KEENE: Villainizing the Koch brothers – Washington Times

KEENE: Villainizing the Koch brothers – Washington Times.

Illustration of David and Charles Koch The Washington Times

“Dirty Harry” Moves To Shut Out Pro-Gun Rand Paul Amendment | RedState

Remember the sleazy tactics used by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass ObamaCare? The secret meetings? The refusal to let the American people see the language? The “amendment tree” used to block Republicans from offering amendments on the floor? The use of a House-passed bill as a vehicle to circumvent Senate procedures?

Well, all of that sleaziness is back in connection with efforts to extend three anti-gun provisions of post-9/11 legislation.

In order to circumvent Kentucky Senator Rand Paul’s pro-gun amendment to the bill, Reid has now scuttled the Senate version of the 9/11 extension, tacked everything onto a motion to concur with a House-passed small business bill, and employed a procedure to lock out ALL Republican amendments, including Paul’s pro-gun amendment.

As you know, Rand Paul’s amendment would exempt 4473’s and other gun records from the blanket information demands which BATF can make under 9/11 legislation.

Without Paul’s exemption, it is theoretically possible that BATF could go to a secret (FISA) court, and, in a one-party (ex parte) proceeding, obtain an order to produce every 4473 in the country, ostensibly because a “terrorism investigation” requires it.

This is unacceptable.

It is a violation of gun owner protections enacted in 1986 as part of the McClure-Volkmer Firearms Owners Protection Act. Not surprisingly, BATF is already trying to violate McClure-Volkmer in its new proposed rules to require reporting of multiple semi-auto sales –- and to compile a gun registry from those reports.

Senate Republicans cannot allow Reid to pull another sleazy ObamaCare-type gambit, or they will spend the rest of the year shut out from any ability to have any influence on the issues and amendments considered by the Senate.

Do you remember when Senate Republicans swallowed two Senate rules changes at the beginning of the 112th Congress –- in exchange for a commitment by Harry Reid that he would not shut out Republican amendments on major pieces of legislation?

Well, this may be the first major piece of non-appropriations legislation of the 112th Congress, and Reid has broken his promise in order to use extraordinary procedures to shut out all Republican amendments.

If Republican Senators allow him to succeed, you will spend the seventeen months between now and November, 2012 -– with the Senate allowed to consider only those issues which will help Barack Obama’s reelection –- and which will help Reid retain Democratic control of the Senate.

Please, for your own sake, do not let this happen.

by Michael E. Hammond, former General Counsel Senate Steering Committee 1978-89.

via “Dirty Harry” Moves To Shut Out Pro-Gun Rand Paul Amendment | RedState.

On This Aborted Fetus, The Democrats Plant Their Flag – HUMAN EVENTS | Ann Coulter

Back in February, Obama’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Jacob Lew, promoted the White House’s allegedly draconian budget cuts in The New York Times.

Saying Obama was going to cut the 2012 budget to the bone, Lew droned on about the “difficult” cuts to “important” programs and the “many tough choices and deep cuts” in the proposed budget.

All told, the White House’s brutal, Depression-era austerity plan would have snipped a couple of billion from our multi-trillion dollar federal budget.

When the Republicans proposed that, instead of cutting a few billion, the government chop $60 billion from the budget, Democrats went ballistic. They said it was madness. Republicans were proposing to bring back the miserly federal budget of 2008!

You heard me right: Those lunatics were going to roll back the federal spending clock … almost three years!

You remember the hellish, “Lord of the Flies” days of 2008 when veterans hospitals were shuttered, Social Security checks ceased to be delivered, our military was stripped of ammunition, national parks were closed and stoplights went dark.

Wait, no — none of that happened.

But Democrats control the Senate and the White House, and the media were gearing up to blame Republicans for any government shutdown.

The Republicans seemed to be cornered. Between their $60 billion in cuts and the Democrats’ proposed cuts of a few billion, it looked as if Democrats were going to succeed in putting the country on a high-speed bullet train to Zimbabwe.

And then, totally by accident, Republicans stumbled onto the Democrats’ Achilles heel. Among their specific defunding proposals, Republicans had suggested taking mere peanuts away from Planned Parenthood.

The Democrats responded: NO! WE’LL CUT 40 BILLION! JUST DON’T TOUCH PLANNED PARENTHOOD!

All the Republicans had to do was threaten to cut federal funding for abortion, and they won $40 billion in spending cuts overnight.

I don’t think Republicans did it deliberately. I’m pretty sure they just wanted to cut funding for Planned Parenthood. But, holy cow, did they find the Democrats’ weak spot!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid threatened to shut down the government to save abortions in the District of Columbia. Reid, who is known as a “pro-life Democrat,” said cutting Planned Parenthood’s funding was the “one issue” on which he would not budge.

Comedy Central’s allegedly serious Catholic, Stephen Colbert, spent a week ridiculing Sen. Jon Kyl’s response to Reid for saying Planned Parenthood had nothing to do with abortion, but mostly provided things like cholesterol screening.

Kyl said: “You don’t have to go to Planned Parenthood to get your cholesterol or your blood pressure checked. If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood. That’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.”

The entire mainstream media immediately rose in angry denunciation of Kyl — based on Planned Parenthood’s claim that abortion constitutes less than 3 percent of the services it provides.

Apparently, that depends on the meaning of “services it provides.” If taking 30 seconds to write a prescription for birth control pills is considered the equivalent of a two-hour, multiple-visit $450 abortion, then perhaps abortion does constitute only 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s work.

But according to Planned Parenthood itself, when it comes to services for pregnant women, abortion constituted 97.6 percent of the services Planned Parenthood provided in 2009. Only 2.4 percent of the organization’s services for pregnant women involved prenatal care or adoption referrals.

Again, according to its own reports, Planned Parenthood performed 332,278 abortions in 2009 — or more than a quarter of all abortions in the entire country. It receives about 37 percent of its total revenue from performing abortions.

Reid and Colbert must be getting a lot of cholesterol tests at Planned Parenthood if abortion constitutes only 3 percent of its services. (Contrary to Sen. Reid’s claim that Planned Parenthood administers important cancer screening tests, none of its affiliates even offer mammograms.)

In any event, the Democrats didn’t suddenly agree to $40 billion in budget cuts to save Planned Parenthood’s cholesterol screening.

If Republicans keep threatening to defund Planned Parenthood, they can probably get Democrats to repeal Obamacare, pass a flat tax and get a capital sentence for Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

Now we know: Democrats absolutely will not cross the abortion ladies.

Blue-collar workers don’t like abortion? Democrats say, “You bet!”

Abortion disproportionately targets black babies? Democrats say, “Who cares?”

A majority of women dislike abortion? Democrats say, “Yes, but we’re going to lie about that.”

The only members of their base the Democrats will never, ever cross are government workers and abortion-crazed feminists.

via On This Aborted Fetus, The Democrats Plant Their Flag – HUMAN EVENTS.

Obama’s Liberal Programs–ObamaCare, White House Czars, EPA–Cut in Spending Deal – HUMAN EVENTS | Emily Miller

The final budget deal for this year’s government spending specifically cuts some of President Obama’s most cherished liberal programs. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R.-Ohio) brokered the deal for Republicans to cut spending by $39.9 billion from 2010 levels, which includes the elimination of ObamaCare programs and White House czars. Boehner struck the final deal with Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) one hour before the government was set to shut down on Friday.

“Never before has any Congress made dramatic cuts such as those that are in this final legislation. The near-$40 billion reduction in non-defense spending is nearly five times larger than any other cut in history, and is the result of this new Republican majority’s commitment to bring about real change in the way Washington spends the people’s money,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R.-Ky.) after releasing the legislation early Tuesday morning. The Appropriations Committee drafted the legislation over the weekend after the late-night Friday deal.

The final Continuing Resolution (CR) cuts this year’s projected budget deficit of $1.5 trillion by approximately 2.6%. The House will vote on the bill on Wednesday, and then it will need Senate passage and Obama’s signature to fund the government for the remaining six months of Fiscal Year 2011.

The specific cuts in the final budget target liberal or fiscally irresponsible programs targeted by Republicans. The bill also mandates an across-the-board spending cut of .2% for all non-defense programs, which is on top of the line items listed below in the programs’ cuts.

ObamaCare: President Obama’s health care law, known as ObamaCare, is scaled back with the termination of two programs—the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) and the Free Choice Voucher programs. Also, the deal includes a policy rider demanding that the Democrat-controlled Senate hold a vote on repealing ObamaCare.

White House Czars: Four of the nine Obama administration’s “czars” are eliminated. The czars are in federal positions in his administration, but not confirmed by Congress.

The CR defunds both the salaries and office expenses for the “health care czar” (director, White House Office of Health Reform), the “climate change czar” (assistant to the President for energy and climate change), the “car czar” (senior adviser to the secretary of the treasury assigned to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and senior counselor for manufacturing policy), and the “urban affairs czar” (White House director of urban affairs). The urban affairs and climate change czars have never been filled.

EPA: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has one of the biggest cuts of all government agencies. The EPA’s budget is reduced by $1.6 billion, which is a 16% decrease from the 2010 level. The specific cuts to EPA programs include $49 million (-13%) from the climate change funding bill and $149 million (-33%) from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Congressional Republicans have been fighting to block the EPA from enacting cap-and-trade policies though its own regulations.

TARP: While the Troubled Asset Relief Program has already been fully funded, so no new spending will be allocated for the program, the bill increases funding for oversight of billions remaining in TARP programs. The legislation gives the Office of the Inspector General for TARP an extra $13 million to continue to oversee the billions in TARP assets. Special Inspector General for TARP Neil Barofsky has testified before Congress on the failure of several of Obama’s TARP mortgage programs and recommended terminating the programs.

State Department and United Nations (UN): The State Department and Foreign Operations are reduced by $504 million, which includes cutting $377 million from U.S. contributions to the UN. The bill also cuts funding for the UN Population Fund to 2008 spending levels.

Congress’ Own Budget: The Republican House, which drafted the CR, cut its own funding by $55 million, which will be taken by reducing every congressional office’s budget by 5%. The Appropriations Committee, which determined the specific cuts in this legislation, cut its own budget by 9%, taking a larger hit than anyone else. The Legislative Branch budget, as a whole, is reduced by $103 million.

Public Funding for the Arts: The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities are cut a combined $25 million.

High-Speed Rail: The controversial program gets slashed by $2.9 billion this year. The bill cuts out new funding for building in the mass transportation program and rescinds $400 million in previous year funds. (In total, Transportation Department programs are cut by $12.3 billion.)

Food Safety and Inspection: The CR cuts the Food Safety and Inspection Service program by $10 million, while continuing inspection activities of meat, poultry, and egg products. In total, Agricultural Department programs are cut by $3 billion.

Overall, the final CR budget cuts spending by $39.9 billion from the 2010 enacted spending levels. The government is still being funded at bloated 2010 levels because the Democratic Congress did not pass a budget or any appropriations bills last year. As a result, six, short-term CRs have been passed to keep the government open since the this current fiscal year began on Oct. 1.

Speaker Boehner has demanded that each short-term CR that has passed since Republicans took control of the House this year cut spending by $2 billion a week.  By the time the final budget is signed into law on Thursday, the Republicans will have already cut $12 billion in government spending, so $26.5 billion in cuts will be taken through the rest of the fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.

“My committee went line-by-line through agency budgets this weekend to negotiate and craft deep but responsible reductions in virtually all areas of government,” said Chairman Rogers.  “Our bill targets wasteful and duplicative spending, makes strides to rein in out-of-control federal bureaucracies, and will help bring our nation one step closer to eliminating our job-crushing level of debt.”

via Obama’s Liberal Programs–ObamaCare, White House Czars, EPA–Cut in Spending Deal – HUMAN EVENTS.

History Is Open Source Now – HUMAN EVENTS | John Hayward

Perhaps the most surreal moment in the budget crisis came when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, concerning Republican efforts to pass another temporary measure, “they’ll say it’s short-term but what that really means is it’s a short-cut around doing our jobs.  Instead of solving problems, they’re stalling.  They’re procrastinating.  That’s not just bad policy, it’s a fantasy.”

Reid, of course, belongs to the party that couldn’t produce a budget despite years of total control in both houses of Congress.  Is he out of his mind to suggest the Republicans are somehow “procrastinating” because they haven’t corrected his party’s dereliction of duty yet?

It’s a remarkably insipid talking point, but Reid isn’t crazy.  He’s just assuming the Democrats still have a power they no longer possess: the power to control public memory.

The story of American politics is a constantly evolving saga.  It doesn’t “begin” or “end.”  At best, it has vague chapter breaks, which pundits tend to describe with grandiose language about “the end of an era” or the “creation of a new landscape.”

In reality, events bleed into each other.  Cause and effect don’t fit neatly into one Presidential term or Congressional session.  Clinton’s actions led to Bush’s election.  Bush did things that helped Obama get elected.  All of them presided over trends that began before they took office, and continued after they left.  With a broad enough historical view, it could fairly be said that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has as much to do with our current debate over debt and entitlement reform as Representative Paul Ryan does.

Great power lies in being able to determine when a particular political “story” begins and ends.  Harry Reid assumes his audience has completely forgotten about the 111^th Congress, and wants the story of the impending government shutdown to begin with the 2010 midterm elections.  It’s a relatively extreme example of something politicians do all the time.

One of the admirable things about Paul Ryan and his “Path to Prosperity” is that it does not try to carve out a narrow window of time, and demand the audience ignore everything that precedes or follows it.  Watch Ryan’s introductory video again, and note the long timelines.

[http://www.youtube.com/embed/Xwv5EbxXSmE]

By contrast, Harry Reid has been saying he might consider looking at Social Security “two decades from now,” when he’s 91 years old.  In other words, the story of government insolvency extends no further than a year or two into the future.  You’re not supposed to think any farther ahead than that.

The same tactic was on display in the debate over President Obama’s war in Libya.  The Left insisted you forget everything they ever said about George Bush and Iraq.  That story ended two years ago.  The Obama narrative began with his election, and can be compared to nothing that came before it… not even his presidential campaign statements.

Democrats are still slowly, painfully learning that they can’t do this anymore. They’ve lost the total media control necessary to shape history.  Fox News, conservative radio hosts, and conservative bloggers have acted repeatedly to keep the Left from closing the book on history they desperately need voters to forget about.  We’ll do it again during the rest of the 2011 budget battle.  This outfit is called Human Events because we remember events from more than a year ago.

Harry Reid will look less foolish when he finally understands that his party no longer controls public memory.  History is open-source now.

via History Is Open Source Now – HUMAN EVENTS.

Will the Government Shut Down? – HUMAN EVENTS | Emily Miller

A federal government shutdown at midnight on Friday has become a very real possibility.

At the White House on Tuesday, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R.-Ohio) told President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) that Republicans want real and significant spending cuts in any deal for a long-term Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government. Obama and Reid refused to accept real and deeper spending cuts, which broke down the negotiations.

The current CR expires at midnight on April 8, and if no deal is reached by then, the federal government will shut down for lack of funding.

At the White House meeting, Obama and Reid offered $33 billion in cuts for the rest of the fiscal year, some from mandatory spending, and which included $10 billion in cuts that have already taken effect. The meeting ended without a deal because Boehner refused to budge from demands for deeper cuts, specifically in discretionary spending, which would shrink the size of government in the future.

“As I’ve said throughout this process, since the spending binge in Washington is hurting job creation in this country, we’re going to fight for the largest cuts possible—real cuts, not more smoke and mirrors,” said Boehner after the meeting. “We’ve made clear that Democrats’ $33 billion proposal is not enough, and much of it is based on gimmicks.”

Reid and Obama refused to cut more from discretionary spending, saying that even these small cuts to a budget deficit this year projected to be $1.6 trillion, would severely harm Americans.

“We cannot take it all from domestic discretionary spending” Reid said.

The President does not consider the difference in cutting the size of government a priority. “The way they are categorized means that those are called mandatory spending cuts as opposed to discretionary spending cuts. But they’re still cuts,” said Obama.

Republicans, however, want all spending cuts from discretionary spending, so that the baseline government spending in future years is lower, which would shrink the size of government. The House-passed CR of $61 billion was the largest single cut in discretionary spending in history.

Obama and Reid seemed unable to understand Boehner’s strong position on government spending.

“It’s not a question of numbers, it’s ideological with them,” said Reid—quite accurately—of the Republican position.

“What they are now saying is, ‘Well, we’re not sure that every single one of the cuts that you’ve made are ones that we agree to.  We’d rather have this cut rather than that cut.  That’s not the basis for shutting down the government,” said Obama after the meeting.

The government is currently being funded on a three-week CR that expires on April 8.  The House Republicans passed a CR in February, but the Democrat Senate defeated it. For the past five weeks, the government has been funded with short-term CRs from the House, which cut spending at a rate of $2 billion per week.

As the White House and Senate Democrats refused to offer any real spending cuts over these weeks-long negotiations, Boehner offered a one-week CR on Monday to continue to cut spending while preventing a government shutdown.  The short-term CR would cut spending by $12 billion in one week and also fund the Department of Defense for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.

“We’ve introduced a bill that includes $12 billion in cuts over the next week and funds our troops through the year.  We may pass this to keep the government running if Democrats don’t listen to the American people and get serious about cutting spending,” said Boehner.

The one-week CR was cleverly crafted by the Republicans to include all the provisions that the Democrats had already indicated support for so that it would be difficult for the Senate to vote against it.  Reid was outraged on Tuesday when he was double-checked by Republicans, who included all of Reid’s own proposed spending cuts to craft the $12 billion cuts in the one-week CR.

“They took all the domestic discretionary we agreed to do …  stuck them into this short-term CR they have for a one-week extension.  And then they are trying to fund the Defense Department for one year when everyone else is funding it for one week.  And then if that’s not good enough, they stick an abortion rider on this.  It seems that every step we take, it’s something just to poke us in the eye,” said an exasperated Reid.

Despite the fact that the one-week CR has all the spending cuts that the Senate Democrats have put on the table so far in the process, Reid said that the one-week extension would never get passed in his Senate.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) was more encouraged about Senate passage of the one-week CR.  “We think it’s a credible and sensible proposal. And I hope the Senate will take it up rapidly and pass it before Friday,” said McConnell on Tuesday afternoon.

In an odd political decision, Reid seemed willing to shut down the government rather than accept his own spending cuts for one week and to keep the military funded. And Reid continued to blame the Tea Party for a possible shutdown.

“The Tea Party is driving what is going on in the House of Representatives, and we cannot do what they want done,” Reid told reporters on Tuesday.

In the House, the Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D.-Md.) said that he would work to prevent any moderate Democrats from supporting the one-week CR.  “I will oppose this bill.  It is inconsistent with what I think Mr. Cantor said in terms of another short-term CR,” Hoyer told reporters at his weekly pen-and-pad on Tuesday.

One hour later, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R.-Va.) responded to Hoyer at his own weekly pen-and-pad.

“We are absolutely accepting of the reality that the Democrats are not joining us in wanting to avoid a shutdown.  That is pretty obvious if Steny Hoyer is out there saying it,” said Cantor.  “So we would certainly be confident if the bill were brought to the floor, we would have the Republican votes to pass it.”

The White House and Senate Democrats are also blocking a deal for including the so-called “policy riders”—which are spending limitations that are for specific ideological causes—which were included as amendments in the original House CR.

After the White House meeting, Boehner said, “We’ve also made clear that policy provisions must be part of any final agreement, because the American people are concerned not just about how much we’re spending, but also how we’re spending it.”

While the House GOP may want more policy riders for conservative causes included in a final package, the leadership offered two of them in the one-week CR.  The legislation would prevent Guantanamo Bay detainees from being transferred to the United States for any purpose and  prevent both federal and local funds from being used to provide abortions in the District of Columbia.

The budget for this current fiscal year was supposed to be passed by Congress last April 15.  However, the Democratic Congress did not pass a budget, which was the first time that has happened since the budget process was put in place in 1974.

Therefore, when the fiscal year started last Oct. 1, the Democrats had to pass a CR to punt the decisions on government spending until after the midterm elections.  The series of short-term CRs has kept the government funded since December. The budget for next year, FY12, was introduced by Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R.-Wisc.) on Monday.

The reason that the budget battle has escalated to a possible government shutdown is because of the Democrats’ inability to do their most basic duty, which is to fund the government.  This reality has not prevented President Obama from blaming the Republicans for the mess.

“Keep in mind, we’re dealing with a budget that could have gotten done three months ago, could have gotten done two months ago, could have gotten done last month—when we are this close simply because of politics,” said Obama on Tuesday.

The President failed to mention that the previous year, his fellow Democrats did not pass the budget at all. And this year, the Senate Democrats have not put forth a single spending plan that would cut spending.

Boehner and Reid had a one-on-one meeting on Tuesday afternoon, but the outcome was not known at press time.  Obama said that he wanted all the parties back at the White House every day until a deal is struck.  But Boehner said that he will not give into making a bad deal.

“We’re not going to allow the Senate and White House to force us to choose between two options that are bad for America, whether it’s a bad deal that fails to make real spending cuts, or accepting a government shutdown due to Senate inaction,” Boehner said on Tuesday.

By the end of the day on Tuesday, with only three legislative days left to keep the government open, both sides were preparing for a possible shutdown.

Rep. Jeb Henarsling (R.-Tex.), who as Conference Chairman is in charge of communicating to the Republican members, explained the contingency plans.

“We hope that the Senate will not force a shutdown, but the at same time we know the President has already issued guidelines—I believe through [The Office of Management and Budget]—to executive branch personnel,” said Hensarling.  “We believe it is the responsible thing to do.  And so conference has sent out the guidelines that the speaker has put out to all of its members.”

So will the government shutdown on Friday?  Both sides say they do not want that to happen, but the Democrats are unwilling to cut more spending, and the Republicans will not give up their principles.  Congressional staffers mostly put the odds of a shutdown at 60/40.

“We’ve done our job,” said Boehner after meeting with Obama and Reid.  “If the government shuts down, the American people will know it was because Senate Democrats failed to do their job.  We can still avoid a shutdown, but Democrats are going to need to get serious about cutting spending—and soon.”

via Will the Government Shut Down? – HUMAN EVENTS.

The GOP Budget a Bold Move to Tackle the Debt Crisis – HUMAN EVENTS | Emily Miller

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.) on Tuesday released the first budget by the newly Republican-controlled House. Ryan’s budget calls for deep spending cuts and entitlement reforms in order to reduce deficits by $4.4 trillion over 10 years, compared with President Obama’s budget. The budget also repeals the costly health care law known as ObamaCare.

The Republican budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, which starts on Oct. 1, will need to be negotiated to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate in order to be enacted.

“This Path to Prosperity applies America’s timeless principles to today’s greatest challenges by committing to three key goals: lifting the crushing burden of debt, fulfilling the mission of health and retirement security for all Americans, and strengthening the foundations of economic growth and job creation,” Ryan wrote in the introduction to the budget.

Ryan’s budget achieves the deficit reduction by cutting spending in discretionary and mandatory spending, including reforms in spending for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. He anticipates that these measures will grow the economy, thus creating jobs and increasing revenue.

The Republican-proposed budget would cut deficits and start paying off the national debt. When Obama sent his budget to Congress in February, Ryan called it “DOA: debt on arrival,” because it would have increased the national debt by $13 trillion over 10 years. The U.S. is currently $14.1 trillion in debt and will hit the statutory debt ceiling in the next two months.

The Republicans’ $4.4 trillion deficit reduction, compared with Obama’s budget, more than exceeds the goals set by the President’s bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Obama commissioned the bipartisan group to recommend a solution to the debt crisis, but he did not follow up on any of the commission’s recommendations.

Most significantly, Obama ignored all of the commission’s recommendations to reform entitlements to deal with the debt and keep the programs solvent. Now, the Ryan budget tackles entitlement reform by cutting costs and also works to sustain the programs for future generations.

Cutting Spending

President Obama’s budget for FY 12 had no cuts in spending, but only froze discretionary spending at the current bloated levels for the next five years.  Ryan’s budget would cut spending by $5.8 trillion over 10 years, relative to the current policy baseline from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).  Of this, $1.4 trillion in savings would come from repealing ObamaCare.

Ryan sets a spending cap on discretionary spending as a percentage of the size of the economy, at 20% of the the gross domestic product (GDP).  A statutory spending cap would prevent Congress from growing the size of government.  Under the Democrats’ control of Congress and the White House, government spending has risen to almost 25% of the GDP.  And under Obama’s proposed budget for FY 12, discretionary spending goes up to 25.3% of the GDP.

A spending cap as a percentage of the size of the economy has been embraced by House and Senate Republicans as a way to rein in government spending in anticipation of the vote to raise the debt ceiling.

Both chambers included a spending cap as a percentage of the GDP in their recent Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) proposals.  The Senate BBA, which has the support of all 47 Republicans, has a spending cap of 18%.  A BBA in the House introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R.-Va.) has the support of 126 Republicans and the sets spending at 20%.

The Ryan budget would bring spending back to 2008 levels, which was part of the House Republicans’ “Pledge to America.”  The lower spending levels would be kept intact for five years.  Cuts in government spending would come from all areas of the government, and focus on eliminating duplicate programs and outdated programs, and cutting earmarks.  The plan would include $78 billion in cuts to the huge Pentagon budget in areas where Defense Secretary Robert Gates has found inefficiencies.

Entitlement Reform

Republicans were outraged that Obama’s budget did not even attempt to address the need to reform mandatory entitlement programs to deal with the debt crisis.

In contrast, Ryan’s budget takes entitlement programs head-on, which is a risky move, leaving the Republicans open to Democrats using the hot-button issue for political gain.  Ryan made it clear that his plan would not affect anyone under 55 years old, and that the entitlement programs will still increase every year under his budget.  His goal, however, is to cut the huge spending on these programs while reforming them so that they do not go bankrupt.

For Medicare, Ryan has the most drastic reform, shifting the program in 2012 from one run by the government to putting seniors on private insurance plans.  The plan would change Medicare into what he calls a “premium support system,” in which seniors pick among the private insurance plans offered, and the government subsidizes the plans directly.  His plan, though, would give increased assistance to the poor or very sick.

Ryan’s budget would reform Medicaid to save $771 billion over 10 years, compared to the CBO baseline.  His plan is to give the states block grants for their federal matching dollars in order to give them more flexibility in running the mandated program.

The ObamaCare law has increased the number of people on Medicare rolls and the costs to the states, which are already struggling to balance their budgets in the down economy.  Governors have asked Congress to give them the 50/50 match in Medicaid funding without the regulations of the mandates.

The food stamp program would also get similar reforms, so that states do not get increased funding for adding more people to the rolls.

For Social Security, Ryan’s budget lacks specifics, except to say that the budget forces action by the House, Senate, and President to ensure solvency of the program.  Although the budget is clear that Social Security for anyone under 55 years old would not be affected by this, it is such a hot-button issue for seniors that the GOP seemingly is looking for bipartisan political cover before getting into specific reforms.

Tax Reform

The Republican budget would not raise taxes nor create new taxes (as Obama’s budget does), but instead lowers taxes and reforms the tax code to encourage economic growth.

Ryan’s plan would lower the top income and corporate tax rates from 35% to 25%.  The budget would also simplify the tax code, consolidate brackets, and close loopholes.

By repealing ObamaCare, the budget prevents approximately $800 billion in tax increases.

The Budget Process and the Current Mess

By law, the President must send a proposed budget to Congress every year for the following fiscal year to set government spending levels and his priorities.  The House and Senate then confer on their own budgets to finalize a budget that sets the top-line spending levels for each government department.  The budget top-line number is then used by the Appropriations Committee to determine cuts or increases in funding for specific government programs.

Last year, the Democrat-controlled Congress did not pass any budget for the first time since the budget process was established in 1974.  Because the Democrats did not pass a budget, they also did not pass any appropriations bills to set spending for Fiscal Year 2010.

As a result of the Democrats’ inaction, the U.S. government is currently being funded by a series of Continuing Resolutions (CR).  The original three-month CR, which was negotiated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) and Obama in December, froze spending at 2010 levels.  In February, the House Republicans passed a CR that cut spending by $61 billion and funded the government through Sept. 30.  However, the Republican CR failed to pass the Senate, and the Senate Democrats did not pass their own spending bill.

While the two parties have negotiated the spending for the current fiscal year, they have relied on short-term CRs to keep the government funded.  The Republicans demanded that each short-term CR cut spending by $2 billion a week, which now totals $10 billion in cuts.

Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.), and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R.-Ohio) have been negotiating for weeks over how much spending to cut in a CR for the next six months, and must resolve it by April 8 to avoid a government shutdown.

The negotiations are going on behind closed doors, but Republican leaders have said that the stalemate is over Senate Democrats’ refusal to make real spending cuts this year.

“If the government shuts down, it will be because Senate Democrats failed to do their job.  The Senate hasn’t passed a single bill to keep the government running or offered a credible plan to make real spending cuts.  The House has,” Boehner said on Monday evening.

via The GOP Budget a Bold Move to Tackle the Debt Crisis – HUMAN EVENTS.

Reid’s Obstructionism May Cause Government Shutdown | RedState

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) may cause a government shutdown.

Senator Reid is employing a procedural strategy to deal with the House-passed long-term Continuing Resolution (CR), H.R. 1, that may make it more likely that the federal government will shut down when the government runs out of money on March 18. Remember this when we get closer to March 18 and both parties blame each other for failing to pass an appropriations bill to fund the government through September 30 of this year (the end of Fiscal Year 2011).

The House passed a long-term CR on February 19 by a 235–189 vote. The long-term CR funds the federal government for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011 and contains $61 billion in cuts from FY 2010 levels of spending.

The House ended up with the $61 billion total after a week-long open debate with hundreds of amendments filed and a virtually unlimited amendment process. The House ended a five-day debate with over 40 hours of debate, over 500 amendments filed, over 150 amendments offered and over 100 recorded votes. This is extraordinary for the House, and Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) should be applauded for this relatively open process to consider a controversial appropriations measure.

While the House was working hard to pass this important measure, the Senate was preparing for a vacation. They did nothing on the long-term CR. Not one vote, not any debate, nor did they craft a competing measure to fund the government for the remainder of the year. They went on vacation. At that time the federal government was scheduled to run out of discretionary appropriations money on March 4.

The House and Senate had to agree to a short-term CR, because Senate Majority Leader Reid refused to allow the Senate to vote on the House-passed long-term CR. The two chambers hammered out an agreement to pass a short-term CR, H.J. Res. 44, which puts off a potential government shutdown until March 18. Now the Senate has H.R. 1 sitting on the calendar, and Senator Reid has finally announced his plan to deal with that appropriations measure.

Reid’s plan is to force two controlled political votes on the long-term CR. The Senate is expected to have one vote on the Democrat plan followed by one on the Republican plan. It seems that Reid has no intention of allowing a free-flowing debate and amendments in the Senate. According to Bloomberg:

The Senate’s top Democrat said he wants votes next week on House Republicans’ $61 billion budget-cutting plan and a Democratic alternative as lawmakers battle over spending levels for the rest of this fiscal year. Both proposals are likely to fail, signaling to lawmakers—including House Republican freshmen who are demanding big cuts in spending—that neither plan can get through the Senate.

Senator Reid knows his controlled strategy will not produce an agreement on the long-term CR. He is merely playing a political game to garner a better negotiating position approaching March 18.

“Not to spoil the surprise, but we all know how this vote will turn out — we know neither will reach the president’s desk as written,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat. After the votes “we at least know where we stand” and can “move this ball down the road a little further,” he said.

This procedural tactic violates the agreement between Senator Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) earlier this year to allow a free amendment process in the Senate. Reid had been using an obstructionist procedural tactic to block all amendments for the purposes of controlling the Senate schedule and avoiding any politically harmful votes for his members over the past four years. In this new year, Reid promised to cease the tactic, commonly known as “Filling the Tree.”

According to The Hill:

The reforms include an end to secret holds, a reduction in the number of presidential nominations subject to the lengthy Senate confirmation process, an end to mandatory readings for amendments if they’ve been publicly available for at least three days, an agreement by Republicans to limit their filibusters of motions to begin debate, and an agreement by Democrats to limit instances in which they “fill the tree”—or limit the number of amendments Republicans can put to a given piece of legislation.

Not only does this tactic violate Reid’s promise not to “fill the tree,” it makes it less likely that the House and Senate will come to an agreement. The House has worked out and voted on a position. On the other hand, Reid refuses to allow the Senate to work its will and settle on a position. Reid wants to do it himself, and he is unwilling to engage in good faith negotiations with the House.

These are dangerous procedural games being played by Senate Majority Leader Reid.

The bottom line is that Reid’s actions may cause a government shutdown. Speaker John Boehner allowed the House to work its will, and the House produced a bill after days of negotiations, amendments and votes. As retired Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) said so well in his retirement speech, Senator Reid’s use of the “filling the tree” to block votes is “tyrannical.” Reid promised not to do it, yet he seems to be prepared to employ that tyrannical strategy to block passage of the long-term CR.

Reid has filed cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 1, and votes are expected on Tuesday. The expectation is that Reid will allow a vote only on an amendment by Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) containing the Senate version of a long-term CR and then file cloture on the underlying House passed long-term CR. These strong-arm tactics by Reid should not be looked upon favorably by the media nor the American people, because it is a naked attempt to fool the American people into believing that the Senate has taken a good faith run at passing the long-term Continuing Resolution.

via Reid’s Obstructionism May Cause Government Shutdown | RedState.

Reid’s Rules Scheme Defeated in the Senate – HUMAN EVENTS

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-N.V.) relinquished his plans to drastically change the rules of the Senate in order to pass his liberal agenda with a smaller majority.

Reid’s effort to kill the filibuster, which is the minority’s right to effect legislation, went down in flames in the final rules changes on Thursday.

“In the short term, this is a victory for conservatives. As part of the current minority party in the Senate, their rights will be preserved,” said Marty Gold, a former Senate leadership aide who is now an attorney at Covington and Burling.

“In addition, extreme mechanisms that had been proposed to advance new rules and limit filibusters came to nothing in the end,” said Gold.

The rules voted on the floor were less important than the gentleman’s agreements made between Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Both agreed to never try again to use the nuclear option, which is to change the rules of the Senate with only 51 votes, instead of the established 67 vote margin. McConnell and Reid also agreed to use the filibuster and amendment tree procedural maneuvers less often in the future.

“What we need most in the Senate is a change in behavior in addition to this change in rules. We need to preserve the Senate as a forum for minority rights. We need to preserve the 60-vote requirement for major votes. That will force consensus. That will cause us to work together,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Thursday.

Alexander negotiated the bipartisan deal with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) at the behest of McConnell and Reid.

via Reid’s Rules Scheme Defeated in the Senate – HUMAN EVENTS.

Yes, Blow Up the Plan to Kill the Filibuster | James Pat Guerrero

Senators led by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) threaten to kill the filibuster. Okay, the GOP should go and “blow the whole thing up.”

For more reading: Fight Back! | RedState.