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Beef With the Sequester? At Least One Federal Program Was Able to Beat It

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Photo Credit: Evan Vucci

The sequester was supposed to be something new in Washington: a budget cut you couldn’t beat. Once it hit, it hit. The money was gone, and nobody could get it back.

That turned out to be true—for about 3 weeks. Then somebody beat it. Last week, President Obama signed a spending bill that gave the Agriculture Department’s food inspectors what everybody else wanted: a get-out-of-the-sequester card. Their program got $55 million in new money, which replaced almost all of what the sequester took.

There’s a story there, about how power and lobbying can still make money appear in Washington, even in this age of austerity. It started with sharp political theater.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack insisted that the sequester would force him to shut down all U.S. meat production on at least 11 days. The inspectors union didn’t believe that. Neither did many in the powerful meat lobby. But they were too worried not to help Vilsack anyway. After an extensive campaign, the Senate gave Vilsack the money.

So the sequester can be hacked. Now, other interest groups are waiting: police officers, airport executives, Border Patrol agents. The question is: Can it be hacked again?

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Senators Paul, Cruz, and Lee Join Democrats to Vote Against Ryan Budget

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Photo Credit: breitbart

Earlier this week, GOP Rep. Mick Mulvaney offered the Senate Democrat budget proposal for a vote in the House. The budget plan was defeated, with 35 Democrats crossing the aisle to oppose it. Thursday night, Dem Sen. Patty Murray responded by offering Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget for a vote in the Senate. The measure failed, 40-59, with 5 GOP Senators joining in opposition. Interestingly, among these 5 were Sens. Paul, Cruz and Lee.

Sens. Paul, Cruz and Lee are providing the nucleus of an emerging conservative opposition in the Senate. While there are other conservatives in the GOP caucus, these three are establishing themselves as reliable voices to articulate the conservative opposition to an ever encroaching government.

They are becoming skilled at identifying issues to make a stand on principle. I have no doubt that if their votes could have pushed the Ryan budget into passing, they would have voted for it, as it is likely the best option on the table. Frankly, however, the Ryan budget doesn’t go as far as conservatives would prefer. A vote against an amendment that was already going to be defeated was a good moment to stand on that principle.

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Paul Ryan’s Ax Isn’t Sharp Enough

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Photo Credit: Sam Island

THE latest budget proposal by Representative Paul D. Ryan, called “The Path to Prosperity,” is anything but. It fails to seriously address runaway government spending, the most pressing problem facing our nation. I cannot vote for something that would trick the American people into thinking that Congress is fixing Washington’s spending problem, when in actuality we’d just be allowing it to continue without end.

Supporters of the “Path to Prosperity,” including many of my fellow Republicans, say that we have to stop spending money we don’t have, an idea I promote every chance I get. But under the proposal by Mr. Ryan of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, the federal government would continue to spend more than it will this year.

Spending would grow by an average of 3.4 percent annually, only slightly less than the rate under President Obama’s plan, which is 5 percent a year. After 10 years — Mr. Ryan’s target for eliminating the deficit — the “Path to Prosperity” will have spent $41 trillion, when the president’s plan would allow spending of $46 trillion. My party’s de facto position has become “we’re increasing spending, but not as much as the other guy.” That’s not good enough.

Just reducing growth in spending does almost nothing. We have to dig deeper and make profound cuts now. We cannot continue to assume that future Congresses will do our dirty work for us.

We ought to get rid of certain federal departments and agencies, stopping only to shift the role of governing back to the states, where it belongs. The Departments of Education and Energy, for example, are two bloated bureaucracies that we don’t need; their core functions would be absorbed by the states through block grants, saving taxpayers at least $500 billion over the next decade.

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GOP Road Map: Immigration Reform and Fewer Debates

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Photo Credit: Chris Usher

Republican leaders spent three months studying their 2012 election defeat and on Monday announced they were beat on nearly every aspect of politicking, from money to message to manpower, and said one immediate change should be to embrace immigration reform — a lightning-rod issue that nearly tore the party apart under the George W. Bush administration.

Unveiling a 98-page election post-mortem, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus promised a kinder, gentler GOP that will not write off any voters. That begins, the party said, with Hispanic voters and immigration reform.

“By 2050, we’ll be a majority-minority country, and in both 2008 and 2012, President Obama won a combined 80 percent of the votes of all minority groups,” Mr. Priebus said Monday. “The RNC cannot and will not write off any demographic, community, or region of this country.”

The plan calls for the GOP to become a party that voters believe cares about them, beginning with a $10 million image makeover to attract minorities. The plan also includes nuts-and-bolts suggestions, such as shortening the presidential primary process and trying to take control of the debates, which are currently run by television networks.

Mr. Priebus‘ review shies away from blaming any specific people for the 2012 election, which saw GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney lose a race many in his party thought winnable.

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Video: Dem Staffer- Democrat Budget Will Produce ‘Zero’ Deficit Reduction In 2014

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

A staffer for Democratic Sen. Patty Murray told Republican Sen. Mike Crapo Thursday that the newly proposed Democratic budget will essentially not reduce the deficit at all in its first year.

“You’re talking about a $1.85 trillion deficit reduction over ten [years],” Crapo said during a Senate panel about the budget proposal. “How much of that happens in year one?” he asked.

“There are spending savings in year one, but in total, it’s about no — in the first year,” responded John Righter, Democratic deputy staff director on the Senate budget committee.

Watch video here:

https://youtu.be/zaRwr5N-23k

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Senate Democrats Would Increase Taxes — And The National Debt

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Photo Credit: Cliff Owen

Before Wednesday it had been more than 1,400 days since Senate Democrats had produced a federal budget. After only a few hours of Senate Budget Committee testimony, it quickly became apparent why they waited so long.

Now that Obamacare has become law, it is impossible for Democrats to put together a tax-and-spending plan that does not increase taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars yet still add trillions to the national debt.

The Democrats are so eager to raise both taxes and spending that the budget plan they submitted yesterday for the next fiscal year increases spending this year by $46 billion. Then they hike spending another $116 billion next year on their way to a 60 percent increase over the next 10 years.

To put that in perspective, the budget submitted Tuesday by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., increases spending by just 40 percent over that same time frame. The Ryan budget, which returns federal spending to its post-World War II historical average, calls for outlays of $41.5 trillion over 10 years. That’s $4.9 trillion less than the Democratic total of $46.4 trillion.

In addition to historically high government spending, the Democratic budget also raises taxes by $1 trillion starting immediately. Thanks to the weakest economic recovery since World War II, federal taxes as a percentage of GDP are still below historic norms. But as the economy improves, Democrats steadily ramp up the government tax burden, reaching a high of 19.8 percent in 2023. Only once since World War II — right before the tech bubble collapsed in 2000 — has the nation’s tax burden ever been that high.

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ICE Chief Acknowledges More Than 2,000 Illegal Immigrants Released, Including Drunken Drivers

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Photo Credit: AP

The top U.S. immigration enforcement official acknowledged Thursday that the Obama administration has in fact released thousands of illegal immigrants from local jails over the last month despite prior claims that the release was only in the hundreds.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton, at a House appropriations subcommittee hearing, said the agency released a total of 2,228 illegal immigrants from local jails “throughout the country” between Feb. 9 and March 1 for “solely budgetary reasons.”

For the first time, he explained the kinds of detainees that were sprung from local jails — he said they included detainees held on theft charges, financial criminals and drunken drivers.

“In some cases, multiple DUIs,” Morton acknowledged. He also said 10 individuals labeled as “Level 1” offenders — the most serious classification — were released, but that four have since been brought back into custody. That category can include assault cases but Morton said the detainees were mostly in for financial offenses. Morton stressed that the releases were made on a case-by-case basis and not “willy-nilly.”

“There are no mass releases of dangerous criminals under way or any plan for the future,” he said. But the subcommittee chairman, Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, claimed the detainees could still pose a “risk” and questioned why ICE didn’t seek additional authority to move around its budgeted money.

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Senate Dem Jokes About Making History By Proposing A Budget For First Time In Four Years

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Photo Credit: ozmafan

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., held a hearing on the first budget proposed by Senate Democrats in four years, and the significance of the moment was not lost on her.

“I understand we have a new pope and a committee hearing to mark up a budget; that’s history twice, so that’s good,” Murray quipped at the outset.

Murray, who irritated Republicans by not releasing her budget until after the hearing, proceeded to review the Clinton presidency to make the case for raising $975 billion in tax revenue by “closing loopholes” and increasing by $2.1 trillion over the next ten years.

“If this budget passes, the total deficit reduction since the Simpson-Bowles report will consist of 64 percent spending cuts, 14 percent tax rate increases on the rich, and 22 percent new revenue by closing loopholes and cutting wasteful spending in the tax code for the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations,” she said in her opening statement, adding later that her budget would “tackle our deficit responsibly, reinvest in the middle class, build a strong foundation for growth, and restore the promise of American opportunity.”

Murray’s budget, like her joke, went over with Republicans like a lead balloon. “The blatant unwillingness of Senate Democrats to write and pass a budget for the federal government is not a joke,” a Senate Republican aide responded. “It has led to the highest annual deficits on record, which will have to be paid for by future generations of Americans. I wonder how funny Sen. Murray’s grand-kids will find it when they’re paying a trillion dollars in annual interest payments?”

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Rep. Paul Ryan: House Budget Will Assume the Repeal Of ObamaCare

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Sunday said he will not back down from the battle to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act even though some Republicans think the party should move on.

Ryan dismissed criticism that House Republicans have virtually no chance of dismantling the signature legislative accomplishment of Obama’s first term and their efforts might be better expended elsewhere.

He said his budget assumes the repeal of the healthcare law, in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

When host Chris Wallace challenged him on that assumption, Ryan said he would not give up the fight.
“That’s not going to happen,” said Wallace.

“We believe it should,” Ryan shot back. “That’s the point. This is what budgeting is all about. It’s about making tough choices to fix our country’s problems. We believe ‘ObamaCare’ is a program that will not work.

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Thousands Of Illegal Immigrants Already Released, According To Report

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Thousands of illegal immigrants ticketed for deportation have been released from federal detention centers in recent weeks, according to a report that came out even as the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano denied any involvement in the policy.

Plans to release illegal immigrants in anticipation of looming budget cuts were announced earlier this week, but the report by The Associated Press detailed the policy had already taken effect and on a much larger scale. Citing federal documents, the agency said more than 2,000 illegal immigrants facing deportation had been released from immigration jails and plans exist to release 3,000 more people by the end of the month.

The newly disclosed figures are significantly higher than what the Obama administration acknowledged this week as a “few hundred” who were released without the White House’s direct knowledge. And on Friday, Napolitano, whose agency oversaw the move, said the decision to release illegal immigrants was made “in the field,” and without her knowledge.

Republicans in Congress, already critical of the plan to release illegal immigrants, demanded details, including the number of illegal immigrants released and the nature of any criminal charges they were facing as part of the deportation process.

“Simply blaming budget reductions as a means to turn a blind eye toward the national security of the American people is a dangerous plan, and one that calls into question the department’s preparations for sequestration,” wrote two Republican lawmakers, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

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