House Republicans struggle to find spending cuts

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans struggled on Wednesday to gain support for another round of domestic spending cuts, leaving uncertain the fate of legislation that was to have been debated on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday.

"We'll bring the first part of our package ... to the floor when we have 218 votes," said Rep. Roy Blunt (news, bio, voting record), the Missouri Republican who has temporarily replaced indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Blunt was referring a bill that Republican leaders had hoped to pass in the House on Thursday to cut mandatory federal programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid and student loans, by $50 billion over the next five years, instead of the previously planned $35 billion.

House Budget Committee officials said they did not know whether the measure would make it to the floor on Thursday. Across Capitol Hill, senators were struggling to agree on just the $35 billion in savings.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/congress_budget_dc

[babylonsister]

1. F*uck them! Start with their own damn pocketbooks! nt

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

2. If you are stuggeling to cut something, why not the defense budget?

:eyes:

fucking asshats

[struggle4progress]

25. *forehead slap* eom

[texpatriot2004]

3. Repeal those tax cuts for the wealthy you bastards. n.t

[hang a left]

4. damn straight!!!!!! Criminals!

[Carolab]

5. And they have the NERVE to use our $ to run Medicare ads.

I saw one this morning with "old folk" paid actors saying how great the drug program is and how it's going to save them money!

GGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRR

They have been going on on the Senate floor for the last hour or so about the minimum wage. The Repukes won't even allow an pawltry increase in it.

BASTARDS!!!!

[babylonsister]

9. Carolab, I really thought

you might be a vampire, as you usually seem to only come out at night! :D

[Carolab]

11. A girl's gotta work, ya know?

(Well, at least some of the time)...but nights are mine!

On this board more lately, for obvious reasons!

(P.S. "Listen to them, children of the night, what music they make"...)

[CountAllVotes]

13. they called here at NIGHT

a few nights back they called and asked for my husband and I told them that he had nothing to say to them. They asked me who I was and I told them to Cheney off and hung up.

And we are paying for this HARASSMENT!? :grr:

[Carolab]

24. My 80-year-old mom had the same experience.

They are calling people at home and bugging them about this.

She hadn't enrolled in the new Medicare drug program so they asked her "why not? Didn't you understand it?"! And she told them she understood it perfectly well, but because her HMO plan asked her to co-pay $10 per prescription, why should she change? The woman who called her said "Well! I never heard of a program like that!"

[MindPilot]

6. I know where they can save about a billion every week...

how about GET THE FUCK OUT OF IRAQ??!!

[Megahurtz]

15. Damn Good Idea!!! n/t

[CountAllVotes]

7. no struggle necessary

Just rescinding those tax breaks for the rich you assholes! That will do all of the "cutting" necessary!!! :grr:

:kick:

[cry baby]

8. What would Jesus cut?

That is what I asked my rep in an email. "Would Jesus give more money to the rich while poor and elderly starve and freeze?", I asked.

[warrens]

10. Hey, they could cut back on armor for the kids in Iraq!

Oh, wait, they already did that. How about gutting the Engineer Corps budget? Oops, did that too. How about gutting the hurricane center's budget? Hmmm, beat me to it.

I'm sure that if they hunt hard enough, they can find some completely evil spending cut that somehow slipped by them.

[54anickel]

12. Amazing how they never seem to have this problem when looking for

tax cuts!

[xchrom]

14. lol -- they were blaming their woes on democrats early

this a.m.

whining -- ''oh those dems all they want to do is spend money...''

they won't find those fucking cuts -- and cuts they find won't do a DAMN thing for the deficit and the debt.
THAT they are married to.

[Megahurtz]

16. Yeah, just make sure you guys

scrape it from the bottom up. :sarcasm:

[madmark]

17. If you eliminate the escape hatch of the borrowing you start to get

a real debate about priorities and taxes and spending. As long as that escape hatch is there I think both dems and reps will just nibble around the edges of issue.

[anotherdrew]

21. how much longer can the borrowing go on?

isn't the world about done buying T-bills?

Plus, ever stop to think, that the rich, who always get their taxes cut, then find themselves with this 'extra' money laying around, what to do with it.... hmmm... gotta run the government somehow.... hmmm... I know, I'll lend the money I didn't pay in taxes to the government, then later get the money back with interest!

Can you imagine getting you tax bill back in ten years, with interest? Well, that's exactly what the big money bastards are doing.

Aren't some treasury instruments inflation indexed too?

[madmark]

29. its my understanding that the t-bill market has been propped over

past few years by foriegn national bank purchases of debt, most notably by China. Ominously, China has long been interested in non-conventional, even non military ways to combat the US. Destabilizing the US economy through manipulation of the market for its public debt would be a perfect way and the foundation for such a manipulation has been layed.

[Rose Siding]

18. Reuters: House Republicans fail to reach spending cut deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday failed to round up enough support for deeper domestic spending cuts, forcing them to call off a vote on legislation they had hoped to pass on Thursday.

"We shouldn't expect that vote tomorrow," said Heidi Armstrong, a spokeswoman for Acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican. Armstrong said she did not know when the vote might be rescheduled.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/19/AR2005101901209.html

[iamjoy]

19. How 'Bout Your Own Frackin' Salaries

that's something both Democratic and Republican voters agree could be cut.

[anotherdrew]

20. how about they cancel all their frocking EARMARKS in their omnibi bills?

Oh that's right, the party of "fiscal responsibility" runs on raw pork fat.

just for starters. This earmarking process MUST be reformed on day fucking one of the next democratic house.

[leesa]

22. Let's see...the OBVIOUS choice is the tax cuts for the rich and to begin

to collect corporate taxes, ending corporate welfare. See...I'm not even very smart, but I can solve their problem.

[Darranar]

23. The tax cuts for the rich remain, and the programs for the poor are cut.

It is clear who is really fighting a class war.

[dmr]

26. Domestic cuts to continue wealthy tax breaks & corporate graft

All in the guise of of budgeting. The GOP is a nasty joke on America.

It pisses me off when the elitists call us tax and spend Democrats. The Republicans are the takers and loot-keepers.

We need to adopt a clear and consise message that we are about spending our tax payer's money that benefits the American people. From Medicare & Medicaid to first responders, to the infrastructure in which we live.

Do away with corporate breaks to those that pay little to no taxes with their off-shore accounts, to those who outsource instead of employing those at home, to wildly expensive no-bid contracts ... so on and so forth ...

We need to protect these benefits because one day the average American may need to tap into them. Any American who doesn't have a huge portfolio to sustain them through any crisis that may come their way, should support the Democratic effort. As they say: "There for the grace of God, go I."

[JusticeForAll]

27. Start with ******** faith based funding dammit.

and then repeal their damn wealthy taxcuts.

[Carolab]

28. And even though Hillary brought this up today she didn't suggest cuts.

It was during the minimum wage hike debate.

She admitted that this administration is all about giving favors to the rich--including herself and Bill--referring to Bush said "he likes us (meaning rich people) so much he can't give us enough tax breaks"...

She said "Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of rich people" but then went on to say it is the "working class" that made this country great.

Well, if she REALLY feels this way, why isn't she asking to rescind the tax cuts that she admits they don't really need--rather than asking for minimum wage hikes?

[grateful581]

30. Ditch your Bullshit tax cuts Dumb Asses

[bleedingheart]

31. Cut the programs that help Americans to feed a War in Iraq

that in turn feeds the American military industrial complex that is using Asian labor because they are bought far cheaper than Americans...

it is so perverse that I would almost think it wasn't real...