Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

A debt deal The Founders could love
The Wall Street Journal, DavidRivkin.com ^ | August 2, 2011 | David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey

Posted on 08/05/2011 12:14:16 PM PDT by IndePundit

The debt-ceiling crisis has prompted predictable media laments about how partisan and dysfunctional our political system has become. But if the process leading to the current deal was a "spectacle" and a "three-ring circus," as Obama adviser David Plouffe put it, the show's impresarios are none other than James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. Our messy political system is working exactly the way our Founders intended it to.

To the extent House members were the most intransigent during the process—a matter of opinion, in any case—they were meant to be. The House of Representatives is the "popular branch," as described in The Federalist Papers, and was intended to "have an immediate dependence on, and an intimate sympathy with, the people." Many people, especially those who elected tea party candidates last November, passionately believe that the federal government has gone off the rails. They think that Washington has been spending like a drunken sailor since President Obama took office, and that this profligacy must end.

(Excerpt) Read more at davidrivkin.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; History; Society
KEYWORDS: constitution; davidrivkin; debtceiling; economy
Rivkin has his finger on the pulse of the Founders every time I read him. It’s true they believed that public borrowing was important, but it should be used SPARINGLY. Now does that sound like the Obama administration? Or even Bush II? Heck no.
1 posted on 08/05/2011 12:14:24 PM PDT by IndePundit
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: IndePundit

I don’t think they would be happy with the very existence of massive entitlements.


2 posted on 08/05/2011 12:18:29 PM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Happiness)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: IndePundit
He's absolutely correct as far as the process goes. What none of them -- not even Alexander "Having a National Debt is a GOOD THING" Hamilton -- would agree with is the level of spending, or the level or debt.

I'm all for a Congress that doesn't get much done. Can we make them part timers in the next cycle?

3 posted on 08/05/2011 12:23:57 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: IndePundit
If the Senate has been less willing than the House to call an immediate halt to federal borrowing and to seek a more gradual return to fiscal responsibility, this too is exactly what it is supposed to do.

What nonsense.

The Framers believed in gradual change.

They were revolutionaries.

To imply they would support boldface violations of our Natural Rights is idiocy.

4 posted on 08/05/2011 12:42:09 PM PDT by Jacquerie (We are no longer governed, we are ruled.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson