Apr 14 2011
Rush To Gullibility Part 2
OK, time to separate conservative commentators into the ignorant class and those savvy and honest about cutting the federal budget. As I noted the other day, poor Rush Limbaugh got completely hoodwinked by a piece of liberal media disinformation, and went off on an erroneous tear about how bad the current budget deal is that covers the remainder of government fiscal year (GFY) 2011 ( – ends September 30th, 2010). As I noted in that earlier post, anyone who believes a CR can immediately cut spending is just demonstrating a serious lack of comprehension as it comes to how the government operates and is funded.
Like the ‘shovel ready’ nonsense squawked by the liberal media around the Democrats failed Stimulus Bill in 2009, every action by Congress takes months and years to filter its way through the bloated federal bureaucracy and its ocean of paperwork. That applies to spending increases and cuts. The ship of state is a ponderous and slow thing, making snails look like formula 1 race cars.
What you get in these CRs is nothing more than a commitment to follow through and cut spending, stop programs, close down activities in following budgets. You do not get a $38 billion dollar rebate. That is why you don’t want government by CR – the entire plan in the CR is vaporized once the period of the CR is over. All these cuts disappear on October 1, 2010 if they are not forwarded into the more binding and long term GFY budget for 2012. There you have more resilience (though any Congress can change direction at any time – thus the idea to enact 2 year budgets).
Well, the AP is out trolling for ignoramuses again today:
A new budget estimate released Wednesday shows that the spending bill negotiated between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner would produce less than 1 percent of the $38 billion in promised savings by the end of this budget year.
Emphasis mine. As I said, anyone think ANYTHING in a short term CR will be completed before the CR expires? Sorry, you need to go back class on US Government. It seems the WaPo could figure out the federal process is slow as molasses when it comes to this CR, but somehow failed to communicate that detail to its readers during the rush to the stimulus bill. If you want a clear example of PR instead of informing, mark this down.
So, who is going to run off half-cocked on this and prove once and for all they are an unreliable source for the American voter when it comes to discussing issues around the budget? I expect Hannity to continue to miss the point – since he has from day one. Will Rush fall once again into the bailiwick of the naive?
We shall see.
Count Ace of Spades, RedState, Cubachi.
I’m disappointed with their positions. We need to get past one last CR for the rest of this year so that we can move on to FY2012 budget and the debt ceiling.
[…] resolutions don’t cut anything at all beyond their expiration date, AJ Strata explains, which is why we don’t want government by CR: Like the ‘shovel ready’ nonsense squawked […]
I don’t think that person over at Hot Air was fooled at all. He said:
“The deal does eliminate $38 billion in “new spending authority,” but as we learned yesterday in agonizing detail, spending “authority” and actual spending are two very different things. So to sum up: In less than a week, we’ve gone from $61 billion in cuts to $38 billion in cuts to $15 billion in real cuts to $352 million in deficit reduction this year, which is less than one percent of the number agreed to in the budget deal.”
Clearly no deal or budget could have been ‘passed’ that would actually have reduced that spending that will take place between now and Sept. It was authorized and in the pipeline for months, or maybe years. What it did do was to confiscate money that was laying around for Obumblers ‘slush’ fund and added it to the total that he ‘can’t’ now authorize to be given to his Union buddies to continue to buy votes.
I’m sure Rush’s 15 million regular listeners are going to be distressed to learn that you think he has been hoodwinked. I haven’t listened to him this week, so I have no opinion. I have listened to Hannity both on radio and TV and I don’t think he has been fooled at all. I think he is completely on track, as you have pointed out government spending is a long pipeline and all that could be hoped is that it began to be reversed now. Clearly the current CR did that, but in fact did not really save anything this month or next, but it did serve to put a halt to the direction of the ‘unlimited’ spending increases that Barky had planned to bankrupt the country.
Rush’s point, Hannity’s point and the writer at Hot Air’s point and YOUR point is that the CR did not actually immediately reduce spending by Billions because that money was ‘already’ spent. I think the Democrats want people to THINK that they actually reduced spending now and everyone is just pointing out that’s not true, only that unspent money would now NOT be spent.
If the debt limit is raised, the Repubs will have failed.
AJ:
Need to edit the 2010 to 2011.
GFE 2011 ends September 30, 2011. GFE 2012 begins October 1, 2011.
AJ:
You should give seminars on the authoriztion-appropriation-procurement-cash outlay process of federal spending. It could be a week long event and you could charge $5,000 a head. Great second career.
The debt limit is dangerous because it attacks the cash outlay end of the process. The feds need to issue debt to have cash balances to pay its obligations. It would quite a disaster if after a long five year process the feds told you we can’t pay you any cash because we have none.
As I’ve said before, I consider the shutdown fight to be little more than a skirmish. The Real Battle is the Debt Limit Ceiling. Now, if Boehner doesn’t use that to extract serious concessions and just kicks the can down the road, I won’t be so sanguine.
But till then, I still have faith in him.
And for MarkN, who wrote: “It would quite a disaster if after a long five year process the feds told you we can’t pay you any cash because we have none.”
That is exactly where we are headed sooner or later if we don’t tackle the spending problem, because we will be forced to default whether we like it or not. That’s why it’s so important to use this as a lever to avoid that end.
Rush is no fool.
He knows the libs and the check pants repubics better than anyone.
We were hoodwinked by Boehner.
Even the CBO says the cuts are roughly 350-380 MILLIONS…
dbostan:
“We were hoodwinked by Boehner.
Even the CBO says the cuts are roughly 350-380 MILLIONS…”
I’m just using these quotes as an example of ‘I think’ commenters switching from oranges to apples and back again.
I don’t think Boehner was hoodwinked, I do think actual cuts in spending that would actually have occurred between now and Sept 1 are probably 350-380 million.
that’s apples, here’s oranges: The amount of loose change laying around waiting for obumbler to discover and forward to his cronies to pay for votes for him was the $38 billion figure.
Boehner (and his assistants) knew about this money and wanted to take it out of obumblers reach and he, in fact, was successful in doing that. So, it didn’t actually reduce ‘spending’ in the next six months, but it did actually reduce the amount of money being given to Dims/socialists to buy votes for him in the next election.
was anyone fooled, I don’t think so. They’re all politicians and know how the game is played. Barky was forced to change course: he lost…
[…] AJ Strata says we were: Like the ‘shovel ready’ nonsense squawked by the liberal media around the Democrats failed Stimulus Bill in 2009, every action by Congress takes months and years to filter its way through the bloated federal bureaucracy and its ocean of paperwork. That applies to spending increases and cuts. The ship of state is a ponderous and slow thing, making snails look like formula 1 race cars. […]
I don’t understand. If your point is that cuts cannot be realized without further legislative action, isn’t it correct for Limbaugh and others to criticize the deal for only having an immediate impact of ~$350 million?
Molon Labe – Great question.
No, it is not correct. The problem is we were stuck with these crappy CR’s when the Democrats failed to pass the more resilient budget legislation.
So why would Democrats fail to pass a budget?
Did it ever occur to Limbaugh and others they did it so as to dupe conservatives into a circular firing squad over numbers? Numbers the general public do not understand?
The CR is what it is and all we have through Sept 30th. There is no way to fix it, or to make pigs fly. Everyone should move on in a united front on the 2012 budget, debt ceiling and Ryan Plan.
Or else let them Dems win again.
” As I said, anyone think ANYTHING in a short term CR will be completed before the CR expires?”
very true, but not so different from anything in a one year budget. Almost no money appropriated in a one year budget is spent in that one year and that one year budget, just as a CR, can be completely nullified with the very next budget that comes along. So you have to save your money when you can, both unspent money laying around or any that you can whack from next year’s (or any future year) So when the pols were talking about the CR, I think most of them knew they were talking about not spending now AND in the future. Every dime of the 38 billion cut last week can be added back in the 2012 budget, or, more can be cut. So while it’s accurate to say there was only 300 million saved in this 6 month period, it’s also accurate to say that the remainder was taken from future spending. Any or all of the 38 billion can be added back (but that’s always been true)
Just because we might pass a 2012 budget with 6 trillion in cuts, doesn’t necessarily mean anything will really be cut, it can all be added back in 2013.