The Website home of Karl Bullock

April 12, 2011 -- 3 days before tax day

Today some House Republicans are crowing about the deal Speaker Boehner worked out with the Democrats, but the details are beginning to eek out, and I'm pretty sure we got snookered.

Consider this:

Originally, House Republicans wanted (and campaigned and were elected on) cuts of $100 billion, plus a promise to defund Obamacare, NPR, and Planned Parenthood, as well as cut back on the authority of the EPA to regulate so-called "greenhouse gasses". Pretty quick, the $100 billion was slashed to $61 billion, so promise number 1 gone. Then, the opposition decried the use of "riders" on a revenue bill (hey, isn't de-funding "revenue"?), so Obamacare went first. Promise 2 gone.

Then the nose-in-the-air people had heartache about defunding NPR, so promise 3 gone. Finally, "caring" Democrats were on the air actually crying about the loss of women's care if Planned Parenthood were defunded, never mind that the primary care they give is the murder of babies, so promise number 4 gone.

On top of all that, the final deal was whittled down to $38.5 billion, and the libs go on the air complaining about the shellacking they took in the compromise. Well, guess what, we're not done yet!

In the ramp up to the negotiations, there were several continuing resolutions that were used to fund the federal government whilst our masters were talking. In one of those resolutions, $26 billion was cut, and in another at least $10 billion was cut. So, if we'd just made permanent the last continuing resolution, we'd already had $36 billion of the $38.5 billion!

So, we get to this drama last weekend where (GASP!!!) non-essential federal workers wouldn't be able to work (did you get that "non-essential" part?). Hands were wrung, meetings were held, press conferences came and went, caucuses caucused, and the world, it seems, almost came to a halt for.....

$2.5 billion dollars cut from a budget of $1.4 trillion. That's a HUGE savings of %.000017.

Pay attention to your tax form, and the amount of taxes you paid this year, and remember this huge savings when you see what they took from you at the point of a gun. I strongly suspect you paid a slightly larger percentage of your income, so personally, I don't feel so generous. The guys on Pawn Stars made a better deal on a 1986 Buick last night, so pardon me if I don't pop the champaign cork any time soon.