It is a shame that people don’t achieve their goals but remember how hard the Dems fought, ‘tooth and toenail’ not to have any cuts. This reveals their waste big time. Unfortunately, all the fighting and squalling did not go far enough. The Dems and Obama wanted to use the controlled media to cast blame on the Repubs. At this point, with the present ignorance in America, this could be positive and negative. – cut the costs some and look like a bad guy by the time the controlled media and socialist lies get pounded and pounded and pounded into people’s minds.
Recently, I talked to a Union friend (AFLCIO). He loves unions because he focuses on the paycheck. Since unions pay members at least twice the going rate, to cut their pay in half (or more) then there is ‘hell to pay’.
There is a disconnect between being reasonable and self serving. On one hand people resent the high taxes and high cost of things and lack of jobs – after all Japan and China will give us what we want. Some people want their cake and eat it too!!!!

They complain about government taxes while not about government handouts and being so far in debt. They complain about high costs because of unions going far overboard but not about high paychecks by the unions. If it costs much more to manufacture and people want low costs then you have to get the products from overseas while hoping you got a job tommorrow – praying that the government bail out the unions so their paycheck can be paid for by everyone’s taxes…..

Duhhh! You don’t get something for nothing. If we have to manage our bills then we should expect the same of Government. Of course, some people just run the credit up until they bankrupt then sigh with relief how they passed their debt over to the banks – which in turn get their bailout money from government then the government lets all of us pay for their irresponsibility (as well as big government running our debt up nationally until America collapses financially like Spain and other countries have – from spending more than they made)

.– Wake up America and think when you select Presidents and Congresspersons!!!!!

Nancy Pelosi had a bigger set of Kahunis than Boehner has. At first it seemed that he was going to go for the golden ring of $100 billion. then right before our eyes he caved, and then he caved again. Then he did a backroom deal that we still don’t know the particulars of just ot keep the government form having a shutdown. he should have let the Ems do their shutdown that they had panned since last year and then let the American people get on their case for doing that.

“As an added bonus, if we take the Democrats at their word, we see now that the Democrats were willing to shut down the government and defund our troops in combat zones all to ensure the federal funding of children being murdered.”

What troubles me even more is that the average voter seems oblivious to that fact.

And the average voter also seems oblivious to the whole money-laundering scene at play with PP as with so many unions: The Democrats shower them with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and millions of that gets poured back into Democratic campaign coffers.

Remember during the Obamacare debate, when Senate Republicans were content to offer amendments on Obamacare, hoping to win PR points while the Democrats were destroying the nation’s health care system?

Well, here we are. Speaker Boehner is content to allow Obama to take credit for cutting the budget (on things Obama doesn’t give a hoot about) while continuing to fund Planned Parenthood, as long as we get a vote in the Senate.

It’s all so small.

This looks to me to be the usual kabuki where “cuts’ are merely a decrease in the increase in spending. How are these new “cuts” “real”? Obama and the Democrats increased spending by billions so getting back $38B is not a cut. It’s a cut in the increase. Boehner and the Republicans didn’t just blink. They cravenly surrendered.

Next you’ll be buying the hogwash that there was a surplus in the Clinton years. Yeesh!

Should Chris Van Hollen be in Congress? Should he be on the Budget Committee? Where is his District in Maryland?

Should Jim Moran be in Congress? Where is his district in Virginia?

Let us start focusing on what we need to do. As long as the Beltway has Congressional representation, the Republic is in danger!

which has become the standard. We are in big trouble and we have the likes pf Speaker Boehner leading the charge. The problem is Boehner has no guts when it comes to fighting dirty Harry and Barry. It’s time for him to step aside and let someone with more backbone lead the charge. Otherwise, the Republicans will do all the compromising on the debate over the Debt Ceiling and the 2012 Budget and we will, once again, be unhappy with the outcome. By the time we get the chance to retake the White House and the Senate, there will be nothing left but, to negotiate with our creditors as debtors in possession of a bankrupt country. Where is the outrage????

I expect continued reductions in govt spending. Even obama is going to come out with some ‘cuts’. I’ll believe that when I see it!
I wish the GOP would emphasize GROWTH more. Economic growth would do a lot to help our national budget problems.
Hopefully we can elect a GOP controlled senate in 2012 and then real progress can be made.

Mr. Erickson, and I do have great respect for you – I think you are being a bit hard on our side. As Moe has pointed out – if we want to talk about the $100 billion promise, then we need to be fair. That included the $40 billion in increases Obama had added. On that scale, we got $78 billion out $100 billion. The Dems were pushing for just giving up the $40B. We had 1/3 of the seats at the table and got them (roughly) 2/3 of the way to our side. I negotiate for a living, and I would call that a win if I got similar results. And that is before you add in the (small) abortion victory and scholarship victory. We also forced votes (which could have been done another way, but that political capital is saved) on controversial issues that should help in 2012.

Remember how hard it was to for the Dems to get Obamacare passed when they controlled both houses and the WH? We had nothing close to that majority and made some changes. Progress is not going to go fast like we want. But let’s take our victories and not call them defeats.

Overall, these cuts are small, we can all agree on that. But we weren’t going for a home run on this fight. Boehner and friends have been very clear that the big fights were debt ceiling and 2012 budget. They positioned themselves that way all along. We elected them and, with our input, they need to follow their plan. If we walk away from the debt ceiling fight in a similar position, I will be in line behind you. If we get significant changes, then this will look much more like forming a solid framework.

Especially with what’s at stake, the GOP made next to no progress in making significant cuts or in moving forward on pertinent issues for the right.

Some pundits and moderates are chalking this deal up as a great thing. I don’t see it that way.

The Democrats do not have the truth on their side but they are unwaveringly committed to their cause (radical socialism+) and they can covertly speak it brilliantly and they will defend it to the death…..purposely to shift this country into their toilet image.

The GOP has the truth on their side but they will not use it because the leadership are jellyfish and completely unwilling to speak it and fight for it…..and they are partially committed to keep it Dem light because they like progressive spending….and they want “cordiality.”

For the GOP to win NOW (which is when we need them to win) they will have to abandon the perks of having it cordial with the Dems and the media for the next 18 months.

Minus a miracle par with the second coming, the GOP will not demonstrate what is needed. Even though the Dem’s base would
rip them to shreds in a heart beat, the GOP is more committed to cordiality across the isle, and cowering to the media.

The current pathetic compromise and the proposed Ryan road map, are not in the ball park of the fight that needs to happen.

We will change the make-up of the GOP in 2012 significantly. The question is whether or not the current GOP leadership will significantly change their actions NOW, and start to fight 100 times harder NOW, instead of 2012 when it will be too late.

It is now clear that the Repubs intend to roll over and allow Owebama to bankrupt the country. Their promises mean no more than his did. The 38.5 billion they settled for was less than the debt accumulated in a single week.

You guys are not realistic, this is not 1 party rule. The republicans own 1 house, that’s it. And so you have to do a little thing called ‘negotiation’.

The fact that the president has to create a new budget to respond to Ryan’s budge is a massive victory, I can’t understate this. It looks pathetic and reactionary on his part and puts the Dems in a corner. This is the meat, the discretionary are the potatoes. IF the republicans win the presidency and a majority in the senate you can complain if they dont get serious cuts.

I swear ppl dont understand compromise at all. The Dems had 60 votes + the presidency + house and so they got to ram stuff through – even then they couldn’t ram through cap and trade. That should let you know that when you have 300+ players in a negotiation you dont get everything you want.

Erick,
The deal struck Friday night was not the kind of budget that we would like to see. Unfortunately, as you have noted on this site many times, elections have consequences. Recent elections have brought us a socialist president an a democrat senate. These two facts mean that we control only 1/3 of the government (as well as about 1/10 of the media). By Friday, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Obama/Reid were happy to shut down the government, and the media was happy to make it all about abortion. There is no way that Obama would EVER sign a bill defunding Obamacare and PP, so what was the house leadership to do? Shut down the government until November of next year, when the voters would throw everyone of them out of office for shutting down the government for a year and half? We lost big in 2008, and although we made gains in 2010, we still control only 1/3 of the government. We have to take what we can get here, expect more with the debt ceiling debate and next year’s budget, and focus on winning the other 2/3 of the government with solidly conservative, small-government candidates next year. This is a marathon, not a sprint. The House can’t do miracles.

we will not get back to fiscal sanity overnight either. I have read the posts of people saying we should throw everyone out of government, John Boehner has no ba!!s, Republicans are pi$$ poor, etc, etc. Grow up and stop the bellyaching. It is going to take many, many battles to get America back on track. We have some competent people in Washington fighting for us. We as Americans need to get behind them and fight with them and encourage the victories they do have. And we need to be mindful of who we vote for in 2012, because the only way anything meaningful is going to get done is if we take back the Senate and the White House too.

But what is the true total for all the cuts made by the continuing resolutions. There have multiple resolution and cuts. That is the real numbers and it is closer to 80 billion.

The people who complain often make arguments that would apply to 100 billion. You could argue that 30 or 80 is a drop in the bucket. But so is the Tea Party goal of 100 billion.

Most people recognize it was a good week for the GOP. Constant unreasonable criticism doesnt keep the GOP honest, it just marginallizes those critics who can never be appeased anyway. The constant nay-saying becomes deafining after a while. Republicans suck. Republicans suck. Republican suck. What’s new.

I was guilty of this myself, and just found out some things this morning. We keep talking about how the deficit grew $50B while the negotiations for $38B were ongoing. This is a true statement. However, addressing the cause of the $50B growth in the deficit wasn’t on the table.

Funding the remainder of 2011 was only able to cut into $450B of discretionary spending. The bulk of the $50B in deficit growth is due to statutory obligations (Medicare, Medicaid, etc) that are defacto funded funded outside of the budget process. There is no way, during a budget negotiation, to reduce those numbers. Especially by the trillions necessary. Fixing those requires separate legislation, much like the welfare reform in the 90s was through separate legislation.

So in the end, we wanted to cut about 13% ($61B) from the discretionary amount for the remaining 6 months of the year. We ended up somewhere in the 8% range, and most of those cuts weren’t funding gimmicks, but actual program elimination. That adds up to hundreds of billions over the next few years.

Also, the riders were never going to end up in the final package. As much as I hate it, the Planned Parenthood debate was won by the Democrats. They successfully framed the debate as “affecting women’s healthcare” and the “GOP is willing to shut down the government over abortion”. When I heard my 24 year old Republican son spouting off the Planned Parenthood 3% fictitious number, I knew they had won that debate. Getting an agreement for a vote in the Senate was a surprisingly good outcome. However, long term we have to frame this issue as “Government has no business funding non-profits” if we want that funding stopped.

I don’t care how much was or wasn’t cut from the 2011 non-budget. Let’s face it, if the last congress had done their job, we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place. To me, that means that any 2011 cuts are just gravy for the turkey. I am happy that deal involved a stand alone vote for Obamacare. I don’t think this would have happened otherwise, at least not until 2013. Of course, repeal probably won’t pass, and if it does, will get vetoed. That is fine, because it will puts the issue back in the headlines, and it will once again force the lefties to support their vote.

That said, the GOP leadership needs to understand that when it comes to the 2012 budget, expectations will be much, MUCH higher. Token gestures will not get it done. If the party can’t hold the line in this fight, it’s time to throw in the towel on the GOP and support a third party that won’t just pretend to oppose big government.

is actually the CIRCUS part of bread and circuses?

Boehner does not fit the job.
I can understand how freshman have given up the fight with this speaker.

You can spin the facts any way you want.
We had 3900 billion in spending reduced that by 39 billion. That means 1% of the Progressive agenda was not funded. Everything else Pelosi passed is funded.

Funding 99% of progressive policy programs doesn’t make you a conservative. There is a bigger range than that among various progressives in the democrat party.

Like the Maginot line the solution is simply to end run a stationary defense position knowing your opponent will never risk coming out of his protective shelter to engage you. As if staying there statically will automatically win the independents

Sooner or later we need General Grant to replace General McClellan. Or we will have the best trained, best equipped Republican house that never engaged our opponents.
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