House approves dramatic cuts in federal spending

[baked_goldfish]

In a rare early morning weekend vote, the House approved an aggressive plan Saturday to eliminate dozens of federal programs and offices while slashing agency budgets by as much as 40 percent, drawing out more than $60 billion in deficit savings.

Comments

[vulcanicity]

When was the last government shutdown? (The only one I've seen is on The West Wing *hides*.) And how likely is it that it will actually happen? How much does Boehner hate federal employees? What kind of effect does it have on the economy?

I have many questions, I am 17 year old Brit with no experience of such things!

[baked_goldfish]

We did it in the 90s. It ultimately led to people getting completely fed up with Newt Gingrich and his crew, but in the meantime there were some painful furloughs and a lot of non-essential programs were cut off completely. Worse, a lot of essential services were scaled back to bare-bones operations - like a bunch of benefits programs didn't have the funding needed to process certain kinds of claims and paperwork.

It looks like some people in Congress want to pass a short-term extension to keep the government going, but Boehner's indicated that he'd be willing to have the government shut down. Given that this bill likely won't pass the senate, and that Obama would veto on the off chance that it does, it's likely that we'll be in a shutdown-friendly environment by mid-March.

[jessebaker]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_government_shutdown_of_1995... )

[vulcanicity]

in part out of revenge for being made to sit in the back section of Air Force One.
...WHUT.

Why does Obama have to be such a pussy, ugh. This is gonna make for interesting/damn-the-public consequences politics, for sure.

[thewebheadnw]

on the 4th point of government "creating jobs", they can best accomplish that by getting out of the way. Much can be done, reducing corporate taxes, reducing the cost of business and create an explosion of in-sourcing. You can stop government from interfering in markets through subsidy or undue burden. Let the market decide which industries the country can be most competitive in, let the country's creme rise to the top instead of allocating big government largess to politically favored industries. There's a belief among too many people that jobs are some sort of magical creation that are created no matter what the tax burden they face, no matter what the regulatory obstacles thrown in their way, no matter what unions demand, no matter what labor force the educational system puts out, no matter what social welfare enticements are offered to a potential workforce... these all have an impact on behavior.

But who's going to pay for that shit?

[jessebaker]

The rich need to be taxed and taxed HARD, to make up for the taxes they've been weaseling out of paying these last ten years.

You give them all of the tax breaks and they HOARD the money, not making jobs. That means the poor have to fucking make up the difference and that means they put less into the economy and being worked to death by corporations who exploit the poor's fear of being fired, to make them work 3-4 times as hard for even LESS money.

Or have you been in a coma these last couple of years and as such, missed out on how "trickle down economics" was exposed irrefutably, as bullshit lies that only make things worse?

Re: But who's going to pay for that shit?

[filbypott]

I agree with you 100%.

I guess as long as comics fandom doesn't come up we're more or less on the same page. ;P

[baked_goldfish]

Except the government was "out of the way" for the past decade.

Also, a lot of these proposed cuts are just grudgewank from the 90s. CPB, Amtrak, abortion? Please, this is Newt Gingrich's Greatest Hits.

[cindel]

I'm prepared for a government shut down and my boss is also prepare. It's going to be a ghost town in the DMV area.

The simple fact that GOP is still focusing on Abortion and women issues is killing me slowly. Where are the jobs?

[salienne]

"I'm proud of this vote," he said.

Go fuck yourself. :D

[musicpsych]

Why is this considered a victory for Boehner? I mean, it was almost a party-line vote, and what they passed could end up looking a lot different by the time it's through the whole process.

About point 4, I wonder how many jobs will be lost by making cuts to these agencies/organizations (CPB, EPA, etc.).