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Daily
Events...
Fridays with Eric Erickson
Democrats Need a
Shutdown
Editor’s Note: By the
time this is published we will have had a shutdown or we won’t... the
points raised in this brief commentary, however, are still worth noting.
It looks like we are on the verge of a government shutdown. The
Democrats need a shut down. They need to change the message
because right now they are losing.
Democrats are getting pasted in the budget debate generally. They can’t
beat the GOP on the argument that cuts are needed. The Democrats have
no plan for cutting the deficit, and even liberals are calling Paul
Ryan ‘courageous.’ They can’t win, because they simply can’t engage on
cutting entitlements. So the GOP is winning on budget cutting, winning
on the FY 2012 budget, and likely to win on the debt ceiling vote. The
Democrats need a way to change the debate.
Remember, the only reason we are on the verge of a government shutdown
is because for the first time since the budget act was passed in the
mid-seventies, a Congress — controlled by Democrats last year — failed
to pass a budget. That’s right. We are where we are because the
Democrats last year failed to pass a budget and now are refusing to go
along with cuts as the GOP sorts out the mess the Democrats made.
The only way the White House can do that is to get a shutdown. They
want to put the blame on the GOP, but even more than that, they want a
shutdown. So the argument will be that spending bills start in the
House, and the House still hasn’t passed anything that can get 60 votes
in the Senate. And until they do, the fault for the shutdown lies with
the GOP. And, in the meantime, our soldiers are fighting in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Libya and cannot get paid.
With a media all too willing to push the anti-GOP position, we can bet
the first photo in the newspapers the day after the shutdown will be of
a boy scout locked out of the Smithsonian.
The Democrats will get their shutdown, and the debate will change to
how to get the government open again. And when there is an agreement,
Obama will take the credit for bringing the sides together. And he will
be the hero.
— Erick Erickson
Read it at Daily Events
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