Republicans Officially Give Up Trying to Cut Spending

[EasyAce]

After all that fuss from 2009 onward, Rand Paul is the last Republican left objecting to the continued growth of government.
By Matt Welch
http://reason.com/blog/2017/10/20/republicans-officially-give-up-trying-to/print

After the rise of the Tea Party in 2009 as a grassroots expression of revulsion at government bailouts,
spending, and Obamacare; after a series of insurgent Tea Party primary victories in 2010 over big-spending
incumbents and hand-picked establishmentarians; after Republicans re-took the House that November thanks
in part to that new jolt of fiscally conservative energy; after the House majority from 2011-14 successfully
used its power of the purse to force debate and at least some temporary agreements on the debt ceiling,
long-term entitlements, and year-on-year spending, and then after Republicans re-took the Senate and
eventually the White House…after all this activity, when it finally came time for the GOP to stand up and
demonstrate its values of fiscal stewardship and limited government, you could count the number of Republicans
voting to restrain government spending on exactly one finger . . .

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), was the only Republican no-vote in yesterday's 51-49 Senate approval of a
$4 trillion budget resolution for fiscal year 2018. The resolution, more of a vague blueprint for the next decade,
includes $43 billion next year for "Overseas Contingency Operations" (OCOs), a notorious budgeting gimmick
that has been responsible for more than $1.7 trillion in off-budget spending this century. Quite unlike the
deficit-neutral House budget resolution that passed two weeks ago, the Senate version assumes $1.5 trillion
in new debt, and does not make the House's $203 billion in domestic spending cuts (the Senate's final tally
is closer to $0).

So how did the fire-breathing fiscal conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus react? By agreeing to not
even bother going to conference committee to reconcile the two different budgets, so as not to slow the
grand prize of tax cuts by even a couple of weeks . . .

. . . In reality, Republicans aren't serious about implementing the measure's politically toxic proposals to
cut Medicare, food and farm programs, housing subsidies, and transportation. In fact, lawmakers on both
sides are pressing to break open the measure's tight spending "caps" on the Pentagon and domestic agency
operations and pass tens of billions of dollars more in hurricane relief in coming days and weeks.

As predicted in this space, we are hurtling fast toward taxcut-and-spend economics once more. Remember
how the last time ended?

[Bigun]

Worthless!  They have proven to be totally worthless!

[LMAO]

 It's easy to complain about deficits when you're in the minority.

Once you get power, power is obtained through spending  and making lots of promises you can't keep.

The bill is going to come due one day on our unsustainable spending

[RoosGirl]

That Rand Paul, what an obstructionist bleep. 


 

[RetBobbyMI]

Worthless!  They have proven to be totally worthless!

And to those that continue to insist there is nothing better than the current GOP, let then eat this crap sandwich.

[Fishrrman]

As long as "the borrowing" can continue, spending will never be cut.

And it will go on like this until the borrowing is ended, by whatever reason brings that about.

Then, spending will be "cut"...

[LMAO]

As long as "the borrowing" can continue, spending will never be cut.

And it will go on like this until the borrowing is ended, by whatever reason brings that about.

Then, spending will be "cut"...

The Federal Reserve will print out the dollars

[RetBobbyMI]

The Federal Reserve will print out the dollars

Then we’ll be no better than Venezuela.