A House Divided

If there is anything that has been lost in the debt ceiling debate, the phrase “elections have consequences” might top the list. Due to the latest negotiations, there has been a “Boehner must go!” revolt brewing among Tea Party activists. Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips accuses the House Speaker of “surrendering again” for abandoning last week’s Cut, Cap and Balance plan in favor of new legislation aimed at slashing $900 billion over ten years in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. The backlash resulted in a highly anticipated House vote on the Boehner plan being postponed late Thursday night pending more back-room wrangling. Tea Partiers have every right to be angry, but it is an anger which must be measured against reality: liberal Democrats control the Senate and the presidency. Despite the 2010 election, it’s still two against one.

Toss in a mainstream media which has referred to Tea Partiers as “domestic extremists,” a “Hezbollah faction” taking the G.O.P. on “a suicide mission,”and “male elephants…oozing a weird, foul-smelling, greenish glop from glands near their eyes, behav[ing] with violent abandon, taking risks and defying the basic rules of pachyderm propriety” and it becomes three against one.

That such descriptions are hyperbolic and inaccurate, to say nothing of an utterly hypocritical abandonment of the Left’s professed desire to “tone down the rhetoric” following the shooting of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, is without question. Are they effective? The Republican-led House has passed two plans and was negotiating a third late Thursday. The Democratically-controlled Senate killed the Ryan Plan, tabled Cut, Cap and Balance rather than pass or defeat it, and labeled Mr. Boehner’s latest effort DOA, with 53 Democratic senators pledging to vote against it. The White House has promised a veto. Senate Democrats have proposed a plan of their own, but have passed nothing.

So who takes the hit if debt ceiling talks fail? According to the latest Pew Research Center/Washington Post poll, Republicans more than the Obama administration, by a 42 to 33 percent margin.

Tea Partiers undoubtedly consider the poll results a triumph of a biased mainstream media, which has simultaneously highlighted Republican “extremism,” while it has underplayed equal, if not greater amounts of Democratic intransigence. Intransigence exemplified by the Democrats’ failure to pass a budget when they controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency, the Senate’s failure to pass a budget in over 800 days, and the president’s failure to garner a single vote on the only budget he’s ever presented.

Do the Tea Partiers have a legitimate beef? The answer is irrelevant. The media doesn’t vote on the debt ceiling, and Tea Partiers are quick to forget they were just as hostile prior to the 2010 election, in which Tea Partiers were enormously successful. Conservative economist Thomas Sowell explains what’s important: “Is the Boehner legislation the best legislation possible? Of course not! You don’t get your heart’s desire when you control only one house of Congress and face a presidential veto,” he writes. “The most basic fact of life is that we can make our choices only among the alternatives actually available. It is not idealism to ignore the limits of one’s power. Nor is it selling out one’s principles to recognize those limits at a given time and place, and get the best deal possible under those conditions.”

Sowell then illuminates the big picture. “There are a lot of things to weigh against each other, not only as regards the economy, but also what the consequences to this nation would be to have Barack Obama get re-elected and go further down the dangerous path he has put us on, at home and abroad. Is it worth that risk to make a futile symbolic vote in Congress?” he asks.

The answer is no. And despite Democratic huffing and puffing about how Boehner’s current bill won’t pass the Senate (or if does, get vetoed by the president), threatening to do something and doing it are two different animals. As the Wall Street Journal points out, there are two “next-to-last realistic options” to deal with the debt ceiling: the plan proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Mr. Boehner’s plan. And if Reid can’t get the 60 votes necessary to move his plan along in the Senate, then the House plan is the only game in town.

Boehner, who reportedly told recalcitrant Republicans to “get their asses in line,” corralled members of his party for the procedural vote necessary to move the bill along. That vote was 238-186, and set the stage for the final passage of the bill later Thursday evening.

Unsurprisingly, Democrats did everything they could to undermine Republican efforts. House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi offered the most hyperbolic quote of the day. ”What we’re trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget. We’re trying to save life on this planet as we know it today,” she said. White House press secretary Jay Carney called the Republican plan ”incredibly juvenile,” and claimed the GOP was ”trying to stick the president with default.” White House deputy spokesman Dan Pfeiffer essentially accused the Republicans of trying to ruin Christmas. “Happy Holidays America: the Boehner plan would have the debt ceiling all over again during the holiday season, which is critical for the economy,” he warned.

And president Obama himself, in yet another attempt to frighten a particular constituency that depends on government checks, met with veterans groups on Tuesday to “discuss” what would happen if Congress fails to reach a consensus. “If that happens, and we default, we would not have enough money to pay all of our bills–bills that include monthly Social Security checks, veterans’ benefits, and the government contracts we’ve signed with thousands of businesses,” he warned.

Thursday morning, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor countered with a little pressure of his own. “This is a compromise piece of legislation that was negotiated between the Speaker and bipartisan leadership in the Senate, and so Harry Reid’s got a choice to make,” Cantor said. “Either he will go ahead and accept a compromise or he’s going to bring on default, something I hope he doesn’t do.” Reid was undaunted. “As soon as the House completes its vote, the Senate will move to take up that bill and it will be defeated tonight,” he said.

Tonight never came. Apparently unable to muster sufficient votes for passage, House leadership postponed their vote late Thursday evening.

In one respect, that may have been a good thing. By attempting to pass yet another bill on top of Cut, Cap and Balance, absent anything concrete counter-offered by the Senate, the House was, for all intents and purposes, negotiating against itself. While that may be noble, it is also counter-productive. The Democrats’ chief advantage in this showdown has been the fact that neither the Democratically-controlled Senate nor the president have revealed any specific plans of their own. Whatever Republicans send to the Senate will likely die, or be “reconciled” beyond recognition and sent back to the House, who would be blamed for failing to pass it. It might be a better idea to demand that Democrats offer their own plan, even as Republicans remind Americans that they have already passed two plans, both of which have been rejected out of hand.

This is probably the best the Republicans can do. Why? Because a Democratic Party in control of the Senate and the White House can wait for the last minute before offering Republicans a take-it-or-we’ll-default ultimatum, confident the mainstream media will characterize Mr. Obama and Mr. Reid, et al., as the “responsible” characters in this ongoing drama. Cynical? Yes. Doable? Absolutely.

Whatever the ultimate outcome, one thing is likely: Tea Partiers will be disappointed for not getting enough of what they wanted. Yet if they are truly concerned about the future of the country, they must remember that unconscionable levels of deficit spending and 14 trillion dollars of national debt didn’t happen all at once, nor will they be fixed all at once. They must also realize what they’ve achieved: in spite of the reality that Democrats have had majority control of the government since 2006, a paradigm shift away from their worldview is occurring. When the American Left is forced to negotiate anything in terms of deficit reduction, that is a great start.

But it is only a start. The big picture must be the defeat of Barack Obama in 2012, and the return of the Senate to Republican control. Pillorying John Boehner and members of the House who support the best deal they can get in aminority capacity is a waste of time and energy. Time and energy better spent rallying Americans to the cause of fiscal sanity and greater freedom in 2012.

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

What pundits and the media have failed to recognize...up to this point...is that there is a sea-change in how the American people view government. The ideological labels are now passe; all politicians are now seen by an increasing number of citizens as "governmentalist s"...people who see government as an appropriate authority and vehicle for solving problems and to which individual freedom and responsibility must bow.

More and more people want to get "governmentalists" out of office and confine government activity to national defense, giving individuals once again both the power and the responsibility to care for themselves. That is what make America great, and it can have that effect once more.

We need to vote down the Reid plan at least once just to show that two sides can play this “dead on arrival” game. If we don’t we will look like nothing that comes out of the House truly matters and is ceding all power to the Senate.

Quote from Thomas Sowell does it for me!

Conservative economist Thomas Sowell explains what’s important: “Is the Boehner legislation the best legislation possible? Of course not! You don’t get your heart’s desire when you control only one house of Congress and face a presidential veto,” he writes. “The most basic fact of life is that we can make our choices only among the alternatives actually available. It is not idealism to ignore the limits of one’s power. Nor is it selling out one’s principles to recognize those limits at a given time and place, and get the best deal possible under those conditions.”

The thing is that Obama, Reid, Pelosi and the other Dems have not forgotten the last election. It is they who are doing the "pay back." The Dems are holding the American public hostage for electing the Tea Party supported candidates. They have no concern about the real problem, all they want to do is punish the voters who elected all those Republicans. The Democrats have been sour since they lost.

They are being vindictive on purpose and holding out, clouding up the issue, lying, and..in Obama's case, being noncommittal and "like jello" when it comes to taking a leadership position. They are also playing the blame game in retaliation, and so far they are succeeding. With the help of all the liberal media, the Republicans are the ones who are taking the fall in the eyes of citizens who are not willing to listen to anyone but the talking heads on MSNBCCNNCBSNBCPBS who, of course, are in bed with the hateful, vengeful Democrats.

We have another deception ... the democrats will say anything and do anything to get their way ... which is total control, socialism, communism, tyranny ... Ala Castro, Chavez.

Many Americans deny this, either out of unwillingness to face facts or simply they are buying the media's take on things.

God help us in America today and on going to be restored to our former faith and common sense. Turn evil away from our leaders and show them the way to go, the path to walk and how to know thee, LORD, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us, in Jesus name amen.

I say “NO MORE DEBT CEILING INCREASES”

Deal with the money you get… roll up your sleeves and start working in making the cuts necessary to get our fiscal matters in order.

If more debt is added it only makes matters worse down the road. If TARP had been shot down and let capitalism run its course, we’d be miles ahead by now.

Boehner is either a total incompetent or a big, intrusive, government RINO. Either way he has to be replaced as Speaker.

We need a competent conservative with guts in that position. Besides, replacing Boehner with a conservative will send a message to the rest of the RINOs that they can’t pull on Super Man’s cape and they can’t screw the conservatives.

We also need to defeat the Reid bill and if the Boehner bill comes back to the House modified, we need to defeat it too. The Boehner bill is as much as we will give up to the liberals.

The Democrats are in vindication mode but as the polling is indicating this will shift soon to the more dangerous desperation mode. As we now should know, the left will do anything to hold on to power up to and including destroying the host. Beware of a Burn the Reichstag incident in the near future.

I’d like to ask why we bother having a conservative media if all they do is worry about the liberal media blaming Republicans. The conservative media thinks that there is no surer thing in this world, than Obama being re-elected if the Republicans getting blamed for a govt. shutdown.

You can’t succeed with this kind of fear. It comes down to the idea that we must give up or be defeated.

Why shouldn't Boehner compromise when he knows Reid won't pass anything he sends them? By compromising under those circumstances he's got the perfect cover down the road when he says that attitudes have hardened on the House due to Reid ignoring the rightful role of the House as the body to originate all money bills.

The final bill the House sends the Senate and that the Senate passes will be almost identical to the original CCB that the House sent over but with a smaller debt ceiling increase and no arrangement on how it will increase further. Boehner will defer all but a minor debt ceiling increase and will address it again as part of the annual Budget. He'll also make an issue of the debt ceiling being handled any other way which grants multi-year borrowing authority to the Executive Branch apart from the budget. Making the debt ceiling a part of the annual budget process and the Balanced Budget Amendment are the real goals because they're the real process changers.

JMHO

Dimocrats and the media saying Repubs will be “blamed by the people” is, of course, the exact opposite of what is true, and what Dims fear.

If checks stop going out right now, it will be on the President’s watch. He will have many months of struggling to get by on $2 trillion per year, or stick his neck way out on the impeachment block by simpy having the Executive branch defy the debt limit set by Congress. Voters will remember that the mad scramble for money happened on the current occupant’s watch.

If checks keep going out because the Dims got a credit extension from House Repubs to keep going until 2012 - this very same debt blowup will happen - to the next President. If a Repub is in office - THEN it will be blamed on Repubs.

You can’t succeed with this kind of fear. It comes down to the idea that we must give up or be defeated.

You are so correct. We need to stick to our guns and stand firm. Pipe dream of course but that is what is needed. Tough with the type of cheer leading we have been getting as you have pointed out.

Democrats, other leftist travelers and Republicrat RINOs are purely unadulterated liars.

The Democrats are really socialists (albeit many are communists) who get their reading matter and guidance from a variety of aources: Mao’s Red Book, Lenin and Marx’s scribblings, the advice of NAMBLA and various and sundry other sources where they have to go into the sewers of Chicago to obtain.

We are going in the wrong direction. We MUST turn around and go back the way we have come and eliminate the mistakes of recent years. We MUST! Or we can forget about America being the nation of the last 100 years. It will be lost.

God help us in our day, restore America to her former faith in thee LORD! Thank thee LORD for thy many blessings. Thou are almighty, thy are good, we love thee and praise thee, in Jesus name we pray. amen.

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