{"id":2314,"date":"2011-07-29T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2011-07-29T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2314"},"modified":"2011-07-29T06:00:22","modified_gmt":"2011-07-29T12:00:22","slug":"tea-party-debt-insufferable-intransigence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2314","title":{"rendered":"The Tea Party, Debt & Insufferable Intransigence"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the resolution of the Debt Ceiling “crisis” coming down to the wire, one thing is certain —\u00a0if both Democrats and the Tea Party oppose a proposed solution, then that is almost\u00a0indisputable evidence that the solution is both conservative\u00a0AND reasonable.\u00a0 And, at this point, the only solution that has any chance of being passed into law and signed by President Obama is one that is the most conservative AND reasonable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s understandable why the Democrats\u00a0—\u00a0who are mostly\u00a0to the left-of-center — and Tea Partiers\u00a0— many of whom are to the far right of center — would oppose that which is conservative\u00a0(Democrat opposed) and reasonable (Tea Partiers).\u00a0 But, in the final climactic days leading up to default day (August 2), both groups appear more willing to allow America to default if they don’t get all that they want and more.<\/p>\n

With divided government, that is simply not going to happen.\u00a0 That is the reality and, reasonable people understand that reality.\u00a0 In today’s National Review Online<\/a>, both Charles Krauthammer (here<\/a>)\u00a0and Mona Charen\u00a0(here<\/a>)\u00a0have spot on articles arguing for the passage of Speaker Boehner’s\u00a0debt reduction plan.\u00a0 In pointing out the obvious, Krauthammer writes:<\/p>\n

“And under our constitutional system, you cannot govern from one house alone. Today\u2019s resurgent conservatism, with its fidelity to constitutionalism, should be particularly attuned to this constraint, imposed as it is by a system of deliberately separated \u2014 and mutually limiting \u2014 powers.\u00a0 Given this reality, trying to force the issue \u2014 trying to turn a blocking minority into a governing authority \u2014 is not just counter-constitutional in spirit but self-destructive in practice.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But, self-destruction behavior\u00a0is exactly what the Tea Party politicians are practicing this week.\u00a0 Instead of supporting Boehner’s plan —\u00a0even if it is not\u00a0ideal — some within the Tea Party Movement would rather stand athwart history and spout nonsense.\u00a0 Much like John Cusack’s tweets<\/a>, the inane things coming out of the mouths of some Senators and Representatives is mind-boggling.\u00a0 Mona Charen shares but a few in her article:<\/p>\n

“Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) vowed that he would not vote to raise the debt<\/a>\u00a0ceiling until a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution passed<\/em>. Rep. Jason Chaffetz\u00a0(R., Utah) explained his unwillingness to back Boehner\u2019s bill this way: \u201cI really truly worry that the debt is one of the single greatest threats to the United States of America. That we\u2019re talking about a problem that is multitrillion dollars in its depth and I think we ought to be cutting more. I just don\u2019t think it goes far enough.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, this is the same Senator Paul who publicly questioned parts of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.\u00a0 And, yes, I am aware that he later — under heavy pressure — “clarified” his remarks.\u00a0 However, his past comments on the Civil Rights Act, coupled with his present comments on passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment, reveals someone who maybe intelligent and principled, but lacking in common sense.<\/p>\n

But, it is common-sense conservatism that we need in Washington, D.C.\u00a0 To the extent that the Tea Party contributes to common-sense conservatism, they should be applauded.\u00a0 However, when the Tea Party Movement exhibits what Charen calls an “obtuseness” — either in selecting candidates for the Senate (i.e., Angle and O’Donnell) or in opposing the most conservative debt ceiling legislation THAT CAN PASS AND BE SIGNED INTO LAW — then the Tea Party should be called out and opposed by common-sense conservatives.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As you might have guessed, I am definitely not part of the Tea Party Movement.\u00a0 I consider myself a common-sense conservative — theologically, politically,\u00a0economically, and socially.\u00a0 I do think that the Tea Party — by and large — has been good for America.\u00a0 But, they are not perfect.\u00a0 They make mistakes.\u00a0 Some within their ranks — elected and non-elected — would rather not compromise, but instead stand firmly on their principles, even if they are standing on a sinking ship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Compromise is not always a\u00a0bad word.\u00a0 I can think of a few words that are\u00a0bad — default, debt, taxes, and “two-term President Obama.”\u00a0 The Tea Partiers\u00a0can oppose the Boehner\u00a0plan this week.\u00a0 But, they shouldn’t be surprised when their intransigence in 2011\u00a0leads to all those bad words\u00a0becoming a reality in 2012 and beyond!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the resolution of the Debt Ceiling “crisis” coming down to the wire, one thing is certain —\u00a0if both Democrats and the Tea Party oppose a proposed solution, then that is almost\u00a0indisputable evidence that the solution is both conservative\u00a0AND reasonable.\u00a0 And, at this point, the only solution that has any chance of being passed into…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,34],"tags":[244,250,1089,1090,1093,303,1125,801,1160,1169,1176,1177,957,1037],"class_list":["post-2314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-politics","tag-common-sense","tag-conservatives","tag-debt","tag-debt-ceiling","tag-default","tag-democrats","tag-john-boehner","tag-president-obama","tag-rand-paul","tag-speaker-boehner","tag-taxes","tag-tea-party","tag-tea-party-movement","tag-washington-d-c"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-Bk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}