The Left never sleeps. Every time we shoot our own, we waste bullets and feed the enemy
Dick Morris: http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/its-no-deal-its-a-sellout/ “John Boehner has just given away the Republican victory of 2010 at the bargaining table. Like the proverbial Uncle Sam who always wins the war but loses the peace, he has unilaterally disarmed the Republican Party by showing that he will not shut down the government and will, instead, willingly give way on even the most modest of cuts in order to avoid it. He now has no arrows left in his quiver.”
On this occasion I disagree with Dick Morris. The GOP don’t have a majority in the Senate, nor do they have a President. Moreover, the Majority Senate *and* the President are rabid in their desire to spend money. The only way through this was compromise of some sort; a shutdown yesterday would not have been forever, and may have just put off whatever compromise needed to made.
Morris is a skilled political professional, and makes a lot of sense, but he is not a politician; he is not present at the frontline, in the offices of government, face to face with those politicians with whom a deal has to be made. He’s not in the fight – he’s just a good observer of the fight.
We know what we want – billions of cuts. $400Bn would have been excellent. When I need to make cuts at home, can I do that all in one go? No; I have to plan – difficult enough even when I agree with myself. We are 3 months in to a Congress with a GOP house majority, up against an entrenched, myopic opposition who nevertheless has most media on their side and is very very well organised in terms of mobilising its talking heads.
Quoting Phillip Klein http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=27140: “… But he did use what leverage he had to get a lot more out of Democrats than they wanted to give up. Democrats didn’t want *any* spending cuts, and President Obama’s original budget proposed spending that was $78.5 billion higher than what was agreed upon tonight. (The House and Senate are passing a six-day stopgap measure that will cut the first $2 billion and give lawmakers more time to craft a final draft of the bill.) The deal includes a provision that would deny federal funds to pay for abortions in Washington, DC and would allow for Senate votes on the Planned Parenthood funding ban and repeal of ObamaCare — both of which will force vulnerable Democrats into tough votes. And keep in mind that the ban on Planned Parenthood funding would have expired at the end of the budget year”. “The big takeaway from all of this: We are currently debating how much to cut rather than debating whether or not to cut.”
Sellout?
The Left never sleeps. We – in an ideal world – would like debt to be cleared, all the bad bills gone, economy back to normal, and order restored to an American Way Of Life. Wouldn’t we?
Starting from a 60 year pile of bloat, a hardline Left President and a Democrat Senate where would we start?
I think a start right here, right now, is a good thing. It’s not *every*thing, but it’s a start. IMO the term “sellout” will apply in 3 months when we look back at this date and realise that in fact this is as good as it got. I don’t think that will be the case. Reading Paul Ryans 10-year blueprint (what, you can’t wait 10 years?) he is confidently and surgically methodical in designing solutions, reductions without smashing the whole pack of cards to the ground.
The Left Never Sleeps. All their organisation, all their communication, will now be dedicated to street-fighting every single spending cut that the GOP tries to implement. It will be bloody. You can judge this – and Boehner – a sellout if he either makes no effort to cut more, or if he surrenders every street-corner fistfight over the next year. This is not a sellout; it’s the beginning of a fight that took decades to start and will not be over (conveniently) in a simple 5-day piece of CR legislation.
Also remember that what the Left have – that we do not have to the same degree – is that when the chips are down they will unequivocally vote strategically with the Party, for the Good Of The Party. Conservatives tend to do that less, which makes us, well, a lot of good things, but also weakens us at the ballot box. The Left will exploit every single division within the GOP and across the conservative spectrum.
Every time we bite our own, we are wasting bullets and we are feeding the enemy …
Interesting to see how this plays out.