Posted on 02/20/2016 9:49:04 AM PST by smoothsailing
We Remember – December 23rd 2009 when Majority Leader Harry Reid passed a version of Obamacare through forced vote at 1:30am. The Senators could not leave, and for the two weeks previous were kept in a prolonged legislative session barred returning to their home-state constituencies. It was, by all measures and reality, a vicious display of forced ideological manipulation of the upper chamber; shared as a reminder for what set the stage, and what followed.
Riddled with anxiety we watched the Machiavellian manipulations unfold, seemingly unable to stop the visible usurpation. Desperate for a tool to stop the construct in December 2009 we found Scott Brown and rallied to deliver $7 million in funding, and a “Kennedy Seat” victory on January 19th 2010.
Unfortunately, the trickery of Majority Leader Harry Reid would not be deterred. Upon legislative return he stripped a House Budgetary bill, and replaced it with the Democrat Senate version of Obamacare through a process of “reconciliation”. Thereby avoiding the 3/5ths vote rule (60) and instead using only a simple majority, 51 votes.
Angered, we rallied to the next election (November 2010) and handed the usurping Democrats the single largest electoral defeat in the prior 100 years. The House returned to Republican control, and one-half of the needed Senate seats reversed. Within the next two election cycles (’12 and ’14) we again removed the Democrats from control of the Senate.
Within each of those three elections we were told Repealing Obamacare would be job #1. It was not an optional part of our representative agreement to do otherwise.
However, from the writing of Jonah Goldberg, an advocate for modern conservative political opinion, you find the following:
[…] If you want a really good sense of the damage Donald Trump is doing to conservatism, consider the fact that for the last five years no issue has united the Right more than opposition to Obamacare.
Opposition to socialized medicine in general has been a core tenet of American conservatism from Day One. Yet, when Republicans were told that Donald Trump favors single-payer health care, support for single-payer health care jumped from 16 percent to 44 percent. (link)
With control of the House and Senate did Majority Leader Mitch McConnell or House Speaker John Boehner use the same level of severity expressed by Harry Reid to put a repeal bill on the desk of Obama for veto?
Simply, NO.
Why not? According to NRO’s Goldberg it’s the “core tenet of American conservatism”.
If for nothing else, but to accept and follow the will of the people. Despite the probability of an Obama veto, this was not a matter of option. While the method might have been “symbolic”, due to the almost guaranteed veto, it would have stood as a promise fulfilled.
Yet the professional political class speak of “core tenets” and question our “trust” of Donald Trump?
TRUST?
We are not blind to the maneuverings of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and President Tom Donohue. We are fully aware the repeal vote did not take place because the U.S. CoC demanded the retention of Obamacare.
Leader McConnell followed the legislative priority of Tom Donohue as opposed to the will of the people.
This was again exemplified with the passage of TPA, another Republican construct which insured the Trans-Pacific Trade Deal could pass the Senate with 51 votes instead of 3/5ths. This is limiting government? No, this is usurpation of the will of the people.
However, the TPA bill passage provides both an example and a contrast.
We are not blind to the reality that when McConnell chooses to change the required senatorial voting threshold he is apt to do so. Not coincidentally, the TPP trade deal is another legislative priority of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Yet you question the “trustworthiness” of Donald Trump’s definitions of conservatism?
Another bill, the Iran “agreement”, reportedly and conveniently not considered a “treaty”. Again, we are not blind; nor are we blind to Republican Bob Corker’s amendment (Corker/Cardin Amendment) changing agreement ratification to a 67-vote-threshold for denial, as opposed to a customary 67 vote threshold for passage. A profound difference.
Yet you question the “principles” of Donald Trump?
A truly representative political body would be questioning the “ideological conservative principle” of their leader, Mitch McConnell. Or questioning Bob Corker. Both McConnell and Corker working to deny the will of the electorate within the party they are supposed to represent.
Of course, you need to remain willfully blind. You need to keep acting as if we are not aware of these closed door machinations. If you faced us, if you opened yourself to really being questioned by us, it would force you to admit some uncomfortable truths.
In years past our confrontation would have included tar and feathers.
Another example soon followed – Lisa Murkowski ? An Alaskan senator who can factually lose her Republican primary bid, yet run as a write-in candidate, without admonishment from the Republican Party, and the professional political class permit her return to the Senate with full seniority and committee responsibilities?
Did the RNC, Reince Preibus, or a republican member of senatorial leadership meet the returning Murkowski and demand a Pledge of Allegiance to the principles within the Republican party? No, but you damned sure required a pledge from candidate Donald Trump. Square that circle.
The “protectionism” and “isolationism” you rail against, in the few media appearances where you are brave enough to raise your head, is simply you projecting your own concerns of your own political interests. In essence, your necessary isolation to retain your status.
We do not forget Mitch McConnell working to re-elect Senator Thad Cochran, fundraising on his behalf in the spring/summer of 2014, even after Cochran lost the first Mississippi primary?
We do not forget the NRSC spending money on racist attack ads. We do not forget the GOP paying Democrats to vote in the second primary to defeat Republican Chris McDaniel. We are well aware the “R” in NRSC is “Republican”.
Perhaps you chose to think we forget. We do not.
You stand jaw agape, in admonition of those who have had enough and are willing to support candidate Donald Trump. Intentionally you must refuse to accept how intensely angry we are. However, specifically because of your refusal, you have now taken yourself further into the bunker and don’t realize the scope of our assembly.
Your latest attempt to quell the rising pitchforks is Paul Ryan; now charged with the definitions of who is allowed to call themselves republican, or conservative.
Tell those definitions to the majority of Conservative Republicans who supported Chris McDaniel and found their own party actively working against them.
Oh, we understand your definitions.
Where is the historical republican “character” in the fact-based exhibitions outlined above?
Remember Virginia 2012, 2013? When the conservative principle-driven electorate changed the method of candidate selection to a convention and removed the party stranglehold on their “chosen candidates”. Remember that? We do.
What did McConnell, the RNC and the GOP do in response with Ken Cuccinelli? They actively spited him and removed funding from his campaign. To teach us a lesson? Well it worked, we learned that lesson.
Representative David Brat was part of that lesson learned and answer delivered. Candidate Donald Trump is similarly an outcome of those lessons learned, and hopefully just as strong an answer forthcoming – yet these professional political voices speak of “character”.
Collectively the GOPe punditry speak of concerns toward candidate Donald Trump’s outlined tax proposals. Yet, these same voices ignore who cut the tax rates on lower margins by 50% thereby removing any tax liability from the bottom 20% wage earners?
Which party simultaneously expanded the role of government dependency programs? That would be the GOP (“Bush Tax Cutsâ€)
What? How dare you argue against tax cuts, you say.
The truth is the “Bush Tax Cuts†removed tax liability from the bottom 20 to 40% of income earners completely. Leaving the entirety of tax burden on the upper 60% wage earners. Currently, thanks to those cuts, 49% of tax filers pay ZERO federal income tax.
But long term our fiscal house is much worse. The “Bush Tax Cuts†were, in essence, created to stop the post 9/11/01 recession – and they contained a “sunset provision†which ended ten years later specifically because, if the baseline budget spending continued, the tax cuts were unsustainable.
The expiration of the lower margin tax cuts then became an argument in the election cycle of 2012. And as usual, the GOP, McConnell and Boehner were insufferably inept during this process.
The GOP (2002) removed tax liability from the lower income levels, and President Obama then (2009) lowered the income threshold for economic subsidy (welfare, food stamps, ebt, medicaid, etc) this was brutally predictable.
This lower revenue higher spending ‘baseline-budget’ approach means – lower tax revenues and increased pressure on the top tax rates (wage earners) with the increased demand for tax spending created within the welfare programs.
Professional DC Republicans focus on “spending†without ever admitting they, not the Democrats, lowered rates and set themselves up to be played with the increased need for social program spending, simultaneously. These same politicians have never addressed the abhorrent beast that is baseline budget growth. Ultimately, is this reality/outcome not simply a “tax the rich” program?
As a consequence what’s the difference between the Republicans and Democrats on taxes? All of a sudden Republicans are arguing to “broaden the tax base”. Meaning, reverse the tax cuts they themselves created on the lower income filers?
This is a conservative position now? A need to “tax the poor”? Nice of the Republicans to insure the Democrats have an atomic sledgehammer to use against them.
This is a winning strategy? This is the “conservatism” DC is defending because they are worried about Donald Trump’s principles, character or trustworthiness.
Here’s a list of those modern conservative “small(er) government” principles:
• Did the GOP secure the border with control of the White House and Congress? NO.
• Did the GOP balance the budget with control of the White House and Congress? NO
• Did the GOP even pass a FY 2016 budget with control of the House and Senate? NO.
• Who gave us a $2.5 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill in December 2015? The GOP
• Who eliminated, not just raise but eliminated, the debt ceiling? The GOP
• Who gave us the TSA? The GOP
• Who gave us the Patriot Act? The GOP
• Who expanded Medicare to include prescription drug coverage? The GOP
• Who created the precursor of “Common Core†in “Race To the Top� The GOP
• Who played the race card in Mississippi to re-elect Thad Cochran? The GOP
• Who paid Democrats to vote in the Mississippi primary? The GOP
• Who refused to support Ken Cuccinnelli in Virginia? The GOP
• Who supported Charlie Crist? The GOP
• Who supported Arlen Spector? The GOP
• Who supported Bob Bennett? The GOP
• Who worked against Jim DeMint? The GOP
• Who worked against Rand Paul? The GOP
• Who worked against Ted Cruz? The GOP
• Who worked against Mike Lee? The GOP
• Who worked against Ronald Reagan? The GOP
• Who is working against Donald Trump? The GOP
• Who said “I think we are going to crush [the Tea Party] everywhere.� The GOP (McConnell)
And, you wonder why we’re frustrated, desperate for a person who can actually articulate some kind of push-back?
Here’s a shock for ya – We are not just pushing back against Obama, Pelosi and Reid, we are also desperate for push back against you.
Inasmuch as President Obama is our fiscal enemy, so too are Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and now Paul Ryan. Which leads to the next of the GOP talking points. Where they opine:
“Politics is a game where you don’t get everything you wantâ€
Fair enough. But considering us “whacko birds” have simply been demanding common sense, ie. fiscal discipline, a BUDGET would be nice.
The last federal budget was passed in September of 2007, and EVERY FLIPPING INSUFFERABLE YEAR we had to go through the predictable fiasco of a Government Shutdown Standoff and/or a Debt Ceiling increase specifically because there is NO BUDGET!
That’s a fiscal strategy?
That’s the GOP strategy?
Essentially: Lets plan for an annual battle against articulate Democrats and Presidential charm, using a creepy guy who cries and another old mumbling fool who dodders, knowing full well the MSM is on the side of the other guy to begin with?
THAT’S WAS YOUR GOP STRATEGY?
Don’t tell me it’s not, because if it wasn’t there’d be something else being done. And to make matters even more brutally obvious – when given control of the House and Senate in 2015 what did the GOP do?
The Republican DC politicians eliminated the entire debt ceiling, passed a $2.5 trillion omnibus spending bill, and kicked the can all the way to March 2017.
That’s a flippin’ solution?
That’s a republican solution?
That’s a conservative solution?
And don’t think we don’t know the 2009 “stimulus” became embedded in the baseline of the federal spending, and absent of an actual budget it just gets spent and added to the deficit each year, every year. Yet this is somehow smaller fiscal government?
Pretty good summary.
Hoping South Carolina has had enough business-as-usual garbage and wants to Make America Great Again!
Good summary of the utter filth that controls the GOPe.
The nation that has killed 55 million babies is under judgement from YHWH. He is done with the United States of America.
We have been under judgement ever since the 1962 School Prayer ruling. The first official Muslim Brotherhood front organization founded in the U.S. was the Muslim Students Association (MSA), established on the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois in 1964. The Muslim Brotherhood is a type of the Assyrian that YHWH used to bring judgement on the 10 tribes that made up Israel. Al Qaeda is an off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Their 9/11 attack was a perfect fulfillment of Isaiah 9:8-13.
Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade things have really gotten worse. Since then we have never won a war, before then we never lost one. With Obama we finally got Isaiah 3:4-5 “I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. The people will be oppressed, everyone by another and every one by his neighbor; The child will be insolent toward the elder and the base to the honorable.”
All this moral decay was initiated by Judges, just as the moral decay in Sodom and Gomorrah was, according to the Jewish sages, initiated by Judges. That puts us as “in the days of Lot” (Luke 17:28-37). The “great sign in the heavens” from Revelation 12:1-2 actually occurs on September 23-24, 2017. See the image at: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_1y_hLqVXf4/maxresdefault.jpg
So Ted Cruz is “in this race to show this country the face of the God that we serve”, as his wife has stated, which is part of the Dominion Heresy (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Theology), that believes that Conservative Christians need to take control of the secular government and rule over the non-Christians, for the good of all, of course.
Now if you believe that anything that we, as humans, can do will change the judgement to come, then you are not paying attention. But you are paying attention, so now you know why it is not a good idea to support Ted Cruz.
As for Donald Trump, I view him as a type of Samson, whom YHWH raised up to bring down the Temple of Dagon on the Philistines. Read Judges 13-16 and then look at the characteristics Donald Trump shares with Samson: Doesn’t drink, ever; has really wild hair; is really harsh if you treat him badly or unfairly; ran around with a lot of foreign women.
Now look at Donald Trump’s slogan: “Make America Great Again”. Alexis de Tocqueville said: “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” Donald Trump knows that in a country overrun with Philistines one can not campaign on “Make America Good Again”. However, if you look at what he says he will do, how offended he is by people lying about him, how offended he is with dirty tricks, how he hates the corruption in American government, etc. you know that he is trying to do is make America good again. So Donald Trump is bringing people out of the shadows, so to speak, and giving them hope that things can be better. This puts them out in the world where the Holy Spirit can bring believers into contact with those who are to be saved. So that is the spiritual aspect of the Trump campaign.
Bless you, sweet sailor. A great post from tcth. Thank you!
Bless you, sweet sailor. A great post from tcth. Thank you!
Yes, this election is a war against the establishment, both Left and Right.
Love the graphic with redhead watching the coming storm.
Wherever there is a “codependency” there is also a “dependency” by definition.
That in this case appears to be on big government.
Political solutions that do similar things but more economically (and some of Donald Trump’s proposals are that way) are a step away from disaster, but of themselves still do not embrace the solution which, as always, was the good Lord.
Now how do we embrace something we can’t see directly with our eyes? Good question. But how might one embrace other things that are this way, like winds or radio waves? There are certain approaches that work, and we don’t complain that it is impossible or, even more implausibly, that those things do not exist and are ineffective. In fact they can be powerful enough to drive ships and cook food.
We embrace God on our knees, figuratively if not literally. We don’t come to God strong. We come to God weak. We reach out with our hearts to God’s care and ask God to bear the burden of our sin, our disobedience to God’s perfect desires, and guide us in a better way. Not because we deserved it (we never did) but because we perceive and acknowledge that the Lord desires it (He always did).
To some measure early America did this, though certainly not without glaring flaws that nobody wants today, like chattel slavery and cruelty to the insane. We have the benefit of history and can avoid the glaring flaws, but will we learn to embrace the Baby as we throw out the bathwater? I pray we will.
Then the idol of big government, whether heavy or lite, will be dethroned. I’ve tentatively given the nod to a particular candidate based on where things are at today (the smaller the worldly problem, the better) but getting the demon out of that idol so that it turns back into a servant, can’t be done by any single man. We have to do it by embracing the Lord then moving as the Lord directs, which will be in keeping with the Lord’s character, with caring and lovingkindness exercised in a private sphere that doesn’t need to get the government involved in carrying it out.
I acknowledge that a Trump approach “COULD” work in tandem with a gospel revival. It might even work better than the current Cruz approach, though Cruz could change and also adopt a more inspiring note.
The key observation to make here is that we can’t expect Trump to be the energy behind that revival. God has to be.
Aw Shucks! (blush) 8^)
Let’s get ready to rumble, South Carolina!
I don’t think there is time for a national revival, only time for individual salvation.
On the Bible Prophecy side, how is YHWH going to convince the Iranians that 2017 would be about the last time they, with their allies, can wipe out the United States and attack Israel to wipe it off the map?
How about we elect Donald Trump and he starts to make the American Military so strong that no one will want to mess with us? How about if he starts to root out the Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the Government? In fact, the threat of having Donald Trump in the Whitehouse may well trigger the attack that is described in Ezekiel 38:10-13, which YHWH does not stop, so that the attack in Ezekiel 38:14-23, which YHWH will stop can take place. Then the End will come.
When the world gets to these critical points, there isn’t anything one can do to change the course set by YHWH for the world. It is much easier if you focus on that narrow way YHWH has for you to do as your part in His magnificent Word.
Once in office, Brown went completely establishment GOPe on us. It was a crushing and bitter disappointment. Then he was shoved out of office two years later. I still believe that if he would have been re-elected had he not caved to the establishment.
The Trump campaign has similarly galvanized me. I hope it is a turning point and that Trump does not "go establishment" on us should he be elected.
Thank you for posting. Your words are very encouraging.
Thank you. I had thought the Holy Spirit was leading me to write a book, but it appears this is it. ;-)
“The key observation to make here is that we can’t expect Trump to be the energy behind that revival. God has to be.”
No question Trump can’t do it by himself. He’ll spend the first two years fighting his own GOPe RINO scardy-cat do-nothing Congress and then having to spend energy primarying the GOP traitors out of office. He’s gonna need a lot of help to do that.
Mmmm... tell the Lord there is no time for something, watch Him laugh at you. He made the sun stand still to illuminate a successful battle, and caused Abraham and Sarah to bear Isaac in their extreme old age, just to prove that the clock can’t run Him out.
Thank you for posting this....I go to Tree House quite often and I love my ‘tree branch’ a lot...thank you!!!
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