How the Budget Ceiling is SUPPOSED to work, and why it doesn’t.

Here is how the process actually works:
Step One: Congress decides how much money to spend and passes bills so the rest of the government can spend it.
Step Two: since Congress rarely considers whether or not we can afford all of the spending they authorize, there is usually a budget deficit, which increases the national debt.
Step Three: the Congress allows the treasury to borrow more money to cover the spending that Congress ordered. That is called “raising the debt ceiling”.

Pretty simple, and you may have noticed something: the word “President” appeared nowhere in the process. That is because the Executive cannot and does not allocate the vast majority of Federal funding. The Prexy has damn-all to do with the funding levels established by Congress. All he can do is execute the funding (which is why it is called the “Executive Branch”).

So why does Congress ask the Prexy for “concessions” or “reforms”, whenever the debt ceiling need lifting? The answer, Gentle Reader, is this: Congress is too scared to admit that they are responsible for our massive budget and the resulting red ink, so they play “pin the blame on Obama”. If the taxpaying public knew that Congress was to blame, they might vote their legislators out of office.

And the one thing no Senator or Congresscritter can bear is the idea of having to actually work for a living. So they pretend that it is the eeeeevil Obaminator who is responsible for the deficit. And the “News” media plays chorus to the Teapublican lies.

Remember this when you next cast your ballot. Congress owns the budget, the deficit and the debt. It’s time for those lazy, cowardly millionaires on Capitol Hill to nut up and accept responsibility for their actions, and to stop lying to us about who is to blame for the consequences of said actions.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

“Victory”? Somebody buy Ted Cruz a friggin’ dictionary .

Ted Cruz thinks that defeat is victory; or at least, he thinks that being ahead during a contest means more than who actually wins or loses at the end of a contest: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/16/cruz-it-was-a-remarkable-victory-until-senate-republicans-caved-on-the-shutdown/ From the article:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Wednesday blasted members of his own party after he said that they wasted a “remarkable victory” by making a deal with Democrats to re-open the government and avert a default on U.S. debt by raising the nation’s credit limit

Of course, Teapublicans did not win a victory at the end of the recent shutdown/default debacle. At the end, they were forced to “surrender”, in the words of Speaker Boehner. Most of us see a surrender as a, well, defeat. But not Teddy Boi Cruz. In his world:

• Cleveland won a remarkable victory last week, because they led at the half. (Of course, Detroit won the game later)
• Rome won a remarkable victory over Rebbe Yeshua bar Joseph when they crucified him. (Of course, the Christians  are still around, and the Roman empire is long gone).
• England won a remarkable victory over the rebellious American colonies…you get the idea.

Clearly, Teddy Boi hasn’t a clue about the English language. Buy the fool a dictionary, someone, PLEASE.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

On this day in 1793, Marie Antoinette was beheaded. Fortunately for Teapublicans, America has no Guillotines.

The only punishment these latter-day Antoinettes are likely to suffer is the loss of their cushy DC jobs.  Like the French aristocracy of their day, Teapublicans are thumbing their noses at the populace, stealing our money, allowing children to starve and sick people to die, all the while laughing merrily at our struggles as they lead their gilded lives. The parallels to this writer’s ancestral homeland are obvious.

Congressional “Republicans” would have us believe that taking away the paychecks of millions of Americans and refusing to pay what is due to millions of others, crashing the economy and wrecking the government; all of these, the Teabaggers tell us,  are the “will of the people”.  Anyone possessed of even a moiety of their marbles would know that the will of the people would never be the theft of our money and the destruction of our way of life. But the Baggers, sad to say, haven’t so much as a shard of one of their marbles, and so they repeat the mistakes of Marie and Co.

Gentle Reader, when you next go to the polls, please use your votes to cut away Tea Party contingent from Congress. Unlike Marie Antoinette, they won’t die: indeed, a (metaphorical) electoral guillotine just might help our country to stay alive.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

 

 

President Washington Warned Us. We Didn’t Listen. Now the Government has been Shut Down.

A pplitical party,  acting solely for its own selfish interests, is causing great and lasting harm to the people of the United States of America.  The “Republican” party, in order to raise campaign funds and dominate those interests that oppose it, chose to damage the entire country, just so it could gain even more power than it already had. This is bad, Gentle Reader, very bad indeed.

Here is what President Washington (remember him? War hero? Father of our country? Right, THAT George Washington) said about political parties, way back in 1769:

“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

“It serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another; foments occasionally riot and insurrection.”

“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual, and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.”

Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? What he predicted is exactly what Speaker Cruz Boehner  and their political party are doing right now. The “Republican” party, even though it has lost two straight Presidential elections, multiple Senate elections, lost the popular vote for the House, and got its collective nuts kicked in time and again by the Supreme Court, is still trying to take over the government. What they could not do via the will of the people, they are attempting to do via corrupt and extra-Constitutional means.

America, listen to your Father. It is past time that We the People settled things with those partisans who are trying to overthrow our very system of government. The “Republican” party needs its wings clipped. In truth, all parties might need this treatment, but the Repubs are a clear and present danger.

It’s time to honor our founders. The best way to do that is to listen to their wisdom, and act on it.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The Biggest Obamacare Lie of Them All

“The American people don’t want this bill” is a lie of truly epic dimensions, because the American people have voted FOR Obamacare, time and time again.

First, they elected Obama in 2008, and he ran on a platform that actually included even MORE health care than Obamacare delivered. That’s a vote for Obamacare.

Then they re-elected Obama in 2012, when he ran against Romney/Ryan, whose platform included ditching Obamacare. That’s a vote for Obamacare.

They also cast more votes for House Democrats in 2012 than they did for House “Republicans” (the Repubs kept the House via election rigging, gerrymandering, etc.) That’s another vote for Obamacare.

Every time Obamacare’s individual  provisions are mentioned in polls, they get huge public support. It’s just the word “Obamacare” that people view through suspicious eyes (and small wonder, given the smear campaign that Repubs have waged against  it over the years).

And that, Gentle Reader, is why the lie “The American people don’t want this bill” is the biggest Obamacare of them all. Yes, there are some people who DON’T want Obamacare, but they are in the minority.

The majority of the American People voted for Obamacare, loudly and repeatedly. It’s high time the “Republicans” respected the clearly-expressed will of the people, and get the hell out of the way if they don’t like it. Congress is supposed to work for US, not the other way around.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Congressional Spending is why the Debt Ceiling has to be raised. No other reason.

The “Republicans” who control the House of “Representatives” are once again threatening to refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless their whiny, silly, pouting, and just generally idiotic demands du jour are met. In this case, it’s a demand that ObamaCare be destroyed. A  ridiculous demand, of course, but that’s not how deep the rabbit hole of stupid goes.

Here’s the deal: Congress spends money. They are responsible for the amount of taxing and spending.  That means they are responsible for the amount of the national debt. That means they are responsible for the need to raise the debt ceiling.

“But ObamaCare”, the Wingnuts cry. News flash: Congress voted for it. That means they’re responsible for the funding that they voted for. Not the Prexy, not the courts: that’s what’s called the Separation of Powers. Congress holds the power of the purse, and for years they have been using that power in a most irresponsible manner.

Yes, the debt is too high. But that is no reason for Congress to try to weasel out of paying the bills they have run up over the decades. No, that is a reason to adjust tax and spending policy to bring the national debt down in the future,

The law of the land says the U.S. Government has to pay its bills. If Congress refuses to do so, they will be in violation of the law.  And only Congress will be responsible. No one else. It’s their fault for spending more than they take in.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

House “Republicans” Declare War on the American People and Economy. Again.

These cretins are f***ing insane. Just like before, John Boehner and his cabal are proposing to take our tax dollars, give us even less for our money, and shovel the stolen bucks to their cronies and paymasters. And they are threatening to wreck the economy if they don’t get 100% of what they are demanding.

The House, you see, is threatening to stop paying the bills that they have run up since 2000 if Obama does not agree with each and every aspect of their spending plan. This is what “refusing to raise the debt ceiling” actually means. These “representatives” spent a decade running up the national debt, and now are welshing on the deals they themselves made.

On top of that, they want to cut spending on programs that benefit the American people. A few of the draconian cuts these “Conservative’ “Republicans” propose:
* Cuts to the SEC (so rich crooks can get way with their crimes)
* 100% defunding of the ACA that they passed a few years ago,
* Cuts to funding for feeding and educating poor children,
* Cuts for care of our elderly,
* Cuts for block grants to states and cities,
And many others. They are taking a meat axe to anything that they don’t like or make a buck from, and be damned to the taxpaying public.

All to benefit themselves and the 1%, paid for by the rest of us. If that isn’t a declaration of economic war on the American people, what the Hell would be?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Josh Mandel: Elect Me so I Can Wreck the US Economy and Make a Ton of Cash for Myself.

Josh Mandel, a scumbucket of truly magnificent proportions, has outdone even his own scumbucket self. Somewhere in Hell, legendary scumbuckets like Al Capone are bowing in admiration of this kid, who has taken brazen scumbucketry to a level that is beyond the imagination of mere mortal crooks. Since he got himself elected Treasurer of the State O’ Ohio:

He has almost never shown up for critical meetings for a committee he chairs;

He railed against his predecessor for appointing unqualified cronies, and then proceeded to do likewise;

He has violated open records laws;

And after promising not to run for Senate if he was elected Ohio State Treasurer, started running for the Senate before the vote counting was completed for his Treasurer election.

Pretty scummy, but sadly, not out of the ordinary these days. But Mr. Mandel, in order to rise above the norm, had more scum in his bucket – oh yes, he did:

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/27/590481/josh-mandel-shorting-treasury-bonds/

Short version for those who never click links: Josh Mandel holds bonds that would pay off big-time if the U.S. Government failed to raise the debt ceiling, thus causing a default. And goshgollygeewhizawshucksreally, he has pledged to vote against raising the debt ceiling if he is elected to the Senate.

That goes beyond a conflict of interest: that is treason. Yes, Mister Blunt and Cranky is calling it treason. Look up the word in a dictionary if you don’t like it. Josh Mandel wants to use a position of power within the government in order to undermine and damage said government, while lining his own scummy, traitorous, un-American pockets.

What an enormous scumbucket is Josh Mandel.  This blogger will vote against Mandel, and he does not care if the Dems are running a deep-fried cheese log against him.

Mr. B & C