Boehner Bill Does Not Gain The Support Of 22 House Republicans

House Speaker John Boehner finally got the Budget Control Act of 2011 through the House on Friday night – the legislative vote shows how little the Freshmen Tea Party House Republicans elected in 2010 stuck to their guns once they arrived in Washington.  Only a small handful of Freshmen Republicans voted against the Bill (22 Republicans in all) which immediately raises the debt ceiling by $900 billion & calls for $756 billion in unspecified spending cuts over ten years with $72 billion of these unspecified cuts coming in the next two years with the rest obviously having no chance of being realized.  The 87 Tea Party House Freshman Republicans had campaigned in 2010 on cutting $100 billion from the FY 2011 spending plan.  They have had two bites @ the apple with the CR & now the debt ceiling vote – all but a few have gone the Washington establishment way both times.  Most disappointing among the Freshmen are Rob Woodall (GA), James Lankford (OK), Kristi Noem (SD), & Jon Runyan (NJ) all of whom have consistently voted with the establishment old guard Republicans their first seven months in office.  Tim Scott (SC) has been true to his word after one initial slip.  Check out your own Congressman below.

The Boehner Bill is just another plan that adds to the national debt over the next ten years – there are no real spending cuts of any significance in any of the years.  Some call the meager unspecified cuts a starting point or a turning point in Washington but the Dems are way too cagey to fall for this.  In fact the Boehner Bill has very little chance to pass the Senate &/or survive BO's veto so it really means that supporters of the Bill are looking for backing from the Republican Party in the future as business continues in Washington as usual – @ our detriment & expense.

The Senate is planning to stall & pass something themselves @ the last minute sending the hot potato back to Boehner who will be left standing in the game of musical chairs when the music stops on & after the August 2 debt ceiling drop dead date thereby taking all of the blame from the disinterested public for whatever ails the country then.

Below are the results of the Boehner Bill vote.  People like Michele Bachmann, Steve King, Freshman Tim Huelskamp, & Freshman Trey Gowdy all voted against the Boehner Bill because of the principles they consistently espouse.  Gowdy said "I did not come here to curry favor.  I did not come here for committee assignments & threatening me with not coming back will hold no weight."  I don't believe the "ayes" on the list below can say the same.

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 677 (Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)

S 627 RECORDED VOTE 29-Jul-2011 6:25 PM

QUESTION: On Passage

BILL TITLE: Budget Control Act of 2011

	Ayes	Noes	PRES	NV
Republican	218	22
Democratic		188		5
Independent
TOTALS	218	210		5

---- AYES 218 ---

Adams Aderholt Akin Alexander Austria Bachus Barletta Bartlett Barton (TX) Bass (NH) Benishek Berg Biggert Bilbray Bilirakis Bishop (UT) Black Blackburn Boehner Bonner Bono Mack Boustany Brady (TX) Brooks Buchanan Bucshon Buerkle Burgess Burton (IN) Calvert Camp Campbell Canseco Cantor Capito Carter Cassidy Chabot Coble Coffman (CO) Cole Conaway Crawford Crenshaw Culberson Davis (KY) Denham Dent Diaz-Balart Dold Dreier Duffy Duncan (TN) Ellmers Emerson Farenthold Fincher Fitzpatrick Flake Fleischmann Fleming Flores Forbes Fortenberry Foxx Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Gallegly Gardner Garrett Gerlach Gibbs Gibson

Gingrey (GA) Gohmert Goodlatte Gosar Granger Graves (MO) Griffin (AR) Griffith (VA) Grimm Guinta Guthrie Hall Hanna Harper Harris Hartzler Hastings (WA) Hayworth Heck Hensarling Herger Herrera Beutler Huizenga (MI) Hultgren Hunter Hurt Issa Jenkins Johnson (OH) Johnson, Sam Jones Kelly King (NY) Kingston Kinzinger (IL) Kline Labrador Lamborn Lance Landry Lankford LaTourette Latta Lewis (CA) LoBiondo Long Lucas Luetkemeyer Lummis Lungren, Daniel E. Manzullo Marchant Marino McCarthy (CA) McCaul McCotter McHenry McKeon McKinley McMorris Rodgers Meehan Mica Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Miller, Gary Murphy (PA) Myrick Neugebauer Noem Nugent Nunes Nunnelee Olson

Palazzo Paulsen Pearce Pence Petri Pitts Platts Poe (TX) Pompeo Posey Price (GA) Quayle Reed Rehberg Reichert Renacci Ribble Rigell Rivera Roby Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Rokita Rooney Ros-Lehtinen Roskam Ross (FL) Royce Runyan Ryan (WI) Scalise Schilling Schmidt Schock Schweikert Scott, Austin Sensenbrenner Sessions Shimkus Shuster Simpson Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Stearns Stivers Stutzman Sullivan Terry Thompson (PA) Thornberry Tiberi Tipton Turner Upton Walberg Walden Webster West Westmoreland Whitfield Wittman Wolf Womack Woodall Yoder Young (AK) Young (FL) Young (IN)

---- NOT VOTING 5 ---

Baca Giffords

Hinchey Speier

Waters

Responses - Debt Ceiling Problem - A Win-Win For BO

Last night's subject message certainly brought a lot of discussion including WRNJ radio calling me early this morning – within forty five minutes I was part of a program that will be aired re the interrelationship of the debt ceiling problem, the Tea Party, & the FairTax.  I will download the audio as soon as it is available & post it on this blog.  I congratulate WRNJ – they are a station working for the best interests of America.

 

All day long people called to discuss last night's posting & the overall feeling is that most are mad – we just need to find out with who.  One comment – "We felt that in his latest speech Obama presented himself as a victim in a political hassle. The good guy!" portrayed BO as he hopes to be seen as an innocent victim instead of the President with the most power of control.

 

The above graph shows the growth of the payments to individuals by the federal government from 1965 to 2010 – herein lies the problem that we cannot easily turn back without a very large mindset change.  The lead editorial in today's WSJ presented this graph along with the commentary – "This insistence on no reform reinforces the notion that our entitlement state is too big to afford but also too big to change politically.  According to the most recent government data, today some 50.5 million Americans are on Medicaid, 46.5 million are on Medicare, 52 million on Social Security, five million on SSI, 7.5 million on unemployment insurance, & 44.6 million on food stamps & other nutrition programs.  Some 24 million get the earned-income tax credit, a cash supplement.  By 2010 such payments to individuals were 66% of the federal budget, up from 28% in 1965."

 

A very wise, long term reader & contributor to these messages, provides the following commentary which describes the Death of Democracy that we see coming into focus more clearly every day.

 

"You hit the nail on the head when you said 70% of the population is for increased spending rather than reducing taxes. Most people ONLY read headlines. You have Obama telling people that Social Security checks might not be mailed in August because of the Republicans, and he gains 80% of retirees' votes for the next election.

 

Now you have people out of work - who will they vote for? Not the Republicans, but they will vote for people who PROMISE them jobs, even if it means spending on programs that do not work, creating impression of creating jobs. Who gets their vote?

 

Unless Republicans do a better job of communicating with the general population, they have a good chance of losing big in the next election.  Remember many people do not pay any income tax at all. They will vote for Democrats who promise them "the moon."

 

As for me, I will take a very long nap, lasting for years, unless someone comes up with smart plans that have a chance to work and that the general public believes will work."

 

Debt Ceiling Problem - A Win-Win For BO

Last April 14 I wrote re the 2010 campaign promise to reduce spending $100 billion their first year in office "...how discouraging it is to have elected 87 new House Members only to find that 66 of them have already abandoned ship." I went on "It doesn't give much hope for the deficit ceiling fight (I barely have the strength tonight to call it that) or the fight for trillions in the 2012 budget negotiations. It is looking pretty hopeless for America @ this point." See ReturnToExcellence.net posting of April 14, 2011 for complete write-up along with comments including one received earlier tonight from a statist, three & one half months after the posting, taking me to task for not wanting to compromise.

As the country wrestles with the tug of war between reducing the nation's deficit & raising the debt ceiling the polls are all over the map as to whether the majority wants to reduce government spending or raise taxes to solve this problem that will supposedly reach a head on August 2. My guess is that more people will be for increased government spending than reducing taxes for the simple fact that over 70% of the population receives a government check or benefit each month. Couple this with the anti-American hostile media being statists ensures a fate unbecoming to our founding principles.

BO is in the catbird seat re all of this – he has known for quite some time that the majority of the public will hold him harmless blaming the Republicans for any government shutdown or delay in the issuance of Social Security benefits & of course more importantly BO really gets what he wants in that people will become more dependent on government programs. For instance it was reported earlier today that the debt ceiling problem is having a detrimental impact on entrepreneurs access to capital resulting in a freeze on hiring & capital spending. Now who could blame BO for these problems with George W Bush still fresh in peoples' minds & the class(less) warfare never ending speeches of millionaires & billionaires who earn over $250,000 per year.

All of the plans presented to date actually add to the national debt over the next ten years including the so-called fiscally responsible Ryan Plan that will lower the national debt from current policies but will still result in the government spending $5 trillion more over the next decade than it brings in. What a charade when you consider that all of these plans talk up fiscal responsibility – what a shame that enough people to keep BO in power fall for this or worse yet have no idea what this is all about or could not care less & will vote for him.

Now if Paul Ryan is the most fiscally responsible Member of Congress allowed to present a plan to lead us out of our current fiscal problems it is definitely news to Jeff Dyberg who let us know back in April that Rep. Ryan voted for TARP, felt the free market had failed when he chose to replace it with bureaucratic central planning (against competition) by supporting the taxpayer bailout of GM & Chrysler, voted for the 2008 Bush Stimulus bill, supported ethanol subsidies agreeing with the December 2010 tax deal with BO, & has also voted to support the confiscatory tax on AIG bonuses. Mr. Dyberg questions whether or not Paul Ryan is fiscally responsible enough to be the leading advocate of the free market – & yet this is all we have. We know "who is John Galt?" - we need to know where he is.

Now I am someone who participated in Dick Zimmer's deficit reduction workshops in the early 1990s & I can attest that some of these types of decisions are not easy. The Bipartisan Policy Center determined that between August 3rd & 31st that $172.4 billion of estimated receipts would come in to the federal government. They also estimated that the following cash out flows (in billion of dollars) would be required for the same 28 day period:

Interest – $29.0

Social Security – 49.2

Medicare/Medicaid – 50.0

Defenses Vendor – 31.7

Unemployment – 12.8

Military Pay – 2.9

Veterans Affairs – 2.9

IRS Refunds – 3.9

Food Stamps – 14.2

Federal Salaries – 14.2

Miscellaneous – 100.8

What would you cut? Are you willing to see your Social Security or Medicare payments cut? Are you using the Constitution to determine what to cut? Please consider that welfare payments very well can be considered insurance payments that will keep the lower class poor out of burglarizing homes in "better neighborhoods." Without these welfare payments would you be living with steel bars & guards around your house?

Our SC businessman recently presented BO's quote from March 2006 re BO's hypocrisy concerning Bushes' perceived failure of leadership concerning the debt ceiling that so many of you responded to. Our thanks to him once again for presenting this link of Harry Reid showing exactly how disingenuous the Democrats are regarding this debt ceiling fiscal issue or anything else that will help our country.