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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Why Is John Boehner Letting House Republicans Be Mitch McConnell’s Toy?

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  July 17th, 2011 at 11:56 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Here is what is going to happen unless House Republicans stage an immediate revolt against their own House leadership.

Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi are going to win. They have managed to cut the legs out from under John Boehner and the House Republicans. In fact, the House Republicans have taken on all the appearances of Mitch McConnell’s basement gimp.

I’m not sure why we need them any more if the McConnell-Reid-Pelosi Pontius Pilate Act passes.

See, John Boehner ceded authority to Mitch McConnell. Instead of embracing the conservative “Cut, Cap, and Balance” plan or even pushing forward with Paul Ryan’s plan as an alternative, Boehner let McConnell move forward and cut Boehner’s legs out from under him. It was a willing sacrifice on Boehner’s part because he’d rather be legless than fight.

Now here is what Boehner and McConnell have agreed to do.

At the start of next week, House Republicans will vote on their cut, cap, and balance plan.

Because of leadership undermining it behind the scenes, it will be lucky to get 218 votes. And if it gets 218 votes, it will get to the Senate and Mitch McConnell will declare his support for it while letting Harry Reid deny it a vote. Of, better yet, they’ll vote for it. It won’t get 51 votes.

And then Mitch McConnell and John Boehner will say as they are already starting to say in the press, “Well, we just couldn’t get it through. Time to go with the Pontius Pilate Act.” There will be no fight. There will be no holding the line. The votes will come fast to avoid getting any last minute momentum. It will all be so Congressional Republican Leaders will say, “Well, they failed. Let’s move on.” Never mind that moving on instead of holding the line is what got us into this mess to begin with.

We’ll get another deficit commission in the deal. And then we’ll cede congressional power to the President to raise the debt ceiling so Republicans don’t get blamed.

It is now a foregone conclusion.

House Republicans have refused to hold the freaking line. They have refused to fight. In fact, they have bought the myth that they are powerless and let Mitch McConnell negotiate for them. He, being a Senator, pretended they don’t matter, and is now prepared to hand their power over to Barack Obama.

This is, as it was, all about Mitch McConnell. It was never about saving the country or raising the debt ceiling.

McConnell is convinced the GOP will lose the PR battle and if they lose the PR battle, he won’t become Senate Majority Leader. That’s all McConnell wants. And now, because House Republicans are fine acting like McConnell’s basement gimp, McConnell might just get that and the country will get $2 trillion in new debt over the next year without significant spending cuts.

But hey! We’ll get another deficit commission. Just the like the one we had last year. But even more super awesome.

The only thing that could possibly change the outcome is a full on rebellion by House Republicans against their leadership. But given their caving on the continuing resolution and their failure to fight over Obamacare, I won’t hold my breath.

As David Gregory said this morning on Meet the Press, “Debt is winning.” Thanks Republicans!

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COMMENTS

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  • cordpt

    You rant a lot about “holding the line”, but what does that mean in practical terms? Not raising the debt limit? And then trying to blame Obama – the guy who will be saying “I tried my best, you remember all the meetings I promoted, but they didn’t even produce a law for me to sign, any law at all!” – for the ensuing economic chaos?

    Or do you actually believe that Reid and Obama will accept the cap, cut and balance strategy? That’s an astonishing level of naiveness. Obama’s priority is being re-elected and at this point he’ll welcome anything that diverts the public attention from the current issues: a stagnant economy and high unemployment. If the debt limit isn’t raised, he’ll actually run on the current economy and economic numbers – “hey, do you remember how things weren’t that bad in June 2011, before the congress failed to pass a debt ceiling resolution? I was doing okay, the economy was slowly growing the unemployment was in single digits…”.

    Elections have consequences. You can’t win policy battles if you don’t win the political ones. Maybe if some folks hadn’t endorsed and voted for the likes of O’Donnell, Angle and Buck in the primaries we would be much better positioned for this battle now.

    No meaningful budgetary reform will happen as long as Obama is the President and Reid is the Senate Majority Leader. Those who can’t understand this will never understand anything.

  • http://charlemagne-the-hammer.blogspot.com/ DerKrieger

    …will be required to stop this madness. Either the debt train finally derails and wreaks havoc on our economy requiring serious men and women to get serious about our out of control government or those of us in the taxpaying half of the working population will begin serious discussions about secession. The responsible half of the population can no longer be held as economic serfs to the socialist, irresponsible half. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of being coerced into government programs in which I have no desire to participate and I’m sick of having my hard earned salary confiscated to pay for it. McConell, Boehner, and the entire GOP establishment MUST go.

  • ningrim

    if he was up for reelection in 2012.

  • izoneguy
  • jmimac351

    Obama is going to blame Republicans no matter what happens. Now, on top of that, the GOP will have pissed off their base.

    Yours is the typical inside the beltway argument that Republicans make because they have cowards for leaders. It is focused on trying to be politically cute instead of taking a stand for what is right.

    When you don’t do what is right, you will not win in the end.

    There is going to be HELL TO PAY if this happens the way Erick describes.

  • jmimac351

    Did Republicans run with the message of “Elect us in 2010 and we will let Obama do what he wants with spending / debt. Then elect us again in 2012 and we promise we will stand up to him.”?

    Or…

    Did they run in the message of standing up to this Marxist in the White House right now?

    Which position won the Republicans 63 seats in the House?

    Talk about “naive”. I’m not sure if your position is a matter of being naive or just part of the problem.

  • Spiral

    Cordpt,

    You hit the nail on the head with this statement here.

    Elections have consequences. You can?t win policy battles if you don?t win the political ones.

    That’s why McConnell’s strategy makes perfect sense. The GOP should simply raise the debt limit high enough to avoid default for the remainder of Obama’s current term in office. Then, the GOP should campaign against the Obama economy where unemployment has remained higher than it ever was under George W Bush for every month Obama has been in office.

    The GOP wins control over the US Senate in 2012 and also wins the White House in 2012. Then we can finally have a serious talk about significant reductions in federal government spending, without raising taxes.

    Anyone who thinks that Obama and Reid are going to accept significant reductions in federal government spending without huge tax increases simply lack an understanding of American politics.

    Never take a hostage that you aren’t prepared to shoot. The GOP should not threaten for a nanosecond to have us go past the August 2nd deadline, whether that “deadline” is real or imaginary.

    You win elections first.

    You govern conservatively second.

    The order is important because if you reverse it up, you get what you got in 1996, the reelection of President Clinton.

  • joecollins

    I still haven’t seen one. Until such a plan shows up, is completely understood, the Repubs in Congress should sit on their hands. Do nothing.

    In the words of Nancy Reagan, “Just say NO.”

  • jmimac351

    This is the same rationale for McCain, and we lost.

    Clinton won in ’96 because of Ross Perot and wait for it…. a “moderate” GOP nominee who was weak – Bob Dole.

    The GOP will not win elections by going along with liberals and “hoping for their chance” to fix things later. Since when do liberals go along with Conservatives?

    I know what you both are doing and yours are positions of weakness, defeatism, and typical inside the beltway GOP nonsense that has resulted in losing to liberals for years.

    “If only we could have a majority, then we could stand up for what we believe in.”

    This is total nonsense that only losers put forth – which may be your goal anyway.

  • bk

    is to pass CCB through the House. When the Senate does nothing (again), he can say we’ve passed two bills through the House. Until the Senate sends back an amended version of the Ryan bill or the CCB bill there is no reason for the House to do anything more since Reid and the Democrats are hiding behind having to make tough political votes.

    It’s easy for Obama to hide – Boehner needs to force the Democrats in the Senate to take a position instead of just voting present time after time. McConnell SHOULD be supportive of that approach, as he wants Senate Democrats who are up in 2012 to look as bad as possible.

  • lineholder

    is that you are afraid holding the line now will cause a repeat of the scenario that took place in 1995…past isn’t always prelude, and the circumstances are very different now than what existed when Clinton won a second term.

    Daily, we receive information from other nations, such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, etc., about the consequences we will find ourselves facing very shortly if things to continue to go down the same path we have. This is the Internet age, and the general public is far more informed about what is going on than it was back during Clinton’s era.

    This is NOT 1995!

  • RealQuiet

    Unless he plans on announcing his retirement if this happens. He’ll have primary challengers lining up to take him on.

  • RealQuiet

    n/t

  • swami7774

    ..if you control only one leg of the three-legged stool.
    Just fight as long as you can, state your case that “this is what we WOULD do IF….” and then look for the least-worst alternative.
    Or…you can go down with the ship and ensure you lose the one leg of the stool you DO have.

  • http://www.tooncesthecat.wordpress.com tooncesthecat

    After CCB fails this week in either the House or the Senate, Boehner will immediately advance a bill to cut spending by approximately $150 billion over 10 years while increasing the debt ceiling by $150 billion. This buys one month of time before default. He will continue to do this for as many months (3 to 4 at the most) as it takes to negotiate a deal on the Republicans terms. There are already enough agreed upon cuts to do this for 8 to 10 months and drive the Democrats crazy, because they can’t vote against this kind of legislation and Obama, despite his threats, can’t veto it. Where have we seen this before–in the recent 2011 Budget Negotiations. I willing to bet good money that this is what will happen.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    McConnell is the WORST kind of kick-the-can take-no-responsibility inside-beltway baloney. The worst kind.

    I will say point blank that it is WORSE than simply owning up to caving and passing a ‘clean’ debt ceiling increase. Why? Because it not only mucks up consitutional authority, it gives Obama lee-way to engage in mischeivous pretenses … AND, bad from a political point of view, it does the OPPOSITE that McConnell thinks it does: It ties the GOP to this, as validators of this approach who therefore APPROVE of the charade of Presidential pretend-spending-cuts as excuses to add to the national credit card limit.

    Another bad thing it does – it gets the 23 Democrat Senators up for re-election OFF THE HOOK for the tough votes they SHOULD be taking IF we demanded the Senate do its job. Why isnt McConnell on the floor of the Senate demanding a budget and a debt ceiling proposal from Reid? It’s pathetic!

    Bad bad bad bad deal all around. If Obama had proposed a ‘deal’ that said: “Dear Republicans, just give me the power to make up the spending cuts, I promise to make ‘em good ones; oh, and that deficit commission I ignored, lets do another commission and try that again, maybe we’ll get something I can ignore again, how about it?” – if Obama thought it up, we’d laugh at his face!

    But instead our own leader, clearly in a stupid and blind panic that, gasp, he might get blamed, comes up with the lamest pass-the-buck contraption possible to wish away the very POWER TO FIX THE PROBLEM that Republicans claim they want to have! In truth, this bill should be called “The McConnell, run-away-sellout-House-GOP-and-reelect-Obama Bill” That’s what it does.

    200 Republicans in the House will vote against it. If Boehner does sell out, it will be a minority of Republicans and majority of Democrats – a RINO-Democrat coalition that sells out conservatives. As in April, when Boehner carved a deal that 80 Republicans rejected, Boehner is sawing off the conservative wing. Fiscal conservative principles are being thrown overboard in a bid for compromise.

    “You rant a lot about ?holding the line?, but what does that mean in practical terms? Not raising the debt limit?”

    The Boehner position in the negotiations was simple, solid, firm and clear: 1-for-1 spending cuts for debt ceiling increase. If we are to increase the debt ceiling by $2 trillion, then lets puts $2 trillion in spending cuts on the table.

    Cut, cap, and balance extends and strengthens that approach, but surely … IF THE GOP HELD THIS LINE, the basic framework would be used for the ‘deal’.

    What ‘queered’ the deal, and perhaps this was deliberate by Obama, was the introduction of tax increases and demands to include that in the formula. This was NEVER about increasing taxes to pay for big Government, but for Republicans it was about paring back big Government.

    Republicans to their credit, will not raise taxes, not in this moment. but, to their DIS-credit, they have not been consistent and unified in the level and amount of spending cuts that will seal the deal. Instead of wasting time going down the McConnell route – the line should remain:

    We will raise the debt ceiling, if there are serious spending reductions included.

    For example, the Cantor-Boehner plan B should be to package the Biden negotiations spending cuts, about $2 trillion, and House FT2012 priority/budget, with the debt ceiling raise. And get THAT passed. That is a real plan B, consistent with the GOP position. the McConnell plan abandons everything in the GOP position.

    “Elections have consequences. You can?t win policy battles if you don?t win the political ones.”

    What exactly are the consequences to Obama and the liberal Big government tax-and-spend-and-borrow agenda? Repeal Obamacare? Cutting Obama’s budget? The point is – can the House Republicans move the needle AT ALL. Are we going to cut FY 2012 spending by $200 billion? By $150 billion? By … anything?

    SO WHAT EXACTLY ARE THE CONSEQUENCES TO OBAMA OF THE 2010 ELECTIONS? The answer is simple: THE ONLY CONSEQUENCES ARE A FUNCTION OF HOW FORCEFULLY THE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP USES ITS POWER.

    Failure to use Republican power based on conservative principles is a betrayal of our base.

    “Or do you actually believe that Reid and Obama will accept the cap, cut and balance strategy?”
    They dont have to accept the strategy. I never accepted THEIR strategy on Obamacare, etc. but it happened. All they HAVE to do is accept the premise and the reality that NO debt ceiling increase will happen without real commitment to cut spending. THEN the negotiation is simple: HOW MUCH SPENDING CUTS can we get out of the debt ceiling increase.

    Boehner held the line: Make it 1 for 1. Seriously, is that too much to ask for?

    McConnell’s pre-cave UNDERCUT MONTHS OF CONSISTENT AND FIRM STANCE ON THIS. He showed himself to be a weak and pathetic non-leader, willing to through away his hand simply because President Obama is a jello-like bad faith negotiator who is bluffing.

    “No meaningful budgetary reform will happen as long as Obama is the President and Reid is the Senate Majority Leader. ”
    - That’s why talk of ‘grand bargain’ is pointless. That’s why McConnell’s ‘let make another commision’ is another DC hot air BS. But that is not the point.

    The point is not can we get everything we want – no,of course not. The point is: Can we get even a FRACTION of what we need to fix our fiscal crisis? ARE WE GOING TO CUT FY 2012 BY $200 BILLION? No? BY $150 BILLION? BY $100 BILLION? BY $50 BILLION? By … ANYTHING? Why cant we get $2 trillion in cuts over 10 years as the price for debt ceiling increase? That is a wimpy, low bar standard, when you have the ‘baseline’ of $45 trillion in Obama budget spending that is easily $10 TRILLION above what we should be spending.

    We shall never know how much we MIGHT have gotten out of this negotiation, because McConnell cut the legs out of the Republican position since Monday. Have you noticed ANY movement by Democrats towards a “lets cut spending to get the debt ceiling increased” position since Monday? No?

    Case closed.

    We will win this battle only if the McConnell plan B is defeated. Its defeat in the House is vital toward the real solution, which would be – AGAIN – to tie the debt ceiling increase to significant spending cuts.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    “After CCB fails this week in either the House or the Senate, Boehner will immediately advance a bill to cut spending by approximately $150 billion over 10 years while increasing the debt ceiling by $150 billion. This buys one month of time before default.”

    I hope you are right … BUT … for this approach to be taken seriously, and recall this was precisely the water-torture Obama said “dont call my bluff” as Obama has stated he would veto it, we HAVE to make McConnell’s plan dead – DOA in the House.

    Grassroots pressure to get 218 GOP votes against McConnell plan and FOR the short-term-raise plan is what is needed.

    In fact, only one short-term debt ceiling increase may be needed: Do it through end of October, add a provision that default is not an option through “full faith and credit” clause, then have a discussion about FY 2012.

  • luvnthebigsites

    The guy blasted McConnell’s trial balloon out of the air with a sawed off shotgun. I wouldn’t put it past DeMint to pull off a filibuster solo if comes to that. Its still too early (16 days left ) to throw in the towel anyway. Many things can and will happen between now and Aug 2.

    The fun is just beginning. ;)

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    1) Living up to your promises and standing up for the principles you ran and won on?
    or
    2) Playing inside-the-beltway parlor tricks that the people hate, by voting to absolve yourself of responsibility for things because you are too cowardly to take tough votes (and which btw absolve the other party as well, making it easier for them to run for re-election)?

    Do you give money, time and heartfelt support to politicians who do #2? McConnell plan B is the kind of stuff that makes people hate politicians and makes the grassroots distrust our own leadership. If it passes, it will cause serious damage to the trust in the Congressional Republican leadership.

  • lineholder

    I don’t think DeMint will settle for this at all. There are still too many other options that could be considered to go with this complete and total failure of a plan that McConnell has presented.

    I hope House Repubs will stay open-minded about this and consider all the options, because they are key component to what transpires.

  • lineholder

    on the trust issue. Plus, as tempting as it may be for us to want to look at this primarily from within a political context and nothing else, the economic impact of what is likely to happen if the current level of distrust that the general public has for politicians and for government deepens needs to be taken into context, too.

    For right now, we’re facing a mild demand-side crisis, and I hope with everything in me that it stays at that level. Let Repubs cave, settle for a debt ceiling increase with nothing to speak of in terms of spending cuts to show for it, nothing to say that they can be and will be trustworthy in addressing the long-term economic crisis seriously, nothing to actually earn and gain the confidence of the general public on this issue…and that level of distrust could deepen in a heartbeat. Not only is this likely to impact votes, but it could also cause a shift in the direction of a moderate demand-side crisis economically.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    Jim Jordan, head of House RSC, conservative leader, also panned it. He’s a clear no vote for it. Alas, he did NOT say it wouldnt pass the House, but said there was not 218 Republican votes for it. “They’re not going to support the McConnell plan. I’m not going to support the McConnell plan … “This is just kicking the can down the road.”

    On Fox news Sunday, it was interesting to see that Democrat Van Hollern(sp?) panned McConnell plan B, with exactly the kind of (“Its an abdication of responsibility”) points I would make. Dont know if this posturing before a yes vote, but not a single person, Democrat or Republican, on the Sunday talk shows, said it was a good idea. It seems to be the ‘we cant think of anything better’ idea. the media setup “this or default” is how it is being presented, as if the Congress doesnt have a whole RANGE of other options available to them, including a short-term increase.

    Senator Rubio (CBS) was clear in how plan B was not a solution and he would vote no. Sen Coburn likewise unfavorable, but said he hadnt finally determined.

    The hedging on the Republican side, with none of them point-blank saying “this is a bad idea that needs to be killed and is going nowhere” tells me that Erick Erickson is right, the ‘fix is in’ and the stage is being set for a last-minute “vote for this or default happens” TARP-like gun-to-head vote. The yes votes would be rounded up from the Democrat caucus and the usual RINO suspects. The non-solution will be called bipartisan.

    We get the worst kinds of bills that way.

    The only way to stop this is a full-scale House Republican rebellion. Full scale grassroots, pedal-to-medal “dont support mcconnell planB” activism. A vote for this is WORSE than a vote for a ‘clean’ debt ceiling increase.

  • luvnthebigsites

    And more advice to the House republicans is “Keep your cool”. Let Obama and the Dems run around claiming the sky is falling. Just continue to point out their lack of a budget, Polling on the debt ceiling issue, and your willingness to hold the stinking line. And do it all with a smile.

  • PaladinLostHour

    Cordpt, that is one fine example of the rhetoric of failure – or it would be, if it wasn’t the same warmed over, poll tested talking points being peddled by every squish CINO out there right now.

    Leaving all the cliches aside ‘elections have consequences’ (really?); ‘you can’t win policy battles if you don’t win the political ones’ (policy battles *are* political battles), here’s the bottom line:

    The McConnell approach, and your endorsement of it, is just the mirror image of the profound contempt Obama has for the governed class. Plan B(ull****) is the political equivalent of leaving a gassed up Escalade with a backseat full of Budweiser and keys in the ignition, in the custody of 15 year old boys – and then pleading, ‘hey officer, I didn’t formally *agree* they could take the car.

    No person of normal intelligence would buy that evasion of responsibility – and the voting class, contrary to McConnell (and your) low estimation of their intellect, is going to let Republicans evade accountability through parlimentary tricks.

  • ohiohistorian

    He was one of the RINO greenies. At 52% ACU record, he’s only half with us. So you think that we should have stuck with Castle, Danny Tarkanian , and the rest of the RINO stuff? You would have tax increases in 2010 had that happened.

    Do you not understand that a compromiser is a Quisling? Look up the name.

  • carolina

    I am confident that BO will not get any tax hikes. Good job GOP!
    How much the debt ceiling is raised and how much we get in spending cuts remains to be seen……
    Hopefully the resolution of this issue is less disappointing than the CR agreement. They ought to be able to exceed that very low bar.

  • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

    But CO’D was a thousand times worse. Same for Angle. Same, frankly, for Miller.

    We’re not talking about “compromise”, we’re talking about the absolute necessity to run qualified and credible candidates. McCain might have been taken out in AZ with either Shadegg or Flake. Put TheIdiotJD against him and he won in a walk. Yeah, McCain spent $20MM in the primary, but the only reason he did that was because he could. He had the cash and come general election he only needed less than $500K to win a landslide.

    Bottom line, run fools and idiots like O’Donnell and Angle and Miller and Hayworth and you have seats that either belong to very beatable Democrats or Republicans you don’t like.

  • gawken

    Boehner’s problem is that he can’t allow a bill to pass the Hosue, that passes only becayse of Democrat support. Jordan was superb, but he’s also playing his cards close to the vest..why annonce in advance how many votes he has.
    Obama and the Dems may think that they are playing the Hosue and Senate GOP against each other, but I suspect thta it’s Obama who gets played..

  • gmscan

    Is the House passes the bill it prefers, then the Senate passes the bill it prefers. Then they go to conference, hash it out and send it to the President. I doubt the Senate could pass anything, but at least it would force them to come up with a specific bill.

    Forget all the back room deals and secret negotiations. Go back to basics.

    And, btw, every Republican should be talking about the Dem’s “Obsession with tax hikes.” Over and over again — “The Dems are obsessed with raising taxes!” Every time — “The Dems have to get over their obsession with tax hikes.” And — “All the Dems ever want to do is raise taxes, no matter what. They are obsessed with it.” And on and on and on.

  • joecollins

    But we didn’t get screwed to the tune of the $2+ trillion dollars McConnel is offering up now.

    I still like the “Just say No” strategy and make the Dems put some more of their cards on the table.

  • teresakoch

    if there is NO BUDGET in place?

    A Credit Card company doesn’t extend more credit to a person who is up against their limit “just because they want it” – the first thing they will do is go out and SPEND.MORE.MONEY.

    Time to send the entire Congress to a Consumer Credit Counseling session……

  • Tbone

    Come on, tell me McConnell is really a Republican.

  • bk

    And then does Obama get proven a liar? “Read my lips. No short-term bill!” Been so long since the Senate passed anything of merit I wonder if they’ll even take it up.

  • snowshooze

    And we want the money on the 3rd. So we have to be approved by the 2nd, or we won’t be able to start spending it.
    So them mean Tea Party types best hurry up and cave in, or we are gonna be late. And if we are late, we are going to roll, scream, point fingers and close the parks, default on a couple payments, throw Granny into the streets and stop doing ANYTHING people really want us to do.
    It’s just about that simple…

  • caboose

    a stop to the notion by McConnell, that he can get his surrender bill through the House Of Representatives. As I recall, when Obama revealed his plan to surrender in IRAQ, and Afganistan, by setting a withdrawal date., McConnell and any other sane people at the time, rightly said that all the terrorist had to do was wait for the date of withdrawal and walk in and take over. Well, McConnell did virtually the same thing by telling the socialist commuinsts, aka Democrats, that all they have to do is disrupt and defeat any proposal that is brought before them and then say, we tryed, and now we are ready for the McConnell plan to be voted on, and the republicans will be allowed to vasoline up just before they bend over. It also reminds me of the tactic used by counties and State politicians telling the people that they will only raise taxes as a last resort. Then, they immediately go to the last resort and use the lame excuse that, we never worked so hard in our life to find another way, but just could not find a way other than the tax raise. We cannot afford to let the House of Reps hose us. We simply must put Both Houses on notice that we will not stand for another budget fiasco like took place in 2010. We need to begin tomorrow morning and call the Congressenal switchboard ask for your rep and Senator and demand that McConnell’, surrender proposal be given the file 13 treatment. Request that Mitch step down from his leadership position. Boehner must be told to SH-t can the McConnell proposal outright or face a special election in the house to remove him from leadership. This would require that a majority of the Republican Reps in the HOR to demand such action. We must also back the Republicans and if any Dems in their quest to stop this treason. A suggestion was made to pass bills in monthly increments to get us by, month to month. I agree wholeheartly with that sugestion. Whatever is done, we must not allow total capitulation and surrender as proposed by McConnell.

  • johnCV

    Thanks for saying it.

    These milk-fed republicans in dc are acting as if elections DON’T have consequences….unfortunately they may be right. At least for us.

    Three years ago, the budget (already in deficit) was increased by 1.5 trillion dollars (pick your reason). It has now been baselined in for all eternity. Ryan’s budget calls for 6 trillion reduction over ten years, when the current excess is at least 15 trillion. Nice entry level plan, but entirely insufficient to solve the problem (and in fairness, I’m sure he realizes it). Without an honest accounting to the public and their understanding, we only postpone the date of collapse.

    This whole exercise reeks of arranging deck chairs on the Titanic and McConnell is a big part of the problem.

  • runner12

    of the GOP and the conservatives in the Senate to act on what they ran on and promised the American people, no matter what it takes. Boehner must be forced to stand up to McConnell and the establishment Dems and Republicans. If Boehner fails on this one, he must be voted out as Speaker.

  • snowshooze

    We would not have bothered voting…

  • tea4me

    …that squish Repubiks aren’t limited to Congress.

    What a sad state of affairs this country is in.

  • tea4me

    …no matter what a Majority Leader McConnell would do…i’ll be donating as much as possible to McConnell’s primary opponent and (if that doesn’t work) his Democratic opponent to get his *ss out of office next time he’s up.

    Same with Boehner if goes along with this.

  • AceInTX

  • AceInTX

    Brilliant Strategy Becker…it’s worked so well these last 6 years lets keep voting for the same losers over and over again

  • crimsonandclover

    that maybe making it hard for Boehner to hold the line. About 2 weeks ago Obama came up with a plan – and proposed a deal – to cut between 3.5 and 4 trillion dollars over the next 10 years. The plan included cuts in spending as well as increases in taxes to the wealthiest Americans, and eliminatin?g some of the tax breaks to hugely profitable companies that receive government subsidies but don’t need them (oil companies)?. Under Obama’s plan, the government could operate for 10-15 years without this problem arising again. But Republicans, ever eager to ensure that wealthy Americans don’t suffer a hit, even if means the middle class has to shoulder the burden again, weren’t about to go along. Especially since, regardless how it may have helped the lives of ordinary Americans, it wasn’t good politics for them. Or so they thought, because having rejected a plan they would have readily accepted if proposed by a Republican, they appear to most people to be ideological sticks in the mud. Remember, Republicans raised the debt ceiling under Bush seven times, and didn’t mind at all when he took two wars off budget, simultaneously cut taxes that would have helped pay for them, and deregulated the financial industry, allowing them to run amok gambling on the housing market. That’s how we got where we are, but making it look like it was Obama’s fault is going to be an uphill struggle when he has produced a realistic plan, and OUR Congress can’t manage to do the same.

  • fortcollins

    Conservatives in the Senate can’t do much about McConnell. Conservatives don’t control enough votes in the caucus to oust him, and the GOP is already a minority party.

    The House is a different situation. The GOP cannot retain its majority without the conservatives. Tea Party conservatives can give Boehner a hard choice: grow a backbone or have the entire block of conservatives exit the GOP to form a Conservative Party, making Boehner a minority leader.

    The debt ceiling can and should be capped right where it is. A stiff refusal to raise it forces Comrade Obama to make tough choices, and dramatically alters the playing field for negotiations. Raising the ceiling by any amount cedes all authority to our Dear Leader, negating the 2010 election.

  • crimsonandclover

    Thank goodness the wealthy won’t have their taxes raised! Paris Hilton’s life is hard enough as it is!

    And BTW, nice job pretending taxes on average Americans would be raised – it fools low information voters who don’t know Obama has never proposed raising taxes on middle or lower class wage earners – just the wealthiest Americans. And that American tax rates are at historic lows.

    Anything to keep eyes off the ball – the JOBS our new Republican Congress got elected to help provide, and that they’ve done nothing about!

  • snowshooze

    As it was a ” Plan ” and you can’t spend a plan at the grocery store…
    And making ” Cuts ” over ten years…cracks me up.
    We only make budgets one year at a time, if we make them at all.
    The big push here is to borrow more money to spend.
    The Democrats are bringing nothing to the table. Zip. Except threats. And so far as they are concerned, compromise=getting the other side to cave. By the looks of things, there is a very real chance of that happening.
    Let me borrow everything I want, and we won’t have a borrowing problem anymore. One single vote would cure that for all time.
    Sure, let him set the debt ceiling. No more problem.
    The problem is, the government is not paying off the debt.
    The problem is they spend everything they can borrow and they just did that again, so they gotta borrow some more.
    The cure is simple. No more borrowing.
    US books need to be in black ink, not red.
    Look at the thousands of government agencies, and see how many are getting smaller, or spending less than last year.
    I’d love to hear the report.
    And… cut 3.5 to 4 trillion…of of what? You have to have the first number, before you can cut anything off it… and some savings… over ten years….lol
    The big thing here is to raise the debt ceiling enough so as not to have to address it during the elections, and make sure tax hikes kick in after they are over.

  • lineholder

    until 6 years from now and continues for ten years after that? I think it was. Yeah, it let Obama et al have access to easy money while he is in office this term (and if someone put the money in a lock box and only handed it out as it was genuinely needed) maybe into the next term.

    Sorry, thanks, but no thanks

  • snowshooze

    I’m sorry,
    just when I had thought I had figured out DC math…

  • lineholder

    which do you really think is the bigger problem…spending or lack of revenues? Cause right now this stuff your spouting sounds like talking points.

  • lineholder

    wouldn’t have started for six years and continued for ten years following that, but it would have let the current admin have access to money now.

  • Spiral

    This is what some conservatives don’t seem to understand. When Democrats are in power, spending cuts are not possible.

    Will Obama and other congressional Democrats talk vaguely about spending cuts?

    Sure.

    But that’s all smoke and mirrors for public consumption.

    The reality is that actual spending cuts happening while the Democrats control the United States Senate and the White House is as likely as pork chops being served at a Bar Mitzvah.

    It ain’t happening. Conservatives never should have got their hopes up to begin with.

    Instead of being seduced by the fantasy of spending cuts while Democrats are in power, conservatives should spend their energy more productively.

    Getting Democrats out of power

    Get it?

    It’s sort of like when you are in your kitchen and you want to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You get the jar of peanut butter out.

    But you can’t put any peanut butter on your bread until you have removed the cap from the jar of peanut butter.

    What some conservatives are asking the GOP to do is jam that knive right through the cap on the peanut butter jar. Instead, they should be encouraging the GOP to remove the cap from the peanut butter jar (get the Democrats out of the Senate majority and the White House) so that the peanut butter can be placed on the bread (spending can be cut).

    It seems that some people think that since both priorites, getting Democrats out of the Senate majority and the Whte House and cutting spending are both laudible goals, it does not matter what order in which these goals are pursued.

    But it does. If conservatives think that spending can realitically be cut while the Democrats are in power, they are simply fooling themselves and could end up getting furious at the GOP for not accomplishing the impossible. Instead they should focus on the near term goal: Defeat the Democrats in 2012. Then demand that the GOP, once in control over the White House, the Senate and the House, cut spending.

    Order is important in many things.

    Not just in making peanut butter sandwiches.

  • alreadyexists

    Sadly, this dirty deal was done several weeks ago and has been inevitable due to the failure of leadership in the Republican Congress. This is what the future holds.

    The House of Representatives will pass the McConnell sell-out bill by a slim margin that includes most of the Democrats. The media will spin this as a bipartisan compromise that averts financial disaster. Tea Party members will begin in earnest to target RINOs with primary challenges and rally support for the formation of a third party. Boehner and McConnell will piss and moan about how this just helps the Democrats and re-elects Obama. No one will care what they think and Congress’ approval rating will reach new lows. The economy will continue its downward trend and next year’s elections will become extremely bitter, divided, and unpredictable. For the first time in our history, a majority of citizens will conclude that we are in a hopeless viscous cycle of spending, debt increases, and governing malfeasance. Instead of spending marginal income on improving their standard of living, more people will now spend their spare money on preparing for the inevitable collapse. Cynicism will reach epidemic proportions and productive members of society will start moving to the sidelines. History will eventually record that this legislation was the trigger for the upcoming real depression.

  • littlehouse18

    are going to have a hard time with this shirking of responsibility.

  • Kyle-MI

    and yet they are getting their way. Why is that? Could it be they have more nerve?

    Nobody controls the entire process and yet someone will win. Why can’t it be us this time?

  • Spiral

    Demanding that the GOP reach a spending cut agreement with Obama and Reid is like demanding that Israel reach a peace agreement with Hamas.

    It’s impossible.

    The goal in terms of peace in the Israel conflict should be replacing Hamas with a partner in peace, a partner that actually wants peace with Israel.

    Similarly, the goal with respect to spending cuts should not be to demand that the GOP reach a spending cut agreement with Democrats who have no interest in spending cuts. The goal should be to replace the Democrats like Obama and the Senate Democrats with Republicans so that the people sitting around the “power table” all share the same goal: cutting spending.

    The cart should not be put before the horse.

  • Kyle-MI

    And, anecdote is not the singular of data. For every Paris Hilton there are ten hard working Joes who have built their business and wealth from the ground up, giving employment to countless others. But go ahead and through the baby out with the bath water. Paris Hilton must be punished. It doesn’t matter how much collateral damage is done. It doesn’t matter how many middle employees you throw into unemployment. Just as long as you stick it to Hilton.

  • littlehouse18

    ..

  • littlehouse18

    Republicans will get blamed no matter what they do. McConnell’s move guarantees they will get the maximum blame.

    If Republicans pass a CCB or something in that vein, or even a very modest bill with no tax increase, they can at least say they did something, and the fault lies in the Dems’ inaction.

  • littlehouse18

    even if it’s only on the ‘rich’.

  • lineholder

    that capitulating on this will make it easier for Repubs to win more votes in the next election. I don’t think it will. I think it will make it harder for them to engage voters because by capitulating, they will have blown an opportunity to prove to voters that they are the political party who can be trusted to take on the spending issue.

  • littlehouse18

    How’d that work out?

  • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

    read, or how to actually win elections have you Ace.

    When you put up idiots and buffoons, you get the results we’ve consistently gotten. For instance, who’s gonna run against Graham in ’14? I wonder if conservatives in SC are working on finding a qualified primary challenger for him? If they’re not, we’ll have Lindsey for six more years.

    We can’t continue to run people like O’Donnell and Angle, or even like Miller who’s got problems since getting his clock cleaned by Murk.

    I’m not a fan of any of the people that have been noted, but I’d sure rather have Castle voting for a Republican organization in 2012 than the current Senator from DE. He also would vote with us at least some of the time. Same for the others. If Castle was the R Senator we’d have six years to find a credible challenger instead of the fool who took out Castle and guaranteed a continued Democratic stronghold in DE.

    Gee Ace, are you going to come out railing against Senator Brown next? I mean, hey, there’s a fantastic bench of really conservative challengers warming up in Massachusetts, right?

  • lineholder

    by capitulating on this. One of the reasons that our economy is so flat is that we have run-away debt caused by excessive spending which, along with all the little managed capitalism tactics being put into place by this admin, is generating havoc with consumer confidence regarding the long-term economic situation.

    The general public both wants and needs someone to stand up in their behalf where the excessive spending is concerned, and Repubs have the opportunity to succeed in doing this NOW.

    If Repubs capitulate, they’ll earn themselves the title of the party that can’t follow through in times of crisis. They went soft earlier, only pulling the barest of spending cuts. And voters will remember it.

  • snowshooze

    That three legged stool is pretty much dependent on keeping all three legs.
    If the House goes it’s own way…that stool will fall in the direction of the house.
    The basic math of the short term deal is bad too though..
    150 Billion now for 150 billion cuts in ten years…and do that every month for a year, or forever, and debt piles up 10 times faster than the cuts, ( To a backfigured and inflated fantasy budget ) which will never happen anyway…
    We can’t waste our time cutting a fantasy budget.
    We have to make real cuts to operations and overhead.
    After we are done doing that…that is a budget.
    They act like there is one.

  • izoneguy

    Didn’t you hear Van Jones? That is his money these rich people have and he wants it now!!! /sarc

    Obama and his Marxist pals don’t care about creating jobs. They just want to increase the group of people who vote for a living. Why would you need to worry about expanding the economy if Mitch McConnell hands you a blank check? Of course if Obama does raise taxes and the economy gets worse the Republicans will still be blamed. If Obama cannot raise taxes and the economy gets worse the Republicans will still be blamed. If Republicans hold the line and increase confidence in the economy and unemployment drops – Obama will take credit.

    Obama loves to see scenes like this:

    Hundreds scramble for Dallas County rental vouchers

  • runner12

    I am simply asking for fiscal sanity and (gasp) our elected officials to actually do what they say they will do. This is not a revolutionary concept.

    A wise person once said that “you teach people how to treat you.” We have excused the nonsense, corruption, lies, and spending for too long and were all to willing to buy the smoke and mirrors in Washington. The politicians know this and have counted on our apathy and frankly, naivete and/or ignorance for decades.

    At some point, a stand must be made. Will we get everything we want to accomplish as Conservatives right now? No, but it will not be for a lack of trying and fighting with all we have got. I would rather go down swinging than give up before the fight has begun.

  • 6eorge Jetson

    including Social Security taxes, but not Value-Added-Taxes, which the inclusion of in the calculation would make the US even more progressive than Europe (since it hits everyone as a pass-through consumption tax).

    If the Dems were intellectually honest about raising taxes fairly, instead of just trying to grab themselves some free money from a source that represents only a tiny percentage of the voters, they would be advocating for tax increases across-the-board. (Silly me, even considering that the Demhats would consider anything other than a power grab in their advocacy efforts.)

    As Benjamin Franklin said

    “When the people find they can vote themselves money,
    that will herald the end of the republic.”

  • Tbone

    craven political hypocrisy, you have few equals. As such, I hereby award you The Chamberlain Prize for Unilateral Capitulation.

    I see you have already assumed the acceptance position.

  • AceInTX

    was wrong to think Toomey could win in PA, Rubio could win in FL and Paul could win in KY.

    It was dummies like me who pushed losers like McDonnell in VA and Christi in NJ and who were dumb enough to think they could win an election…

    What do I know?

    Yeah O’Donell lost, as did Angle and Miller largely because a bunch of establishment RINOs formed coalitions with Democrats to beat them Ask Art Chance and the jack asses in the Nevada Republican Party who formed Pacs to organize Angle’s defeat.

    As for Little Miss Lindsey…the Republicrat Party of SC will not run a challenger against him since he’s their guy…if he’s primaried it will be by an insurgent like O’nnell, Angle, Tommey, Rubio, Lee, etc it won’t be from within the party machine…

    so, you shouldn’t be calling anyone’s inteligence into question when you’re the one who can’t figure out that establishment RINO Senators won’t be primaried by establishment RINO state party organizations.

    Finally…

    When you put up idiots and buffoons, you get the results we?ve consistently gotten.

    you mean idiots and bafoons like McCain, Snowe, Collins and the genius of all of them…Mitch freaking Daniels?

    you at least got one thing right here…we have gotten consistent results backing candidates like Castle, Specter, and Murkowski, and the other ass clowns who consistently put on a conservative charade every six years to get elected only to piss down our legs while telling us it’s raining…

    and you’re the one who never questions whay the rain running down your leg is yellow and foamy

  • AceInTX

    DOH!!!

  • http://jakespeaks.wordpress.com/ Jake W

    Regardless of whether McConnell’s a squish or not, I refuse to help the Democrats gain a seat in Congress.

  • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

    Ace. You do a good job of that all by yourself.

  • rememberthealamo

    Here, here! Well said fellow Texan!

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    Many good points in this thread. Here’s one by cordpt:

    Elections have consequences. You can?t win policy battles if you don?t win the political ones.

    Nice summation about what I’ve been trying to say here at RS since I got here. We conservatives can pontificate all we want, but that’s not gonna change the outcome of THE ELECTIONS.

    As Carville might say, “It’s the elections, stupid!”

    We conservatives need to focus on making sure we WIN THE EFFING ELECTIONS. That happens when we conservatives get involved in party politics.

    How many of the commenters in this thread have ever been to their local Republican Party committee meeting? And how many are members of the Party? Not registered Republicans, but MEMBERS of the Party? I know some in this thread know the difference. And knowing that difference is KEY to the future of this country.

    Go here to learn more: www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com.

    For LIberty,

    ColdWarrior

    P.S. We conservatives have the numbers to take over the Republican Party and, thereby , win most of the primary elections. The question is, will we unite inside the Republican Party as precinct committeemen and DO IT?

  • mikeymike143

    will be fierce primary battles for those who vote with the dems by us tea partiers. just like opposition to obamacare was our core issue in the 2010 elections, voting to raise the debt limit without CCB is going to be the issue that energizes the tea party this time.

    and the lesson to be learned from the 2010 republican primary elections is that you CANT vote as a moderate on issues because it makes you ”more electable” in the general election. because you might not even make it through the primary. just ask charlie crist.

    but as much as i will oppose RINO republicans at all cost in the primaries, i would NEVER EVER vote for anything other that a republican in the general election. both the libertarian party and the democratic party are nothing but a cancer to this country. and that statement comes from a dyed in the wool tea partier.

  • wbb1950

    I am not altogether sure how you can say elections have consequences and then turn around and ignore the results of the 2010 election. The McConnell proposal is an abdication of legislative responsibility. It presents a false choice between default for which the republicans are blamed on the one hand vs giving Obama carte blanche on the other. There is a mutally prominent alternative that he–and you conveniently ignore. And that is the Gingrich proposal which funds social security and finds offsetting cuts in frivoulous boondoggles like Americorps. The Gingrich proposal demonstates that the Repulbicans protect seniors and have the courage and imagaination to cut spending. The McConnell propoal does neither. Furthermore, the Gingrich propoal separates Republicans from the Bush years when alot of the current debt was incurred, and thus innoculates them from Democratic debates about which party if the big spender. I am not shilling for Newt, but he makes more sense than anyone else at this point, with the possible exception of Eric who really is spot on. What you call nonsense is sound political thinking. What McConnell proposed and Boehner has acceded to clearly is not.

  • Spiral

    Some conservatives seem to think that the disagreement within the GOP is between those who want significant cuts in spending and those who do not.

    But it’s really a debate about tactics. Whether the GOP should attack big government spending now or whether they should wait until they have complete control over the levers of power in Washington DC.

    In my opinion, spending your ammunition now on cutting spending while the Democrats remain in control over the US Senate and the White House is horribly misguided.

    It takes the attention of the American people away from the fact that the economy we are living in is the Obama-Reid-Pelosi economy.

    We want the American people focused on the Obama-Reid-Pelosi economy, not on the GOP controlled House. The Democrats are the ones who are in power right now. The GOP is simply in the backbenches, eating popcorn, heckeling the Democrats.

    That is the way it must be until November 2012.

    It should be common sense for people familiar with politics.

  • bcomber38

    Beautiful Dreamers,The republican leadership is the worst !@#$%^&*&^poops.My hate is boiling up.This is not right.I should not feel this way about my party.I wonder if there is any good news out there about the lousy republican leadership.

  • patlandy

    I have a friend…. in her 70′s she is appalled by the way the country is apparently moving… she gets her news from the main stream media.. she and her friends and neighbors discuss these things…. She said to me the other day….. “would it be so bad if the oil companies had to give up their tax breaks and we did something about those corporate jets?”….
    THESE PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS BATTLE !!!

    We must do whatever we have to do to gain control of the Senate and regain the Office of the President!!!
    And for crying out load stop talking the nonsense about a 3rd party… Unless you want 4 more years of Obama-nomics..

  • Adjoran

    versus Coons, against us 100% of the time.

    Hmmm . . .

    But gee whillikers, wasn’t it just so cool to send all that cash to Christine O’Donnell, so she could keep over a million in reserve to live off of for the next election cycle? Sure, people call us suckers for sending her our money. Mean people suck.

  • ihateliberals

    This blame game should have nothing to do with doing the right thing. It is time that the compromising buttheads like Boehner, McConnell, McCain, Cantor etc wee thrown out of congress altogether. Compromise only comes into play when the Democrats are losing. Notice how much they compromised on Obamacare? win or lose the Republicans need to stand their ground for wha tis right not to achieve blaming the Democrats. That is a childish game That liberals play. It distracts from the real business. that is why we are coming down to the wire onthis one. The back-room deal Boehner etched out with the 2011 budget showed the Democrats that all they have to do is get him under pressure and he will cave and they win what they want. The time for blame is long gone it is now time to fix the problem or=r die trying.

  • ihateliberals

    Compromise is for losers and sooner or later the right people will have to come into play or we might be facing Anarchy by the end of Obama’s second reign. .

  • ihateliberals

    We need his insight and leadership so badly.

  • popster

    You have hit the nail on the head, now someone, or something (election 2012) needs to hit the establishment Republicans on the head and wake them up.

  • Tbone

    3/4s of the way to the top. Either you are 18 years old or suffered a head injury about that time.

    You seem to have stared to long at your namesake.

  • AceInTX

    and petty put downs Becker…

    you be clown yourself as usual

  • AceInTX

    and for the party bosses of CT and NV who formed coalitions with Democrats to defeat O’Donnell and Angle.

    People like you are the problem here because you’ll back, defend, and make excuses for Benedict Arnolds in our party who will collude with the Democrats to ensure the defeat of Conservatives and conservative principle in the GOP so they can protect their fifedoms.

    It’s your attitude of appeasement and voting label over substance that is responsible for a Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a joke like John Sydney McLoser as the GOP Standard Barer.

    What’s so infuriating about that is…you’ll insist on absolute loyalty to the party from conservatives while you make excuses for party bosses who collude with Democrats to defeat Republican Nominees as happened in NV and CT

  • Goldwater_Conservative

    (McConnell) Mitch Daniels? Other than having the same first name, and being elected representatives in the GOP, there isn’t much similiarities left after that.

  • rj145

    I like it!

    There is a danger to splitting forces in this battle, but since the Republican leadership has already demonstrated a willingness to renege on promises and to “run up the bedsheet”, perhaps there should be painful cosequences for weak leaders.

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    Let’s emulate Richard Gephardt and reenact the luxury tax on yachts. That worked really well. It must have left a gross, wet stain in the undergarments of everyone who walks around ignorantly blithering about how the rich (except for Soros, Andrew Lewis, Stephen Bing, AL Gore, and Nancy Pelosi) all have to pay their fair share.

    Oh, then it completely obliterated the New England small boat-building insutry and canned over 150K workers. I’m sure your brilliant suggestions for making the rich (except for Soros, Andrew Lewis, Stephen Bing, AL Gore, and Nancy Pelosi) pay their fair share would work about as well.

  • AceInTX

    .

  • kestrel

    ?(Rep. Louie) Gohmert filed a discharge petition Thursday to speed up a vote on his bill (HR 1297)… to ensure soldiers, sailors and airmen are paid through any funding gaps.” — Emily Miller in the Washington Times.

    A new bill (HR 2496) introduced by Steve King and cosponsored by Gohmert combines Gohmert’s military pay bill with a requirement that interest on the debt also receive priority payment in the event of a cash flow problem. I don’t know whether Gohmert’s forcing his earlier bill out of committee (where it is bottled up) and onto the floor for a vote is faster than starting over(?) (199 cosponsors vs. six, if it matters), but it sure doesn’t look like John Boehner intends to have any of these common-sense measures voted on in any timely way. Is the Speaker more afraid of insulting the lying Obama and Geithner than of potentially being complicit in the destruction of his country?

    Said Gohmert, ?We?ve figured out his (Obama’s) game; it?s not going to work. It?s ridiculous we have to do this through legislation, just to force the president to do what should be a no-brainer.?

    Bravo Rep. Gohmert. He is covering all the bases to prevent Obama from using our troops as a negotiating pawn the way he did in the CR. Would that we would do the same with the full faith and credit of the United States, social security, etc.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/14/disarming-democrats-on-debt/

    On the new bill:
    http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/13/republican-house-members-propose-legislation-to-ensure-military-checks-if-debt-ceiling-is-not-raised/

  • cordpt

    The 2010 election is the reason why Republicans are able to prevent a massive tax raise, why they can get some spending cuts out of this and why they have the chance of scoring a major political victory that would weaken Obama’s position for 2012 and give the Republic a fighting chance.

    I think it’s funny you invoke the Gingrich proposal after saying I’m ignoring the 2010 elections: Republicans didn’t get a majority in the Senate in 2010. So the Dems would just kill it there. The idea that the Dems will accept a deal imposed by the Republicans is a fantasy. In any case, the Gingrich proposal would still create an economic mess: maybe anything but SS payments are frivolous boondoggles (I’d actually include SS payments in there too), but it means that hundreds of thousands of contractors and workers would stop getting paid, which would mean their debtors wouldn’t be paid either, which would mean economic chaos. The debt ceiling will be raised because if it isn’t, republicans will be decimated in 2012. The proper way of cutting spending is via the budgetary process, not by denying the payment of expenses already authorized.

  • cordpt

    If the debt ceiling isn’t raised, Portugal and Greece will look very good to the common citizen. The current economic climate will look flat out splendid. And they’ll act accordingly.

    The debt ceiling is going to be raised. What the GOP can do is to extract the best possible deal . That’s why I asked Erick what was his alternative. Because everything I see here are fantasies based on the premise that the Democrats and Obama are negotiating in good faith and that are willing to cut spending without raising taxes.

    If not raising the debt limit was a viable option, we wouldn’t be having this conversation and McDonnell’s plan wouldn’t exist.

  • cordpt

    It’s funny that you mention Obamacare. Do you know why Democrats were able to implement it? Because they assumed full control in 2008. That’s why Obamacare happened even though you’ve never accepted it.

    Boehner held the line: Make it 1 for 1. Seriously, is that too much to ask for?

    That would be the kind of outcome we could get if we were in the same position the Democrats were between 2008 and 2010.

    Have you noticed ANY movement by Democrats towards a ?lets cut spending to get the debt ceiling increased? position since Monday? No?

    Not since Monday and not before Monday. Your faith in Obama and the Democrats is touching, but they simply won’t give you that.

    What ?queered? the deal, and perhaps this was deliberate by Obama, was the introduction of tax increases and demands to include that in the formula. This was NEVER about increasing taxes to pay for big Government, but for Republicans it was about paring back big Government.

    Perhaps?

    Obama isn’t a Republican. You can rant over and over about what it should be or what it was supposed to be.

    For example, the Cantor-Boehner plan B should be to package the Biden negotiations spending cuts, about $2 trillion, and House FT2012 priority/budget, with the debt ceiling raise. And get THAT passed

    And just like the CCB, it will get killed by the Senate. Look, Democrats won’t give you major spending cuts without tax raises in exchange for the debt ceiling. Everybody around here keeps living on this fantasy; but it’ll never happen. If that’s your plan B, you’re going to need a plan C.

    So, what’s your plan C?

  • cordpt

    The goal in terms of peace in the Israel conflict should be replacing Hamas with a partner in peace, a partner that actually wants peace with Israel.

    Similarly, the goal with respect to spending cuts should not be to demand that the GOP reach a spending cut agreement with Democrats who have no interest in spending cuts.

    Exactly.

  • cordpt

    Of course, he was still much better than Senator Chris Coons.

  • cordpt

    Of course they didn’t compromise on Obamacare.

    It’s very telling that multiple folks around here are invoking Obamacare.

    Look, if the Republicans were in the same position Democrats were in 2010, I’d be the first to agree with the “CCB or bust” stance. Unfortunately, they aren’t. Things are what they are. The rest is nothing but over-emotional wishful thinking.

    The problem won’t be fixed. Not without kicking out Obama and Reid first. You can scream as much as you want: in the end, the problem won’t be fixed without beating Obama and taking control of the Senate. And even then, it’ll be a struggle. So, I do agree: we’ll die trying. Not only the problem won’t be fixed, those who could fix it will be dead. Somehow, I believe that’s not the most desirable outcome.

  • cordpt

    A socialist aka big government/compassive conservative like George W. Bush and a corrupt crook like Tom DeLay were ruling the party just a few years ago. A lot of progress has been made since then.

  • Bill S

    you can’t win political battles unless the voters think you’re worth electing. Politicians like The Weasel are nothing more than that – politicians who are only interested in the next election. We’ve had plenty of those, both while Bush and Obama were in office. Both had the WH and both sides of Congress, yet were completely unable to accomplish the things their supporters put them there for.

    Winning elections don’t do squat if those who win don’t have the gonads to fight for what’s right.

  • cordpt

    We’d be desperately trying to filibuster Obama’s budget and its combination of spending cuts in the military and a value added tax.

  • aesthete

    Obama is no more inclined to cut military spending than the hawkiest of hawks on the GOP side — Libya and Afghanistan aren’t being funded on charity, don’tcha know. I would say that the interventionist, “humanitarian” wing of the Dem party (and US liberals in general) is much larger than the peacenik wing, even if it’s quieter. What’s more, I think that we would have intervened in Iraq under humanitarian auspices under a President Gore, given the Clinton Admin’s foppish interest in the region.

  • aesthete

    just give McConnell some time: he’s only been at this “compromise” business for a week now; I’m sure he’ll find a way to give away the rest of the farm in the coming months.

  • AceInTX

    ,

  • acat

    IIRC, cordpt was not a fan of O’Donnell.

    Mew

  • AceInTX

    in other words…Castle and Coons are equally bad….and I could make the argument that Castle would have been worse for Republicans because of the damage done to the brand and the mischief he could work in the Senate.

    We have enough squishes in the Senate….Castle would have been a reinforcement sent to help McConnell, McCain, Graham, Scowe, Collins, Murkowski, Mark Kirk, Scott Brown, etc

  • AceInTX

    and I get an answer about how much better Castle would have been that Coons with nothing to support it but hot air

  • gregsonit

    Its got to end and the sooner the better. No one in the senate or house is getting it. I have an Idea that I believe will get their attention. Everyone who is still employed should go to to their human resources department tomorrow and change their income tax filing status to 4 times the number of exemptions the usually claim. I believe this is allowed by law 2 times a year. Take the extra money and put it in the bank. Imagine the amount of income tax we could deny our crooked government agencies. Step Two……Do not file your taxes until the April 15 deadline. Imagine what this sudden loss of income tax revenue would do. I believe we could bring this country to its knees in the next nine months without the approval of the idiots we have put in charge. If this doesnt get their attention then we do it again starting in January 2012. Like a heroin addict we will see how long they can hold out without their revenue fix.
    I can think of no other way to exert the will of WE THE PEOPLE . I am interested in any input on this idea from staff or readers or experts in tax law. Or if you think Im crazy and am suggesting something that would work but may have devastating consequences, feel free to tell me why.
    Cain/Palin in any order in 2012

  • lovethetruth

    If the Washington elite had not sabotaged the campaigns of O?Donnell, Angle and Buck we would now have the majority we need in the Senate. If the Washington elite doesn’t stop pushing RINO’s in our face they will lose the whole fight.

    Meaningful political progress can be made by saying, “NO” to the tyrants now and let them hang themselves if that is the way they want to play the game. If it stalls, it stalls. It is better to be dead in the water than heading 100 kph in the wrong direction.

  • zooboy

    I enjoy your posts. You’re a Texas and national treasure.

  • zooboy

    They are a farce and a crock. Every time I read about 10 year cuts, I want to blow my grits. Any future Congress can change spending with simple majority votes. It takes a Constitutional amendment to bind future Congresses, hence the need for a Balanced Budget Amendment.