In the movie "A Few Good Men", our hero, Tom Cruise, is grilling Jack Nicholson's Marine Colonel character and demanding the truth. Old Jack, he of the manic cinematic wonder, sticks his chin in the air and pronounces that Tom and his ilk can't handle the truth. The scene is memorable because it defines a truth that is undeniable; most people just don't want to hear the truth if that truth proves to be unsettling.
Flash forward to the year 2009. The Democrats control both houses of Congress by overwhelming margins. Free to liberate their eternal need to expand federal spending, the Democrats pass a trillion dollar stimulus plan, with more pork than a Hormel factory. What is missing from that legislative session is a budget. In total disregard of U.S. law, the Congress fails to even bring up a Democratic budget for a vote. Oh sure, the Republicans submitted proposed budgets from both the House and the Senate but Pelosi and Reid refuse to bring those budgets to the House or Senate floor.
Why were the Dems unwilling to vote on a budget for 2009? Stand by for that answer.
Flash forward a year. The American people are getting a bit worried about the massive spending and the massive national debt. So the mid-term elections arrive and Republicans regain control of the House. The Republicans, perceiving that Americans are strong enough to accept the truth, propose a budget that calls for reining in excessive spending by cutting the waste, fraud and abuse from federal programs. Congressman Paul Ryan puts together a budget out of the House. The most telling truth from Ryan's budget is that entitlement spending has now reached two thirds of all government revenue. Ryan proposed cutting the level of government bureaucracy by trimming federal waste and turning both funding and management of many of our social programs back to the states.
Ryan's budget was dead on arrival in the Senate. Harry Reid refused to even bring the bill up for a vote in the Senate. What was the Democratic alternative? None. 2011 came and went and the Democrats still refused to pass a federal budget.
As 2012 arrived many Americans began to be very concerned that our Congress was not doing their job. President Obama, ever the politician, decided if he wanted to get re-elected, it might be a good idea to show some responsibility and submit his own version of an annual budget. Sure it was full of smoke and mirrors but at least it was something. The Senate's response? The Democrat controlled Senate voted down their own President's budget by a vote of 97-0. Again this year the Senate refused to develop a budget. Three straight years without a Congressional budget! And the Dems will propose no budget at all for this year either!
Why would the Dems leave the House budget dead on arrival and why won't the Dems propose their own budget?
Why indeed! Like Jack Nicholson's character, Pelosi and Reid know that Americans can't' handle "the truth!" If the Democrats were to put their spending on paper, where the American people could read it, the Dems would lose both the Whitehouse and both houses of Congress by a landslide!
Why? Because, with a printed budget, the Dems would have to finally admit that all of those government freebies being thrown out there to win votes are not sustainable! While responsible legislators are citing the excessive costs of Social Security, Medicare, Welfare and Medicaid the Dems won't tell you the truth because, if they did, they would lose the voter constituencies that keep them in power.
Both Republicans and Democrats know that our banker, China, has already began to exert pressure on the U.S. government to get their financial house in order. They threaten to stop buying our bonds if we don't. Financial regulators have already degraded ours debt rating and threaten to lower it again if Congress does not act to get spending under control.
Google the term "demagogue", folks. The Democrats, having failed to responsibly manage our federal budget, are running on a platform based on scaring the American voter; grandma thrown over the cliff, college students losing their student loans and little munchkins standing on the street corner begging for bread crumbs, all to come true if America elects a Republican President and a Republican controlled Congress.
Jack Nicholson may be right; maybe Americans can't handle the truth. After all, millions of Americans are buying the Democrat's line. Never mind that, if we were to tax all millionaires at a 100% tax rate, the increased revenue would only pay 6% of the massive Democratic deficit spending.
So, let's allow Obama to promote class warfare....and now race warfare. Let's ignore the annual trillion dollar deficits. Let's swallow Obamacare and take on an additional $10 trillion dollars added to our current $16 trillion dollar debt. Let's reward Democrats for not being responsible enough to pass a federal budget for three years running.
After all, if we were to face the truth it would be far too painful to accept. Let's see, come November, if old "Colonel Jack" was right: We can't handle the truth.
1 comment:
Well said - thank you.
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