DAYTONA BEACH SHORES -- Last week the Democrat-controlled Senate passed its first budget resolution in four years. Also there is breaking news of a major snow and ice storm which has blocked all the roads in Hell.
But even after the Republicans finally succeeded in shaming, manipulating and browbeating their Democratic Senate colleagues into addressing a budget, what emerged is really only a charade. In truth, both the Democratic Senate budget and the Republican House budget are charades.
Each side knows that, despite the aforementioned blizzard, there is not a snowball’s chance in Hell that either side will accept the other’s proposal or that any compromise can or will be worked out in the House-Senate Conference Committee.
Each side knows that, despite the aforementioned blizzard, there is not a snowball’s chance in Hell that either side will accept the other’s proposal or that any compromise can or will be worked out in the House-Senate Conference Committee.
So after a decent interval, both efforts will be pronounced dead and the United States Government will proceed to spend at levels based on earlier years’ expenditures and without an overall plan, just as it has throughout Obama’s administration.
As is customary, both sides larded up the resolution with hundreds of amendments designed to get other senators to take voting positions on issues they would have preferred to continue to dodge or to enable them to pretend to be supportive on issues which will never be passed into law. For example, this explains the vote to repeal the tax on medical devices in Obamacare.
The GOP wanted the vote to show that elements of the President’s “signature legislative achievement” are harmful and several Dems from Red states wanted the opportunity to be able to claim to their voters that they voted to repeal even though the vote was meaningless.
That begs the question: if the budget resolutions have no effect, why bother passing them? The answer lies in politics.
Looking to the next election, each side is posturing for its base. The House Republican budget balances in ten years, and includes no new taxes, cuts to major entitlements, and the repeal of Obamacare. They know that Obamacare cannot be repealed under current political circumstances, but they also know that virtually all Republicans recognize Obamacare for the cancerous growth that it is and want it cut out of the Body American.
Reductions in Medicare and Medicaid will be less popular, but the GOP has long recognized that the economy cannot be saved from bankruptcy if entitlement growth is not reined in. T
his has been the Republican position for several years, They lose nothing by restating it and they do reassure elements of their base that the Party stands by its principles.
The Democrats, on the other hand, have struggled mightily to avoid going on the record with a budget resolution because, even if it never becomes law, it forces them to define their policies for the country’s fiscal future. This they never would have done before Obama’s re-election and were very reluctant to do even now.
A glance at the Democrat Senate budget resolution reveals why this is so. The Democrats want to impose an additional one trillion dollars in new taxes over the next ten years. The Democrats want to raise the level of US corporate income taxes, already the highest in the world, to that of the income tax.
The Democrats refuse any significant cuts to entitlement programs even though they understand full well that continuing these programs as they are will wreck our economy. The Democrats want to impose even more cuts to our defense budget. The Democrats do not plan to balance the budget - not in 10 years, not ever.
The Democrats refuse any significant cuts to entitlement programs even though they understand full well that continuing these programs as they are will wreck our economy. The Democrats want to impose even more cuts to our defense budget. The Democrats do not plan to balance the budget - not in 10 years, not ever.
There is more, but just these few points make it clear that the Democrats have neither a sense of fiscal responsibility nor of good of country. They want to continue to destroy our productive ability, weaken us militarily, raise taxes on all classes beyond all bearing, keep on using the money to buy votes and reward corrupt cronies and eventually spend the nation into oblivion.
In fact, just a few days ago Nancy Pelosi went on the record saying that the country does not have a spending problem but rather a problem of maldistribution of wealth. When I heard that I dismissed it because the woman has long since shown herself to be insane. In fact, I had become convinced that the Dems just kept her around for comic relief. But the Senate budget resolution makes it plain that the Democratic Party leadership agrees with her.
So I am forced to conclude either that Mrs. Pelosi’s mental malady is contagious or that the Dems really do choose to plan for short term political advantage at the cost of the destruction of the national economy. No wonder they did not to go on record with this sort of policy prescription before the election!
But now, with Obama securely in power, they can afford to play to their own base and of course lie about the ultimate effect their fiscal policies will have. In coming weeks, we will see how far Obama will go to impose these and other policies.
I dismiss his so-called charm offensive as a ruse designed to distract and perhaps to split some Members away from their fellow Republicans. But the depth of his seriousness will become apparent as he advances his programs on issues like immigration, energy and tax reform. And looming ahead of all this is the main issue - the national debt.
Sometime around the end of July, we really will run out of money if an increase in the debt ceiling, and thus our authority to borrow more money, is not approved. Undoubtedly, it will be approved in the end. But expect another bruising bloody battle as Republicans once again struggle to try to force the Democrats to set aside their Socialist ambitions and act in the interest of their country.
Sometime around the end of July, we really will run out of money if an increase in the debt ceiling, and thus our authority to borrow more money, is not approved. Undoubtedly, it will be approved in the end. But expect another bruising bloody battle as Republicans once again struggle to try to force the Democrats to set aside their Socialist ambitions and act in the interest of their country.
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