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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    That Ain't No Promised Land


    By Rougman, Section News
    Posted on Sat Jul 30, 2011 at 12:55:45 PM EST
    Tags: John Boehner, Dan Benishek, Budget (all tags)

    In an effort to bridge the timeline between now and the next election, practical Republicans have said they'd love them some many hundreds of billions of dollars in added debt over the short term in order to budget an additional $7 trillion in debt over the next ten years.

    This is the new face of fiscal and political practicality.

    Now, even the impractical among us knew that the Boehner bill, as written, was as dead on arrival as the dermis underneath a Nancy Pelosi botoxic expression. We'll just have to wait and see what the mouldering Harry Reid can do to the bill before he sends it back to Boehner.

    Wherever this leads, many of us in the tea party are being considered "impractical" or "hobbits" by the establishment GOP because we are not falling in line behind our christened party leaders in their Orwellian attempts to rein in spending.

    But, from an equally practical standpoint, what evidence do we hobbits have from these GOP leaders that they have any intention of cutting overall spending when, according to the lexicon they employ, a $1 trillion cut in spending in reality is an $8 trillion increase in spending over ten years?

    Let's go back a few years. It was a Republican president with great Republican support that gave us No Child Left Behind and the prescription drug benefit. TARP was a bipartisan fiscal calamity. Every one of these examples have the sticky fingerprints of John Boehner all over them.

    When Boehner's support of these massive government expansions is juxtaposed with a bill that approves of an additional $8 trillion in spending over the next ten years, the practical among us hobbits begin to think that Boehner might be part of the problem and in no way capable of or interested in finding a solution.

    So, ya, I'm not too happy with what the tea party has been able to accomplish so far, but I realize that we've only been a movement for the past three years, and I also realize that for the time being our little movement only occupies the caboose of a long established train.

    My representative, Dan Benishek, was elected with support of the tea party, but he is not a member of the tea party caucus. He is one of the dutiful republicans that, in a thrust of practicality, got his ass in line behind John Boehner. I had two signs in my lawn that proclaimed my support of Benishek in the last election. They announced clearly that "Enough is enough." Now, as it turns out, perhaps they should have read "Enough might not quite be enough yet, but after getting my ass in line a time or two, enough really will be enough!"

    But, while I'm a bit miffed at the moment, I'm not certain this is totally fair to Benishek. I'm certain he made what he thought was the best "practical" decision. I'm certain he believes that with one more election under our belts, with added Republican control over the Presidency (if they are able to gather it,) with added control over the Senate (again, if they are able to gather it,) and an expanded control of the House of Representatives, that real change can finally take place. I believe that he thinks that to see tea party people act impractically at this juncture would put additional Republican gains in the next election in greater doubt.

    On all of these counts he might be exactly correct. The problem is, of course, that we hobbits know in our heart of hearts that the current GOP leadership is not to be trusted with the future of our children and grandchildren. We know the track record. We've seen them in action.

    Establishment GOPers want me to have confidence in them for their vision of the future. They want me to believe that they will do the right thing. They want me to not only end my protests, but to buy in. But they cannot point to any history that would help me gain the confidence they demand. They were happy to gain back the House in large measure because of the tea party, but they were even happier to assume their positions in power while commanding the rest of us to "get our asses in line."

    To a simple sort of hobbit, this seems suspiciously like business as usual.

    We'll have to see how all of this works out, and while I don't necessarily support a primary challenge to Dan Benishek over this, I certainly support any effort that would oust John Boehner from his anointed leadership position.

    We know the types of government programs that he supports. We know the types of deals he is willing to make. We've heard the condescension and we're wet with the drippings of his practicality.

    Oh, he's a leader all right, but it ain't no promised land that he's leading to.

    < Walberg Comments on the Budget Control Act | Saturdays Divertere: The Dumb Kid Vote >


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    Might as well put this here too (none / 0) (#1)
    by Corinthian Scales on Sat Jul 30, 2011 at 08:18:23 PM EST
    I have to part ways with ya on this one, Rougman.

    But, while I'm a bit miffed at the moment, I'm not certain this is totally fair to Benishek. I'm certain he made what he thought was the best "practical" decision. I'm certain he believes that with one more election under our belts, with added Republican control over the Presidency (if they are able to gather it,) with added control over the Senate (again, if they are able to gather it,) and an expanded control of the House of Representatives, that real change can finally take place. I believe that he thinks that to see tea party people act impractically at this juncture would put additional Republican gains in the next election in greater doubt.

    That's a freighter full of if's, and's, and but's.  Benishek hasn't shown me one iota of what passes for courage in this presumed "practical" wisdom narrative.  "Enough is Fluff" ... when all is said and done.

    Sorry dude, Doctor Dan has caved to Party pressure too many times for my tastes.  A Benishek Primary challenger is needed before he becomes entrenched establishment in the north like a Stupak.

    Diss establishmentarianism (none / 0) (#2)
    by Pogo on Sun Jul 31, 2011 at 03:58:16 AM EST
         While agreeing with pretty much all of Mr. Rougman's post, I don't think personalizing it makes any real progress. Suppose Mr. Boehner was atomized in the next minute. What would his replacement do that would be ANY different? Our fearless leaders get where they are by promising ants to the antis, and prose to the pros. The measure of a successful political campaign is to make one group think you are foursquare with them, while talking out of the other side of your mouth on the other side of town. This is a fundamental premise of the two party system our constitution has bequeathed us. If you don't believe it, ask someone who has worked on policy decisions, or just answering questionnaires, in a political campaign.

         The fatal weakness comes down to the voter, who wants to believe that the newest shining leader is going to pay his mortgage, and gas bill, and give him a unicorn ride too. While that gullibility is not completely unknown on the right side of the voting booth, it is rampant these days among the socially oriented majority of American voters. After all, if nearly half of Americans don't have to pay any taxes, but still get free stuff (and often cash) back from the government, why shouldn't one believe in unicorns? Money obviously grows on trees somewhere, and the guy who promises to keep it coming to them will always get more votes than some grouchy pessimist who says it can't go on forever.

         Whatever the results of the 2012 election, the Republicans we know so well will keep right on keeping on with business as usual. (I'm not even going to go into Democrat lala-land). Even many of the regular attendees at TEA party public meetings believe Social Security is sacrosanct, and cannot be questioned, or debated. All the other national medical freebies, same story. Actual conservative hobbits who can do simple math are a distinct minority, and a candidate who wants to get enough votes to win an election must continuously keep on duping the suckers. The only way that will change is when the impact of reality crashes in on individual Americans, and they face the realization that their own wishful thinking got them this deep in the hole. That is going to take hard times and fundamental revisions, which (as witness this weekends voting) will always be postponed by those who got into a position to choose. No one individual is directing this to happen; it is the representation of the will of the people, and will continue until the brick wall of economic reality eventually stops the ride.

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