What if What You’ve Been Told About the Federal Shutdown is a Lie?

Repeatedly, we are told by both the TeaPublicans and the media that Democrats won’t negotiate. But they do and have. Moreover, they have compromised far more than most people realize. When describing  the hostage-taking TeaPublicans’ behavior, we justifiably used words like extortion and blackmail, to describe what they and Boehner are doing. Yes, we should call them out for their treasonous economic terrorism. But we inadvertently failed to fully inform voters about the actual budget. We don’t use those numbers to show what has really happened. It would be nice if reporters actually did their job. But they won’t, so we must. We’ll do it with a little help from Taegan Goddard’s blog and the chart above from Michale Linden and Harry Stein of the Center for American Progress I’ll cut to the chase, as the authors say, the Continuing Resolution (CR) is already a compromise. The numbers come from OMB.

Harry Reid offered up nearly everything Paul Ryan wanted budget number-wise. It’s austerity on steroids. And it still isn’t enough for the TeaPublicans because they want to decimate the government and any of its non-military programs.

The figures on the chart pertain to “discretionary” spending, which is not to say the programs therein are all optional. Take a look at the numbers again:

The data are from the Office of Management and Budget.  In billions of dollars:

1,203    Original Obama budget request

1,185    The 2010 budget

1,095    Paul Ryan’s original request

1,066    The debt ceiling compromise of 2011

1,058    2014 Senate budget (less than Paul Ryan’s original budget)

 986   The 2013 Senate Continuing Resolution

 967   The 2014 Ryan Budget

So there you have it. The Continuing Resolution is already a compromise. Harry Reid offered up Ryan-like austerity. Dems have been doing nearly all compromising (far too much of it) since the year 2000. But suggesting Obama and Harry Reid won’t compromise is quite possibly the lie of the century.

Nor, where blame is attributed, is there any equivalence between the TeaPublicans and Dems. Democrats are not to blame. This outrageous budget standoff is a dangerous grandstand by a cadre of John Birch Society-type tinfoil hat ideologues, who are so far to the “right” of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, those two historical figures look liberal.

Extremist, shameless liars do not make good representatives at whatever level. Route out Republican liars/Tea Party apologists in Virginia races, both statewide candidates and those running for the GA. Then do a grand slam in the federal elections of 2014 and 2016. Our country depends on it.