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| Not a Happy Valentine's Day for Speaker Boehner |
But don’t expect voters around the country to send flowers
of appreciation or adoration to Washington D.C. Worse than that, Republicans
seeking to cut the spending while protecting our protectors (retired military
veterans) may find that any love they sought to
Despite the efforts of his leadership (or because of his
lack thereof), Speaker of the House John Boehner has the unenviable position of
pushing for a clean debt ceiling increase tomorrow (Wednesday, February 12,
2014). Hardly a Valentines’ Day treat, the
Ohio Congressman has found it very difficult to get any love from his diverse,
and divided caucus to attach anything meaningful to the debt ceiling increase.
At first, the Speaker wanted to tie authorization of the XL
Keystone Pipeline to the bill. Brilliant: a Valentine of more jobs and energy
independence for the American People. Right away, one can suspect that Climate
Change alarmist Democrats would have put their love of Mother Earth ahead of
the Fatherland, and some members of the GOP caucus did not think that demand
went far enough. While arguing for restoring the cuts to military pensions,
Boehner found still more resistance to raising the debt ceiling.
Without the votes, the Republicans would have looked
disparate and desperate, hardly a winning stance of the opposition sent to
capitalize on a six-year, second-term President and party whose approval
ratings are in the dumps, with Democrats in the House and Senate eloping into
early retirement.
On a purely moral level, federal legislators should not
raise the debt ceiling, period. The government spends funds which the state
does not have, which the American People no longer have to give.
On the political front, however, Boehner has to balance the
needs of his Washington colleagues, whether conservative, liberal, or
Establishment, with the campaigns of local and statewide candidates, including
gubernatorial leaders who will seek the Presidency in 2016. There is no reason
for the GOP to fail to take back the US Senate as well as keep the House and
prep for recapturing the White House.
The last thing that they need to do is present discord and
dysfunction within their own ranks, and offering the Democrats a welcome distraction
from Obamacare, the President’s unconstitutional, imperial executive orders, as
his failing foreign policy. In a way, raising the debt ceiling clean is a
long-term Valentine to ensure 2014 victory while covering up the lack of love
among members of his own ranks.
Are these concerns too farfetched, or disparate desperation for
the Speaker to be weighing?
Following a call to Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s office
(R-Bakersfield, California), I learned that the Republican Leadership simply
could not cobble together enough votes to pass a debt ceiling rise with the
requisite reforms or spending cuts. When I countered that the federal government
had already passed the first deadline last week, the staffer responded that, at
least per Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the dire consequences will ensure at the
end of this month.
For limited government advocates and fiscal conservatives,
however, all may not be lost. Real Clear Politics suggests that while Boehner
may seek Democratic votes to help pass a clean bill, the needed eighteen
Republicans who will have to cross over may not be willing to “Cross their
hearts” and hope to kill their future legislative careers, either.
During the government shutdown last year, for example, House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi struggled to keep her disparate caucus in line.
Democrats who had won swing seats in 2012, especially upstart liberals in California,
were paying close attention to the frustrations of their constituents. While
Pelosi sought a united front against piecemeal funding from the House majority last
year, certain members of her caucus supported budget resolutions which defunded,
then delayed Obamacare, along with funding national parks, then national
guardsmen’s pay. Despite Boehner’s inability to garner two-thirds support for
those piecemeal appropriations (followed by retiring Democrat George Miller’s
tirade of financial “jihad” against his conservative counterparts), the surprisingly
close threshold for those bills suggested that Democrats were feeling some
heat, not just Republicans.
It’s not all hearts and flowers in Washington, for Democrats
or Republicans, but maybe our legislators will stop treating to the US Treasury
like a box of chocolates (and we know what we always get: more spending, debt,
and interest payments).
Should the shut-down divisions of 2013 break out in 2014, the
Congress will not only fail to raise the debt ceiling, but may force the
American People to recognize that the debt-ceiling dance is nothing but that: a
politicized lovers’ quarrel has distracted the public from the fact that
Congress could, and should, cut the spending instead of extending its borrowing
authority in the first place.
While Washington politicians won’t celebrate amity and
adoration, the American People can have a Happy Valentine’s Day!
Update: The House did pass a clean debt ceiling increase. Fine. GOP will let the Dems take the heat for their poor governance.
ReplyDeleteYou really are an idiot. You claim the Keystone Pipeline will bring "more jobs and energy independence for the American People." While a handful of jobs--literally--would be created, the oil that would travel through the pipeline would NOT be for "the American People". Logistically, that pipeline would serve as an EXPORT line, you dope, and oil is sold on the WORLD MARKET. The only people that would benefit from this filthy boondoggle are the oil companies. Stick to something you know something about, which would be, um, I don't know--the superstition of Jesus or something.
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