“That’s quite a lot of liberal propaganda there. Nobody was adversely affected by the last “shutdown”, and it’s in the Constitution that the House possesses the “power of the purse”—unless you don’t like the Constitution.”
I have no idea what propaganda you’re referring to. I said nothing about anyone being adversely affected by the government shutdown.
My point was that given the current makeup of our government makeup, “power of the purse” = “government shutdown”.
In order for you successfully effectuate “the power of the purse” you would need to do the following:
1. Accept the eventual shutdown of the government, which the democrats would do in a heartbeat
2. Embark in an articulate, passionate and convincing enough PR campaign to convince the majority of the people and the media that:
a) it is the democrats who are responsible for the shutdown (which they are) and
b) that cutting the expenditures that you’re cutting (i.e., “exercising the power of the purse”) is in the best interest of the country.
If you’re successful in doing 2, it would force the democrats to back down and you would then have been successful in exercising the “power of the purse”
Do you think you could do that? Do you know anyone in the GOP who could pull that off? And if they fail, what are the consequences?
Many people here think that “the power of the purse” means all the house has to do is cut or not fund a particular program and it’s done. But it’s not that simple - the Senate and the president have to go along - if they don’t they can shut down the government and then you have to deal with that. As things stand today, the republicans will get the blame from the american people whose majority today is composed of liberals and ignoramuses. Unless you can effectively counter that, you’re playing a loser’s game.
If you think this analysis is flawed, let me know where.
“unless you don’t like the Constitution”
I like the constitution a lot, but it carries little weight when many of the leading politicians and the majority of the people are either ignorant of it or don’t like it - which seems to be the case today.
There were no “consequences” from the last “shutdown”. It was all a bunch of overhyped media propaganda. Not even worth a second thought especially for actual conservatives.
The GOP establishment are all liberals. That was even proven back when Reagan first challenged Ford.