If ever the stars aligned for a Republican victory on the debt ceiling debate, they aligned over the past few months in favor of Republicans. What happened?
Every sign pointed to a win for the new Republican majority in the House, the only branch of government that really mattered in this debate, in spit of the argument that “the Republicans controlled only one-half of one-third of the government.” They controlled a very important part: Section 7 of the Constitution says: “All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.” In case the Rep[ublican leadership forrgot, they control the House, not one-half of the House.
Had the House refused any amendments to its “Cut, Cap and Balance” bill, and made funding for social security, medicare, medicaid and military spending part of what they offered, the Democratic controlled Senate and President would have had to accept the deal — or take the blame. Moreover, the House had every rating agency in the world warning that significant cuts up to $6 trillion were needed to save the United States AAA rating. With all this in their favor, the Republicans caved and blew it. Think of it: the Republicans had every rating agency in the world on their side and they did not invoke this support once to win the support of the American people.
Harry Reid never hesitated to say that the House Bill was dead on arrival when it reached the senate in spite of what Section 7 of the Constitution said. Why didn’t Boehner and McConnell take the same stance on a bill they both professed to support? The answer is: they didn’t because they never believed in it, and because both leaders are not leaders at all, but part of what if wrong with Washington, D.C.
Did Boehner or McConnell ever use Reid’s tactic to their advantage? No? The President was given a pass, when he could have been boxed in a corner and made to look foolish arguing that the rating agencies were wrong. Worse, the Republican leaders failed to make a case that before one cent in social secutiry was cut or delayed, other programs like giving cell phones and 250 minutes of free cell phone service to between 14 and 24 million so-called poor families be cut first. There are literally hundreds of such programs that would gag the average American with disgust if they knew about them. Yet the Republicans failed to make the case. Where were the charts and lists of dumb programs? And why did we not hear one word of disgust from either Boehner or Reid at how shamelessly the President and Democrats were playiung the class warface card?
At everey opportunity the Republicans should have been saying that if the Senate refused to adopt and the President refuseds to sign the House Bill, they, not the Republicans, would be endangering the nation’s credit rating, payments to benificiaries etc. Instead, the Republicans were silent, flumoxed, looking for the deal — a bad deal at that for America.
Instead of setting the ternms of the debate and exposing the President and his hateful tacics for what they were,Republicans cowered and caved. Boehner demanded that fellow Republicans get behind him and “get their asses in line.” In spite of a recent election victory and polls that showed a majority of Americans were concerned with the nation’s uncontrollable debt, dozens of so-called Tea Party Republicans got in line behind the Speker and abandoned their constituents. They should all be replaced at the next election — no exceptions. They must go. This betrayal was one of those deal-makers that cannot be forgotten or forgiven. Nothing less than the futiure stability of our country — social, military and economic — is at issue.
Sadly, the Republican leadership has domonstrated, once again, their ineptness at governing and a remarkable tendency to “deal” when a deal is not called for and not in the interest of the nation they serve. At a time when China and Russia are arming to the teeth and stealing — or be given technology that will one day threaten American lives –the final compromise deal struck, threatens the security of the United States while protecting every federal government program that is duplicated in every state (Dep’t of Education, Environment, Labor, etc.). This alone should warrant removal from congress for those who supported this deal. Why do we need federal departments, costing hundreds of billions — when states duplicate the same services?
We learned one thing from all this: the Republicans still haven’t learned. They don’t know how to fight. And far too many cannot be trusted. The 2012 election will give Americans another chance to sweep the House and Senate of the deal-makers, and maybe even get rid of this Marxist-leaning President.
