Boehner Reminds The One That The Grownups Are In Charge Of The House

The Obama White House is run by hustlers, pure and simple. John Boehner won't be rolled on this one. Read and enjoy. No comment needed.

OldSouth Attempts To Understand The Math: This Week's Federal Budget Resolution Negotiations

The coverage has been breathless and constant--the pitched battle over whether Congress will reduce 2011 Federal budget spending by 60 billion dollars, or 30 billion dollars, or some number in between, or perhaps not at all, if DaPrez, Mr. Harry and Mizzzz Nancy had their way.

OS has been busy this week, trying to keep the plates of several unrelated projects spinning, enjoying the opening week of baseball season (Boston's zip-4-six??), and the opening day of the Masters. He has high hopes for young Mr. McIlroy, and Mrs. OS is a fan of Mr. Choi.

But, he has attempted to understand the math in the context of the emotionally charged language that is flooding the culture--e.g., 'If'n yuh don't agree wif me, yew is a scalawag of the worst kind.' As always, the Left is more practiced at spewing the poison, but there's lots of it going 'round this week. The Religious Right seems to want to score points as well. Somehow, a bankrupt United States, and the chaos, poverty and despair that would cause, is not an ethical issue in their minds. Sheeeeut.

So, with a bit of time off this evening, he began to review numbers, to see what is being talked about. After all, 60 billion dollars sounds like a boatload-o-money-hunney to a normal drudge like OS.

He decided to look up the amount of money intended to be spent by The Gubb'mint in FY 2011. The Budget that Our Beloved Leader proposed to Congress back in February of 2010, when the Dems controlled both houses, calls for spending $3.83 trillion and the federal deficit is forecast to be $1.56 trillion in 2010 and $1.27 trillion in 2011. Total debt is budgeted to increase from $11.9 trillion in FY2009, to $13.8 trillion in FY2010, and $15.1 trillion in FY2011.

That's a lot-o-munney, hunney!

OS had to call up a spreadsheet, and start attempting to type in that figure. He had to format cells for lots of digits and decimal points to make this exercise work.

So, sez-he/he-sez:

383, three hundred eighty three.

383,000 three hundred eighty three thousand. Let's add three zeros, multiplying it by a thousand. Sort of like using the spreadsheet as an abacus...know-whudd-ah-mean?

383,000,000. Three hundred eighty-three million. Let's add another three zeros...

383,000,000,000 Three hundred eighty-three billion. Let's multiply by 10, one zero.

3,830,000,000,000 Three trillion, eight hundred thirty billion. That's so many zeros, OS had to dink with the spreadsheet's cell formatting. (His laptop is beginning to smoke, by the way.)

Let's go back to the proposed reductions in spending of, say, $60 billion, which our friends at the NEA call 'right-wing lawmakers insisting on draconian cuts to critical services'. Dem Waskawy Repubwikans!

That figure looks like this: 60,000,000,000.

OS's poor head hurts looking at all those zeros, so he decided to begin removing equal numbers of zeros from both numbers, which would keep the relationship between the values of those two numbers constant.

So, if we remove, say, six zeros from each number, we end up with--

3,830,000 and 60,000. Looks like a small business now. Hmmm, subtract another zero on each side.

383,000 and 6000--looks like a mom-n-pop gas station numbers.

38,300 and 600, looks like a single person's numbers.

3830 and 60 -- a month's take-home and one tank of gas in the age of Obama.

So, what percentage of 3830 is 60?

60 divided by 3830 gives us: 0.015665796

Excel tells OS to multiply this by 100 to arrive at a percentage: 1.5665796345 percent.

Round to two decimals: 1.57 percent.

Now, in reality, they're only talking about cutting about 30 billion dollars, so let's divide 1.57 by 2: 0.785 percent. It appears Mr. Harry, Miz Nancy, Our Beloved Leader and the NEA consider a reduction in spending by 0.785 percent to be unthinkably draconian.

0.785 percent. That is what is being fought over. Or perhaps, what is being fought over is the idea that spending should be restrained at all. Somehow, it will all be paid for, by the rich perhaps. Or we'll just borrow the difference, and leave it for the grandchildren to pay.

Now, let's look at another ratio: If we are running a 1.56 trillion deficit on a 3.83 trillion budget, that means we're borrowing 1.56 trillion a year. What's that percentage?

1.56/3.83=40.73%

The Treasury is borrowing (in our name) almost 41 cents on every dollar Duh Gubbermint is spending on the Federal level. We owe upwards of 15 trillion dollars, after decades of this behavior.

Lessee, OS has to reset his spreadsheet again. If we cut spending by 30 billion, what percentage of the national debt have we potentially shaved off?

Pull as many zeros as we can from both numbers and it looks like 1500 and 3.

3 divided by 1500=.002

Multiply by 100 to determine percentage: .2 percent. Two-tenths of one percent shaved from a debt of 15 trillion dollars.

Now, if we owe 15 trillion dollars, what's our interest payment obligation? Right now, interest rates are at an unhistorical low. Everything reverts to the mean, so let's say the day comes when the market decides it wants us to pay a nice round number, say 5% on our borrowed money, per annum.

15,000,000,000,000 times .05=750,000,000 Seven hundred fifty billion, which must be paid, lest we default. If we default, the dollar soon ceases to be recognized as a medium of exchange anywhere. Think Argentina...

What if we end up having to pay 750 billion dollars of interest on an annual budget of 3.8 trillion? That would mean 19.6% percent of the annual expenditure would be on interest payments alone. Not principal paydown, just interest. Wonder how long it would be until the market decides they'd like 8% on their money to compensate for the level of risk that 19.6% represents. Hmmm...that could get ugly, quickly.

Think Greece, Portugal, Spain, Argentina....

Gotta go, OS's laptop is smoking again!

Besides, it's bottom of the 7th, the Orioles are beating up on the Tigers 9-5. Two on, two outs, count is 1 and 2. Those are manageable, understandable numbers.

Seven Billion Dollars Now The Issue: The Impasse Between House and Senate

OS is heading out for the day, brewing the coffee, and overhearing that the difference between Boehner and Reid is only seven billion dollars.

Seven billion dollars represents our interest obligation for ten days.

Does anyone sitting behind those desks understand the depth of the insanity represented by that statistic?

The Libyan Intervention: The Ground Shifts Under Our Feet

The Huff Post headline says it well: This could take awhile. No kidding? Really?


There's a good live blog stream running there, for those who wish to follow.

The announcement of the beginning of hostilities came during Saturday afternoon during one of the NCAA basketball tournament games. The WinnerOfThe2010NobelPeacePrize just started hisself a war, without consulting Congress. TheOne ordered our Navy and Air Force to bomb the bejeezus out of a country that has not attacked us, just because its leader is a murderous thug, and the UN sez it's OK.

He then boarded the plane to Brazil. Sweet.

This is patently in contravention of the US Constitution and the War Powers Act of 1973. Congress never never never ever ceded to the President the power to make war in our name, just because it suits him.
The ground has shifted under our feet. We're now at war with Libya, 'cuz staging air raids and missile attacks on a sovereign nation, even if the leader is a thug, is an Act of War.

Kucinich and his posse and the Tea Party GOP freshmen now have common cause--it is now time to introduce and debate a resolution to impeach Barack Obama.

It's also time for the GOP freshmen to stage a ComeToJeeeeezus meeting with John Boehner, to see if he thinks the Constitution is a good idea or not.

OS has a question: If it's OK to bomb the bejeezus out of countries we disapprove of, howz-about we flatten the bits of Havana that Castro hangs out in? How about a cruise missle or two, fired from Florida, at Chavez's pad outside Caracas? Or a B-2 raid from Missouri on Zimbabwe? Or Mynamar? Or North Korea? If we don't need to check in with Congress, or declare war, or need any other reason than our own disapproval of a particular regime at a particular moment, why not?

Moral Hazard/Shmoral Hazard!! We know better than them, so let's get to it, ya'll.

Or, perhaps, the framers of the Constitution had a better idea, to constrain the actions of a President posessing unlimited ego and no conscience.

Nancy Pelosi Hands Over The Gavel, After Ten Final Interminable Minutes

OS had to see it, while working his way through his daily duties: The exit of Miss Nancy, and the beginning of John Boehner's Speakership.

As usual, she had that dreadful smile pasted on her face, talked about herself, and talked, and talked, and talked...about herself. She gave a final campaign speech, after having overwhelmingly lost her last campaign. A complete disconnect from reality. And, in a more profound disconnect, the remaining House Democrats voted for her to head their caucus. Rather like voting for George Armstrong Custer, one final time, as the Sioux nation encircles the troops.

Boehner, by contrast, in his opening remarks, after introducing his family, talked about the realities we face, and about the Constitution, and the American idea.

Here's hoping he means it, and will stick to it. We're out of time, and out of road down which the proverbial can may be kicked.

Just by dint of being from a large Catholic family, who worked his way through college as a janitor, and by being from the Midwest, he has automatically earned the hatred of the elites who moved through the Ivies into places of power. Hopefully, he just accepts their hatred as a badge of honor, and remembers all those of us living in all those counties and towns and neighborhoods who are also the objects of their disdain.

Boehner: 'I Thought The Election Was Over'

Really, he said that.

He also said:

“You know, you get a lot of that heated rhetoric during an election. But now it's time to govern.”

Poor guy, he hasn't read the memo: For people like Obama, Miz Nancy, John Kerry, Barney Frank, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin (The list stretches on to the horizon.), the campaign never ends!

It's what they live for, John! That next thrilling Tuesday when they count the votes and decide who's loved and who's not. Sort of like sophomore class president elections.

Govern? Govern? That's for chumps!

To be fair to Mr. Boehner, he suffers from his sincerity. He's so very small-town Midwest--unglamorous, to the point, blunt, impatient with idiots, just wants to get the job done and move on to the next thing to get done. He's a grownup trapped in a frat house, trying to keep the kids from burning the place down, explaining that Mom-n-Dad have cancelled the credit cards.

OS wishes him well, and does not mean to ridicule him. He's a good man, with a tough job ahead of him.

And that bit about playing golf with Obama? Don't hold yer breath, John. You understand what the game is about, that hard core of integrity and dedication required to play well. He's not about to tee it up with you, good buddy.

We, The Enemy

From the WSJ, today:

Rep. John Boehner (R., Ohio), in line to become speaker if his party wins control of the House, accused Mr. Obama of calling his political opponents "enemies" in a recent pitch to Latino voters. In remarks prepared for a campaign rally in Cincinnati Monday night, Mr. Boehner was to say: "Mr. President, there's a word for people who have the audacity to speak up in defense of freedom, the Constitution and the values of limited government that made our country great. We don't call them 'enemies.' We call them patriots."

Mr. Boehner has been trying to spotlight a comment Mr. Obama made to a Spanish-language radio station. In that interview, Mr. Obama said Democrats would suffer on Election Day "if Latinos sit out the election, instead of saying, 'We're going to punish our enemies, and we're going to reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.' "

In an interview Monday with syndicated radio host Michael Baisden, Mr. Obama said, "I probably should have used the word 'opponents' instead of 'enemies.' Now the Republicans are saying that I'm calling them enemies. What I'm saying is you're an opponent of this particular provision, comprehensive immigration reform, which is something very different."

Well, Mr. President, that's one of the dangers of going somewhere without your teleprompter. You just might reveal the content of your character, to borrow a phrase from Dr. King. You have a law degree from Harvard, and you edited the Law Review. You are President of The United States. Words matter, especially the ones from your lips. People expect you to act like a grown-up, not a South Side Chicago ward hustler. Oh, wait--that's what you are...never mind.

Howz'about he sez something like this:I was terribly mistaken to use that word. It should never have happened. It was the heat of the moment, but I am responsible for what I say. It will never happen again. Citizens of this great country who disagree with me are not my enemy. This is not a repeat of the Nixon
Administration.

But, he didn't say that. 'Cuz He meant what he said the first time. At least, finally, he admitted to it. That's worth something.

So, We The Enemy go to vote tomorrow. All of us, except for people like OS, who voted early, just in case he got run over by a truck before Election Day.

We The Enemy will likely hand Himself an historic comeuppance at the ballot box, which He has already explained away in His mind. We will continue to be The Enemy, and He and His will redouble their efforts to impose their VisionOfTheWorld upon this country, especially while he has a lame-session of defeated and pissed-off leftist Democrat politicians eager to take their pound of flesh before they leave office. (Next year, He'll still have the veto, and probably the Senate. And a bigger chip on his shoulder than ever. Chin-straps on, ever'body.)

Cuz' We The People are We The Enemy.

There's just a lot more of us than Himself expected to show up. Rather like the Sioux Nation of South Dakota that day long ago.

OS once visited the Little Big Horn battlefield. He came away stunned at General Custer's stupidity and arrogance. How could he have possibly created this sort of disaster? What was he thinking? Had he no concern for the lives and families of the men in his command? Why didn't he listen to the reports that told him he was riding into inescapable danger? Why didn't his officers protest, on behalf of their troops?

What was he thinking? What made him believe he was infallible?

At least, he wasn't President Custer...