February 12, 2009

A line in the sand

Legislation is the art of compromise, consensus building, and that's what we did," Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, announcing the House and Senate stinkulus deal .



If by compromise he means between Senate and Congressional Democrats, then he's not full of it. But according to Connie Hair, the only Republicans involved were the three defectors, Specter, Snowe and Collins. They got the bill down to 789.5 billion, not exactly the 100 billion Collins bragged about axing in her negotiations. But Reid's results don't smack of consensus building, or compromise. If you get everybody on the same side of an issue to agree, you may have an internal consensus but you do not have bi-partisan consensus and you certainly don't have any significant compromise.

Now, there's plenty of reason to be angry with Democrats - they are swindling America here. But to be fair, it's to be expected of them. We know what they want to do and are attempting to do. And now thanks to these 3 Benedict Arnolds they have carte blanche to do it. The Democrats need only 2 Senators to prevent a filibuster. And that was the last tool the Republicans had to stand up against big government for the next 2 years. The Democrats now know that they can make paltry side deals with the weakest links in the GOP chain to get their way.

Now that everyone knows that, the GOP needs to focus its efforts on what it can still control which means two things - preparing for 2010 and penalizing these 3 for taking the only weapon available out of conservative hands (to ensure this doesn't happen again in future Congresses).

To those ends, they ought to be removed from caucus, removed from RNC support mechanisms and Michael Steele ought to challenge all three hard in primaries with strong, winnable candidates. It’s not much from a stop-the-liberal-agenda standpoint, but it does accomplish a couple of things by drawing a line in the sand.

Firstly, it establishes a party unity approach to future Legislative efforts, which given the super-minority status the party finds itself past the precipice on (thanks to the Turncoat 3), is absolutely necessary. Secondly, it goes a ways towards ensuring that party loyalty – you are on THIS team, you play ONLY on this team. No switching sides every inning. Thirdly, it keeps that bi-partisan double-talk from Democrats to a minimum. Even with three Republicans on board, the Democrats are going to try to crow about bi-partisanship accomplishments, reaching across the aisle, and the art and skill of their compromise. They’ll pat themselves on the back, as long as it looks like there’s going to be some success come out of this. And if it starts to turn sour, they can claim – “Hey, those Republicans were in on this too!”

Yeah, right. Kick them out of caucus and see how far that argument goes. The Democrats are pinning their hopes on the fact that this package will kick in to high gear in 2010 and get them electoral victory in the mid-term elections. It’s a gamble. But if they are right, expect that bi-partisan praise to evaporate quickly. It’ll be their plan, their recovery; only 3 Republicans came on board.

As Republicans, we want the country to succeed but we are convinced this will not work. If we truly believe that, as most conservatives and most Republicans seem to feel strongly that it will fail, then in this poker game, we need to gamble on its failure. Not by hoping for failure like the Democrats did on Iraq, but by simply not signing on to it. Step aside and make a big deal about how if it succeeds the Democrats own it and if it fails they own it. In 2010 if the recession is still in high gear or the high inflation has started, or worse still, stagflation has kicked in, Republicans will be poised for not only an I-told-you-so moment but BIG electoral gains.

It’s not wrong or treasonous, Anti-American or wanting failure to say you believe this plan is not going to work. This is an exchange of ideas. We believe our ideas are better. In the next few years, having granted the future generations of America a mountain of debt, we’ll have a better idea of this has become America’s lost decade. And if enough people are aware of the failure WHEN it becomes obvious and they know who is to blame, and they vote accordingly, then maybe it doesn’t have to be an entire decade that gets lost like it did in Japan.

1 comment:

  1. Yes Kick the turn coat right out of the party this is the chance for Chairman Steele to show us his metal so to speak and toss those dead beats right out of the party entirely. I think General Patton said it best.
    Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen."

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