Talk about gratitude! The Legislature spends three sleepless weeks bashing out a budget deal, figures out a way to slash $39 billion from the federal budget, and Allen West says it's not enough?
That's the news, according to The Hill, which reported on Saturday that Allen West would vote "nay" on the new budget.
But will he?
Also on Saturday, West appeared on Fox and was asked about the budget deal. On that occasion, West said:
We've changed the political culture here in Washington, D.C.,... so I think the era of big spending in Washington, D.C., is over. But, you know, this is not the time to dance in the end zone. Thirty-nine billion dollars, you know, everyone's saying that's the highest-ever spending cut, but when you put it in the context of a one-point-four-two trillion-dollar annual deficit or the one-point-six-five trillion-dollar annual deficit we're heading to right now -- it's kind of like an aircraft carrier. It takes five miles to turn it around, but at least we're starting that motion.
Except, if he's planning to vote against "starting that motion," he probably shouldn't say "at least"; he should say "we're barely starting that motion" or "this is an insufficient start to that motion" or something similar. Right?
Oh, well. Give the guy a break. It's been a confusing week, one in which West slammed GOP legislators for using military paychecks as rhetorical hostages in an effort to pass a budget before a government shutdown. "The House Majority has now placed the funding for the Department of Defense and the funding for the troops down as a bargaining chip," said West on April 8, according to Talking Points Memo. "In the past 100 days, the House Majority could have passed at any point in time a separate stand-alone Appropriations for the Department of Defense and the funding for our men and women."
Agreed! Except -- hey, Colonel, aren't you part of the House Majority?
Follow The Juice on Facebook and on Twitter: @TheJuiceBPB.
