And Senator Paul congratulates them – from NRO’s The Corner:
Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) tells National Review Online that he supports the 59 House Republicans who broke with leadership and opposed the Boehner-White House spending deal this afternoon. “Are we really cutting anything? What have we cut?” he asks. “The people back home want to know whether we are spending more money this year than last year. I try to look at it in those terms. And I think the people are with us.”…
It is always hard to buck the leadership and so those House Republicans who did stand firm on principal should be encouraged and defended. I’m not one of those who think that the deal was a loss for us – on balance, it was a victory. But more than who won or lost, the most important thing about it is that it shows the Democrats will not go to the mat and have a shut down. Therein lies our strongest weapon and our leverage to get genuine budget cuts – if the GOP leadership realizes it and has the courage to act upon it.
Right now, Big Government liberals have their backs to the wall – the nation is bankrupt, the people are not interested in new spending programs, tax hikes won’t help anyone win an election. Class warfare rhetoric wears thin and Obama is increasingly being tuned out by the American people. As 2012 comes in, Democrats face defeat – and their risk is that what could be a standard political defeat turns in to an electoral wipe out they’ll be a generation recovering from. This is especially the case if the economy slides back in to recession – doubly so if the GOP also finds a first class candidate to oppose Obama. Democrats have this quandary – keep their liberal base satisfied with government spending while also not alienating the center which wants spending cut. This is a circle I don’t think they can square.
And because of that, we hold all the cards – we are the party out of power (our control of the House doesn’t make us “in power”; it is whomever holds the White House who is “in power”); we are the people with a historical identification with low taxes, spending cuts and free market economics; we are a party filled with new members and vibrant, grass-roots organizations. We are not defending a dying status quo – we are the revolution; the breath of fresh air. At least, all this is true if we act as though it is…if we timidly hope to thread the electoral needle just to win in 2012 for the sake of winning, we’ll be resigning most of our advantages. We have to fight, and fight hard, for the real change Americans want.
A dying Ruling Class is defending it’s crumbling bastions; a revolutionary army awaits leadership…what will come in 2012? I don’t really know – I’ve never in my life seen a man and a party more vulnerable to crushing defeat than Barack Obama and the Democrat party. But even the most vulnerable survive if they are not attacked, or not attacked with sufficient sense and vigor. Time will tell if we seized our opportunities.
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