The Patriot Post - Alexander's Essay 2-7-2013

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The Patriot Post - Alexander's Essay 2-7-2013
From The Federalist Patriot
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Sequester Politics, Round Two
Will Republican 'Leadership' Bow to Obama?

By Mark Alexander

February 7, 2013

"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." --Thomas Jefferson (1816)

This week we honor the life of President Ronald Reagan1, who inherited from his Democrat predecessor, Jimmy Carter, the last near-depression economy, and turned it into the largest economic expansion since World War II. It is no small irony that, in the same week, the current crop of Republican "leaders" in the House and Senate, Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, are preparing to roll over on the deferred "Fiscal Bluff2" deadline -- in effect fueling our nation's collision course with economic collapse.

 As I noted just after Barack Hussein Obama's3 re-election that despite his minuscule 51.1 percent victory, most of it cast by his naive and dangerously uninformed populist constituency, he would govern as if universally worshipped by all people. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, and Obama will continue his strong-handed winner-takes-all approach to compromise -- which is to say, he won't compromise.

To that end, Obama arrogantly insisted that Republicans, again, acquiesce to his demands for more taxes, few-if-any spending cuts and another deferment of the Fiscal Bluff sequestration, now scheduled for 01 March. And once again, that demand is countered by a lot of Republican hand-wringing but little Republican resistance. In fact, Republican leadership appears down for the count.

"There is no doubt, we need additional revenue," Obama insists, "coupled with smart spending reductions, in order to bring down our deficit." By "revenue," Obama means another round of tax increases. By "smart spending reductions," he means another round of smoke-and-mirror accounting, resulting in no real budget cuts.

Obama also demanded that Republicans "fix" the sequestration date -- meaning that he will use the presidential soapbox to convince the American people that the consequences of mandatory cuts, if sequestration occurs, are Republicans' fault. And he will, of course, blame Republicans, which is why so many of the establishment types are running for cover.

The current sequestration debacle began with Obama's Budget Control Act of 2011, a "deal" cut in August of that year, in return for Republican agreement to increase the national debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion. That in turn allowed Obama to borrow more money, primarily from the Red Chinese, to fund his runaway socialist entitlement programs4 and bloated "stimulus spending5" boondoggles.

In return for more spending ability, Obama agreed to cap discretionary spending growth to "save" $950 billion over 10 years. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid refer to those caps as "cuts." He also agreed to establish a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (a.k.a. "super committee") to implement another $1.5 trillion in "savings." If, however, the super committee didn't come to an agreement by November of 2011, Obama's suggested sequestration trigger -- automatic budget "cuts" of $1.2 trillion over the next decade -- would commence on January 2 of this year. But, as noted earlier, Republicans have since kicked that can down the road to March.

All the political machinations aside, the current level of mandatory and discretionary spending6 is utterly unsustainable.

But what Republican leaders are yet to comprehend is that Obama's end game is much more devastating than merely avoiding necessary cuts to government programs that redistribute wealth to urban plantation7 constituents.

Obama's second-term "Grecian Formula" economic plan is to advance his objective of breaking the back of free enterprise8, crushing it under the weight of mounting taxes, regulations and debt and, ultimately, "fundamentally transforming the United States of America9" into a collectivist state under the irrevocable dominance of his Socialist Democrat Party10.

Free enterprise, one of the foundational pillars of Liberty, is the nemesis of Obama's transformational plan, as implicit from his "you didn't build that" condemnation of entrepreneurship11 to his ridiculous assertions that "the private sector is doing fine," and that we simply need additional federal spending to fund more "state and local government" jobs.

A few Republicans are responding like warriors instead of diplomats. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon rebutted Obama's rhetoric, saying, "Until he addresses the real problem, which is mandatory spending, he's just whistling in the wind." Rep. John Shimkus added, "He can announce all he wants. Sequestration is coming."

But is it, and will sequestration cuts -- most of which hit defense spending actually authorized by our Constitution -- put any real dent in the out-of-control spending?

Amid the current crisis, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor delivered a speech12 endeavoring to "redefine Republicans." But words are cheap. What will redefine the Republican Party is resolute legislative action. Pass legislation that adheres to conservative principles and take the right road forward13. Let the Senate defeat tax cuts and spending cuts. Stop letting Obama dictate the rules of the game.