Over the last several days, opinionated editorial sections across the country have been filled with advocates for compromise and bipartisanship over the mess Washington finds itself in. Major national newspapers have focused on the failures of Congress and the infighting between and within political parties. This lineage of argumentation misses the entire reason we are where we are.
The current situation, the government shutdown and looming default, is not the failure of Congress or Congressional Democrats. The situation before the country rests solely on the back of Tea Party Republicans and a failure of leadership and political courage from House GOP leadership.
House Republicans thought they were very clever to sit at a table waiting for Senate Democrats to go to conference so that they could hash out their respective differences. I find this laughable, but also disturbing. The entire summer, Senate Democrats tried to go to conference to work toward a long-term budget so this mess could be avoided, but the likes of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Tea Party Republicans refused to do so out of fear that conference would mean the GOP would have to compromise. “Compromise,” what a dirty word…
House Republicans are so scared of compromise that they even changed the House rules so that only Republicans can make a motion for a vote on clean continuing resolution.
What is even more telling is that Democrats have made concessions, specifically on annual discretionary spending limits while the GOP has not moved the slightest inch. The 2014 Senate Budget set discretionary spending at a little under $1.06 trillion while Rep. Paul Ryan’s, R-Wis., 2014 budget set that total to $967 billion. The continuing resolution Democrats have passed in the Senate sets discretionary spending for 2014 at $986 billion.
That is a reduction of almost 7 percent from the Democrats original mark. The $986 billion is an 18 percent reduction from the spending the original Obama budget called for. This is a fact that the mainstream, “liberal” media has failed to report. This compromise is dangerous to a country that so desperately needs to invest in itself. To say the president and Senate Democrats have refused to negotiate is, as Vice President Joe Biden would say, “a bunch of malarkey.”
Democrats have never said they won’t pass a clean continuing resolution or raise the debt ceiling with equal budget savings. Only extreme right Republicans have. Tea Party Republicans came to D.C. in 2010 on the sole purpose to shut down the government and to reduce the size of government at any means necessary, even if that meant shutting down the government and destroying U.S. credit.
Tea Party Republicans have little or no remorse for what devastation their actions have had on middle class Americans. Just look to Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Tex., who told a National Park Service ranger she should be ashamed of herself for not allowing World War II veterans to see the memorial. Well shame on Neugebauer and his party! It is his party’s unwillingness to negotiate and accept discretionary spending concessions that caused those veterans to be blocked from the memorial.
There is a way out of this whole mess. House Speaker John Boehner could put the continuing resolution that Senate Democrats have passed, which puts discretionary spending almost identical to the Ryan budget, on the House Floor. Just like Hurricane Sandy disaster relief and the Violence Against Women Act, there is enough support in the House.
Instead of fighting child poverty in America or passing a bipartisan immigration bill, issues that will greatly improve the livelihood of all Americans, Boehner caters to Tea Party Republicans. These Republicans have realized that they can’t have their way and just like a toddler, they are throwing a temper tantrum. Well enough is enough; President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats must continue to stand strong against an extremist and out-of-touch approach to government.
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