docrob Loc: Durango, Colorado

WASHINGTON -- Republicans are sounding increasingly angry with the deficit-cutting deal, which was pushed through by their own leadership in the House, passing Congress last summer, and requires deep cuts to the military budget starting at the end of 2012.

The Budget Control Act set up the ill-fated Super Committee that was supposed to find up to $1.5 trillion in savings, or trigger "sequestration" -- automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion divided between defense and other programs.

The committee failed, and starting in January, the Department of Defense must find more than $500 billion in cuts over the next 10 years. While some Republicans opposed the sequestration scheme at the time, their dissatisfaction is becoming increasingly widespread -- and blunt.

"I thought it was the dumbest idea in a body known for dumb ideas," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday. "It was ill-conceived ... and the penalty clause was just crazy. From a Republican point of view, we lost our way. The party of Ronald Reagan would never have allowed this to be on the table."

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) said defense spending should never have been linked to taxes and the deficit.

"You're constantly being given false choices," Rubio told reporters this week on Capitol Hill. "'If you want to save national security, you have to agree to raise taxes that will hurt our economy.' Well, that's a false choice and quite frankly it's a destructive one."

"It's one of the reasons why I voted against this so-called compromise a year ago. It was a terrible idea back then, and now we're seeing how bad it really is," he said.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said Wednesday that he didn't think the sequester would ever really kick in, and that the so-called Super Committee designed to find cuts to stop the sequester would not be effective.

"I think many of us back then who voted against the Budget Control Act didn't like the idea of the Super Committee, and so always figured that the Super Committee would probably arrive at something stupid, dumb or not productive," Walsh told HuffPost. "So yeah, I still hold that opinion as well. We never believed, as well, that there would be enough folks up here who would really let sequestration happen."

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) said the whole sequester idea was based on a phony premise, and that risking funding for the military is irresponsible.

"They somehow made the argument, and it was bought, that if we didn't pass that, we would have to default on the debt, which isn't true," Bartlett said. "I wish that we would have been responsible then. Now it's time."

Even members who voted for the sequester now have second thoughts.

"I thought the purpose of the original sequester was to incentivize the Super Committee to cut a measly 2 percent off this big massive bloated government operation, and it failed to do that," said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee. "Hindsight may be clear, but at the time it seemed like a good incentive for an awfully small spending cut."

Some lawmakers have positive things to say about the sequester -- if not about their colleagues.

"No, it wasn't a mistake," said Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), who recently announced he is not running for reelection. "What it was was, it made sequestration so horrible that if you listen to what [House Speaker John Boehner] said, it was designed to be so disgusting and distasteful for anybody that it would never happen. Well, guess what? It happened."

Now he thinks the push to find some way to undo the deal is less than honorable.

"If we undo sequestration, we're going to go from wherever we are now to 9 percent, 7 percent [in opinion polls] -- it's only going to be friends and family that think we're doing a good because we sold that as, 'If we don't do our work, this horrible things going to happen.'" LaTourette said. "Now, the horrible thing's not going to happen -- maybe -- and so I think that's a black mark on the government."

He also thinks his colleagues are making a fresh mistake in focusing on saving the military budget.

"If you don't do the sequester on defense, where do you think the money comes from? It's not coming from Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid," he said, referring to the fact that those programs are mandatory, and must be funded. "It comes from the smaller and smaller pot of all of the things that the federal government does. Imagine, of the $3.6 trillion [the government spends] we're down to less than $600 billion a year for everything that the federal government does except defend the country. That's crazy."
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So these guys Lindsey Graham, Joe Walsh (not the Eagle), Bohnner, Rubio, Brady et al openly admit that they come up with "dumb, bad, horrible, disgusting, ill-conceived, and crazy" ideas all the time and on top of that "no one ever really thinks" and I'm sitting here wondering:

....we pay these guys $170k per year to work 103 days and not think or simply spew out ill conceived and crazy ideas?........Boy whose dumb and whose dumber?

Snert Loc: south central Indiana

And they are elected to run the country! Run it where? Off a cliff?
I wonder if there's a dumbass virus that's native to the District of Columbia that only affect people what get elected.

flyguy Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico

And people wonder why the country is in the big ass mess it's in??? :twisted:

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

A most interesting essay:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/08/reform-is-not-enough-the-federal-government-needs-a-complete-makeover/260669/

flyguy Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico

Read it --- right to the point and on subject.

Those in congress are like rats scurrying around trying to avoid any light being shined on their malfeasance.

It will take a complete replacement of both houses with people who are totally altruistic and who have no hidden agendas (if such can be found) to clean up the mess. Career politicians need to be eliminated as well as all the lobbyists and special interest money influence.

docrob Loc: Durango, Colorado

agree. As long as politics is a profession all we will have are professional liars professional glad-handers, and congressional whores...all out to screw us and stay in power. And this is BOTH parties.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

Actually it is the GOP House of NO that has got us into this mess.

Now it is on their plate to get us out of the mess.

NO does not work in government. Government requires governing.

November should solve the issue one way of the other.

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

I cannot help but think about the Vietnamese. They just wanted to live their lives, grow their rice, and raise their children. They didn't want to be communists and they didn't want to be capitalist, they wanted to be left alone.

I submit this describes most of the American people (except for the rice). But some of us have a "will to power," the ancient human lust to mess around in other people's lives, to break things and to hurt people.

Sorry, Sarge, November will solve nothing. The Democrats have offered no great vision for the future (nor even a lesser vision) and they seem dispirited. On the other side, the G.O.P is on fire with a visceral passion everybody understands but nobody wants to admit.

I am no longer willing to dismiss conspiracy theories about an American coup d' etat.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

I think a very small vocal number of GOP members are on fire and the rest more than discouraged.

The Democrats are offering a chance to move into the future with a progressive agenda of education, energy independence and a revised and fair tax code.

Should the GOP win the house, senate and Presidency we will see a further destruction of the middle class which I believe will arise in a strong revolt as they did by electing Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, Clinton and President OBama. They will also give the house and senate back to the Democrats.

The question is will either party learn how to govern. The House has done a terrible job. With all the T Party clamor the first question of their mouths was when will my Government health care start!

I agree with you on VN. I was there from 1961 through 1965.

I just do not see an armed insurrection in the US.

Have a great weekend.

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

I wish that were true, "small vocal number," but each of the T-crazies standing in the way was elected by a majority of those who voted and they voted for people who promised to burn the country to the ground. I call these people "suicide voters" because, when the country burns, they burn with it.

I also do not see an armed insurrection but can imagine the impasse letting things go to hell to the point where loss of governance leads to chaos and people would rather have rule than that. Someone is out there, ready to be our leader when there isn't anybody else.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

Stonecherub:

Remember off year elections tend to not represent the overall electorate. November will tell what course the nation will take.

docrob Loc: Durango, Colorado

Well hate to interrupt the conversation but the point of this post was to shed a little light on how broken our political system is in general and that of course includes both parties AND the complacency of We, the people. We, the people, all this policy gridlock. We allow this kind of shallow and superficial thinking in our politics and our national discourse. The latter of which we have "out sourced" to the "professional" talking heads of all stripe and again on both sides of the ideological aisle. So yeah Sarge if We, the people continue to be more concerned about the price at the pump than health of the planet, and more interested in the latest crime than in what's gone down and continues to occur inside our financial systems (libor et al), and as long as we the people are content to remain on the sidelines making side bets on Wall St as to the future of our country than it won't matter if our next Pres is Obama or Romney and it won't matter how many T - party people are elected because We the people will have told the elected that the electorate really only cares about cheap gas, sensationalist distractions and the Super Bowl.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

docrob

You said it better than me.

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

Amen! Where do we go from Here?

flyguy Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico

Well said!