The Republicans caved as expected. We’re told they did all they could in the battles against Obamacare and the debt ceiling. If we could only unite again and elect more Republicans…<\/p>\n
I’m not buying it, at least not at the party level. I expect my representatives to compromise, but not on core principles. Congress is supposed to control the purse strings, but the Republican establishment seemed unwilling to take a real stand.<\/p>\n
The problem is not one of courage, but of convictions. A default was virtually impossible (without Obama\u2019s directly causing one) even if the debt ceiling had not been raised, yet many Republicans referred to \u201creaching a deal to avoid default.\u201d When pressed by the mainstream media about \u201cshutting down the government,\u201d many Republicans accepted the narrative and responded sheepishly. Unfortunately, the truth is that many Republicans accept a Keynesian worldview and are really promoting a mixed economy with a healthy dose of socialism.<\/p>\n
The problem with the middle ground is that is always seems to shift further to the left, primarily for political reasons. The cost per individual for a given wealth redistribution program is rarely great enough to muster enough political will to stop it. But most programs have their own advocacy groups. Consider subsidies for ethanol. Various farm groups campaign vigorously for them because they reap a significant financial benefit, but the average person doesn\u2019t pay enough for the program to justify putting up a fight. Besides, their supposed intent is to advance alternative energy, and who can argue with that. Never mind the fact that fuel subsidies are bad economic policy.<\/p>\n
Bastiat called this plunder. One group lobbies politicians for programs that redistribute the wealth of others for their own benefit. When everyone is plundering everyone else, the result is a mishmash of bad economic policies, expanded bureaucracy, high taxes, debt, and reduced independence and personal initiative. This is the current state of affairs in the US.<\/p>\n
Obamacare should have been an exception. The cost will be massive and should have been large enough to raise enough attention to stop it, or at least rein it in when many of the problems became apparent to those who actually believed that it would expand health care while lowering costs. The Democrats can be blamed for passing it, but Republicans as a group were unwilling to hold out for some reasonable concessions. These Republicans are part of the problem.<\/p>\n
Raising the debt ceiling should have been another exception. A trillion dollars in government spending works out to about $3000 per person, and that\u2019s before you consider that many Americans don\u2019t actually pay taxes anyway. Insisting on a serious change should be a no-brainer for anyone with a sense of fiscal responsibility.<\/p>\n
We reached a crossroads when President Obama was elected with Democrat majorities in the House and Senate. We just reached another when the Republican majority in the House\u2014the most important branch of government in terms of legislation and spending\u2014refused to hold its ground and insist on a legitimate compromise on these two high profile, high-cost issues. The Republican Party has become its own worst enemy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Republicans caved as expected. We’re told they did all they could in the battles against Obamacare and the debt ceiling. If we could only unite again and elect more Republicans… I’m not buying it, at least not at the party level. I expect my representatives to compromise, but not on core principles. Congress is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}