DCPolitics

Why Harry Reid Is Ashamed Of His Spending Plan

Hell must have frozen over this past weekend as the U.S. Senate broke a four-year record of intransigence and failure – unleashing a blizzard of votes that culminated with the passage of a budget document that reveals the plans and priorities of the fifty Democrats who supported it. It was…

Hell must have frozen over this past weekend as the U.S. Senate broke a four-year record of intransigence and failure – unleashing a blizzard of votes that culminated with the passage of a budget document that reveals the plans and priorities of the fifty Democrats who supported it.

It was no mistake the Senate Democrats’ big reveal – that they had no plan whatsoever to ever bring the budget into balance – came on Friday evening going into pre-dawn Saturday morning.  Harry Reid and crew were clearly embarrassed by their budget and hoped to avoid widespread media coverage by scheduling votes when they would receive the least amount of attention.

Ironically, Democrat Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) actually had the audacity to complain that it was irresponsible for the Senate to be considering major foreign policy decisions at 3:00 a.m. on Saturday, referring to a budget amendment that passed putting the Senate on record as opposing the United Nations Small Arms Treaty which the Obama Administration is currently negotiating.

Menendez’s complaint should have been with Majority Leader Reid – who deliberately scheduled the vote-a-thon in the wee hours of the morning to keep the results cloaked from real time reporting as much as possible.

But the rationale behind Reid’s “Hide the Budget Act” makes perfect sense.

The Senate Democrats claimed that their budget was “balanced” a grand total of 230 times – as noted by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Of course the truth is the spending plan never even approaches balance.

In fact every Democrat Senator with the exception of West Virginia’s Joe Manchin voted against sending the budget back to Committee with instructions that it balance within ten years. The motion to recommit by Sessions was defeated by a 46–53 margin with Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) not voting.

In other words 53 Democrat Senators — 50 of whom voted for final passage of the budget — made it perfectly clear that they have no intention of ever balancing the budget, despite their orchestrated protestations to the contrary.

No matter their attempts to spin the American people by perverting definitions, the votes – and the numbers behind them – do not lie. The Senate Democrats’ budget creates $7.3 trillion in new debt over the next ten years – and that’s including a $1.5 trillion tax increase.

It immediately increases the budget deficit and grows federal government spending by 60 percent over the next ten years.  Even more stunning, the growth of means-tested spending increases by 80 percent — i.e spending on those who are the poorest amongst us.

This last point is a bald admission that the Democrats who voted for this budget do not believe that their big government policies will work. Nor do they think their budget will grow the economy or ween people away from government dependency. Instead they project that the very dependency that sucks the self-respect from the least of these, will dramatically increase. Incredibly, the Senate Democrats actually budgeted for the failure of their policies.

To put an exclamation point on the devastating impact that the Senate Democrat vision for federal government taxing and spending would have on American’s who want a job, the Heritage Foundation found that if passed into law, it would cost our nation an average of 853,000 jobs per year for the next ten years.

That’s 8.5 million jobs that either won’t be created or would go away entirely if the Senate Democrats’ vision for America became a reality.

That’s 8.5 million Americans consigned to perpetual dependency rather than developing the kind of sustainable careers that our nation’s workers have traditionally been able to depend upon.

That’s 8.5 million disappointments, tears and putting off a vibrant future for another day as American workers are stuck in a cycle of Democrat Senate induced dependency rather than being able to stand on their own two feet to determine their own futures based upon their ability and hard work.

That’s simply unacceptable and inexcusable.  Yet, it is the consequence of a Senate Democrat vision that dramatically increases government, puts another $7 trillion onto the national debt, all the while sucking an additional $1.5 trillion in new taxes out of the economy.

Thankfully, one of the positives from the Senate budget debate is that our U.S. Senate went on the record on a number of other issues, producing mixed results.

Beyond the UN Small Arms Treaty vote, another of these was the vote of support by 56 Senators in favor of illegal immigrants having access to free taxpayer funded health care should they become legal under a future immigration reform bill.

Another vote that is good news for those who believe in free markets but bodes ill for those in the Obama Administration who hope to pass a carbon tax, as 53 Senators rejected this holy grail for the environmental left on a bi-partisan basis.

This past weekend was indeed momentous for not only the Senate Democrats being forced to actually do their jobs and lay out their budgetary vision for the country, but also for the 47 votes taken that put every Senator on record on many of the other critical issues facing our nation.

It is just too bad that Harry Reid was so ashamed of the product his Budget Committee produced that he attempted to hide their work behind a late night curtain.

Rick Manning is communications director of Americans for Limited Government and the former Public Affairs Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Labor. Follow him on Twitter@RManning957.

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14 comments

katlaurenscounty March 26, 2013 at 4:31 pm

Puh – lease. I am embarrassed for SC. The most widely read political blog in SC advertises itself as ‘news’. Not according to professional news standards.This is op ed of an obvious politico. Real news organizations puts propaganda like this (well, better written – opinions that assign ‘feelings’ and intent to opponents are amateurs) under op ed/opinion section. I guess the Limited Government pays FITS to run these pieces. I’m not a member of any political or beverage party. I’m not hypnotized by any of them. Why doesn’t FITS admit this site is really “My Best Buzz for Republicans” or something political?”

Cuz us SC dummies dunno the difference between real news and somebody’s political position, we so stupid we think it’s news what them thar politicial parties say about our court rulings. Hell we gonna vote Sanford in again, that’s how we roll, we jus pray and then we follow the personal opinion of politicos like this Manning feller. Mus be true it’s on that thar ‘news’ site.

Fess up FITS so I can stop holding you to real news standards. Is your intent to be news real, or are you just laughing all the way to the bank?

Reply
rwwllms March 26, 2013 at 7:01 pm

Apparently you didn’t bother to read the letterhead. It’s made very clear that this is a blog and makes no effort to be unbiased. You must be new in town.

Reply
katlaurenscounty March 26, 2013 at 7:27 pm

Well then news is a misnomer, isn’t it.

Reply
Bubbas Brother March 27, 2013 at 1:41 pm

No, the “news” part isn’t a misnomer – you’re a twit.

Exactly what did (God I can’t believe I’m defending Fits here) Fits get wrong? Factually, not a blessed thing. Does he perhaps infer to much? Maybe, but based on his clearly stated lust for attention – Folks and company get it right at least as often as the mainstream media. He’s never pretended to be more than a blogger – other than “unbiased” what are you pretending to be?

If you don’t like his style, CNN and NBCNews are waiting…

Reply
katlaurenscounty March 27, 2013 at 4:29 pm

Seems you didn’t consider the issues on which I base my assessment. Per professional journalism and media development organizations , the issues of blogs ‘reporting’ news isn’t as simplistic as you might want it to be. You’d have to explore their references to get the full picture.

FITS ‘about’ page advertises ‘simple commitment to the truth’.

Truth means different things to different
readers. For instance, do you mean what facts did FITS get wrong, what unwarranted
inferences, what unfounded conclusions did the writers jump to? (too
many to list, see postings from myself and other readers on the
inaccuracies in pieces).

Your definition of truth appears to be relative to other media outlets. Mine isn’t. I practice (not always successfully) critical reading.

Also, non-critical readers see ‘facts’ differently then critical readers.

http://www.criticalreading.com/critical_reading.htm

FITS has, in my opinion, a competitive advantage with a delicously irreverent writer’s view. But unfair
and imbalanced doesn’t have to mean crappy writing and simplistically dumb ‘conclusions’. FITS can have the irreverent view and bias (not to be confused with writer bias that impedes good writing) without resorting to poor writing that confuse
unfounded emotional speculation as conclusions of fact and use stacked unwarranted inferences.

Second, to your assertion FITS never pretended to be more than a blogger, that’s not true. Even if true, see promise of ‘simple truth’ above. Many of FITS pieces (I can’t say if this is true of the past few weeks) assert investigation. Blogging is one activity. Investigation is another. Reporting news is another.

It appears you agree that being a blog means FITS doesn’t have to deliver on promises of ‘simple truth’, investigation, writers can make up their own news and they don’t need solid writing and data integrity. I’m not one of those readers. I expect blogs that advertise news and ‘truth’ to deliver. There are TONS of blogs that do.

katlaurenscounty March 26, 2013 at 8:16 pm

The blog part isn’t an issue. It’s how FITS misleads readers by claiming to publish ‘news’ and investigations without meeting standards of either. Misleading readers under the umbrella of ‘blog’ is the practice of a shyster. The journalism industry is addressing this very issue (you can do the research yourself) with lots of education, training, and seminars offered to improve lack of professionalism in blogs purporting to do ‘news’ and investigation. FITS has asserted a ‘crack investigative team’. There’s no ‘exemption’ from the professional standards of investigative journalism just because somebody publishes a blog, it’s just that these standards aren’t enforceable. Of course FITS owners, as private blog, are legally allowed to mislead. That doesn’t mean it’s ethical – especially for a blog advertising as news. But for buyers (readers) to beware, they have to know. If FITS isn’t intending to mislead, then the owners should publish a statement admitting they know they aren’t publishing to professional standards.

Reply
katlaurenscounty March 26, 2013 at 4:31 pm

Puh – lease. I am embarrassed for SC. The most widely read political blog in SC advertises itself as ‘news’. Not according to professional news standards.This is op ed of an obvious politico. Real news organizations puts propaganda like this (well, better written – opinions that assign ‘feelings’ and intent to opponents are amateurs) under op ed/opinion section. I guess the Limited Government pays FITS to run these pieces. I’m not a member of any political or beverage party. I’m not hypnotized by any of them. Why doesn’t FITS admit this site is really “My Best Buzz for Republicans” or something political?”

Cuz us SC dummies dunno the difference between real news and somebody’s political position, we so stupid we think it’s news what them thar politicial parties say about our court rulings. Hell we gonna vote Sanford in again, that’s how we roll, we jus pray and then we follow the personal opinion of politicos like this Manning feller. Mus be true it’s on that thar ‘news’ site.

Fess up FITS so I can stop holding you to real news standards. Is your intent to be news real, or are you just laughing all the way to the bank?

Reply
rwwllms March 26, 2013 at 7:01 pm

Apparently you didn’t bother to read the letterhead. It’s made very clear that this is a blog and makes no effort to be unbiased. You must be new in town.

Reply
katlaurenscounty March 26, 2013 at 7:27 pm

Well then news is a misnomer, isn’t it.

Reply
The Colonel (R) March 27, 2013 at 1:41 pm

No, the “news” part isn’t a misnomer – you’re a twit.

Exactly what did (God I can’t believe I’m defending Fits here) Fits get wrong? Factually, not a blessed thing. Does he perhaps infer to much? Maybe, but based on his clearly stated lust for attention – Folks and company get it right at least as often as the mainstream media. He’s never pretended to be more than a blogger – other than “unbiased” what are you pretending to be?

If you don’t like his style, CNN and NBCNews are waiting…

Reply
katlaurenscounty March 27, 2013 at 4:29 pm

Seems you didn’t consider the issues on which I base my assessment. Per professional journalism and media development organizations , the issues of blogs ‘reporting’ news isn’t as simplistic as you might want it to be. You’d have to explore their references to get the full picture.

FITS ‘about’ page advertises ‘simple commitment to the truth’.

Truth means different things to different
readers. For instance, do you mean what facts did FITS get wrong, what unwarranted
inferences, what unfounded conclusions did the writers jump to? (too
many to list, see postings from myself and other readers on the
inaccuracies in pieces).

Your definition of truth appears to be relative to other media outlets. Mine isn’t. I practice (not always successfully) critical reading.

Also, non-critical readers see ‘facts’ differently then critical readers.

http://www.criticalreading.com/critical_reading.htm

FITS has, in my opinion, a competitive advantage with a delicously irreverent writer’s view. But unfair
and imbalanced doesn’t have to mean crappy writing and simplistically dumb ‘conclusions’. FITS can have the irreverent view and bias (not to be confused with writer bias that impedes good writing) without resorting to poor writing that confuse
unfounded emotional speculation as conclusions of fact and use stacked unwarranted inferences.

Second, to your assertion FITS never pretended to be more than a blogger, that’s not true. Even if true, see promise of ‘simple truth’ above. Many of FITS pieces (I can’t say if this is true of the past few weeks) assert investigation. Blogging is one activity. Investigation is another. Reporting news is another.

It appears you agree that being a blog means FITS doesn’t have to deliver on promises of ‘simple truth’, investigation, writers can make up their own news and they don’t need solid writing and data integrity. I’m not one of those readers. I expect blogs that advertise news and ‘truth’ to deliver. There are TONS of blogs that do.

katlaurenscounty March 26, 2013 at 8:16 pm

The blog part isn’t an issue. It’s how FITS misleads readers by claiming to publish ‘news’ and investigations without meeting standards of either. Misleading readers under the umbrella of ‘blog’ is the practice of a shyster. The journalism industry is addressing this very issue (you can do the research yourself) with lots of education, training, and seminars offered to improve lack of professionalism in blogs purporting to do ‘news’ and investigation. FITS has asserted a ‘crack investigative team’. There’s no ‘exemption’ from the professional standards of investigative journalism just because somebody publishes a blog, it’s just that these standards aren’t enforceable. Of course FITS owners, as private blog, are legally allowed to mislead. That doesn’t mean it’s ethical – especially for a blog advertising as news. But for buyers (readers) to beware, they have to know. If FITS isn’t intending to mislead, then the owners should publish a statement admitting they know they aren’t publishing to professional standards.

Reply
? March 26, 2013 at 5:00 pm

It’s going to be “print, print, and print some more” till it no longer works. Who knows how long that will take…I’d be surprised to see it go 10 years…but it’s certainly a grand experiment.

Reply
? March 26, 2013 at 5:00 pm

It’s going to be “print, print, and print some more” till it no longer works. Who knows how long that will take…I’d be surprised to see it go 10 years…but it’s certainly a grand experiment.

Reply

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