Remember how in late July 2011, the GOP manufactured a scam to cut the US social safety net? Never before has there been a crisis in raising the national debt limit. The GOP demanded a dollar-for-dollar match between guaranteed cuts and newly allotted borrowing authority. This didn’t lead to enough deficit reduction. That problem was going to be solved by the “Super Committee”. No one believed it would work and it didn’t. The politicians foresaw this and had a plan in place in case the “Super Committee” didn’t work. Each party would have to agree to cuts that they didn’t want to.
The Democrats agreed to cut the US social safety net and the GOP national security. That was only ½ a year ago.
The article “Europe outlines defense spending gap” demonstrates that we have to dramatically reduce our national security budget.
Let’s put this into perspective. The article states “European defense spending has fallen to less than half that of the United States, new figures from the European Defense Agency indicate.
In 2010, the aggregate total of 26 member states of the EDA was about $256.3 billion compared to $689 billion the United States — a decline of $7 billion from what the EDA members spent in 2008.”
Now the GOP wants all of the suffering to come from our bottom 99%. The GOP doesn’t want to cut the national security.
The article “Bait And Switch: GOP Leaders Renege On Debt Limit Deal Defense Cuts” describes how the GOP is plotting to renege on another pledge.
The article states “Republican leaders in Congress have all but reneged on a key agreement they reached with the White House last summer rather than reconsider their unwavering stance against new tax revenue.
Relations between the Obama administration and the congressional GOP were already just about as bad as can be. But even so, this sets a precedent future Congresses and White Houses will remember when partisan mismatches force them to strike deals and govern.”
Not only are they backing off on their pledge, but they are attacking President Obama regarding it as the article states “”I’ve got concerns about the sequester, ” House Speaker John Boehner told reporters Thursday. “I’ve made that pretty clear. And replacing the sequester certainly has value.
The defense portion of the sequester, in my view, would clearly hollow our military. The Secretary of Defense has said that, members of Congress have said it. But the question I would pose is, where’s the White House?
Where’s the leadership that should be there to ensure that this sequester does not go into effect.”
How can you compromise with people who won’t honor their agreements?
W hen the Super Committee failed in November Republicans began a plot to keep the national security cuts from being made.
In light of other GOP politicians speaking about their plans to forego the national security cuts Boehner was asked about whether he still agreed with them as the article states “On November 3, 2011, Boehner told reporters, “Me, personally? Yes, I would feel bound. It was part of the agreement, and so either we succeed or we’re in the sequester. The sequester is ugly. Why?
Because we didn’t want anybody to go there. That’s why we have to succeed.”
Democrats are appalled at the latest “Party of NO” scam as the article states “Now we’re really talking skullduggery,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters.
“They understood what the consequences were. They agreed to the consequences, and they thought that they could walk away from all the deficit reduction that was possible in that and now say, well, forget about deficit reduction altogether when it comes to the defense budget. I think that an agreement was reached. It must be honored.”
The article continues “This will be a huge piece of the defining election year fight on Capitol Hill – one that will test Democrats’ will to break the GOP’s anti-tax absolutism, and thus weigh heavily on the broader fight between the parties over the future of the social safety net.”
This is an old story for the GOP. They put too much of our resources into national security and then what happens? They have to cut something and it is always the US social safety net.
The article “The GOP’s starve-the-beast strategy will lead to catastrophe” spells out the GOP scam regarding decimating the US social safety net.
The article states “For readers who don’t know what I’m talking about: Ever since Reagan, the GOP has been run by people who want a much smaller government. In the famous words of the activist Grover Norquist, conservatives want to get the government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
In late July 2011 it was an invented scam in the first place and now the GOP can’t even honor their position regarding the debt limit. The GOP political leaders have to adhere to their agreements or how can the Democrats bargain with them?