Video: Paul Ryan Cat vs. Timothy Geithner yarn ball

This is a baffling exchange for multiple reasons. Of course, the visual of  Rep. Paul Ryan's chart vs. the visual of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's chart would be laughable if not so serious. Both charts show an out-of-control budgetary trajectory beginning in 2012. The main difference is that Ryan's chart includes an alternate path; Geithner's chart does not.

Ryan's alternative path is backed up by a plan. Geithner concedes the administration has no long term plan to deal with the unsustainable path that he concedes we're on. In a sane world, since he has no plan, he should be willing to implement Ryan's plan.

This is not a sane world.

Watch all the way to the end. Geithner actually says he has no plan but won't accept Ryan's because he doesn't like it.

I'm not kidding.



h/t RCP

New York Post: Stern Letters to Holder are nice but...

Since the Fast and Furious scandal blew open over a year ago, there has been a plethora of strongly worded letters sent by both Rep. Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley to various individuals at ATF, DOJ, State, etc. Those stern letters keep coming but to this point, there hasn't been much action according to Michael Walsh at the New York Post:

‘Contempt of Congress” is a pretty strong term, and one with tangible legal consequences, but how else to describe Attorney General Eric Holder’s continuing obstructionism in the burgeoning Fast and Furious scandal?

It’s been 14 months since news broke that a federal agent had been killed with weapons that Holder’s Justice Department intentionally allowed to cross the border into Mexico, with no plan on how to track them and without alerting Mexican officials. In all, the Obama administration sent thousands of guns south to the drug gangs under the misbegotten operation.

So, now what you ask?

On Tuesday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif) — whose House Oversight Committee is leading the congressional investigation — sent Holder another in a series of stern letters, demanding that Justice comply with committee subpoenas that it’s been pretty much ignoring since Oct. 12.

The letter was prompted by Justice’s failure to meet a Feb. 9 deadline to make witnesses available and turn over hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of internal documents. Holder’s crew requested a further extension — while publicly decrying Issa’s probe as a political witch hunt.

Of course, as Issa writes, it’s Justice’s own “delay tactics” that “have extended this investigation into a presidential-election year.” Indeed, “had the department demonstrated willingness to cooperate with this investigation from the outset — instead of attempting to cover up its own internal mismanagement — this investigation likely would have concluded” last year.

“In reality,” Issa continues, “it is the department that is playing political gotcha games, instead of allowing a co-equal branch of government to perform its constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch.

“We cannot wait any longer for the deparment’s cooperation.”

Tough words. But will there ever be more than words?

The American people who are insisting that Holder be held accountable have been very patient but it's time to escalate this thing. That includes a longer list of Congressmen who are demanding Holder's resignation. An increase in the number of names on that list will help both Issa and Boehner do the right thing.

h/t Sipsey Street

Video: Boehner confronted about Fast and Furious, avoids the question

The Daily Caller's Nicholas Ballasy asked House Speaker John Boehner if he supported the 100 congressmen who've either called for Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation or for a resolution of "no confidence." While Boehner said he supports Issa's investigation, he didn't answer the question. In particular, he would not respond to the part about whether he would bring the "no confidence" resolution to the floor.

If you just watch Boehner's answer, you might feel pretty good but when you include the question and how blatantly he avoided it, the warm and fuzzy feeling kinda goes away.


This is the only part of the exchange that Boehner's office has posted to his website (notice the question is missing):