Democrats and their allies among the elitists of the Republican Party in Congress are playing a game of "I dare you" when it comes to budget negotiations. Rank and file conservatives in the House are determined to defund Obamacare as a condition of approving the Democrats' request for yet another mind-blowing increase in the national debt ceiling. But Democrats in Congress and Barack Obama threaten to resurrect their tried and tested scheme to keep Republicans in line.
Obama flatly stated that he would no longer negotiate with Congressional Republicans on the budget or the debt ceiling. And Democrats in the Senate threaten that if House Republicans send them a budget that provides no funds for Obamacare, they will send the bill right back to the House, meaning that if conservatives persist in defunding the healthcare trainwreck, Democrats in the Senate will refuse to pass a budget at all, and thus, a shutdown of the government will ensue.
House Republicans under Speaker John Boehner have until now cowered in the face of such a threat, which has led to numerous increases in the debt ceiling and the growing rage of voters back home who are adamant that their elected representatives be willing to shut down the government in order to stop the out of control government spending that has characterized this government since the Democrats took over the Congress in 2006 and Obama took the White House in 2008.
This time, however, the threats have been unusually vitriolic, and the anger palpable. One example is an article I wrote for Examiner in which I threatened that if Republicans in Congress do not defund Obamacare they will become targets for defeat in the 2014 midterm elections. Apparently the Senators and Congressmen heard the same thing from the voters back home. This time it is either defund Obamacare, be willing to shut down the government if necessary, or else.
Apparently at least one Republican leader got the message loud and clear. Boehner gave a news conference this week in which he stated that he would support House Republicans in their determination to provide no funds for Obamacare. This he has been unwilling to do until now.
So what if the Democrats follow through on their threats to shut down the government over it? Let them do it. Shut it down! The nation will be much better off as a result. The amount of taxpayers' money that will be saved will be enormous, which in itself will make at least a small dent in the mountain of debt we carry.
And essential government services will stay open for business, such as the military, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Treasury, and other such departments, although many of these departments will operate with a skeleton crew of only those workers that are absolutely essential.
Republican elitist angst over the prospects of a shut down is way overblown and exaggerated. The common ploy is to point to the Newt Gingrich-Bill Clinton showdown of 1990s. In spite of Clinton's election to the White House, Republicans took Congress. And Gingrich insisted that government spending be cut. Clinton balked. A shutdown ensued. The mainstream media, of course, along with their propagandist political commentators, claim that Gingrich lost that skirmish and Clinton came out smelling like a rose. But the facts place that revisionism in dispute.
Bill Clinton was forced to live under Republican leadership in Congress, and thus, he had to adjust his spending plans accordingly. It was Clinton, after all, who went before Congress and exclaimed that "the era of big government is over," but only after the voters made it clear they did not support his big spending plans, one of which was a early version of Obamacare called "Hillarycare."
Because of Gingrich's willingness to go to the wall, put his reputation on the line, and shut down the government, Congress afterward put into place a spending plan that balanced the budget for the first time in many decades. No, it was not Clinton who was responsible for this but a Republican Congress.
If the current Republican leadership grows some cojones and is willing to stand up and be a man like Gingrich, the nation will go a long way toward getting us out of the current economic trainwreck. The mainstream media will tar and feather Republicans, particularly the conservatives who insist upon Obamacare defunding, such as Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee. There will be nightly news reports on how the nation is on the brink of unmitigated disaster, and many voters will not only listen to this propaganda but believe it.
But many will see right through it. The Republicans must speak to these citizens who actually think for themselves and not those who live in a dreamworld of myths created by demagogues who use the poor suckers for their own personal gain.
SPECIAL NOTICE! BRAND NEW!!
My brand new entry is now posted on my blog in the popular series, Musings After Midnight, titled, "The Stealth War."
My series "Musings After Midnight" is now indexed at my blog, The Liberty Sphere.
You may also wish to visit my ministry site at Martin Christian Ministries.
