2012 Will Be Palin versus Obama...and Boehner

03/31/2011 | Brices Crossroads

[Brices Crossroads]

As the budget process unfolds on Capitol Hill, with the prospect of a government shutdown, It has become increasingly apparent that the GOP leadership in Congress lacks the will to fight. Congress is an inherently cowardly institution, but many in the TEA Party (and no doubt Sarah Palin) had hoped that the immense landslide of November 2010 would stiffen the spines of the John Boehner, Eric Cantor and the GOP leaders in Congress. After all, it was the GOP, not the Democrats who received a MANDATE and that mandate was to enact deep spending cuts, along the lines of the $500 billion proposed by TEA Party Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.

True to form, however, the GOP careerists on Capitol Hill epitomized by Boehner and Cantor surrendered faster than the French in 1940 and without any justification. Like the French, Boehner and Cantor are busy fighting the LAST war and are terrified that a government shutdown will damage their political position and careers, as they believe the week long Government shutdown damaged Newt Gingrich in 1995. They forget, however, that it was Gingrich who blinked first, folding like a cheap suit at the release of the first negative poll information. Had Gingrich stuck to his guns, he would have scored not only a political victory, but achieved even deeper cuts in government spending than the GOP Congress ultimately achieved. There is no political downside to a government shutdown for the GOP, as most federal employees are Democrats who will be screaming bloody murder to their Congressmen to get paid. With every advantage and the wind at their back, Boehner and Cantor rushed to surrender.

2011 is not 1995. The situation is much more serious. We are now awash in a sea of debt that threatens to make the United States an economic "banana republic" if it is not addressed with major cuts. We can no longer afford the luxury of surrender, and the people know it and would support the deep cuts (and the shutdown, if it comes to that). Alas, in spite of the 2010 results, the GOP leadership appears to lack all conviction, while it is the Democrats, unbowed by their historic shellacking, who are filled with the passionate intensity.

Boehner's lack of resolve is causing support for the GOP, which had reached a five year high after the 2010 midterms, to nosedive. If, as expected, the GOP leadership caves in the coming days, look for support for the party to drop even more. This is, I believe, part of a concerted Democrat strategy to divide the TEA party from the GOP in 2012, or at least demoralize the TEA party voters, who installed the GOP in power in 2010. Obama knows that 2012 will be a base election and that, if he can spawn a third party or at least depress conservative turnout for the GOP nominee, he stands a chance of reelection. Boehner and Cantor are playing right into his hands.

How should Governor Palin react to the impending sellout of the TEA Party by the weak-kneed Boehner and the threat it poses to GOP presidential prospects in 2012? I believe she should identify the problem and distance herself from the Congressional GOP. Congress is an institution that generally defaults toward cowardice and eschews hard choices, even with the best of leaders. With Boehner and Cantor, the GOP is worse than leaderless. It is complicit. Palin will have to position herself as the last best hope to slash the looming deficits, and she can point to her record of reducing state spending in absolute terms in Alaska, liberally using the veto. However, this may not be enough to separate her from the Democrat big spenders and their GOP fellow travellers, since she will not be able to use (as she did in Alaska) the line item veto. And all the GOP candidates will promise to do the same. While necessary, simply vetoing wasteful spending is not enough under the dire circumstances the next President will face.

I suggest a solution to use in addition to her veto pen. It is called the Constitution. And the constitutional answer to Congress' bipartisan addiction to spending is IMPOUNDMENT. Impoundment is simply the decision by the Executive not to spend funds appropriated by Congress. It had been exercised by every President from John Adams to Richard Nixon and had proved very useful in lowering the deficit. In 1973-4, President Nixon impounded $12 billion in wasteful spending, about 4% of the federal budget. ( To get an idea of the significance today, a similar 4% reduction today would pare Obama's budget by $146 billion!). So what became of impoundment? The Watergate Congress, drunk on its power and thirsty for more spending, passed the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which purported to make the old practice of presidential impoundment illegal and ordered the Executive Branch to spend every dollar that would ever be appropriated for it by Congress in the future. The administration contended that Congress was arrogating to itself a constitutional authority that belonged to the President as head of the Executive Branch under Article II, that is: management and control over all executive branch agencies. However, a lower Federal Court upheld the Congress' position on this matter, and the weak-willed Gerald Ford chose to acquiesce in this lower court ruling rather than appeal to the Supreme Court. Make no mistake about it. The Budget Control and Impoundment Act of 1974 is unconstitutional. It violates the Separation of Powers doctrine. And such acquiescence is a luxury our country can no longer afford.

As a consequence of the Budget Control and Impoundment Act, since the 1970s, deficits have exploded. (The $29 billion dollar deficit of 1974 has been replaced with three consecutive trillion dollar deficits, the latest $1.65 trillion, and the national debt of $14.2 trillion is 30 times larger than it was in 1974!) Under Article II of the Constitution, the President as head of the executive branch of the government and has the sole constitutional authority to manage nearly every federal agency (since all agencies except the relatively small legislative and the judicial branches are within the Executive Branch). Similarly, Article I gives the Congress the power to appropriate funds to manage government agencies, but Congress is nowhere empowered to order that those funds be spent, if the CEO (that is, the President) deems them unnecessary to run the government.

The Budget Control and Impoundment Act is akin to a scenario where, under a corporate charter, the Shareholders hire a CEO to run a company and a Board of Directors tries to micromanage his stewardship requiring him to spend money on every department in exactly the proportions they say (and contrary to the Corporate charter). If a CEO can run a department of the corporation efficiently for $10 million, does it make sense to have the Board telling him that he must spend $100 million? Such a corporation will shortly find itself exactly where the United States finds itself--on the precipice of bankruptcy. Such a scenario is not only fiscally irresponsible and nonsensical, but in a Republic such as ours where each branch of government has enumerated powers, it is unconstitutional as well.

To win in 2012, Governor Palin will have to run against Obama and his enablers within the GOP Congress. Impoundment is a tool which she alone, as the Chief Executive of the United States, could employ UNILATERALLY to save the taxpayers' money and to stiff the big spenders in Congress. She should pledge to challenge the Budget Control and Impoundment Act in the Courts and to seek its repeal in Congress. To make her case effectively, and to BE effective as President, she needs to use all the arrows in her quiver, not merely the veto, but any constitutional method available. Impoundment is such a method. Impoundment is a nightstick with which to beat the irresponsible Congress over the head and to educate the American people on proper, and fiscally responsible, Constitutional governance as well.

[3boysdad]

My bad. See what happens when you “assume” things?! But hey, I got my whacks in on McLame, and that’s not all that bad!

[9YearLurker]

So do I. I was mighty disappointed to hear he was already considering a presidential run for himself, however.

[Emperor Palpatine]

Go ahead and take all the swings against that RINO asshat Juan McQueeg you want to. I won’t get in the way, hehehe.

[3boysdad]

I offen wonder just exactly how he got out of the Hanoi Hilton while so many did not.

[Wuli]

The error that the House GOP leadership is committing is they are narrowing down their own proposals in expectation of their more desired proposals NOT making it past a Dim dominated Senate.

They are offering something less than they would prefer in the hopes of getting it passed in the Senate.

The Dims do not and will not work that way.

They will try to weaken any proposal the House GOP makes.

Therefore, the only bargaining tool the GOP House Leadership has is to try to get as much as they really want and then in the final House-Senate joint committee they can play their top hand and either get some concessions from the Dims or a stalemate.

Looking to craft something more passable by the Dims and hoping to preserve enough of what you want in the final package is a waste of time. You have to go in hard and you know damn well that is how the Dims do it. Give nothing until something must be given to break a stalemate, and then chose wisely that which you will give.

[rintense]

I warned many here that Boehner was squishy. And the sad sacks put him in charge instead of better, stronger conservatives like Bachmann.

[ASA Vet]

Sarah Louise Palin

Born February 11, 1964 in Sandpoint, ID (Meets the Jus Soli Requirement)

Parents were
Charles R Heath, born in ID
Sarah Sheeran, born in WI

Both parents were US Citizens at the time of her birth (Meets the Jus Sanguinis Requirement)

Sarah Palin is a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN unlike Comrade Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama..

[ASA Vet]

Herman Cain

born December 13, 1945 in GA (Meets the Jus Soli Requirement)

Parents were
Luther Cain Jr., born March 16, 1925 in TN, died March 29, 1982 in Atlanta, GA
Lenora Davis, born July 27, 1925 in GA, died August 20, 2005 in Atlanta, GA

Both parents were US Citizens at the time of his birth (Meets the Jus Sanguinis Requirement)

Herman Cain is a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN unlike Comrade Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

BC PING!!!

[imfrmdixie]

Those of us who were around “in those days” when the POWs were released remember that John McCain was not viewed as a hero but as a traitor. He was not revered as he has become over the years. His own father and grandfather turned their backs on him. His own mother said during the election “just hold your nose and vote for him”. No small wonder he went back and became involved in getting the US to do business with Vietnam and no small wonder he often sits near John Kerry in Congress. He has managed to create his own reputation thanks to his second wife’s mega bucks and the stupidity of the some American people....a bit like what is going on in the White House now. History is changed too much, too often and too dishonest.

[MountainDad]

Thank you for the interesting essay!

(Sorry you have to take crap from the usual PDS'ers.)

[editor-surveyor]

If you’ve read all of Palin’s postings and articles, it is obvious that she has avoided declaring war on the GOP leadership, so that she’ll have solid credibility to do so during the campaign and in her tenure in office.

The GOP insiders know what is coming just from what she accomplished in Alaska, and they are mobilized by fear in their attack on her.

I predict that there’ll be just as many Rs go to jail as Ds under her admin.

[editor-surveyor]

Nitrous Oxide?

[3boysdad]

Amen and indeed. We are a nation distracted by lies and distortions of reality. It is very difficult to know where the truth lies anymore... if there is any at all.

[dforest]

Whatever works. I might need some before going to the polls next election.

[imfrmdixie]

The only truth I know is what my own morality, ethics and American pride allows. If I am told that it is okay to do such and such because of so and so and it goes against what I, myself, believe to be honest, just and moral then I can’t accept that as truth.

You are so correct...finding out the truth is almost impossible because the liars and the naysayers have taken over and are putting out their slanted thoughts as the “new truth”. History books are re-written...novels written years and years ago are made to be politically correct based on current trends....religion is taught to be erroneous....the words of one man...Darwin....are accepted as truth versus the century old words of the Bible. Our young people are brainwashed. I become despondent over what is happening but I can’t quit, at least, trying to see that my beloved country is protected and brought back to her glory days. I will join the fight to take her back as long as my God gives me breath, sense and the ability to type.

[Tucker39]

I STILL believe the little weasel-faced RINO made SOME KIND of deal with the Cong. Where there’s smoke there’s fire!

[bgill]

would stiffen the spines of the John Boehner, Eric Cantor and the GOP leaders in Congress.

They'd have to find a spine first.

[grey_whiskers]

I STILL believe the little weasel-faced RINO made SOME KIND of deal with the Cong. Where there’s smoke there’s fire!

I've read stories suggesting that Kerry and McCain worked together to make sure POWs from VietNam NEVER returned.

Not sure of the reliability: but we know Kerry "Genghis Khan" "Unfit For Command" hated our troops, and McCain admitted during the GOP convention where he accepted the nomination that "they broke me".

NO cheers, unfortunately.

[flat]

The GOP insiders know what is coming just from WHAT SHE ACCOMPLISHED IN ALASKA, and they are mobilized by fear in their attack on her.

WHAT SHE ACCOMPLISHED IN ALASKA? WHAT SHE ACCOMPLISHED IN ALASKA?

What DID SARAH accomplish in ALASKA?

EDIT/SURV...you alone are the ONLY FREEPER who brings this FASCINATING TOPIC UP...

ALAKAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS INDEED...

GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN...

THE HISTORY OF AN ALASKAN HERO:

SARAH PALIN is THE MOST BELOVED GOV. IN ALASKAN HISTORY SHE ACHIEVED A 90% APPROVAL RATING..THE HIGHEST OF ANY PUBLIC OFFICIAL

IN THE U.SA. ....WHY? SHE STARTED HER PUBLIC SERVICE CAREER AS A LOCAL PTA BOARD MEMBER....SARAH WAS DISGUSTED AT THE RUN DOWN SCHOOLS

HER KIDS HAD TO ATTEND IN LIGHT OF THE PRESENCE OF ALASKAN OIL RICHES. THEREFORE SHE HAD THE GUMPTION TO CAMPAIGN DOOR TO DOOR

WINNING A PTA SEAT....THEN SHE RAN DOOR TO DOOR AND WON THE POST OF MAYOR OF WASILLA, ALASKA. AFTER THAT THE PEOPLE OF ALASKA

KNEW OF HER PROWESS AND THEREFORE ELECTED HER GOVERNOR OF the largest state in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. AS GOVERNOR .... HER ACCOMPLISHMENTS ARE LEGION...

1. SARAH BROUGHT THE GIANT OIL COMPANYS OPERATING IN ALASKA TO HEEL .....FORCING THEM UNDER AN ENLGHTENED WEALTH SHARING PLAN TO SHARE THE STATE'S OIL RICHES. SARAH INITIATED A BLUEPRINT CALLED 'ACES' ..Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share" (ACES). Under her aegis; MILLIONS of DOLLARS WERE THEN PAID OUT IN OIL TAXES TO ALASKAN CITIZENS...MONIES WHICH WERE THEN USED FOR POWER, LIGHT, SEWERS AND THOUSANDS OF ALASKAN INFRASTRUCTUAL IMPROVEMENTS. PROJECTS WHICH VASTLY IMPROVED THE LIVES OF COUNTLESS AND THE POOREST OF ALASKANS; FOLKS WHO BEFORE HER, NEVER EVEN HAD ELECTRIC POWER; ONLY OIL LANTERNS.

2. SARAH BROUGHT CORRUPT LEGISLATORS IN BOTH THE DEMOCRAT AND REPUBLICAN PARTIES TO HEEL; SUCCESFULLY PROSECUTING AND JAILING CORRUPT REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS ALIKE.

3. SARAH SOLD THE GOV'S PLANE AND FIRED THE COOK IN THE GOV'S RESIDENCE .....PROVIDING HER OWN TRANSPORTATION AND FIXING HER OWN FAMILY MEALS. A LADY NO FRIEND TO OUTLANDISH SPENDING. SHE TURNED THE PROCEEDS OVER TO THE PEOPLES PURSE.

SARAH....TRULY THE 'REAL DEAL' BELOVED AND ACCOMPLISHED GOVERNOR OF THE LARGEST STATE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

What we need is gravitas.....

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