Was the deal Speaker John Boehner made to prevent a federal government shutdown really the best he could get? Who knows, but it's far from clear if the deal actually involves a net cut in government spending.
After promising to slice $100 billion from the federal budget, the GOP capitulated and the final number dropped down to $61 billion... and then down to a mere $39 billion. The fiscal 2011 budget request from President Obama, which was never actually adopted, called for an unprecedented $3.8 trillion in spending. A $39 billion cut, if it really is a cut, represents an infinitesimally small percentage of that budget.
Mark Levin agrees that the deal is "a historic scam." He says:
Since Boehner has said the Republicans will never shut down the government and since he has said repeatedly we're only half of one third of the government, well then what the hell are they going to do on the other issues? What is their strategy exactly?Exactly. What are the Republicans going to do about raising the debt limit and reforming out-of-control entitlement programs?
Meanwhile, the nutroots are going crazy. For example, professional America hater Tavis Smiley (at left in above photo), who frequently collaborates with pseudo-intellectual Cornel West (at right in above photo), is outraged that any cuts --if that's what they actually are (see below)-- were agreed to. From his far-left point of view the deal is "capitulation." America "avoided a shutdown of government, but now we have a lockout of the American people. Namely, the poor."
