Congressional Tea Party Members WIll Vote No on 2011 Budget

The 2011 budget deal is heading to the House for the final vote and it seems that the final vote for approval is not a "shoe-in." The truest of true fiscal Conservatives and the congressional members of the Tea Party movement are adamant they will strike a "nay" vote to the legislation. Even with a 24-seat majority, Republicans will almost certainly need the help of fiscally moderate Democrats to get the 2011 plan passed. Honestly, I hope there is a shut down. It will motivate there public servant to do the right thing or they can say bye-bye to their plush job and pension. I find that fear is a get motivator.

(Washington Examiner) A vote on the 2011 budget is scheduled for Wednesday.

But many fiscal conservatives, including Reps. Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have both announced they will not back the 2011 plan because it cuts only $38.5 billion, a historic amount for a single-year reduction but about $23 billion less than what Republican lawmakers said was needed to fulfill their campaign pledge to reduce spending to 2008 levels.

Jordan, who heads a large faction of conservative House Republicans as chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said he expects significant GOP opposition when the 2011 budget comes up for a vote.

Even with a 24-seat majority, Republicans will almost certainly need the help of fiscally moderate Democrats to get the 2011 plan passed, Republican aides told The Washington Examiner, because many GOP conservatives and freshmen backed by the Tea Party will vote against it.

The federal government is operating under a temporary funding measure that expires Thursday at midnight.

Influential conservatives are pushing the GOP's far right flank to oppose the 2011 bill. Talk show host Rush Limbaugh panned the deal Monday and said the media and political pundits were too eager to praise Boehner, who he said should have pushed harder for deeper cuts.

"It doesn't appear that the rank and file is buying any of the spin," Limbaugh noted.

Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said Republicans may be angered that some of the cuts appear to be from areas of the budget President Obama had already intended to cut or target funds that haven't been allocated yet for specific projects.

"I suspect some of the cuts may not be real cuts," Edwards said, adding that "there may be a bit of a backlash" from conservatives.

Tea Party activists plan on making their disappointment known to the GOP leadership and individual Republican members.

Budget Cuts Axes Czars Already Gone

The budget cuts proposed by Republicans is a sham. The cuts are either spending proposed by Obama (never implemented) or money left over from stimulus, census, or money to pay for Obama's czars. They are not real concise budget cuts. Billion dollar in spending cuts is nothing to the trillions we have in deficit. I can't believe Washington assumes the American people are stupid. The American people are frustrated. Washington saw how capable the Tea Party Movement can destroy a politician's future. It is too late for retribution. The fury of the movement will be seen 2012.

(Politico) House Republicans won a symbolic victory by dethroning four White House "czars" under the contentious federal spending agreement rolled out early Tuesday morning, but symbolism may be all they got.

The language in the short-term budget agreement seeks to put four of President Barack Obama's policy czars out of jobs — those appointed to assist the president on health care, climate change, autos and manufacturing, and urban affairs.

The catch: At least three of those four czars have already moved out of the czar jobs.

House Republicans attached an amendment to a spending bill that passed the chamber in February to block funding for nine White House policy advisers. Louisiana Republican Rep. Steve Scalise, the author of that amendment, warned at the time against what he called "a very disturbing proliferation of czars" under President Obama.

With the narrower anti-czar rider, both sides have an opportunity to claim victory. Republicans walk away with the talking point that they dethroned unelected officials playing key roles on controversial policy initiatives; the White House and Senate Democrats can claim they protected most of the advisers that matter — those who are still there.

Washington Elitist Shafted America but Tea Party Will Get Last Laugh

I have mentioned it in the past that the budget cuts didn't go far enough. With trillion dollar/year deficit, couple billion in cuts is not good enough, especially when spending is out of control and the spending cuts decided were cuts that would happened anyway. I knew something was wrong when Liberal were praising GOP House Speaker Boehner. Liberals knew it all along. They were praising Boehner for giving the shaft to the Tea Part Movement. Well, 2012 is right around the corner. America is not done yet. There will be 28 Democrat senators and 10 Republican senators entering an election cycle. Both will be purged from Washington. Also, there will be a handful of Congressmen and Congresswomen entering the election cycle too. The American people will get the last laugh as we vote these idiots out of office. Washington has just angered the Tea Party Movement

(Washington Times) The final 2011 spending deal has more fingerprints of Democrats’ successful defense against cuts than it does House Republicans’ effort to slash federal deficits and rewrite the rules on spending.

Instead of expansive cuts the GOP originally pushed for, the agreement President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, reached with House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, makes use of the scalpel Mr. Obama favored, slicing from programs but overall avoiding the giant cuts to environment, education, job training and public broadcasting.

Also gone are the major billion-dollar cuts to public housing, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the National Institutes of Health and job-training grants — all of which passed the House but did not survive in the final deal.

Instead, the discretionary spending cuts come in large part from savings that would have happened anyway — $6.5 billion in recapturing unspent money from previous years and another $6.2 billion reduction in Census Bureau spending, which was artificially high already because of the 2010 census.

Budget tricks helped Obama save programs from cuts

This deceitful accounting manipulation is so common with Washington, especially with the Obama Administration. From the unemployment numbers to balancing the budget, it is all about hiding numbers. Everybody in Washington is in on the act. The GOP establishment knew what was going on with Democrats leading the way. Unfortunately, the America public is not privy to the inner works of Washington. Even though most Americans are blinded by the double standard in Washington, there is one thing Americans can agree. The Legislative and Executive branch are crooks. They are looking for ways to make themselves richer and holding onto power as long as they can. This is why both Democrats, Liberals, and the GOP establishment hates the Tea Party movement. The elitist in Washington have a common enemy that can change the total make-up of America. The Tea Party movement will take back America from Washington and return it to the American people.

(My Way News) WASHINGTON (AP) - The historic $38 billion in budget cuts resulting from at-times hostile bargaining between Congress and the Obama White House were accomplished in large part by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programs President Barack Obama had targeted anyway.

Such moves permitted Obama to save favorite programs - Pell grants for poor college students, health research and "Race to the Top" aid for public schools, among others - from Republican knives, according to new details of the legislation released Tuesday morning.

And big holes in foreign aid and Environmental Protection Agency accounts were patched in large part. Republicans also gave up politically treacherous cuts to the Agriculture Department's food inspection program.

The details of the agreement reached late Friday night just ahead of a deadline for a partial government shutdown reveal a lot of one-time savings and cuts that officially "score" as cuts to pay for spending elsewhere, but often have little to no actual impact on the deficit.

As a result of the legerdemain, Obama was able to reverse many of the cuts passed by House Republicans in February when the chamber approved a bill slashing this year's budget by more than $60 billion. In doing so, the White House protected favorites like the Head Start early learning program, while maintaining the maximum Pell grant of $5,550 and funding for Obama's "Race to the Top" initiative that provides grants to better-performing schools.

Instead, the cuts that actually will make it into law are far tamer, including cuts to earmarks, unspent census money, leftover federal construction funding, and $2.5 billion from the most recent renewal of highway programs that can't be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation. Another $3.5 billion comes from unused spending authority from a program providing health care to children of lower-income families.

Deal falls short of GOP cut pledge; As good as we could get, Boehner says

Not enough!!!! Need more purging in the GOP establishment starting with House Speaker Boehner. Need more Tea Party supporters to change Washington! The GOP caved in! Pitiful! If it took this long to pass the 2011 budget, just wait till they do the 2012 this year. It's not over yet, folks!

(The Hill) The bipartisan deal struck late Friday falls short of the House Republican campaign pledge to cut $100 billion in fiscal 2011 spending.

The pact cuts $78.5 billion when compared to President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget request, which was never enacted.

Comparatively, the accord cuts $39 billion in actual spending, which is $22 billion less than bill the House passed in February.

In a brief interview, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told The Hill the agreement was "as good a deal as we could get."

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said he expects "significant" opposition from conservatives, both to the short-term fix and the long-term spending bill. He said he will vote against both.

Everybody in DC was on Vacation when Obama Went to War with Libya

Our government is an embarrassment. On the surface, it was a coincidence that the war in Libya started days after Congress decided to go on a 10-day vacation. From quoting Democrat Congress Dennis J. Kucinich, “Who’s minding the store while we’re at war?”, our government was asleep at the helm. Obama finally give an official announcement to our Congress several days after taking upon himself to go to war with Libya. Americans should be vastly concerned that we have an incompetent government. We have not ridden the cancer that is spreading throughout this country. We need more Republicans and all the Democrats voted out in the next elections. Because our economy sucks and the world around us is unraveling, we need a new set of leaders in Washington to fix the mess we are in.

(Washington Times) The world is at war, but Washington is eerily empty, devoid of all the power players who normally foster a soul-searching debate when the country goes on the attack.

President Obama made the decision to bomb Libya from Brazil, the top congressional leadership is all out of town as Congress takes a 10-day vacation, and Vice President Joseph R. Biden spent the weekend in Wilmington, Del. Even Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was traveling in Russia on Monday.

Now, all four top leaders are gone: House Speaker John A. Boehner was in Ohio for his daughter’s wedding this weekend, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was traveling in Rome on official business after a weekend stop in Afghanistan, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was in Nevada, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is traveling and doing some fundraising this week.

The lack of organized debate in the U.S. contrasts starkly with Britain, where Prime Minister David Cameron faced his colleagues in Parliament directly Monday, and answered their questions.

“Who’s minding the store while we’re at war?” said Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat who tried to spark a debate on military action last week before Congress went on vacation, and who has since called for Congress to reconvene.

“Think about this for a moment. In the last week they had time to garner 10 votes at the U.N., they had time to talk to the Arab League [and consult with] NATO, France and Britain. It seems the administration talked to everyone but the United States Congress, which has the constitutional authority to commit this country to war,” Mr. Kucinich said.

Conservative Blog RedState Gives 2 thumbs up for Sarah Palin

A very well-known conservative blog, RedState, gives two-thumbs up for Sarah Palin. They summarized the accomplishments of Sarah Palin and the sites to back their claim. It is striking that the GOP establishment is only looking for a Republican candidate who can win the 2012 election. Instead, they should be looking for someone who will work the will of the people and change Washington. While every GOP contender established themselves as viable candidates, only Sarah Palin has proven to walk the walk and talk the talk. Besides, Sarah Palin is a threat to the mainstream media, the GOP establishment, and Liberal loons. I ask this to you, "Why are they scared of her?"

(RedState) OK, JSob, I finally got around to writing down my thoughts on the matter:

One of the most oft-repeated criticisms of Sarah Palin is that she doesn’t have any “accomplishments”. The usual line of attack, borrowed from the Lamestream Media, is that she couldn’t hack it as governor for more than two years, resigning in tears when confronted with the evidence of her unethical dealings (somehow she simultaneously gets blamed for the ethics laws themselves), and fleeing the state of Alaska in order to rake in the cash from her rabid cult following in the lower 48. Or something. Nary a mention of the Vice Presidential campaign, the long knives of the media and the Chicago mob machine, the dismissal of all ethics complaints, the crushing financial burden of defending herself from these charges, or her desire to serve her country at the national level. The fraudulent allegations of these cynical bystanders deserve a rebuttal.

Governor Palin has “accomplished” many things not only as governor, but also as a city councilwoman, mayor, and oil and gas commissioner. During her time in Wasilla, she cut property taxes, opposed unnecessary government regulations, prioritized infrastructure development, and attracted jobs and businesses to the city. Under her leadership, the town was grew and prospered. Her terms as city councilwoman and mayor are chronicled here and here. As a governor, Palin cut spending. She had two major legislative accomplishments: AGIA (Alaska Gasline Inducement Act), which restarted a stalled project to build a pipeline to deliver Alaska’s oil and natural gas to the lower 48, and ACES (Alaskans’ Clear and Equitable Share), which restructured a disastrous system of taxing oil comapnies to one that worked better for both the people of Alaska and the oil companies. Some of Palin’s opponents (such as members of the CBC that were abusing the tax system) have criticized this plan as “redistributing wealth” since it taxes oil companies and gives individual Alaskans a check from oil revenues. However, the Alaskan Constitution specifies that the resources of Alaska belong to the people (not the state, which would be socialist), oil companies were already taxed (but corruption flourished under Murkowski), and in reality a shareholder model would be the more appropriate analogy. Instead of the state wasting the money, citizens are given back their tax dollars (more on this later). More information about her actions in office can be found here and here.

All this is great. But none of it gets to the heart of Palin’s true accomplishments. Her true legacy lies in her steel spine, her faith and values, her unwavering dedication to standing up and speaking out for the little guy against those who would seek to take advantage of him (or her), and her unrelenting commitment to always doing the right thing, no matter the personal or political cost.

Finally, someone has chronicled these intangible attributes, as well as some of her more concrete achievements, in one succinct article. Whitney Pitcher of C4P articulates better than I ever could 47 reasons why Governor Palin is preeminently qualified to be President, in honor of Palin’s 47th birthday. I highly recommend that you read through the list, and I challenge you to name one other candidate whose accomplishments measure up to Palin’s. It is increasingly clear that she is the only person for the job.

House GOP Lists $2.5 Trillion in Spending Cuts

As promised, the Tea Party Republicans in Congress is cleaning house. They already got the 112th Congress to repeal Obamacare. Today, the Tea Party Republicans aggressively presented to the House a way to eliminate $2.5 Trillion in spending in the next 10 years. At this point, the GOP establishment and Liberals are scared that the Tea Party Republicans will change how Washington will function. Now, this is the "Hope and Change" we can all believe in.

(Yahoo) Here is the overview provided by the Republican Study Committee:

FY 2011 CR Amendment: Replace the spending levels in the FY 2011 continuing resolution (NYSE: CR - News) with non-defense, non-homeland security, non-veterans spending at FY 2008 levels. The legislation will further prohibit any FY 2011 funding from being used to carry out any provision of the Democrat government takeover of health care, or to defend the health care law against any lawsuit challenging any provision of the act. $80 billion savings.

Discretionary Spending Limit, FY 2012-2021: Eliminate automatic increases for inflation from CBO baseline projections for future discretionary appropriations. Further, impose discretionary spending limits through 2021 at 2006 levels on the non-defense portion of the discretionary budget. $2.29 trillion savings over ten years.

Federal Workforce Reforms: Eliminate automatic pay increases for civilian federal workers for five years. Additionally, cut the civilian workforce by a total of 15 percent through attrition. Allow the hiring of only one new worker for every two workers who leave federal employment until the reduction target has been met. (Savings included in above discretionary savings figure).

"Stimulus" Repeal: Eliminate all remaining "stimulus" funding. $45 billion total savings.

Eliminate federal control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. $30 billion total savings.

Repeal the Medicaid FMAP increase in the "State Bailout" (Senate amendments to S. 1586). $16.1 billion total savings.

More than 100 specific program eliminations and spending reductions listed below: $330 billion savings over ten years (included in above discretionary savings figure).

Here is the full list of cuts:

Additional Program Eliminations/Spending Reforms

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy. $445 million annual savings.

Save America's Treasures Program. $25 million annual savings.

International Fund for Ireland. $17 million annual savings.

Legal Services Corporation. $420 million annual savings.

National Endowment for the Arts. $167.5 million annual savings.

National Endowment for the Humanities. $167.5 million annual savings.

Hope VI Program. $250 million annual savings.

Amtrak Subsidies. $1.565 billion annual savings.

Eliminate duplicative education programs. H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.

U.S. Trade Development Agency. $55 million annual savings.

Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy. $20 million annual savings.

Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding. $47 million annual savings.

John C. Stennis Center Subsidy. $430,000 annual savings.

Community Development Fund. $4.5 billion annual savings.

Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid. $24 million annual savings.

Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half. $7.5 billion annual savings.

Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20%. $600 million annual savings.

Essential Air Service. $150 million annual savings.

Technology Innovation Program. $70 million annual savings.

Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program. $125 million annual savings.

Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization. $530 million annual savings.

Beach Replenishment. $95 million annual savings.

New Starts Transit. $2 billion annual savings.

Exchange Programs for Alaska, Natives Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts. $9 million annual savings.

Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants. $2.5 billion annual savings.

Title X Family Planning. $318 million annual savings.

Appalachian Regional Commission. $76 million annual savings.

Economic Development Administration. $293 million annual savings.

Programs under the National and Community Services Act. $1.15 billion annual savings.

Applied Research at Department of Energy. $1.27 billion annual savings.

FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership. $200 million annual savings.

Energy Star Program. $52 million annual savings.

Economic Assistance to Egypt. $250 million annually.

U.S. Agency for International Development. $1.39 billion annual savings.

General Assistance to District of Columbia. $210 million annual savings.

Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. $150 million annual savings.

Presidential Campaign Fund. $775 million savings over ten years.

No funding for federal office space acquisition. $864 million annual savings.

End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.

Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act. More than $1 billion annually.

IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget. $1.8 billion savings over ten years.

Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees. $1 billion total savings.

Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees. $1.2 billion savings over ten years.

Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of. $15 billion total savings.

Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress.

Eliminate Mohair Subsidies. $1 million annual savings.

Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. $12.5 million annual savings.

Eliminate Market Access Program. $200 million annual savings.

USDA Sugar Program. $14 million annual savings.

Subsidy to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). $93 million annual savings.

Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program. $56.2 million annual savings.

Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs. $900 million savings.

Ready to Learn TV Program. $27 million savings.

HUD Ph.D. Program.

Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.

TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years