Many establishment conservatives are agog with joy over the grand sellout of a budget deal.  They feel that John Boehner was the real winner in the debate.  The problem is that they are all focusing on the dollar amount of the discretionary spending cuts.  They are forgetting the 800-pound gorilla in the room; Obamacare.  The cost of O-care to our economy, liberty, consumer choice, and health care system is incalculable; certainly ions more than the diminutive $38 billion (really $26 billion in new cuts) in discretionary cuts that were secured by Boehner.

The Wall Street Journal penned a disingenuous op-ed lauding the spending deal as the ” first victory for the Tea Party.”  They further admonished conservatives for criticizing the deal.   Here is what they had to say:

“Republicans also showed they are able to make the compromises required to govern. We realize that “governing” can often be an excuse for incumbent self-interest. But this early show of political maturity will demonstrate to independents that the freshmen and tea party Republicans they elected in November aren’t the yahoos of media lore. A government shutdown over a spending difference of $7 billion and some policy riders would have made the GOP look reckless for little return….

Now the battle moves to the debt ceiling increase and Paul Ryan’s new 2012 budget later this year, and there are lessons from this fight to keep in mind. One is to focus on spending and budget issues, not extraneous policy fights.” (emphasis added)

Let’s get this straight.  Republicans won their biggest electoral victory in 70 years over the issue of Obamacare, yet it is merely an “extraneous policy fight” to the Journal’s editors?  Republicans pledged to defund Obamacare and now they are admitting that they will never employ any meaningful tactic to force the issue.  In fact, they voted to extend an Obamacare program in March.

Read More →

Many establishment conservatives are agog with joy over the grand sellout of a budget deal.  They feel that John Boehner was the real winner in the debate.  The problem is that they are all focusing on the dollar amount of the discretionary spending cuts.  They are forgetting the 800-pound gorilla in the room; Obamacare.  The cost of O-care to our economy, liberty, consumer choice, and health care system is incalculable; certainly ions more than the diminutive $38 billion (really $26 billion in new cuts) in discretionary cuts that were secured by Boehner.

The Wall Street Journal penned a disingenuous op-ed lauding the spending deal as the ” first victory for the Tea Party.”  They further admonished conservatives for criticizing the deal.   Here is what they had to say:

“Republicans also showed they are able to make the compromises required to govern. We realize that “governing” can often be an excuse for incumbent self-interest. But this early show of political maturity will demonstrate to independents that the freshmen and tea party Republicans they elected in November aren’t the yahoos of media lore. A government shutdown over a spending difference of $7 billion and some policy riders would have made the GOP look reckless for little return….

Now the battle moves to the debt ceiling increase and Paul Ryan’s new 2012 budget later this year, and there are lessons from this fight to keep in mind. One is to focus on spending and budget issues, not extraneous policy fights.” (emphasis added)

Let’s get this straight.  Republicans won their biggest electoral victory in 70 years over the issue of Obamacare, yet it is merely an “extraneous policy fight” to the Journal’s editors?  Republicans pledged to defund Obamacare and now they are admitting that they will never employ any meaningful tactic to force the issue.  In fact, they voted to extend an Obamacare program in March.

Read More →

We’ve been reading comments about the barely avoided government shutdown that run the gamut of human emotion…from ‘shut it down!’ (from which school of thought I have only recently moved) to high praise for John Boehner’s strategy and everything in between. Certainly, the result so far has been fortuitous… Barack the First is trotting out his own ‘heavy, serious cuts’ next week. That’s a hoot… it’s the best indication that they’ve been stung pretty good.

Aside from the usual diatribes, the left has been reduced to dragging out the ‘right to choose’ bunch again, along with a sudden concern for the ‘children’ and education… and let us not forget granddad eating dog food. The far more likely scenario would be granddad freezing to death because he cannot afford heating oil or gas, because Barack Hussein has made damn sure we’re totally dependent on foreign countries for our energy. Most of those countries love to see us weak and indecisive… which is the sum total of Obama’s foreign policy.

Next, Boehner’s going to have to sell the debt ceiling increase to the American people. It’s going to be a very hard sell. Regardless of Boehner’s motivation for it, the fact remains that if the debt ceiling is not raised we do risk the federal government going into default, which could launch a world wide depression aside from the economic devastation it would cause here. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be the case. But Boehner can’t take that chance… none of us can.

Still, how to balance all the forces in play? He knows that he has to satisfy the coalition of the Patriot Movement and that magic 20% figure that are the independents, who so far have evinced their disgust with the DeMarxist agenda by going over wholesale to the Tea Party. In order to pull this off, thereby saving his own hide, Boehner is going to have to cut deep and often. He’s going to be forced to move forward as much of Paul Ryan’s proposal as he can in order to hold on the Patriot movement.

No, I’m still not completely sold on Boehner. But you have got to admire some of the maneuvering he did to pull this off.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2011

Download audio here

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets from the Sammies in Chicago, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the political and economic costs of a potential government shutdown.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Time’s up: Obama and GOP scramble to halt shutdown
Congress doesn’t shut down during a shutdown
Budget negotiators differ by $6.5 billion: aide
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange
ICYMI: Coffee & Market’s 300th Episode with Michael Barone
The Sammie Awards

Follow Brad on Twitter
Follow Ben on Twitter
Follow Francis on Twitter

Download audio here

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets from the Sammies in Chicago, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the political and economic costs of a potential government shutdown.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Time’s up: Obama and GOP scramble to halt shutdown
Congress doesn’t shut down during a shutdown
Budget negotiators differ by $6.5 billion: aide
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange
ICYMI: Coffee & Market’s 300th Episode with Michael Barone
The Sammie Awards

Follow Brad on Twitter
Follow Ben on Twitter
Follow Francis on Twitter

…for the trivial issue of trying to avoid a government shutdown this Friday.  Unfortunately, it was only three minutes; nothing was accomplished in that time period, which means that we’re still on track for said government shutdown by the Democrats.  And there probably won’t be any more meaningful negotiations today, mostly because President Obama has dinner plans tonight.  Dinner plans involving Al Sharpton – because while keeping our soldiers paid and everything is all very well, what’s really important is the 2012 election.

(pause)

You know, there is an endemic conspiracy theory out there that suggests that the United States is actually run by a shadow government that operates all of our Presidents like puppeteers operating, well, puppets.  I am here to tell you that this is obviously not the case; and I further submit that it is in some ways a shame that this is not the case – because if it were the case then we might have some faint hope of FINDING SOMEBODY WITH COMMAND AUTHORITY WHO WAS INTERESTED IN EXERCISING SOME.

Honestly, I don’t know why Obama is running for re-election.  He obviously hates the job, and resents the rest of us for expecting him to actually do it.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Read More →

…for the trivial issue of trying to avoid a government shutdown this Friday.  Unfortunately, it was only three minutes; nothing was accomplished in that time period, which means that we’re still on track for said government shutdown by the Democrats.  And there probably won’t be any more meaningful negotiations today, mostly because President Obama has dinner plans tonight.  Dinner plans involving Al Sharpton – because while keeping our soldiers paid and everything is all very well, what’s really important is the 2012 election.

(pause)

You know, there is an endemic conspiracy theory out there that suggests that the United States is actually run by a shadow government that operates all of our Presidents like puppeteers operating, well, puppets.  I am here to tell you that this is obviously not the case; and I further submit that it is in some ways a shame that this is not the case – because if it were the case then we might have some faint hope of FINDING SOMEBODY WITH COMMAND AUTHORITY WHO WAS INTERESTED IN EXERCISING SOME.

Honestly, I don’t know why Obama is running for re-election.  He obviously hates the job, and resents the rest of us for expecting him to actually do it.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Read More →

There’s that old saying “if a tree falls in the forest and no one was around did it really happen?” or something to that effect forgive my inaccuracy if there is any there, but my point is this: If the government shuts down in Washington and the American people aren’t around to hear the doors close, did it really happen? I mean think about it if the government were to shut down would life right this second be any different, would it be worse, or better?

I’m curious to find out what would become of this country and her daily routine if the government and all its minions just up and took a break for a week or so. Well, maybe not a week but perhaps two, three days? Would you be any less poor if you’re already poor? Would you be any less in debt if you’re already in debt? Would you be any richer if you already had massive wealth? It’s an interesting question to ask because I believe our government has become so irresponsible, so dangerously incompetent and so annoyingly intrusive that maybe, just maybe the people would be better off without the daily political vomit that seems to overflow from the nation’s capital.

State governments shut down all the time I’ve heard and while government services have their value, at least some, most government agencies and programs do little to effect the general welfare of the people in a positive way. So what would happen if the EPA weren’t shelling out ridiculous and unreasonable environmental standards and trying to force people to buy florescent light bulbs? What would happen if we could actually hunt and fish without paying eight bucks for a piece of paper telling us what we can or cannot do with our own guns and fishing poles. I men wouldn’t you like to just once venture out into the small business world without going through the needless bureaucratic sludge imposed on you by the federal body?

Think about it, would a government shutdown be so bad? I’d like to think that a government shutdown means a return to true personal and constitutional freedoms, and an end to arrogant know it all based government oversight of “all things” all things. Maybe I’m just that crazy young libertarian, but I bet if you poll the entire country most Americans would agree with me to some extent.

The world didn’t become a better place. Our absolutely dyspepsic middle eastern policy has just about everybody shaking their heads. Now, the morons want to arm the Libyan rebels so that our guys and gals over there can get our own stuff fired back at us.

‘Her Thighness’, Hillary Clinton, has been rocketing from capital to capital, braying the administration’s next change of course, change of mind, or the next whimsical pronouncement of the ‘Anointed One’, arguably the least influential person on the international scene. Notice I didn’t use the word ‘leader’.

Speaking of leadership, I’ve been watching the antics of the Republican leadership with increasing unease, bordering on anger. They still don’t get it. They had thousands of Tea Party Patriots demonstrating outside Congress and they still don’t get it.

Allow me to lay this out for you establishment Republicans once again… one point seven trillion dollars in deficit this year alone. And now these brave, brave men have the unmitigated temerity to come to the taxpaying patriots of this country with a heroic sixty billion dollars in deficit spending cuts. Words fail me…

The Marxists, in the form of Harry Reid and Upchucky Schumer, are trumpeting that our Republican intransigence will result in a government shutdown. Oh, No! Lions and tigers and bears… Oh, my! This is what has Boehner quaking? Bleating that we’re only 1/2 of 1/3 of the government? This is why he and the rest of the so-called ‘leaders’ that we, you and I, worked hard and skillfully to get elected, have the nerve to say to us that they cannot do the job that we sent them to Washington to do because it may cause a government shutdown!
Shut that sucker down!

What if we shut down the government and nothing happened? Because that’s exactly what would occur. All essential services would still function. The only ones who would be discomfited would be politicians, bureaucrats and parasitic government types in their hundreds of thousands… and that’s a good thing.

I see that Repubic Scott Brown opened his mouth and labeled himself as the new primo RINO in the Senate. I’m sure McCain must be jealous. Mr Brown labeled the insignificant sixty billion dollars in proposed cuts as ‘irresponsible’. One has to wonder… has this man, who we judged to be fairly intelligent, any grasp on reality?

What slays me is that you can hear these various Republicans on the conservative radio talk circuits and they all sound like bold deficit hawks, and reiterate that they know who put them in office and with what mandate. Yet all we get out of the House leadership are these lame squeeks and bleats about why we can’t do something.
Fellow Patriots, I sense another change wind blowing…

Post Script: To those of you who followed my son’s recent illness… we brought him home (he had a drug -resistant pneumonia that almost killed him) and with a few weeks’ rest he should be fine.
Why in the world would any sane person want to trade the most magnificent medical system in the world for Osama… whoops, slip of the keyboard, Obamacare? Think about it.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2011

As the clock ticks closer to Friday’s deadline for an extension of the continuing resolution currently funding government operations, the voices on the left and in the media grow ever louder and shrill at the prospect of a government “shutdown.”  Note the scare quotes in use there, because in reality what will happen if Congress cannot agree on spending levels for the current fiscal year will be anything but what the term “shutdown” implies.

Republicans are on the right side of the argument in principle and are in line with the political mood in the country.  As evidenced by their overwhelming victory in November, Americans want Congress to cut federal spending.  Republicans campaigned on it, and the voters expect them to keep their promises.

So why, then, do polls like this one from Gallup show that 6 in 10 Americans do not favor a government “shutdown” in lieu of an agreement to cut spending?  The answer is in the framing.  Republicans can’t win a debate with liberals by accepting their use of terms.  What is needed is a way to frame the debate on spending in a way that more accurately reflects what will really happen on Friday at midnight if the government “shuts down.”

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