“...I understand what you’re saying; however, I’d be a lot more well-disposed to letting the lemmings rush to the river if they didn’t insist on taking me with them...”
May I suggest that conservatives are just as much lemmings as the Sheeple who keep voting for more goodies that someone else (or some future generation) will pay for. Let us admit the truth: there is no appetite for spending cuts among voters. And why should there be? They aren’t paying for the services they receive now and some demogogic politician is saying that Daddy Warbucks will pay for them if only the mean Republicans will stop defending him.
A substantial majority of voters believe this to be true. Under these circumstances, what can Boehner do?
If conservatives refuse to raise meaningful revenues, the deficits will metastasize and the economy will collapse when Treasury is no longer able to service the debt at reasonable interest rates. We will be partially at fault, having clung to a moribund principle (LOW TAXES ARE ALWAYS GOOD!) when the conditions by which that principle can be actualized were long dead and buried.
Boehner has two choices. One, he can negotiate the best tax and spending deal that the demogogue will accept, or two, he can walk away from the table and let the government go over the cliff.
Boehner has chosen the first option as the least destructive. I can’t blame him; it’s probably the prudent thing to do.
I do not understand why so many on this board do blame Boeher, calling him everything from a traitor to a drunk while offering no reasonable alternative strategy, just a great deal of whinging about the unfairness of it all. Note to Freepers: WE LOST THE ELECTION!
I recommend that we go over the cliff. It will be painful and we will go into a recession. But the recession will end and we will be fiscally stronger when it does. At that time, conservatives can revive the argument that we need both lower taxes and fiscal balance to achieve long-term prosperity, a combination that is intirely predicated on spending restraint and entitlement reform. I think we will have a sympathetic audience.
Now we do not. It is foolish to claim otherwise and blame those on our side who live in a reality-based universe and must operate within it. Time to move on.
No we won the House of Representatives and now we want to show our power. Boehner is a big baby. We want him removed and we want no debt ceiling increase. We want no revenue increase. If we go over the cliff— fine. at least we stood our ground. All the representatives we elected promised spending cuts and no revenue increases and that is what we want now that we WON .