Posted by Tina
Did you notice heaps of criticism piled on the Republican Party after the Ryan-Murray budget bill passed in the House? Has anyone since talked about the compromises Democrats had to make to pass this legislation? Has anyone targeted their leadership or questioned their principles and standards? Not that you’d notice! And there’s nothing unusual about that, it happens all of the time. But maybe that’s part of the problem. It has become blood sport to focus only on Republican compromise…on Republicans “caving”…to the point where we set our party up to be the battered wife in the relationship. Maybe we are so busy being disgusted and defending our positions that we fail to notice when we have won significant ground. The left brought us down the road of big government dependency using baby steps. They made compromises to take a small bit of ground time and time again. Republicans, including the conservatives in the party, should take a second look at this budget and consider what we won, stop the infighting, and prepare for the next round. To that end I want to share an article that could have you scratching your head and taking a second look.
“Two and a Half Cheers for Ryan-Murray,” by Peter Ferrara, a man I have come to deeply respect and whose goal is to cut the federal government in half, is featured in The American Spectator:
…The deal involves an exact compromise between the federal discretionary spending totals proposed in Ryan’s 2014 Republican budget ($967 billion) passed by the House and Murray’s 2014 Democrat budget ($1.058 trillion) passed by the Senate earlier this year, setting federal discretionary spending for 2014 at $1.12 trillion. That result was effectively set by how your friends, neighbors, and fellow Americans voted last year. So calling that “A Huge Republican Cave-In” is not accurate.
True it breaks the sequester spending cap for 2014 by $45 billion. That is bad and sad, because the sequester spending caps actually reduced total federal spending in actual nominal dollars for both 2012 and 2013, which seems to have already boosted economic growth. That was the first reduction in actual total federal spending for two years since the end of the Korean War under President Eisenhower. But that $45 billion represents an increase in total federal spending for 2014 compared to current law of 1.2%, which is all that Ryan and the Republicans conceded in the budget deal for 2014. Hardly a huge Republican cave-in.
Highly principled and always numerically accurate Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute asks, “Why would Republican leaders agree to that?” The best answer would be because that reflects how the American people, or at least those who showed up at the polls (note), voted last year, and that is who Congressional Republican leaders work for.
The budget deal also breaks the sequester spending cap for 2015 by $18 billion, a rounding error in today’s federal spending, for a total of $63 billion in increased spending over current law for both 2014 and 2015. That represents an increase of 0.9% in total federal spending under current law for both years combined, which is all the increased spending that Ryan and the Republicans conceded in the entire budget deal. Not really a huge Republican cave in. In fact, 70% of the sequester remains in place even for 2014 and 2015 when the sequester caps were broken.
This information is a lot different that the sound bites that did nothing but damage the Republican Party and its supporters, including the Tea Party that also chimed in, shooting ourselves in the foot as we always do. (That’s what makes us dumb) But this information isn’t all that Mr. Ferrara conveyed in his article.
Democrats wanted much more in this budget deal than they were granted. It had to gall them, for instance that half of the spending increase will go for defense. The fact that the sequester spending caps, according to Mr. Ferrara, “remain in effect unchanged for 2016 (at $1.016 trillion in total federal discretionary spending for that year) and beyond” can’t make them happy either. Ryan also won some entitlement reform and spending decreases to offset some of the spending increases and they go into effect now, not at some future unspecified date. They include: 1. Reducing the COLA increases for early military retirees only before age 62, 2. Requiring all new federal employees to contribute more toward their own retirement benefits, 3. Requiring companies to finance more of the costs of the federal guarantees of their own pensions, 4. Freeing more federally controlled areas for oil and gas exploration and production, generating more oil and gas royalties, 5. Provisions to reduce federal overpayments, and improve federal collections, 6. Extending new sequester spending caps to 2022 and 2023, saving another $22 billion.
Mr. Ferrara quotes Americans for Tax Reform: “Over the long term budget horizon, [the Ryan-Murray budget deal] is a large net spending cut…. the spending cuts included in the plan are permanent and mandatory. It would take an act of Congress to amend them.”
Tea Party members and conservative supporters would be wise to read the rest of this article. You will discover a big picture view of the entire theater of battle we face in the coming years with a few ideas about whats next.
Take that second look and then let the scrapping begin, if we must!
OMG
Truth is it was a bad deal for the country
Truth is the deal was made to stop Ted Cruz from wasting taxpayer dollars and hurting the country by staging another Tea Party false shutdown to raise money for the Senate Conservative fund to primary non Tea Party Politicians such as McConnell.
No one likes the deal and the vets took a hit but Murray gave in to it because she speculates the country will make the congress fix it before 2015 when it takes affect.
tea Party wants to cut off all public safety nets including Social security, medicare and veterans benefits for more tax cuts for the wealthy 0.5% of the population.
You can believe what you want by Propaganda blog but if ya talk to the politicians you will see it is a bunch of crap.
No one wanted to vote for it but did so to stop Ted Cruz and the Tea party.
Point Blank
The citizens want the Obama Admin to just halt, let the Tea Party take ownership of their economic terrorism
The Dems protected Social Security, Medicare and snap
The republicans got a cut to veterans benefits and the best part for them is they stopped the next bash on the GOP from the public by another Ted Cruz Phony fund raising shutdown
That is per voting members of the house and Senate who wanted to vote no
We will get the Tea Party out eventually we are tired of them
Tea party is upset cause they do not get to hog the main stream media while lying to their constitutes and raising money
The only thing that is a win is republicans and democrats get to say haha Tea Party
Us Independents want Both parties to just let them destroy the economy so people see the truth
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/24/1241042/-Ted-Cruz-s-Defund-is-a-Fundraising-Gimmick-for-Koch-Bros-Orgs-to-Rake-in-MILLIONS
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/us/congress-budget-debate.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/09/senate-reaches-bipartisan-deal-to-shut-down-ted-cruz.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/ted-cruz-is-making-life-miserable-for-house-republicans-2013-9
http://atr.rollcall.com/cruz-aligned-group-endorses-mcconnell-challenger/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-21/cruz-is-unapologetic-as-republicans-criticize-shutdown.html
Vote out the Tea Party 2014
Dewey: “Truth is it was a bad deal for the country”
In what way?
“…was made to stop Ted Cruz from wasting taxpayer dollars and hurting the country by staging another Tea Party false shutdown..”
So you agree that Ted Cruz was successful in getting Democrats to negotiate instead of blocking any and every Republican idea or bill?
“No one likes the deal…”
The above article proves you’re wrong…and arrogant, assuming you speak for everyone.
“…and the vets took a hit…”
Nothing like the hit our military has taken under Obama and the Democrats across the board…can’t even properly defend themselves in battle…get left in a hell hole to die.
“…tea Party wants to cut off all public safety nets including Social security, medicare and veterans benefits for more tax cuts for the wealthy 0.5% of the population.”
LIE! In fact Dewey all you do is spew hate and lies. You are the most intolerant human being yet to hit this blog.
“The only thing that is a win is republicans and democrats get to say haha Tea Party
Us Independents want Both parties to just let them destroy the economy so people see the truth.”
Not only arrogant and intolerant but also juvenile and destructive.
I’ll bet you think people ar eactually persuaded by these rants.
Breitbart Big Government reports, “Ted Cruz blasts” the “budget deal”:
And I say, “Go Ted Cruz!” Because he is absolutely right.
Does that sound hypocritical given my agreement with Ferrara that in the current atmosphere Republicans can accept compromise as long as they get more than they give?
The way I see it there are two theaters of operation. One is the legislative theater and the other is the public discourse/social theater.
We can stand on principle in our conversations about the “direction” we sish to move the country. This is where you win or lose the debate.
When it comes to legislating we cannot pretend that we have no opposition. We cannot pretend that Americans with differing goals do not …we live in a free society and we must honor that.
But what do we do when the opposition calls us on being hypocritical. We explain to them the difference between legislating in a system that allows for differences and contains checks and balances and a closed system where one side rules over the other. We explain that our principles remain the same and we will continue to fight for the things we believe will bring prosperity and opportunity for all Americans. We explain that the legislature is the place where all opinions have the opportunity to influence legislation and that if the public wants more support for their point of view then that point of view must be won in the citizenry first so that like minded representatives will be sent to Washington.
Republicans have been very stupid. We have nearly given up the Republic simply because we are inadequate when it comes to the game of politics, and distasteful and grungy as it can get, it is still a game that we must learn to play well if we are to consistently win.
Republicans of all stripes must stop shooting at each other, realizing that we share core values.
To everything there is a time and a season. I stand firmly behind Ted Cruz and I do not accept the opinion that Republicans “caved” (read “are losers” in liberal speak). We fight in many ways and on many fronts.