Rep. Emanuel Cleaver gained instant attention for describing the Boehner debt ceiling bill as a “Satan sandwich.” A “sugar-coated” Satan sandwich no less.
He’s right.
Here’s all you need to know about John Boehner’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad bill.
1. The $900 billion increase in our nation’s already crushing debt is immediate. It’ll be gone by Christmas, and we’ll do this Kabuki theater all over again. Prediction: the GOP will cave once more, folding like a cheap Bedouin tent in a stiff desert breeze.
2. At $2.4 trillion total, Boehner and the Republicans have just engineered the biggest increase in debt in the entire history of the United States. 
3. Virtually all the “cuts” are back-loaded and aren’t scheduled even to begin taking effect until 2014 when another Congress will be in charge and can easily ignore them. According to Drew Matus of UBS, “For 2011, it will do nothing.”
4. The “cuts” aren’t even “cuts,” just a slower rise in federal spending. In D.C., if you’re spending $100 billion this year, were going to spend $120 billion next year, but decide to spend only $110 billion, that’s considered a $10 billion “cut.” In the real world, it’s a spending increase. None of the “cuts” in this bill are cuts.
5.Since the problem for credit rating agencies is with the debt, not the debt ceiling, we’re likely to get a downgrade in our credit rating anyway. After all, if debt is the problem, we just made things worse.
6. Contrary to what the GOP says, the Super Committee will in fact be able to raise taxes. Jake Tapper, ABC: “There’s nothing in the legislation that would prevent the Super-Committee from proposing revenue increases. Nothing.”
7. The bill very likely will gut our military, freezing its budget and leading to imposed reductions in defense spending of $1 trillion. This bill makes us not only poorer but weaker.
8. It doesn’t require passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment, just a vote on one. Democrats will have no reason to vote for it, so it’s destined to go down in flames. An historic, once-in-a-legislative-lifetime opportunity gone.
9. The GOP broke a solemn promise it made to the American people to post every bill online for three days before voting on it. This bill was posted in the morning, voted on in the evening of the same day. And they wonder why people say, “You politicians are all the same.”
It’s Satan sandwich, all right, loaded up with a side order of horseradish, garlic, leeks and straight vinegar. Bon appetit.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.
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