[jeffkrol]

Sorry just had to add this:

Before the collapse of the Plan B vote, the House narrowly passed a spending cuts bill, originally authored by Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to partially alter impending Jan. 2 spending cuts to protect defense programs, by a 215-209 vote.

House Democrats, led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, criticized the spending vote, saying it gutted social programs for the poor.

"More than 20 million children will have reduced food and nutrition benefits. Merry Christmas to you and yours. One-point-seven million seniors will lose Meals on Wheels. Happy holidays to you," Pelosi deadpanned.

Speaker Boehner plan to avert 'fiscal cliff' fails

House Speaker John Boehner was handed a stunning defeat late Thursday by members of his own party who refused to support his "Plan B" to avoid the year-end "fiscal cliff" that threatens to send the economy in to a recession

some pork to cut............

With President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner trying to find a middle ground that minimizes the damage the Fiscal Cliff would do to the economy, cuts to military spending must be on the table.

Though parts of the Department of Defense’s budget are clearly essential to national security, many other defense expenditures are far from necessary — including the reported 234 golf courses that the Department of Defense maintains around the world. Agreeing to stop supporting the military’s golf courses should be an easy first spending cut for Obama and Boehner.

Unfortunately, as a recent article at Salon notes, the exact cost of running the golf courses remains “undisclosed” by the Pentagon.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/21194/spending-cuts-are-good-these-234-gov...place-to-start

Even if the courses are breaking even, or apparently turning a profit, that’s hardly the whole financial story. Many of the courses sit on acres of valuable land that the government could sell or lease for a profit rather than maintain to charge below-market greens fees. Fort Belvoir’s two 18 hole courses and Andrews Air Force Base’s three 18 hole courses are both located in highly-populated Washington, D.C. suburbs, an area that’s home to some of the highest land values in the country. The military’s valuable golf course properties even extend overseas — the army has three courses in Germany worth a combined total of $36.4 million, and another in South Korea worth $26 million. Moreover, by being located on military bases, there are security costs to consider, as well as the cost of maintaining the electrical lines, water service, and roads, all of which former Arizona Senator Dennis DeConcini expressed concern about in the mid-1990s when Andrews spent $5.1 million to build its third course.

Obama and Boehner’s June 2011 golf meeting to discuss a number of issues, including cutting spending, was itself a caricature of the federal government’s thoughtless spending habit. The venue they chose for their discussion — one of Andrews’s golf courses — was part of a problem they were supposedly trying to solve. Yet neither apparently paused to wonder, “Do we really need this golf course?”

Kind of really sums it up doesn't it...........

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Last edited by jeffkrol; 12-20-2012 at 08:45 PM.

[Winder]

What incentive do they have to reach an agreement? We go off the cliff and Dems get their tax hikes and Reps get their spending cuts without having to compromise..... They both might feel that they will be in a stronger position after we go off the fiscal cliff.

It's not the end of the world (no pun intended) either way.

[Nesster]

But it does mean that they can stretch the wrangling all the way to the debt ceiling disaster, start on that, get our bond rating down to junk bond territory, have the stock market tank, forcing the Republicans to agree to welfare for brokers, at which point the parties suddenly rediscover bipartisanship and rationality, pass the best bills ever by any congress, and our AAA rating is restored, the stock market shoots up like a rocket, and the breaking news is that the entire thing was engineered by Mitt Romney and Bain, who now have cornered both the bond and stock markets and the USA, his running and losing was an integral part of the plan, and Romney is hailed as the greatest investor of our era. He then proceeds to outsource US citizenship to third world countries, and those countries elated by becoming US citizens elect Mitt President for Life of the World.