Topic category:  Government/Politics

Speaker Boehner's Press Office quickly spun the settlement as best they could.

KEY FACTS: Bipartisan Agreement on Spending Cuts to Support American Job Creation Posted by Speaker Boehner Press Office on April 08, 2011

Just a short while ago, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced a bipartisan agreement on historic spending cuts – the largest cuts in American history – to help create a better environment for private sector job growth. Watch Boehner’s announcement here:

You can read the joint statement by Speaker Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) here. Boehner said the agreement will “cut spending and keep our government open” – this agreement alone will cut hundreds of billions of dollars in spending over the next decade – and will “help create a better environment for job creators in our country.”

Here are some key facts on the bipartisan agreement:

THE LARGEST SPENDING CUT IN AMERICAN HISTORY. The agreement will immediately cut $38.5 billion in federal spending – the largest spending cut in American history in terms of dollars – just months after President Obama asked Congress for a spending “freeze” that would mean zero cuts.

HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS IN SPENDING CUTS OVER THE NEXT DECADE. The agreement will cut hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal budget over the next decade – “real money,” as the Wall Street Journal editorial board recently noted.

OFFICIALLY ENDS THE “STIMULUS” SPENDING BINGE. The agreement begins to reverse the “stimulus” spending binge that began in 2009 – signaling the official end of a period of unprecedented government intervention that former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and other economists say hurt job creation in America by crowding out private investment.

SETS STAGE FOR TRILLIONS MORE IN SPENDING CUTS. Clears the way for congressional action on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget – The Path to Prosperity – which cuts trillions in spending and offers a long-term blueprint for American job creation.

GUARANTEES SENATE VOTE ON REPEAL OF OBAMACARE. The agreement reached with Senate Democrats guarantees a Senate debate and vote on legislation that would repeal President Obama’s government takeover of health care in its entirety. The House passed such legislation in January as part of the Pledge to America.

NEW TOOLS IN THE FIGHT TO REPEAL OBAMACARE. The agreement will generate new tools for the fight to repeal Obamacare by requiring numerous studies that will force the Obama Administration to reveal the true impact of the law’s mandates, including a study of how individuals and families will see increased premiums as a result of certain Obamacare mandates; a full audit of all the waivers that the Obama Administration has given to firms and organizations – including unions - who can't meet the new annual coverage limits; a full audit of what's happening with the comparative effectiveness research funding that was in Obamacare and the president’s failed “stimulus” spending bill; and a report on all of the contractors who have been hired to implement the law and the costs to taxpayers of such contracts.

DENIES ADDITIONAL FUNDING TO THE IRS. The Obama administration has sought increased federal funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – money that could be used to hire additional agents to enforce the administration’s agenda on a variety of issues. This increased funding is denied in the agreement.

GUARANTEES SENATE VOTE & DEBATE ON DE-FUNDING PLANNED PARENTHOOD. The agreement with Senate Democrats guarantees a Senate debate and vote on legislation that would end federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

BANS TAXPAYER FUNDING OF ABORTION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. The agreement includes a complete ban on local and federal funding of abortion in the District of Columbia, applying the pro-life principles of the Hyde Amendment (“D.C. Hyde”).

MANDATORY AUDITS OF THE NEW JOB-CRUSHING BUREAUCRACY SET UP UNDER DODD-FRANK. The agreement subjects the so-called Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created by the job-destroying Dodd-Frank law to yearly audits by both the private sector and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to monitor its impact on the economy, including its impact on jobs, by examining whether sound cost-benefit analyses are being used with rulemakings. BUT the first comments posted showed that putting lipstick on the pig had not fooled the commenters:

Where's the 100 billion?

There is one word for this 'agreement'....CAVED! Guaranteeing votes in the Senate on bills that are doomed to be voted down isn't a deal. And Audits with no TEETH are useless. So Caved on the first budget fight....what will you to do poor Paul Ryan?

As a conservative, Tea Party Member, and an avid follower of politics, I just want to let you know that this deal has upset a lot of people. Republicans made a major mistake by promising to cut $100 billion and then settling at $38 billion. You need to do better on the future battles or you will face primary challenges in 2012. The battle over the debt limit must result in MASSIVE (hundreds of billions to trillions) cuts before a single dollar increase. Finally, the 2012 budget must result in a serious change in the trajectory of our financial situation. Please don't let us down.

Wow the Republicans sold out again. At least Michelle Bachmann came on Fox and said it was way to little....wish more of the Repubs had her guts

I will celebrate if you cut my tax dollars from funding the killing of unborn babies. If you did not do this and my tax dollars continue to be spent on the genocide of unborn babies than I will join my fellow teapartiers in removing every last one of you from office.

Mr. Speaker, You have let the conservative movement down, you have caved in, you have shown no back-bone. You have surrendered all power Republicans won in the Nov election and you have given the Democrats and President Obama a huge victory. As a republican I will donate money to a possible tea-party challenger during the next primary. You're a RINO! No Regards

Thanks for caving in on social issues like always. NPR and Planned Parenthood needed defunding, and you failed your conservative base. You disgust me sir.

In a game of "chicken" with Team Obama, Speaker Boehner blinked.

The Tea Party class of 2010 made Minority Leader Boehner Speaker Boehner because they realized that President Obama's "fundamental transformation" needed to be reversed, NOT slowed.

In "Speaker Boehner, Condition Any Continuing Resolution or Debt Limit Increase on Expedited SCOTUS Review of Obamacare" (March 26, 2011) (http://www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=110326), I wrote: "Speaker Boehner, if you won't insist that Obamacare be defunded immediately as a condition to approving must-pass legislation, at least condition that must-pass legislation upon expedited SCOTUS review of Obamacare. Otherwise, you're part of the problem, not part of the solution."

Speaker Boehner chose to be part of the problem. BUT...President Obama thanked him for a "good job"!

Michael J. Gaynor

Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.