Basketball Metaphors Regarding Dem Reaction To GOP Budget
Posted by: Baller-in-Chief in Articles(From Frank James for The Swamp)
GOP unveils budget to Dems’ ridicule
Not having such essential details was a little like taking to the basketball court in loafers to play against the Los Angeles Lakers. You could do it but why?
House Republicans proudly introduced their alternative to President Barack Obama’s $3.6 trillion budget today. And the Democrats laughed at it.
The GOP lawmakers gamely called their budget plan “The Republican Road to Recovery.” There may have been something of a Freudian slip in that title since the document is probably as much about the Republicans regaining their political mojo as it’s about providing a realistic glide path to lowering the nation’s deficits and fixing the economy.
At the unveiling of the Republican proposal, House Minority Leader John Boehner had the boastful tone of a man playing a winning hand.
Two nights ago, the president said, “We haven’t seen a budget yet out of Republicans.” Well, that’s not true because, here it is, Mr. President.
Today we’re introducing a detailed road to recovery plan. And our plan curbs spending, creates jobs, and cuts taxes while controlling the debt. And while the president’s budget is anti- stimulus, we believe that our budget plan will strengthen the economy and restore fiscal sanity here in Washington. The American people expect both parties to work together to solve our economic problems, and we should start now.This isn’t the first time that we’ve offered a better solution. As you all know, we had a solution on the stimulus bill that cost half as much as the Democrat proposal and would have created twice as many jobs. And we’re going to continue — in those cases where we have to disagree with the president, we believe it is our obligation to offer a better solution if we’re in disagreement.
Of course, Democrats refused to agree that Republicans had a better solution. Indeed, they could barely contain their snickering. Because the Republican budget proposal was lacking the sine qua non of Washington budget documents, that is, tables with line items of numbers showing revenue and deficit projections etc.
Those accounting assumptions would be needed for the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office to compare the Republican budget to the Obama’s.
Not having such essential details was a little like taking to the basketball court in loafers to play against the Los Angeles Lakers. You could do it but why?
White House officials, accordingly, smirked whenever the topic of the Republican proposal was raised.
Here’s White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs at today’s briefing.
MR. GIBBS: I will note that there are — there’s one more picture of a windmill than there is of a chart of numbers. There’s — just for your knowledge, there’s exactly one picture of a windmill.
It is — it’s interesting to have a budget that doesn’t contain any numbers. I think the “Party of No” has become the “Party of No New Ideas.” The rhetoric inside the budget seems to be a roadmap for the failed policies that got us into this mess, to extend trillions and trillions of dollars of tax cuts for the wealthy, continue subsidies for Big Oil. And I think it’s — it takes us back to where we’ve been and why we’re in this problem.
I’m glad they — I think the administration is glad that the Republicans heard the president’s call to submit an alternative. We just hope that next time it will contain actual numbers so somebody can evaluate what it means.
Meanwhile, a Tribune journalist who visited the White House today, tells me when he bumped into Rahm Emanuel today, the White House chief of staff joked “We’re going to send (the Republican proposal) over to the CBO to score it.” Laughter ensued.
This might have been one of those instances where the GOP could’ve benefited from that old piece of urban wisdom: “Come correct or don’t come at all.”
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