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The Trouble with Getting Congress Working Again

Obama-Golf

The Trouble with Getting Congress Working Again 

Having deprived Congress of regular order for nearly the entire tenure of the current administration, Harry Reid and his cohorts have milked every partisan advantage from this circumstance that they could possibly dream up. The same goes for his shamelessly executed plan to eliminate the Senate filibuster rule, so helpful in ushering committed statists and hardcore political progressives into important appointive federal government posts by depriving the political opposition of their only effective means of applying political leverage during the Senate confirmation process.

Senator Reid now stands ready to take full political advantage of his political opponent’s stated desire to restore Regular Order in the federal budgetary process, and to bring back the filibuster rule. Come January, leaders in the new majority party in the Senate will (or at least should) be torn between two different goals or aspirations, each with its own unique merits:

On the one hand, they will wish to repair the institutional damage done to the Senate and restore its potency as a strong and independent actor in our republican form of government under the U.S. Constitution. This means moving Congress out from underneath the dark cloud of executive branch dominance that has overspread all of Washington D.C. in recent year, as well as re-establishing the unique power of a single senator to stand in the way of ill-advised legislative measures, to the chagrin and consternation of reason-blind ideologues who rely on group-think and public shaming techniques to achieve their public policy goals.

On the other hand, they will wish to make of Congress an even greater and more insurmountable obstacle to the current administration’s stated goal of fundamentally transforming this country. Along the way, they will also be eager to cooperate freely with the House of Representatives to pass a series of clean bills for the president to sign or veto (most likely the latter) that will serve to draw into the starkest possible relief two competing and contrasting visions for how this country should move forward. To be the beneficiary of such an historic mid-term electoral landslide without then seizing and exploiting every available partisan advantage would be to appear naive and unwilling to engage in the largest and most momentous political struggle this country has seen since the Adams versus Jefferson ‘Clash of the Titans’ circa 1797-1800 (culminating, of course, with Jefferson’s historic inauguration, preceded that day by the remarkable scene of a humiliated but still office-holding John Adams emerging from the cavernous new executive mansion in the pre-dawn mist, hailing a ride in a passing public carriage like any other ordinary citizen, and high-tailing it back to New England to enjoy the rest of his life as America’s first one-term president).

So to say that Mitch McConnell could (or at least should) be experiencing mixed feelings about acting in good faith to restore the filibuster rule as it applies to Senate debates, or to plot a return to Regular Order in support of the Constitutionally-required process of preparing and passing an annual budget for federal governmental outlays, is the understatement of this rapidly ending but remarkable year.

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Rep. Paul Ryan unveils a budget that proposes to cut $5.1 trillion

Paul-Ryan

Rep. Paul Ryan unveils a budget that proposes to cut $5.1 trillion
April 01, 2014, 10:30 am
By Russell Berman and Bernie Becker

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Tuesday unveiled a budget that proposes to cut $5.1 trillion over a decade in a bid to erase the federal deficit, while calling once again for dramatic changes to Medicare, Medicaid and the tax code. [READ RYAN’S BUDGET PROPOSAL.]

The nearly 100-page blueprint is likely be the last formal budget proposal from Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, who wants to move to the more powerful Ways and Means Committee next year.

While Ryan adheres to a bipartisan budget agreement that set a $1.014 trillion spending cap for fiscal 2015, he proposes deeper cuts to discretionary accounts after that in order to keep the GOP’s promise to balance the budget within 10 years. In those out years, defense spending gets a boost by $273 billion over the level President Obama proposed in his budget last month.

“The Bipartisan Budget Act was a good first step. But we can and must do more,” Ryan said in a statement, referring to the two-year deal he struck in December with Democratic Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.). “As the House majority, we have a responsibility to lay out a long-term vision for the country, and this budget shows how we will solve our nation’s biggest challenges. By cutting wasteful spending, strengthening key priorities, and laying the foundation for a stronger economy, we have shown the American people there’s a better way forward.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/202285-ryans-final-51t-cut#ixzz2xh0C6355

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SELLOUT: Debt Up $2.7T in 2.5 Yrs Under Boehner Debt-Limit Deals

BoehnerJohnCrying1

SELLOUT: Debt Up $2.7T in 2.5 Yrs Under Boehner Debt-Limit Deals
February 12, 2014 – 12:42 PM

(CNSNews.com) – The debt of the U.S. government has increased by $2.678 trillion in the 2.5 years since House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) completed his first deal to put legislation increasing the debt limit through a Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

On Aug. 2, 2011, President Barack Obama signed legislation, approved by the Boehner-led House, permitting the Treasury to increase the debt by $900 billion. Since then, the debt limit has been repeatedly suspended by legislation that needed to pass through the Republican-controlled House.

Yesterday, the House once again passed legislation to suspend the debt limit—this time through March 15, 2015, which is after November’s mid-term congressional elections.

This time, the House voted 221 to 201 (with 10 members not voting) to suspend the debt limit.  The majority consisted of House Democrats plus 28 House Republicans–including Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Mickey Cantor (R.-Va.).

– See more at: https://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/debt-27t-25-yrs-under-boehner-debt-limit-deals#sthash.Y3gLMRUk.dpuf