budget, budget, who has the budget?

[emptystep]

OMG, Paul Ryan is a smug asshole! I am watching
Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Resolution Markup, Part 1 - C-SPAN Video Library

I am seventeen minutes into this and hopefully I will make all eight hours of this four part miniseries. As chairman Ryan gave his little speech about how this was going to put America back on the Path to Prosperity. Now Hollen, as ranking member, is giving his little speech. Ryan is leaned way back in his chair like he is doing everyone a favor by letting Hollen speak. Ryan has a look on his face like, "I don't give a shit what you say because I have the votes and you don't so deal with it." Hollen is railing on the budget and you can tell there has not been the least bit of attempt to address his concerns about the Path to Prosperity. Watching eight hours of this is going to drive me over the edge but the things I do for my country apparently knows no bounds.

If that prick Ryan is not removed as chairman of the Budget Committee you can kiss any recovery we might have goodbye because this guy does not work with anybody.

 

[emptystep]

oops, got to check the email.

 

[emptystep]

Well, Malvaney just spent 15:25 blowing Ryan's dick. And our country is going to get fucked. Could have spent the time talking about how to solve the problems we face. Could have listened to what Hollen just said. No. It's 'us' versus the President and those Democrats in the Senate. I hope South Carolina's 5th district realize they voted for going over the cliff.

 

[emptystep]

This is going to be a long day but oh well. So I'm back to watching the 2013 House Budget Resolution Markup. A few notes so far.
[PP = Path to Prosperity]

Price (R) 6th Georgia: PP cuts deficit by $500B first year, saves $5T over ten years

Back (R) 6th Tennessee: PP will do away with medical boards, PP guarantees benefits

Schwartz (D) 13th Pennsylvania: PP> as costs rise seniors get the burdens, reduces benefits, repels preventive care and other cost cutting methods

Castor (D) 11th Florida: PP ends guaranteed coverage, scraps streamlines of the last two years

Pascrell (D) 8th New Jersey (This guy you got to watch! He's good. 43:25-46:23): PP is a "political document", 13% cut from veterans, the PP defines the battle between the two budgets(President's and PP), PP cuts 33% from education, "this document is not in any way, shape, or form a reaching out", "by providing money to the very wealthy and the multinational corporations this is disguised as tax reform. That's the best one yet. You must have worked hard on that one.", the Affordable Healthcare Plan included entitlement reform

Ryan sits there with a document in front of his face the whole time the Democrats are speaking. I am telling you, this guy has got to go.

 

[emptystep]

Blumenauer (D) 3rd, Oregon (I think it is a yellow-green bicycle on his lapel )
says that he agrees with PP about direct payments, crop insurance is right path (this actually gets Ryan to look up from his document, first image), "takes exception to ranking member saying our friends in the majority making the wrong choices, (Ryan goes back to reading his document) because actually other than the ag you've made no choices, your not going to make any tough choices for the most fortunate and the most powerful yet your going to reduce their taxes and turn around and reduce Medicaid for all our states that are in a downward spiral, that's going to be reduced 45%, or 19M people cut back on food stamps, That did not take much courage, (Ryan looks up from his most interesting document, second image) and it is ducking the issues, in my humble opinion", referring to the Republican members in the hearing how are you going to come up with the $6.2T to make this deficit neutral, there are not enough loopholes, tax reductions. Ryan was pressed on it and he wouldn't say, none of the Republicans in the hearing has said, they are just going to leave it to the Ways and Means Committee to figure it out.

 

[emptystep]

Cole (R) 4th, Oklahoma, President's budget cuts defense budget too much, PP provides enough money for defense

Defense seems to be a strong central theme to the Republican's support of the PP.

Garrett (5), 5th, New Jersey. This person is going to stand in the way of reaching a federal budget. He sits there and blames Obama for all the problems and he misrepresents the PP.

Several Republicans seem to have a level headed idea about how to start working on a budget but then voices support for the PP. (I like saying PP btw, )

Young (R), 10th, Florida, blames President's budget for not being able to create a budget in the House, wants to see the House Democrat's budget. [This mean that not only does the House and the Senate have to reach an agreement on a budget but first the House and the House has to reach an agreement on a budget?)

 

[emptystep]

Damn it's good to be in the Majority. During the closing statements by the Democrats Chairman Ryan just got up and causally walked out of the room without so much as a, "Excuse me, I'm leaving the room now."

For those just catching this post I am watching the Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Resolution Markup, Part 2 - C-SPAN Video Library
from March 21, 2012.

 

[emptystep]

People should know better than to give me information. I will definitely put it to good use.

 

[emptystep]

Watching questioning by Hollen, Ranking Member House Budget Committee, of Austin Smythe, Staff Director for the Republican staff of the House Budget Committee, about how the numbers in the PP were determined. Answer: "We asked the CBO questions that no one knows the answer to and they didn't know so we made shit up."

45:00 of Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Resolution Markup, Part 3 - C-SPAN Video Library

 

[emptystep]

Competitive bidding would save $400 per Medicare beneficiary on the first year it begins, then compound annually. That is based on some damn good guesses. CBO can't give a baseline because, well, basically you're making shit up as you go. Ryan thinks that is a conservative estimate.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

People should know better than to give me information. I will definitely put it to good use.

too stupid, have you ever been given enough information to figure out if you're liberal or conservative and why?

 

[emptystep]

Hollen, "So, just to be clear Medicare, pardon me, in the Affordable Care Act, are repealed. So, just to be clear, that obviously includes donut hole, I assume that includes the coverage of annual wellness and the other preventative services in the Affordable Care Act?"
Smythe, "We assume the repeal of all the expansions in the Affordable Care Act."
Hollen, "Got it."

 

[emptystep]

People should know better than to give me information. I will definitely put it to good use.

too stupid, have you ever been given enough information to figure out if you're liberal or conservative and why?

Cheeezzeee.

 

[emptystep]

This actually gets quite amusing. At 46:40 and it is amusing. At 53:40 it's down right funny.
Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Resolution Markup, Part 3 - C-SPAN Video Library

 

[emptystep]

PP promotes good health. Transportation budget is going from $89B to $57B. Everyone is going to be walking. Why wasn't this thing played on loop for the 2012 campaign?

 

[Rozman]

PP promotes good health. Transportation budget is going from $89B to $57B. Everyone is going to be walking. Why wasn't this thing played on loop for the 2012 campaign?

Pages 2 and 3 are all your posts....
Is this account an alt of TM....
One post right after the other....
Or are you just trying to catch up to her 999,999,999,999,999 posts here???

 

[emptystep]

PP promotes good health. Transportation budget is going from $89B to $57B. Everyone is going to be walking. Why wasn't this thing played on loop for the 2012 campaign?

Pages 2 and 3 are all your posts....
Is this account an alt of TM....
One post right after the other....
Or are you just trying to catch up to her 999,999,999,999,999 posts here???

Here's the thing, Roz, ole buddy,

I wish I could see straight through this thing to the core, but I can't. There is too much fog, or more accurately, too much smoke and too many mirrors.

Rather than at the last minute laying out my grand conclusion of this thing I am throwing out the bits of substance I find along the way. At one time I worked on big software systems. One thing I know about big software systems is that they are not built overnight. I won't think federal budgets are built overnight either but I have yet to find any evidence to the contrary. The PP was turned over to Hollen 24 hours before the vote on it was scheduled. At the moment I can not find a single shred of evidence that the Senate is actually working on a budget or that the House is working to fix parts of the PP. I am believing the Senate is working on their side. I am not so sure of the House even though the PP is looking worse and worse with every passing minute of this briefing I am so liberally sharing with everyone.

This country faces some extremely tough choice in the coming weeks. The sequester was postponed but that was so close it happened almost after the fact. Now I don't hear a single person saying that we should have gone over the cliff only those who say how great it is we avoided the cliff. The thing that gets me is that they say it like it was the inevitable outcome.

I do believe in butterfly wings which puts me here in South America, figuratively speaking, trying to beat my wings like a hummingbird.

So sit right back Roz, ole buddy, and enjoy the ride both of us.

Sincerely,
Emptystep

 

[emptystep]

Roz, this is what really gets me. Hollen and Blumenauer are asking Symthe to explain how the PP cuts the transportation budget almost in half and there is no place where that gets offset,. This kind of questioning have been going on for about half an hour now. Ryan is sitting right beside Hollen like this is some boring movie he got dragged to. He ran for Vice President of the United States on this budget proposal. WTF?

 

[emptystep]

You know who Austin Symthe reminds me of? Ari Fleischer. He would give the White House Press Briefing for G. W.. Artie would be up there and the reporters would be peppering him with questions. Artie was between dodging the question and almost making shit up. You could just see him almost apologizing to the press saying, "Look, you know this is fucked up and I know this is fucked up and you know I can't be honest with you so please stop picking on me." The press seemed torn between feeling sorry for the guy and wanting to rip him apart. Austin Smythe is doing the same thing for Ryan.

 

[emptystep]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZohCRtuK3Ug]Bush Admin Best Moments: Ari Fleischer Gets Laughed Out of the Press Room - YouTube[/ame]