Boehner 3; still no cuts View 20110729

View 685 Friday, July 29, 2011

· There Will Be No Cuts

· How to Have Real Cuts

· Terror in Fullerton

· Do NOT Buy Fallen Angels! (Wait just a bit) Wait is over. BUY IT NOW

There will be no cuts.

Boehner has changed to Plan Three. That has apparently passed the House.

The Club for Growth had previously opposed the Boehner Plan, but said this:

The last 24 hours have been nothing but chaotic…to say the least. As you know, the Club opposed the Boehner Plan leading up to last night’s scheduled vote in the House. It lacked the structural reforms that would actually fix our debt situation permanently. Thankfully, when Speaker Boehner realized that he didn’t have the votes, he pulled the bill and improved it.

He did that by inserting language that makes passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution now a condition to releasing the second debt ceiling increase a few months from now. Because of that, the Club withdrew its key vote against the plan. While nothing is certain, the bill is now expected to pass the House.

Going forward, as the Senate decides to make its move, it’s critical that a Balanced Budget Amendment remain part of any final bill. It’s the catalyst to this whole debate.

Note that it’s the Club for Growth that says a Balanced Budget Amendment is crucial: I have not said that. As several of you have indicated in mail, that’s a formula for automatic tax growth, not for thrift. The only way to cut the budget is for the Congress to appropriate less money.

The acquiescence of the Club for Growth seems to have done the job: apparently the House passed the Bill. It now goes to the Senate, where the strategy will be to Amend in two ways: remove restrictions on spending, and add revenue increases i.e. taxes. It will then be sent to a conference committee. Note that it will be sent as a House Originated Bill, not a Senate Bill. It will have an HR number. This will be important because the Democrats will add “revenue increases”, and revenue bills must originate in the House. When some monstrosity that bears no resemblance to the Boehner Bill is returned to the House and the Republicans reject it, the President will then go on TV and read from his teleprompter that the Republicans are forcing the nation into default.

Of course I hope I am wrong on this. (Later: The Bill was immediately tabled in Senate, and will not be voted on. No one wants to be on record on this, so t here was no vote. What the Senate will now propose is a mystery.)

Do note that even if the Senate passes the Boehner Bill exactly as it passed the House, There Will Be No Cuts. At best there will be some reduction from the inevitable growth of government spending from, say, 8% to, say, 5%. This will be trumpeted as Trillion Dollar Cuts, but in fact the Debt will Continue To Increase by Trillions of dollars. Make no mistake. There will be no cuts.

How To Cut

The only way to actually cut the budget would be for the House to include in every appropriation a phrase to the effect that revenues appropriated under this resolution shall not exceed some specific amount lower than the amount spent on this last year. Better would be a blanket resolution limited all appropriations to no greater than 99% of the amount spent in the previous year. That would make for a 1% cut, actual cut, in the amount spent, in the growth of government, and in the growth of the national debt. Of course some exception would have to be made for debt servicing, because the Debt is going to continue to rise even if we get Real Cuts, and will grow wildly if we continue on the course we are set.

Meanwhile the President is proud of raising the gas mileage requirements for car. That ought to grow the economy for us. And of course the people who enforce all that will need more money. As will the Department of Agriculture Bunny Inspectors and the Department of Education SWAT team who will continue to get their pay raises, medical benefits, and fully funded pensions. None of that will change. And the Deficit will rise by Trillions. There are no proposals for actual cuts: the government will grow by 8% a year and any reduction in that growth is called a cut, but of course it is not a cut at all. A cut means an actual cut, and No One is proposing anything as drastic as that. Government will continue to grow. The Deficit will continue to grow.

Salve Sclave.

Terror in Fullerton

People in Fullerton California are protesting that six police officers alleged to have beaten to death a 135 pound schizophrenic white man for resisting arrest remain armed and on full patrol duty, and since none of the officers have been identified, everyone is terrified of any police encounter. Under the California constitution the primary law enforcement officer is the county sheriff, but we haven’t heard of any sheriff’s investigation. As of last count the FBI is now investigating.

I would have thought that it would have been better to keep these matters local, not make federal cases of them. From my view, entrusting protection of our rights to the Federal government is not a wise idea, and making the FBI the sole guardian of our rights is dangerous.

And yet: the Fullerton Police Department seems determined to protect the police, not remove any – there were at least six involved – from duty even with pay, and in general were set to ignore the incident until amateur video tapes went on line, and the London Daily Mail of all places published a story on it. The so-called video is not as graphic as the Rodney King case. There’s little video of what actually happened: it is mostly audio recording of unidentified witnesses commenting on what’s happening off stage. The situation is not as obvious as the King situation, and when the facts began to emerge it became even more inexplicable. Kelly Thomas was the son of a retired deputy sheriff. A number of LA Area radio personalities have become interested. But the officers involved have not been identified, and they are still on the streets carrying weapons. Which is why there is terror in Fullerton: the officials are afraid of the police unions, and the citizens are afraid that there are rogue police on the streets.

The Fullerton Fiasco will be remedied. We do not need Federal intervention. Let the sheriff and District Attorney do their work. A free press brought this out. I note that the city of Fullerton has offered a million dollar settlement in the hopes of making this go away, but that has been rejected.

DO NOT BUY FALLEN ANGELS JUST YET (Revision: OH YES YOU CAN! Buy it now!)

This has not been a productive day. I have discovered that the version of Fallen Angels posted at present for Kindle does not contain the retrospective afterword crafted by Niven, Pournelle, and Flynn. I am getting together the new file to post. I do not know what procedures Amazon has for getting the proper copies to those who have already bought it – please do not compound the problem by buying Fallen Angels until I get that fixed and Amazon puts it up. It will not be long. And I’ll try to find out how those who already bought the book get the book they paid for. If I have to I’ll buy them copies.

All right: I have uploaded Fallen Angels with the retrospective. I also cut the price to $2.99. When you see the book availab le for that price b uy a copy. Buy another and give it as a present. Tell  your friends. It’s a good book.

If you already bought it and it didn’t have the retrospective, let me know. I’ll figure something out. And my apologies for all this.

It turns out that if you already own a Kindle book you can get a new download. Amazon has not, as of 2330 Friday put up the new version, but when it does, here’s what to do:

I believe if you go to the "Manage Your Kindle" page, you can re-download a title that you already purchased and downloaded before. You loose any bookmarks or highlighting, but you do get the latest version of the book.

….Rick…..(the web guy)

And no I have this from Amazon:

Hello Jerry,

Thank you for your cooperation in updating the content for "Fallen Angels." We’ll be glad to send an e-mail to customers who previously purchased your book to let them know an updated version is available.

At this time, we must receive their permission before sending the revised version to their Kindles because receiving the new version causes highlights, the last page read, bookmarks to be removed, and the locations of any notes won’t match the updated copy of the book.

We’re working on a long-term solution to improve this experience by automatically making the revised content available in My Kindle Library.

Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

However, as of this writing, 2300 Saturday, Fallen Angels is still listed as “publishing” meaning that Amazon has not made the new edition available.

 

1430 Sunday: Fallen Angels is now Live on Amazon. Those who previously purchased it should download the new version, which will have the Afterword Retrospective.