Republicans Vow To Cut Spending

Baghdad Bob: Senator Obama Only Voted Against Raising Debt Ceiling in 2006 Because He Knew It Would Pass Anyway
Bobby’s going out with a bang. (ABC News)- On Sunday, President Obama’s top economic adviser, Council of Economic Advisers chair Austan Goolsbee, cautioned members of Congress not to “play chicken” by voting against raising the $14.3 Trillion Debt ceiling - despite the fact that as a senator in 2006, President Obama voted that way. “I don’t see why anybody’s talking about playing chicken with the Debt ceiling,” Goolsbee told me on ABC Ne...

House passes new rules package
The House wrapped up the first day of the 112th Congress on Wednesday by approving a new rules package that will enact some significant changes to matters ranging from the Debt ceiling to members' Voting Rights. The new rules passed on a party-line vote, with 240 Republicans voting in favor and 191 Democrats opposed. Democrats tried earlier Wednesday to block the package. Earlier Wednesday, the House rejected a resolution by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) that would have directed a committ...

No Surprise, Republicans to Break Promise on Spending Cuts
Republican leaders are scaling back that number by as much as half, aides say, because the current Fiscal Year, which began Oct. 1, will be nearly half over before Spending Cuts could become law. While House Republicans were never expected to succeed in enacting cuts of that scale, given opposition in the Senate from the Democratic majority and some Republicans, and from President Obama, a House vote would put potentially vulnerable Republican lawmakers on record supporting deep reductions of up...

WaPo temporarily upset at GOP deficit chicken-hawks
On Sunday, the WaPo editorial pages finally woke up and realized that the GOP isn't serious about cutting the Deficit.. On Monday, Jason Linkins at HuffPo took notice of the belated realization: WaPo Editors Finally Realize The GOP Isn't Serious About The Debt First Posted: 01- 3-11 12:37 PM | Updated: 01- 3-11 08:45 PM For the better part of the past year, the editors of the Washington Post have been generically a-screech with worry over the deficits, and their insistence that the Obama ad...

Will He Say He Has No Choice or Will He Use Seigniorage?
The media and much of the blogosphere are framing the coming Debt ceiling decision as one in which the Republican-majority House may refuse to extend the Federal Debt ceiling, thus forcing both a Government shut-down, and also a possible default of the US in paying its Debt obligations to its creditors. Republicans saying they will not vote to extend the ceiling see this as an opportunity to force Spending Cuts out of the Democrats and the Obama Administration. This second round of hostage-takin...

Eric Cantor's Top 12 False and Misleading Statements in the Last 24 Hours on Twitter
6. "This is going to be a results-driven Congress." EXTREMELY UNLIKELY (It's already started out with a bunch of made-for-TV gimmicks, like voting to "Repeal" Health Care reform, reading the Constitution out loud, etc. How is that "results-driven?") 7. "Government for too long has operated under the flawed assumption that growing bigger & controlling more is necessarily better" WILDLY MISLEADING (Who made that argument? In fact, government for too long has operated under supply siders and Repub...

Obama on the Debt Limit: Then and Now
Yahoo! Buzz In 2006, Sen. Barack Obama voted against raising the Debt ceiling to allow the U.S. to borrow more money, saying Washington was saddling future generations with its out-of-control spending. Now, his administration is implying that those who say the same are irresponsible. Asked on Wednesday about the seeming contradiction, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that in 2006, the outcome of the vote to raise the legal borrowing authority was not in doubt, and therefore the ...

White House Defends Obamas Senate Vote against Raising Debt Ceiling But Warns of Catastrophe If GOP Doesnt Raise Debt Ceiling
Wednesday, January 05, 2011 By Fred Lucas President Barack Obama is saluted as he arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011, from Vacation in Hawaii. Col. Lee DePalo, commander of the 11th Wing, is at left. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Washington (CNSNews.com) - The Obama Administration is warning of catastrophic consequences if Congress does not increase the Debt ceiling, the legal limit on how much the Federal Government can borrow, but Obama held a different view on th...

Republican House rules: Hoyer calls them "Pay-Go Hijinks"
Democratic Whip Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Maryland) spoke on the U. S. House Floor today in opposition of the Republican Rules package: “I rise in opposition to this rules package, not for small reasons, but because it authorizes Trillions of dollars of new Debt, without paying for it. There are two ways to create debt: you can buy things and not pay for it, or you can simply cut revenues and make yourself unable to pay for things. He continued in his Speech, “If you don’t cut s...

Democrat Blames Reagan, Bushes For Deficits
(CNSNews.com) - In his last day as House Majority Leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) put much of the blame for America’s growing Debt on past Republican administrations, including former President Ronald Reagan. “Ronald Reagan came in and adopted an economic program that created $1.4 Trillion in Deficits over the next eight years,” Hoyer said in a Capitol Hill Press Conference on Tuesday, where he appeared with other members of the Democratic House Leadership. “George...

Echoes of 1995 for new Congress
Call it 1995 Lite: a one — rather than two — chamber Republican takeover this time, and no Newt Gingrich, just a lot of little would-be Gingriches running around accusing the White House of Corruption or threatening to push the Treasury into default. Every new Congress is a time for renewal and hope, and Wednesday’s ceremonies brought fresh blood to a stagnant Senate and elevated a working-class bar owner’s son to the speakership of the House. But there is also a sense...

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....

In House, New Republican Majority Plans to Act Fast to Undo Obama's Agenda
© Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post Almost as soon as they take control of the House at noon Wednesday, Republicans will embark on a 20-day plan aimed at undoing major aspects of President Obama's agenda as they seek to take advantage of the weeks before the Senate's return and the president's State of the Union address. The first move will come Friday, when the House begins the process of repealing the new health-care law. House leaders will then quickly begin to identify tens...

David Coates: Sanity in a Time of Madness
"When you are in Washington, remember what the voters back home want -- less government and more freedom." -- Jim DeMint, welcoming Tea-Party-backed victors in the 2010 Midterm Elections This is no ordinary day in American politics. This is the day power officially shifted in the House of Representatives from Nancy Pelosi's Democrats to John Boehner's Republicans. This is the day the inmates retook the asylum. For Progressives, this shift in power necessitates an equivalent shift in strategy. ...

An I Told You So Post
So, having heard for months that the Republicans really are serious about cutting Government Spending this time, and that they’d be able to do it without cutting Medicare, Social Security, or defense, even if it would be a laughably small $100 billion in cuts as compared to the $14 Trillion dollars in Deficits (a figure little different than that proposed by the American Commie-Socialist Party), the Republicans have returned to power and we get to see if they are actually going to put our ...

Gavel down on Nancy Pelosi
John Boehner, (R) now firmly seated as the Speaker of the House after defeating Nancy Pelosi in a vote of 241 - 173 looks to 2011 Federal Debt Limit of 14.3 Trillion, realizing there is very little time to address the issues at hand in order to reset the course of history for America. Upon acceptance of the gavel he was quoted as saying, "That includes this gavel, which I accept cheerfully and gratefully knowing that I am but its caretaker. After all, this is the people's house." Former Speaker ...

House GOP's Plan: Vote Early and Often Against The Obama Agenda
A twenty day period of votes against the Obama Agenda, which of course are not effectual on their own (as Democrats still control the Senate). But they hope to both demonstrate that they're carrying through on promises to voters and force Obama and the Democrats in the Senate closer to a Tea Party view of the world. Almost as soon as they take control of the House at noon Wednesday, Republicans will embark on a 20-day plan aimed at undoing major aspects of President Obama's agenda as they seek ...

Robert Reich: The Shameful Attack on Public Employees
In 1968, 1,300 sanitation workers in Memphis went on strike. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to support them. That was where he lost his life. Eventually Memphis heard the grievances of its sanitation workers. And in subsequent years millions of Public Employees across the nation have benefited from the job protections they've earned. But now the right is going after public employees. Public servants are convenient scapegoats. Republicans would rather deflect attention from corporate exe...

Gibbs defends Obama 2006 vote against raising debt ceiling
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today defended a 2006 vote by then-senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) against raising the nation’s Debt ceiling. The vote to raise the Debt ceiling will be a major battle next year because Tea Party-backed Conservatives have vowed to let the government default on its debts rather than authorize a raising of the $14.3 Trillion limit. Republican leadership is expected to use the situation to force deep Spending Cuts to the 2012 Budget. White House economic ...

Video of Juan Williams: debt ceiling a "come to Jesus moment"
The Bible does in fact reference finances a huge number of times, more than many other topics. That said, what is the point of a Debt ceiling when it continually gets raised? Funny that Williams wasn't so driven about the nations Debt problem the last 4 years when Pelosi racked up more the $5 Trillion of it. An additional silver lining to William's statement? A liberal that can use the name of Jesus. So there's that. ...

State Of The State Live Blog (Take I)
2:04 p.m. Looking forward to working together…seize the opportunity and get to work. God bless etc. Skelos out. (He spoke for 7:15 minutes; Silver spoke for 9). 2:02 p.m. Obviously, the legislative leaders aren’t sticking to the time limit, which I thought was supposed to be somewhere in the neighborhood of five minutes. OH! Eliot Spitzer reference: “Spoiling for a fight!” Not bad, Skelos. And then there’s this gem: “When government becomes its own special i...

House adopts new rules
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Lively, partisan debate Wednesday gave way to a vote along party lines, 240-191, to accept new rules for the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives. The new rules of the U.S. House of Representatives either make the legislative process more transparent or obfuscate it, depending on the party speaking in the well. The new rules "establish a Constitution-focused House of Representatives," said Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and sends "a credible signal to families, ...

Republican deficit hypocrisy
Since Ronald Reagan took over the White House Republicans have done nothing at the Federal level except cause the Deficit to rise at incredible rates. They have done this by creating Big Government through growing the Military Industrial Complex and coupling that with huge Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest Americans. Forget that this is the class that profits from endless war they are also the Class that sends virtually none of its Children to fight in their endless wars.  These wars are not...

GOP House Leaders and New Spending Promises
One of the most explicit promises Speaker John Boehner, R-Oh., and the newly empowered Republicans made was to cut Deficits immediately by returning to 2008 spending levels. "Which, if we were able to do with the whole Fiscal Year, would reduce spending by 100 billion dollars," says Representative Mike Pence, R-In. But Republicans won't have a whole Budget year to work with. Congress failed to pass a current Budget even though the fiscal year began last October. So the government is now operatin...

New House Speaker John Boehner: 'Our debt will soon eclipse the size of our entire economy'
BEFORE, 2007 AFTER, 2011 Remarks by House Speaker John A. Boehner, as provided by his office Madam Speaker, thank you for your kind words, and thank you for your service.  I’d like to welcome our new colleagues and their families. My own family is here as well: my wife, Debbie; our daughters, Lindsay and Tricia; my brothers and sisters, brothers- and sisters-in-law and their Children. I am honored and humbled to represent a great, hard-working community in Congress. The people of Ohi...