Tax and Spend

USDA preparing contingency to cut off food stamps if Congress doesn't reach a funding deal.

USA Today tells a bald-faced lie about the debt.

"Hitting the debt limit isn't, as some have cast it, "cutting up the nation's credit cards." The more apt analogy would be cutting up the credit card bill and refusing to pay for things you have already bought."

This is false. The first analogy is more accurate. The US can pay off interest on existing debt without raising the debt limit. Raising the debt limit is like getting a new credit card.

Both Ohio senators vote to end the pseudo-shutdown, increase spending and give Obama an unlimited debt limit until February 7. The House is expected to do the same. How stupid are Republicans to start this battle only to cave. This is why nobody likes Republicans. They gave the Democrats a better deal than they had before this battle. Only 18 senate Republicans resisted. At least Democrats are honest about stealing ever more of our money.

"“Now that Congress has temporarily avoided this economic crisis, I am hopeful that President Obama will stick to his promise and come to the table,’’ Portman said. “We’ve done our part, and now he must do his to negotiate on a path forward to deal with Washington’s underlying problem of overpromising and overspending that brought our nation to this boiling point in the first place.’’"

As if they haven't had an opportunity to discuss government's spending problem in the last five years.

"House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester, said the “House has fought with everything it has to convince the president of the United States to engage in bipartisan negotiations aimed at addressing our country’s debt and providing fairness for the American people under ObamaCare.’’
“That fight will continue,’’ Boehner said. “But blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us.’’"

If you didn't mean to see this through, why did you start it? Why should Boehner's speakership be safe if he allows this travesty, a huge victory for Democrats, to pass? Boehner is Obama's best ally.

Boehner gets standing ovation.

"At the last GOP conference meeting of the two-week government shutdown, no lawmakers went to the microphones to give their take.
Instead, after Speaker John Boehner told Republicans they had “fought the good fight,” they all rose up to offer a standing ovation. “It was one of the easiest meetings we’ve ever had,” says Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina.
“I think he has strengthened his position in leadership,” Representative John Fleming says about Boehner. “He hung in there with us. He’s been reluctant to go to these fights and now that we have stood up and fought for our values and he’s been there with us, leading, I think his stock has risen tremendously. He has great security as our leader and our speaker.”"

These people are in Neverland.

"We all agree Obamacare is an abomination. We all agree taxes are too high. We all agree spending is too high. We all agree Washington is getting in the way of job growth. We all agree we have a real debt crisis that will cripple future generations. "

And apparently they all agree they should continue partnering with Democrats to make those problems worse.

House approves bill 285-144 with only Republicans dissenting.

"Republicans initially had demanded delaying or defunding President Obama's signature health care law before they would agree to raise the debt ceiling or fund the government, but those demands faded over several weeks. The final deal does not include any significant revisions of the Affordable Care Act."

What a disaster. How does anybody support Boehner after this?

This deal includes a provision to weaken Congress's power over the debt limit, the same provision McConnell proposed a couple years ago.

McConnell inserted a nearly $3 billion earmark for Kentucky into the giveaway bill.

Government lies about the debt.

"Every business day since May 17, the U.S. Treasury has published a daily statement claiming that the federal debt subject to the limit set by Congress closed the day at $16,699,396,000,000—about $25 million below the legal limit.
Monday, the Columbus Day holiday, according to the Daily Treasury Statement released today, marked the 150^th straight day that the Treasury has said the debt subject to limit was stuck at $16,699,396,000,000."

That's convenient.

It's easy to blame government's problems on Congress, but the government is corrupt from top to bottom.