But of Course: Deficit Reduction Commission Asks for More Funding
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
From TaxProf by way of Instapundit, I’m scribbling this hunk of paradox and irony down in the script I’m working on for the movie Dr. Strangelove II or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Laugh at Hope & Change:
Saddled with a tight deadline and great expectations, members of President Obama’s deficit reduction commission say they may not have the resources necessary to meet their task.
The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which the president created through an executive order in February, is charged with developing a plan by December 1 that would stabilize the budget deficit by 2015 and reduce the federal debt over the long term. The group is widely expected to consider a combination of tax reforms and spending cuts.
But despite the weighty demands, the panel has only a fraction of the staff and budget of standing congressional committees. The panel’s own cochairs and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have criticized the meager resources and called for more support.
Reid on May 28 sent a letter to the White House asking for additional staff resources to aid the commission. In the letter, Reid said the commission’s cochairs, former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan K. Simpson, “expressed concern that the commission could use additional support to help it work more effectively.” Reid said Bowles and Simpson characterized their staff resources as “very limited.” Reid sent the letter following a May 26 meeting with Bowles and Simpson.
What are the odds that anybody on the Deficit Reduction Commission will recognize that they’re being derelict in their assigned duties if their first recommendation isn’t to eliminate the Deficit Reduction Commission? I didn’t think so.
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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That is kinda a no brainer hey?
Any gubmint board made up of acedemia will always ask for more money. Acedemia has only one job in modern America, BEG PRODUCERS FOR MONEY, EITHER DIRECTLY OR THROUGH CONFISCATED TAX MONEY. All these folks do is write grant proposals, which is a politically correct term for curbside begging.
The objective they are addressing is deficit reduction, not spending reduction. There is no dichotomy here. Any deficit from runaway spending will disappear once wealth has been redistributed more equitably and “social justice” has become the law of the land. Of course, there will be less wealth to go around and so will be concentrated among those making the decisions.
To get a better handle on this Doug (kidding), you might want review the Chavez plan in Venezuela. Spectacular success. China is a good case study too. They are so good at central planning that history (and economic results too) is written well in advance.
With modern central planning there is no need to ever reconcile reality to the plan. They never make mistakes. Modern leaders are just to good for that.
Such economies are like thermometers that always read 78 degrees by fiat regardless of the real temperature. That way, central planners can never be blamed when people freeze to death for failure to provide proper housing and clothing. That leaves Fearless Leader (aka Finger-Pointer-In-Chief) free to lay blame elsewhere. Such as Fearless Leaders’ hapless, inept and disloyal ministers who can then be humiliated by Fearless Leader on his Sunday “Meet Fearless Leader” show.
As with thermometers, it is better that free markets be allowed to tell us what we need to know in order to make smart decisions. Certain facts are more important others when trying to manage an efficient and prosperous society.
How hard could this be?
* Shut down Department of Ejumacation.
* Shut down Department of Housing and Urban Development.
* Shut down Department of Energy spinning off Atomic Energy Agency as a separate entity.
* Shut down the EPA.
* Get rid of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They haven’t been right about anything in decades.
These steps would be a good start.
Then the commission could ask for a little more money to figure out what to get rid of next…
Fox reported that the Census is overbudget as well… I guess $48 a person to count folks isn’t enough…
And my absoute favorite,
Shut down the Buero of Land Management, and give that land to the STATES, where it belongs.
The idea that the Fed Gov is the largest landowner in America is NOT what the Founders intended.
Pasadena Phil is hereby hired as a screenwriter for my movie project, provided he accepts the position — unless he’s already accepted a job with the Obama administration in return for not opposing Rep. Adam Schiff this year.
Doug, is this a paying position or one of those illegal “volunteer” positions I’ve heard about as a reward for getting me off of this thread?
More mindless goat dung from Obama’s merry band of idiot Marxists and liberals.
What their recommendations will be in December will be meaningless. Obama’s political stock is in free fall. The oil debacle is his Iranian Hostage Crisis. It is not the first straw. It is the last. Need I cover the list?
Post November elections, anything he proposes will be viewed as mor toxic than anything washing up on LA’s beaches.
He’s a pelican covered in his own toxic sludge. Any report from this commission is already DOA.
One of the biggest govt agencies is the Dept of Agriculture. There are several bureaus under their umbrella that have NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with farming. Cutting this agency out of the budget should save a few smackers.
ok i.m off line but sir john doing rushs wedding GREAT
Do not forget to REPEAL the endangered species act! A judge has just ruled the HE has jurisdiction over the entire US on behalf of Antarctic Penguins!
The application of this Nixonian law is now WORSE than the problem it was supposed to solve!
BTW Doug, the local GOP refuses to support any opposition to Adam Schiff because they see him as unbeatable. I can tell you this from personal conversations I’ve had with the local GOP committees.
This is the same GOP that endorsed incumbent Democrat Mayor James Hahn over Republican Walter Moore in the 2004 LA mayoral race that Democrat LaRaza and Reconquista candidate Tony Villar ended up winning by a nose. In 2008, Moore came this close to forcing a run off against Villar in a race that might very well have won had he got ANY support at all from the GOP. Same rationale. Unelectable.
And lately, Alaska RINO Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Carly Fiorina over Tea Party conservative Chuck Devore guaranteed that Madame Barbara Boxer will be re-elected. Conservatives here and everywhere hate Tom Campbell but he was running neck and neck with Fiorina and Devore. Palin’s endorsement knocked Devore out.
What RINOs need to get into their heads is that it isn’t Boxer’s being a Democrat that we conservatives find most offensive, it is her being so dumb. Fiorina is even dumber than Boxer and doesn’t have her campaigning skills or experience. So now the GOP has endorsed their own version of Boxer on “electability” and on the assumption that it was important that a woman be the candidate. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
There are plenty of Republicans and conservatives here in CA but not only do we not have a Republican party, the party that goes by that name supports Democrats! If you are a billionaire like Fiorina and register Republican, that is who the CA GOP and RNC endorses.
Like billionaire Meg Whitman running for governor. Get used to the return of Governor “Moonshot” Brown. He got the NRA endorsement. What does that tell you about Republicans out here?
What are we CA conservatives and Republicans supposed to do? We would be better off if the GOP simply folded and went away. Good job GOP! You suck!!!!
“Good job GOP! You suck!!!!”
Ah, more grumpy libertarian drivel…
jmmiddleton, you really are retarded aren’t you. Are you now going to again post comments attacking things I never said? Libertarian? Do you know how long I’ve been posting comments? People who have been reading my comments for a long time know better than to believe anything you post. You are a mindless RINO who believes the only thing that counts in elections is that Republicans win, even though they are Democrats.
“you really are retarded aren’t you.”
Ouch. That really hurts.
I don’t know and I don’t care. I can tell a grumpy libertarian when I see one. Being all retarded and all its the one gift I have from God that balances out my other impaired senses.
Like the blind guy who can hear and smell everything?
My gift to balance out being a retard is the ability to sense a grumpy libertarian at the drop of a hat.
And Phil, you be a grumpy libertarian.
GO GOP!
Ok, so if you know retards then here’s the punch line…
“Half time, change sides.”
I do have one other gift from the monster in payment for part of my brain however. But that has nothing to do with knowing Phil is a grumpy libertarian.
OT I know but the oil leak could be easily fixed, plug it with Obamas ego.
I’m thinking his ego would more like sucking the oil up rather then plug the hole.
Oh shut up and support the one who is not a democrat.
Here’s a hint. We are 12 trillion in the hole. Stop spending money we don’t have unless it is necessary such as the military. if not bye-bye.
Liberals are devoid of intelligence or a sense of irony. How come they need more money to decide how to spend less? Well, because its not about spending less, its about taxing more. Arggh!
How many Deficit Commission members does it take to screw in a light bulb?
That is how we got people like John McCain and Gramnesty.
Pasadena Phil is right about the CA GOP, they are populated by nothing but RINOS and Democrats like Arnold.
Carly and Meg are both RINOS and big time Rockefeller CFR/Trilateral Commission Elitists that support the New World Order.
Maybe I can help them out:
1: Eliminate foreign aid to people that hate us.
2: Eliminate the EPA.
3: Eliminate Homeland security.
4: Enact the Fair Tax.
5: Make the Bush Tax cuts permanent.
6: Eliminate the Earned income credit.
7: Seal the Border.
9: Eliminate the Department of Education.
10: Pay me $4.5 million for saving them so much money.