Newt Gingrich: Obama bullying House GOP

[emptystep]

President Barack Obama is attempting to “bully” House Republicans over the debt ceiling, and the GOP should seek a different fight, Newt Gingrich said on Tuesday.

“This president is deliberately seeking confrontation,” Gingrich, a 2008 presidential hopeful, said on CBS’s “CBS This morning.” “I think he’s going out of his way to bully the House Republicans.”

Gingrich said that instead of getting bogged down in a battle over raising the debt ceiling, House Republicans should find leverage by turning to continuing resolutions and the sequester.

Read more: Newt Gingrich: Obama bullying House GOP - Katie Glueck - POLITICO.com

What does he mean when he says House Republicans should find leverage by turning to the sequester?

 

[emptystep]

Gingrich said. “It’s much better for the House Republicans to say, ‘This is what we’re prepared to do: we’ll pass a year-long continuing resolution for national security…There are dozens of places you can dramatically change spending without having to get involved in a general crisis over the U.S. debt.”

Read more: Newt Gingrich: Obama bullying House GOP - Katie Glueck - POLITICO.com

Continuing resolution? What's that?
Understanding Continuing Resolutions and Government Shutdowns

Just What Is a Continuing Resolution? The President sends his proposed budget for the coming fiscal year to Congress each February. The fiscal year starts about eight months later, on October 1. The Congress divides the budget proposal into 12 separate appropriation bills, so technically, there isn't one budget, but rather 12 separate budgets that must be passed by Congress and signed by the President before October 1.

If any one of the appropriations bills is not passed, then the agencies and programs covered by a particular bill is potentially subject to "shutdown" if there is not a Continuing Resolution to provide temporary funding. Sometimes Congress is close on an agreement, so a Continuing Resolution (also called a "CR") may be for only a few days until it passed a bill and the President signs it. Sometimes the CR is extended multiple times. And sometimes there is a longer-term CR, even covering the remainder of the fiscal year.

That does not have any side effects, does it?

But the CRs also have negative impacts because of the uncertainty they pose for agency operations. Because agency managers cannot plan for spending beyond the timeframe of a CR, they have developed ways to cope with the uncertainty and delay. Several of their coping strategies include:

Hiring freezes, to control personnel costs. As positions become vacant, agencies leave them unfilled.

Furloughs, especially in cases where agencies fear a shutdown. Since notices have to be sent out in advance, even if a furlough does not occur, this creates staff turmoil and causes some to seek alternate employment.

Personnel shifts are stopped, even if an agency is shifting its mission priorities to another area. For example, the Bureau of Prisons could not maintain or improve the ratio of correction officers to inmates, as the inmate population increased.

Training and travel delays, which oftentimes cannot be made up at a later date.

Delays in operations such as Veterans hospitals delaying regular maintenance and the Bureau of Prisons bringing additional prison capacity on-line because of the inability to hire staff.

Shorten contract competitions because agencies have limited time left in a fiscal year, however this means they are not able to fully compete and award contracts and this results in less competition and a rush to obligate funds before they lapse at the end of the shortened fiscal year.

Use shorter-term contracts and grants so the duration of the contract or grant does not exceed the duration of a CR. This increases contract and grant transaction costs and more frequent transactions can lead to errors in the contracting process since procurement and grants personnel are stretched to meet a higher workload.

Forgo maintenance in order to conserve funding for other costs that are harder to defer, such as payroll or utilities. However, forgoing maintenance oftentimes leads to higher future costs because of deterioration of ships, roads, or buildings needing maintenance.

Targeted reductions of programs or activities that are planned but not yet begun. This is increasingly being used instead of the more typical across-the-board reductions of all programs.

Delayed implementation is another way to save monies in the short term, but this can have an effect on operations, for example a new air traffic control tower was built in State College, PA but sat empty in the spring of 2011 because FAA could not hire the air traffic controller to staff it.

Delayed payments can occur, as well. For example, President Obama announced that the scheduled pay increase for federal employees would be deferred, at least for the duration of the fiscal year 2013 CR.

Well, that's not so bad. Anything else?

What Are Some of the Adverse Effects of CRs? While none of the various coping mechanisms noted above are optimal ways of running an agency, there are other adverse effects caused by the use of CRs that increase costs to agencies:

An inability to terminate activities that have been determined to be unnecessary. Because CRs typically require ongoing activities to be continued, and new activities are prohibited, there are some cases where agencies must continue funding operations that were slated to be closed.

Time wasted preparing for shutdowns and CRs. Agency budget officers and managers are required to prepare for contingencies that may not happen and as a result, they develop shutdown plans, furloughs, etc. that oftentimes are a waste of time.

Time wasted revising budget execution plans. Even when a CR is enacted, agency budget execution guidance and reporting becomes necessary to ensure agencies adhere to whatever constraints are in the new law. For example, days after the latest CR, OMB issued guidance on how agencies must implement the new law. The guidance was longer than the CR itself!

Increasing procurement workloads occur when agency procurement officers must enter into shorter-term contracts or exercise contract options to reflect the duration of a CR. Joyce cites instances where agencies have been forced to break up a one-year contract into weekly or monthly contracts. The same happens with grants, as well.

While there are no easy solutions, Joyce offers some advice to agencies to better manage in an environment of budgetary uncertainty, such as agencies hiring earlier in the year, and delaying renewals of non-recurring contracts and competitive grant awards to the second half of the year.

His key advice, though, is "The Congress should prohibit itself from using continuing resolutions!"

 

[zeke]

Fuk I get tired of listening to the rehtugs whine. Don't they ever shut up and do something constructive? Ever?

They talk the big talk then get their asses handed to them and then whine and cry like a prison bitch.
Pitiful. Obama needs to bitch slap them for the next month or so. Listen to them cry and cry.

Obummers being mean to us. We tried to fuk him and failed miserably. Then he started picking on us. Oh the heartbreak we feel that the President doen't like us. Whine whine whine.

 

[jwoodie]

How about passing a federal budget, as REQUIRED by the CONSTITUTION? (Ever heard of it?)

 

[SniperFire]

Obama is the first POTUS since Lincoln to consider other Americans the enemy.

 

[courseofhistory]

Newt Gingrich should shut up! Disgraced former S of the House! He has no moral authority to criticize Obama. He is excercising his powers as President and not "bullying".

 

[boilermaker55]

Isn't this the idiot that was speaker of the house that shut down the government.
He is whiner!

 

[Sallow]

President Barack Obama is attempting to “bully” House Republicans over the debt ceiling, and the GOP should seek a different fight, Newt Gingrich said on Tuesday.

“This president is deliberately seeking confrontation,” Gingrich, a 2008 presidential hopeful, said on CBS’s “CBS This morning.” “I think he’s going out of his way to bully the House Republicans.”

Gingrich said that instead of getting bogged down in a battle over raising the debt ceiling, House Republicans should find leverage by turning to continuing resolutions and the sequester.

Read more: Newt Gingrich: Obama bullying House GOP - Katie Glueck - POLITICO.com

What does he mean when he says House Republicans should find leverage by turning to the sequester?

I dunno.

But he the last person to give advice to Republicans on how to leverage anything.

 

[Sallow]

Obama is the first POTUS since Lincoln to consider other Americans the enemy.

Guess you missed that whole "You are with us or you are with the Terrorists" speech given by George W. Bush in the run up to the illegal invasion of Iraq.

 

[Sallow]

How about passing a federal budget, as REQUIRED by the CONSTITUTION? (Ever heard of it?)

Yes..

The Congress should get that done, no?

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Newt Gingrich: Obama bullying House GOP

 

[SniperFire]

Obama is the first POTUS since Lincoln to consider other Americans the enemy.

Guess you missed that whole "You are with us or you are with the Terrorists" speech given by George W. Bush in the run up to the illegal invasion of Iraq.

You are an easy mark, swallow.

He was speaking about our coalition partners (other nations)

"A coalition partner must do more than just express sympathy, a coalition partner must perform," Bush said. "That means different things for different nations. Some nations don't want to contribute troops and we understand that. Other nations can contribute intelligence-sharing. ... But all nations, if they want to fight terror, must do something."

CNN.com - 'You are either with us or against us' - November 6, 2001


Not only are you an immoral liar, you are low hanging fruit.

LOL

 

[Ringel05]

Yup, politics as usual........ on both sides...... hysterical, ain't it........

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Yup, politics as usual........ on both sides...... hysterical, ain't it........

Makes you want to move to Canada.

 

[Ringel05]

Yup, politics as usual........ on both sides...... hysterical, ain't it........

Makes you want to move to Canada.

And miss all this fun??!!

 

[Richard-H]

The Republicans do NOT want to cut spending, nor do they want to negotiate a budget - balanced or otherwise.

What they want is continued political confrontation and continued brinksmanship so that they can demonize the Democrats.

They have no interest in actually executing their responsibilities to govern. Everything is politics to them.

If anything they seem to be pushing to destroy the U.S. Government and America as a whole with it:

"A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand"

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Yup, politics as usual........ on both sides...... hysterical, ain't it........

Makes you want to move to Canada.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFPGKdrQcmA]Trailor Park Boys- Season2 Episode 3 TOP QUALITY 720p HD - YouTube[/ame]


...or, beyond...


​

 

[Ringel05]

The Republicans do NOT want to cut spending, nor do they want to negotiate a budget - balanced or otherwise.

What they want is continued political confrontation and continued brinksmanship so that they can demonize the Democrats.

They have no interest in actually executing their responsibilities to govern. Everything is politics to them.

If anything they seem to be pushing to destroy the U.S. Government and America as a whole with it:

"A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand"

I rest my case...........

 

[Ringel05]

Yup, politics as usual........ on both sides...... hysterical, ain't it........

Makes you want to move to Canada.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFPGKdrQcmA]Trailor Park Boys- Season2 Episode 3 TOP QUALITY 720p HD - YouTube[/ame]​

Maybe I rested my case too soon........

 

[JakeStarkey]

Yup. Newt is pissed that the House can't bully Obama any more than Newt and the House could not bully Bill in the 1990s. This is not a winning battle for the Pubs.