|
Townhall...
Shut Down the
Government
By Matt Towery
It sounds harsh and cruel, but U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s threat
to shut down all but essential federal government services if the
Democrats on Capitol Hill can’t actually reign in spending is not only
the fiscally responsible approach, it is also one that would be popular
with the public.
Enough with the gamesmanship of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and
the silliness of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. It’s time for
Republicans to let America know that the GOP means business -- cut the
budget deeply, or shut her down!
In January, InsiderAdvantage conducted a national survey of voters who
identified themselves as either Republicans or independent voters.
Those two demographic segments make up the majority of the nation’s
current electorate. In the survey, we recited in a very straightforward
manner the shutdown of government that House Republicans imposed in
November 1995 and then again from Dec. 16, 1995, until Jan. 6, 1996.
Then we asked, “What is your opinion of the actions the Republican-led
majority took in temporarily shutting down nonessential services for
short periods of time to, in the words of their leader, ‘prove to the
president we were serious about a balanced budget?’” Seventy-one
percent had a favorable opinion of that shutdown, and 59 percent said
they had a “very favorable” opinion of it. (We polled more than 1,000
respondents, for a margin of error of plus or minus three percent.)
Boehner has been portrayed as a middle-of-the-road,
cry-at-the-drop-of-a-hat speaker. It’s said that he is trying to hold
together a fractious GOP conference of House members. That is a typical
Washington, inside-the-Beltway attempt to oversimplify both a man and
his party.
Here’s the truth: Republicans know darn well that they must put their
money -- or the lack thereof -- where their mounts were last November.
That means they must back up their campaign promises then with meaty
budget cuts now. And no, the White House’s proposal of a largely
symbolic freeze on new (and higher) spending won’t suffice.
A genuine, GOP-backed shutdown would most likely happen if the House
refused to pass a continuing resolution for the long-suffering budget
that was to be passed last year; or if there was an effort to sustain
spending at its current, bloated levels.
That would mean that in early March, the federal government would no
longer have funding. What a wonderful, liberating feeling that would
be! Imagine a week or two of no federal government -- save the military
and other essential services. No mindless work at the Department of
Education. No new administrative edicts at the Environmental Protection
Agency. The list could go on and on.
Having ridden one of these shutdowns out with a former Republican
speaker, I can already prepare folks for what they know already will
happen. The media establishment in New York and Washington will skewer
Boehner and the Republicans. They’ll claim that the speaker is caving
in to the “tea party” element of his Republican House membership.
Then the stories will pop up about some poor souls who didn’t get some
services or entitlements that government usually delivers. There will
be stories of government workers, stuck in their freezing houses
without a job. Hearts will bleed, and those brilliant women on “The
View” will probably work themselves up into such frenzy that, save the
show’s one conservative token host, they will all stomp off the stage
in protest, or at least we can only hope so.
President Barack Obama and Sen. Reid simply did not get the message
that the American people sent them in November. That Obama’s approval
ratings have risen, for what I consider to have been an adequate job of
dealing with the Egyptian crisis, should not be misread as an
endorsement of his fiscal policies or his domestic agenda.
If anything, Americans are horrified to learn that they sent billions
of dollars to support an ally, only to learn that the dictatorial
leader of Egypt likely skimmed much of the money off for himself.
That’s hardly “foreign aid you can believe in.”
The GOP must stand its ground on the budget deficit, regardless of what
the so-called “mainstream media” thinks about their efforts. It only
took two short shutdowns before former President Bill Clinton started
working toward deficit reductions and a balanced budget. Let’s see if
President Obama will learn the same lesson, and by the same hard way.
Read it at Townhall
|
|
|
|
