Not doing a very good job of it, either.
"GOP budget would keep Medicare cuts, tax increases" by Jonathan Weisman | New York Times, March 07, 2013
WASHINGTON — House Republicans would preserve Medicare cuts that their presidential nominee loudly denounced last year and accept tax increases they sternly opposed just months ago....
As the spending measure advanced, President Obama kept up his charm offensive with Republicans in pursuit of a bipartisan deal to reduce the deficit and undo the automatic spending cuts that took effect Friday.
He dined with nearly a dozen Senate Republicans at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington on Wednesday night, and he continued his phone calls....
I'm glad they are eating well while nearly a quarter of this country goes hungry.
I'm glad they are eating well while nearly a quarter of this country goes hungry.
Introduction of the House budget will be the first substantive step toward any bipartisan legislative deal on the deficit, but the path forward is narrow and steep....
Yeap.
Yeap.
The new budget would cut spending on food stamps and social services, convert Medicare into a system that gives seniors a fixed subsidy that would be used to buy insurance on the private market, and turn Medicaid — the health care program for the poor — into block grants to state governments.
Obama had denounced those proposed changes when he sought reelection against GOP nominee Mitt Romney and Ryan, his running mate, last year.
Ryan made it clear, however, he would extend some olive branches, for the sake of comity but also in pursuit of his balanced budget. The tax increases on the affluent that Obama secured in January during the showdown over the fiscal cliff will be reflected in the revenues Republicans expect to flow to the Treasury in their budget.
Actually, if you look above they actually got a cut.
Actually, if you look above they actually got a cut.
‘‘Revenue went up significantly two months ago with the fiscal cliff deal,’’ Ryan said. ‘‘We’re not going to refight that fight.’’
Also, Ryan offered tempered praise for the cuts to Medicare that helped finance the Affordable Care Act, cuts that he denounced as his party’s vice-presidential nominee but that will help him avoid subjecting people older than 55 to his Medicare changes....
Before lawmakers can fight over the broad shape of the federal government, they must keep the current government open for business, and the House moved Wednesday to do that. The vote, 267-151, included 53 Democrats and indicated that the Senate would have little political latitude to take the spending bill in a drastically different direction.
The House bill gives military and veterans’ programs some breathing room under the automatic spending cuts that took effect Friday, increasing financing for Pentagon priorities. The measure also seeks to thwart the Postal Service’s plan to halt Saturday home delivery by requiring a six-day schedule.
Related: Post office retreats on eliminating Saturday mail
Related: Post office retreats on eliminating Saturday mail
--more--"
"Obama hopes to rescue deficit-cutting deal" by Richard W. Stevenson | New York Times, March 11, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama will go to Capitol Hill this week to try to salvage a big deficit-reduction deal, battling not only Republican resistance but also complaints from Democrats that he mishandled his last attempt.
What? After I was told he won with the deal?
What? After I was told he won with the deal?
The president’s outreach to rank-and-file lawmakers is the result of Republicans’ refusal to accept any additional tax increases to avert the automatic spending cuts that are beginning to affect the government. It could meet the same failure as Obama’s earlier bids to work privately through congressional leaders and then to apply public pressure.
He got played by the Republicans, huh?
He got played by the Republicans, huh?
Hopes now rest on finding a narrow path through the ideological and political imperatives of both parties.
It's social security cuts.
It's social security cuts.
White House aides have not ruled out some money-saving structural reforms to Medicare that Republicans favor, notably an idea promoted by the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, to combine the program’s doctor and hospital components with a single deductible for beneficiaries.
Using such savings from entitlements to replace sequestration, as the automatic cuts are called, would meet Republicans’ demands not to use tax increases for that purpose.
At the same time, some Republican senators and aides, publicly and privately, have expressed openness to accepting revenue increases as part of a loophole-closing overhaul of the tax code.
Rolling together budget and tax agreements along those lines would allow Obama to complete the ‘‘grand bargain’’ that he has sought to tackle the nation’s long-term budget imbalances as the baby boom generation retires.
He plans to meet separately this week with Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, House Democrats, and House Republicans.
White House officials said the consideration of budget plans by the House and Senate in coming weeks would provide a natural forum to explore what might be possible.
‘‘Hopefully there’s an opportunity to work things out through regular order in the House and Senate,’’ said Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser to Obama. ‘‘How likely is that? I can’t say very likely — there are strong structural forces in the Republican Party working against it. But if you try and fail you still have an opportunity to build bonds of trust that could be helpful on other issues.’’
Related: Reloading the Chamber: Gunning For the Senate
They will be firing away now that the lock of a filibuster has been removed.
Obama has signaled a willingness to reduce cost-of-living increases for Social Security by using a less-generous measure of inflation. He has indicated openness to imposing means-testing on Medicare beneficiaries so that high-income retirees would pay more for their medical care, and he has put on the table $400 billion of cuts in Medicare in the next decade, mostly through payments to health care providers.
He's a great Republican president.
Meanwhile, the wars are funded, surveillance state programs of tyranny are advanced, Israel gets its aid, the lavish political lifestyles are intact, foreign aid is tossed around willy-nilly to care for refugees from the wars we've started, and on and on.
Related: Reloading the Chamber: Gunning For the Senate
They will be firing away now that the lock of a filibuster has been removed.
Obama has signaled a willingness to reduce cost-of-living increases for Social Security by using a less-generous measure of inflation. He has indicated openness to imposing means-testing on Medicare beneficiaries so that high-income retirees would pay more for their medical care, and he has put on the table $400 billion of cuts in Medicare in the next decade, mostly through payments to health care providers.
He's a great Republican president.
Meanwhile, the wars are funded, surveillance state programs of tyranny are advanced, Israel gets its aid, the lavish political lifestyles are intact, foreign aid is tossed around willy-nilly to care for refugees from the wars we've started, and on and on.
Republicans say they are looking for more, including two elements they discussed with the White House during failed talks in 2011: raising the eligibility age for Medicare and cutting federal costs for Medicaid.
White House officials said that those proposals were deeply flawed as a matter of policy and that they did not intend to submit any more offers until Republicans express some willingness to make tax revenue part of the equation.
With all the familiar obstacles looming, however, Democrats are increasingly looking at the previous round of negotiations — at the end of 2012, as the Bush-era tax cuts were scheduled to expire — and concluding that Obama flinched, leaving tax revenue on the table that would have ended the budget standoff on more favorable terms to Democrats.
And yet I was told they won with the deal.
And yet I was told they won with the deal.
The second-guessing extends to virtually every aspect of the deal: its failure to postpone the automatic budget cuts for more than two months, its failure to raise the federal debt limit, its yield of $600 billion in new tax revenue over 10 years out of the $4 trillion of new taxes that would have taken effect had the Bush tax cuts been allowed to expire....
From a president and Congress that EXTENDED THOSE CUTS until the elections came around. Then we got all the s***-show fooley about inequality and the big difference between the two candidates.
Just think, if the Bush tax cuts had been allowed to expire their would BE NO CRISIS and NO NEED for AUSTERITY right now.
Related: Social Security Should not be CUT by so Much as a Dime!
Also see: An Apple a Day the Globe Way
Hey, look on the bright side; at least banks are booming in the golden age of corporate profits.
Related:
"Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the nation’s banks had become too big to jail. “The size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them,” Holder said at a hearing Wednesday. “If we do prosecute — if we do bring a criminal charges — it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.”"
Same goes for certain corporations, and really, what more do you really need to know about AmeriKa?
From a president and Congress that EXTENDED THOSE CUTS until the elections came around. Then we got all the s***-show fooley about inequality and the big difference between the two candidates.
Just think, if the Bush tax cuts had been allowed to expire their would BE NO CRISIS and NO NEED for AUSTERITY right now.
Related: Social Security Should not be CUT by so Much as a Dime!
Also see: An Apple a Day the Globe Way
Hey, look on the bright side; at least banks are booming in the golden age of corporate profits.
Related:
"Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the nation’s banks had become too big to jail. “The size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them,” Holder said at a hearing Wednesday. “If we do prosecute — if we do bring a criminal charges — it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.”"
Same goes for certain corporations, and really, what more do you really need to know about AmeriKa?
In the agreement concluding that 2011 standoff, said John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff for President Clinton, the administration committed a ‘‘fundamental miscalculation’’ by believing Republican opposition to automatic Pentagon cuts would compel them to later accept tax increases.
Or both sides played this political game perfectly. Republicans and Democrats really wanted the cuts, and now they can blame the other for it to their constituencies.
Or both sides played this political game perfectly. Republicans and Democrats really wanted the cuts, and now they can blame the other for it to their constituencies.
White House aides said the deal was a good one. Not only did they crack Republican resistance to income tax rate increases, they said, but they did it without committing to any major cuts to Medicare and Social Security beneficiaries.
Then why is Obama offering that up now?
Then why is Obama offering that up now?
They said that the president was not willing to risk the economy’s health by forcing showdowns when he could get much of what he wants through negotiation and that the president had been able to make progress on changes to immigration policy and gun control thanks in part to the deal.
?????????
He GAVE THEM THI$ so he could get deals on those?
"Washington girds for weeks of budget fights" Associated Press, March 12, 2013
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Monday drafted a catchall government funding bill that would deny President Obama money for implementing programs such as new regulations on Wall Street and his expansion of government health care subsidies but provide modest additional funding for health research and other priorities.
They still haven't written those damn regulations? Any idea when?
They still haven't written those damn regulations? Any idea when?
The measure, the product of bipartisan negotiations, would fund day-to-day government operations through Sept. 30 — and prevent a government shutdown when current funding runs out March 27.
Not the kind we need.
Not the kind we need.
Passage in the Senate this week is aimed at ending a mostly overlooked battle between House Republicans and Obama and his Senate Democratic allies over the annual spending bills required to fund federal agency operations. It is hoped the House will pass the Senate bill unchanged and send it to Obama in time to avert a politically disastrous government shutdown.
I wouldn't consider it that at all.
I wouldn't consider it that at all.
But Washington is girding for weeks of warfare over the budget for next year and beyond, as House and Senate committees this week take up blueprints.
The first salvo is coming from House Republicans. They are poised to release on Tuesday a now-familiar budget featuring gestures to block ‘‘Obamacare,’’ turn Medicare into a voucher-like program for future retirees, and sharply curb Medicaid and domestic agency budgets.
Such ideas are considered dead on arrival, with Democrats controlling the Senate.
Senate Democrats will counter Wednesday with a long-term budget plan mixing about $1 trillion in new taxes over the next decade with about the same amount in cuts from projected spending, according to the Washington Post, which cited Democratic aides. The measure would undo automatic budget cuts that started this month and largely leave alone rapidly growing benefit programs such as Medicare.
Obama’s budget is weeks overdue; press secretary Jay Carney deflected questions about it.
--more--"
"Ryan’s budget targets Obama accomplishments; Proposal mirrors spending plan he offered in 2012" by Jonathan Weisman and Jeremy W. Peters | New York Times, March 13, 2013
WASHINGTON — At a news conference Tuesday morning in the Capitol, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the party’s vice presidential nominee, was asked why his plan included so many elements that voters appeared to reject in November when they elected Obama over the Mitt Romney-Ryan ticket.
‘‘So the question is,’’ Ryan responded, ‘‘the election didn’t go our way — believe me I, I know what that feels like — that means we surrender our principles? That means we stop believing in what we believe in?’’
He continued, ‘‘We think we owe the country a balanced budget. We think we owe the country solutions to the big problems that are plaguing our nation: a debt crisis on the horizon, a slow-growing economy, people trapped in poverty. We’re showing our answers.’’
Neither one of them has them because the answer is ending the empire and freeing ourselves from private central banking.
Neither one of them has them because the answer is ending the empire and freeing ourselves from private central banking.
Such dire forecasts are not universally held. Many liberal economists believe the tax increases secured in January and trillions of dollars in budget cuts over the past two years have already put the government on a sustainable path at least through this decade.
But with his budget, and a Senate Democratic budget to follow Wednesday, Republicans and Democrats are setting up a clear contrast between rapid deficit reduction that relies on spending cuts only to reach balance and a slower approach that will mix tax increases and more gradual spending cuts to aim for fiscal stability if not a balanced budget.
Democrats said the GOP budget was further proof that Republicans were out-of-touch with ordinary Americans, who already delivered their verdict on the Ryan plan.
Both parties are.
Both parties are.
‘‘This budget reflects the same skewed priorities the Republican Party has championed for years — the same skewed priorities Americans rejected in November,’’ Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, said “We’ve seen this show before.’’
Yeap.
Yeap.
************************
Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee, said that the House Republican plan was ‘‘doubling down on the extreme budget that the American people already rejected.’’
In stark contrast to the austerity the Republican budget pursues, Senate Democrats will propose investing $100 billion in a new economic stimulus program that would provide job training and set aside money to repair roads and bridges. Democrats said they would pay for the plan by closing loopholes in the tax code that benefit corporations and wealthy Americans.
We don't need another stimuloot, sorry.
We don't need another stimuloot, sorry.
The Democrats’ plan would meet their goals with an equal mix of spending cuts and closing tax loopholes. Those cuts — about $975 billion worth — would include $240 billion in military spending and $493 billion on the domestic side, Democrats said.
--more--"
"GOP tells Obama to stop attacks" by David Espo | Associated Press, March 15, 2013
WASHINGTON — Legislation to lock in $85 billion in spending cuts and avert a government shutdown on March 27 made plodding progress. Separately the two parties advanced longer-term budgets in both houses.
No breakthrough had been anticipated and none was reported, although Obama told reporters before returning to the White House, “We’re making progress.”
In the Senate, several Republicans told Obama his rhetoric is not conducive to compromise....
Senators emerging from meetings with Obama said the discussions ranged over the fate of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, regulatory concerns, fracking, the deficit, and more.
The president declined to be pinned down on the fate of the Keystone Pipeline, which supporters hope to build to ship Canadian oil to the United States.
Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota said Obama pledged only to make a decision before the end of the year on the project, which is opposed by environmentalists but supported by some labor unions.
While Obama completed his closed-door round of meetings, the Senate slowly worked its way through a bill that locks in $85 billion in spending cuts through the end of the budget year while guaranteeing there won’t be a government shutdown.
--more--"
"Dispute over control towers in budget spotlight; Slows sequester talks" by David Espo | Associated Press, March 20, 2013
WASHINGTON — A dispute over budget cuts that threaten dozens of smaller control towers with closure slowed the Senate’s progress Tuesday on legislation needed to avoid a government shutdown on March 27.
Senator Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, refused repeatedly to permit final passage of the measure unless Democrats first allow a vote on his plan for erasing most of the cuts aimed at towers operated by Federal Aviation Administration contract employees.
The Senate majority leader, Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada, just as persistently declined to give in, and other Democrats noted that House Republicans had rejected calls to give all federal agencies the type of budget flexibility Moran was seeking.
Republicans and Democrats struggled with two goals: ensuring there is no interruption of routine government funding while vying for political advantage following $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts that kicked in this month.
The top US commander in South America told Congress the cuts would reduce if not eliminate the fleet of ships used to counter drug runners.
General John Kelly said US forces seized 150 to 200 tons of cocaine last year. If the budget cuts stand, ‘‘next year all of that will make its way ashore and into the United States.’’
Let's party!
Let's party!
Moran said his proposal has support from senators in both parties and that House Republican leaders have indicated the bill’s final approval would not be jeopardized if the change were incorporated.
Democrats responded tartly....
Moran suggested Democrats were playing politics with the issue....
That's all they are doing down there.
That's all they are doing down there.
The two parties have sought to avoid blame for any inconvenience that results from the budget cuts, known in Washington-speak as the sequester. Much of the back and forth has focused on minor matters, including the decision to cancel White House tours. But hundreds of thousands of federal employees face unpaid furloughs beginning next month.
--more--"
"Senate OK’s spending plan that locks in $85b in cuts" by David Espo | Associated Press, March 21, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Senate approved legislation Wednesday to lock in $85 billion in broad federal spending cuts and simultaneously avoid a government shutdown next week — and pointedly rejected a call to even reopen White House tours that the Obama administration says had to be canceled because of the cuts.
They won't only mendaciously lie to you, they will manipulate and inconvenience you, too.
They won't only mendaciously lie to you, they will manipulate and inconvenience you, too.
If the House goes along, as expected, that means the across-the-board cuts set in motion by a failed earlier deficit-cutting effort and vigorously decried by President Obama last month, will remain in effect for the rest of the fiscal year through Aug. 31.
Some adjustments will be made....
Meaning military money will be put back.
Meaning military money will be put back.
The overall measure passed 73 to 26. A final House sign-off is expected as early as Thursday, before lawmakers begin a two-week vacation....
Oh, they passed it and went on vacation, huh? So what goodie$ were tucked into it?
Oh, they passed it and went on vacation, huh? So what goodie$ were tucked into it?
Without changes, the $85 billion in cuts for the current year will swell to nearly $1 trillion over a decade, levels that lawmakers in both parties say are unsustainable politically. As a result, negotiations are possible later in the year to replace the reductions with different savings to restrain deficits.
Political considerations were on ample display in both houses as lawmakers labored over measures relating to spending priorities, both for this year and a decade into the future.
House Republican conservatives engineered a symbolic vote on a 10-year budget drafted by Senate Democrats that would raise taxes by $1 trillion and fail to eliminate deficits for more than two decades. It failed — as the GOP knew it would — on a vote of 154 to 261....
Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, a deficit hawk, said he wanted to reopen the White House tours, shut down since earlier in the month. He said his proposal would take about $8 million from the National Heritage Partnership Program and apply it toward ‘‘opening up the tours at the White House, opening up Yellowstone National Park, and the rest of the national parks.’’
White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters previously the decision the cancel the White House tours was made by the Secret Service.
But in remarks on the Senate floor, Coburn said, ‘‘This is a Park Service issue, not a Secret Service issue.’’
Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, said the funds involved in Coburn’s amendment would not go to the Secret Service, and as a result the tours ‘‘would not be affected.’’
He also said the Heritage program, a public-private partnership, helps produce economic development and should not be cut.
The vote was 54 to 45 against the proposal. Senator Max Baucus of Montana, whose state borders on Yellowstone National Park, was the only Democrat to vote with Republicans.
--more--"
"House passes 6-month plan for spending; few cuts shifted" by Rosalind S. Helderman and Lisa Rein | Washington Post, March 22, 2013
WASHINGTON — Congress approved a shortterm funding bill Thursday that ends the possibility of a federal government shutdown next week. But a broader budget battle about taxes and spending for the year is just beginning.
The stopgap spending resolution, approved on a broad bipartisan vote in the House, locks in the $85 billion across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.
But the legislation includes provisions that will blunt their impact. Within hours of the bill’s passage, the Defense Department announced that furlough notices scheduled to go out Friday to 800,000 civilian workers will be delayed until April 5.
That will give officials time to see whether the new budget will still require 22 unpaid days or could result in fewer lost days for workers.
Congress’s action also halted furloughs for thousands of meat inspectors by transferring $55 million from other agriculture programs to ensure meat and poultry plants stay open, agriculture officials said.
The meat lobby, as well as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, pressed the issue with Congress and the Obama administration, saying the furloughs threatened a multibillion-dollar industry and would have forced an increase in meat prices.
Sigh. $ee what happens when you have ace$$?
Sigh. $ee what happens when you have ace$$?
The House vote, which provides funding for the government for the six months starting March 28, came a day after the Senate approved the bill.
It now goes to President Obama for his signature, ending a relatively smooth and drama-free process for a Congress that has repeatedly found itself deadlocked on spending issues.
Still, the measure covers only the next six months.
Lawmakers are debating how much to tax and spend for the years to come....
Trying to reconcile those two visions will consume Washington in the coming months, as leaders warily look to the next fiscal showdown: the yet-to-be-determined deadline, somewhere in the late summer, when the Treasury will be out of options to manage the federal debt and need congressional approval to increase its borrowing authority.
As Congress prepared to leave for a two-week holiday recess, the attention was fixed on Congress’s success in solving an immediate problem: ensuring the government remains funded.
I actually like it better when they are all out of town (including the administration).
I actually like it better when they are all out of town (including the administration).
‘‘This is a good bill. I’m proud of it. I’m proud of the fact that we’ve been able to do all this frankly as smoothly as it’s gone,’’ Appropriations Committee chairman Harold Rogers, Republican of Kentucky, told colleagues on the House floor.
The resolution will somewhat blunt the impact of the sequester by adding money to certain programs just before the across-the-board reduction hits. But all additional money was offset with reductions elsewhere.
Defense officials have been saying that the across-the-board spending cuts would force them to furlough civilian employees for up to 22 days.
The overall size of the cuts will remain the same, but the Pentagon will add $10.4 billion to its operations and maintenance budget.
But SOCIAL SERVICES are to be CUT!
But SOCIAL SERVICES are to be CUT!
"Protests spur vote to restore military college aid" by Tracy Jan | Globe Staff, March 22, 2013
WASHINGTON — In the end, white-hot political realities got the best of automatic budget cuts — at least when it came to military education.
Congress on Thursday reversed a so-called “sequestration” cut by the Pentagon, restoring most of a tuition-assistance program that provides up to $4,500 a year to active members of the military. The about-face followed a week of outrage and thousands of phone calls and complaints that inundated congressional offices.
That's right, veterans, the good government of the U.S.A. broke its promise to you after you risked you life for them. I know it's chump change when compared to war profiteer or banker lot, but it's the principal of the thing.
But even while the move partially appeased one constituency, it only served to highlight the crisis-driven, piecemeal approach to budget legislating in Capitol Hill’s era of fiscal gridlock and partisan dysfunction.
That's right, veterans, the good government of the U.S.A. broke its promise to you after you risked you life for them. I know it's chump change when compared to war profiteer or banker lot, but it's the principal of the thing.
But even while the move partially appeased one constituency, it only served to highlight the crisis-driven, piecemeal approach to budget legislating in Capitol Hill’s era of fiscal gridlock and partisan dysfunction.
The directive to the Pentagon to restore military tuition assistance was inserted into a temporary spending measure hastily passed this week, before Congress went on a two-week vacation, to prevent a government shutdown.
Hastily passed, huh?
Hastily passed, huh?
The temporary spending bill, or “continuing resolution,’’ cements the rest of the $85 billion in mandatory across-the-board cuts....
The sequester and the threat of a government shutdown stem from the same problem — the lack of a broader budget deal, due to the inability of Republicans and Democrats in Congress to perform the basic role of managing the nation’s purse strings.
US Representative Niki Tsongas, a Lowell Democrat who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said the promise of an education is a key incentive for the country’s all-volunteer military, and the suspension of tuition assistance would have been yet another “unacceptable consequence of the sequester.”
“You pull this away,” Tsongas said, “and it erodes the trust between the service members and the service itself.”
That's already gone.
That's already gone.
But Tsongas said she still voted against the short-term spending measure because it locked in the “irresponsible, reckless” cuts resulting from sequestration that hurt a number of her constituents — from the prison medical worker who has been furloughed to the manager of the Lawrence Municipal Airport whose air traffic control tower will close.
The elimination of tuition assistance sparked outrage in bases across the world and at some campuses in New England, with students, college administrators and advocates accusing the government of reneging on a longstanding pledge and abandoning the bargain it uses to entice military enlistees.
That's the way this government operates. Just as any of the nations and peoples we have betrayed over the last 50 years.
That's the way this government operates. Just as any of the nations and peoples we have betrayed over the last 50 years.
“We have a moral obligation to uphold our promises to these folks, and when you go back on this, it really feels like a betrayal,” said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America; his organization was in Washington this week lobbying Congress to restore the tuition program, among other issues. “Find somewhere else to cut. Cut the Easter egg roll. This is just stupid.”
That message penetrated Washington. A petition to the White House to restore the benefit reached 100,000 signatures this week, the threshold to warrant a public response.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Globe Erases Petition Signatures
This one no laughing matter.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Globe Erases Petition Signatures
This one no laughing matter.
The White House would not comment on the petition, but President Obama is expected to sign the continuing resolution in a matter of days.
The amendment ordering the Department of Defense to reinstate tuition assistance was turned back by the Senate on Monday, which triggered a flood of calls, according to Senate staff members. It was resurrected on the Senate floor on Wednesday afternoon and passed.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who supported the amendment, pointed out that military tuition aid is just one of many important programs on the chopping blocks.
“While I am pleased that we have stood up for military tuition assistance,’’ she said, “there are countless vital investments in our future — from medical research, to Head Start for our kids, to basic airport operations — threatened by mindless, across-the-board budget cuts.”
Related:
The automatic cuts hit the military particularly hard....
Oh, yeah, it's always the poor, old, bloated military in my war paper.
Oh, yeah, it's always the poor, old, bloated military in my war paper.
The new language requires that the Pentagon cut tuition assistance by no more than 9 percent, instead of eliminating it altogether, as it had planned.
Oh?! It was planning on ELIMINATING TUITION ASSISSTANCE, huh?
Yeah, who needs college when you can make the MILITARY your CAREER?
Was kind of a QUIET CUT, too!
A Pentagon spokeswoman, Commander Leslie Hull-Ryde, said Thursday after Congress restored the program, “If enacted, this legislation would require the services to make difficult and very thoughtful decisions on how to fund tuition assistance throughout the remainder of fiscal 2013 without impacting readiness.”
But NOT AFTER THAT!!
Oh?! It was planning on ELIMINATING TUITION ASSISSTANCE, huh?
Yeah, who needs college when you can make the MILITARY your CAREER?
Was kind of a QUIET CUT, too!
A Pentagon spokeswoman, Commander Leslie Hull-Ryde, said Thursday after Congress restored the program, “If enacted, this legislation would require the services to make difficult and very thoughtful decisions on how to fund tuition assistance throughout the remainder of fiscal 2013 without impacting readiness.”
But NOT AFTER THAT!!
The move by Congress will spare people like Chief Warrant Officer James Slater, who had fixed humvees and machine guns in Iraq and now supervises an Army National Guard maintenance shop for military vehicles in Westfield. He is just eight months shy of earning a bachelor’s degree in organization management. He needs six more courses to finish his online program at Ashford University, a private for-profit school based in Iowa....
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Big Men on Campus
Getting an ejerka$hun, are you?
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Big Men on Campus
Getting an ejerka$hun, are you?
At 56 years old, Slater is approaching retirement from the Army, and a degree could help him win a promotion, which would also boost his pension.
“I had kind of put my education on hold so I could put all my kids through college,” said Slater, a father of three grown children. “They were rooting for me after all this time and having the fortitude to go back to school.”
Keith Johnson, an Army career counselor in Londonderry, N.H., is majoring in human resource management at Southern New Hampshire University through a program that combines online courses and classroom instruction.
“A degree opens up options,” said Johnson, 37. Even if the tuition cut had remained in place, Johnson would have remained on track to graduate next February — but only because Southern New Hampshire, which enrolls more than 800 service members deployed around the world, said it was prepared to offer currently enrolled active-duty military students scholarships for the coming term, which begins in April.
“The idea that you would remove a tuition benefit from an actively deployed service person, given all we have asked of them, is astounding,” said Paul LeBlanc, the university’s president.
At Boston University, about 80 active-duty service members would have been hit by the cut, said Jay Halfond, former dean of the university’s Metropolitan College who oversaw its military programs. The students are stationed throughout the world, taking courses online as well as at Marine bases in North Carolina and Virginia, and at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford.
“Many joined the military with the expectation that their education would be covered,” Halfond said. “This was part of the good faith understanding they had in enlisting.”
You guys need to smarten up because you are nothing but a tool to them.
You guys need to smarten up because you are nothing but a tool to them.
"Senate reaches first budget in four years" by Jonathan Weisman | New York Times, March 23, 2013
WASHINGTON — And on the 1,448th day without one, the Senate Democrats finally brought forth a budget, and Republicans saw that was good — but first, they made them pay.
After four years of hectoring Democrats to put their political and fiscal priorities to paper, Republicans got their wish Friday and answered the effort with hundreds of amendments, some politically charged, others just odd, kicking off hours of laborious votes that sent the chamber into a marathon session before spring recess.
There was the amendment thwarting regulations of greater and Gunnison sage grouse and eliminating funds for the monitoring of the Utah prairie dog.
In case a federal court ruling was not enough, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, wanted to make sure money would be there to prevent the regulation of the size and quantity of food and beverage.
We are paying them for this?
We are paying them for this?
Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, stood vigil against any attempt by the United Nations to register US guns.
Related: Global Gun Control
What did he do, fall asleep?
Related: Global Gun Control
What did he do, fall asleep?
Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, went one better, demanding that the United States simply withdraw from the UN.
I'm for that. The U.N. should be disbanded since it is a globalist creation.
Another amendment demanded that President Obama buy his health coverage on the new insurance exchanges being created under the new law. Still another would withhold the president’s pay if he were ever late again with his own budget.
:-)
I'm for that. The U.N. should be disbanded since it is a globalist creation.
Another amendment demanded that President Obama buy his health coverage on the new insurance exchanges being created under the new law. Still another would withhold the president’s pay if he were ever late again with his own budget.
:-)
And even if any of those were adopted, none of them would have any force of law.
‘‘We all know this will come to naught. The House will pass a budget. We’ll pass a budget, and we’ll never agree on it. There’s a lot of folderol about it,’’ said Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa. ‘‘It’s absolutely ridiculous.’’
After all the complaints about Democratic irresponsibility on the budget front, what unfolded Friday boiled down to spectacle....
The details hung onto the document are largely meaningless bells and whistles that are ignored by the committees that actually draft legislation....
The main function of the vote-a-rama is to put senators on record on hot-button issues sure to show up in campaigns next year....
They are wasting taxpayer time and money with this political show s***?
"Senate moves to end medical device tax; Levy helps fund health care law" by Tracy Jan | Globe Staff, March 22, 2013
WASHINGTON — Medical-device companies scored a political victory when the Senate voted in a nonbinding resolution to repeal a new device tax, and now they are turning their attention to the House, especially Representative Ed Markey.
Ever notice the only taxes not repealed are the ones they slap on you, 'murkn?
Ever notice the only taxes not repealed are the ones they slap on you, 'murkn?
The 2.3 percent tax went into effect in January and is supposed to help offset the costs of implementing President Obama’s landmark health reform law. But the device industry argues that it would cost Massachusetts’ largest companies more than $411 million a year, according to a new analysis by the Pioneer Institute that will be released in April, just before the first payment is due.
The Senate voted 79 to 20 to repeal the tax Thursday evening in a bipartisan budget amendment in a nonbinding resolution. Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and William “Mo” Cowan signed on to the repeal after last-minute lobbying from Massachusetts medical device makers.
But that kind of lobbying is okay.
But that kind of lobbying is okay.
A House version of the bill, sponsored by Representative Erik Paulsen, a Minnesota Republican, has drawn 212 cosponsors, including four Massachusetts Democrats: Niki Tsongas of Lowell, Michael E. Capuano of Somerville, William R. Keating of Bourne, and Stephen F. Lynch of South Boston.
Lynch and Markey are vying in a Democratic primary contest for the Senate seat vacated by Secretary of State John Kerry. (Cowan is temporarily filling the seat.) Markey, the longest serving member of the delegation, voted against repealing the medical-device tax last year. Lynch voted against it as well.
See: MSM Monitor: Special Election For Senate Stinks
See: MSM Monitor: Special Election For Senate Stinks
Markey says he has not signed onto the current bill because it does not specify how the repeal would be paid for.
“I am concerned about the impact that the device tax could have on the medical device industry and job creation in Massachusetts,” Markey said. “I opposed the inclusion of this tax in the House health care reform bill. I would support repealing the tax, as long as the revenue replacing it does not impact middle-class families or their health care benefits.”
Kirsten Hughes, Massachusetts GOP chairman, urged Markey to support the current repeal effort. “This tax has already destroyed the jobs of Massachusetts families while thousands more hang in the balance,” Hughes said. “It is time Markey put the interests of Massachusetts above those of the far-left D.C. crowd.”
How many times are they going to flog that red herring of a straw man?
How many times are they going to flog that red herring of a straw man?
Warren, who campaigned against the tax last year in a tough race against Republican Scott Brown, a device industry ally, had set off concerns within the industry when she did not become an early sponsor of the bill by Senators Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, and Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, to undo the tax. Warren had said she supported repealing the tax but wanted to make sure doing so would not take money away from the health care law.
Gees, she's pissing off the banks and pharmaceuticals. Doing a good job down there. I wonder where she stands on the war looters.
Gees, she's pissing off the banks and pharmaceuticals. Doing a good job down there. I wonder where she stands on the war looters.
The Senate bill to repeal the tax calls for an offset to be identified later.
“While it is non-binding, we believe it serves as an important backdrop for future consideration of the full repeal of the medical device tax,” said Tom Sommer, president of Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council. “Work now focuses on identifying the offset and carrying it forward.”
Massachusetts, the second largest medical device producer behind California, employs about 24,000 people in the industry. A survey of Bay State companies by MassMEDIC found that in response to the tax, companies plan to reduce their research and development budgets, shrink the size of their workforce, and pass on the tax to hospitals and patients.
Thanks for pitching in. I'm sure profits are good and the CEO pay nice, though.
--more--"
"Senate narrowly passes $3.7 trillion budget; Must now be reconciled with House proposal" by Jonathan Weisman | New York Times, March 24, 2013
"Senate narrowly passes $3.7 trillion budget; Must now be reconciled with House proposal" by Jonathan Weisman | New York Times, March 24, 2013
WASHINGTON — After an all-night debate that ended just before 5 a.m. Saturday, the Senate adopted its first budget in four years, a $3.7 trillion blueprint for 2014 that would provide a fast track for passage of more tax increases, trim spending modestly, but still leave the government deeply in the red a decade from now.
So what goodie$ slid through?
The 50-to-49 vote in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, sets up contentious — and potentially fruitless — negotiations with the Republican-controlled House in April to reconcile two vastly different plans for dealing with the nation’s economic and budgetary problems.
So what goodie$ slid through?
The 50-to-49 vote in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, sets up contentious — and potentially fruitless — negotiations with the Republican-controlled House in April to reconcile two vastly different plans for dealing with the nation’s economic and budgetary problems.
No Republicans voted for the Senate plan, and four Democrats opposed it: Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mark Begich of Alaska, and Max Baucus of Montana. All four are from red states and are up for reelection in 2014....
Passage of the competing budgets does advance a more orderly budget process after nearly three years of crises and brinkmanship.
If House and Senate negotiators can agree on a framework for overhauling the tax code and entitlement programs like Medicare, congressional committees could go to work on detailed legislation, possibly under special rules that protect the bills from a Senate filibuster.
If the negotiations prove fruitless, the next budget crisis looms this summer when Congress must again raise the government’s statutory borrowing limit or risk defaulting on the federal debt.
The amendments were advisory only, but they put the Senate on record backing a dizzying variety of subjects, including limiting the regulation of sage grouse, preventing the United Nations from infringing on Americans’ right to bear arms, repealing a tax on medical devices that helps finance the president’s health care law, and building the Keystone XL pipeline.
By 4 a.m., the senators were sitting quietly in their seats, plowing through amendments like sleepy schoolchildren, breaking only to give the Senate pages a standing ovation and to grumble when a senator demanded a roll-call vote if a voice vote would suffice.
As the senators recorded their final votes, they hastily headed out of the Capitol for a two-week spring recess.
But the sleepy bonhomie did not bridge the budgetary divide between the parties....
--more--"
An attempt to bridge the divide:
"White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer warned Democrats who are wary of some of the president’s cuts that they will have to sacrifice."
"White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer warned Democrats who are wary of some of the president’s cuts that they will have to sacrifice."
Good to have a Republican president again.
"Perennial ideas in Obama budget likely to go nowhere" by Andrew Taylor | Associated Press, April 09, 2013
"Perennial ideas in Obama budget likely to go nowhere" by Andrew Taylor | Associated Press, April 09, 2013
WASHINGTON — Ideas like higher Transportation Security Administration fees on airline tickets, the end of Saturday mail delivery, and higher pension contributions for federal workers are the hardy perennials of Obama’s budgets, reprised year after year, along with more widely known proposals like taxing oil companies and the rich....
Obama proposes some $200 billion in savings outside of health care costs, including a new fee on telecommunications companies and other users of federally licensed communications spectrum and billions of dollars claimed by selling off excess federal properties....
I didn't give him permission to sell my stuff.
And you know who those higher fees will be passed to, right?
Efforts for a ‘‘grand bargain’’ on the budget between Obama and Congress have proven elusive, however, and stand-alone attempts to advance the proposals — including cutting farm subsidies and overhauling the Postal Service — have bogged down as well....
I didn't give him permission to sell my stuff.
And you know who those higher fees will be passed to, right?
Efforts for a ‘‘grand bargain’’ on the budget between Obama and Congress have proven elusive, however, and stand-alone attempts to advance the proposals — including cutting farm subsidies and overhauling the Postal Service — have bogged down as well....
But the military got their money.
The only hope for many such proposals is that they get wrapped together as part of a bigger budget deal that’s sold to wary lawmakers as shared sacrifice.
Does something that is right and good really need to be "sold?"
Does something that is right and good really need to be "sold?"
The dozens of often small-bore proposals in Obama’s budget are being overshadowed by more controversial ideas like reducing the cost-of-living increases for Social Security beneficiaries or renewed calls to increase taxes....
"Federal budget cuts ground Air Force, Navy aircraft; Rest of season off for Blue Angels" by Melissa R. Nelson and Brock Vergakis | Associated Press, April 10, 2013
PENSACOLA NAVAL AIR STATION, Fla. — The Air Force plans to ground about a third of its active-duty force of combat planes and the Navy canceled the rest of the popular Blue Angels’ aerobatic team’s season because of automatic federal budget cuts....
A top Air Force leader said the branch would focus its budget and resources on units supporting major missions, like the war in Afghanistan, while other units stand down on a rotating basis.
‘‘The current situation means we’re accepting the risk that combat airpower may not be ready to respond immediately to new contingencies as they occur,’’ General Mike Hostage, commander of Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, said in a statement.
As news trickled out that the Navy had canceled the remainder of the Blue Angels season, business owners and residents of the coastal enclave where the team is based expressed resignation and disappointment.
‘‘I just think it’s sad that there are political games being played. I doubt the Blue Angels are even half of 1 percent of the entire Navy budget,’’ said Lloyd Proctor, co-owner of Blue Angel Hot Tubs in Pensacola....
See: Fly to the Angels
The budget is HOW MANY BILLION?
Thousands of fans flock to Pensacola Beach each July to watch the team fly over the white sand and the turquoise surf.
It is always the biggest tourism revenue weekend of the year, said W.A. Buck Lee, president of the Santa Rosa Island Authority. ‘‘People are going to start canceling their hotel rooms and will hurt businesses here.’’
Lee said he had hoped that the six fighter jets would be allowed to continue practicing as a team and the Pensacola Beach show could be replaced by a routine practice over the beach.
Instead, the Navy announced Tuesday that the six elite pilots would maintain only minimum flight hours to remain qualified in their F/A 18 Hornets, and that the squadron practices would end for the remainder of the season....
A spokesman for the Navy said team members would be allowed to fly minimal hours to maintain flight proficiency in the F/A 18 fighter jets, but the six-jet squadron would discontinue group practices for the remainder of the season....
--more--"
"The most sweeping proposal in Obama’s budget is a switch in the way the government calculates the annual cost-of-living adjustments for the millions of recipients of Social Security and other government benefit programs. The current method of measuring increases in the consumer price index would be modified to track a process known as chained CPI. The new method takes into account changes that occur when people substitute goods rising in price with less expensive products."
Woah! A GRAND BARGAIN that is NO BARGAIN at all for the American people!!!
Yeah, it's OKAY for YOUR STANDARD of LIVING to DROP, Americans -- in this age of golden profits for corporations and booming profits for banks.
He's a DEMOCRAT president, right?
And the PROMISE and COMPACT of GOVERNMENT guarding your wealth and security?
OVER!
That must be why they need the SWAT team.
"A party rift on Obama budget' Warren joins lawmakers in criticizing Obama budget" by Tracy Jan and Bryan Bender | Globe Staff, April 10, 2013
WASHINGTON — A coalition of prominent Democrats, including many from New England, slammed President Obama’s $3.8 trillion budget blueprint Wednesday for its proposed changes to the Social Security payment formula and Medicare, opening a widening rift between the president and members of his own party.
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said she was shocked by Obama’s proposal to recalculate the cost of living adjustment for Social Security beneficiaries by linking it to a different version of the Consumer Price Index, known as the “chained CPI.”
The switch would mean the growth of benefits would slow and no longer keep pace with the current measure of price increases on such necessities as food and health care.
“In short, ‘chained CPI’ is just a fancy way to say ‘cut benefits for seniors, the permanently disabled, and orphans,’” Warren fired off in an e-mail to supporters. She related the experience of her brother, David Herring, a military veteran and former small business owner who lives on monthly Social Security checks of $1,100. “Our Social Security system is critical to protecting middle-class families,’’ she wrote, “and we cannot allow it to be dismantled inch by inch.”
Obama’s proposal to rein back on so-called entitlement programs in exchange for raising taxes on corporations and the biggest earners is unpopular with large segments of both parties....
But it was the uncharacteristic criticism from his own party Wednesday that was often loudest....
Some observers expressed surprise at the extent of the rift between Democrats and the White House over the Social Security and Medicare proposals....
“The rising cost of caring for an aging generation is the single biggest driver of our long-term deficits,” Obama said....
Yup, it's not the BILLIONS upon BILLIONS for WAR and TYRANNY! It's you old folk.
So when are the death panels up and running?
Obama, who planned to have dinner with select Senate Republicans Wednesday evening, emphasized that any changes in entitlement programs must go hand-in-hand with reforming the tax code to make the nation’s wealthiest individuals and corporations pay more....
That's what he says. Then you find out they got a tax cut in the fiscal cliff deal!
Dozens of Democrats in Congress have already responded with a resounding “no.” Representatives Alan Grayson of Florida and Mark Takano of California co-wrote a letter to Obama that outlines their intention to vote against “any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits — including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earned and need.”
One of the handful of good congressman down there.
The letter has been signed by at least 30 House members, including Lynch, Markey, and James McGovern, also of Massachusetts.
I'm glad my rep McGovern signed it.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Stay Off Massachusetts' Highways
Not so happy 'bout that.
Two other New England senators who usually back the president had harsh words for his Social Security proposal....
The ranks of New England Democrats lining up to oppose the president’s approach have grown steadily in recent weeks....
"Obama budget seeks middle ground" by Jackie Calmes | New York Times, April 11, 2013
WASHINGTON — The main new element of the budget is a new cost-of-living formula that could reduce the amount of future increases in Social Security benefits....
Obama incorporated the compromise offers on Social Security and Medicare into his budget — over vehement objections from many Democrats — in part after earlier private discussions with individual Republican senators about what he could do to assure them of his seriousness about reaching a long-term deal to stabilize the national debt.
I'm so glad he's worried about what Republicans think over Democrats.
I'm so glad he's worried about what Republicans think over Democrats.
Republican leaders in Congress spurned Obama’s intended overture after early media reports on it late last week and again Wednesday, rejecting further tax increases on the wealthy and calling the spending cuts too small.
Obama is hoping that rank-and-file Republican senators can be persuaded to join with him and Senate Democrats in a compromise. He was expected to dine with a dozen Senate Republicans at the White House on Wednesday night.
“The American people deserve better than what we’ve been seeing: A short-sighted, crisis-driven decision making like the reckless across-the-board spending cuts that are already hurting a lot of communities out there, cuts that economists predict will cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs during the course of this year,’’ Obama said in the Rose Garden as his budget was released....
THAT I AGREE WITH!
THAT I AGREE WITH!
For the 2014 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, the federal deficit would be $744 billion, according to administration officials, down from the $973 billion shortfall projected for the current fiscal year, which would end four straight years of trillion-dollar deficits.
A $744 billion deficit next year would be equal to 4.4 percent of the total economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, down from a high of 10.1 percent of GDP at the height of the recession. By decade’s end, the annual deficit would be 1.7 percent of GDP, officials said.
That is a level that most economists consider reasonable in a growing economy, but annual deficits would begin to grow unsustainably thereafter, absent changes in law, as aging baby boomers drive up costs for federal benefit programs.
With unemployment still high, Obama also proposed some new spending for both short-term and long-term economic growth.
While cutting Social Security?
While cutting Social Security?
--more--"
