Trump (re) Balloons the Debt

The budget sucks.

We've been hearing about debt and deficits since we were a kid. Ahhh….we can hear Mark Russell singing The Deficit Blues now.*

So what else is new?

We've always believed some crisis would force fiscal discipline on Washington. We believed that crises was the Great Recession. We were wrong.

Sorry, America. You don't care about deficits and debts so this blog doesn't see why it should care about deficits and debt

This is the budget and the debt you wanted, America.

Enjoy.

*Don't ask, Millennials 

Le Budget de Trump

Personally we've vacillated between the budget is ok, to the budget aint so bad, to the budget is a travesty, to the budget aint so bad and finally back to the budget is ok.

Do you people whining about this spending bill realize the GOP just got the Dems to fork over an extra $60 billion for defense?

Your average Democrat hates the military. This is the party that 10 years ago was actively working against the armed forces in Iraq. Look I'm not blaming you for that, Dems. It's in your DNA. The Iraq War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Civil War....

Anyway, I remember when the Berlin wall came down the Dems were screaming that the defense budget should be cut in half with money for Abrams tanks going to Congressman Barney Frank's program for at risk young men. To a Democrat a mid-course interceptor comes at the cost of thousands of community grants for transgendered performance artists. Your typical Dem looks at a new Virginia class submarine and thinks, 'Ted Kennedy's Buick didn't cost that much and it could go underwater.'

So this money for defense is a big fucking deal, to use VP Biden's terminology upon passing Obamacare, which is not subsidized in this bill. That's a hell of a lot more important than the actual budget.

Senator Rand Paul is doing yeoman's work actually reading the damn thing, something the rest of these plonckers won't do.

[Ploncker's-Ed]

I'm on a roll...anyway Paul is finding 10m here, 55m there.

Not only is that not the change you find in your dryer, that's not even the lint in the collection basket.

The big budget busting items are Defence, Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. If you're into fiscal responsibility - I just threw up even typing those words - those are the items that matter, and nothing else.

These budgetary issues will be forgotten in 10 days and we can all get back to hammering Robert Mueller and waging war on the Deep State, all of which matter a hell of a lot more than this bill.

But all you whiners are correct, really. Hotair says it better than I could, the GOP is a soulless party. I've been following these people my entire adult life, and they don't mean it, not since Newt got his beans re-fried in the government shutdown of '95, twenty-three freaking years ago. Which happens to be the last time anyone bothered to even try to do anything about Medicare.

Sorry folks. No one cares. There is no constituency for fiscal responsibility.

[There's those words again-Ed]

I know, right?

By the way, I think Trump is in a good negotiating pos with the Dems vis a vis the wall, DACA and all the rest, which is a hell of a lot more important than the budget.

So budget that.

Now myself and familia de Stroock are off for a long weekend in Washington, which thankfully is not closed.

With Republicans like these...

...Who needs Democrats? Am I right people?

What's the deal with budget?!

[OK, Jerry-Ed]

We stand by our assessment that the budget doesn't suck balls, but still.

The GOP controls the House, Senate and presidency, you think they could rein things in a bit? The budget sends federal grant money to 'sanctuary' cities nullifying federal law. These losers can't even defund NPR and PBS,  organizations that want them all dead.

Our own Congressman Leonard Lance is pretty much a total wanker. So why do we keep voting for him?

He does tele-town halls where people call in and ask questions. We actually chewed Lance out a bit during 2015's budget cave in, an event that helped pave the way for Trump.

This budget cave in helps pave the way for a Democrat House.

The Budget: Does it Suck Balls?

No it does not suck balls.

The obvious bad is the increased spending, showing that the GOP never has  been and will never be serious about the debt, the deficit, etc etc. This is issue has festered our entire adulthood. Sorry budget hawks, no one cares. No one. Including Trump.

Aside from the spending, which should be taken as read, there's lots to like.

-$70 billion for defense
-$1.6 for the wall
-Nothing on DACA and DIMers (Descendants of Illegal Migrants)
-No Obamacare subsidies

Is it a great deal? No. The bigger issue is DACA and DIMs. The wall gets started, the Dems will have to explain to their constituents why the wall gets billions but the DIMs get nothing. Trump is in an even better negotiating position than before.

Hasn't anyone ever read The Art of the Deal?

So we're pretty happy with what we have here. Also, we're taking a family trip to DC next week, and we would have been pissed if the government was shutdown.

Dr Paul is Right

Actually, as with Dr. Samuel Johnson, so as with Dr. Rand Paul.

[You sure that's a sentence?-Ed]

Where trying to quote Dennis Price in Kind Hearts and Coronets.

[I'm not even sure what that means-Ed]

Neither am I.

So Rand Paul filibustered the budget deal last night. Everything he said about taxes, spending...yada-yada, was absolutely correct.

The 'fiscal responsibility' thing is done, over, kaput.

This budget deal puts a stake through the heart of the old Tea Party movement of 2010. The budget deal then goes right through the Tea Party corpse, rips a hole in the space-time continuum, and scores a double-tap head shot on the Republican class of 1994, the old 104th Congress.

[How can a stake score a double tap?-Ed]

That's okay, we could never make anyone care about deficits anyway. 

Speaker Paul Ryan (Wimp, Summer's Ever) says they'll deal with entitlements at some point.

Yeah sure.

Those lines work with him, I guess. Good thing Paul Ryan was never a teenage girl.

Budget Deal, Budget Steal

So the Senate has a budget deal which we presume Paul Ryan (R, Massengill ) will strong-arm through the House.

There's a ton of defense spending in the bill and we understand the Dems got money for transgendered transition training centers and minority self esteem playgrounds. We also hear they earmarked $500,000 for UC-Berkeley's new Lesbian Poets of Kurdistan program. 

Congratulations.

Until Paul Ryan axes funding for the commies at NPR and PBS we are uninterested in these budget fights. Those perverts want us Normies to die in a fire but the nancy-boys in the House won't even touch their sinecures.

['Us Normies'? Wanna go through your search history?-Ed]

The True Believers in the House Freedom Caucus are balking at the spending increases but these are really small potatoes. Something like 2/3rds of non-discretionary spending is Medicare and Social Security. That's where the action is.

Fixing social security is easy. Just raise the age. In a perfect world we would make ineligible anyone born between 15 September, 1945 and 22 November, 1963. But we have mommy and daddy issues and recognize our bias on the matter.

We don't even know where to begin on Medicare.

This is a decent deal GOP, take it.

Also the budget deal takes away Dem leverage in DACA negotiations and splits the leadership from the base on the DIM (Decedents of Illegal Migrants) issue.