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State of the Union: Who’s Sitting with the 800 lb. Gorilla?

By: David Bossie (Diary)  |  January 25th, 2011 at 01:36 PM  | 

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Tonight the President delivers his State of the Union Address to the nation. This annual event brings representatives from all three branches of government into the Capitol at the same time. But there is another figure looming that has been ignored for far too long. The national debt – currently at $14 trillion and counting – is the 800 pound gorilla in the room.


There will be an 800 pound gorilla standing in the well of the House tonight that President Obama will not want to talk about. All indications so far are that the President will just request more taxpayer money to spend on funding programs that will help his reelection efforts and feed the debt gorilla.

But the debt gorilla will not be ignored any longer. In the spirit of the bipartisan seating at this year’s State of the Union, the gorilla has submitted his own profile for Congressional Match in the hopes of finally being acknowledged. Who will volunteer to step across the aisle and address our $14 trillion debt in Washington?

CongressionalMatch.com

(Special thanks to Caleb Howe)

David Bossie is president of Citizens United.

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COMMENTS

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  • whatevrworks

    The 800 pound gorilla will be mentioned in passing. The president will make some cursory comments on reducing spending while at the same time asking for more money in the SOTU speech. The unfortunate truth is that we are all sitting with the 800 pound gorilla in the room, or more precisely sitting under him. The debt is crushing and preventing our country from growing and being able to better compete in the world. I just hope this gorilla loses some weight before we all suffocate.

    DF
    http://notadriveby.blogspot.com

    • Dr. Botkin

      I just called Eric Cantor’s office and asked if he had invited Nancy Pelosi as his prom date to the State of the Union farce. I was told they have no publio statematent on the matter at this thime. And these are the GOP “leaders of the future” who are in reality going to lead the party to destruction by throwing manure in the faces of the people who spend more more and time than thet can afford to get them elected. Disgraceful! And where is Boehner in all this? By the way, Judy Biggert (IL-13) has chosen as her date Chicago Congressman Luis Gutierrez, a radical Marxist who belongs in the government of Cuba or Venezuela. Biggert is willing to sell out to the party that has long called Republican nazis and worse She thinks we will forget. She has also concealed the fact that she reportedly is a stockholder in one of the companies that sells the TSA machines that take porno photos of air passengers. By the way, Sen. Kirk (IL) has chosen to sit with the despicable Dick Durbin, and light bulb Fred Upon with John Dingell. And where is the House speaker on all this? The establishment republicans hate the GOP base more than they hate the Demorats more than they oppose the Democrats. We do the work. They take the glory, and sell out to the people who have chosen to be the enemy. ,

      • Dr. Botkin

        I just called Eric Cantor’s office and asked if he had invited Nancy Pelosi as his prom date to the State of the Union farce. I was told they have no publio statematent on the matter at this thime. And these are the GOP “leaders of the future” who are in reality going to lead the party to destruction by I just called Eric Cantor

        • Dr. Botkin

          I just called Eric Cantor

          • carolina

            I bet it is a short intro.
            And, thank goodness we won’t have to look at pelosi the whole time….. like we did last year.

          • acat

            Durbin (D, IL) is the senior senator from the state. Sitting with him could be construed as a state delegation pairing up, rather than anything against Kirk.

            Not that I think Kirk is any prize, or that I’ll trust him further than I can throw him, but I’ll take him over either of the two men he replaced.

            Mew

          • carolina

            Sen. Rand Paul introduced legislation Tuesday that seeks to cut $500 billion from government spending in one year alone,
            - snip -
            At one level Paul follows the House Republican standard of rolling back appropriations for many agencies to the levels set three years ago under the Bush administration. But elsewhere, he clearly goes much further, folding the Energy Department into the Department of Defense and wiping out most of the Education Department but for Pell Grants to low income college students.

            The Department of Housing and Urban Development is a third casualty, together with seven independent agencies including the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and national endowments for the humanities and arts.

            Paul

          • bobmontgomery
          • aesthete
        • MojoMan

          If anyone is interested in making a drinking game out of this event, just try to throw one back every time Obama says the word “investment” or “invest”.

          A couple of years ago the popular term was “stimulus,” but obviously it is not so popular anymore. As a result, if he says the word “stimulus” more than once, I will be surprised. The currently popular term for promoting increased government spending is “investment”. Whether you call it “stimulus” or “investment,” it is just more debt-financed, government spending either way.

          Same song, different verse. All that has changed is the packaging. If he says the word “investment” or “invest” as many times during tonight’s SOTU address as I think he will, some of you might have trouble keeping up.

          Prost! :)

          • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

            turn off the SOTU, watch a comedy or something on the history channel, and sip your favorite beverage.

          • Jack_Savage

            Hell, double shots anyway.

            I will not be watching, just give me a tally for tomorrow night.

          • Bill S

            so I’m drinking on “Let me be clear”

          • tngal

            I’ll see your drinking game and raise you a bet mojo. Last time out, SC Judge Alito showed his displeasure with the prez by mouthing “not true” during the sotu. A speech or two before that, Joe Wilson shouted you lie during a moment when he was disenchanted by The One’s words. Well, I’ve got $1.37 that says this time out a lib is caught saying sellout, traitor, neocon or somehting similar.

      • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

        There are screeds against her all over the net today.

        • Tbone

          on a fool’s errand.

          • Jack_Savage

            As the media compared this to a “prom”, with the GOP being the dates, I could only think of what usually happens to the date after the prom.

            It will probably work out exactly that way for the GOP, again. I guess they are sitting with the Dems in hopes of at least getting a kiss before it happens.

          • bobmontgomery

            ….what would you think of your Senator holding hands with a man who wanted passionately to pry from you what you were clinging to?

          • Jack_Savage

            …and told them I did not donate and work for Republicans in order to see them play patty-cake with Democrats.

            I would urge you to cling to your donations as hard and as long as your Senator clings to the false hope of Democrat civility.

          • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

            naked twister?

          • Tbone
          • bobmontgomery

            …was just a curious new fad peculiar to the US Congress, think again. The Indiana House of Representatives secured a majority in November’s elections and the Republican Speaker of the House, Brian Bosma, informed the electorate that he was going to appoint Democrats to committee chairmanships. Committee…..chairmanships.
            Here is a news clip and the Speaker’s statement:

            As promised on Organization Day by Speaker Bosma, a new era of bipartisan cooperation is being ushered in with the appointment of minority party members to committee chairmanships for the first time in state history.

            “I am serious about establishing a new era of bipartisan cooperation in state government, and I intend to do more than pay it lip service. I hope this extension of leadership positions to the minority party serves as an example of cooperation to other states and to our leaders in Washington D.C.

          • bobmontgomery
          • Jack_Savage

            Something tells me that he better enjoy his position while he can.

          • bobmontgomery

            ….with the example of Fred Upton, with the example of Peter King, John McCain, with everybody thinking Arne Duncan is a good guy, with repeal of DADT, with my precinct polling place being taken away from me and forcing me to go to Wal Mart to vote, with last year defense saying N. Korea was no threat and this year Gates saying it is, with about a million other examples, we have serious, serious problems of comprehension, competency, recognition of responsibility, knowledge and understanding of history and everything else in this country. I am very discouraged.

          • Tbone

            LOL.

          • bobmontgomery

            …the Indiana University Center for Urban Affairs and….’The Environment’, which wrote the Kernan-Sheppard Report, and Indiana Newspapers, Inc. and Progressivism, Incorporated, to ‘reform’ (eliminate)” local government, local schools, local volunteer fire departments, local libraries, and much of elected county government. He openly mocks and ridicules Indiana’s constitution. His Ministry of Propaganda mocks, ridicules, slanders and slurs township officials.

          • Tbone

            Good.

    • http://spendenforcer.com/ vortigernpendragon

      Aye, a nation that lives by debt…shall die by debt.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s50yCSy3Zxo

  • azred

    how the 800 pound gorilla is really an 800 pound elephant. And of course, the woes of the country will be blamed on the elephant.

    Going to be as pleasant and predictable as prepping for a colonoscopy.

  • qsclues

    Heh.

  • patrickdalroy

    instead of Statuary. Insert your own joke about your favorite Congressman or Senator here.

  • edwyrd

    cuddling with?

  • leftwing

    Expanding the deficit, as a strategy for creating a crisis, at which time Republicans can demand programs that they do not like be elimiinated, has been a Republican strategy for 30 years. Republicans love the deficit problem. Cannot get enough of it. Talk about it constantly.

    Well, maybe some here would not agree. But I think Grover Norquist would admiit it.

    Anyway, it has been Republican presidents that have expanded the deficit most recklessly in the past 30 years. Especially George W. Bush, with his tax cuts (Greenspan blessed them upon the grounds that there was a danger that continued budget surpluses would evaporate the Treasury market; you can look it up) and unpaid for wars. Not to mention the financial collapse engineered by an unregulated hedge fund/MBS/security insurance market. That put a hole in the books.

    Now what?

    Short-term, the deficit is not a problem. We should run a deficit until economic actiivity, and employment, revives.

    Long term, the deficit should be addressed. By taxing the rich, and stopping the wars.

    But it will be difficult to get focus on reasonable options. Republicans prefer crisis; it suits their political agenda.

    • patrickdalroy

      Then how do you explain the surplus under Clinton and GOP House and Senate?

    • runner12

      First of all, thanks for being honest that you are a Leftist. It is immature and cowardice for people to go to a conservative site and pretend to be something they are not. At least you have risen above such tactics.

      There are so many problems with your arguments, it is hard to know where to start. First of all, let’s start where we agree. Bush did spend too much in some areas, he was for expansion of government. Most conservatives actually agree on this point. As to the wars, may I remind you that we were ATTACKED on 9/11. We did not ask for a war, we did not want a war, but it came to our doorstep. Three thousand Americans died on that day. It is an insult to their memory to bring up the war issue. There can be some legitimate debate as to the way it was waged, but the government has a duty to protect its’ citizens.

      The deficit issue began when FDR instituted his New Deal. He vastly expanded the government in an attempt to pull the country out of the Great Depression. The problem is that what were initially supposed to be temporary programs became permanent and the race to spend began. Subsequent Presidents attempted to reign in the deficit, but none had the moral courage to cut back on the entitlements. Along with that, earmarks became the norm and thus we had the federal government funding million dollar bridges to nowhere and studies on the eating habits of monkeys.

      As to raising taxes on the rich, this has been tried before and failed (a la Jimmy Carter). When the rich are taxed more, they cut back on spending and if they own a business they cut back on hiring. The results are disastrous for the economy.

      The solutions are so obvious that only someone steeped in an idealogy could be blind to them. We must cut spending across the board, that includes entitlement programs. This will not be easy nor fun, but sometimes the right decisions are the hardest ones. We must lower taxes to increase the amount that comes in to the government (more people pay in when they are lower).

      Lastly, the Leftists are the ones who always love a crisis. They have repeatedly used tragedies to attack their political opponents (BP oil spill, Fort Hood shooting, and most recently the tragedy in Tucson). Their motto is “never waste a crisis.”

      • leftwing

        My goal is to try to engage in civil discussion here. I do not expect to change many opinions, but I hope to convince at least a few people that there are sincere and reasonable arguments that differ from the ones most popular here.

        Iraq did not attack us on 9/11.

        I respectfully suggest that we insult the victims of that attack by using their deaths as excuse for a wasteful, foolish and unnecessary war.

        Not sure what New Deal programs that you think were intended to be temporary.

        With regard to more recent history, I direct your attention to the tax deal of 1986. Reagan agreed to close a few loopholes in exchange for dramatically lower rates. In addition, Reagan agreed to dramatically increase FICA, the payroll tax for social security, to put the “trust fund” on solid footing into the future. Of course, that “trust fund” was a fiction, and those revenues have been spent to the present day. The social security surplus (higher taxes on workers) was budget surplus when there was one in the bubble years, and has reduced the deficit since.

        In short, workers have paid more than their fair share for retirement.

        What happened is that Bush gave away the FICA surplus, disproportionately to the wealthy, in 2001. A bait and switch, though Reagan did not plan it.

        And, as you say, Bush spent like a drunken sailor, mostly on war, but also on a trillion dollar medical entitlement. And helped cause the financial collapse.

        Look, we are where we are. In my view, we should try to find common sense solutions to individual challenges, without trying to impose 100 percent blame on others.

        For example, plenty of Dems supported the lax financial regulation, the wars, and the new medical entitlement. Plenty of Dems only want to vote for tax cuts, never tax increases.

        Anyway, thank you for your thoughtful and civil comments on my post.

        • runner12

          Being ugly never gets you anywhere. With regards to the New Deal, I brought it up because Social Security was created during the New Deal and was meant to be temporary and small in its scope. Like all government programs, it grew astronomically and became unsustainable. Medicaid came into being in 1965 and has followed along the same path. Both programs were begun with good intentions, but have since become fiscal disasters.

          With regards to Bush and Iraq, this is a difficult situation to judge for me. I tend to put myself in his place and wonder what I would have done. He had just witnessed the murder of 3,000 Americans in an unthinkable way. But for the bravery of the men and women on one flight, the White House may have been taken out. Then all of the intel in the world comes to your desk telling you that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and Iraq is making open threats to use them (and you know they have used ths type of warfare before on their own people). Do you pre-emptively strike? Do you wait for a chemical warfare attack on Los Angeles before acting? Your kinda screwed if you do and screwed if you don’t. I imagine Truman felt the same way when he had to decide to release the atomic bomb. History will be the best judge of his decision. Right now we are there and we need to win, period. Otherwise we risk complete chaos in the region.

          While Bush was not the model of fiscal prudence, Obama makes him look good. He has spent more money in his two years in office than any president in past history. No doubt others helped him get here, but he has piled it on. You top it off with a new entitlement called ObamaCare and you have the beginnings of a financial meltdown.

          BTW, Thank you for your civil response as well.