The Democrats have been screaming for months that not raising the debt ceiling will result in “economic Armageddon,” but they have never offered a single plan to raise the debt ceiling without continuing our unsustainable budget deficits. In fact, President Obama’s official spokesmouth, Jay Carney, admitted that Obama has not offered a specific plan. (And don’t start about the fake Reid “plan,” which uses smoke and mirrors to pretend to cut spending by cutting future funds that were never really going to be spent in the first place. Note that Reid has not put his “plan” before the Senate for a vote even though, as Senate Majority Leader, he personally controls the Senate’s agenda and can do so any time he wants.)
The Republicans, on the other hand have offered numerous detailed and specific plans to raise the debt ceiling while avoiding continued reckless budget deficits. The most responsible of those plans, Cut, Cap and Balance, was passed by the House and then summarily killed by the Democrats in the Senate.
The Speaker of the House then offered a more modest plan – so modest that he has struggled to get support for it from conservatives in his own caucus who want to solve the crisis and not merely put a Band-Aid on it. But the Democrats unanimously oppose this plan as well – while still refusing to offer a serious and intellectually honest plan of their own.
Tonight, the House Republican leadership delayed and ultimately cancelled a scheduled vote on Speaker Boehner’s plan, presumably because they could not muster enough votes in the Republican caucus to pass it. One would think that the Democrats, who have screamed that failing to raise the debt ceiling will result in old people not getting Social Security and health benefits, military personnel not getting paid, and the wars not being funded, would work solemnly under these circumstances to help resolve the impasse and develop a reasonable and feasible plan to raise the debt ceiling while ending runaway budget deficits.
One would be wrong.
Tonight, while the vote on the Boehner plan was delayed, but before it was cancelled, one of my Bearing Drift colleagues personally saw House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi and 2004 Democrat presidential nominee Senator John Kerry dining together at a Chinese restaurant in DC. He described Pelosi as “exceedingly happy” and “happy as a clam” and Kerry as “calm and talking other business.”
So, while the Republicans were struggling to gather votes in support of the only viable plan in existence to avoid what those same Democrats have described as “economic Armageddon,” the highest leaders of the Democrat Party were celebrating its failure and making no effort whatsoever to offer a plan of their own.
It is hard to point to any occasion in American history that compares to the entire leadership of a major American political party – a party that holds the presidency and controls the Senate – so utterly neglecting their responsibilities while their country faces grave danger. Today’s Democrats would make Emperor Nero blush.
