All profoundly original work looks ugly at first.
Clement Greenberg
The Transfer of Power:
John Boehner (R-OH) Becomes Speaker
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| Courtesy of Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images |
I accept [the Speaker's gavel] cheerfully and gratefully, knowing I am but its caretaker. After all, this is the people's House. This is their Congress. It's about them, not us. - Speaker BoehnerThis is a quintessential, uniquely American moment of the peaceful transfer of power. We saw it two years ago when George W. Bush handed the reins of the Presidency to the nation's first elected black President, Barack Obama. Today, with 10 of his eleven siblings in attendance, John Boehner was elected the 53rd Speaker of the House. (Note that 5 Speakers have had separate periods of tenure as Speaker. Pelosi clearly hopes to regain the gavel before she retires.) In his speech, Boehner made a notable plea for civility among his fellow Congressmen.
Let's Talk About the Real Deficit Numbers
The Democrats have been paying lip service to the federal deficit and national debt, but let's get some numbers that are highly relevant and indisputable. There are a couple of sources I looked at in writing this segment: Treasury Direct Debt to the Penny; a Treasury bulletin, looking at broad categories of ownership of Treasury debt; and a Treasury chart summarizing international holders of US debt.
At the beginning of the 110th Congress (1/3/07) and Pelosi elected Speaker, the debt was at 6.68T (4.9T public plus 3.78T intergovernmental holdings (IGH), i.e., social security reserves).
At the beginning of the 111th Congress (1/5/09), the debt stood at 10.64T (6.32T public; 4.32T IGH)
As of the beginning of the 112th Congress (today) the debt stands at 13.998T (9.385T public; 4.61T IGH).
The total debt has thus more than doubled; under the last 4 years between Bush and Obama, the Democrats, who controlled both houses of Congress, added more debt than the entire national debt through the end of the first 6 Bush years in office.
In fact, public debt today alone is more than 140% of the entire federal debt at the start of 2007, and no matter how the Democrats try to make Bush the scapegoat, you can't put lipstick on a federal pig. (Among other things, the Democrats refused to pass the 2009 fiscal year budget under a lame duck Bush.) The 111th Congress and President Obama added $3.3T to the national debt--ROUGHLY HALF OF THE SIZE OF THE ENTIRE NATIONAL DEBT THROUGH 6 YEARS OF BUSH.
The top 3 holders of debt are the Federal Reserve, China, and Japan (just under $1T each). (In fact, China, year over year last October, has not significantly increased its net holdings, while Japan raised its holdings by about $100B.) If you look at the Treasury bulletin (data summary through last September), total international holdings were $4.2T, roughly 30% of the total debt. More than that is the social security reserve; during this recession, in fact, social security reserves have transitioned in a net distribution mode as some struggling senior citizens have retired early (before age 65). In other words, we are having to issue public debt to make up the difference in outgoing distributions or retirement checks to senior citizens. And since we are in net distribution mode, we can't count on captive payroll payments to cover the operational deficit, so all that spending hidden by forced investment of the social security reserves in Treasuries has to be raised publicly.
Knowing this information, you know realize that it is absolutely critical that we get a grip on entitlements. The "don't worry, be happy" message by the Democrats on fixing social security is a departure from reality. Not only that, but Medicare is in even a worse position. The same Congress, which tried to force cost savings on doctors by automatically cutting reimbursements, ends up passing "doc fixes". Doctors are basically subsidizing Medicaid/Medicare patients from private-sector plans/payments. What happens when you increase the proportion of the former at the expense of the latter? It's unsustainable. Never mind the intellectual dishonesty of using unprecedented Medicare cuts (which are needed to shore up the grossly underfunded program) in a shell game comparing a smaller number of benefit years to revenue years to fund a new, separate entitlement and manufacture a rigged "surplus" (while keeping doc fixes out of the mix...)
Death Panel II Dropped: Thumbs UP!
I had discussed in a post-Christmas post that the Obama Administration was attempting to quietly work around failed legislative attempts to raise end-of-life consultations as part of the protocol for new annual wellness exams performed by Medicare-reimbursed doctors. This provision has now been dropped by the Obama Administration.
Eric Cantor: Defense Cuts Are On The Table: Thumbs UP!
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in late November indicated both defense and entitlements are on the table for budget cuts. In fact, as I've routinely mentioned, ALL the budget has to be under the knife. There have been enough blown-budget projects across the government; the idea that Defense funding is "more equal", that Defense bureaucrats are better than other federal bureaucrats is simply ideological. Note that I had also endorsed Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction plan, which called for significant, balanced domestic and military spending cuts.
Senate Dems Attempt to Strip Minority Rights: Filibuster "Reforms"? Thumbs DOWN!
Payback is a bitch, isn't it, Dems? A few years back, the Senate Democrats, then in the minority, decided to start using the filibuster in an unprecedented way to systematically block the approval of judges. Dems disingenuously attempted to point to the precedent of Associate Justice Abe Fortas, whom had been nominated by LBJ to become Chief Justice. [Fortas had helped LBJ with legal issues involving his 1948 Senate election.] But, as Byron York points out, the opposition to Fortas was bipartisan, not partisan, in nature. Several senators who were filibustering indicated that they were not doing so to block a final Senate floor vote but wanted to stretch the process out, feeling that majority support would collapse under higher scrutiny. Fortas was also battling some ethics issues including an annual retainer by Louis Wolfson, a Wall Street financier whom was subsequently indicted and convicted on security law violations; there were also FBI discussions of a tax dodge by Fortas with other SCOTUS justices and other scandals.] The Dems were blocking based pure on ideology and were intended to prevent a floor vote, an unprecedented abuse of the filibuster privilege.
Majority Leader Bill Frist was about to introduce the "nuclear option"--essentially stripping the minority of the right to block floor votes involving advise and consent responsibilities--when the Gang of 14 moved to arbitrate the dispute, allowing some of the judges in question reach the Senate floor while retaining minority rights.
After a 59-member strong Democratic caucus lured over an opportunistic Arlen Specter to join their caucus, they had a virtual lock against filibusters. (The only leverage the Republicans had, until Scott Brown's unexpected victory in Massachusetts, was the fact that that some Democrats from purple or red states, e.g., Blanche Lincoln, were facing a tough reelection in 2010.) Among other things, the Democrats limited GOP amendments and routinely voted them down in partisan votes. The GOP chafed over the fact that the Democrats had essentially marginalized them, and they sought to assert their relevance as Senate rules allowed. Still, the Democrats proudly crow about the hundreds of bills they were able to enact during their last term in office. Those obstructionist Republicans, I guess, just missed a few.
Tom Udall's (D-NM) (from the Senate majority party, of course) wants to change the rules, which basically translates into an attempt to strip minority party rights. News reports indicate Majority Leader Reid will likely recess the resolution for 20 days to enable negotiations with Republicans, indicating Reid doesn't have the votes yet. The only item I favor of the 3 Udall proposals involves the idea of a single senator being able to put a secret hold on an appointment or bill.
Political Humor
A few originals:
- Gallup just noted that Barack Obama's approval rating, during a period during which Obama was on vacation in Hawaii, has reached 50 for the first time since last spring. The President doing nothing, mostly staying out of the public eye: no wonder his numbers went up!
- New Hawaiian Governor Neil Abercrombie decided to help Obama search for his birth certificate at his grandparents' home while the President was on vacation, but they still couldn't find it. Julian Assange thought about calling Obama on his unlisted Blackberry number to let them know they were getting colder...
Taco, "Puttin on a Ritz"
