It is time for reasoning people to acknowledge that the House of Representatives, and to a lesser extent, the Senate is no longer working.
In all likelihood, the special Congressional deficit committee will announce on Monday that it cannot reach consensus on $1.2 trillion in
legislated cuts to the Federal budget, and thus, a automatic $1.2 trillion cut will kick into place across nearly all government programs.
This draconian measure was railroaded into law by the Republicans (read T Party base), but right now, Republicans are scurrying around like that proverbial sewer-loving animal to modify the law they created by their own hand.
And why would this be? Because in their haste to pass the special Congressional deficit committee or meat axe approach to budgeting, the ‘Pubs and the T Party ignored language that resulted in half of $1.2 trillion coming from cuts in the Pentagon budget.
(I prefer T Party to the other moniker; the latter, to me, denotes dignity, history, and, well, just plain down-to-earth Common Sense.)
Truly, absurdum est ut alios regat, qui seipsum regere nescit.
In their rush to excite the base before the run up to the 2012 Presidential elections, the ‘Pubs and the T Party has undermined its own foundation just as salt water ultimately destroys a cement foundation.
The ‘Pubs and the T Party called the Democratic party’s bluff, and the Dems held strong (Obama excepted). It must never be forgotten, but always is, that neither party can win the White House without the strong support of the Independent (which is not currently trending Republican.)
And in another bare-bottom gesture to the ‘Pubs and the T Party, the Dems and thinking Republicans (almost an oxymoron) defeated the recent proposal for a balanced budget amendment, an amendment strongly backed by our very own Olympia Snow and Susan Collins.
As I have noted in an earlier blog, a politician arguing for a balanced budget amendment is opting out of the responsibilities of his/her elected position. We sent Snowe and Collins to Washington to create a budget that meets the needs of the Republic; we did not send them to Washington to vote for a computer model.
If they don’t want to have input into the budget process, they need to step down. There are plenty of us in Maine well trained in budgets who are willing to step up to the challenge. I don’t want a computer model ignoring necessity for expediency; in our household budget we borrow for college and other expenses that cannot be capitalized; where would California be if we had not amortized the Hoover dam (Roger Willians please cue “America the Beautiful”).
As Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York noted of the current deficits: “[The deficit's origin is] in an irresponsible Republican president and an irresponsible Republican Congress. Many of those same Republican members, who saw nothing wrong with busting the budget, who sat quietly when Vice President Cheney said that deficits don’t matter, now demand this assault on our founding document [the balanced budget amendment] instead of delivering the votes for sound fiscal policy.”
As we sit down for the fest begun long ago by those who came to this continent to escape the heavy and arbitrary hand of injustice, let us give thanks for the patriots over the centuries, like Susan B Anthony, who stated: “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”
Peter B. Hayward
A Maine Armchair Philosopher™
Copyright © 2011 Peter B. Hayward. This blog post may be reproduced or circulated as long as this copyright notice is attached.
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