The Boner hoists himself on his own petard, er, golf club
Oops.
Republicans stormed Capitol Hill in January vowing to slash discretionary spending by $100 billion right off the bat. In their pledge to America, they promised that, “[w]ith common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone.”
As time went on, it became clear that they wouldn’t get the whole loaf, and the key question became: How many billions of dollars in spending would Democrats agree to cut, without risking massive Republican defections, and, perhaps, a protracted government shutdown?
A few weeks after they cut the deal, we have an answer. It turns out the six-month spending bill Congress passed in April increased discretionary outlays through the remainder of the fiscal year by a bit over $3 billion. In other words, total direct spending will be higher by the end of September than if Congress had just set spending on autopilot for the remainder of the fiscal year back in April.
Heh.
Not to be outdone, The Newtster is reaping the fruits of his comments about Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program. From yesterday’s WAPO:
Yesterday on “Meet the Press,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich talked about the Medicare plan proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in surprisingly strong terms: “radical” and “right-wing social engineering” among them.
Ryan, hit back on the radio this morning: “With allies like that, who needs the left,” he joked. Fellow presidential contender Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, is out with a statement saying Gingrich’s position “is out of line with conservative principles.”
Gingrich appears to be in damage control mode today…
It’s beginning to appear that metaphors like “Republicans eating their own” and “circular firing squads” will be inadequate to capture the Rethugs’ self-immolation during the 2012 presidential campaign.
Now that The Huckster and The Trumpster have dropped out of the race, it falls to Batshit Bachman and Sarah Barracuda to take up the slack.
