Greetings!
Like you, I’ve listened in frustration to the myopic “debate” concerning the debt ceiling. The only goal I’ve heard clearly expressed is that we’ve got to slash spending to get our budget balanced, but the effects of that “balanced” budget are pretty hazy. One person who has expressed a clear vision of government is Grover Norquist, the Republican kingmaker who says he wants to “shrink government to the point where it can be drowned in a bathtub.”
Grover commands Republican candidates to sign an oath of allegiance to oppose tax increases. Not to oppose bad programs, or to work toward a balanced budget, or to cut wasteful spending, but to oppose all tax increases, in all cases, however necessary, whatever the cost. And these candidates either sign the pledge or they find themselves facing a primary candidate who will.
Here’s the oath sworn by House and Senate representatives…
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
See anything about Grover Norquist in there? Me neither.
We borrowed the money for millionaire welfare in the form of tax cuts, unnecessary wars, Medicare part “D” give-a- ways and bailouts for the richest in our society, and now the Republican leadership wants to repay it on the backs of the poor and working class, gutting promised benefits and needed social programs. Our budget will never be balanced by cuts alone. The reality is we have a revenue problem and a spending problem. Responsible representatives must balance those two needs based on the interests of the people.
If your goal is a society that works for the vast majority of the people and lives within its means, that’s a very complex task requiring creativity, flexibility, and the ability to make tough choices. If your goal is to drown government and the weakest of our society in a bathtub, then it’s as easy as signing a pledge.
The actual governing of a society is always more complicated than the “two word culture” we live in, regardless of what Grover would have us believe.
Make a great day,
