Posted on 10/14/2013 6:46:21 AM PDT by Kaslin
Why Giving Republican Bullies a Bloody Nose Isn’t Enough
Now is the time to lance the boil of Republican extremism once and for all.
Since Barack Obama became president, the extremists who have taken over the Republican Party have escalated their demands every time he’s caved, using the entire government of the United States as their bargaining chit.
In 2010 he agreed to extend all of the Bush tax cuts through the end of 2012. Were they satisfied? Of course not.
In the summer of 2011, goaded by an influx of Tea Partiers, they demanded huge spending cuts in return for raising the debt ceiling. In response, the President offered an overly-generous $4 trillion “Grand Bargain,” including cuts in Social Security and Medicare and whopping cuts in domestic spending (bringing it to its lowest level as a share of gross domestic product in over half a century).
Were Republicans content? No. When they demanded more, Obama agreed to a Super Committee to find bigger cuts, and if the Super Committee failed, a “sequester” that would automatically and indiscriminately slice everything in the federal budget except Social Security and Medicare.
Not even Obama’s re-election put a damper on their increasing demands. By the end of 2012, they insisted that the Bush tax cuts be permanently extended or the nation would go over the “fiscal cliff.” Once again, Obama caved, agreeing to permanently extend the Bush tax cuts for incomes up to $400,000.
Early this year, after the sequester went into effect, Republicans demanded even bigger spending cuts. Obama offered more cuts in Medicare and a “chained CPI” to reduce Social Security payments, in exchange for Republican concessions on taxes.
Refusing the offer, and seemingly delirious with their power to hold the nation hostage, they demanded that the Affordable Care Act be repealed as a condition for funding the government and again raising the debt ceiling.
This time, though, Obama didn’t cave — at least, not yet.
The government is shuttered and the nation is on the verge of defaulting on its debts. But public opinion has turned sharply against the Republican Party. And the GOP’s corporate and Wall Street backers are threatening to de-fund it.
Suddenly the Republicans are acting like the school-yard bully who terrorized the playground but finally got punched in the face. They’re in shock. They’re humiliated. They’re trying to come up with ways of saving face.
With bloodied nose, House Republicans are running home. They’ve abruptly turned negotiations over to their Senate colleagues.
And just as suddenly, their demand to repeal or delay the Affordable Care Act has vanished. (An email from the group Tea Party Express says: “Are you like us wondering where the fight against Obamacare went?”) At a lunch meeting in the Capitol, Senator John McCain asked a roomful of Republican senators if they still believed it was possible to reverse parts of the program. According to someone briefed on the meeting, no one raised a hand — not even Ted Cruz.
It appears that negotiations over the federal budget deficit are about to begin once again, and presumably Senate Republicans will insist that Obama and the Democrats give way on taxes and spending in exchange for reopening the government and raising the debt ceiling for at least another year.
But keeping the government running and paying the nation’s bills should never have been bargaining chits in the first place, and the President and Democrats shouldn’t begin to negotiate over future budgets until they’re taken off the table.
The question is how thoroughly President Obama has learned that extortionist demands escalate if you give in to them.
The language of our enemies has escalated dangerously.
Anyone who thinks this won’t lead to blood has not studied history.
Thanks Kas! Comments should be good!
Bogie
In the heart of every leftist is the desire to use the power of the state to punish and exterminate those who resist them.
Indeed. This “lance the boil” kind of talk is exactly how the Nazis prepared the Germans to exterminate the Jews.
Pamela Zuppo.....another name to be added to the “Enemies of Freedom” list.
Indeed
Who really wrote this Op-Ed? Juan McCainer or Linda Graham?
You’re welcome. They should be
She’s on twitter.
Here is what she has on the header of her page:
Pamela Zuppo
@PZuppo
If you respond to my tweets to argue, I will report you and block you. No to: NRA nuts or RWNJ
Wherever There is Water
Does this surprise you?
Huge spending cuts? Spending still has to be cut another 27% to avoid even more borrowing or more money printing or more tax increases (which probably wouldn't raise revenue) in order for the government to stay afloat.
https://plus.google.com/113630612440279083293#113630612440279083293/posts
I've been reading Victor Klemperor's "Language of the Third Reich" and while allowances must be made for differences between English and German, it's clear that the vocabulary being used by Democrats today is the language used by Germans in the 1930s. They want to punish their enemies. They want blood. They want to fundamentally transform society.
Humanity has indeed been here before. It's not a good place to be.
Why would you think McCain or Graham wrote this, Noobie?
Who pays her bills?
You said it
Wow, these “Republicans” sound like our old Juden problem, back in Germany. I think we learned how to deal with THOSE problems, DIDN’T we.
.
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