For years Bill Kristol defended the excesses of the Bush Administration. Before that, he was a John McCain champion. His partner in crime is Fred Barnes who defended the rise of “big government conservatives.”
And now, Bill Kristol thinks that conservatives who want smaller government are “pro-Obama” conservatives.
Nothing could be further from the truth, but Kristol really doesn’t care. This is point scoring from a guy who really doesn’t have much in common with a lot of the conservative movement.
Kristol wants to cut a deal because . . . well . . . because he likes sucking up to Republican leaders first of all. But also because in his cowardly abandon he cannot perceive how holding the line can force the Democrats to produce a better deal.
So this is the deal Bill Kristol wants — from a staffer on Capitol Hill who attended the briefings:
- Fake caps that future Congresses can waive.
- $1 billion in actual cuts.
- A super committee with the power to raise taxes with virtually no way to stop it.
- Eradication of the Bush tax cuts (Boehner’s plan is premised on them going away)
This is not a plan any conservative should support. It really is fascinating how conservative groups are making passionate arguments for holding the line and people like Kristol are resorting to name calling.
As Mark Steyn notes at National Review
If the CBO’s scoring is correct – that it reduces the 2012 deficit by just $1 billion – then the ”cut” represents what the United States borrows every five hours and 20 minutes. In other words, in the time it takes to photocopy and distribute Boehner’s “plan”, the savings have all been borrowed back.
As for the rest, I’m philosophically opposed to “entitlements” because they strike at one of the most basic principles of representative government – that a parliament cannot bind its successor. But the same objection applies to jelly-spined legislators announcing grand plans for bazillions of savings years after their term of office has expired. Who knows what’ll be happening in 2017? Maybe North Korea will accidentally nuke the South Sandwich Islands and we’ll be expected to chip in for reconstruction.
Of course, I’m sure Bill Kristol thinks letting Obama raise the debt ceiling again next year and claim a bipartisan victory will somehow hurt Obama going into the election.
I’ll keep my principles and fight, thank you very much.
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Dan Spencer
Jeff Emanuel
Neil Stevens
Never let anyone...
neoavatara (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 8:44AM EDT (link)…define what our principles are.
As for Kristol…I can’t even rationalize his argument. If this was what he wanted…we could have captiulated months ago and settled for this useless deal. What exactly did he think we were fighting for?
I want a deal, and I know it is not going to be CCB. But the Boehner deal as is is a nonstarter. I would almost rather default.
www.neoavatara.com/blog
Cap, Cut, and Balance
bigredone Wednesday, July 27th at 8:51AM EDT (link)Can be won if we hold firm and give the opposition no other option.
It is time to fulfill their rhetoric and become immovable.
If they are going to accuse us unjustly, we might as well live up to their invective.
Hold Firm!
no its not
silentcal2012 (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 9:41AM EDT (link)Believing that Reid and Obama will sign ccb is so delusional its borderline retarded. Purists are just enabling harm to the country and the GOP. We need more fools like Fred Thompson and Kristol to save us from ourselves.
Purists? Seriously?
Aaron Gardner (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 9:50AM EDT (link)You have a D Senate and a D President and you choose to blame Conservatives and attempt to marginalize them by calling them names like Purists?
Tow can play at that game. Quisling Republicans are destroying our Nation and stripping our freedoms and economic mobility. Quit being a traitor and support the conservatives we asked to go to D.C. to cut spending.
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
“We’d be much better off if We The People had desired small government enough to keep it.” acat
Follow @Aaron_RS
OK cal, you win.
mbecker908 (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 9:55AM EDT (link)We’ll just suck it up and enjoy our ObamaCare and continue to watch the government grow. Just not for all that long. Because with everything on the table – even CCB to a lesser extent – nothing will be done to reduce spending and the federal government will be managing our health care just like they have managed the post office and Amtrack.
I've seen you deploy this rhetorical device before...
Incredible (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 11:03AM EDT (link)And I like it! It’s funny that I don’t usually see a lot of responses to it after you’ve called them out for the gutless suckweasel surrender-monkeys they are. Heh.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson
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I usually chalk it up to an "oh crap I got caught" moment.
mbecker908 (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 9:15PM EDT (link)And you’re right, there are seldom any come backs on the part of the crapweasels.
THIS ^^^
dmacleo Wednesday, July 27th at 9:22PM EDT (link)is proof positive of how weak the party has become.
go along to get along.
get out.
Silentcal2012 is right about one thing
e_rowe (Diary) Saturday, July 30th at 1:42PM EDT (link)CCB wouldn’t pass. We all know it. Passing it in the House would only be a symbolic victory.
But that’s not a reason to compromise. It’s a reason for them to have done the one single thing they could have done that would have made an immediate substantive difference, which is not raise the debt ceiling at all.
On a side note, I never cease to notice the irony of silentcal’s name. Calvin Coolidge was a champion of the Old Right, and epitomized the very opposite of Kristol and other big-government establishment Republicans silentcal2012 always sides with.
Mutiple 5's BR1
fpete13527 (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 11:07AM EDT (link)nt
The President, in the course of venting his spleen
romeg Wednesday, July 27th at 8:58AM EDT (link)both Friday evening and Monday evening referred, over and over again, to ‘Compromise’; the kind of compromise I’m sure is being advocated here.
The problem is that it is compromise that got us into this mess in the first place. A little compromise here, a little there, you know, Give and Take. What our elected Guardians of the Constitution have been compromising away is their souls and OUR LIBERTY.
I AM FED UP with all of them. Several weeks ago John Stossell had a program on what would be required to actually trim government to a reasonable size. It included some thing that made me squirm a bit; withdrawing all of our troops back to within our borders, for example, but, all in all a plan that makes reasonable sense, doesn’t abandon those on SS or Medicare and balances the budget. It is time we began to pursue a course of action around that proposal.
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – C. S. Lewis
Wow, you couldn't get any further from the truth Bill?
gjohnson (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 9:02AM EDT (link)It’s time to choose between big government or small government. Obama is for BIG government. House Republicans were voted in because they ran on constitutionally conservative principles that support of SMALL government. Get your story right Billy. You never struck me as too smart a fellow anyhow. Your support of G.W. Bush and McCain tell me that your just a liar.
AND....
gjohnson (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 9:07AM EDT (link)of course they have turned commenting off on this story to avoid having the REAL TRUTH come out!!! Kristol is a RINO with the rest of them who support him ! ! !
To be honest, it's off on all their stories actually
gjohnson (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 9:10AM EDT (link)I spoke before I checked but I don’t care, it’s irrelevant. Doesn’t change the fact that Kristol is a RINO
Kristol has never opposed big government
Glaucon (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 1:24PM EDT (link)Kristol was raised in a communist turned Democrat household. They later became RINO. He and his father never opposed big government. The latest opinions coming from Kristol should not come as a surprise.
The GOP is too afraid to lose
ghostship Wednesday, July 27th at 9:23AM EDT (link)The GOP seems willing to get anything passed even if it gives the Democrats everything they want because of the idea not passing anything scares the living daylight out of them.
The House has already passed CC&B it should be up to the Senate now. Instead the Democrats are playing chicken and saying that’s not good enough. We won’t even vote on it.Give us something better or we’ll default. This of course has the Republican leadership running completely panicked.
Our response be go ahead. Yes, it’s time to call their Bluff.
If one refuses to risk failure then one will never see success.
Being prepared to lose is the first step to preparing to win.
Why not a symbolic cut of .50 cents
johnt Wednesday, July 27th at 9:30AM EDT (link)Symbolism doesn’t require magnitude and actually a .50c reduction would be less contemptuous of Normal People than the 1$bill gone with the wind thing, insofar as it is more clearly and purely symbolic.
The one $bill will only serve to pacify the retarded, the left will assert that with it Grandma is only being pushed off a modest hill, and the howls from America’s asylums, excuse me, the media, will still scream about that eternal nightmare,”savage cuts in vital programs”.
So let’s cut the crap and go for the .50 cents. Get out the petitions!
“a man’s admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him”. Tocqueville
principles are not policy
silentcal2012 (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 9:48AM EDT (link)Time for adults to learn the difference.
Obama is losing. Only a Republican circular firing can save him.
Funny, Obama poll numbers have suffered during this fight to hold the line....
Aaron Gardner (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 9:53AM EDT (link)Seems to be the only thing that can save Obama is the Quisling Republicans like you.
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
“We’d be much better off if We The People had desired small government enough to keep it.” acat
Follow @Aaron_RS
fred Thompson is a quisling
silentcal2012 (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 10:02AM EDT (link)Allan West too. Haley Barbour too.
Pound some keyboards and call people more names. But leave the heavy lifting for the adult.
Reading Comp problem Cal?
Aaron Gardner (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 10:10AM EDT (link)I said Quisling Repubs like you. Unless you are Fred, Allen, or Haley, then no, I didn’t say a thing about them.
I did read Fred’s peice and honestly, it seemed that he was lamenting the plan more than anything. He was showing his own disgust for what the whole process has become. But all of that is lost on people like you who look for ways to capitulate because you are too afraid to actually stand on principle.
I will also note that claiming yourself as the adult in the room inherently means you are calling everyone else children. Be careful with your outrage over name calling lest you spill that outrage all over yourself.
Additionally, you didn’t even address what I presented. Obama has suffered in the polls due to this debate, what makes you think Republicans giving in now will hurt Obama in 2012?
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
“We’d be much better off if We The People had desired small government enough to keep it.” acat
Follow @Aaron_RS
the adults
silentcal2012 (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 10:36AM EDT (link)The adults are boehner, Ryan, cantor, and west. People actually in the room, people who have to please a large diverse caucus, people who have to negotiate with Reid, people who have to negotiate with Obama, people who have to deal with the press, people who work with budgets.
Not talking about myself or the armchair contract negotiors and financial experts who lob bombs at the entiree gop leadership like a cross between daily kos and fifth graders at recess.
Since you hate the gop so much, why pretend? Just go third party already.
Hahahaha, you are hilarious...
Aaron Gardner (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 10:42AM EDT (link)You are the one who is suppoorting a plan that is almost identical to the Democrats plan. I support a plan that has passed the House.
Maybe you should be looking for a new party pal.
As far as the adults in D.C. They are there to represent us, they aren’t our slave masters.
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
“We’d be much better off if We The People had desired small government enough to keep it.” acat
Follow @Aaron_RS
Ok not so silentcal, you've called attention to yourself
johnt Wednesday, July 27th at 10:23AM EDT (link)pack it in. There are other venues in and by which you may be the center of attention. May I suggest a run in the nude down Main st, past the school and police headquarters A few somersaults, then block traffic. It’s a one time act so make the most of it. At least you’ll have the jailers to talk to all night.
“a man’s admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him”. Tocqueville
you
gunslingr45 Wednesday, July 27th at 10:52AM EDT (link)want him to take code pink’s job?
If ignorance is bliss, liberal/socialist must be euphoric! I said that.
A stand for not taking a stand
fpete13527 (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 11:19AM EDT (link)….fight hard for pragmatic, progressive, procrastinated, progressivism.
huh?
gjohnson (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 9:54AM EDT (link)Given your genius equation:
Principles != Policy
it could be said that principle have nothing to do with policy, except aren’t the principles of liberals, the main cause for the current situation? Just because your an adult doesn’t mean you know everything. Time for people to learn the difference.
makes no sense
silentcal2012 (Diary) Wednesday, July 27th at 10:42AM EDT (link)Nt
To dismiss a cognizant point out of hand
funwithknives Wednesday, July 27th at 11:26AM EDT (link)would also be non-sensical ,if minimalism is your friend. If first appearances are any indicator, it appears (please correct me if I am mistaken ) you are of The National GreatNess GOP,or similar. Kristol is a champion of this stripe. Witness Wkly Std’s total flip on Iraq after it all started downhill, Pre-surge. Real casualties got Bill weak in the knees and it showed. All of a sudden The Fight for World Democracy as determined by Our Standards was not so exemplary anymore. In a nutshell Bill Kristol and similar are SunShine Patriots, as determined by their own writings( look ‘em up over time) and comments. Your sort of ADULT?
Being an Adult carries many responsibilities. Telling die-hard conservative commentors to quit/go 3rd and blowing off criticism with 3 word comments is hardly responsible. A former president probably would know better, but your writingson this line, provide the proof that you do not. Better to Stay Silent , Cal. Be golden, or realize this struggle we are all in is looking for answers and it’s up to us to find ‘em. Dismissive Smarm helps nothing and no-one.
How’s THAT for Adult?