‘Emergency’ Sandy relief bill shows Washington’s fiscal folly
Alternate headline: “This is why we’re screwed.” The Obama administration and Senate Democrats have proposed $60.4 billion in spending, some of which may not have anything to do with helping people recover from the superstorm that hit the Northeast this fall. But the entire lot is being rushed through as part of the “emergency” spending package that has to be passed RIGHT NOW according to Democrats — even though, according to the Congressional Budget Office, only about one-third of the money will be spent in the next 21 months.
What else is the dough going for, if not for immediate relief? Jamie Dupree has the full list of items on his AJC.com blog. ABC News reports that millions of dollars are for federal agency spending that is unrelated, or only tangentially related, to Hurricane Sandy. Another $13 billion of it is tabbed to help mitigate future disasters. Those particular mitigation measures may or may not make sense, and it’s hard to know which are worthwhile and which aren’t when Congress is being asked to allocate the money in such a rushed fashion. For the non-immediate needs, it would be very helpful for Congress to have more time to study them before spending almost three times as much as President Obama’s cherished “Buffett Rule” would generate in new revenue.
And that’s the proper way to look at the bulk of this spending. As ABC News notes, that $60 billion represents almost all the new revenue the federal government would take in next year if Congress also were to pass Obama’s “deficit reduction” bill. We are perhaps days away from going over the so-called fiscal cliff because Obama and congressional Republicans can’t agree about cutting existing spending. So it seems absolutely crazy to rush through a new appropriations bill in the name of “emergency” disaster relief when two-thirds of the money — as much as the annual amount of spending Obama is talking about possibly, maybe, potentially, perhaps being willing to cut in negotiations that just might take place next year if the GOP gives him everything he wants on taxes now — is not going to be spent until sometime in 2014 or after.
Yes, folks, this kind of attitude is exactly why our fiscal condition is so dire. The GOP should insist on funding only what is absolutely necessary now, and discuss the rest next year when said discussion can be more rational.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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414 comments Add your comment
carlosgvv
December 16th, 2012
12:38 pm
Barry
Please explain exactly how “the Republicans stand in defence of the traditional family”.
I can’t wait to hear this!!!
JDW
December 16th, 2012
12:56 pm
@Tiberius…you, your ideas and vision are old and outdated. You like to pretend to wear the mantle of the Founders but for the most part you are deluded and ignorant of both their message and intent.
The proper response to violence in our world is not to arm the populace it is to make such acts as difficult as possible to perpetrate. Rather than wishing for your demise, I simply point out the fact that time is passing and with it your school of thought. Every election there are new voters that have arrived and old ones that have departed. It is quite clear that the new voters do not share your ideas in any great number.
As for the idea of hate, for those of us that know your identify there is a staggering public record of bluster, arrogance and poor judgment. Your record speaks for itself.
There is no mediocrity in my world, simply a track record of past success and an expectation of future achievement. You know nothing of me and yet you feel the need to pontificate and bully because at your heart that is what you are…a bully. I suppose it is why I waste time on you because at my heart I feel the need to stand up to bullies.
CC
December 16th, 2012
1:07 pm
“Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth.”
“A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them which would include our government”
~~ George Washington, President of the United States
MarkV
December 16th, 2012
1:27 pm
Rafe @ 12:37 pm
“By what authority? The first three words, WE THE PEOPLE.”
And as you should know, Rafe, and I am sure you do, that the Constitution establishes the form of our government, which can be called “Representative Democracy.” We THE PEOPLE elect representatives who make laws, and there are the also other branches of government with their functions. THE PEOPLE have the chance to elect periodically those representatives. If the majority of THE PEOPLE desires something, they can get it done through this process. When you think that a group of people – apparently a minority, because it cannot get things done this way – should have the right to get things changed using arms, what kind of system are you advocating?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
December 16th, 2012
1:48 pm
Aesop, there is always free will to question authority, however, no one forced me to take my oath, therefore I am bound by that act to act accordingly. Do you get to choose which laws apply to you? Of course not!
Now remind me again when you took an oath of any importance?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
December 16th, 2012
1:50 pm
JDW, you can try to walk back your comments, but you (like AmVet ) clearly wish for conservatives to die.
Nice.
CC
December 16th, 2012
2:27 pm
“I suppose it is why I waste time on you because at my heart I feel the need to stand up to bullies.”
I wish that no one would ever again be the victim of a crime. Having said that, I wonder what the person who posted the above would think about “gun control” if ever faced with having to defend himself or his family against armed criminal thugs. Would he dial 911 and wait for their response? I’m sure the thugs would place everything on “hold” for him until assistance arrived to support him.
Dusty
December 16th, 2012
2:32 pm
Well, has everybody done their “duty” for the day? Could I call a truce and say that everyone has said what they believe and that is their opinion which they are entitled to give?
Let Kyle weed out those who go “too far”. It is his blog and his decision.
Here at Christmas time with one of the country’s great tragedies just behind us, we might show a little more consideration of each other..
ANDDDD it is gray and rainy outside so who wants to stay grumpy all day!! ANDDd we are still the most fortunate people in the world..(If you don’t believe that., please have a piece of my fruitcake and some Manichevitz. You will be a changed person.) ,
JDW
December 16th, 2012
2:34 pm
@CC…”Having said that, I wonder what the person who posted the above would think about “gun control” if ever faced with having to defend himself or his family against armed criminal thugs.”
I have been robbed at gunpoint once and dealt with both the robbery and rape of employees. In fact during that time I did carry a gun. As I got older and smarter I learned that responding to a robber with a gun in kind is the fastest way for you to die. I have no material possessions that need that level of defense.
As for dialing 911, my house has both a safe room and a hardwired button for police, fire or ambulance. I or my family can react immediately and seek safety if needed.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
December 16th, 2012
2:36 pm
Clackamas man, armed, confronts mall shooter
by Mike Benner
Posted on December 14, 2012 at 10:15 PM
————
Don’t look for this to be reported in the pantywaist liberal media.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
December 16th, 2012
2:48 pm
JDW drops the “bully” card, then points out his only line of defense is to hide and wait for his precious State to protect him.
Typical lib.
Wonder who puts his panties on for him each morning.
Hillbilly D
December 16th, 2012
2:52 pm
With everything else going on at pretty much the same time, you probably won’t hear much about this….
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/793308_Suspect-held-in-torture-of-three-elderly-Mennonite-women-in-Clay-Township.html?page=0
CC
December 16th, 2012
2:53 pm
“Wonder who puts his panties on for him each morning.”
I have no clue. I’m still wondering if his Mommy knows he’s playing on her computer!
Hillbilly D
December 16th, 2012
3:03 pm
ANY relatively solid object, used improperly, can be used to kill someone.
In my own neck of the woods, I’ve known of people being killed with knives, a screwdriver, a hoe, a shovel, and that’s just the ones I remember, right off. I also knew a guy who was hit in the head with a mattock (he didn’t die but was pretty much a vegetable from then on) and another who has a steel plate in his head from being hit with a ratchet. It’s the people who are the problem, not inanimate objects.
Another problem is that there is no longer any fear of punishment. Half the people I know, who’ve built time, laugh about it and don’t really care if they are in or out. There’s no fear of capital punishment because they know, if it’s ever carried out (which usually it isn’t), it may be 20-30 years down the road (see Carl Issacs).
There’s also the problem of the seriously mentally ill, who need to be off the streets for their own good as well as everybody else’s. In today’s world (I know this from experience), it’s damn near impossible to get a person committed, unless they agree to it. The answer you always get is some form of “well, they haven’t done anything, yet”.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
December 16th, 2012
3:09 pm
Hillbilly D, your 3:03 was spot on.
Dusty
December 16th, 2012
3:24 pm
Hillbilly,
I had not heard about the attack on the three Mennonite ladies, most of them almost ninety years old. Another violent thug picking on the most vulnerable people. A coward even carrying lasers to attack and torture. Makes one wonder about a lot of things like current morality, concern and love in its best sense. So much of that seems missing.
MarkV
December 16th, 2012
3:54 pm
“ANY relatively solid object, used improperly, can be used to kill someone”
2005 statistics (I have not found later data, but the ratio has been pretty stable in recent years):
Homicides by guns: 11,346
Homicides by all other weapons: 5,346
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
December 16th, 2012
4:55 pm
Proving Hillbilly D’s point…
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
December 16th, 2012
4:59 pm
Poll: 73% of Americans want the federal government to reduce spending.
md
December 16th, 2012
5:03 pm
“Homicides by guns: 11,346
Homicides by all other weapons: 5,346″
And? Is one supposed to assume that homicides would go down by 11,346 if guns were taken out of the equation?
As I see it, homicides is the operative word, not guns or knives as there were over 16,000 KILLERS involved.
Folks need to ask themselves what all the victims of mass shootings have in common, and the one basic common denominator is that they were ALL defenseless.
md
December 16th, 2012
5:04 pm
” In the years following its ban, Washington did not generate a decline in gun murders. In fact, the number of killings rose by 156 percent — at a time when murders nationally increased by just 32 percent. For a while, the city vied regularly for the title of murder capital of America.
Chicago followed a similar course. In the decade after it outlawed handguns, murders jumped by 41 percent, compared with an 18 percent rise in the entire United States.”
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-03-04/news/ct-oped-0304-chapman-20100304-column_1_legal-handguns-gun-violence-ban
Gun laws ensure one thing and one thing only, that only those that do not follow laws will have the guns.
md
December 16th, 2012
5:11 pm
And the 16k killers is an assumption on my part too as the data given does not indicate if any of the homicides were committed by the same killer.
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
December 16th, 2012
5:20 pm
Mark, I am with you on the democratic process to bring change. I think the framers were thinking of some situation where a President refuses to step down and anoints himself President for life and he has curried favor with the military, who allow him to remain in power. It happens elsewhere and although unlikely here at this time, we are not guaranteed it could never happen here. It almost happened shortly after the Revolutionary war, when the military, tired of not being paid and the disorganization offered the job of King to Washington. Thankfully he was too honorable, honest, and humble to accept, but I’m not so sure some of his successors would have made the same decision.
Saw where a lady murdered her husband with a Tuna sandwich a couple of weeks ago. You never know what evil lurches in the heart of people, and how they will strike out and what tool they will use.
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
December 16th, 2012
5:25 pm
Chicago followed a similar course. In the decade after it outlawed handguns, murders jumped by 41 percent, compared with an 18 percent rise in the entire United States.”
md
Liberal argument, when you point out the policies they advocate have never worked anywhere else, is that the other folks didn’t do it the right way or circumstances were not right at that time. To them socialism is not a failed idea, it is just that the folks who tried it didn’t do it correctly.
md
December 16th, 2012
6:02 pm
And it won’t stop them from trying again and again as some just have to learn the hard way. My last child was the same way, the others moved along after trying various things that they were advised not to, but the last one has to do it more than once (or twice and sometimes 3 times) to get the message.
MarkV
December 16th, 2012
6:10 pm
md @ 5:03 pm
“Is one supposed to assume that homicides would go down by 11,346 if guns were taken out of the equation?”
Has anybody claimed that? But whoever believes that there would have been the same number of homicides if there were not an easy access to guns, does not lives in reality
“Folks need to ask themselves what all the victims of mass shootings have in common, and the one basic common denominator is that they were ALL defenseless.”
Yeh, let’s arm the 6-7year olds with guns!
Streetracer
December 16th, 2012
6:11 pm
Rafe @ 5:25:
The problem is these people believe that they are real closly related to the second coming. Consequently, they can’t possibly be wrong because they have some sort of devine mandate
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
December 16th, 2012
6:15 pm
To quote a well-researched book…
More guns, less crime.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
December 16th, 2012
6:17 pm
Yeh, let’s arm the 6-7year olds with guns!
———-
That’s not what’s being advocated. Unless you’re a simpleton victim of public schooling with no analytical thought processes, you already know that.
MarkV
December 16th, 2012
6:19 pm
ERafe Hollister @ 5:20 pm
Rafe,
I find an argument based on what was considered at the time of the framers and after Revolutionary war rather unpersuasive, and the same applies to consideration of something that is, as you say, unlikely, but is “not guaranteed it could never happen here.” Anybody can dream up any number of scenarios that would fall in that category – should we therefore get ready for all of them? Let’s be a little rational here.
MarkV
December 16th, 2012
6:20 pm
Sorry about the E
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
December 16th, 2012
6:41 pm
Anybody can dream up any number of scenarios that would fall in that category – should we therefore get ready for all of them? Let’s be a little rational here.
Well, I’m an old Boy Scout, BE PREPARED. If you can dream it they can achieve it, if it is possible it is probable. Who would have dreamed that in a blue state with strong gun laws a 20 year old mentally unbalanced nutjob would kill his mother and 20 first graders and 6 other adults.
Who would dream that a 12 poorly educated zealots raised in 17th century society, could commandeer 4 airplanes and fly them into buildings in the US. Who could dream that a former military person could pack a truck with fertilizer and diesel fuel, park it in front of a Federal bldg and kill scores of innocent people, he didn’t even know.
It is never what you expect, that takes you down.
md
December 16th, 2012
6:53 pm
“Has anybody claimed that? But whoever believes that there would have been the same number of homicides if there were not an easy access to guns, does not lives in reality”
Says who, you? That’s pure speculation.
As I said before, those 11,000 died at the hands of killers, and guns don’t make the killer a killer the act of killing does, hence the reason they are still called killers in the 5,000 knife deaths.
MarkV
December 16th, 2012
7:13 pm
Rafe Hollister @ 6:41 pm
As an old boy scout, I am also for being prepared. But as I wrote, one should be rational.
“If you can dream it they can achieve it, if it is possible it is probable.”
As a scout in a war game, sure I could dream that the team we fought the game against would use a lethal gas against us. But I would not have taken a gas mask with me because of that. It possible that my house will be hit by a meteorite, but I will not spend money to make it meteorite-proof.
No, possible is NOT probable.
MarkV
December 16th, 2012
7:18 pm
While we are getting into a discussion of the mental problems involved in the mas shooting tragedies, those adult people with pre-adolescent fantasies about themselves, or about teachers of elementary schools armed with guns, who presumably would have prevented a gunman with an assault rifle and wearing a bullet proof vest from killing the children, also should have their heads examined.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
December 16th, 2012
7:30 pm
or about teachers of elementary schools armed with guns, who presumably would have prevented a gunman with an assault rifle and wearing a bullet proof vest from killing the children
You aim at the head, not examine it, geez.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
December 16th, 2012
7:34 pm
Why is Obozo delaying Sandy aid by larding up the bill with unrelated frivolous spending?
————
NY Post: President Ob[ozo]’s $60.4 billion request for Hurricane Sandy relief has morphed into a huge Christmas stocking of goodies for federal agencies and even the state of Alaska, The Post has learned.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
December 16th, 2012
7:57 pm
MarkV shows his ignorance once again.
Bullet proof vests can keep you from getting killed, but you still get knocked on your a$$ by the impact.
Easily disabled or killed after that.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
December 16th, 2012
8:06 pm
Sandy Hook survivor: “There was nothing we could do. It was just a horrible, helpless feeling”.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
December 16th, 2012
8:20 pm
One of the folks in the Oregon mall wasn’t helpless. He ended that shooting because he was carrying.
Thank you, unheralded caring citizen.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
December 16th, 2012
8:46 pm
We are trying to watch some football and this lowlife pos interrupts that for a political opportunity. This bottom dweller timed it. There are some things that are beneath dignity and he crossed that line and did some stupid celebration in your face. Nothing compares to the crassness of this trash talker.
Politico
December 16th, 2012
8:51 pm
Aesop @ 8:46
Why talk about yourself as if you were on tv and then post about it?
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
December 16th, 2012
8:51 pm
Never let a good crisis go to waste…the mantra of the liberal fascist.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
December 16th, 2012
8:52 pm
Politico, you ever get around to finding where I “demeaned” gays in the military?
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
December 16th, 2012
8:53 pm
This pos stood silent while his people murdered each other by the thousands, day after day after day after day in Chicago and other democrat plantations, but now he sees opportunity to advance his socialist agenda and enslave all of us.
I could say more but I would be banned forever.
Politico
December 16th, 2012
8:53 pm
Aesop
Keep “report”ing and I will check back with you another time….
You are a funny little dude
Politico
December 16th, 2012
8:56 pm
Well, you are used to the bans and suspensions…. Would be nothing new
When you “report”
Take care….
Get your weak anger fixed and work on your faux alpha tough guy persona.
Come across more like a clown…
Hahahahahhah
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
December 16th, 2012
9:00 pm
Why don’t you try making people’s lives less poverty ridden, full of despondency, so pitiful. I have never, ever, seen anything like this, just take over the TV to advance your filthy agenda. What have we come to?
Politico
December 16th, 2012
9:03 pm
Meltdown coming up
Couldn’t change his MONTH if he tried
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
December 16th, 2012
9:03 pm
You know nothing politico and that’s because you are nothing.