"Mean Streak: Obama is Not as Nice as he Looks"

...only they should have used this picture!


From a Washington Examiner editorial:

"...Obama invited House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to George Washington University to hear his Wednesday address on the federal government's dire fiscal situation. The speech was advertised by the White House as a major address in which the president would join the serious conversation initiated two weeks ago by Ryan in his detailed proposal for cutting spending. What Obama instead delivered, with Ryan sitting in the front row, was, in the Wall Street Journal's unsparing description, a "poison pen" speech dripping with mean-spirited partisanship, gross misrepresentations of fact, and sophistry of the lowest sort concerning Republicans' alleged desire to hurt old people, the poor and mentally challenged children. It was the sort of harangue one would expect from a rabidly devoted partisan hack, with no relation whatever to the thoughtful appeals to reason and common values that historically have characterized presidential leadership in this country."

We have some of the audio from this less than Presidential speech here.

Obama then spent Thursday evening regaling an audience of Democratic donors with what he thought were off-the-record insider jabs about his recent budget negotiations with House Republicans, including this cheap shot at Ryan: "When Paul Ryan says his priority is to make sure he's just being America's accountant, that he's being responsible, I mean this is the same guy that voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my health care bill -- but wasn't paid for. So it's not on the level." The reality is that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars under President Bush were regularly funded by Congress, claiming tax cuts must be "paid for" is a hoary piece of Democratic class-warfare demagoguery, and the prescription drug plan Ryan supported cost half as much as the Democratic alternative then on the table. Such fact-free commentary is to be expected from blind partisans, but not the president of the United States.

Yow! Tell us what you really think! You can read the rest here. More discussion at Memorandum

H/T Weasel Zippers

Nancy Pelosi Snaps at White House Adviser Gene Sperling

Of course, that could just be the Botox seeking early release!

In a tense moment that may well have encapsulated the frustrations of three-plus months in the minority, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi snapped at a top presidential economic adviser, Gene Sperling, during a closed-door meeting between White House aides and House Democratic leaders Wednesday.

“Maybe you could consult with us just once,” Pelosi said, according to one source’s account. Others confirmed the basic content of the stand-out barb from the former speaker in the midst of an active but largely cordial meeting.

Nancy has been a little bit tense. Maybe something about having to fly commercial?
And those darn TSA guys keep waving her through without a frisk! No wonder she's on edge!

At the time, Sperling was discussing the form and mission of a new bipartisan congressional working group the president wants to charge with establishing a deficit-reduction plan. In the president’s view, it would consist of 16 members, plus the vice president as chairman, and finish up by the end of June.

House Democratic leaders didn’t like the size of it, the reporting date, which falls very close to the deadline for raising the debt ceiling, or the perception that a White House plan had been baked without input from the president’s allies on Capitol Hill.

Hmm. Not enough time to properly debate the outcome before the vote on the debt ceiling and close enough to the November elections that Obama can say he did something without enough time to find out if it did any good!

Win-win for the White House!

H/T Memeorandum

Mary Katherine Ham on Eating the Rich

Yeah, I know Bill Whittle did an excellent job of explaining this not too long ago, but Mary Katherine is much nicer to look at while she's doing it! (Sorry, Bill!)



More at Verum Serum

"Budget Pie Chart" - Michael Ramirez

The incomparable Michael Ramirez with a great graphic representation of the current budget mess. (A "Currant" pie, perhaps?)



H/T Full Metal Patriot

$2.4 Billion Free for the Asking. Oh, and Maybe you Could Build a Train, Too?

"Governors and members of Congress have been clamoring for the opportunity to participate."
-Ray Lahood

Federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Wednesday that 24 states, including Connecticut, are in competition for a share of the $2.4 billion that his agency plans to disburse. Amtrak and the District of Columbia are also looking for a share.

Gosh. $2.4 Billion (with a "B") in goodies being given away and our Transportation Secretary marvels at how popular the program is!

My guess is, is that if they were giving away government money to build leprechaun fences around unicorn ranches, 24 states and the District of Columbia would be in line for that, too.

Can 2012 get here any sooner? I'll have more on the high speed rail boondoggle soon.

Obama: ‘No Excuse’ for Not Reaching Budget Deal

Obama Van Winkle (asleep since October)

At an impromptu news conference at the White House, President Obama said there was “no excuse” for failing to pass a budget for the rest of this year, and that he was no longer willing to accept one short-term deal after another to temporarily keep agencies running.

“I can’t have my agencies making plans on two-week budgets,” he said. “What we are not going to do is once again put off something that should have gotten done months ago.”

How many months ago, Barry? Since Congress has the Constitutional responsibility to have a budget in place before the fiscal year starts in October, who was in charge of Congress last September? Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi! And who was in the White House to grant counsel and leadership and sign the budget once they passed it? Why, that would have been you, Mr. President!

Democrats could have written a budget to give NPR and Sesame Street and Planned Parenthood and Obama's Aunt Zeituni as much money as they wanted without risking a government "shut down" for over a year.

It is disingenuous of the president to imply that Republicans were somehow "dragging their feet" for months, when it was the Democrats who controlled the complete budget process and played political games with it, not willing to commit their spending plans to paper in an election year.

And then, Obama has the chutzpah to tell Republicans not to "play games", in light of the Democrats' un-Constitutional inactivity. Add to that the question, why is it "playing games" for Republicans to ask for cuts in a time of budgetary short falls, but it is not "playing games" for Democrats to insist that every program currently funded be held sacrosanct?

There's a word for that, President Barack H. Obama. It starts with an "H".

The word is "hypocrisy". (Although "demagoguery" would also fit!)

Oh, and speaking of "playing games", which side brings in Big Bird and Elmo to make their case for them? Yeah. Right.


Cross posted at LCR.

Schwarzenegger Cuts Gov't Workers Pay to Minimum Wage

Because, he won't be back!

The Schwarzenegger administration today ordered State Controller John Chiang to reduce state worker pay for July to the federal minimum allowed by law -- $7.25 an hour for most state workers.

The instructions from the Department of Personnel Administration exclude roughly 37,000 state workers in six bargaining units that recently came to tentative labor agreements with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The rationale is that the legislature has not passed a budget, therefore there really isn't any money budgeted to pay these folks, but, you have to pay them something!
As noted, if you worked for one of six collective bargaining units that cut a deal with Arnie, the ax didn't hit you.

Schwarzenegger has invoked a 2003 state Supreme Court decision as grounds for the move. That ruling, White v. Davis, held that without a budget that appropriates money for state payroll, employee wages can be withheld to the federal minimum. That condition exists today, which is the start of the 2010-11 fiscal year and the state is without a budget. The back pay would be paid once a budget is enacted.

Even if it's legal, is it the right thing to do? Schwarzenegger is a lame duck, due to term limits, but ticking off 240,000 state workers is bound to have some consequences. People's expenses tend to expand to their salaries. That's about a quarter million Californians who will have to cut back on spending (and paying sales tax) just to struggle to make ends meet.

Not a pretty picture!

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything