Whither the OPPOSITION party?
We’ve got a president operating well outside the boundaries of The Constitution — arbitrarily making changes to laws passed by the legislative branch. If a Republican president had tried something similar, the howler monkeys on the left side of the aisle would be offering up off-the-chart decibel readings. But the Republicans, the majority in the House and the opposition in the Senate, don’t have a whole lot to say about it. They SHOULD be dragging him into court.
Time and again, BarryO and his team have offered up stopgap spending measures and debt ceiling increases. The alleged conservative opposition party — instead of fighting – tells us they are holding their powder for bigger fights. But that fight never comes. We’ve had House GOP leaders actively fighting efforts to defund ObamaCare. We’ve had the GOP leadership whipping for votes to support even more budget-busting stop-gap spending and debt ceiling increases. The country gets no concessions from the statists. We just get stuck with more debt, and more promises from our alleged conservative party to ”wait ’til next time.” How much longer can we afford to wait?
The latest surrender has come on the eve of yet another debt ceiling increase:
Speaker John Boehner will bring a clean debt ceiling bill to the floor Wednesday, marking the end of an era in which House Republicans sought spending cuts and reforms in equal or greater amount to the increase in the debt ceiling.
President Obama and congressional Democrats had said they were opposed to even discussing spending cuts in the context of the debt ceiling. But Republicans couldn’t even come together with their own plan.
“It’s a recognition that we don’t have 218 votes. When you don’t have 218 votes, you have nothing,” Boehner said in a press conference.[…]
In Europe, when you can’t get votes to support your party’s agenda, you step down from your position. You concede that you failed, and step aside for someone else to give it a try. If these guys are not even going to fight for what they say they believe in, what is the use in voting Republican? Why not just turn the whole gosh-darn thing over to the Democrats?
I like this son of South Carolina’s take on this latest surrender:
[…] After storming out of the GOP’s debt ceiling meeting and pacing furiously 100 yards down a hallway deep the bowels of the Capitol, South Carolina Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan wheeled around to face a couple reporters that had managed to keep up with him.
“Why don’t you talk to my son?” Duncan asked, pointing angrily at his black iPhone. “Tell him about the debt that he’s going to pay. $17.3 trillion right now. This is him on the phone. He’s a Clemson student, I’d be glad for you to explain how he’s going to pay that back,” Duncan added, his voice full of sarcasm.
Duncan was irate about the plan Speaker John Boehner and the House GOP leadership team had just unveiled to raise the debt ceiling. Rather than use the must-pass vote to tackle rampant deficits, Boehner’s plan would actually increase spending now and theoretically “pay for” the new spending with more sequester cuts five election cycles from now.[…]
What we need are some genuine leaders in the GOP leadership positions in both the House and Senate. I do not think there is a complete set of vertebrae among the GOP leadership of either house. We need people who will strongly advocate for our message and actually stand up legislatively for our positions, and be strong advocates of our positions in the media. We need people more like Newt GIngrich and less like Bob Dole. What we have now is a pack of surrender monkeys that make our party look foolish. Even worse, they try to fight and destroy those in our party who do want to take on the Democrats. Our ”leaders” are more interested in fighting conservatives within the party than they are in fighting Democrats.
That has got to change, and the only way forward is to dump our failed existing ”leadership” and put in new people who will do a better job. We need to press our GOP Congressmen and Senators to work for a total leadership change in Washington.
On a more immediate horizon is the Debt Ceiling Increase bill. Any Republican who votes for that should have it come back to haunt him / her in their primary. Same with any who support any form of amnesty for illegal aliens.
Here is the specific vote to watch on the debt ceiling bill – the vote on the so-called rule that puts it on the floor, NOT the final vote on increasing the debt limit. The final vote is a throw away vote, since most Democrats will support it then. Democrats, however, typically vote in lockstep against the rule that puts a specific bill on the floor. Thus about 20 or so conservatives could probably stop the bill dead in its tracks at that point.
http://www.redstate.com/2014/02/11/keeping-track-of-the-rule/
A Congresscritter who votes for the rule that puts the debt ceiling bill on the floor but then votes against it in the final vote is jerking your chain and trying to pull the wool over your eyes. They are voting for it (on the vote that could stop it) before they vote against it (on the vote that is just for show).
Procedural votes these days are often the most important votes.
Call your GOP congressman and tell him you will be watching his vote ON THE RULE and you realize that the final vote on the bill is just for show.
The Washington DC GOP establishment is as bad as the Democrats. They can’t be trusted on anything and will sell us out in a heartbeat. Defeat them all!
What we need is a citizens’ vote of #NoConfidence in the President and his Administration, a unofficial demonstration that we are going to carry that #NoConfidence into the primaries (RINOs beware!), and then validate it by taking both the House and the Senate in the midterms, and then straight into a full-fledged impeachment and conviction for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ in 2015. The Rose Garden Perp Walk will be something to behold, and a warning to other would-be tyrants. Stand by, #NoConfidence is coming …
After all the evidence we continue to receive from the GOP establishment “leadership”…. it’s past time people are surprised or upset when they act in support of big government and ignore anything remotely resembling the ideals of smaller, limited government.
Those are not principles they hold. They are not interested in such things. The nature of that particular beast is evident and clearly on display. It’s not like they’re really trying to hide their stripes.
They support big, growing government. Voting for them because they happen to have an (R) next to their name instead of a (D) is more and more just an exercise in self-delusion and rationalization. Doing that has simply enabled them to feel they can act as they wish, and serve the masters they wish, without consequence – because apparently, they can.
On a local level… anyone unsure about which side of the GOP table Tillis would be sitting at if he were in office? lol
I will say, though… I dont think the debt limit vote is when discussion about spending limits should take place. My understanding of “the debt limit” is that it’s simply paying for bills Congress has already rung up. If they were serious about addressing spending and debt, we’d see them with actual alternative proposals to move us out of these situations.
““It’s a recognition that we don’t have 218 votes. When you don’t have 218 votes, you have nothing,” Boehner said in a press conference.[…]”
I’m a firm believer that one can only really control one’s own actions. You dont “have” to “do” things when you dont have the votes…I get that. But you also dont have to actively aid and participate in reckless, unprincipled behavior either. They dont have a coherent alternative for moving and remaining below any debt limit levels.
So, for that and other reasons (some given here), I agree… these clowns arent much of an “opposition” to bigger, badder government. 🙂
To the GOP establishment compromise means exactly the same thing as appeasement.
Would this be a good time to urge conservative republicans to register as independents and promote their beliefs through non-political public policy groups. They have always had to fight GOP leadership. When a majority of NC’s voters are independent, the control and corruption in both parties will subside. Should never given them such monopoly power over our electoral system.