Fedeeral Spending, Shutting Down the Government and CNN: The Liar Network Lies Again

Yes, I heard a discussion on CNN today that again shows why that network fully deserves its official nickname of "The Liar Network".

You had a supposed "expert" CNN reporter talking about the potential Federal Government shutdown becaues of the Republicans insisting upon voting to spend only those amounts of which they approve. As I said in last week's article on the subject, that is how our system is supposed to work. Congress is only supposed to approve such spending items--not previuosly mandated by law--that BOTH HOUSES approve. If both houses of Congress do not approve a spending item, and budget/spending bills are generally supposed to originate in the House of Representatives, then the moeny for that item is not approved (should not be spent). But Democrats are refusing to accept that Republicans have a right to only approve the spending bills of which they approve, and are using a threat of shutting down the government to FORCE more spending. This is not how it is supposed to work. Each spending bill should be SEPARATE, and only those bills should be approved that have the approval of both houses of Congress. The reason this is not obviouis is that DEMOCRATS failed to pass either a budget or specific spending bills last year, which means that all spending in now grouped together in ONE MASSIVE BILL. That is a perversion of our system, and enough reason in itself to vote against Democrats (including Obama, who showed no leadership on this isssue, despite his promises of transparency and fiscal responsibility by reviewiig every spending bill line by line). This is where the CNN "expert" comes in.

DEMOCRATS--with almost complete contorl of our government in both houses of Copngress and the Presidency--failed to pass a budget for THIS YEAR> They further failed to pass specific spending bills. Instead, for POLITICAL reasons, Democrats chose to hide behind a TEMPORARY "continuing resolution" (one big spending bill) to keep the government going by spending the same things as last year. That has resulted in absurdities like continuing to spend money on programs that have been CANCELLED. That has WASTED billions of dollars. Then Democrats tried to do what they did the previous year, when they also controlled Congress, and pass an "omnibus spending bill" in the lame duck Congres. They had eliberately delayed this until after the election, but they OVERREACHED and could not get the massive "omnibus spending bill" passed at the end of the year (contrary to the previous year, when they added some 400 BILLION dollars to Federal spending after Obama became President). Thus, Democrats pushed through another "continuing resolution" in the lame duck session, and now simply want to NEVER specifically vote on spending at all. In other words, they want to donduct the government this entire year--six months gone--based on the spending the previous fiscal year. That truely is unconscionable, and it is Democrats who have put us in this situation See my article last week, which explains this in detail.

As stated, this is where the cNN "expert" comes in. What is his take? I could never make this up. He says the public is confused, because they don't understand the difference beteween THIS YEAR'S SPENDING (for a year already half over) and NEXT YEAR'S SPENDING (budget), which Congress needs to approve this spring and summer (what Democats FAILED to do last year for this fiscal yeear, which started in October). It is then that CNN veered into its own agenda-driven fantasy world.

As stated, the expert bemoaned that the public is confused, without explaining how Democrats had created that confusion by violating the law, and then he made this astounding statement: "Why are we talking about this at all. We are already in this year--half of it is over. We should be talking about this next year's budget." (or words to that effect). The clear implication was that Repubicans have no busiiness fighting over THIS YEAR'S spending, and that they should be considering next year's budget. He basically said that Republicans are fighting a battle of the past.

Q.E.D. CNN lies. They lie constantly. And they lie for the sake of political agenda. Needless to say, that "expert" is a LIAR--ptting out an Orwellian Big Lie. Sure, it is disgraceful that we are considering THIS YEAR'S spending after the year is half over. But that is because Congress has NEVER DECIDED what we should spend this year (at least for the rest of the year, and they only decided what has already been spent BY DEFAULT rather than specific decision).

Congrary to the CNN "expert", Repubicans have no choice but to fight this battle, unless they want to violate their responsibility. Republicans HAVE to vote on spending for the rest of this year. Democrats left that UNDONE. But CNN is--implicitly--suggesting that Repubicans, even though this is a new Congress, should simply accept that the Democrats want to spend what was spent last year. Democrats did NOT accept that when they came into the Presidency in 2009, afther they had deliberately delayed spending bills for the entire year so they could spend more. They voted for the spending they wanted--that massive spending bill referenced above. (Yes, this gets confusing, and I may have missed a year here, starting in October of 20009, but the analysis of the current situation, and what the Democrats have done with omnibus bills under Obama, is correct.) Republicans have a DUTY to vote on spending for the rest of this year. and it is absurd to suggest that they should vote for the spending that Democrats want (but refused to vote when they had control). You will note here that Democats seemingly thought they could get another massive spending bill through in the lame duck session, without any political conseauences, by never producing a budget or specific spending bills for 2010. They miscalculated.

Yes, CNN lied about the situation. More importantly, however, CNN effectively LIED more seriouslly by omission. The "expert" should havve answered his own question: WHY are we talking about this year's spending, when that should have been setttled last year? The "expert" should have given the answer to that quesion, but CNN does not want to answer that question. The answer is that Democrats FAILED in their legal duty to produce a budget, and actually vote on spending bills, last year. Now Repubicans are no angels. We will see how they do this year on producing a budget and SPECIFIC spending bills (not thsesee massive, "omnibus" bills). But Republicans cannot be blamed for this mess. They had NO control in Congress last year. Nope. The threat of "filibuster" was not reallly there last year on budget and spending bills. If Repubicans shut down the government with a filibuster, even if they were able to do that (not bloody likely), they would clearly have been blamed. This was entirely a DEMOCRAT debacle, and Democrats have entirely created the prsent situation where the government is threatened with a shutdown in THIS FISCAL YEAR. If Democrats had done their job, this "fight' could not possibliy have occurred until October (the start of the new fiscal year).

CNN is simply unable to explain WHY we are in this situation, because it means blaming any government shutdown NOW on Democrats (where the blame objectively lies). That inability to tell the truth brands CNN again as The Liar Network. I can't ev en tell you how absurd and dishonest it is to suggest that Repubicans are to blame for talking about spending that should have already been resolved, when it is Democrats who deliberately created this situation for their own policial purposes.