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They pledged & promised - maybe.
Author: Raine    Date: 01/06/2011 13:40:02

Today is the day when the House GOP will read aloud the Constitution of the United States of America. As has been mentioned here and elsewhere, it's all show, much like the great Wizard was in Oz: bluster blunder and theatrics. In the end, the new majority in the House will have to govern. They made a lot of promises and some people expect them to follow through with them.

With all the passion and fervor of the election season last fall, I find it strange that they are already backtracking on one of the biggest promises they made: Cutting $100 billion in the first year. he says it here in this video, and he has said it elswhere. So with less than a day under their new majority, here is what happens.
Republican aides confirm the "back of the envelope" number they will now use is about HALF the original estimate - $50-60 billion in cuts.

"House Republicans remain committed to fulfilling their Pledge; this has not changed," said Conor Sweeney, spokesman for the House Budget Committee.
Actually, someone should tell the GOP that yes - the Pledge HAS changed. That is the truth, and anything less is either misleading or is a lie. I prefer to think it's a broken campaign promise.

That leads me to wonder, do they mean ANYTHING they actually say? Or is it that they are so trained to speak in code, to serve their corporate donors etc., that they don't realize what they are saying? Maybe Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), said it best: “You know, it’s easy to talk about these things in the abstract. It’s another thing when you start taking away people’s college loans and Pell Grants or cutting early education programs.”

What truly bothers me here is that these people have had time to come up with a plan. They have been campaigning and getting elected based on these numbers and these promises. Take a look at other broken promises:
– After campaigning for more transparency and fewer backroom deals, House Republicans unveiled a rule allowing Ryan to implement spending levels without ever having them voted upon.

– After campaigning heavily against the deficit and government spending, the first bill that House Republicans intend to hold a vote on — repeal of the Affordable Care Act — would increase the deficit.

– Another rule that the House GOP proposed would allow lawmakers to reallocate spending cuts, rather than use them to pay down the deficit. Some conservative lawmakers have rebelled, calling this “Washington-style gimmicks” to increase spending.
Now that rubber and road have met, we see that they not only have not prepared, they have NO GAME PLAN. It's starting to look like bait-and-switch, to be honest. Maybe they had fingers crossed the whole time. Basically, it's just completely disrespectful to the people who supported them during the campaign and - even more so - to the American people.

I don't really care if they can read a Constitution. It's something every person who lives in the country should do before they enter high school. It's patronizing to think that Americans are more concerned with that than they are about how they actually plan on governing. Two days in, this doesn't look promising at all. The best way to honor the Constitution of the United States of America is to actually do the work it expects from our elected officials. It says it right there in the Preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.


and
Raine
 

64 comments (Latest Comment: 01/07/2011 00:27:48 by Raine)
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