This past Wednesday I wrote about a letter being circulated by conservative members of the House of Representatives who were signing on the a radical proposal by the republican Study Committee (RSC) to make the increase in the national debt ceiling contingent on spending cuts sufficient to reduce the deficit by 50 percent in the FY2012 budget. It hasn’t taken long for the left to cry what an outrage it is for republicans to make increasing the debt ceiling conditional on anything. Jonathan Chait has written an article entitled “It’s either a Ransom or a Bargain, Not Both” in The New Republic. At least he takes aim at President Obama for allowing the republicans to use the usual automatic votes on the debt ceiling to extract legislative concessions! Now it’s not often you will find me being sympathetic to the Obama Administration, but I am afraid they did not have much choice. It seems Mister Chait has failed to study the Constitution and understand that in our democracy the President must in fact seek congressional action before he signs things such as bills and debt ceiling increases. Now President Obama has not yet agreed to negotiate with congress over the debt ceiling but on this there is little doubt. If Congress does not approve an increase, on or about August 2nd according to the Treasury Department the government will no longer be able to borrow additional money and will have to live off the approximately 62 cents of every dollar spent it actually receives in taxes in the current fiscal year. So a refusal to negotiate and the resultant refusal, I hope, of the house to pass the extension would result in a massive budget cut and an instant balanced budget. Now that is even too draconian for me but trust me, the left would be far more upset than those of us of a more conservative perspective.
Again the left seems to be misreading their mandate and with support for increasing the debt limit running at less than 20 percent they just don’t get it. The American People elected the democrats in 2006 and 2008 because the Republicans in congress and the Bush administration had failed in their responsibility to manage the nation’s finances responsibly, as well as disasters like the response to Katrina and 7 years of war. The Democrats took this as a mandate to double the deficit, federalize health care and start a third war in Libya. If they take the advice of leftists in the media such, the 2012 election will make them long for the good old days…of the 2010 vote. Let’s hope the Republicans in the House listen to the RSC and hold the line on the debt ceiling negotiations.
A Conservative's Musings on All Things Political 