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

John Boehner, your shutdown and decision to default has already cost me hundreds of dollars. Many people have lost far more.

This writer checks his 401(K) balance weekly, and noticed a drop in value, due to yesterday’s stock market tumble. Said tumble being entirely (and only) due to Boehner’s decision to shut down the government and stop paying America’s bills. So that carrot-faced son of a bitch has stolen several hundred dollars of my money. And I have five bucks here saying I’ll lose lots more from my retirement fund before this is over.

Many people have lost far more, of course –  grieving military families are being shafted after  heroic soldiers gave their lives for this country; children are losing Head Start and their parents are losing their jobs; government workers and the businesses that depend on them are losing their entire paychecks; indeed, this writer could be taking a much bigger hit. And I am grateful that I’m not, believe you me.

Gentle Reader, take some time today and over the next few weeks to look at your financial picture. Be aware of just how many of us are being hurt by the intransigence of the Teapublicans who run Congress. And remember that THEY are not being hurt by this extra-constitutional behavior –  indeed, they are getting their paychecks, bennies, and even their own luxury gym and spa with no interruption. So of course they’ll shut down the government – so long as they still get theirs, they don’t give a s*** about us.

The only way to hurt them back is run them out of office. The next opportunity to do so in just over a year away. Let’s get to work and send the lot of them packing in 2014. The money (and perhaps the country)  you save may be your own.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky