Possibly the Last Opportunity to Turn Lemons Into Lemonade

My opinion is that the Republicans lost the battle for the budget because of Boehner's lack of leadership.  The only real chance we had for REAL progress, was the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act, and we stopped pushing for it after it passed the house, and Senator Reid refused to allow a vote on it in the Senate.  All other budget proposals and plans, with the singular exception of Representative Paul Ryan's plan, were "feel good" plans with no guaranteed controls to insure that they would do ANYTHING, except for the IMMEDIATE raise of the debt ceiling, and stopping the crisis discussions until after the 2012 elections, which was the only real bargaining power the Republicans had, in order to negotiate guarantees for Republican inclusions in the budget.  The so called "triggers" are simply "koolaid" for the Republicans who bought into the fake "fear factor" that they have caved in to, so many times before, from the Obama Democrats.  Triggers are simple "proposals" in a bill which guarantee NOTHING!  America would have been much better off if we had held tightly to our advantage, stood behind the Cut, Cap & Balance Act, and if the Democrats refused a voto, let the Democrats cause the budget default, and take the credit for it.  This would have been the Republican guarantee to win the November 2012 elections.  This is what Obama was fearing most and why he refused any plan which did not implement stop crisis talk until PAST the 2012 election date.  But the Republicans caved in.


So now we find ourselves in a horrible situation, having agreed to a budget which fails America while promoting Obama's re-election chances.  Once this bill passes, both the budget and the November election will be out of our control, and no guarantees from either.


ENTER DICK MORRIS WITH A PLAN THAT JUST MIGHT TURN LEMONS INTO LEMONADE


"If the Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, opt for a deal with the Democrats to aim for big spending cuts, in two phases, but to raise the debt limit so it is out of the way until after the 2012 elections, how do we make Obama agree to cuts?

The current discussions focus on triggers which would automatically impose cuts in programs near and dear to both party's hearts -- Medicare for the Democrats and Defense for the Republicans -- if the spending cuts are not realized.  But these triggers mean next to nothing.  What a Congress passes, another Congress can repeal.  One can easily see Congress not coming to agreement on the second wave of cuts and then passing a resolution to suspend the trigger-mandated cuts.

The blunt fact is that once the debt limit is raised until after the election, Obama can get out of town and not worry anymore.  He won't make any cuts.  We'll get the cuts we are implementing right now -- about a trillion OVER TEN YEARS -- and no more.

But there is a trigger which can work -- the budget itself.

If the Continuing Resolution passed in the spring was battle one (which Obama won) and the debt limit was battle two (which the GOP has won), the budget for 2011-12 is battle three.

The Republicans should refuse to pass a budget but just pass a new Continuing Resolution funding the government through January 1, 2012.  If the recommendations of the spending cut commission are not passed or some other cuts have not replaced them, the House should refuse to extend the Continuing Resolution and should trigger a government shutdown.

The looming threat of a shutdown will terrify Obama and will force his hand just as the debt limit has done.

We have gotten half a loaf in this current battle over the debt.  Let's not disarm until we win the rest of it.  What we haven't gotten in the debt deal, we can get in the budget deal.

That's the trigger which will work."


Thats the ONLY trigger with any teeth!  Dick Morris returns the power back to the Republicans, ensuring the return to budget crisis discussions for almost a whole year before the 2012 elections, and offers us what might be our last opportunity to stop this madness.  Now the question is, will Boehner just see this as another OPPORTUNITY to cave in to Obama/Democrats, or will he demonstrate the cajones necessary to turn this lemon into lemonade?  At some point we MUST say NO, and Boehner seems to prefer avoiding the fight now, and putting it off for someone else to handle.  Maybe he is thinking of retirement soon, or could it be just another mistake from him and he is NOT thinking of retiring soon?  No Boehner - No brainer.  Implement this plan with him if he has the cajones, or do it without him if he does NOT.


This post was sent as a two page fax including images, to POTUS, Senators Cornyn, Hutchinson, Rubio, Snowe, McConnell, Reid, Feinstein, Reed, Murray, Representatives Boehner, Cantor, Ryan, Poe, Levin, Pelosi, and various Conservative and Liberal media outlets.

Cut, Cap, & Balance, or Let DEMs Choose Their Own Poison

Do not vote for Obama’s recent “smoke & mirrors” budget plan from Obama several hours ago.  It is more of the same which contains  lies and hidden steps to forward the Obama agenda.  They try to gain acceptance for these last minute inventions, so the CBA cannot analyse the actual costs until AFTER the Obama bills are already passed!

Senator Reid is so AFRAID of the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011, that he takes away the free agency of the Senate, and DOES NOT ALLOW A VOTE!  It is a MAJOR compromise with Obama, allowing Obama’s $2.4 TRILLION debt ceiling raise, allowing Obama’s cuts to the military budget, while putting a cap on spending and causing some much needed reduction of surplus, bloated, unneeded federal programs.  Obama uses scare tactics against seniors, but if he cuts unnecessarily, essential services, he and the Democrats will pay the ultimate price in November 2012.

If they refuse the Cut, Cap, & Balance compromise, then let Obama and the Democrats cause the budget default – get the responsibility clearly out to the public, and let the Democrats stew in their misjudgments!  THERE IS NO REASON TO CUT ANY ESSENTIAL SERVICES (THERE IS ACTUALLY A $66 BILLION SURPLUS – that’s 66,000 MILLION DOLLARS), SO ANY CUT IN ESSENTIAL SERVICES WOULD BE POLITICAL SUICIDE FOR THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION AND DEMOCRATS.  JUST MAKE SURE THE PUBLIC KNOWS WHO WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR SUCH IRRESPONSIBLE CUTS.   There are hundreds of thousands of “non-essential” federal workers who can be cut to find other jobs like the rest of us.  By the way, WHY ARE THERE ANY NON-ESSENTIAL FEDERAL WOKERS ANYWAY?

If you allow Obama and the Democrats to push this bill through, the damage will not be only to our country but to your legislative careers also, because very quickly after the passage it will be impossible to hide the economic repercussions to our entire country.  Will you have a problem with that?

The responsibility for the current budget crisis lies COMPLETELY in the lap of the Denocrats.  Remember there has been no budget since FY-2009, even though the Democrats controlled both houses since 2006 and you have controlled the presidency since 2008.  Looks like your feeling of "running out of time" is because your Democrats and you have been running away from responsibility for quite some time?

To understand the tremendous significance of the Obama/Democrat's negligence last year (FY-2010),  you have to know that it was the FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY of the US federal government, when the party IN POWER failed to pass a federal budget!  And Democrats were in TOTAL control of ALL THREE BRANCHES of government at the time!

Also notice that as soon as the NEW Republican House landslide took the House back,  in November 2010, they immediately went to work on the budget for this year (FY-2011), that Democrats had refused to bother with last year, which were the most basic part of their duties.  The new republican House sent their budget FROM Rep. Ryan, and then later, the Cut, Cap, & balance Act of 2011, to the Democrat-controlled Senate.  And Harry Reid sat on it and did NOTHING – even refusing to allow a vote on the Republican bills.

The Democrat controlled Senate as of today, July 23, 2011, STILL have no budget vote nor budget proposal whatsoever!  Update: two last minute “smoke & mirrors” proposals came from the Senate  on about July 29^th!  Do not vote on them and if the Senate refuses to accept the Cut, Cap, and Balance compromise, let THEM choose to default.

God Bless America

Obama's Budget - More Smoke & Mirrors

I am not a member of a Tea Party, even though I support what they are doing.  Below is an e-mail I just received from the Woodlands Texas Tea Party, which is the one I usually attend events with.  Their e-mail is concerning the BRAND NEW budget plan that Obama just pulled out of his a** an hour or so ago, and returned to both houses for another vote.  It is the same last minute smoke & mirrors plan that the Dems are trying to sneak in on the American People.

My opinion is that if they will not allow a Senate vote on the Republican Cut, Cap, & Balance plan, we should allow the default and start letting the public know that Obama & the DEMs are responsible for the default AND ANY UN-NECESSARY DECISION TO CUT ANY ESSENTIAL SERVICES!  Here is the Woodlands Tea Party e-mail about Obama's CURRENT proposal an hour or so ago:

"Once again, the debt increase occurs immediately, while cuts are pushed into the next ten years where a future Congress must show the political will to retain them.

It’s possible also that the current deal includes triggers to automatically implement across-the-board cuts that are easily gotten around:

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/31/open-thread-senate-to-vote-on-debt-bill-at-1-p-m-or-maybe-not/

“if Medicare’s part of the trigger, then Democrats will follow Ace’s scheme to reinstate that money later even if the GOP doesn’t try the same move for defense. (Again, they do this all the time in “doctor fix.”) And even if the GOP does try the same move, why would Democrats care? They want to protect entitlements much more passionately than they want to see the Pentagon’s budget slashed, so they’d agree to reinstate the Pentagon’s money as the price of reinstating Medicare. The fundamental problem here, as always, is that Democrats don’t care about cutting spending. If there’s nothing built into this deal that prevents reinstating the money that would be cut when the trigger kicks in — and I’m not sure how there could be procedurally — then the trigger isn’t worth much.”

Progressives in Pelosi’s caucus are unhappy with this bill. The chairmen of the Progressive Caucus and of the Congressional Black Caucus have scheduled a joint-press conference on Monday to call on President Obama to raise the debt ceiling by invoking the 14th amendment.

Our suggestion, not surprisingly, is quite different. We want to see a budget passed that nails down what is to be cut and how much in the immediate future, not 10 years off. The other side wants a simple increase in the debt limit. Take Ryan’s budget with a budget from the Senate and work it out in conference, as should be, in exchange for a debt increase.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/04/08/wheres-the-senates-budget/
“Normally, when a House plan fails in the Senate, the Senate passes its own budget plan in response. The two chambers then form a conference committee to reach a compromise that produces a budget. However, this process requires that the Senate actually approve a budget on its own. Since voting down HR1 and the Democratic plan, the Senate hasn’t done anything — which means it has gone more than 18 months without approving a budget of some kind.

Instead of negotiating on a bipartisan basis in conference, the Senate’s failure has the Democrats and Barack Obama grandstanding in public, despite their party’s refusal to budget at all. The media has allowed this to continue rather than ask why the Senate just doesn’t pass a budget and launch a conference committee to iron out the differences. The result is this public kabuki dance in which the one chamber of Congress that actually produced a budget — and another continuing resolution — gets blamed for the lack of a budget as funding runs out, rather than the chamber that hasn’t done its job for more than 18 months, even though it has controlled all three branches of government for the last three years.”

It’s now been well over 800 days.

Here’s where things stand on the budget. The last budget actually passed was Pelosi’s and Reid’s budget running from October 1, 2009-2010. In February 2009, $400B in new spending was added to Bush’s budget of 2008-2009. This new spending included the stimulus. We are now entering Year 3 of the Pelosi Reid budget on 10-1-11. And this budget is scheduled for a second 8% increase on 10-1-11.

The House-passed Ryan budget replaces and cuts $150B from the current Pelosi Reid budget in year one. There would have to be a compromise with the Senate. What’s the compromise, $75B? Boehner’s original plan allowed for cutting only about $7B in year one.

We continue to urge Republican leadership to insist that Congress pass and the President sign a budget for 2011-2012. That Budget starts in two months. There is still time to finalize negotiations even if we push it back 30 more days. There should be no debt limit increase until the Senate and House pass a budget and it’s signed by the President. Let the Senate pass whatever they want with no filibuster. The House will meet their plan in the Conference Committee.

By the way, Greta Van Sustern just called for a 60 Day extension of the debt limit so the people, (remember them?), can find out what’s in it. We are asking for only 30 days more.

Be sure to watch this glorious video of Marco Rubio on the Senate floor yesterday, making this same case.“Compromise without solutions is a waste of time,” Marco Rubio said on the Senate floor today. Enjoy this video — be sure to catch his exchange with John Kerry:"

Obama's Press Conference Tonight

President Obama, 

My prayer is that in your scheduled 9pm EST press conference tonight (July 25), you will announce your support for the ONLY national debt plan that compromises with you to give you your request for raising the national debt ceiling by $2.4 TRILLION, also compromises to give you your request for setting your military budget, meets the Moody criteria to avoid a downgrade of America’s credit rating, does not affect essential services unless you CHOOSE to hurt the USA in that way, already passed in the US House and needs ONLY passage in the US Senate, AND provides the blueprint for a return to fiscal sanity.

The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011

The American people want it, and everyone who is a patriot, and loves this country wants it.

This is a turning point for you, this nation, the people, and even the world.  The question is, will the turning point be a win-win situation, or will it be more of the same that we have experienced from the beginning, from your administration.

There are millions of prayers being said this afternoon.  I hope and pray that YOU are listening – I KNOW GOD IS LISTENING.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

This fax was sent to POTUS, Senators Cornyn, Hutchinson, McConnell, Reid, Feinstein, Reed, Murray, Representatives Boehner, Cantor, Poe, Pelosi, and various Conservative and Liberal outlets.

PROOF of Republican Compromise

The Cut, Cap, and Balance (CCB) Act of 2011

The PROOF of Republican compromise which Obama neglects to mention when he publically states that the Republicans will not compromise is the $2.4 TRILLION debt ceiling raise which the Republicans compromised to give Obama the exact debt ceiling raise that he requested!  That raise is a huge compromise by Republicans in the CCB Act, and only compromised because the amount is less than the CUT in this bill.  And the CAP ensures that the federal government will CONTINUE to hold down spending for years to come.

Does this sound like the Republicans refuse to compromise – Or does this sound like just ANOTHER mis-representation from Obama?  Mis-Representation = LIE!

As you can see below, the Republican CCB Act RAISES THE DEBT CEILING to the $2.4 TRILLION that Obama wants, makes CUTs which do not affect federal essential services (another lie from Obama), and slows the expansion of government therefore not requiring tax increases.  This bill can start returning America to the people!  And if the people decide that Obama should be a one term president, we can continue the process in 2013!

CUT

Cuts total spending by $111 billion in FY 2012.  The savings is divided as follows:

• Reduce non-security discretionary spending below 2008 levels, which saves $76 billion. 
• $35 billion cut to non-veterans, non-Medicare, non-Social Security mandatory spending.  
• Defense budget at President’s level. 

CAP

Total federal spending is scaled back based on the glide path for the fiscal years below:

• 2012, 22.5% of GDP.
• 2013, 21.7% of GDP.
• 2014, 20.8% of GDP.
• 2015, 20.2% of GDP.
• 2016, 20.2% of GDP.
• 2017, 20.0% of GDP.
• 2018, 19.7% of GDP. 
• 2019, 19.9% of GDP. 
• 2020, 19.9% of GDP.
• 2021, 19.9% of GDP.

BALANCE

It REQUIRES the passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA), BEFORE raising the nation’s debt limit.

DEBT CEILING INCREASE CONTINGENT ON BBA

Provides for the President’s request for a debt ceiling increase if a qualifying Balanced Budget Amendment passes Congress and is sent to the states for ratification. 

Q&A: The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011

How much is the first year spending cut in the “cut” portion of the bill?

• The legislation reduces spending by $111 billion in FY 2012.

Why $111 billion?

• This savings total meets the promise to enact immediate spending cuts as part of any debt ceiling bill, and would cause the deficit to finally get back down below $1 trillion next year (a reduction to the previous year’s deficit of more than $400 billion).

Does the legislation make any changes to Social Security or Medicare? 

• No. 

Does the legislation make any changes to veterans spending? 

• No. 

What does the legislation mean for defense spending?

• It is at the same level as the House-passed FY 2012 budget.

Why cap spending at 19.9% of GDP?

• This would place spending in line with average spending over the last 30 years. 

What are the details of the Balanced Budget Amendment?

• The legislation would require that any Balanced Budget Amendment include the following: 

1.     A balanced budget component;

2.   A super-majority requirement to raise taxes; and

3.   A limit on spending as a percentage of GDP. 

What is the process for the debt ceiling being increased? 

• Provides for the President’s request for a debt ceiling increase if a Balanced Budget Amendment passes Congress and is sent to the states for ratification. 

Why $2.4 trillion debt ceiling increase? 

• The President has requested that the debt limit increase by this amount.  This amount is less than the amount of the spending cuts in this bill.  A debt limit increase of this magnitude is a major sacrifice on the part of House Republicans, which is why it is made contingent on measures to ensure that the federal budget is permanently under control.

Senator Reid, Choose the Right

Senator Reid,

 DO NOT BLOCK A VOTE IN THE SENATE ON CUT, CAP, & BALANCE. BECAUSE IT IS THE ONLY PLAN THAT WILL PREVENT AN AMERICAN CREDIT DOWNGRADE, BECAUSE ALL OTHER PLANS WITH THE POSSIBLE EXCEPTION OF PAUL RYAN’S DO NOT MEET THE MOODY CRITERIA.

You have NO MORAL right to prevent ANY vote in the Senate, and interfere with the free agency of the American voters to choose the direction we want to go with OUR federal government.  Just because you have the POWER to take that free agency away from voters, does NOT mean it is moral for you to choose that course.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT!

In this world, actions invariably have consequences as you saw in the November 2010 US House turnaround.  The only reason the same thing didn’t happen in the US Senate at that time, is because their tenure is longer.

Many rumors say that the reason you were re-elected in Nevada the last time, is because of a last minute influx of money from questionable sources.  If that is true, I hope that is the only criminal act used for your re-election.  You have been in my prayers for three years now, but I am going to modify my prayers to include hindering the illegal and immoral pressures in your life.  You seem not to realize or recognize them?  How can you stand against them if you no longer are able to recognize them?

Your mother may have taught you long ago – “You will become JUST LIKE the friends you surround yourself with, so choose wisely”.  Those are wise words if you understand them and HEED them.

I pray that you have the clarity of thought, sincerity of purpose, and willingness to change your vision for America into a vision desired by the patriotic Americans, many of which made it possible for you to hold public office.

God Bless America

Signature privacy


Faxes sent to Senator Reid, POTUS, Speaker Boehner, Senators Cornyn, Hutchinson, and McConnell,  Representatives Cantor, Poe, and Pelosi, and various Conservative & Liberal media outlets.