To Shut Down or Not To Shut Down?

Capitol Hill has been reduced to a caricature of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet.’ A tragedy is unfolding on Capitol Hill that could easily end in national bankruptcy, just as Shakespeare’s play resulted in the Prince of Denmark’s death. The root cause will be the same in both cases – dithering and lack of leadership.

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First, a few numbers for you to consider. LibertyAtStake recommends a stiff drink before wrapping your brain around the full implications of these numbers. The induced relaxation may save you from running out and doing something to your Senator you might regret later.

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0 (zero): The number of 2011 budgets passed by the Donkey party when they had control of both sides of Capitol Hill.

$1.5T (One trillion, 500 billion dollars): The projected federal spending deficit for the single fiscal year 2011.

$1.6T (One trillion, 600 billion dollars): The projected federal spending deficit for the single fiscal year 2012, per the pathetically unserious budget submitted by the Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama.

$14.3T (Fourteen trillion, 300 billion dollars): Total national debt load, at least as of this second.

$46k (46 thousand): Share of the debt per citizen, and that includes your kids.

$128K (128 thousand): Share of the debt per taxpayer, taking into account the 47% of US households that pay no taxes at all.

$100B (100 billion): The GOP campaign promise for cuts to the 2011 budget, which is approximately .07% (point zero seven percent) of the projected 2011 budget deficit, approximately .06% (point zero six percent) of the Empty Suit’s 2012 budget deficit, and approximately .007% (seven one thousandth of one percent) of the total national debt.

$61B (61 billion): Total cuts to the 2011 budget in H.R. 1, which passed the House three weeks ago, and is approximately .04% (point zero four percent) of the projected 2011 budget deficit, also approximately .04% (point zero six percent) of the Empty Suit’s 2012 budget deficit because the scale of the division is already too ridiculous to make a difference at the second decimal place, and approximately .004% (four one thousandth of one percent) of the total national debt because the denominator is so huge it can even make a difference in the third decimal place.

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H.R. 1 is what our elected “leaders” (so-called) on Capitol Hill are negotiating over now. H.R. 1 is the House’s proposal to the Senate for the 2011 budget, which should have been passed last year. This is not a serious negotiation. It is not a serious negotiation because one side in the negotiation is negotiating in bad faith.

That side is the very same Donkey Party that failed to pass the 2011 budget last year when they controlled both the House and the Senate. This failure was an act of the highest irresponsibility by people in a position of responsibility. And it was an intentional act – because they cynically calculated it was better for their 2010 midterm election prospects to avoid being tied to a budget with steep deficits.

They got “shellacked” anyway, because the American people have wrapped their brains around the implications of the growing national debt. The Donkey Party lost the House of Representatives, but held on to a slim Senate majority by their fingernails.

The Donkey Party’s current champion – The Empty Suit Known as Barack Hussein Obama – was, of course, not on the ballot in 2010. Thusly, it fell to him to submit the traditional Presidential budget proposal for 2012. It was an unserious act of irresponsibility. It failed to address the federal leviathan’s spending addiction in even the most ephemeral manner.

When presented with H.R. 1, the gang of Donkey Party hacks still entrenched on the Senate side of Capitol Hill howled over $61B in current year cuts. News flash - one day’s growth in the debt is $72B. The Donkey Party is not the least bit serious about reducing our national debt. Either that, or producing an old report card with an ‘F’ in basic arithmetic is one of their membership requirements. Or … maybe we can apply the common sense rule of thumb a Leopard doesn’t change its’ spots … and consider the possibility they are engaged in cynical, irresponsible political gamesmanship.

What’s that? You say their #2 “leadership” hack was caught on tape telling us so ...



And Howard ‘Primal Scream’ Dean is actually rooting for a shutdown. He seems supremely confident that the criminally biased MSM, buried so far in the Donkey Party’s hip pocket they’ve lost all their olfactory senses, will work tirelessly to spread Donkey propaganda during the shutdown. Apparently he thinks it’s still 1995 – before we had the Intertubes to counter-balance irresponsible MSM bias.



My hope is that this decent, honest, patriot realizes a shut down fight is the only way to deal with these cynical hacks.



Pick this fight, Mr. Speaker. We The People are prepared to win it for the republic. We can do basic arithmetic, even if the sclerotic ruling elites inside the Donkey Party and criminally biased MSM can’t. And we have the Intertubes now.

Footnote

Via Hyscience - Rasmussen provides more numbers in support of my position.  Shut it down now!


Update 4/2/2011

An anonymous commenter corrects my arithmentic and makes my point all the more relevant.