OK, I Don't Like It Either, But…

I’ve gone back and forth on the debt/deficit/disaster debate. It wasn’t going to pretty no matter what. I thought what might work would be forcing the issue by saying “NO” to any new ceiling and quoting then Senator Barack Obama in 2006 when voting not to raise the debt limit ceiling “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure… Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally…Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” Wow…kind of sounds like those Tea Party terrorists. Who knew they and the President had so much in common? But I digress.
So, the deal is done. Everyone complains. One thing I strongly disagree with is the way the unConstituional Super Committee will take cuts depending on “triggers”: 50% from social programs, 50% from defense. Now, as defense is first of all a Constitutional requirement and is only 20% of the budget, the cuts should be proportional-80% from social, 20% from defense. But here is the crux, and I agree with Jason Lewis on a number of points:
1. We didn’t get here overnight. We didn’t get here in a decade. This day has been coming for at least 70+ years (FDR) and the case can be made that it started under Wilson with the 16th, 17th Amendments (tax and direct election of Senators) and the Federal Reserve. Perhaps even back to Teddy Roosevelt as he plowed the ground Wilson planted in. We won’t stop this in a week, month or year.
2. The Tea Party is part of a caucus of one of two parties in one house of one branch of a three branches of our republic (not a democracy). The Democrats are in control of the other part (the Senate) and in control of the White House. We were not going to get what we wanted. Period!! Charles Krauthammer has an excellent article on the debate, its meaning and also gives us conservatives a warning. We are at the midway point in the great debate regarding how the United States will look with Barack Obama as President. From a “Hope and Change” and stopping the oceans from raising and healing the nations souls we now have a President who cringed and whose overreaching in complicity with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid elicited a Tea Party sponsored takeover of the House of Representatives and shaved off a few Senate seats in the bargain. But, the conservatives are still in control of one half of one house of one of three branches. Krauthammer’s salient point is “Given this reality, trying to force the issue — trying to turn a blocking minority into a governing authority — is not just counter-constitutional in spirit but self-destructive in practice.“
3.Given Kraut♦hammer’s statement and the Tea Party victory in the 2010 election should give us real impetus to take back the Senate and the White House in 2012. THAT is the key battle. It also lends and points to a very, VERY important fact regarding the 3rd branch, the Supreme Court of the United States. With Justice Ginsburg in ill health, Justice Kennedy rumored to be considering retirement, and the possibility of Scalia and maybe even Thomas looking at leaving the bench, winning the White House (as the constitutional appointing authority) and the Senate (the constitutional approving authority) is nothing short of absolutely imperative. With winning the White House and Senate we can began the rollback and recapture of the real America. My concern is that conservatives and Tea Party members will take their ball and go home, leaving us with a possible re-run of 2008. Should that happen, we will most certainly be doomed.
So, Tea Party people, as Krauthammer said this is making sausage, and we are not happy with the deal, it is a victory.
As Churchill said “This is not the end. It is not the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning.”
It takes miles to stop a train or an aircraft carrier before you can turn it around.
We need to focus on the fact that like that train or aircraft carrier, we have started the slowdown.
It will take time to turn around.