As D-Day approaches on Friday and there is no sign of leadership from the President and no hint of any Democrats coming to their senses, the generally useless Republican House Leadership finds itself with nowhere to go on the budget, caught between the rock of grassroots determination and the hard place of Democrat obstructionism. With nowhere else to go, they may actually do what their supporters are demanding and shut the federal government down.
In the face of this development, all the talk is about who will get the blame. Democrats dearly want Republicans to look like the aggressors, demanding unreasonable cuts and shutting down the government on which we all depend for day to day survival. The problem is that this argument – which dovetails so well with their political ideology – has no connection with reality and assumes that the people are still as stupid and uninformed as they were when they elected Barack Obama. The facts do not support their argument at all.
First off, the argument is over a compromise set of tax cuts where Republicans have come down again and again from their starting position. Even though they are in the majority in the house which originates budgets, they have already compromised more than their constituents ever wanted, and yet Democrats are demanding virtually no cuts at all and unwilling to make any realistic concessions. Contrary to anything you may hear, the Republicans have already compromised and probably far too much, and it is the Democrats whose refusal to participate will lead to a shut-down of the government.
Second, the entire budget crisis originates with the Democrats. Apparently many people don't realize that the budget we are arguing over is not the pending 2011 budget. It's actually the 2010 budget which should have been passed last year, but which Democrats – who were then in the majority in both houses – made no effort to complete and get passed in a timely manner. We would not have a budget crisis now if the Democrats had passed this budget when it was current. Because of their irresponsibility we've been operating on continuing resolutions for more than half a year.
Third, the dreaded government shut-down is hardly the crisis it is being presented as. Take a moment to think about exactly what services the federal government provides to you directly that you could not live without, or could not afford to do without for a few weeks or even months. If there are some, consider whether they could be provided more efficiently by your state or local government or even by a private service. The truth is that most essential services are already provided by state and local government and most of the things the federal government spends money on are not high urgency or indispensable. The exception is salaries for federal employees and especially for the military, which would be much less of an issue if we were not so ridiculously overextended with three unnecessary foreign wars.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - troll
agreed - perhaps this ludicrous kabuki act will break the tyranny of dependency (and this gov's legitimacy along with it) and push folks to revolt
shut it down...for good...including its coercive institutions - dod...fbi...dea...etc etc
then - maybe - the contending classes in our society can work out their differences
2 - troll
...actually Dave - the question I hear most is not which party is going to get blamed but rather which citizens are going to get hurt
3 - handyguy
More Wonderland upside-down logic and distorted 'facts.' We expect nothing less.
The Democrats' capitulating on spending cuts, moving from single digits to [at last report] $33 billion, apparently does not qualify as compromise. Only the poor, beleaguered GOP is compromising, according to Nalle; this is a blatant twisting of the truth.
Dave does not identify specifically what tax cuts he is referring to -- but the idea of piling any more tax cuts on top of the Obama-McConnell December compromise is sheer insanity.
Repeatedly, Mr. Nalle ignores any facts which would belie his case [i.e., practically all of them] and then just makes up the rest. And presents it as plain-spoken truth. And gets away with it. Astonishing.
4 - yaa
A deal will get done and it may take a few days- the Democrats have lost their spines and will fold (again like cheap suits). a part of the Rep base wants a shutdone and negotiation has been my way or the highway.
Social issues should have no part of this and i am offended by holding the US hostage on them.
5 - Baritone
Well, he doesn't REALLY get away with it, handy. You've aptly called him out on his half truths and no truths.
Oh yes, the poor beleaguered Reps have just given and given till their finger nails bleed. Never mind that $33 billion was the figure Boehner was touting at the beginning of all this, and the Dems acquiesced far more than they ever should have. But Boehner is no match for the teabaggers who have demanded more and more cuts.
Considering the trillions of dollars we are talking about regarding the overall budget - what they are fighting over amounts to rounding errors.
However, it isn't the amount. It is what the Reps have targeted - Planned Parenthood and NPR? Please! The budget money they represent is nothing. This is just another case of the Reps reeling out their nineteenth century social engineering. And then, of course, the hated "entitlements." Let's take all that away from the elderly and the poor. Since they don't contribute to the economy in any meaningful way, who needs them? But we MUST provide more and more tax cuts for our well to do brethren so that they can then shower down their newly gained largesse upon the lowly working class.
Yes, by all means let's have a full blown revolution. Let's tear it all down and then let all you enlightened libertarians and tight assed conservatives put something new back together - just that one step above anarchy that you so heartily desire. Because, afterall, what this country is about is the unfettered acquisition of wealth. Fuck everything and everyone else.
B
6 - Scott Nance
Dave,
Not sure what the tax cuts have to do with the curretn budget stalemate. The tax cuts were already approved late last year. The current debate is over 2011 funding, as you say.
I will agree that Congress should have approved a 2011 budget.
Beyond that, though, I have not seen Republicans compromise at all in the current budget debate.
The case of Democratic compromise is made here.
7 - Baronius
What's struck me most in this story is that no one seems to be taking a leadership position, either in acting or even making an argument.
8 - roger nowosielski
What's really astonishing (see #3) is that such well-meaning proponents of social justice as Handy and Glenn inevitably fall back on the vagaries of party politics to keep on justifying their stale and no longer functional views of liberalism marching triumphant. Rather than seeing the present budget crisis as godsend opportunity to free ourselves from the overreaching scope of the tyrannical government, they can't help but see the world in their usual black and white colors, never acknowledging the fact that the Democrats are just as much a part of our problems and the political impasse we find ourselves in as the Republicans.
By all means, let's shut it down and see whether the sky will fall.
9 - handyguy
Your comment doesn't actually make enough sense to argue with, exactly, Roger, but I'll try...
Glenn, by the way, has not weighed in yet here. He and I agree on some things, certainly not everything, and we have vastly different communication styles.
My #3 was aimed specifically at this article and its fallacies and inaccuracies.
A government shutdown of a couple of days or even a couple of weeks will be a mess, but not a literal disaster...but it will be politically disastrous, for both parties in Congress mostly.
I am more than open to imaginative approaches to spending, taxes and deficits. The right-wing blowhards among GOP House members are not offering any such thing...only ideological noise.
The Dems rightly point out that this is small ball. The tiny sliver of the budget that is being fought over is nearly meaningless -- but it is 'domestic discretionary spending' and therefore contains a lot of social programs. Easily caricatured by conservatives, the cuts will hurt people without helping the deficit.
You don't make a clear connection between social justice, tyranny [a term that ought to be used carefully and sparingly -- Dave and the Tea Party have already overused and abused it plenty], and the current budget fight. We're all ears.
[The Paul Ryan budget proposal for the next fiscal year and beyond does involve social justice and (claims of) tyranny, but we can't even get to those important arguments until this current stupid spitball fight is over.]
10 - roger nowosielski
#8 wasn't offered as an invitation to a gunfight, only to suggest that there are two paradigms at work - yours, which I believe is an outgoing one, and mine which views the government as a problem, not a solution. If anything, my comment reverberates the ideas expressed by "troll" in 1&2, which went by unnoticed. Which is why I personalized it, to evoke a reaction.
11 - Dave Nalle
Handy, as usual, it would help if you read the article before commenting. There's not a single word in this article about tax cuts.
Dave
12 - Tommy Mack
The shutdown is a made for TV event. Neither the White House nor the Republican leadership will let it happen and, contrary to Dave’s right intentions, there is already a continuing resolution in the breach ready for the moment of truth.
Aaron Sorkin has written a better teleplay, but it was performed by real actors.
Tommy
13 - troll
(Dave - check 3rd paragraph...should read spending cuts not tax cuts?)
14 - handyguy
Possibly Dave should proofread his own article before accusing someone of not reading it.
15 - El Bicho
Comment #11: "There's not a single word in this article about tax cuts."
Article: "First off, the argument is over a compromise set of tax cuts where Republicans have come down again and again from their starting position." Emphasis added.
Luckily, crow is in season
16 - handyguy
Even if Dave meant to type "spending cuts," the sentence, like the rest of the article is utterly inaccurate and/or deliberately misleading.
17 - handyguy
Roger, #10: Possibly my 'old paradigm' will still be in place a few more weeks and apply to this budget skirmish. Your 'paradigm' is just about entirely theoretical and may or may not ever apply in the real world...so good luck with that.
18 - Tommy Mack
Harry Reid describes the problem with Dave's argument. “It’s not realistic to shut down the government on a debate dealing with abortion,” Reid said. “It’s not fair to the American people. We haven’t solved the issue in 40 years. We’re not going to solve it in the next 38 hours. We should not be distracted by ideology. This is a bill that funds the government.”
You missed that abortion bit, didn't you.
Tommy
19 - Glenn Contrarian
Roger -
Since you are attacking me once again, have you yet addressed what I pointed out in comment #85 in "What's really astonishing" (see #3) is that such well-meaning proponents of social justice as Handy and Glenn inevitably fall back on the vagaries of party politics to keep on justifying their stale and no longer functional views of liberalism marching triumphant.
wherein I show that UNLIKE most of the conservatives on BC, I've even written articles praising Republican presidents for what they did that was RIGHT! Have any of the BC conservatives written articles praising Obama or Clinton for anything they've done? Maybe Dave has... but I sincerely doubt ANY of the other BC conservatives have done so.
You're apparently 100% consumed by the perception that I hate everything to the right of Timothy Leary... but your judgment is based on YOUR perception, and not on MY actions.
I look forward to your reply - especially about how you'll certainly point out how wonderfully gracious and considerate and cordial the BC conservatives have been to all people and concepts of a liberal bent, and how - regardless of the articles that I wrote LONG before you went down this attack-Glenn-'cause-he's-a-mindless-drone road - I'm just SO muleheaded and unwilling to see other possibilities and points of view.
20 - Glenn Contrarian
But just to make Roger happy about how utterly wrongheaded I am, I'll toss in an inflammatory poll that has nothing whatsoever to do with Dave's article.
Forty-six percent of Mississippi Republicans think that interracial marriage should be illegal.
Yeah, but I'm the really bad one here because I'm Glenn and I pointed out something bad about the other side.
21 - handyguy
I think Roger's point is that all partisan sniping is an irrelevant remnant of an outmoded worldview. I just think this belief is premature...partisan sniping is still playing itself out, and may well continue for a few more decades.
22 - Baritone
The Reps are so dishonest about this whole thing. They claim to the public that it's all about money. But it ain't. It's about abortion, it's about NPR, it's about Planned Parenthood, it's about the EPA. It ain't about money. They are simply lying bastards.
23 - Baritone
Off topic: I am continually amazed at how useless it is to comment on anything other than political articles. About 95% of all articles elsewhere here at BC go without comment. The few comments that are made go unacknowledged. Bleah!
B
24 - El Bicho
Glenn, aren't you worried about hurting your back from the constant patting you apply over the fact that you wrote positive articles about Republicans? Why not give that talking point the week off?
Baritone, if it's not Politics, House, or Pap Smears, how do expect anyone to find another article to comment on?
25 - Glenn Contrarian
El B -
I never mentioned the articles at all until Roger noted time and time again how one-sided, how myopic, how unimaginative my political views supposedly are. Every time he repeats the same claptrap about me, it is incumbent on me to take up for myself. After all, do you really expect me to sit back and take false attack after false attack and say nothing in return? No, I'm not Obama - I won't sit back and stay silent. Push my buttons falsely once or twice, I might not say anything...but do so repeatedly as Roger (and Cannonshop) has done, and I will not go quietly into that good night.
As you pointed out, this is not the first time I've pushed this at Roger...and I've yet to see any kind of reply.
One last thing, El B - look back at the vast majority of my comments and my articles. Do you really see me being a braggart? Frankly, I don't even like using the word 'I' too much, for it makes me feel like I'm being self-centered.