Promoted from diaries by Bill

Amazing how the Democratic majority Senate hasn’t passed a budget in over two years.  Wait a minute, they haven’t even presented one.  They just vote down whatever budget comes out of the House and don’t present any alternative to avoid taking tough votes because there are 23 Democratic senators up for re-election in 2012.  And now suddenly President Obama is very, very anxious to get something big put together and stop kicking the can down the road.  Anyone find that ironic?  I didn’t think so.  We’ve become so used to this since he was inaugurated that it is no surprise to us.

For all the pressure, coaxing, and persuading the GOP to give in to Obama’s demands and let him get re-elected compromise and forget their pledges prior to the 2010 elections, the GOP has hit Obama’s nerve.  I don’t know if anyone has picked up on this, the GOP has known it all along but didn’t know how to exploit it until now, or suddenly the chink in Obama’s armor has been in plain sight all along.

Let’s think about this.  Remember Obamacare?  It really doesn’t start kicking in until 2013…the year after the 2012 elections.  Why didn’t the President and the Democratic Congress write the bill to get Obamacare rolling right off the bat in 2010 and not 2013?  After all, if the legislation was so good that Americans would see the benefits and Democrats would reap the laurels of political gain, where was the confidence of the Democratic party to get Obamacare started right away?  Because it was a bad, bad bill that was going to cause a tremendous amount of damage to the American economy as a whole and would imperil their hold on the presidency and their congressional majorities.  So they wrote the legislation to shield themselves as best they could from the political ramifications of their bad legislation.  Whether President Obama and Democrats in Congress want to face this fact or not, when Obamacare was passed, business hiring became stagnant at best, cutting their work forces because the uncertainty the legislation has created, and have been hoarding capital to shield themselves from the hurricane that will devastate this country’s wealth in a few years.  This could be interpreted as a vote of no confidence in President Obama.  So long as Obamacare is law, it will be this way.  Job hiring is going to remain anemic, unemployment will remain high, and a sizeable portion of people will be miserable and mired in despair.  The GOP presidential nominee will rightly point out to the American people “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Fast forward to now.  The same thing is happening again.  Obama is all about keeping his presidency.  He and the Democrats know what a crushing disadvantage having the debt ceiling and the economy, with a side salad of Obamacare and other government regulation hindering job creation being the main course for the American people to eat and ponder before voting in 2012.  A short term fix and making this an issue in the 2012 elections is their nightmare scenario.  The only way he can keep the presidency is by the GOP caving, raising the debt ceiling and raising taxes while cutting spending.  He is becoming unnerved at the GOP’s steadfast insistence (let’s hope this lasts) about cutting spending, not raising the debt ceiling and getting our financial house in order.  It all became apparent with Eric Cantor’s offer of a short term solution that would put the debt ceiling issue back on the table next year prior to the 2012 elections and his temper tantrum that followed.

No Grand Bargain

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the whole ball game of the debt ceiling debate.  The Democrats know that they are going to lose the Senate and will not win back the House.  Their only hope of having any power in the legislative and executive branches after 2012 is for the GOP to give it to them by caving.  They can’t stomach a plan that cuts government because that would imperil their left wing base from showing up in November 2012.  The MSM is trying their best to aid the Democrats any way they can by framing the GOP as the ones who are willing to take down the country by defaulting.  As Erick Erickson rightly pointed out earlier, people don’t blame Congress for the calamities that fall upon our nation, the lion’s share of the blame always falls on the president. Barack Obama knows this and is engaged in a liar’s poker game for his presidency’s survival.

The GOP would be wise to remember that if there is no deal done and a catastrophe ensues, Barack Obama would put himself in a class by himself.  He would have a presidential legacy of being Herbert Hoover plus Jimmy Carter combined together.  He would have a legacy so infamous that the mere mention of his name would be odious to a vast majority of Americans.

Just as George W. Bush went along with TARP in fear of having a legacy of becoming Herbert Hoover, Barack Obama finds him in the same predicament as President Bush was in 2008.  The GOP has all the cards here minus the media as the Democrats did in 2008.  Either Barack Obama goes along with cutting government spending so that there is a zero net increase in the debt ceiling (69% of Americans agree with the GOP on the debt ceiling issue and spending in a CBS(!) poll) or he validates a portion of Americans who believe that his motive for attaining the presidency was to destroy our country and becomes the American version of Nero. Mark Levin is right.  It is a no win situation for him if the GOP doesn’t cave.

The way I see this playing out is the GOP will pass a reasonable package in the House when something will need to be passed shortly before August 2nd that cuts spending and has a zero net increase in the debt ceiling and send it up to the Senate for a vote, putting the onus on Harry Reid and Barack Obama to squawk and stomp their feet about how bad this is but in the end, will have to take a vote on this or worse, do something that Harry Reid doesn’t want to do:  Actually offer up a bill of their own which would require vulnerable Democratic Senators who are up for election to take a vote on.  If they vote the GOP bill down without offering any plan of their own, the anger of the American people against Harry Reid and the Democratic Senate will be so great that it could yield a 60 plus majority in the Senate for the GOP in 2012.  If they pass the bill and send it to Obama’s desk…oh boy…now that will be something I will want to see Obama trying to explain his way out of by means of a veto, thus incurring the wrath that the Senate would have had if the bill had been voted down.  If they vote the GOP bill down and take a vote on their bill which will be tax increases, bigger government, and incurring more debt and send to the House, just imagine the squirming of those vulnerable Democratic Senators and Harry Reid.

Finally, whomever the GOP winds up nominating for President, they can start right now by taking their case and the 2012 campaign to the public.

LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE THE FATE OF THIS COUNTRY

If you are for exploding deficits, more debt, more spending, less jobs, more taxes, then vote for our current president.

If you are for less debt, less spending, less taxes, more jobs, fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget, then join us.

It’s that simple.  We can only hope that the GOP doesn’t go the way of a Mitch McConnell a couple of days ago (he redeemed himself today)  and be persuaded by the MSM and Obama’s game of liar’s poker.