tenure as the nation’s first female speaker of the House, Pe...

Crazy Like A Fox
The 2010 Elections produced two contradictory historical novelties in Minnesota.  For the first time in 24 years, Democrats captured the Governor’s mansion.  And for the first time in the entire 40 years that Minnesota has had a partisan legislature, Republicans captured control of both houses. The new governor, Mark Dayton, enjoyed brief infamy in 2004 when he abruptly shut down his Senate office in response to a Terrorist Threat that no one else in the government had heard of.  Combi

The Verdict on US Bond Yields?
How investors perceive and interpret [rising yields] will determine great many things; is it a reflection of higher growth in the future and thus a sooner than expected normalisation by the Fed. Or is it a result of supply concerns and the continuing double digit Budget Deficit by the Fed and thus the bond vigilantes attempt to go for the biggest prey in the park. Obviously, interpretation, animal spirits and sunspots can never be entirely disconnected from real economic activity on the ground, ...

Prepare For Change
Rick Scott has now taken his place as Governor of the State of Florida.  The State Senate and House of Representatives have increased the amount of Republicans seated, a party that has been known as fiscally conservative, so how does Florida have a Budget shortfall?  Why have the people of Florida not held their locally elected officials more accountable when it comes to what they do with the money?  All eyes look to Washington D.C., but an eye should be placed upon the state firs...

Rep. Paul Ryan comes up short on specifics for spending cuts
Perhaps one of the reasons the House Republicans are reneging on their Spending Cut pledge is because, well, they don't have a clue what they're doing. Here's wunderkind Paul Ryan, unable to come up with one specific cut. MEREDITH VIERA (HOST): You say Discretionary Spending — give me specifics. Where are you going to cut? Are you gonna cut transportation, education, Medicare — what are you going to cut? RYAN: That is what is gonna happen in the appropriations process down the road....

GOP to Take Up Health Care Repeal in First Week of Session
Resolution would lay groundwork for GOP-backed reforms By David N. Bass RALEIGH — As one of their first orders of business in the 112th Congress, Republicans plan to introduce and vote on a measure to Repeal the Health Care reform law championed by Democrats and President Barack Obama last year. In contrast to the Health Care law’s 2,000-page bulk, the GOP’s measure (PDF download) is two pages and would Repeal “the job-killing Health Care law and health care-related provisions in t

Nancy Pelosis biggest lie yet
The former Speaker of the House speaks lies, Speaker Pelosi Leaves With a Whopper At her final Press Conference as House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, “Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go.” The numbers tell a different story. When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the National Debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. The last day of the 111th Congress and Pelosi’s Speakership on December 22, 2010 ...

Vieira to Paul Ryan: It Feels Like the GOP is Out For 'Revenge'
NBC's Meredith Vieira wasted no time in jumping down Paul Ryan's throat, on Wednesday's Today show, as she said it appeared the Republican Party did not care as much about creating jobs, since they seemed to be more focused on repealing ObamaCare, which the Today co-anchor characterized as "an act of revenge." For his part the Wisconsin Republican Congressman responded that repealing Obamacare law had everything to do with creating jobs since, as he educated Vieira, "T...

GOP 2011 budget will not cut $100 billion
The incoming House Republican majority gained power by pledging to cut $100 billion from the federal Budget in its first year in power, but aides confirmed Wednesday that this figure is no longer valid. The GOP will remain true to its pledge to try to return non-security Discretionary Spending to 2008 levels, but the $100 billion figure had been based on President Obama's 2011 Budget message.   Democrats never passed a Budget resolution last year and were only abl...

Glenn Beck tells D.C. politicos to Cowboy up on the debt ceiling
What this means is the Federal Government would have to stop borrowing and could possibly default on its monetary obligations if Congress fails to increase the ceiling before the limit is reached.  Some Democrats want to lie and scare the voters that the Republicans in the new Congress will seek to block an increase in the Debt Ceiling unless a plan is in place to significantly reduce federal spending and unfunded government liabilities on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Me...

Note to Congress: Don't blow this historic chance
FORTUNE -- Dear 112th Congress: Congratulations and so forth, but we don't have time for pleasantries. I'm afraid I have bad news. Do you recall all those charts you've seen showing Medicare costs, Social Security costs, federal interest payments, and the National Debt rising steadily for years and then suddenly taking off like a fighter jet? (If not, you can see them in the Treasury's latest Financial Report of the U.S. Government.) Well, the jet's barreling down the runway. Things have been ge...

Teary-Eyed Boehner Takes Control
An emotional John Boehner fought back tears and took the gavel as new House Speaker today, replacing the first woman to hold that job and assuming the lead of a rowdy GOP majority that has pledged to hit the delete button on all things Democrat. But he started his new roll with a nod to his family – including 10 siblings in the House gallery – and the people who put his party in power last November, as well as Americans still struggling in a tough economy. "The American People h...

Tea PartiersWhat About The Wars?
Peter Beinart makes a good point about our massive defense Budget and undeclared wars… In modern times, conservative presidents like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have tried to reconcile their efforts to rein in federal power with their support for a large Military and an interventionist Foreign Policy. But both times, the latter has seriously trumped the former. Under both Reagan and Bush, aggressive, militaristic foreign policy produced more presidential power and larger Deficits. ...

A Short Speech about Humility & Principle, Getting to Work
John Boehner’s pitch-perfect opening to the 112th Congress has just ended. In contrast to the previous Congress, he focused on “listening.” Rhetorically, it was an appropriate follow-on to the tea-party election. In sum, paraphrased: We hear you, you want us to get to work, not try to impress and spin you with grand words. Too much is at stake and we’ve got a lot to prove. It was a workman, not wordsmith Speech. Appropriate to the people’s House, as they voters...

Sen. Conrad Plutocracy Plan vs Democracy Deficit Commission
If you saw this morning's Progressive Breakfast, you know that Senator Kent Conrad has an op-ed in Politico, Priority no. 1: Pass long-term Budget plan in which he proposes steps to do something about the borrowing caused by the Tax Cuts for the rich that he just voted for. (And if you didn't see this morning's Progressive Breakfast you really ought to sign up to receive it every day. Click here and scroll to the bottom to sign up.) In his op-ed Sen. Conrad claims that the President’s Nation...

Changing the Rules of the Game
is undemocratic and evil, unless it suits your agenda. Both houses of Congress tweak their rules on the first day of a new session.  The rule changes for the 112th Congress, while not revolutionary, are more sweeping than usual.  In the Senate, the Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) hopes to ever so slightly modify the rules of the asinine Filibuster, which over the past 30 years has morphed from a genteel oddity of parliamentary courtesy to effectively requiring a Supermajority in order to flush the Se...

Tea Party Activists Take Hard Line On GOP Agenda
Republicans preparing to take control of the U.S. House when the 112th Congress convenes Wednesday have been scrambling in recent days to salute the Tea Party Activists who helped drive Democrats from power last November. They've ordered a reading of the Constitution on opening day and required that all new Legislation cite a constitutional provision permitting the proposed action. They've pledged to cut 2.6 percent of the House operations Budget and teed up a largely symbolic vote on repealing ...

Political Quote of the Day
From former Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go.”A little context from Fox Nation: The numbers tell a different story. When the Pelosi Democrats took control of Congress on January 4, 2007, the National Debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. The last day of the 111th Congress and Pelosi’s Speakership on December 22, 2010 the National Debt was $13,858,529,371,601.09 - a roughly $5.2 Trillion increase in j...