Just when I had hopes that the Republicans would actually correct their path and set the government down the road to prosperity, low and behold it appears nothing has changed.
House Republicans have hired a prominent conservative attorney to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act in a pending lawsuit, legal sources say, and will make an effort to divert money from the Justice Department to fund its high-profile fight.
First off, I’ll point out that this isn’t really adding to the deficit, since the money (should) be one to one. What would have financed defending the DOMA by the Justice Department will now go to defend the DOMA by the hand of Congress.
By why the hell is Boehner picking right now, of all times, to trumpet spending on social issues? Or decisively choosing to only target liberal favorites?
If anything, Boehner should just move to defund the law, like he is with healthcare, and stick the Justice Department with the deficit. Or else try to run through legislation condemning the Obama Administration for trying to decide which laws it wants to enforce. Slap them up a bit, with legislative punishments.
But by insisting the law be paid for, at this particular time, just reinforces what most on the left are already starting to suspect. Pissing money away is just dandy when the right does it.
Nancy Pelosi’s part to play in all of this is the best.
“I am requesting that you disclose the cost of hiring outside counsel for the 12 cases where DOMA is being challenged,” Pelosi’s letter said. She also asked for details on the reported hiring of Paul D. Clement, a former solicitor general, specifically when a contract was signed and why a copy was not provided to Democrats on the Committee on House Administration.
I see she’s a regular libertarian-style fiscal conservative when she can’t send kickbacks to all her friends and connections. But the sad thing here is that I’m on her side.
Someone euthanize me.
What this really reminds me of is that I can’t trust anyone in our government, whether they’re on the right or left. If Republicans were really interested in getting the finances of Congress in order, they’d volunteer some of their own pet projects, many of which are just as pointless and stupid, up for the chopping block.
Take for instance, the Defense Budget.
You’re telling me Republicans cannot find one cent to slash from that budget?
Dr. Robert Gates himself pointed out something like $10 billion that could be slashed from unnecessary R&D and military programs that way outweigh anything we need right now. The Osprey and F/A-18 programs, for instance. Accompany that with a 2% reduction in the broader military budget ($685 billion in 2010) and you have an additional $12 billion.
Put that $20 billion or so up for the Democrats, if they can match it with cuts in their stupid entitlement crap, and you can probably save between $40-50 billion, easy.
Remind me what the target price was for saving (less than that), that we’ve been wasting months over?
It’s not that I don’t love military expenditures. I do. Being able to level a continent is pretty useful when you’re dealing with a world predominantly defined by dictators and assholes. But seriously, do we need to be building infrared space lasers in the middle of a recession? (No joke, $1.5 billion of last years’ budget).
See, it’s not that I have a one track mind for bashing liberals. They just make it so easy. But if Republicans keep pushing their social issues, they’re going to get curb stomped like the Democrats did last election. Healthcare reform was not about saving people money or streamlining the system. It was a social pet project. Similarly, people do not care about fighting abortion; not when those cuts are unaccompanied by other, larger reductions.
Right now is about balancing the budget while not stepping on the toes of business. If people want their Social Security and Medicare, then jack rates and taxes of everyone to pay for it. Whatever programs are left should be broken open, and systematically cut down. For each liberal pet project that gets the guillotine, throw in a conservative one. Maybe when we’re done, nothing will have changed, since it feels like half this money is counteracting itself anyways.
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