"And suddenly there
was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God,
and saying: Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to men
of good will." ―Luke 2:1-14
“Elections have
consequences.” Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, co-chair of bipartisan
budget committee, about the compromise recommendations that are
causing some Republicans to get their bells in a jingle.
Pardon my lack of
interest in seasonal political correctness that requires good will
to ALL men. I shall wish peace only to “men of good will”,
including U.S. Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, as well
as Rep. Paul Ryan, Speaker John Boehner, Heritage Action, Club for
Growth and tea party activists like me. The phrase includes all
members of Congress who deplore the $17 trillion national debt,
those who voted no this month on the budget committee compromise, on
principle, and those who voted yes because of practical concerns
about shutting down the government again and hurting Republican
chances of taking the House and the Senate in the 2014 election.
I refuse to choose
sides. OK, if I were your elected representative in Washington,
D.C., I’d vote with Cruz/Paul/Rubio and all who try to keep their
tea party pledge not to increase the deficit/national debt. I’d have
voted to repeal Obamacare in October because it is going to add to
the debt no matter what Obama says. I don’t care if the government
shuts down until it shapes up, because if we don’t do something
soon, it will collapse on all of us, including the needy who are
already on the bottom of the pile.
But I won’t join in any
attack on the more practical men of good will, who recognize that
voters don’t yet understand how serious the budget/debt/economic
situation is, who believe that we must be patient with those whose
votes in 2008 and 2012 led to the current and coming consequences.
Soon, they think, these voters will wake up and help us win in 2014
and 2016.
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Investor's Business Daily
Dec. 17, 2013
Editorial Cartoon by Michael Ramirez |
In case you’ve been
distracted by holiday preparations, I’ll catch you up here: A
bipartisan budget committee of the House and Senate, led by Rep.
Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington), offered a compromise
budget plan that prevents a government shutdown into 2015, changing
the previous “sequester” agreement to allow an additional $65
billion in spending, up to an additional $1.012 trillion, increasing
both the deficit and the national debt, with a promise to reduce
spending eventually. The package does raise $6 billion from fees and
some pension adjustments.
I rushed through those
numbers because they are meaningless. The country doesn’t have an
additional $1.012 trillion to spend. It takes in only $3 trillion in
tax revenues for the entire existing almost $4 trillion budget,
roughly $300 billion of which goes to service the existing debt, so
the government will have to borrow by raising the debt ceiling,
which is another battle coming again soon.
One reason they wanted
to change the “sequester” was to prevent defense spending cuts that
some Republicans don’t want; in return, they’re getting new
protections for military victims of sexual assault, which I’d have
thought was illegal and, therefore, already covered by existing
military spending. The budget also extends Medicare payment rates so
that doctors don’t drop Medicare patients while dropping Medicaid
patients on their way to retiring early to escape Obamacare, which
with any luck will self-destruct while taking down legislators who
voted for it.
So you can see, there
is no reason for conservatives to be fighting with each other over
who did or did not vote for the bipartisan compromise. The important
thing is to not distract voters from the constant repetition of news
clips showing Obama promising we could all keep our health insurance
and doctors if we liked them. As my dad taught me, don’t lie: If you
get caught, you’ll never get your credibility back. So, things are
looking up for Republicans who need to keep the president from doing
too much more damage to the country in the three years remaining in
his job.
As Paul Ryan said,
“Elections have consequences,” and he should know. He ran for vice
president, alongside Mitt Romney, arguing for his earlier budgets
that more seriously addressed deficits and the national debt. Sadly,
most voters preferred to do this the hard way.
Just today I received
two mailings: one was from Sen. Cruz, containing a fiscal
conservative priorities poll created by The Club for Growth, which
was one of the groups attacked last week by Speaker Boehner for
attacking his support of the Ryan compromise. The other mailing was
from Speaker Boehner, with a fiscal conservative priorities survey,
pretty much the same questions, about balanced budgets, repealing
Obamacare, reform the tax code, etc. I say, prioritize fiscal
responsibility. I’m with Cruz, Boehner, all these men of good will.
I’m with the grass-roots Tea Party.
There’s no time for
rhetoric about RINOs, whatever that means, or primary threats, or
talk show ranting. We have one election cycle to pull together and
turn things around: Merry Christmas to all who are focused on this
goal.
