What Would Happen If "The Onion" Put Together A Budget?

The Republican's unleashed their long-waited budget alternative today. And the reaction was, well, pretty funny:

From FiveThirtyEight.com

The Republican "Road to Recovery" budget alternative, rolled out today by John Boehner, has been criticized by left and right for its lack of specificity and its promise to eliminate the national debt while significantly cutting taxes. FiveThirtyEight.com, however, has received an advance copy of additional details prepared by the Minority Leader's office. Although some elements of the proposal are still under discussion -- Eric Cantor is said to want to eliminate North Dakota rather than Idaho, while Thaddeus McCotter has suggested using the balance of TARP funds to purchase scratch-off tickets -- the final plan can be expected to contain most or all of these components.

From The American Prospect:

If you're having a bad day, I highly encourage you to spend some quality time with the Republican budget proposal. It's reads like what would happen if The Onion put together a budget. "Area Man Releases Proposal for 2010 Federal Spending Priorities." (Though, to paraphrase William F. Buckley, it turns out that I'd prefer a federal budget written by an area man than the first six names on the House Republican Leadership roster.)

And last, but not least, from Wonkette:

I love the idea of Boehner in his office, with his staff, paging through this, fresh from the graphic designer that someone hired from craigslist and smelling like fresh printer’s ink, and realizing that they’ve already called the press and they have to have something to wave at them.

There is a moment, just a moment of silence, while everyone considers the repercussions of the press, you know, actually getting their hands on this, this… thing.

Because here where they are safe, they know. They *know* this is a piece of shit. But nobody wants to say it. Eyes avoid eyes. Faintly in the background a siren dopplers by. Someone clears his throat. You can hear heels clacking against the marble in the hallway.

And Boehner takes a deep breath, straightens his cuffs, and says “Fuck it”.

That’s leadership, people.