GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

How to rationally discuss the ‘shutdown’ and budget

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No discussion is grownup, if the participants don’t know/acknowledge certain facts which President Obama, the Democrats and their media try to have people forget:

  1. The government is supposed to spend by a budget.
  2. Between April 29, 2009 and March 23, 2013, Harry Reid’s Democrats didn’t even bother to pass a budget. Nearly four years!
  3. Under the U.S. Constitution, the budget is supposed to originate in Congress and particularly the House of Representatives. Which means,
  4. The House IS supposed to be able to impose its budgetary will on the President, including by shutting down the government, as Democrat Houses have shut down the government many times before to successfully impose their will on GOP Senates and presidents.
  5. On a district-by-district basis (as required by the Constitution), the American people elected a GOP House in 2012. To coin a phrase, “they won”.
  6. The current so-called “shutdown” only affects 17% of the government. (83% is still open.)
  7. The current House has passed many bills to keep most of the remaining 17% open – bills which the Democrats have rejected.
  8. Obama has given us more debt than any president in U.S. history.
  9. Contra Obama, raising the debt ceiling does indeed mean raising our debt further. And it does cost taxpayers a lot of money.
  10. Contra Obama, there is no reason for the government to default on its debt, even if the debt ceiling isn’t raised. You default only if you fail to make your minimum debt payment. Our ongoing tax revenue exceeds our minimum payment by many times over, leaving lots of money for the rest of government spending after debt service. (Just not as much as Democrats want.)
  11. Which is probably why Obama and the Democrats are the only side talking about having a default happen. (They want to at least dangle the threat – and they might carry out the threat – even if it’s unnecessary.)
  12. Contra Obama, our future spending isn’t “paying a bill”. Spending that Congress has budgeted or authorized (but not yet actually spent) can be stopped or cut any time Congress says so, or under-spent if the money simply doesn’t exist for it.

The people who run GayPatriot welcome intelligent disagreement with our views. If your disagreement ignores the above facts, sorry but it’s not intelligent.

As the adage goes, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.”

NB: Originally, point 2 stated incorrectly that the Senate hadn’t passed a budget since 2009. Error fixed. (thanks Kurt!)

ADDENDUM: 13. Contra Obama, borrowing money “to pay our bills” is NOT paying our bills. When you buy something on credit, have you paid you bill? No, of course not. You’ve merely changed to whom you owe the payment (and perhaps when).

Paula Deen and more, at American Thinker

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I hadn’t visited there in awhile, but longtime commenter TGC put me on to this piece about Paula Deen. As many have noted, the frenzy against her seems ridiculously out-of-proportion: one occasion of saying the N-word privately 30 years ago, and her career now is to be destroyed.

The Deen witch-hunt may be an exercise in minority privilege, or/and, as Voshell’s piece suggests, it may be that Deen is several things which the Left simply hates: a Christian; a proponent of (delicious) lard, butter and sugar; a self-made woman (who doesn’t much push leftism); and more.

Once you’ve had one, you can’t stop. Some other AT pieces caught my eye:

UPDATE (from Dan): There is a little more to the Paula Deen story, suggesting that she was negligent in allowing her brother to engage in “juvenile behavior” while working at a restaurant they both owned (via Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt available by subscription).

UPDATE (from Jeff): That link still doesn’t give enough to justify firing her. “A moonlight-and-magnolias romantic view of Southern culture and history”, and a “redneck clod” brother who (gasp!) needs drug treatment and watches pr0n…Probably not news to Deen’s public.

UPDATE (from Jeff): What rusty just added in the comments from blacklegalissues.com, would be more serious. Systematic abuse of minority employees, something everyone should condemn – if it’s true. First question to ask is, whether it is true. If it is, I’ll join with the Deen-bashers.

UP-UPDATE (from Dan): I saw that post yesterday from blacklegalissues.com on Facebook and had planned on looking into it as time allows. If that story bears out, then, Paula Deen’s actions are in a word, despicable and she merits the condemnation she has been receiving in the media (and more). But, my preliminary research suggests that her greatest crime appears to be a failure to supervise a mean-spirited sibling; he may be responsible for the worst excesses.

Still, this bears looking into.

UPDATE (from Jeff): Worth noting that Deen is reportedly a Democrat, and that Jimmy Carter defended her a few days ago. Since I know that Democrats can be racists and have a tradition of racism in their party, I don’t take either of those as necessarily in Deen’s favor; for now, I am really just noting them.