Republican Cowards and Death by a Thousand Papercuts
Timothy Birdnow
Bill Wilson tackles the lie of default - and why the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating is the opposite of what we are being told. http://netrightdaily.com/2011/07/aa-an-albatross-around-obama%e2%80%99s-neck/
From the article:
"S&P head of sovereign ratings David Beers told CNBC host Larry Kudlow that a failure to raise the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling “would not be default so long as the government is continuing to pay its debt as it matures and its interest payments.”
Which means August 2nd as a deadline to avert default is nothing more than a lie by Obama. Republicans have all but ceded that debate, however, and refuse to call Obama out.
The agencies are not rating Washington’s unwillingness to borrow more, but politicians’ reluctance to stop borrowing so much. Said Beers, “we’re rating debt.”
Meaning, whoever votes for a bill that ensures a downgrade — or signs it — owns that downgrade politically. Like the ancient Mariner who killed the ship’s good luck, the albatross, politicians will be made to wear AA as a shameful reminder of Washington’s greed, avarice, and profligacy.
It is a disgrace. All because Reid and Obama refused to cut at least $4 trillion, which amounts to less than $100 billion a year. In the end, the only bill that might have prevented a downgrade was the “Cut, Cap, and Balance” plan, which promised almost $6 trillion in cuts."
End excerpt.
Wilson concludes that the House should do nothing; they have already passed Cut, Cap, and Balance and should force the Senate to take action. He's right; the House Republicans should be out stumping for their bill, not endlessly generating new ones. This was a trap laid by Democrats and Obama, and the GOP has walked right into it. They never learn.
The trap is simple. Wilson puts it clearly:
"Barack Obama is trying to run out the clock. He is attempting to get the debt ceiling debate as close to Aug. 2 to back House Republicans into a corner which they cannot get out.
Likely at the last minute, the Senate will send its own bill to the House as “the only bill that can pass the Senate” and dare the House to defeat it. If the Reid bill is defeated, they will blame Republicans for obstructing it, and pin any ensuing economic calamity at their feet.
That is why the Senate has thus far refused to pass a plan of its own.
If Republicans capitulate to the Senate plan, and vote for it, the White House can live with that too. When the U.S. has its credit rating downgraded, they will attempt to make House Republicans own it — no matter how members voted.
Democrats will peddle the lie, as they have already begun, that the cause for the downgrade was because of political intransigence to raising the debt ceiling."
End excerpt.
John Boehner and other GOP leaders promised back in January during the government budget battle that this would be the hill they would make their stand upon, and the Democrats immediately began looking for ways to destroy them using it. As always, our brave heroes advanced tentatively without a plan, figuring they could b.s. their way through. Obama and company know that if the GOP caves they will take the blame - and the Tea Party will split. That is the plan. If the GOP doesn't take the bait they can at least be accused of hurting the country for their political interests, and the media will give full backing to this lie. The Republicans lost this fight when they refused to correct Obama's assertion that this will lead to a default; they should have made it plain that Obama decides where money goes and a default would be HIS choice. As always, our side didn't want to go to the trouble of correcting The One, and now they are backed into a corner.
Some very good conservatives are calling for us to eat the excrement sandwhich, too. They see any standing firm as a pyrrhic victory. But what everyone is failing to grasp is that this is a fight not with Democrats (you know who they are and how they'll react) but a fight for control of the GOP. People are tired of electing Republicans to have them co-opted by the inside-the-beltway gang. If the GOP caves here, they will cave evermore, and business as usual will be restored. The only hope of making real change is to hold their feet to the fire now. Not next week, next month, next year. It is not enough to say "we need to hang on to the next election" because there is ALWAYS a next election and we were given this song and dance throughout the 2000 decade. Instead of making gains we were treated to a decade of defeats, death by a thousand papercuts. By the end of the Bush era we saw Congress dominated by Democrats, and Bush sounded more like Jimmy Carter than Carter himself. There is a reason for that; it was because of this "baby steps" approach, where we took half a loaf, then half THAT loaf, then half of the half, etc. We will follow an identical trajectory if we surrender here. Unfortunately, we are going to surrender here.
There is no more time, and the next election will not be satisfactory. There won't be enough votes to override a Presidential veto, certainly, and probably not enough in the Senate to end a filibuster. We will be told to wait again, even if we hold the Presidency. Things will return to "normal" and the nation will continue it's long, agonizing slide.
No, sir; this is Waterloo. There won't be a tomorrow if the GOP surrenders now. The public is fed up, and the Tea Party put the Republicans in office on probation. This will violate the terms of that probation. I cannot fathom how people on our own side cannot see that.
The Obama plan is to do nothing and hang the GOP with their own noose. Our side simply has to avoid hanging it around our own necks.
I fear we have already failed.
Bill Wilson tackles the lie of default - and why the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating is the opposite of what we are being told. http://netrightdaily.com/2011/07/aa-an-albatross-around-obama%e2%80%99s-neck/
From the article:
"S&P head of sovereign ratings David Beers told CNBC host Larry Kudlow that a failure to raise the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling “would not be default so long as the government is continuing to pay its debt as it matures and its interest payments.”
Which means August 2nd as a deadline to avert default is nothing more than a lie by Obama. Republicans have all but ceded that debate, however, and refuse to call Obama out.
The agencies are not rating Washington’s unwillingness to borrow more, but politicians’ reluctance to stop borrowing so much. Said Beers, “we’re rating debt.”
Meaning, whoever votes for a bill that ensures a downgrade — or signs it — owns that downgrade politically. Like the ancient Mariner who killed the ship’s good luck, the albatross, politicians will be made to wear AA as a shameful reminder of Washington’s greed, avarice, and profligacy.
It is a disgrace. All because Reid and Obama refused to cut at least $4 trillion, which amounts to less than $100 billion a year. In the end, the only bill that might have prevented a downgrade was the “Cut, Cap, and Balance” plan, which promised almost $6 trillion in cuts."
End excerpt.
Wilson concludes that the House should do nothing; they have already passed Cut, Cap, and Balance and should force the Senate to take action. He's right; the House Republicans should be out stumping for their bill, not endlessly generating new ones. This was a trap laid by Democrats and Obama, and the GOP has walked right into it. They never learn.
The trap is simple. Wilson puts it clearly:
"Barack Obama is trying to run out the clock. He is attempting to get the debt ceiling debate as close to Aug. 2 to back House Republicans into a corner which they cannot get out.
Likely at the last minute, the Senate will send its own bill to the House as “the only bill that can pass the Senate” and dare the House to defeat it. If the Reid bill is defeated, they will blame Republicans for obstructing it, and pin any ensuing economic calamity at their feet.
That is why the Senate has thus far refused to pass a plan of its own.
If Republicans capitulate to the Senate plan, and vote for it, the White House can live with that too. When the U.S. has its credit rating downgraded, they will attempt to make House Republicans own it — no matter how members voted.
Democrats will peddle the lie, as they have already begun, that the cause for the downgrade was because of political intransigence to raising the debt ceiling."
End excerpt.
John Boehner and other GOP leaders promised back in January during the government budget battle that this would be the hill they would make their stand upon, and the Democrats immediately began looking for ways to destroy them using it. As always, our brave heroes advanced tentatively without a plan, figuring they could b.s. their way through. Obama and company know that if the GOP caves they will take the blame - and the Tea Party will split. That is the plan. If the GOP doesn't take the bait they can at least be accused of hurting the country for their political interests, and the media will give full backing to this lie. The Republicans lost this fight when they refused to correct Obama's assertion that this will lead to a default; they should have made it plain that Obama decides where money goes and a default would be HIS choice. As always, our side didn't want to go to the trouble of correcting The One, and now they are backed into a corner.
Some very good conservatives are calling for us to eat the excrement sandwhich, too. They see any standing firm as a pyrrhic victory. But what everyone is failing to grasp is that this is a fight not with Democrats (you know who they are and how they'll react) but a fight for control of the GOP. People are tired of electing Republicans to have them co-opted by the inside-the-beltway gang. If the GOP caves here, they will cave evermore, and business as usual will be restored. The only hope of making real change is to hold their feet to the fire now. Not next week, next month, next year. It is not enough to say "we need to hang on to the next election" because there is ALWAYS a next election and we were given this song and dance throughout the 2000 decade. Instead of making gains we were treated to a decade of defeats, death by a thousand papercuts. By the end of the Bush era we saw Congress dominated by Democrats, and Bush sounded more like Jimmy Carter than Carter himself. There is a reason for that; it was because of this "baby steps" approach, where we took half a loaf, then half THAT loaf, then half of the half, etc. We will follow an identical trajectory if we surrender here. Unfortunately, we are going to surrender here.
There is no more time, and the next election will not be satisfactory. There won't be enough votes to override a Presidential veto, certainly, and probably not enough in the Senate to end a filibuster. We will be told to wait again, even if we hold the Presidency. Things will return to "normal" and the nation will continue it's long, agonizing slide.
No, sir; this is Waterloo. There won't be a tomorrow if the GOP surrenders now. The public is fed up, and the Tea Party put the Republicans in office on probation. This will violate the terms of that probation. I cannot fathom how people on our own side cannot see that.
The Obama plan is to do nothing and hang the GOP with their own noose. Our side simply has to avoid hanging it around our own necks.
I fear we have already failed.
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 8:46 AM
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