|
Redstate...
Will Freshman House
Republicans Keep Their Promise?
Posted by Erick Erickson
Friday, March 11th
Editor's note: The 3-week extension was passed by the House Tuesday... it now goes to the Senate.
House Republicans are unveiling their next short-term continuing
resolution today to keep the government from shutting down on March
18. It is a three week-extension, $6 billion in cuts with no new
policy riders.
Sound good? It’s not. Realize what is going on here.
House Leadership unfortunately continues to be gripped by fear of a
government shutdown. It is why these short-term extensions
do not include any new policy riders, such as the one to deny federal
funding to Planned Parenthood or to defund Obamacare. These
extensions are carefully calibrated to not prompt a veto threat from
the White House.
By fearing a fight that could lead to a shutdown, House Leadership is
letting the White House play rope-a-dope with them. The House has
spoken. It passed a long-term bill that includes $61 billion in
cuts and various aforementioned riders to defund objectionable
activities of the federal government. This bill was based on a
promise to the American people that Republicans would make a
down-payment in the face of a staggering $1.5 trillion deficit, and
when the Speaker said, “Read my lips,” he was promising a real
fight. Not this.
Republican Leadership already threw all the riders over board by
excluding them from the first extension, showing that for all their
talk they are fundamentally unserious about defunding Planned
Parenthood and Obamacare. With every short-term resolution,
Republicans allow Democrats to play for time. With each dollar
the Democrats agree to with these short-term compromises, they look
more reasonable for the day when they will inevitably say, “No
mas.” When that day comes, Republicans will fold.
They may try to obfuscate and blur this fight with the next one on the
debt limit, but Republicans will still be folding. It will
project weakness, and the Democrats will unmistakably recognize it for
what it is: fear. And if Republicans blink in the face of a
government shutdown, it will set the course for the next two years of
dealing with Obama, particularly with regard to the debt limit fight.
So far the freshmen class is complicit in this dead-end strategy by
allowing it. They have the votes to tell their Leadership
no. But so far, they refuse. They have refused to fight to
defund Obamacare and Planned Parenthood in these negotiations, and they
are giving their Leadership far too much flexibility to avoid a
fight. In doing so, they are empowering Leadership and
letting themselves be co-opted. The freshmen need to realize that
Leadership never plays to win—they play to not lose. But we
didn’t send them to Washington to play for ties. Make no
mistake. The soul of the freshmen class is on the line in this
fight.
The rope-a-dope must end. The other side continues to block the
bare minimum of what our nation needs fiscally and play for time, fresh
off an election that went squarely against them. Republicans gave
them two additional weeks to compromise. The Democrats’ chief
negotiator, Vice President Biden, used that precious time to fly across
the world. They are unserious, and it’s time to call them on it.
Read it at Redstate
|
|
|
|
