Real Hope
By Mitch Berg
Ever since I was a kid – hell, ever since I was a liberal – I remember Republicans running for Congress (among other offices) promising to “do something” about the deficit.
And “nothing” usually ended up being the “something” they did, because our budget situation has not only not improved, it’s gotten worse.
And over the decades, we conservatives – as opposed to Republicans – dreamed about Republicans, or conservatives really, who’d put principle ahead of political expediency.
And according to that conservative tool the NYTimes, we may just finally have them:
“Re-election is the farthest thing from my mind,” said Representative Tom Reed, a freshman Republican from upstate New York. “Like many of my colleagues in the freshman class, I came down here to get our fiscal house in order and take care of the threat to national security that we see in the federal debt. We came here not to have long careers. We came here to do something. We don’t care about re-election.”
The Times – committed as they are to the David Brooks school of “conservatism” – is cautious…:
It is not clear how genuine or widespread that sentiment is in Congress, but regardless, it has upended what President Obama said on Friday had been a “difficult but routine process” in past years.
…but notes a key factor in the evolution of the GOP; it’s become a conservative party with a mission.
The sheer size of the debt and its rapid growth in recent years have emboldened fiscal conservatives in the House, prompting some of them to pledge not to vote for a higher debt ceiling even if a compromise can be reached before Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department says it will hit the $14.3 trillion debt cap and run out of borrowing authority.
And that’s what’s really got the Democrats scared.
July 18th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
If there is no debt ceiling deal will Obama take a page out of Mad Mark Dayton’s book on payback governing?
July 18th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Republicans in Wisconsin said the same thing. That when they passed the budget fix bill, they knew that it would mean many of them will lose their legislator jobs, but they didn’t care. They did what was right, not what was easy.
On the national level, one thing this does is remove an issue that Democrats campaigned on…..that Republicans spend too much (yes, I know how ironic that is) and increase the national debt.
July 18th, 2011 at 1:38 pm
And what I say to those who like gov’t spending on fun things…..light rail, parks, arts crowd…….if we can get the massive programs under control (Medicare/caid, social security, education, and even defense), then we will have all kinds of money to spend on the nice-to-haves.
July 18th, 2011 at 1:45 pm
From one of the most, ahem, senior members of Congress a few weeks ago…
“This is the first time that I can remember being confronted by members of the Congress, my colleagues, who say, ‘I don’t care if I get reelected or not, I want to cut the budget by $100 billion or whatever,’” said a bewildered Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who was first elected to Congress in 1964. “I’ve never seen that kind of a member before. … It’s a dangerous point of view from my perspective.”
If by dangerous you mean refreshing and encouraging yes its a very dangerous position…
July 18th, 2011 at 2:07 pm
There was a letter to the editor in Sundays edition of the failed local left wing paper sneering at the ‘fiscal Conservatives’ and asking “where were they when all of this borrowing started to fund two wars and to take care of the ultra-rich?” Looks to me like these ‘Fiscal Conservatives’ were as concerned then as they are now only back then they started making plans to run for office and then got themselves elected. It’s amazing what you can do when you aren’t worried about getting the credit or taking the blame.
July 18th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
November 2012 needs to be an incumbent Krystallnacht. Figuratively speaking, of course. As last year showed us, our only hope is in the ballot box, and an informed electorate.
As that well-known conservative John Lennon sang, “Power to the people”.
July 18th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Let’s leave the Nazi analogy’s to Lefty. How about November 2012 being the time of incumbent ‘Reformation’, when we nail our treatise to the voting booth wall?
July 18th, 2011 at 9:17 pm
As a Lutheran, I can endorse that strategery.