Jul 29 2011
Why The Tea Party & House GOP Are NOT Failing, But Succeeding
Major Update: So the house passed the final tweaked version of the Boehner bill with 2 votes to spare. I am good with the bill on many fronts. It is a small debt ceiling increase (~$900M) with equal cuts in spending. No more debt ceiling increases can be automatically implemented without passage of a balanced budget amendment (this is fake window dressing in my opinion). Bottom line, everyone is coming back in a few months to enjoy a real forcing function on spending. And by then the polls will be clear as Obama’s numbers continue to tank (he is now 40-50% on Gallup’s approval under ‘adults’) and the Dems will either get a clue or continue to crash and burn.
But here is the deal – no further. If Reid and the Senate gut this thing, the close vote is a warning their bill will crash and burn in the house. I still say we need to call Obama’s bluff and watch as the world still turns come Wednesday AM. And then those crying “Wolf!” will finally appreciate the power of the parable. – end update.
As the so-called debt crisis looms the bubble surrounding the DC Political Industrial Complex is as thick as Get Smart’s Cone of Silence. No Main Street logic or common sense can penetrate that shield of ‘business-as-usual’. And because of that, the Political Industrial Complex is just not hearing what America hears as this so-called debt crisis (‘so-called’ because we have plenty of money for mandatory spending and servicing our debt payments) plays out.
The DC insiders cry “the government can’t borrow any more money after Tuesday” and we say “Amen!”
The DC insiders cry “the cuts required by the Debt Ceiling Limit will be draconian” and we wonder “But won’t the Balanced Budget Amendment and other triggers coming “later” be just as drastic?”
DC insiders cry “How can anyone oppose another empty ‘business-as-usual’ compromise and hurt our party’s election prospects” and we mutter in frustration “What the hell do you think the last few elections have been about? No more business-as-usual!!!“
I heard none other than Laura Ingraham get all condescending because the Tea Party, Small-Government, Nor-More-Games House members did not accept the latest DC two step crap and vote lock step with the DC Insiders! You can tell who butters her bread every day.
The point the DC insiders are missing is this: the current round of BS is just another round of kick it down the road! All these promises of future cuts, commissions, triggers and amendments mean nothing if they are simply going to be echoes of what we see today (and have seen for decades).
If not now, then can it really ever happen?
After a historic 2010 vote and a clear message from We The People that DC had crossed numerous lines you would think the clowns in Congress and the White House would get the message. But no. Instead they name call those standing up for what Main Street wants – a change in course with REAL results.
Boehner, Reid, Obama and all the talking heads better get something straight right now. We The People are not fooling around and we are not stupid. If you cannot get some real cuts passed now, then it will not happen later. Knowing this, we might as well let the Debt Ceiling Limit be the Sword of Damacles over the heads of DC, starting now. What those inside the DC bubble completely miss is that everyone outside the beltway watching this knows there is more pressure on them now than any future trigger or amendment or commission can leverage. And they are still failing.
If the Political Industrial Complex wants to avoid a truly serious consequence to business-as-usual, stop screwing around with vacuous plans and mythical future actions.
Reid better understand his party will be completely and utterly decimated in the Senate in the next two election cycles if he does not get out of the way.
And Obama better understand he better not play games or his lame duck year will also feature serious investigations into criminal malfeasance. He better pay the right bills in the right order – or else.
This is NOT a game. And the people in DC better wake up. The only thing that can avoid the serious consequences is a serious set of cuts along with a short term raise in the ceiling. Yes, you all will be here again in a few months with that same Debt Ceiling Sword hanging over your collective heads. If that is what it takes, then that is what it takes.
Go to default and see what happens. Businesses will never darken your door again, and neither will supporters. Listen to the House – they are here at this time with a message from the American people. And this time there will be no face saving way out. You have two painful choices – choose wisely. Begin with YOUR sacrifices, not ours.
I don’t have a problem with the default.
The house finally passes another bill.
So now what will the Senate do? Table it?
Yeah, these senators and republicans get but don’t earn 174,000 and all the benefits.
While I am very tempted to say the hard core tea partiers along with the 22 (or so) gents, who voted against Boener’s plan,are right, my gut tells me that it is better to take the long view approach as many in the country are still uninformed, thus ready to believe the crap spewed by the demsheviks and the media.
One thing is for sure: the demsheviks lost every bit of fiscal credibility, and will be tarred for generations by the fiscal insanity they unleashed on US.
But the repubics need to be very careful because they also spent like idiots under Bush and the repubic congress.
I do believe the Republlicans are stronger for having passed Boehners plan, even though it won’t pass. If they had passed nothing Reid would have claimed they were just as dysfunctional as the Senate.
I still wonder whether Obama will try the crazy 14th amendment ploy that AJ already posted about. I can’t believe that he will – the country would be plunged into chaos if he did! Even he can’t be that crazy.
It didn’t pass. It was voted down in the Senate. An entire week of time wasted.
Good Post AJ.
The Inside the Beltway Elites and the Groupies that follow them and make their livings off these clowns are sorely missing the point here.
The parasitic talking heads and parasitic Presstitutes are being spoonfed the insane rants of a Party in all out kamakazi mode.
The Demrat Party thinks they can break the system so badly that We The People will have no choice but to turn to them and their big government for our salvation, not realizing that the majority of the country has already turned against them.
We The People don’t understand the intricacies of the sausage making but we know what has been going on, the two party two step, has driven us to the brink of default and is selling our children and grandchildren into slavery for the state and career politicians continuation of their political careers.
We are a fair people but most of us expect each individual to take care of and provide for themselves.
A leader will arise and give a voice to the Silent no More, patient but observant, Tea Party and when the power of the decency and fairness of the American People is given a voice, a forceful, articulate leader, the DC crowd will be run from their golden palaces and parachutes in shame and discust.
I have an idea who she may be, we shall see!
The problem I really have with the Reid plan is this:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/07/over-to-you-harry.php
What this does is means the Republicans would have to basically agree to giving up their right (actually, responsibility) of creating a budget. It neuters this House of Representatives and carries the Pelosi budget forward for two more years without House Republicans making a single budget for its entire term in Congress.
THAT is outrageous.
You know things are bad when illegals are leaving California and returning to Mexico because the unemployment rate in Mexico is about half that of California:
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/28/3799513/improving-mexican-economy-draws.html
I disagree that the week was wasted, Crosspatch. The week was spent staking out a position, a hill to die on. When you’re going to have a Final Battle, it’s worth taking time to choose your ground.
There isn’t going to be any “compromise” to end this, not a real one. We’ve been building towards this moment for 40 years – we’ve finally reached the point where one side clearly has to win, and one clearly has to lose.
Too bad both sides have the ability to burn the house to the ground before that happens. And that is exactly what we’re about to do. In a way, it *Is* 1861 all over again; a majority of the people on both sides have come to the conclusion that it is better to let everything burn than to go on doing business as usual.
Hell, I’ve come to that conclusion, since I’m convinced it’s all going to burn anyways, if we do nothing.
To those who wonder how we got here, this isn’t sudden; we’ve been building towards this final breakdown for 40 years now. To my eyes, that’s when the real hatred between left and right began, and it’s been growing steadily every year since. We’re finally at the point where all-out political war is the only option left.
So this is our Hill to Die On. We *are* now going to default; and I think the stock market has got to drop at least 2,000 points before anyone starts to back down. Maybe 5,000. I’ve always known some trigger was going to come to start the Great Unraveling; I never knew we would do it to ourselves so deliberately.
Remember this week well; this is when it all started to come apart. 1861, 1914, 1939 – years in which the world changed forever, in ways no one could truly foresee at the time. 2011 is another Annus Horrible to add to the list.
And the dominos haven’t even started to fall yet.
The population of the U.S. may be against additional government spending, today. They will change their minds, it is only a matter of time. How long can we push this off remains to be seen.
What is clear is that unless the debt ceiling is raised, new government spending will not be possible and the existing government will need to decide what parts are not important enough to make the cut. President Obama prides himself on making the ‘difficult decisions’. OK, this is right up his alley.
This means that the only tool that I know of now that will contain federal government spending IS the debt limit. These reasons are at least partly responsible as to why this issue is such a desperate fight, for both sides.
WWS,
Agreed – it is now the time to win, not compromise. And the Dems know they are in the brink, they know they cannot lose now or else they lose forever. It is their stubbornness that signals to me this is the time to win. They would not be ‘all in’ if they weren’t and the brink of collapse.
I don’t believe that is what is going to happen. I believe, as the Powerline link suggests, the Democrats will eventually force the Republicans to sail down the river and over the falls with them.
The fundamental reason is that the Tea Party will so fracture the Republican House that at some point the House Democrats will be able to get enough “moderate Republicans” to go along with them to get something passed.
If Reid drops his “deemed passed” provisions for the next two budgets from his bill, he probably has a pretty good chance of getting it through the Senate. Right now he basically wants an extension of the debt ceiling that gets the Democrats through the 2012 elections AND provisions that prevent the House Republicans from making a budget for the next two years. He won’t get all of that, but he might get the debt ceiling issue through the House.
I say the way to play it is to just say “fine, here’s your rope, go hang yourself”.
[…] Read more at strata-sphere.com … TOPICS: PoliticsKEYWORDS: boehner; obama; reid; […]
[…] I noted on Friday that the Tea Party and GOP stalwarts in the House were not only winning the debate in DC, everyone outside the DC bubble (akin to Get Smart’s Cone Of Silence above) knew that the debt limit forcing function now hanging over the DC elites has never been, nor will ever will be, a more powerful incentive to reign in government growth, waste and incompetence. I wrote: The point the DC insiders are missing is this: the current round of BS is just another round of kick it down the road! All these promises of future cuts, commissions, triggers and amendments mean nothing if they are simply going to be echoes of what we see today (and have seen for decades). […]