The One Thing The GOP Has Missed

The debt drama has turned into a total cluster@$%!

Everybody's gotten lost in the weeds on this plan or that plan, who's up, who's down, where's the Waldo in the White House, etc. There's only one group that hasn't fallen into the chaos: the Democrats. Why? Because they've orchestrated the timing from the beginning.

Here's the one big point the Republicans have missed:

THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN A ONE-DAY GAME. The whole game has been to start at the end. The goal was to set a deadline---arbitrary as it is---August 2, and THEN be the last one to put a plan out. As long as Harry Reid can play the last card at the last minute, he's able to control the whole thing. He's able to put the burden on the Republicans (in his own chamber and in the House), and say, "Well? What are you going to do? Are you going to let the country go down? Are you going to force the government into a partial shutdown?" The bluff will be called, and it's not Obama's bluff. It's the Republicans'.

In other words, he who controls the final day controls the whole game. EVERYTHING TO THIS POINT HAS BEEN IRRELEVANT.

This has been Obama's game. This is why he fell silent and went AWOL this week. He is preparing to alight on the scene to propose or bless a Democrat plan at the last minute. This is also why neither he nor the Democrats have put out any plans of their own. Republicans are pounding them for their lack of plans and leadership. But the Democrats know EXACTLY what they're doing. It's always been against their interest to put forth "plans" because "plans" would've only allowed the Republicans to counter with a demand that they budge. And they've got no intention of budging on anything.

So the GOP has negotiated against itself while the Democrats have been sitting quietly. Reid "removed" tax hikes from the equation, but Obama did not. There was a method to that supposed madness. Reid will now add those terms to some form of the Boehner plan, and then Obama will either accept that or add terms of his own.

The Republicans have once again put themselves into a box. They have created the very problem they sought to avoid: being held responsible for the finale.

Nothing has ever mattered but the last day or so. The GOP should have stuck it out the way the Democrats have and begun NOW with Cut, Cap and Balance. But alas, it's too late.

We're getting to the last day, a day Obama set in place on purpose so he could play this very game. The Republicans stumbled blindly into it, and now they'll be stuck with the consequences.

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Stop "Son of Boehner"

Speaker of the House John Boehner put forth an ill-conceived plan after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid killed the ONLY plan that would deal with the debt for real: Cut, Cap and Balance. Why the onus is STILL on the House GOP after they passed a repeal of ObamaCare, a 2012 budget with real structural reforms, and Cut, Cap and Balance is beyond me. But here they are, falling into the trap of producing yet another plan that is actually worse than bad. Boehner's first draft "cut" a measly $850 billion over 10 years. Excuse me....where is the $1.2 trillion he promised?

When all Hades broke loose, he went back to the drawing board and produced the Son of Boehner, a second draft which supposedly "cuts" $917 billion. To put this in perspective, the federal government spends $10 billion A DAY.

This plan is truly awful. Here's my pal Erick Erickson at RedState.com explaining why it must be torpedoed this morning:

"John Boehner's plan will get to the Senate. Harry Reid's plan isn't even in final form and has not even started making its way through the Senate's arcane processes. It is a trap.

"Harry Reid will amend John Boehner's plan and include parts of Reid's own plan that make tax increases even more likely than Boehner's already does.

"Senate Democrats last night were beginning to talk about adding the Gang of Six's very bad plan to it as well - a trigger that would be engaged should the Democrats then refuse to reform entitlements, i.e. a trigger the Democrats will gladly engage because the Gang of Six plan raises taxes, including getting rid of the employer credit for active duty military reservists and raising the capital gains tax from 15% to 28%.

"Then the Senate Democrats will send John Boehner back his own plan and dare John Boehner to kill his very own proposal. Should he try, the GOP will look as hardline and unwilling to compromise as John Boehner's acolytes have been accusing conservatives of being this week.

"In other words, John Boehner, once he sends his plan to the Senate, will yet again get played and the GOP will be forced to either accept Harry Reid's awful changes or be blamed for causing the nation's default - the very thing the GOP has sought to avoid.

"Oh, and should the GOP fold and pass the modified Boehner plan, they'll still get blamed for us losing our credit rating. Even with Boehner's revisions, the Congressional Budget Office says the plan doesn't cut even $1 trillion. It doesn't meet S&P's requirements.

"Well done, Republicans.

"The only thing we can do is call our congressmen and prevent them from voting for this suicide pact."

RedState.com has set up an Action Center from which you can call your member of Congress to stop the Boehner plan. Go to www.RedState.com/action and call them ASAP. Tell them to oppose the Boehner plan and to FIGHT for Cut, Cap and Balance. Before it's too late.

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We Worried About It...And Here It Is

For those of us who know the Republican party so well, we sensed disaster around every turn of this debt drama. We prayed that they would remember what got them control of the House of Representatives last November: a true commitment to slashing spending, capping the level of spending going forward, and ensuring that all future budgets would be balanced. At every step of this spectacle, we worried that the GOP leadership in particular would falter, go back to their old ways of going along to get along, making deals with Democrats that sold the rest of us down the river. The Tea Party members, we weren't worried about. They got it. But the leadership? We were so worried about them that we have been screaming at them the words of the great Margaret Thatcher: "Don't go wobbly" on us!

Watching the GOP leaders go mano-a-mano with President Obama has been like watching a little old lady cross an icy sidewalk and praying that she didn't wipe out.

This has been exhausting. And don't think Obama doesn't know it. He's playing a long game. He's trying to wear down Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor with his intransigence, lies, flip-flopping, veto threats, and drama-queen appearances. He thinks if he can just wait them out with his madness, he'll wear them down to a nub. Perhaps he's learned something from the Taliban after all.

The "wear 'em out, wear 'em down" strategy seems to be working. Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office score for Boehner's plan was released, and I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. Setting aside the ridiculous joke of a commission to lay out future cuts (which will never materialize) and future tax hikes (which definitely will), the CBO says that Boehner's plan doesn't even manage to cut a TRILLION over ten years.

But wait. It gets worse.

The Boehner "savings" are backloaded (like all of the ObamaCare costs and taxes and government control): The deficit would be "cut" by a measly $1 billion in 2012. Yes, you read that right. $1 billion the first year. To put this in perspective, the federal government spends more than $10 billion A DAY!

In 2012, we're up to a whopping $26 billion in "cuts." In 2014, it climbs to $57 billion and to $73 billion in 2015, rising all the way to a staggering $153 billion in 2021. Ooohh! Don't cut all at once, now. I don't know why Obama is threatening to veto this bill since it literally cuts nothing.

$153 billion is what we should be cutting in one day...this week.

This proposal is pathetic, dodgy, and insulting. It's almost on par with Obama's 2012 budget, from which, by the way, Boehner would only trim about $30 billion. That would be out of a proposed Obama budget of $3.8 TRILLION that was so absurd it got voted down in the Senate, 97-0.

Boehner and others are arguing that this is the best we can get, given that they control only one-half of one-third of the government. But is it really true that the best we can muster is $1 billion in cuts this year? The government sneezes and spends more. Apparently, Boehner realizes the bill has nearly zero in "cuts" because he's re-writing it to include them. He's also postponed the vote on it until tomorrow at the earliest.

So guys: we've feared the GOP cave, and here it is. The Boehner plan is a joke, but it may, in fact, be the best we can get---and how pathetic is THAT?. It will also probably die in the Senate or when/if it ever reaches Obama's desk. Time for another Tea Party, it seems.

The King's Speech

Some thoughts on President Obama's speech to the nation last night on the debt crisis that he created:

1. He began by blaming President Bush (soooo 2008) on tax rates (which he extended) and the prescription drug benefit entitlement (which he supported). Cannot believe that he's STILL blaming Bush. Did someone forget to change his batteries? Are his speechwriters just too busy playing shirtless beer pong? Or is he really that petty in his obsession with throwing his predecessor down the stairs?

2. Says he: "I won't bore you with the details of every plan or proposal." Because HE has neither a plan nor a proposal.

3. He talks about spending cuts as if he actually intends to follow through on them. LOL. What a shameless liar.

4. STILL pushing tax hikes?? Spoken like a true deaf, dumb, and blind wealth redistributing ideologue. The ONLY person in Washington still gassing around about tax increases is Barack Obama.

5. He unloads on the Republicans when he has NO PLAN of his own. That's not presidential leadership. That's just playground finger-pointing.

6. STILL pounding "hedge fund" guys and "corporate jet owners?" Oh yes, because they're TOTALLY the root of the debt problem.

7. STILL lecturing us about how "millionaires and billionaires should pay their fair share?" Not only are they major job creators, but they already pay the VAST majority of federal income taxes. If he wants to talk about "fairness," why not discuss the 47% of Americans who pay NO federal income tax AT ALL and thus have no skin in the game? Fairness, my butt. Plus, according to Obama, you're a "millionaire" if you make $200,000 a year. Either he failed math or he's a raging radical Marxist.

8. Says he: "Raising the debt ceiling was routine." But he voted AGAINST doing so in 2007.

9. STOP using the word "default!" There will be no such thing if no deal is reached on or before the arbitrary date of August 2. The feds take in about $175 billion a month. Debt service is about $25 billion a month. I know he failed math, but gee whiz. Not only will there be no default, there will be plenty of dough to cover Social Security, Medicare, the military, and other essential services. Whenever he fearmongers by invoking "default," he's lying.

10. He refers to the "dangerous game" of the debt negotiations. But the true "dangerous game" has been his out of control spending and massive expansion of government that are wholly unsustainable and bankrupting America.

11. The class warfare BS is so anti-American as to be borderline treasonous.

12. Last week, he told us that he wasn't "even thinking about re-election." Set aside the nearly 40 fundraisers he has held/attended for his re-election over the past few months. Last night, he delivered a full-on campaign speech: political, partisan, and meant to persuade voters, not Congress. Not thinking about his re-election?? He really thinks we're stupid.

13. He refers to achieving "a more perfect union." Do you know what he ACTUALLY means by that? He means changing America into a socialist nation. That's what he means by "more perfect."

Read Number 13 again. That's not only the most important point to take away from his speech last night. It's the most important point about this psychotic Marxist's presidency, period.

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Here's The "Compromise"

There is great gnashing of teeth and renting of clothing in Washington and in the media over the lack (so far) of a deal to reduce our monstrous spending and suffocating debt. The so-called elites are running around yammering about "compromise" and the need for more of it. The assumption is that compromise for the sake of compromise is an inherently good thing. The truth is that compromise usually leads to a bad deal with unintended and disastrous consequences.

When the Democrats controlled the White House and both houses of Congress for two years, they not only refused to compromise with Republicans, they mocked the very idea of it by barring the GOP from meetings, debate, and offering amendments. They railroaded Republicans every which way 'til Tuesday. Like the YouTube-famous honey badger, they didn't care. That was their idea of "compromise."

As a result, we've had two years of their unalloyed policies. And we see the result: anemic economic growth, staggering spending and debt, sky-high and stubborn unemployment, unprecedented new entitlements and regulations, businesses unable to grow, and trillions sitting on the sidelines until the higher costs and uncertainty of doing business subside. That means a change at the top in 2012.

We've tried it their way. They and their policies have been abject failures.

Now it's THEIR time to compromise.

Obama and the Dems have spun this masterfully as a compromise between tax hikes and spending cuts. I'll give you spending cuts if you give me tax increases. That is exactly the WRONG formulation. The Republicans should have stopped that nonsense spin long ago.

Here's the REAL compromise: in exchange for the raising of the debt ceiling the Democrats want, the Republicans demand Cut, Cap and Balance. Period.

This is not an exchange about spending cuts versus tax increases. This is about a debt level hike in exchange for policies that will prevent the United States from getting into this crisis again in a year or two. The Democrats don't want to agree to that compromise for many reasons, but primarily because they want to continue to be able to put the gun to our heads. Every 2 years, we'll have another debt crisis, and every 2 years, the GOP will have to cave in on tax hikes, etc etc.

Cut, Cap, and Balance puts an end to that cycle of Democrat extortion. That's why they're doing everything possible to torpedo it. That's why Harry Reid said this week that it's "the worst piece of legislation" in history. He seriously said that. Now you know why.

The Republicans MUST NOT GO WOBBLY. This is the moment.

No compromise, unless it's the one laid out above. No wimpiness. No mercy. No surrender.

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Tempest In A Headache

So Michele Bachmann gets migraines. You would've thought that Obama had stubbed his toe, the way the left-wing media covered it. Stop the presses! Big breaking news! Congresswoman Bachmann suffers from migraines and the media flips out, some of whom chase after her, "demanding" answers about her condition: is it debilitating? Has she ever missed a House vote because of it? Could she perform as Commander-in-Chief? Is this a disqualifying situation for her?

Let's review:

President Obama has NEVER released his medical file. (Or his college records, or law school records, or college financing records, or law school financing records, or his Selective Service file, or....you get the picture). And the media has never asked for them, never pressed him for them---even though he's been a lifelong smoker. After Senator McCain became the GOP nominee, the media demanded his medical records because he had had melanoma, and they wanted to investigate whether he was physically able to literally survive in office. But the heavy smoker Obama? Not interested at all in his health.

President Clinton managed to go through eight years in the White House without having to reveal his medical records. This, despite a ---shall we say---very active social life. He kept his health records sealed, and the media never pressed for them. He could have been crawling with every STD known to man, but the media wasn't at all curious. And how about that ticker? After the presidency, Clinton literally almost dropped dead from a severe heart issue. Would have been nice to know if it existed while he was president, no?

Throughout American history, our presidents have suffered from all manner of ailments: Jefferson and Grant experienced migraines. Eisenhower had grave heart problems, even having several heart attacks while in office. Lincoln suffered from what we now know as depression. Kennedy suffered from a host of medical problems, including Addison's disease and colitis, for which he took a whopping 12 drugs (that we know of), including codeine, Demerol, barbituates, and two anti-anxiety drugs.

And yet, Michele Bachmann is singled out for having the occasional migraine. She's a super-smart woman and a tough cookie. She knows that viciousness and brutality come with the territory of running for president. But was she prepared for this? Maybe not. Because this is the old-school "woman as hysteric" attack. Opponents (on our side or theirs) who can't beat her based on ideas or personality must attack her for her headaches. You know, the old "she's too emotional" line. Next thing you know, they'll be slamming her for getting "the vapors."

A new Wall Street Journal poll shows her gaining nationally. She's now running second behind Mitt Romney. No wonder the long knives are out.

To Michele: hang tough. The conservative sisterhood (and brotherhood) are behind you. The more they attack you, the more ground you gain.

To the pathetic press: take two and don't call us in the morning.