America on the Precipice of Government Shutdown and Nobody Cares

Last night in the darkness, the Senate and the House overwhelmingly approved a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government for a couple more days.  Until Tuesday to be exact.

Why did they do this?  Because if they had not, our federal government would have shut down at midnight tonight.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that. Because it’s not the lead on any news network or website.  I had to google it after looking for the past 2 days for a legitimate headline talking about the fact that Congress has had an entire year to pass a budget and still has not done so.

Hard core conservatives are railing against this new Omnibus Bill.  $1.1 Trillion, and over 6000 earmarked projects to boost the election prospects of the tired old souls who managed to stay in office through November’s carnage.

This continuing resolution for 3 days is a bad Omen from my perspective for several reasons.

1. Validation of total incompetence
2. It means that the Republicans who were saying “no way in he$$” to this bill 24 hours ago, might see a way to pass it.
3. By not killing it, the conservatives are already beginning to sell out after cashing in on a Nov victory.
4. By trying to get this done, it means the White House is completely ignoring the message they were sent this last election cycle.

What we can look forward to?  More compromise.  The type of compromise that gives Republicans and Democrats what they each want, and leaves us holding the bag and the bill for more rampant spending.

Tuesday is a world away in political terms, it’s going to be an interesting 72 hours.

Guest Blogger Jeff

Republican Hypocrisy

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Sen. John Kyl, Republican of Arizona, was for earmarks, then after the election he was against earmarks, but now it looks like he’s for them again, requesting and earning a $200 million earmark for a specific interest in his home state, stuck into a larger bill (definition of an earmark). Check out this story.

Please Mr. President – Keep a Promise

As if our little blog could impact public policy…

Today, I call on President Obama to throw down the gauntlet, and challenge the Congress to send him a budget bill with zero pork.

Talk about a political win for the President.  It would seem too easy for him to score points this way.  What a coup! The Congress gains back a measure of trust from the people, and the President score’s big going into the mid-terms.

The cynic in me says this will never happen, but from a practical standpoint, there is no reason why it shouldn’t.

The President could direct the states to the $$ Billions left in grants from the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act.  If you check out Recovery.gov, you’ll see that much of the money doled out has that scent of bacon anyway.  And there is plenty of money left.

I’m certain that any reasonably legitimate project, that might otherwise have gotten inserted in the middle of the night to the budget bill, would likely end up getting funding through existing grants.

All sarcasm aside, this is a great way for the administration to show a level of transparency by forcing earmarks through the recovery.gov website, and still ensure that truly legitimate programs that create jobs or serve other higher purposes, can have a source of funding.  What a great way to take earmarks out of the equation for budget negotiations and spend from the pot of money already allocated.

Am I a democratic strategist now?

What do you think?

Guest Blogger – Jeff Hine