Congressional Repubs Introduce Alternative Budget to Gales of Near-Universal Mockery

[Lemur]

President 44 challenged the congressional Repubs to come up with an alternative budget in his last presser. Amazingly, they took the bait. The results have been epic.

House Republican leaders rolled out their alternative budget on Thursday to respond to President Obama's charge they were slamming his proposal without offering one of their own. At a Capitol Hill news conference, House GOP Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, held up an 18 page document entitled, "The Republican Road to Recovery" and said, "well, it's just not true, because here it is Mr. President."

Just one problem: The budget they submitted is literally a pamphlet that does not include many numbers, charts, or projections. How will it impact the deficit? They didn't run the numbers. How will they pay for a massive tax cut while cutting the deficit? They don't know. It's literally the kind of thing you could whip up over the weekend if you had no access to the Congressional Budget Office or Microsoft Excel. Robert Gibbs snarked: "There's one more picture of a windmill than there are charts of numbers. And there's exactly one picture of a windmill."

The ensuing mockery has been nothing short of hilarious.

The Republican "Road to Recovery" budget alternative, rolled out today by John Boehner, has been criticized by left and right for its lack of specificity and its promise to eliminate the national debt while significantly cutting taxes. FiveThirtyEight.com, however, has received an advance copy of additional details prepared by the Minority Leader's office. Although some elements of the proposal are still under discussion -- Eric Cantor is said to want to eliminate North Dakota rather than Idaho, while Thaddeus McCotter has suggested using the balance of TARP funds to purchase scratch-off tickets -- the final plan can be expected to contain most or all of these components.

This is in response to the infamous bubbles that are some of the only graphs in the Road to Recovery budget. I have to admit, it made me think of the underpants gnomes as well. Here's the bubbles from the proposed budget:

More riffing on the Republican bubble solution below the tag. Source.

[Lemur]

The not-funny part of this story is that apparently Mike Pence was so eager toget in front of cameras that he sabotaged real work going on in Paul Ryan's office.

Ryan, the ranking Republican on the budget committee, plans to introduce a detailed substitute amendment for the Democrats' spending plan next Wednesday -- and still intends to do so.

But he and Cantor were reportedly told by Boehner and Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) they needed to move more quickly to counter Democrats' charge they were becoming the "Party of No," according to House GOP staffers.

The 19-page document, prepared by Pence's office, was distributed two days after President Obama criticized Republicans for trashing his detail-crammed 142-page budget outline without producing a credible alternative.

“In his egocentric rush to get on camera, Mike Pence threw the rest of the Conference under the bus, specifically Paul Ryan, whose staff has been working night and day for weeks to develop a substantive budget plan," said a GOP aide heavily involved in budget strategy.

"I hope his camera time was gratifying enough to justify erasing the weeks of hard work by dozens of Republicans to put forth serious ideas," the person added.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

There is no GOP answer at present. There is not cohesive platform following November's defeat. Trying to rush one out that has not gelled up from the body of the party is silly.

[seireikhaan]

That's a budget?

[Xiahou]

Robert Gibbs snarked: "There's one more picture of a windmill than there are charts of numbers. And there's exactly one picture of a windmill."

Gibbs is clearly gunning for a seat at a late night show after he's done his time as press secretary. He gets my vote for most irritating press secretary since Scott "deer in the headlights" McClellan.


More on topic, I saw snippets of their press conference to introduce their non-plan.... it was painful. It would've been less embarrassing for them, but still probably pointless, to release the document to hype the upcoming budget proposal- but without the accompanying press conference. What sense is there in having a press conference where you can't answer any questions? It seemed like most of Boehner's were wholly comprised of "We'll tell you next week." That's great- so why are you wasting our time now then?

Additionally, I don't know that I entirely agree with the premise that the GOP can't criticize Democrat plans without having an alternative plan. Why isn't nothing a valid alternative?

"This stimulus plan is terrible." "Well, what's your plan?" "Nothing!" Of course, that would never play in the media- government always has to be doing something even when it shouldn't be.....

[Banquo's Ghost]

Additionally, I don't know that I entirely agree with the premise that the GOP can't criticize Democrat plans without having an alternative plan. Why isn't nothing a valid alternative?

"This stimulus plan is terrible." "Well, what's your plan?" "Nothing!" Of course, that would never play in the media- government always has to be doing something even when it shouldn't be.....

It's a valid alternative, but to do nothing brings its own set of impacts. Since a government is elected to govern and is allegedly accountable for its decisions - even if they amount to taking no decision or action - the voters have the right to question that government about the effects of doing nothing, just as they have the right to ask those questions of an aspirant to government.

To do nothing in this case, may well be catastrophic for ordinary people. I might agree that the catastrophe would be worth it in the long run, but as I've said before, it's not me who would lose his job, home, savings etc.

Unless you are arguing that there should be no government at all, which would actually make my life complete: Xiahou the Anarchist.

(Now is when I wish Aenlic was still posting here...)

[ICantSpellDawg]

Positive Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney mentions! Wahoo!

[Spino]

Embarassing for sure but again, we're barely three months into Obama's term and the country is still in the throes of its inaugural honeymoon (which, according to the polls, seems to be winding down earlier than expected). The howls of laughter that will follow this silliness will be quickly forgotten (I haven't seen a single mention of this on any of our shows today). The Democrats and the liberal bloc of the media can cry all they like about Republican opposition to any and all things put forth by Obama and the Democrats but in the end nothing short of a jaw-dropping GOP scandal is going to distract the public's attention away from the Democrats who have a majority lock on Congress and can do as they please.

This is the one good thing about being a powerless minority in a democratic form of government, if you screw up nobody cares because ultimately the finger will never get pointed at you by the voters.

The Republicans have two golden opportunities coming their way in 2010 & 2012, they had better get their leadership ducks in a row before the next round of elections. Ego driven incidents like these are a pity because they only distract from the good efforts of reasonably responsible Republicans like Cantor and Ryan. If anything someone needs to throw knuckleheads like Boehner & Pence under the bus and get Cantor and Ryan onto the GOP's center stage.

One thing for sure is the more I watch Obama and the Democrats carry on with this jaw dropping act of one upmanship style incompetency over the previous administration and Republican controlled congress the more I feel an astounding Republican victory in 2012 is closer to becoming a reality. I'm not kidding, at the rate the Democrats are going I get the feeling people will be throwing rotten food at them on the 2012 campaign trail.

Romney should dust off his suit and start working on his best Reagan imitation. With Jindal as a running mate Mitt could probably walk away with the whole thing. Not that Romney would be a great conservative candidate, I'm just playing the odds regarding which Republican would have the best shot. I mean if a guy named Barack Hussein Obama with no experience and some seriously questionable personal associations can become President then I really don't see a good reason why frustrated conservative and moderate voters won't rally around some Mormon named Mitt next time around.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Romney should dust off his suit and start working on his best Reagan imitation. With Jindal as a running mate Mitt could probably walk away with the whole thing. Not that Romney would be a great conservative candidate, I'm just playing the odds regarding which Republican would have the best shot. I mean if a guy named Barack Hussein Obama with no experience and some seriously questionable personal associations can become President then I really don't see a good reason why frustrated conservative and moderate voters won't rally around some Mormon named Mitt next time around.

I know you really, really want the Republicans to win.

In order to do so, Republicans have to let go of Michael Steele, Sarah Palin, and Piyush Jindal, not to mention start marginalizing Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and fully wash their hands of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. Thankfully the Republicans have started to avoid people like Michael Savage and Ann Coulter, just as I've washed my hands of Al Franken, Keith Olbermann, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Dennis Kuchinich, and any other bat insane partisan wacko out there.

This is from a former Republican and fiscal conservative, who is against these massive bailouts on principle, but when the Republican Party leadership has a thumb up their collective hind ends about what to do with regards to leading the nation, I cannot support them. If they can't even select a decent party leader from within their own friendly ranks, how could they lead a nation who is hostile to their party because of Bush and Cheney?

Mitt Romney gets a bad rap over his faith, and to be honest... I can't say I blame people for being wary. I'm not a huge fan of the religion in question. But I judged him as objectively as I could, as an individual politician, and I think he's had his share of successes and could be a positive influence. He needs to drop the big fake eating smile, though, and finally just speak plain english without the nicely-polished schooboy image to maintain. People don't want a fancy suit and a grin, they want passionate leadership. Mitt Romney generates as much enthusiasm as a plastic bag.

[ICantSpellDawg]

I know you really, really want the Republicans to win.

In order to do so, Republicans have to let go of Michael Steele, Sarah Palin, and Piyush Jindal, not to mention start marginalizing Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and fully wash their hands of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. Thankfully the Republicans have started to avoid people like Michael Savage and Ann Coulter, just as I've washed my hands of Al Franken, Keith Olbermann, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Dennis Kuchinich, and any other bat insane partisan wacko out there.

This is from a former Republican and fiscal conservative, who is against these massive bailouts on principle, but when the Republican Party leadership has a thumb up their collective hind ends about what to do with regards to leading the nation, I cannot support them. If they can't even select a decent party leader from within their own friendly ranks, how could they lead a nation who is hostile to their party because of Bush and Cheney?

Mitt Romney gets a bad rap over his faith, and to be honest... I can't say I blame people for being wary. I'm not a huge fan of the religion in question. But I judged him as objectively as I could, as an individual politician, and I think he's had his share of successes and could be a positive influence. He needs to drop the big fake eating smile, though, and finally just speak plain english without the nicely-polished schooboy image to maintain. People don't want a fancy suit and a grin, they want passionate leadership. Mitt Romney generates as much enthusiasm as a plastic bag.

If that plastic bag contained a nuclear warhead of awesome.