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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

The Reality Check

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  July 29th, 2011 at 07:47 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

At some point, whether during the TARP fight or . . . you name it . . . you come to the realization that there really aren’t a lot of friends left around you on the front lines fighting back at what is, for all intents and purposes, what is arguably the side you’re supposed to be on.

At that moment, you must perform a reality check. Your mileage may vary. But here’s where I am this morning knowing Boehner’s plan is more likely than not going to pass.

You’ve got to ask yourself what you’d do if you were a member of Congress. What would I do? Seriously ask that. Well, I would be a no. Republicans leaders have not really listened. They didn’t even make it hard for us with medicare or medicaid reforms. They’re increasing spending in some areas of the federal government while we know most of the cuts will never happen.

This is all politics right now hiding this as anything other than a missed opportunity and perpetuating the current system. It’s not our fault we’re standing on principle. It’s their fault.

In some bit of cosmic humor, I wonder if all this action in the House happening this week is part of a grand cosmic coincidence that it is happening the week of the anniversary of Pee-Wee Herman’s arrest in that theater.

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COMMENTS

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  • http://ruminationsaspirations.blogspot.com jonbingham

    I would be saying:
    “If the vote is held today, tomorrow or Sunday, my vote is no. Don’t call the vote yet. Check back with me at 5:00pm on Monday.”

  • mjdzfun

    Hold the line. That’s your mandate.

    Do it for Gabriel, my 5 year old grandson.

  • btpull

    The House passed their plan – Cut, Cap, and Balance. Boehner needs simply to tell Reid and Obama that the House will only vote a modified version of the plan coming out a conference.

    In other words force the Senate to vote on and pass Cut, Cap, and Balance, which will cause the Senate to amend it. The differences then can be worked out in conference.

  • medicineman

    One bite at a time.

    Old saying in recovery, “You didn’t get this way over night, you won’t change it overnight either”.

    George Will’s interview with Laura Ingram makes a lot of sense.

    Dems played the centrist until they had all both houses and the WH…that is when they made the “big” move. If we keep the ball moving forward (and not take a penalty), we will be in position to make big changes in ’12….just like our “friends” in ’08.

  • runner12

    To the few of you who are holding the line, keep holding. There are more that are with you than you think.

    Keep up the good fight.

  • anjinconsulting

    We know who you are; the voting record is public and we will remember in 2012. RINOs can derive the corollary statement.

  • http://www.FranBaker.com frankieb

    Does anyone else notice how repealing Obama-care and its looming tsunami of debt has fallen to the wayside? It almost doesn’t matter what they do now because if it remains in place, we’re doomed financially.

  • Green_Lantern

    I am really proud of this site.

  • Fla Mom

    Or even since 1994? Medicare Part D, Obamacare, TARP, etc., etc.

    We did control things not too long ago, my friend, and guess what happened? My advice is, don’t get caught in the stampede between a politician and a dollar.

    Without structural reform that keeps them from using the power of the state to take people’s money away to use for their re-election campaigns, disguised as programs, nothing will change, except for the worse. It’s already almost too late, and may be too late. I fear we are in for a very wild ride due to our allowing them to be profligate. At some point, we have to actually fight hard for principles, as the Democrats in fact do all the time.

    Fla Mom

  • DefendUSA

    I am against Boehner’s “plan”. Keeping levels at current spending saves nothing. It’s only when you exceed in saving more than is being spent is it a cut. I refuse to give him a blank check.

    And for all the people that actually believe we don’t have the money to service the debt and pay the troops…don’t be sheeple.

  • babykaboomer

    Of greater inspiration to me is the thought that 235 years ago this week George Washington and his Continental Army were soundly defeated at the Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn), which began a string of shattering, demoralizing losses. Five months later, the few remaining men who comprised what was left of that tattered army held firm and, against all odds, pulled off stunning victories at Trenton and Princeton. Only then did the many on the sidelines commit to the cause.

    Human nature is such that most people would rather let others do the heavy lifting. They will not act boldly, even when it is clearly in their own best interest to do so. That’s just how things are, and it will never change. Thank God, then, that we still have men and women who can stay firmly rooted in their convictions. Theirs is the real shared sacrifice. They have the vision to see what needs to be done and the courage to act accordingly; and their unwavering dedication will be the beam that lights the way for others who now hesitate. May God bless and support these truest patriots who are leading the charge to save our nation.

  • sayoung80913

    “The great wish of some is to avenge themselves on some particular enemy,the great wish of others to save their own pocket….Meanwhile each fancies that no harm will come of his neglect…and so,by the same notion being entertained by all separately,the common cause imperceptibly decays” Thucydides (c. 460 BC ? c. 395 BC)

    This world always seems to come full circle with history. Thucydides was a Greek fighting the same battles in ancient times as his country is fighting presently, and we here in America are dealing with as well. I am of two minds on our current situation myself. Of course, I do not want to see another increase in our debt ceiling-it seems to be rewarding the bad behavior of our spendthrift politicians. My question is-How do you force CCB through a senate where it may likely not pass at all and if it does,the president promises to veto it? He is precisely the type of man who would do just that and hope the worshipful media would fight the publicity battle over it for him-which they undoubtedly would. I want CCB very badly, I want no new raise to the debt limit very badly also. I am at a loss how any of these things can ever come to fruition without the conservative party gaining more than one branch of government. Should we continue on in this manner, the tea party and conservatives will be demonized not only by our disgraceful media, but also the medias in other countries worldwide-that process has already started. Nothing really new there,clearly. On the one hand, we are already being blamed-so why not stick to your principals and demand a vote on CCB, just to at least ATTEMPT IT-that should be obvious and not require an explanation as to why it is wanted. On the other hand, if we pass this newly re-written Boehner bill, would it not completely cut the can of Spam known as Obama completely out of the picture and possibly ease the markets? We MUST win this next election, we MUST in order to repeal Obamacare and to start to become fiscally solvent once again. Should the country start to feel that we became too stubborn and unreasonable, we may not even get that opportunity. I am hoping that Boehner works on his plan all day today and holds a vote tomorrow,forcing Reid to try and pass his own. He won’t be able to get it through either,if such a plan actually exists and is written down,which is doubtful, if Reid’s past actions are anything to judge his future actions by. At some point the two plans must converge with no side getting all of what they want. Perhaps if we drag our feet just one more day, Obama will be forced into action and will be denied his seat on the sidelines. That outcome alone,might be worth the one day wait, as Obama has never been known to take any decisive action of his own free will and nearly 100 percent of the time, makes a complete mess of things when he is forced to. Wait one more day Boehner ,and flush these people out of the bushes and out into the open.

  • sayoung80913

    via hot air- “Indeed, Sen. Maj. Ldr. Harry Reid has not filed cloture on his debt ceiling bill, so any delay or failure to pass a bill in the House will put the Senate in a bind. However, this is not how the establishment or its media is thinking about either of those points. Rather, outlets like MSNBC and the WaPo are pushing the Nancy Pelosi/DNC narrative that the GOP was winning, but has overplayed its hand, such that Boehner must join with Dems in some alternative plan. The danger is that if markets tank and a handful of GOP Congressmen continue to hold the line, Boehner may buy into that narrative. But if I had to guess, some face-saving minor concessions will be found to switch a few more GOP votes into the ?yes? column on Friday.”

  • tailfins1959

    Erick’s posts have had a REALLY negative tone of late. I once had lunch with a Congressman that is the antithesis of this. His name is Mel Hancock. He successfully managed an initiative petition for something called “The Hancock Amendment” and later “Hancock II”. I asked how he managed to work so hard when the odds were heavily against success. His reply was “Because it’s the right thing to do”. Let’s ignore the odds makers, keep positive and keep pushing. Every once in a while your roll the needed “boxcars”.

  • Kyle-MI

    Great, we can put all our efforts and money into primarying all the “RINOs” while the Dems waltz through retaining control of the Senate and the White House and most likely regaining control of the House. That will really show those “RINOs”. It worked sooooo well last time we tried it in 2008.

  • johnt

    indulging himself in his old habits.
    The media has won this fight for the party they breath life into. For the Normal People it must be excruciating to hear such drivel as,”both parties are at fault”, which I have heard on Fox News, elsewhere is a given. Yes, the GOP joined in on those $1.6 trillion deficits. In her espousal of a GOP deal I thought Laura Ingraham was going to birth a cow while frantically interrupting Rep. Steve King. And so it goes. even on what used to be called our side.
    The most dispiriting thing about this debacle is the virus of the talking points, or the loss of the independent mind. It no longer seems, but is, that however absurd the mush constantly in the air, minds go soft, spines weaken, and principles go the way of the memory hole.
    God help us, repetition creates consensus, the nodding head, the blank mind. This is the face of Mass Society,

  • swami7774

    Let’s burn down the village to save it.
    Gotcha.
    Works every time, doesn’t it?

  • redrunner262

    From Drudge:

    Q1 REVISED DOWN FROM 1.9% TO JUST 0.4%!
    4TH QUARTERS REVISED TO 2.3% FROM 4.1%…
    ‘Recovery Summer Take II’ goes nowhere..

    Why do anything? Why give this disaster anything that even resembles a victory? $3+ Trillion spend and the above are his results. Hold the line and keep showing America that this is the chaos that results when a 1/3 term US Senator and community organizer gets elected President. Mediocrity has become the new standard.

  • CMaree

    Jaimie Dupree reports that Senator Reid has heard sobering news from Geitner. As a result, Reid states he will have to file cloture on his debt limit bill if the House cannot pass their bill soon.

    Where is the line that we hold to when it is ignored again and again by the opposing team?

  • johnt

    that’s just the deficits.
    The 0.4% number may turn out to be the most ignored number ever. On the other hand the Republicans probably will be blamed. Gotta see how The O & hapless Jay Carney handle this one.

  • carolina

    That is a bigger ‘savings’ than even the Ryan plan.
    Seems like that should be an easy thing to do, relativley speaking.
    It seems there is some kind of ‘inflation’ built into the ‘budgets’.
    Oh well, at least Noonan points out that BO is a loser, and nobody loves a loser.

  • kyconservative

    I bet Geitner reached the conclusion that due to the House conservative’s principled stand, his (real) boss Goldman-Sachs might lose a little money in the markets, so I bet he picked up the phone, rang Harry Reid, and said “Harry, you have to do something!” Let’s just keep in mind that government is about passing along to our children and grandchildren a safe and economically strong country. I couldn’t care less if the Wall Street bankers and financiers lose all of their money as long as we do what’s best for the country.

    Boehner, Cantor and the others in Washington had better realize, and fast, that the backbone of the Republican Party consists of the middle class, working class, small businessmen and professionals of the South, Midwest and Interior West and NOT Wall Street. If they can’t figure this out, then they all need to go.

  • carolina

    Since he says that the Senate would defeat the Boehner Bill anyway…. they might as well get on with something (for once).
    Not sure what this means.

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

    Seriously.

    And then the news media came along and twisted it and the liberals of both parties in Congress, and in LBJ’s administration devised a strategy to lose the war by controlling it from Washington.

    Exactly like what’s happening now.

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

    there isn’t a credible primary challenger in sight right now.

    The only two that I know of right now who should be worried are Lugar and Hatch.

  • rightwingmom52

    I’d be telling John Boehner, “I told you so,” and voting for Erick Erickson for Majority Leader.

    Not a kiss up. Just the truth.

  • sayoung80913

    IF,Reid’s bill passes his own chamber-and that is a huge IF-there is zero,zip,nil chance it will pass the house. None whatsoever. This also robs the undertaker Harry of stripping out Boehner’s language from any bill he sent over and substituting his own garbage and sending it back to the house, where it won’t pass either. Now the arrow is on Harry-he will also fail and THEN what are the options? Only one bill has already passed the house and been tabled by the senate. IF time is of the essence on the democrats own artificial debt clock, they either pass it or risk default. That or Obama raises it himself by EO and gets all the blame,all the risk, and political disaster from unilaterally violating the constitution. Flush them out Boehner-DO NOT hold a vote today.

  • Fla Mom

    The leadership lost the war, at several levels. The troops could have won it, but were constrained by political inputs and failure of the Joint Chiefs to fall on their swords over critical issues. (Remind you of any current leadership, btw?)

    Fla Mom

  • Fla Mom

    not current military leadership, in case I was being too obtuse. I was alluding to the debt ceiling/budget debate.

    Fla Mom

  • medicineman

    I agree with many of your comments. The problem is that I could look at some Daily Kos blogs from the Obamacare battles and hear the same arguments…no prisoners etc.

    Not sure how I’m caught between the politican and the dollar.

    Back to eating that elephant…I sure don’t want to choke.

    Or, we could go back to the tortoise and the hare….

    It would be much easier eating bigger pieces if we had both houses (with a majority of conservative republicans) along with the WH…..

    I say, keeping eating..one bite at time

  • medicineman

    We will need both houses and the WH to get rid of Obamacare..(unless the SCOTUS comes through)…

    Lets think of the war, not just the battle at hand…

  • Finrod

    It’s just happened that way every time so far. So your notion isn’t as absurd as it might seem at first glance.

  • Glaucon

    Fighting the inertia of the status quo is a difficult thing. It takes a lot of time, and a lot of dedication. It will not happen without perseverance.

    “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”

  • Fla Mom

    Thanks to the ‘go slow’ philosophy in the last however long, we’re out of time. Are you sure you know how deep the financial hole is?

    Regarding getting between a politician and a dollar, I meant that if you happen to be there, you’ll get run over as the politician, of any party, stampedes to get the dollar to spend to their own purposes.

    Fla Mom