{"id":48886,"date":"2014-12-12T07:29:25","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T14:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/12\/playing-politics-with-the-purse.html"},"modified":"2014-12-12T09:18:31","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T16:18:31","slug":"playing-politics-with-the-purse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/12\/playing-politics-with-the-purse.html","title":{"rendered":"Playing Politics with the Purse"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems to me that if there are specific activities that the GOP in Congress dislike about certain regulatory agencies — the IRS, the EPA — that the rational and straightforward thing to do about them is change the laws that allow such activities. Don't like employee bonuses? Make them illegal. Don't care for a particular type of regulatory activity? Alter the law underneath which that stuff is regulated.<\/p>\n

Simply hacking at the budget, ostensibly to "punish" the agencies, is not only more than a bit deceptive ("We don't want to repeal the law, just want to remove the ability to enforce it"), but implies a larger agenda ("Our supporters don't like taxes, so we're going to make it difficult to enforce tax laws; our supporters don't like Obamacare, so we're going to make it difficult to assess legal tax penalties around it; our supporters like both having non-profit status and being able to do whatever they want with it, so we're going to make it difficult to review and regulate non-profit activities.").<\/p>\n

In other words, if you don't like government, sabotage it. If you want people to think that government doesn't work, don't let it work. "Starve the beast." It's likely to be ugly but effective, even if underhanded and cowardly. And it's a great sign of what the next two years is going to look like.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\nRepublicans seek to cripple IRS<\/a><\/span>
\nConfused taxpayers, jammed help lines and tax cheaters running rampant — the IRS for months has warned that drastic budget cuts will disable an already troubled agency. Republicans aren’t buying it. Instead, they’re biding their time until they seize control of both chambers next year, giving them majorities to financially gut the…\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems to me that if there are specific activities that the GOP in Congress dislike about certain regulatory agencies — the IRS, the EPA — that the rational and straightforward thing to do about them is change the laws that allow such activities. Don't like employee bonuses? Make them illegal. Don't care for a … Continue reading “Playing Politics with the Purse”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,374,358,376],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-money-politics","category-poor-citizenship","category-taxing-spending"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1041,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/22\/fbi_v2.html","url_meta":{"origin":48886,"position":0},"title":"FBI v.2","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 22-Oct-01 9:26am","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times reports that the FBI is looking at significantly changing its role. \"In\" are counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence, complex white-collar fraud, organized crime and political corruption. \"Out\" are...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128648,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/08\/nice-regulatory-structure-if-you-can-get-one.html","url_meta":{"origin":48886,"position":1},"title":"Nice regulatory structure, if you can get one","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 8-Nov-15 9:11am","format":false,"excerpt":"Among the other concerns with the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty, now before the Senate for an up\/down vote, is that it turns any attempt to regulate the finance industry in a way that arguably reduces its profits into a law suit at an international tribunal.'The TPP, a 12-nation pact with countries\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3385,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/12\/04\/totality.html","url_meta":{"origin":48886,"position":2},"title":"Totality","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 4-Dec-02 11:10am","format":false,"excerpt":"With the continued moves by various agencies in the Federal government to expand the data it collects and the way it makes use of it for law enforcement anti-terrorism purposes,...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9725,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/05\/02\/the_exceptional.html","url_meta":{"origin":48886,"position":3},"title":"The Exceptional President","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-May-06 2:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I.e., the president who believes his job is to uphold the law, except when he thinks he doesn't need to because it's not (in his opinion) constitutionally sound. Now, some...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33699,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/11\/live-free-and-die.html","url_meta":{"origin":48886,"position":4},"title":"Live Free and Die","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 11-May-13 3:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Laws and regulations are, of course, not a matter of black and white. One can find many examples of regulatory overreach, and others of regulatory laxness, that have led to death, destitution, and general unhappiness.There are, perhaps, a few people out there who truly believe that a completely controlled economy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28484,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/09\/black-lung-is-back-oh-boy.html","url_meta":{"origin":48886,"position":5},"title":"Black lung is back, oh boy!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 9-Jul-12 3:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Black lung disease, that old-timey coal mining disease, is making a resurgence. There are a lot of speculated reasons -- miners working much larger shifts, more mining in rockier mines with more powerful tools that kick up more dust -- but the major reason seems to be ... mining companies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48897,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48886\/revisions\/48897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}