An open letter to our Republican congressional leaders: Do not reward Obama for creating the debt ceiling “crisis”
By Ken Falkenstein | Thursday, July 7th, 2011 | PolicyDear Speaker Boehner, Congressman Cantor, and Senator McConnell:
At your meeting on Thursday, President Obama is going to try to pressure you to reward him for his prior statist victories by giving him the tax increases that he has coveted throughout his term and by limiting cuts in the federal spending that he has so dramatically increased. It is critical for our country that you stand firm and give him an unequivocal answer of no.
President Obama and his leftist news media allies act as if it is mere happenstance that we have reached the current debt ceiling. It is time for our Republican leaders to challenge this narrative by vigorously and tirelessly asserting the truth: Barack Obama and his fellow leftist Democrats in Congress intentionally drove us to this point and must not be rewarded for doing so.
Movement leftists like Barack Obama and his congressional Democrats are singularly focused on one objective – putting the government in control of as many people’s lives as possible.
To that end, President Obama and his Democrat supermajorities in the previous congress stole $1.3 trillion from our kids (including interest) to give political handouts to their labor union sponsors in the name of “stimulus,” took over entire automobile companies, nationalized all student loans, regulated banks to the point that they now refuse to loan money, and imposed on the American people a health care scheme designed to destroy private sector insurance companies and lead to a socialized health care system.
Now, after tripling the deficit and increasing a national debt that had accumulated over a period of 232 years by sixty percent in a period of less than 2 years, President Obama seeks to appear above the fray, a statesman trying to close a partisan divide that he and his leftist establishment news media allies would have us believe exists only among congressional partisans.
You, our Republican leaders, have an obligation to not let them get away with this shameless and untruthful propaganda.
Of the many contrivances perpetuated by leftist Democrats and their news media allies in recent years, this is by far the biggest and boldest whopper: The truth is that it was Barack Obama and his leftist Democrat congressional allies who were specifically and purposefully responsible for our having reached the debt ceiling this year. But for their actions in the previous congress, the country would be nowhere near reaching the debt ceiling this year. And so, because this is a contrived crisis that is deliberately of their making, the burden to make political sacrifices to deal with this contrived crisis lies entirely with President Obama and his congressional Democrats.
But leftists pride themselves in never letting a good crisis go to waste – especially one that they deliberately crafted for the purpose of advancing their statist agenda, and in that vein, Obama and his leftist congressional Democrat allies are using their contrived crisis as an opportunity to try to have even more of their statist agenda imposed on the American people by seeking to confiscate even more of our income to support the statist programs that they have already imposed on us.
You must not let them do so.
The difference between the two parties is no longer the traditional honest disagreement about whether the government can play a modest role in helping people at the margins. The Democrat Party under Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid is now a party of radical movement leftists that have as their agenda the objective of enacting policies at every turn designed to force as many people as possible under government control.
The current battle over raising the debt ceiling is a pivotal moment for our country. Are we going to accept the statist programs imposed on the country in the past two years and help the Democrats to fund and sustain those programs and use them as launching points to further expand government control over the American people? Or are we going to make our stand, here and now, and fight to return our country to one of limited representative constitutional government based on freedom and individual responsibility?
The actions of you, our Republican leaders, at Thursday’s meeting will answer these questions.
President Obama twice snubbed the Senate Republicans by declining Senator McConnell’s invitation for him to meet with them. Obama’s stated reason was that he already knew your position that raising taxes is off the table and that coming to hear and discuss that position with you would be pointless. He now demands that you attend his meeting with no ultimatums even as he imposes one on you that taxes must be increased as part of any deal.
And shockingly, Senator Jon Kyl and Congressman Cantor have announced – before they even walked in the door to Thursday’s meeting – that congressional Republicans will indeed reward President Obama for forcing a debt ceiling “crisis” by agreeing to some tax increases.
Why??? Do you have no core principles at all on which you are willing to stand and fight?
You now stand ready to concede President Obama’s premise that the current situation merely happened and that each side must make sacrifices to address it. But as I discussed above, the truth is that the current situation was caused purposefully and deliberately by Barack Obama and his leftist Democrat congressional allies for the purpose of advancing their statist agenda. So, if you now agree to the demands of President Obama and his leftist Democrat congressional allies to raise taxes, you will be rewarding them all over again for their prior statist victories.
I am a Republican because the Republican Party’s stated purpose is to fight for the responsible limited constitutional government in which I believe. If you, our party’s leaders, are not willing to make this fight when it counts the most, then the Republican Party serves no purpose at all.
If you truly believe in the principles of the Republican Party – the principles on which our country was founded and rose to greatness – the principles of freedom and individual responsibility – then now is the time to fight for those principles because now is the time when they are most endangered.
This means standing up to President Obama at the meeting on Thursday and stating firmly and unequivocally that taxes are not going to be increased; that, in fact, spending is going to be dramatically curtailed, and government programs – specifically including ObamaCare – are going to be scaled down and eliminated.
And this means vigorously fighting this battle in the arena of public opinion by tirelessly working to remind the American people that this debt ceiling “crisis” was created entirely and deliberately by the Democrats and that accordingly any “sacrifices” that are needed to avert the crisis must be made by the Democrats who created this “crisis.”
This is your moment, and now is the time to be firm in defense of freedom. Stand up for the American people by standing up to President Obama and the leftist Democrat congressional leaders, and do not back down. Your country needs you to be strong now more than ever.
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About the author
Ken Falkenstein has been a staffer in the United States Senate and the Virginia House of Delegates. He has managed political campaigns. He was a military intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army in West Germany during the Cold War. He is currently a civil litigation attorney with Poole Mahoney, P.C. in Virginia Beach. But his concern for his kids' future is what most informs his writing.
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11 Responses to "An open letter to our Republican congressional leaders: Do not reward Obama for creating the debt ceiling “crisis”"
How sad that you even need to write such a message.
Yes, let us all reach out to our extremist bretheren on this page. The last few days have been disheartening at best, disastrous at worst. We already know President Reagon raised taxes for the good on the nation, and now we know that Boehner/Cantor will too. We also found out that the republican think tank offensive against Medicaid is flat out wrong; Medicaid works, it reduces overall health care costs, and those who are eligible but don’t have it due to cuts get higher cost care in emergency rooms for which we pay more anyway. And here in Hampton Roads, those who have said we will lose more military if our transportation problems are not solved have been proven to be correct. So reach out to posters like BK; offer your condolences. His world is crumbling around him. Thank goodness.
Politics is the successful art of compromise in our two party system. Hence, a bipartisan solution must be achieved to reach resolve, with executive branch approval, and be effective. Cantor’s direction is the benchmark of poor leadership by drawing arm-twisting line-in-the-sand ultimatums. At this juncture, he is ineffective. His press releases and public commentaries will not accomplish anything but disdain and frustration by anyone other than the blind party faithful. All thing being equal, as the Aug 2nd deadline approaches, I believe true and responsible legislators will break ranks and Cantor will capitulate and cease that over-used repetitive idiotism “kick the can down the road”.
Lets all sing Kumbaya and recite our pledge of allegiance. One party under Goldman Sachs…
Still no crooks in jail. Cooch and friends negotiating away 200 years of property law. And old geezers get all the blame while politicians ‘compromise’ your freedom in a back room.
Cowardice runs rampant in the rinospphere of Cantor’s GOP. I expect nothing less than compromise and more broken promises in the face of Obsama bullying him face to face for tax increases. President Barry Soetero remains hell bent on continuing to destroy our economy as do his supporters who I am also tired of supporting with my taxes. Until we have had enough with electeds who say one thing to us to get elected then break ranks with us by compromising on priciple, the pattern will not change.
Until our party has the guts to cut Obamas moochers off financially until they pay some of their fair share and share the load and feel the same pain, the bs will not end. Screw em, yeah I said that.. Call me heartless.
Perhaps the best way to solve this problem would be to hire some leading Chinese Communist Party economists. They seem to have a better understanding of real world economics then most of the silly democrats in DC with their radical economic fantasies.
So now we see the negative effect on job creation and the economy from the gloating of all those Governors who reveled in cutting their payrolls; private job growth continues, but overall rates are held in check by loss of jobs in the government sector. That is, teachers, fireman, policeman, health care workers, etc. The effect of these job losses is felt on main street, not on Wall Street, so CEOs of international conglomerates could care less. But those who think that less government equals a better economy don’t realize the connectedness of the entire economy. If jobs aren’t needed, by all means, they should go, but firings to meet political objectives have serious consequences.
“Why??? Do you have no core principles at all on which you are willing to stand and fight?”
Yes they have principles: maintain the status quo at all costs. That is what they get paid to do. This point has been amply illustrated time and again, and is about to be yet again.
Watch for it.
So Ken, what advice do you have to offer now? Having seen the republican majority in the House reveal for all to see that the deficit doesn’t matter one bit to them. They are simply sheep in Norquist’s flock; that is, they are willing to create default, recession, class warfare, and dissolution of civility by refusing to participate in a grand compromise that would stabilize the markets, reassure investors, stimulate employment and investment, and reduce the deficit and the debt. You say…Do not back down… in full recognition of the consequences for our nation which for centuries has been based upon negotiation and compromise. Do you really mean it?
Mike Barrett,
When Abe Lincoln was elected, the South did not back down and we ended up with the Civil War.
I am starting to wonder if we are headed towards something similar now?
why can’t all the bickering back and forth stop? the republian congress needs to start working with the president instead of blocking him just because he’s a democrat. we are all in this mess together and we all need to just do what’s right for our country and work together to find a solution, please…so many of us depend on our small social security checks. if i don’t get mine this month, i will be homeless. i am very poor and have learned how to live on very little, please don’t take away the last lifeline some of us have left, please!
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