They’re kidding, right?

March 26, 2009 by lestro

by lestro

So apparently, the Republicans today released their budget proposal, which is very funny.

Almost as funny as this:

“Two nights ago, the president said we haven’t seen a budget yet of the Republicans,” said House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio). “Well, it’s not true, because here it is Mr. President.” He waved a thin document called “The Republican Road to Recovery” that describes the GOP proposal.

That’s funny because Boehner is trying to do a bit of a Ha-Ha on the pres, making it out as though the president is out of touch and didn’t know the Republicans had a proposal, when the truth is, THEY DIDN’T WHEN HE SAID IT.

How dumb do these guys think we are? oh, right:

Republican lawmakers refused to offer details of how much their alternative budget proposal would cost or how much it would increase the deficit, saying they would release overall numbers next week. Instead, they provided a general outline of proposals that included cutting overall government spending except for defense, banning any additional spending for bailouts of financial companies and a huge income tax cut that would make the maximum tax rate 25% instead of 36% as under current law.

They’re joking, right?

First of all, to complain about the president’s budget and then provide no specifics in what you are touting as the Republican counter-proposal is just fucking dumb.

But beyond that, at a time when government revenues are dropping and spending is increasing to fix the fucking messes created over the past eight years by Boehner and his buddies (who had no problem running up huge deficits and borrowing, borrowing, borrowing when Bush (who never once saw a spending bill he didn’t like) was in office), their plan is to cut taxes for the wealthy AGAIN, putting even more of the tax burden on the backs of the middle class?

Even Michael “Humpty” Steele is more together and sane than this.

I have just downloaded the 17-page document (budgets typically run thousands of pages). Seventeen pages? seriously?

And you expect me to believe that this is not a last-second response to the president’s comments two days ago?

Wanna know why you guys are a political laughingstock?

This thing is fucking ridiculous. I mean, totally laughable all the way through.

For example, their big plan is to eliminate the progressive tax system in favor of a two-tiered code: a tax rate of 10 percent for any one making up to $100,000 and a 25 percent rate for anyone making more.

That’s insane. The revenue loss that would generate is completely untenable. it would create a loss in revenue for the gov of between 5 and 18 percent for the various levels up to $100,000 and up to 15 percent lost on those over.

It is important to note there is NOT a number detailing what this would cost nor a single spending decrease to match said loss. Their reasoning?

Republicans believe that future generations should not be burdened by mountains of debt for the misguided choices made by Democrats today…

Fair enough, but how do we pay for the last eight years of misguided choices by Republicans? It’s one thing to oppose anything new, it’s another to pretend like you guys didn’t already sell out the next three generations already.

Even Reagan, the great Tax-Cutting Godhead of the Republican party, realized the mistake he made in 1981 and was forced to raise taxes in 1982 and 1983 at a rate that is literally the Largest in American History. But what do actual facts have to do with anything the Republican party has said in the past 20 years?

The document, for the record, continues to lie about the president’s proposal, repeating the same, tired, bullshit from the campaign, claiming that he would raise taxes on middle class Americans which, especially now that we have seen the actual document, is totally not true. In the Obama plan, only those making $250,000 or more will see an increase (back to the levels it was in the 90s, before the Bush Administration crashed the ship of state onto the rocks). In fact, everyone making less than $200,000 gets a tax cut.

Try and find that mentioned in the Republican proposal, however.

What is fun, however, is to go through and detail the hypocrisy of these fucking screwheads. Like this, for example:

Our inability to formulate an American energy policy is breaking local budgets, hampering our economy, undercutting U.S. foreign policy, and compromising our economic freedom.

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t the US energy policy a product of Dick Cheney’s secret task force made up of oil executives? I mean, put blame where blame is due: it is the Republicans in Congress and the former Republicans in the White House that wrote the policy that is breaking local budgets, hampering the economy, undercutting foreign policy and compromising our freedom.

So why did Boehner and his slackjawed yes men vote for it? Seriously, isn’t this YOUR FAULT Johnny? (their solution, by the way, is “drill, baby, drill” and build nuclear plants. Their idea of “alternate” fuel sources is oil shale, which is very, very costly to produce and actually creates more greenhouse gases in the process, which they, interestingly enough, acknowledge, though they offer no help in regulating them…)

Overall, this document is a joke. A ridiculous sham of a plan filled with stale, failed ideas, rushed out at the last minute and packaged in falsehoods, lies, and bullshit. It’s like a junior high kid’s idea of what the federal government does and how to fund it. Though considering one of the main voices in the conservative movement is a 14-year-old, perhaps that’s not far off…

The Republican proposal is available here, on the House GOP Web site (which, by the way, now bears a very striking and obviously copied resemblance to the styles used by the Obama campaign and White House…).