The moment of truth may now have finally arrived for our Republican leadership in Congress. Demands are now being made, by the people, that they had best start behaving like the leaders that they profess themselves to be. It's wasa pas t time for then to start exhibiting a little much needed backbone. The people are now demanding that some level of sanity now be applied to level of nonstop spending that has now been underway for more than 2 years. I know, this is nothing new, the government has been busy spending wildly long before Barry came strutting into town, but he has definitely added significantly to the more recent madness. So it was then that the drive to accomplish some manner of major deficit-reduction deal entered a new phase Thursday when Republican negotiators pulled out of bipartisan talks, leaving it to Barry "Almighty" and House Speaker John Boehner to resolve the toughest issues. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) said he was backing out of the talks for now because the group had reached an impasse over the question of whether tax increases should be included in the deal. No surprise there, Democrats think tax hikes are the solution to everything. The only other Republican in the group, Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.), soon followed suit, agreeing that only the highest levels of leadership could break the logjam between Democrats' demand that the budget deal include tax increases and Republicans' adamant opposition to that demand.
The ongoing talks were supposed be aimed at striking some sort of a budget deal, or force some sort of Republican compromise, in hopes of easing the way for Congress to raise the government's $14.29 trillion debt limit. Treasury Department officials, led by "Little Timmy the Tax Cheat" Geithner, who continues to do his best "Chicken Little" routine, say that without additional borrowing authority all Hell is gonna break loose, and that if there is no agreement by August 2, the government will run out of cash to pay its bills. Well that kind of begs the question why the bills were allowed to get to high in the first place. This supposed whiz kid "Timmy" was one of those nut jobs rabidly supporting the disproven theory that we can spend our way out of our current economic slump. I'd say that's been disproven yet again! Anyway, they continue to warn that defaulting on any U.S. obligations could trigger yet another financial crisis and recession. More scare tactics from this incompetent team of boobs. Haven't we had enough of that? All this administration has done thus far, is to attempt to create one crisis after another all in an effort to pave the way for their mind numbing spending and government expansion. They exhaust all efforts at trying to convince us that the only way out of our current economic predicament is for the government to spend ever more money that we don't have. It's past time to slam on the brakes!
The assembled group doing all this discussing and led by stellar vice President, and the well-known plagiarist, "Slow Joe" Biden, canceled its meeting which had been scheduled for Thursday. The suspension of the group's work could signal the beginning of the final stage of budget negotiations, which most participants had long assumed would be concluded by Barry, Speaker Boehner and "Dingy" Harry Reid. Or it could indicate that the groups' members are unable to proceed in a direction that will actually accomplish the purpose of they're getting together in the first place. I'll leave that to you to decide. But in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Cantor did say that, "We've reached the point where the dynamic needs to change." Adding that, "It is up to the president to come in and talk to the speaker. We've reached the end of this phase." Doesn't sound all that encouraging to me. But, who knows. Congressional and White House officials remained optimistic that higher-level talks could build on the tentative agreements reached by the so-called, "Slow Joe" Biden group. Mr. Cantor said the group had identified more than $2 trillion in spending cuts over the next ten years. However, a Democratic official close to the talks said the total was only about $1.2 trillion. "As all of us at the table said at the outset, the goal of these talks was to report our findings back to our respective leaders,'' old "Slow Joe" said. "The next phase is in the hands of those leaders, who need to determine the scope of an agreement that can tackle the problem and attract bipartisan support. For now the talks are in abeyance as we await that guidance."
Barry and Speaker Boehner had already stepped up their personal contact with each other and I'm sure everyone remembers the much-ballyhooed golf outing last weekend and the little-noticed meeting at the White House on Wednesday night. White House officials confirmed the meeting was held before the president gave his prime-time speech on Afghanistan, but they, of course, declined to say what the two men might have discussed. Mr. Boehner was notified Thursday morning of Mr. Cantor's decision to leave the talks. The speaker said later he understood Mr. Cantor's frustrations, and that he stood willing to engage in talks with the president. "I would expect to hear from him," Mr. Boehner said. Don't hold your breath there, Mr. Speaker. Oh, and Mr. Speaker, let's not decide to take matters into our own hands and agree to readily with whatever it is that Barry proposes. We all know he lies like a rug, and you are there to protect the American people. The recent breakdown should come as no real surprise to anyone who has been paying even the least amount of attention to what has been going on, because from the very beginning, the spendthrift Democrats have insisted that some form of new revenue or tax increases be part of any eventual solution, given the goal of the entire process is reducing the projected growth in the federal deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years. At the same time, however, Republicans have been equally firm in they're rejecting of any tax increases as the primary method of raising any additonal revenue. As has been said any number of time, what we have is not a revenue problem but a spending problem. However, I suppose both sides have some level of political incentive to resist compromise as long as possible in talks that are being very closely watched by their respective political base of voters.
At "Slow Joe's" group's last meeting Wednesday, discussions over whether to include taxes were particularly contentious, Mr. Cantor said. This was unlike most meetings over the past seven weeks, in which "Slow Joe" kept the talks focused on areas of possible agreement on spending cuts, while sidestepping the tax issue. Democrats have been hopeful that Republicans might make some concessions on taxes. In other words they were hoping the Republican would eventually cave regarding the strong opposition on the issue of taxes. In the Senate last week, 33 Republicans did vote to abolish tax subsidies for ethanol manufacturers. But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has been sounding an increasingly strident message of opposition to including any tax increases in any budget deal that might be agreed to. As well he should be. If he doesn't see the writing on the wall, put there by the American people, then he's freakin blind! Because the alarms are now sounding and the appropriate warnings have officially been sent. Hold the line, DO NOT chicken out! ForAmerica, a conservative activist group, has produced a video challenging House Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell not to be “chicken,” and to support the group’s “Cut, Cap, and Balance” pledge – cut the deficit, cap spending, and balance the budget. The pledge would commit signatories to oppose any increase in the congressional debt limit (currently $14.29 trillion) unless substantial cuts in spending are made to reduce the deficit next year. Also, enforceable spending caps must be enacted to put the federal government on a path to a balanced budget, and Congress must pass a constitutional balanced budget amendment that permanently limits federal spending and requires a supermajority to enact tax increases.
The ForAmerica pledge has already been signed by 11 senators, 14 House members, and 16 candidates for federal office, including GOP presidential candidates Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. The video, which the group says will be sent to 1.5 million people via e-mail, begins by noting that “chickens tend to flock together, often following each other without a real sense of direction.” The video then sharply criticizes the House and Senate GOP leadership saying, “Many chickens tend to find their homes in Washington, D.C. But Americans don’t want to be led by chickens. Speaker Boehner, Leader McConnell, all congressional Republicans, conservatives in this country didn’t elect you to chicken out on the debt ceiling.” “This is a fight we can’t give up,” says the video narrator. The video came on the heels of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Boehner’s representative in negotiations to raise the debt ceiling, walking out of debt-limit/budget talks on Thursday after Democrats insisted on tax increases as part of any deal. “Regardless of the progress that has been made, the tax issue must be resolved before discussions can continue,” Cantor said in a statement. I could not agree with Mr. Cantor more. The Democrats are of the opinion that they can just spend, spend and then spend some more and then blackmail the rest of us into covering the cost, claiming that if we don't we're going to be faced with and fiscal Armageddon. Well, duh! Why should we foot the bill for all of the giveaways to those who comprise the Democrat Party's core constituencies. It makes no sense. I refuse to allow scumbag Democrats to hold hostage my daughter's future. And if the Republicans decide to go all weak kneed squishy, then they're finished as a political party. At this point their survivability rests entirely on them. And if they think we're bluffing, then shame on them!
No comments:
Post a Comment