Tell Speaker Boehner -- No More Empty Promises!

In a post on 9/29 titled "The 'Secret Playbook' for Congress' Budget Battle" made during the recent Continuing Resolution fight -- former Congressman Ernest Istook noted the Senate's attempt of secretly trying to waive the promised budget cuts of 2011 made in exchange for raising the debt ceiling at that time....

To start, Friday’s 68-30 Senate vote “waived the provisions” (Congress-speak for “broke the promises”) of the budget rules. The 2011 budget deal promised spending cuts in exchange for adding over $2 trillion to the debt ceiling.

Now Senators voted to free themselves from that 2011 promise. Expect them to offer new promises (to be broken at some future date) to justify another increase in the debt limit.

The Senate vote went mostly unnoticed because reporters focused instead on the vote on cloture. Every Democrat, aided by 12 Republicans, approved the waiver of budget rules; the roll call is online here.

While the vote for the above amended Senate CR did not pass the House, this attempt shows it is clear Congress is willing to waive any previous promised spending cuts. It should also be noted that Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) was one of the 12 GOP Senators that supported waiving the promised budget cuts made in 2011.

With that failure to waive the promised cuts, and now as we move closer to the deadline, we see both sides getting nervous and looking for a way around the promised cuts....

From AFP --

With the next fiscal crisis looming right after the holidays, members of Congress have an opportunity to live up to their agreements on getting federal spending under control. The House-Senate budget conference committee has a deadline of December 13 to find an agreement on spending for the rest of the 2014 fiscal year. Conferees and their colleagues in Congress should pass legislation at an overall spending level of $967 billion.

Despite agreeing to cut future spending in the Budget Control Act of 2011, many members of Congress are calling for passing legislation that exceeds the BCA spending caps. Senate Appropriations Chair Barbara Mikulski claimed on the Senate floor that these spending levels would be “devastating to our economy and to the functioning of government.”

Capping spending is important because it will start to bring the country on a fiscally sustainable path and reduce the burden on future generations. Unfortunately, Congress is poised to continue its troubling trend of unchecked spending and empty promises. The Senate budget resolution adheres to spending levels at $1.058 trillion, and the versions of the Continuing Resolution that Congress considered previous to the government shut down in October was at a $986 billion level. Both of these proposals break the agreed-upon spending caps.

The danger in passing legislation that exceeds $967 billion, as congressional appropriators would like to do, is that it would sent the message that elected officials in Washington are not serious about cutting spending. It would convey that Congress is happy to talk the talk on cutting spending, but when the votes come up, it doesn’t walk the walk.

Passing legislation exceeding $967 billion would also bring another round of sequester cuts beginning in January. Planning to spend more than the spending cap while relying on sequester to bring the levels down automatically is irresponsible budgeting and unrealistic. By no means is this to say that we should get rid of sequester, however—sequester is the best tool we have right now in keeping federal spending in check. Conservatives fought hard for sequester, and they should fight hard to keep it in place. Although a targeted approach to cutting spending would be better than an across-the board approach, keeping federal spending in check should be a top priority.

No more empty promises. Congress should live up to its agreement by passing a continuing resolution funding government at $967 billion spending level.

As the Spineless Speaker, John Boehner (202)225-6205, has the unique ability to negotiate himself out of a free lunch at a Soup Kitchen and failed on his promise to stand strong against Obamacare, it is of the utmost importance that conservative groups remain vigilant in our chorus of - No More Empty Promises!

Well, Ain't That a Daisy.... White House can still Afford to Smell the Roses!

From Tea Party Patriots --

From Politico, the pain of sequestration doesn’t appear to extend to the White House gardens  today and tomorrow:

Tours of the White House itself remained canceled because the cuts have left Secret Service short on manpower to staff them. But there will be enough agents to staff the garden tours, the official said.

The tours are slated to happen this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Guests will be able to view the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, Rose Garden and South Lawn of the White House, as well as the White House Kitchen Garden.

The tours are free and open to members of the public who can pick up tickets starting at 8 a.m. both days. The National Park Service will distribute them on a first-come-first-served basis, one per person, at the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion at 15th and E streets.

Of course, nothing is “free” in government. The gardens are maintained from a budget, the National Park Service is distributing tickets, and Secret Service agents are on hand. Despite this, while the White House continues to cut tuition assistance for the Army and Marines, as well as tours of the White House itself – but not  President Obama’s golf game – its most important occupant seems to think garden tours are worth keeping.

Priorities.

President Obama to Return 5% of his Salary -- Big Whoop!

As a show of solidarity with federal workers being forced to take furlough's over the Democrats inability to curb their out of control spending habits and the implementation of the Sequester cuts, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and his Deputy Ashton Carter declared they would be returning part of their salary.

President Obama, not wanting to miss this "I'm a great guy" publicity freebie like he does free throws on the basketball court - immediately jumped on the bandwagon and offered to return part of his salary....

From The New York Times --

President Obama plans to return 5 percent of his salary to the Treasury in solidarity with federal workers who are going to be furloughed as part of the automatic budget cuts known as the sequester, an administration official said Wednesday.

The voluntary move would be retroactive to March 1, the official said, and apply through the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in September. The White House came up with the 5 percent figure to approximate the level of spending cuts to nondefense federal agencies that took effect that day.

“The president has decided that to share in the sacrifice being made by public servants across the federal government that are affected by the sequester, he will contribute a portion of his salary back to the Treasury,” the official said. (More...)

With a base salary of $400,000 - returning 5% would be a mere $20,000.  In 2011, President Obama & Michelle Obama claimed a combined $790,000 in gross adjusted income, $1.7 Million in 2010 and $5.5 million in 2009.

This offer of returning a pittance of $20,000, should not only be an affront to the furloughed federal workers but also to all the unemployed, under employed and low-paid working men & women that President Obama claims to be out there fighting for while he frolics in a $24,500 a week vacation home.

In reality, we see the indifference and the "Let them eat cake" attitude of President Obama & Michelle Obama towards the American public with their continued vacationing on our dime, our paying for gun-carrying government babysitter's so his children can take lavish Spring Break vacations at Paradise Island, and President Obama's #2 - Joe Biden also taking his 3rd tax payer funded vacation this year.

In further thumbing their privileged nose's at the soon to be furloughed federal workers that will be forced to eat cereal with water because they are too poor to buy milk, and in placing them behind the Muslim Brotherhood, the Obama's will host a star-studded concert at the White House to celebrate Memphis Soul music.

But not too worry! These soon to be furloughed workers can take solace that President Obama has his best people hard at work on big picture type economic studies that will create jobs for them.  

Fed's Fund Vital Study on Snail Sex & Duck Penises - Cleveland Air Show & White House Tours still Canceled over Lack of Funds

As we face sequester cuts that have Rep. Marcia Fudge (OH-11) of Cleveland and her fellow Democrats screaming as if the world will end, the unemployed, under-employed, or low-paid American worker can still take solace in knowing some important programs & studies funded under President Obama's Stimulus and Continuous Resolution funding will remain in place.

The federally funded National Science Foundation (NSF), being described as, "good stewards of taxpayer dollars," and a future investment that plays into the big picture role of our economic success by NSF Spokesperson Debbie Wing, has recently funded and continued the funding on two of these "important" programs.....

From CNS News --

The National Science Foundation awarded a grant for $876,752 to the University of Iowa to study whether there is any benefit to sex among New Zealand mud snails and whether that explains why any organism has sex.

So far, the grant has paid out $502,357, according to NSF, and could pay out the full $880,000 between now and 2015. (More...)

And looking towards gathering crucial economic insight for future generations, Yale University has been busy at work on an important NSF funded study of their own....

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $384,949 grant to Yale University for a study on “Sexual Conflict, Social Behavior and the Evolution of Waterfowl Genitalia”, according to the recovery.gov website.

Many duck penises are cork-screw shaped and some scientists believe this is because of a form of evolution known as "sexual conflict". According to the NSF grant abstract the study shows that age, environment and breeding changes can impact the penis length of certain ducks.... (More...)

Unfortunately, due to the funding for important economic studies like the ones above and the belt tightening sacrifices we must make under the Sequester, White House tours and the Cleveland Air Show are still cancelled.