Back to back spending bills coming from Congress; Tax cut deal and omnibus.
Breaking news, Congressional Democrats are out of touch with America. More breaking news, America is broke and doubling down on failed strategies. OK, not breaking after all, but with November elections proving to be cataclysmic it really boggles to mind to see Harry Reid and Pelosi barely skip a beat! This lame duck session is just further proof that Washington DC and America are miles apart and the quality of our representation has plummeted. No wonder Congress's approval stands at a whopping 13 percent! How lucky for Congress that they automatically vote themselves pay raises despite approval ratings that would make George W. wince.
So despite the referendum on November where a record number of State legislatures flipped and we have potentially the biggest Constitutionalist minority in the House since lord-knows-when, two bills are up for consumption.
The first is the aforementioned tax deal struck between President Obama and the GOP. Not much of a deal, but it would appear that the majority of Americans approve. Frankly, with such high approval ratings there is not much to say here even though it is a very bad bill. A two year extension to the 'Bush cuts' is nothing more than a kick-the-can down the road approach and the one year tax break on payroll taxes will do nothing more than provide a stimulus the likes of which has already been tried. So once again there will be very little behavior modification as Americans and business owners still cannot rely on their tax rates remaining stable past 2012 and the little stimulus will carve an already ailing SS fund.
Combine this with a thirteen month extension to the last tier of unemployment (the last 20 or so weeks of unemployment will continue to be funded for 13 more months) and a slew of random pork projects this "tax deal" is another unfunded debacle. To go further into debt on the off chance that this paltry stimulus will make up for the losses is absurd and in an economic condition where we badly need to contract, clear out bad debt and pay off debt this approach simply will not work. While Keynesian shamans continue to preach the failed policies of the past several years we have ample evidence to suggest that an economy saturated with cheap money is not going to recover with more cheap money. Worse yet, our deficit will grow even faster and with the project interested rate payments doubling in three years we will be in a world of hurt.
Secondly the omnibus bill proposed by Democrats, which is a general purpose Government funding bill is a complete spit in the face of recent elections. This thing is loaded to the brim with slimy fat pork as a testament to just how addicted DC is on shoveling federal money back into local projects. To spice up the excitement the bill itself is almost 2,000 pages costing almost 1.1 Trillion dollars and Harry Reid wants a vote in the next few days! This is naturally causing angst among some Republicans and Jim DeMint has threatened to force a reading of the entire bill chewing up valuable time. Note that when the fighting really heats up the Democrats will probably accuse Republicans of compromising a vital bill necessary to fund the Government. Yet, one finds it puzzling how the following is so very vital to our existence:
It would appear indeed that the out of touch politicians are going down fighting and loading this sinking ship up with as much awful crap as they can find. Sadly it is also starting to dawn on me that elections and their results do not have the kind of ramifications one would expect. Certainly we shall see what the new Congress plans to accomplish come 2011, but it would be a tragedy to see this Omnibus bill pass the Senate. If this means a Government shutdown, so be it!
So despite the referendum on November where a record number of State legislatures flipped and we have potentially the biggest Constitutionalist minority in the House since lord-knows-when, two bills are up for consumption.
The first is the aforementioned tax deal struck between President Obama and the GOP. Not much of a deal, but it would appear that the majority of Americans approve. Frankly, with such high approval ratings there is not much to say here even though it is a very bad bill. A two year extension to the 'Bush cuts' is nothing more than a kick-the-can down the road approach and the one year tax break on payroll taxes will do nothing more than provide a stimulus the likes of which has already been tried. So once again there will be very little behavior modification as Americans and business owners still cannot rely on their tax rates remaining stable past 2012 and the little stimulus will carve an already ailing SS fund.
Combine this with a thirteen month extension to the last tier of unemployment (the last 20 or so weeks of unemployment will continue to be funded for 13 more months) and a slew of random pork projects this "tax deal" is another unfunded debacle. To go further into debt on the off chance that this paltry stimulus will make up for the losses is absurd and in an economic condition where we badly need to contract, clear out bad debt and pay off debt this approach simply will not work. While Keynesian shamans continue to preach the failed policies of the past several years we have ample evidence to suggest that an economy saturated with cheap money is not going to recover with more cheap money. Worse yet, our deficit will grow even faster and with the project interested rate payments doubling in three years we will be in a world of hurt.
Secondly the omnibus bill proposed by Democrats, which is a general purpose Government funding bill is a complete spit in the face of recent elections. This thing is loaded to the brim with slimy fat pork as a testament to just how addicted DC is on shoveling federal money back into local projects. To spice up the excitement the bill itself is almost 2,000 pages costing almost 1.1 Trillion dollars and Harry Reid wants a vote in the next few days! This is naturally causing angst among some Republicans and Jim DeMint has threatened to force a reading of the entire bill chewing up valuable time. Note that when the fighting really heats up the Democrats will probably accuse Republicans of compromising a vital bill necessary to fund the Government. Yet, one finds it puzzling how the following is so very vital to our existence:
In total, the 6,488 earmarks that both Democrats and Republicans put into the bill would cost around $8.3 billion. House and Senate Republicans both voted to slap a non-binding moratorium on earmark spending in November, but not before loading the Omnibus bill with pork for their districts.I know what you are thinking. Eight billion out of 1.1 Trillion is not worth the agitation, however these 8 Billion are by far the most crucial of all appropriations. This is grease money to keep the entire DC engine running at top speed. First of all, who the hell knows what is actually inside the bill, some have suggested that funding for 'ObamaCare' is nestled deep inside, secondly how many Congressmen/Senators would actually not vote on this bill if their favorite pork projects were not attached? This strikes at the heart of the debate over pork, it provides a mechanism and an incentive for lawmakers that might be opposed to a certain bill to vote positively. Pork is nothing more than the purchasing of votes and we saw this exercised extensively during the 'ObamaCare' process and the now infamous Nelson corn kickback.
It would appear indeed that the out of touch politicians are going down fighting and loading this sinking ship up with as much awful crap as they can find. Sadly it is also starting to dawn on me that elections and their results do not have the kind of ramifications one would expect. Certainly we shall see what the new Congress plans to accomplish come 2011, but it would be a tragedy to see this Omnibus bill pass the Senate. If this means a Government shutdown, so be it!
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