Empty promises

So the Republicans hauled out their 18-page budget Thursday. Only they didn't actually have a budget.

House Minority Leader John Boehner had a little blue booklet that said "The Republican Road to Recovery" on the front.

He was mighty proud of himself, although a little birdie told me that the Republicans actually working on the budget would have preferred that he wait until they had one. Boehner's office said that wasn't true, and of course I believe them. I mean, he couldn't possibly have been wanting to hurry up and counter "the party of no" stuff, especially after Paul Begala said that GOP stood for "Got 0 Plans."

Two nights ago the president said, 'We haven't seen a budget yet out of Republicans.' Well, it's just not true because -- Here it is, Mr. President,

Boehner said, waving the little blue booklet around. But he wouldn't answer any real questions, like, how much is the GOP budget gonna cost, or how do you propose to reduce the deficit. He said we'd find out the details next week.

The guy who pretty much wrote the 18 pages of nothing, Rep. Paul Ryan, was there long enough to say "We're going to show a leaner budget, a budget with lower taxes, lower spending and lower borrowing" before scooting off without answering a single question.

And Rep. Mike "I'm so backwards you can call me ecneP ekiM" Pence said that he sure wished the Congress would adopt this booklet of emptiness but doubted that would happen, although he added that totally believes "that a minority in Congress plus the American people equals the majority."

Um, yeah, ekiM. But the American people voted for Obama. Oh, by the way, that's ecneP over there with his family and GW celebrating something about the Indianapolis Colts.

Anyway, inside the little blue booklet, the only numbers to be found are selected ones from the Obama budget, usually out of context and lacking some piece of information that would make things make more sense. Then there's some little piece of the the GOP plans to do.

Instead of recklessly borrowing and spending money on wasteful programs under the guise of 'stimulus' and 'investments,' Republicans seek to ensure that the federal budget cannot grow faster than families’ ability to pay the bill.

Whatever that means. I don't recall them saying anything like that when GW kept setting up "stimulus" bills that didn't do shit. This one at least does create some jobs, you know, as in work. All GW did was give us a few hundred bucks to pay toward our credit card bills.

Then there's stuff about "universal access to health care," which means that everybody has access to health care, but most of us can't actually afford it, and "entitlement reform," which means "We're going to gut Medicare and Social Security."

Next the Republicans will create jobs and lower taxes, by which they mean they'll allow corporations to export even more jobs overseas and cut taxes for rich people. "Instead of raising taxes on all Americans," the Republican "budget" lies, "Republicans seek to reduce the tax burden on working families and small businesses in order to create jobs and unlock private capital."

Oh, and "Republicans also want energy independence with increased development of all our natural resources, including renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar."

Next, the Republicans are going to "end the bailouts, protect taxpayers, and provide a transparent recovery process. Republicans support maintaining the cost of living after witnessing the booms
and busts triggered by loose monetary policy."

I have no idea what that means, other than the exact opposite of anything any Republican has ever done for 30 years.

And that's it. Not a single number, not a single concrete idea. I'm wondering how much it cost the Republicans to print up a full color booklet with nothing in it.

But there it is, Mr. President. The GOP budget.

Smoke and mirrors, just like Republican budgets have always been.


News Writer
AWOP Political Contributing Editor
Author of Stop the Press Blog

Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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Peace Y'all