Category Archives: Republicans

It’s Do Or Die: How Important Is NOT Raising The Debt Ceiling?

One of the most important stands the near-irrelevant Republicans can take is to NOT raise the debt ceiling. As was pointed out in “Debt-Ceiling Hike Denier And Proud,” on EPJ (the preeminent libertarian site on the World Wide Web), if the Republicans stand firm just this once and “refuse to raise the debt ceiling,” they would force the government to balance its budget. Also explained in the column: The government’s receipts are more than sufficient to cover its debt payments by a factor of approximately ten.

More via Professor Jeffrey Dorfman, at Forbes:

Reaching the debt ceiling does not mean that the government will default on the outstanding government debt. In fact, the U.S. Constitution forbids defaulting on the debt (14th Amendment, Section 4), so the government is not allowed to default even if it wanted to.

In reality, if the debt ceiling is not raised in the next two weeks, the government will actually have to prioritize its expenses and keep its monthly, weekly, and daily spending under the revenue the government collects. In simple terms, the government would have to spend an amount less than or equal to what it earns. Just like ordinary Americans have to do in their everyday lives. …

… An increase in the debt ceiling allows the government to continue to run a budget deficit, which by simple accounting means that the national debt will increase. Not raising the debt ceiling does not mean defaulting on the current debt, but rather that no new debt can be incurred.

As a libertarian, it hurts me to “plot” all the state’s immoral and wastrel appropriations. As an economics professor, Dorfman has done the necessary work. He has worked out a balanced budget for the plundering class.

Read it.

It really is do or die.

‘Senate Republicans Enable Harry Reid to Fund ObamaCare’

Healthcare, Republicans

Via Campaign for Liberty:

Today, twenty-five Senate Republicans voted to allow Harry Reid to fund ObamaCare despite daily reports of the law’s destruction to the nation’s health care system and overall economy.

Campaign for Liberty favors health care reform which reduces cost through increased competition and reduced regulation, exactly the opposite of ObamaCare.

“By voting for cloture, Senate Republicans allowed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to fully fund and inflict ObamaCare on the nation,” said Campaign for Liberty President John Tate.

“The American people are sick and tired of Republicans refusing to stand up for the millions of Americans facing higher premiums and fewer options next year due to ObamaCare. I wish to thank Senators Cruz, Lee, Paul, and others for leading the fight against top-down health care.

“Campaign for Liberty will be sure to remind our members which Senators stood with the American people against ObamaCare, and which ones stood with Harry Reid and President Obama.”

Via (CNSNews.com) – “Twenty-five Republican senators—led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.)–voted today in favor of invoking cloture on the House-passed continuing resolution to fund the government past Monday, thus putting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) in a position where he could strip the bill of its provisions defunding Obamacare with a simple party-line majority instead of the 60 votes needed on cloture.”

These are the 25 Republicans who voted with Reid to invoke cloture on the CR:

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)

John Barrasso (R-WY)

Roy Blunt (R-MO)

John Boozman (R-AR)

Richard Burr (R-NC)

Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)

Jeff Chiesa (R-NJ)

Daniel Coats (R-IN)

Tom Coburn (R-OK)

Thad Cochran (R-MS)

Susan Collins (R-ME)

Bob Corker (R-TN)

John Cornyn (R-TX)

Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

John Hoeven (R-ND)

Johnny Isakson (R-GA)

Mike Johanns (R-NE)

Mark Kirk (R-IL)

Ron Johnson (R-WI)

John McCain (R-AZ)

Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

John Thune (R-SD)

Roger Wicker (R-MS)

These are the 19 Republican senators who voted against cloture:

Mike Crapo (R-ID)

Ted Cruz (R-TX)

Mike Enzi (R-WY)

Deb Fischer (R-NE)

Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

Dean Heller (R-NV)

Jim Inhofe (R-OK)

Mike Lee (R-UT)

Jerry Moran (R-KS)

Rand Paul (R-KY)

Rob Portman (R-OH)

James Risch (R-ID)

Pat Roberts (R-KS)

Marco Rubio (R-FL)

Tim Scott (R-SC)

Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

Richard Shelby (R-AL)

Pat Toomey (R-PA)

David Vitter (R-LA)

MORE.

Ted Cruz’s Odyssey

Celebrity, Conservatism, Healthcare, Intelligence, Republicans

Ted Cruz name-drops on an epic scale. His GQ interview is festooned with celebrated names:

“When I was Texas solicitor general, I did every argument in these boots. The one court that I was not willing to wear them in was the U.S. Supreme Court, and it was because my former boss and dear friend William Rehnquist was still chief justice. He and I were very close—he was a wonderful man—but he was very much a stickler for attire.”

It was only after Rehnquist died that Cruz felt comfortable wearing his cowboy boots in the Supreme Court—and only then because John Roberts (“a friend for many years”) blessed it. “I saw John shortly after his confirmation,” Cruz said, “and I guess I was feeling a little cheeky, because I took the opportunity to ask, ‘Mr. Chief Justice, do you have any views on the appropriateness of boots as footwear at oral argument?’ And Chief Justice Roberts chuckled and he said, ‘You know, Ted, if you’re representing the state of Texas, they’re not only appropriate, they’re required.’ ” … Cruz is a dazzling orator, speaking not merely in precise sentences but complete paragraphs—no teleprompter, sometimes not even a podium—and name-dropping everyone from Reagan to Rawls (as in John, the late Harvard philosopher).

His influences, according to the GQ writer:

“Cruz studied right-wing icons Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman. He also mastered a mnemonic version of the Constitution, which he’d recite, along with four other high school students …”

Cruz should be remembered and commended for winning “the landmark Medellín v. Texas, affirming—in defiance of an international court ruling as well as an order from President Bush—the state’s right to execute a Mexican citizen who’d participated in the gang rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston.”

MORE.

Fox News:

Cruz’s speech was a symbolic stand, as he was not actually able to stall the bill at this point. In the end, he and every other senator voted to advance the bill and proceed to debate. The vote was 100-0. But Cruz, anticipating that Reid will re-fund ObamaCare, is trying to rally Republicans and moderate Democrats to join in blocking the bill before it comes to a final vote. Another test vote, which will require 60 senators to proceed, is expected in the coming days.

Cruz in action:

UPDATE II: The Proof Is In the Putin

Media, Middle East, Military, Propaganda, Republicans, Russia, The State, War

The punditocracy is shouting almost in unison that Russia and Syria have pulled one over us. The US, they say, has been weakened because someone halted the momentum of the American war juggernaut.

You see, the pundits and the pols cannot perceive of greatness outside the state because they are part of the state apparatus; and depend on it for status and income.

Individual Americas who have nothing to gain and only losses to sustain from a war are somehow mistakenly identifying with the state and its emissaries—politicians and pundits—who have everything to gain from the great theatre that is war. “In Syria (and all else), it’s ‘Us’ against ‘Them.'”

Think about it. Who benefits when America goes to war? Not you. Not ordinary Americans. Those who benefit “function within the nimbus of great power” in D.C. and around it—the media-military-congressional-industrial complex.

What happens to the bluster of Bill O’Reilly, his sidekick Dennis the Menace or Charles Krauthammer if the US is no longer dictating the terms of war (lots of it) and peace (too little of it) in the world? Their immense egos suffer. Maybe even their incomes, eventually. But not you, the ordinary American. Krauthammer, ridiculously, equates the failure to go to war against Syria with “Russia supplanting America as regional hegemon.”

But the proof is in the Putin, who stopped a war. Why is stopping a war tantamount to supplanting US power?

Rather, the Russians are replacing bully power with a balance of power. And this is good for Americans (if not for their overlords who art in D.C.)

He who saves you from war is better than he who sends you to war.

UPDATE I: Gerson, another neocon:

“This allows Moscow to supply proxies such as Syria and Iran with weapons while positioning itself as the defender of international law and peace.”

UPDATE II (9/15): Yet another Republican pundit (albeit one of the few talented ones) who depends on The Party for status and income. Here Ann Coulter praises Republican wars.

She promotes and profits from ’em; YOU fight ’em.