Surprise!

(Cartoon by Drew Sheneman/Tribune News Services and featured at US News.com.  Click on image to enlarge.)

What's old has become new again.  The force behind this miracle?  Why, it's Paul Ryan, who has decided it's time to re-introduce his already rejected budget.  No surprise here.

From the L.A. Times:

House Republicans will revive Rep. Paul Ryan's lightning-rod proposals to slash the federal safety net, beef up military spending and reduce taxes for the wealthy in a budget unveiled Tuesday -- an election-year calling card that Democrats are poised to use against the GOP.

The blueprint from Ryan, the party's former vice presidential nominee, is expected to be met with stiff opposition not only from Democrats, but also from hard-line Republicans who want deeper austerity cuts to more quickly balance the budget. ...

 ...House Republicans will return to the core ideas from Ryan, the Budget Committee chairman, that have come to define the party's approach: Cut federal spending on Medicare, Medicaid and other programs that make up the federal safety net, while reducing top individual and corporate tax rates to  25%, which Republicans argue will spur economic growth. ...

Drafting the budget for the 2015 fiscal year, which begins in October, was a challenge this time because the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected sluggish economic growth. That made it more difficult to achieve Ryan's goal of eliminating federal red ink within 10 years.
To get to balance -- especially while protecting Pentagon accounts -- Ryan shifts the burden of reductions onto domestic programs.

He suggests money can be saved by cutting food stamps, capping college Pell grants, imposing more welfare work requirements, eliminating federal arts funds, even selling off public lands. He leaves the details to the House committees to sort out.  [Emphasis added]

And guess what?  The old-but-new-again budget was introduced just in time ... for the 2014 elections, that is..

What a surprise, eh?

And that old-but-new-again budget just might garner Mr. Ryan an award or two.

Stay tuned.

Maybe We Won't Miss Her

(Editorial cartoon by Steve Sack and published 5/26/13 in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  Click on image to enlarge and then return.)

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Michele Bachmann's home town newspaper, points out that Michele has no intention of actually going away.  She's just not running for re-election to her House seat.

Embattled congresswoman Michele Bachmann told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity in exclusive interview Thursday that she is “not going away” despite her decision not to seek a fifth term.

“There’s just a time when you’ve served, and then it’s time to move on,” the Minnesota Republican said in her first interview since announcing that she is not running for reelection. “I’m not retiring. I’m not going silent. I’m not quitting my public involvement. In fact, I may run for another public office. That could happen.” ...

Given room to expound on her plans, Bachmann told the talk show host, “I’m not going away. I’m not leaving Washington. I’m not leaving the national scene. It’s just bringing a positive solution from a different perch.”

Asked about running again for president, Bachmann concluded, “I’m not taking anything off the table. But that’s certainly not my number one item that I’m looking at right now either. I’m in the game for the long haul.”    [Emphasis added]

So what does all that mean?  Who knows!

It may be that her decision not to run again for her House seat was designed to cool the Ethics Committee investigation and that she has her eye on Al Franken's senatorial seat.  Or the presidency.

Or, and I think this is more likely, she is being given a little Republican welfare.  Her appearance on Hannity's Fox News show may have been designed as a preview for a slot there.  Or she may be moving on to one of the conservative think tanks, joining such luminaries as Jim DeMint.

But if she's not leaving the public eye, than we can't and won't miss her.

I take a little perverse joy out of that.