from Human Events:
Resolve Against Resolutions
Principled freshmen refuse to dodge responsibility any longer.
by John Hayward
03/15/2011
In the course of an interview on local talk radio, Florida Senator Marco Rubio explained his refusal to endorse any more continuing budget resolutions by saying our current debt crisis was not “a surprise that snuck up on anyone.”
Politicians have known this was coming for years. Acting as if federal insolvency was a huge surprise, and they just need a few more weeks to overcome their shock, is a craven lie. Rubio joins Utah Senator Mike Lee, and fellow Floridian Allen West in the House, in refusing to participate in what Rubio calls “absurd political theater.”
The budget debate is the “Spider-Man” of absurd political theater. The lead, an untested actor with zero experience named Barack Obama, refuses to come out of his dressing room, although he occasionally slips absurd demands for $56 billion toy train sets under the door. The Republican leadership keeps flubbing its lines and bursting into tears on stage. The Democrat leadership is trying to stage an entirely different play, one with an unlimited budget. The audience is baffled by the confusing spectacle they paid fourteen trillion dollars to watch, and they can’t help but notice the ushers fiddling with collection baskets and pinning badges that say “PAY YOUR FAIR SHARE” and “INVEST IN AMERICA” onto their uniforms.
In a March 3rd interview with Orlando radio host Jim Turner, Rubio remarked, “this is a terrible way to run a government. This is not usual. Usually, the government passes a budget. The fact of the matter is, not to get overly partisan here, but the Democrats who were in charge here in Washington over the last four years didn’t pass a budget last year. They didn’t even bring a single budget bill to the floor. They pass what they call these continuing resolutions, which is a fancy word for permission to continue to spend money at the same rate. But we don’t have a budget, so that’s the big problem here—there’s no budget in Washington. They’re basically just funding what they used to do in the past, and that’s got to be fixed.”
He’s absolutely right about the “just funding what they used to do in the past” part. The remarkable thing about the Democrats, and a dispiriting number of Republicans, is that they don’t show any sign of understanding that the way government operates must change at a fundamental level. They’re still desperately fighting to protect every bit of Big Government’s turf, right down to the cowboy poetry festivals.
Even the Republicans’ initial proposal for $61 billion in cuts was a modest adjustment to Washington spending, not the revolution we desperately need to stave off insolvency. The Democrat counter-proposal to shave off a mere $6 billion or so was an insult to the American taxpayer. Coupled with the refusal to pass a budget in the last Congress, it speaks of a complete inability to cope with the collapsing system liberals have created over the past few decades.
The last thing we need, in the face of looming catastrophe, is an endless string of petty feuds over continuing resolutions… buying Congress a few more weeks to do something it should have done over a year ago. We don’t need any more Republican votes for another extension of Nancy Pelosi’s deplorable failure to discharge her duty as Speaker of the House.
The current draft of the script for this absurd political theater has the actors scribbling a few minor changes to their lines, and rushing onstage to belt them out without rehearsal… while the burning theater collapses around them. One way or the other, this production is going to close very soon. Sticking around to watch the Democrats and their invisible President pretend otherwise will guarantee us a front-row seat when the roof comes down. Rubio, Lee, and West are bravely manning the emergency exits, and trying to wave us out of the theater with flashlights.
Update: Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana has also announced he will not vote for any more short-term continuing budget resolutions. "Things don't change in Washington, D.C. until they have to. It will not be possible to put our fiscal house in order without a fight," said Pence in a statement released today.
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John Hayward is a staff writer for HUMAN EVENTS, and author of the recently published Doctor Zero: Year One. Follow him on Twitter: Doc_0. Contact him by email at jhayward@eaglepub.com.
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Resolve Against Resolutions
Principled freshmen refuse to dodge responsibility any longer.
by John Hayward
03/15/2011
In the course of an interview on local talk radio, Florida Senator Marco Rubio explained his refusal to endorse any more continuing budget resolutions by saying our current debt crisis was not “a surprise that snuck up on anyone.”
Politicians have known this was coming for years. Acting as if federal insolvency was a huge surprise, and they just need a few more weeks to overcome their shock, is a craven lie. Rubio joins Utah Senator Mike Lee, and fellow Floridian Allen West in the House, in refusing to participate in what Rubio calls “absurd political theater.”
The budget debate is the “Spider-Man” of absurd political theater. The lead, an untested actor with zero experience named Barack Obama, refuses to come out of his dressing room, although he occasionally slips absurd demands for $56 billion toy train sets under the door. The Republican leadership keeps flubbing its lines and bursting into tears on stage. The Democrat leadership is trying to stage an entirely different play, one with an unlimited budget. The audience is baffled by the confusing spectacle they paid fourteen trillion dollars to watch, and they can’t help but notice the ushers fiddling with collection baskets and pinning badges that say “PAY YOUR FAIR SHARE” and “INVEST IN AMERICA” onto their uniforms.
In a March 3rd interview with Orlando radio host Jim Turner, Rubio remarked, “this is a terrible way to run a government. This is not usual. Usually, the government passes a budget. The fact of the matter is, not to get overly partisan here, but the Democrats who were in charge here in Washington over the last four years didn’t pass a budget last year. They didn’t even bring a single budget bill to the floor. They pass what they call these continuing resolutions, which is a fancy word for permission to continue to spend money at the same rate. But we don’t have a budget, so that’s the big problem here—there’s no budget in Washington. They’re basically just funding what they used to do in the past, and that’s got to be fixed.”
He’s absolutely right about the “just funding what they used to do in the past” part. The remarkable thing about the Democrats, and a dispiriting number of Republicans, is that they don’t show any sign of understanding that the way government operates must change at a fundamental level. They’re still desperately fighting to protect every bit of Big Government’s turf, right down to the cowboy poetry festivals.
Even the Republicans’ initial proposal for $61 billion in cuts was a modest adjustment to Washington spending, not the revolution we desperately need to stave off insolvency. The Democrat counter-proposal to shave off a mere $6 billion or so was an insult to the American taxpayer. Coupled with the refusal to pass a budget in the last Congress, it speaks of a complete inability to cope with the collapsing system liberals have created over the past few decades.
The last thing we need, in the face of looming catastrophe, is an endless string of petty feuds over continuing resolutions… buying Congress a few more weeks to do something it should have done over a year ago. We don’t need any more Republican votes for another extension of Nancy Pelosi’s deplorable failure to discharge her duty as Speaker of the House.
The current draft of the script for this absurd political theater has the actors scribbling a few minor changes to their lines, and rushing onstage to belt them out without rehearsal… while the burning theater collapses around them. One way or the other, this production is going to close very soon. Sticking around to watch the Democrats and their invisible President pretend otherwise will guarantee us a front-row seat when the roof comes down. Rubio, Lee, and West are bravely manning the emergency exits, and trying to wave us out of the theater with flashlights.
Update: Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana has also announced he will not vote for any more short-term continuing budget resolutions. "Things don't change in Washington, D.C. until they have to. It will not be possible to put our fiscal house in order without a fight," said Pence in a statement released today.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Hayward is a staff writer for HUMAN EVENTS, and author of the recently published Doctor Zero: Year One. Follow him on Twitter: Doc_0. Contact him by email at jhayward@eaglepub.com.
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