I don’t usually agree with Eugene Robinson, but…
…he raises a good point here, which is: if the Republicans sweep into Congress, will they have the cojones to make the required cuts, and will the American public accept it if they do?
Because if it doesn’t work out, there may be another wild pendulum swing come 2012.
Limbaugh said a third party will arise if Republicans do not ‘execute’ when they win.
What is the definition of ‘execute’ I suppose.
The House cannot do alone what the Senate will filibuster.
I will be satisfied having the house not ram down Cap and Trade, extend tax cuts, make a turn towards pro-business policies.
Large actions will be met by filibuster. Americans know this.
The press will demonize also.
Technically we need 51% of Americans to accept it. If they don’t, our kids and grandkids will be living in a marxist hell hole. Two more years of Obama should only drive that point home even more.
No matter who is in power in the coming years – Repub, Dem, Ind – the steps either voluntarily taken now or forced upon us later are going to be very tough.
We are still in the process of trying to mix that magic potion that brings yesterday back, but it ain’t gonna happen this time. So whoever gets voted in is going to face voter backlash for the simple reason that they won’t have any magic solutions that the American public still hopes exists.
I even think the Tea Partyers don’t realize how difficult their idea – of reducing gov’t – is going to be.
I’ve long been of the idea that change is all going to be forced upon us, whether we like it or not. So maybe the electorate will vote in, in a back and forth fashion, the two Parties until The Great Deleveraging runs its course.
” The mob is fickle” : Seems one of the characters in the fictional movie “Gladiator” said something like that. A lot of the electorate is unimformed, and they swing elections- though they probably do not vote as much in off year elections.
There is a part of me that hope the Republicans do not gain too big this time around. otherwise they will get blamed when the bottom falls out- and it seems this talk of using inflation to fight deflation is a sign its about to get worse.
Two different ways of looking at the situation.
Democracy will last until the public discovers it can vote itself largesse from the public treasury. After that comes inflation, currency devaluation, revolution and tyranny.
Democracy will last until the Congress discovers it can buy the votes of the populace with voters’ own money, etc.
How to save and revive the United States after it has been the victim of an attempted Obama and Progressive gang rape or “chain-saw massacre”?
That is the problem isn’t it? While more and more people–from poll results–are tired/afraid of Obama & Co. and want to sweep Democrats out of office, will Republicans, if they get control of the House and, hopefully, the Senate, have the guts to propose and sell the kinds of drastic reductions in entitlements and government spending and in the size, scope and power of government that will be necessary if the juggernaut the Democrats have set in motion is to be stopped and then reversed. Moreover, do Republicans have, not only the will, but the skills to bring these reductions and changes about, or at least to lay out such a comprehensive program of action as an alternative to Obama & Co. and in the face of what is sure to be powerful and constant Presidential, Congressional, MSM, and vested interest opposition?
There are several Cabinet level departments and regulatory agencies that are basically arms of the Democratic party and the Progressive agenda, and serve only to undermine individual liberty, choice, and freedom, and to impede commerce and invention–the Departments of Education, and of Energy, the FDA and the EPA come immediately to mind, and there are also many other departments and agencies that have been very thoroughly compromised–the Department of Justice, the State Department, the CIA and NASA come time mind here, and, then, there is the issue of the gigantic bloat of the government as a whole, that will require severe pruning. Will Republicans have the guts to try to abolish or defund certain agencies and severely curb and downsize others? Who knows? If they did it would certainly be without recent precedent.
Then there is the issue of entitlements–“mandatory” federal spending that today gobbles up 63% of the entire annual federal budget–which must immediately be addressed, entitlements which will, because of the ever growing and expanding, open-ended nature of “entitlements,” inevitably grow to consume an even greater percentage of our federal budget each year. Entitlements will have to be severely pared back–benefits reduced, eligibility criteria narrowed and made much tougher and more severely enforced, and the age threshold for receipt of Social Security and Medicare will have to be raised; ultimately, the “entitlement” mechanism itself will have to be drastically cnanged to eliminate its automatic ratcheting up of benefits over time, and instead of it being an automatic “fire it and forget it weapon”–one which members of Congress can set up and put in motion with one vote and then never have to vote on, examine, or to justify again–and Congress will have to be forced to vote on the content, benefit levels, eligibility criteria and funding of entitlements each year or two, if we are to have any chance at all of halting and reversing this Cancer.
Then there is our capitalist/financial system and the dollar which will have to be put back together–much like sewing back together the traumatized victim of an attempted chain saw massacre–which will require major restructuring to build in safeguards and restore investor confidence in our currency, creditworthiness, the laws of contracts, ownership and bankruptcy, and in our capitalist the system.
A plan will also have to be put into place to pay off the debt as quickly as possible and to reduce deficits.
Effective policies/programs to revive all sectors of our economy will also have to be devised.
There will also need to be roadblocks put in place to block and retard the kinds of unconstitutional and unethical methods Democrats used to ram through their massive legislation without proper reading, consideration, and debate, and safeguards put in place, as well, to prevent the President from working around the Constitution and the Congressional confirmation system using things like Czars and recess appointments, and his ability to block the Congressional oversight process by just refusing to supply documents or witnesses.
Will Republicans and, what is more, will the general public be up for such Herculean, wholesale, and painful reconstruction?
And the above, mind you, are only a few of our domestic problems; I haven’t even touched on our foreign and national security problems–i.e. things like the state of our military, and our knowledge of and stance toward terrorism and the Muslim Jihad.
Are the Republicans, it our citizenry up to the task?
Wolla Dalbo: I see what’s happening in New Jersey right now as a sort of pilot study.
Neo–laying out just a few of the steps that I believe will have to be taken if we are to step back from the brink, I must admit that I don’t get the sense that even the Tea Party candidates are advocating or are ready to initiate such a radical and wholesale revision and “transformation” of our government and its scope and programs.
I believe that they are afraid that if they advocate such a radical transformation (that is, if they believe such a painful, radical transformation is necessary) they will have no chance of getting elected, so that they may be toning down their rhetoric to fit it within the bounds of what the MSM and Democrats have decreed is acceptable and normal, and so they cannot easily be labeled as “crazy” or “radical.” Ironically, if this is what these conservative candidates are doing, then they are doing exactly what Obama & Co. did, covering up their real intentions in order to get into office, so that they can have the power to carry them out, instead of what they told the voters they were going to do.
Wolla Dalbo: I agree. It is a problem inherent in politics, and why we end up with so few politicians who are both honest and effective.
What do you think of Paul Ryan’s plan?
Perhaps we are wrong to think we’re going anywhere anytime soon with getting our house in order. We know 53% of the current crop of people can be convinced a marxist race baiter would make a good President. And the mechanism of pop culture media that pulled off this feat is still there as are those people.
Neo–I like Ryan’s ideas.
SteveH–I guess whether the American people are willing to take some drastic and painful but necessary actions depends on whether enough Americans feel we have “bottomed out” yet, and are desperate enough to, say, apply a hot iron to cauterize a wound or amputate an extremity, so that they don’t bleed to death or die of a massive infection, or to opt for Chemo and/or radiation to stop the spread of what they have come to realize is a life threatening, metastasizing tumor
If they are we have a chance, if they aren’t I believe you can kiss our freedom and prosperity goodbye, and I don’t get the sense that the American people are anywhere near this desperate yet, or that they truly realize the gravity and peril of the situation we are now in.
“”I believe that they are afraid that if they advocate such a radical transformation (that is, if they believe such a painful, radical transformation is necessary) they will have no chance of getting elected””
I think it’s crucial we have people who’ll be honest. But they must also be creative in how they go about it. The way to raise SS retirement to 70 for everyone under 50 is to offer them things like immediate and unencumbered access into business with zero tax liability for 3 years. I’m 51 and can think of a thousand ways where i’d trade all my due SS benefits for present opportunity and the government off my ass.
I guess i’m saying the benefits to people for staying the course to get us out of this mess can’t all be some undetermined time down the road. That’s just human nature.
i like Paul Ryan also
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/10/19/cbs-a-third-of-2008-obama-voters-wont-vote-democrat-in-2010/
I don’t have confidence that all of these voters in the story above understand economics 101 all of a sudden. They may be turned off due to the Cambridge police incident or the Mosque or whatever…
It looks that Brown will beat Whitman in CA. I hope not. All the while CA is following France and Greece…
An anti-appropriations committee !!! Wonderful idea !!!
http://dailycaller.com/2010/10/19/conservatives-push-%e2%80%98anti-appropriations-committee%e2%80%99/
What has to be conveyed to people is the excitement of solving these problems. The excitement of seeing govt vehicles that are clunkers and the people driving nice cars. The excitement of heading down to Kinkos and opening a business in a simple two hour process. The excitement of building a shed or a deck in your backyard and nobody gives a crap. These are the things that will become infectious.
SteveH,
I agree. When I talk with my brother back home, I am always inspired to hear how local businesses and individuals work together, donating time, expertise, money, and goods to achieve goals within the community. I started to type “solve problems” instead of “achieve goals” but changed my mind because these people don’t feel like they are solving problems or cleaning up an inherited mess. They are moving forward.
The local paper is fantastic at reporting community efforts and recognizing individual achievements. Reading it online is my daily dose of American can-do spirit. When there is a fire, you read about the neighbors chipping in and local churches and organizations raising money to help the family. It is a galaxy away from the victim mentality encountered elsewhere.
I fart in the general direction of anything Eugene Robinson says or writes.
I live in a small agricultural community. We have two food banks, twenty churches, a senior center, a Salvation Army organization, and several other charitable organizations. Anyone who needs a hand up can get it. That’s the way it has been and should be in this country. I see people pan-handling at intersections and know they are scamming or working the system. There’s plenty of help available, if they need it.
A lot of our problems would be solved by ramping the economy back up. Yes, the government needs to shrink. All Depts except State, Justice, Defense, and Homeland Security should be eliminated or shrunk drastically. The EPA needs to be restrained and the Endangered Species Act should be repealed or rewritten. We need to drill, drill, drill here in this country. (That means ANWR, Santa Barbara Channel, off all the coasts) The nuclear power industry needs to be ramped up. Corporate taxes should be reduced to 10%. Corporations don’t pay taxes, their customers do.
All those actions would increase economic activity while restraining the size of government. Increased economic activity increases tax revenue, improves pension returns, puts a bottom in the housing market, makes Social Security a bit more healthy (We still need to do something like Paul Ryan suggests.), even makes Medicare and Medicaid less unaffordable (Still need to figure out how we can pay for it though!), and gets us closer to a balanced budget. It ain’t rocket science. But it might as well be if you want a Democrat to understand it. They only know how to raise taxes and spend more money on gubmint solutions.
A bigger economic pie is always the answer, unless we want collectivism. (How about Venezuela, Zimbabwe, North Korea, or ???)
“will they have the cojones to make the required cuts, and will the American public accept it if they do?”
They’ll need huge cojones, because they’ll be getting even more hell from the Dems than they got under Bush.