printCan there be a real intellectual debate with respect to spending money not your own, which you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of repaying? Sure there can. In the US, that’s what goes for a serious debate of political philosophy. The country carries upwards of $100 trillion of debt, counting its unfunded promises. Yet here we are, bickering again about extending unemployment benefits.
In June, in what was his finest hour, Jim Bunning held up a vote on a $10 billion spending bill to extend unemployment benefits. Instead of standing tall and explaining the principle of not committing theft, he spent his days ducking a hand bagging from the bug-eyed Dana Bash of CNN.
A month on, and we’re clearly overdue for a repeat performance (this is, after all, the “Age of the Idiot”).
Can we hope that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) will remain steadfast? So far he has been “defiant.” After President Barack Obama accused the Republican leadership Saturday of obstructionism, … McConnell told CNN’s ‘State of the Nation’ that the administration needed to end its ‘incredible spending spree.'”
I repeat, “the welfare state is intractable. The pigs outnumber—or are stronger electorally than—the productive. The first are feeding off the second and will not let up. Try to put distance between the state’s dependents and their Big Teat, and they’ll tear you to pieces.”
I’m a skeptic on Mitch McConnell who has done his utmost to oppose Rand Paul.
No doubt that he objects to “Democrat overspending” but did he EVER object to “Republican Overspending”?
How many of the “Republikeynesians” have voted to end, phase out, or even seriously cut:
(1) Agribusiness subsidies, (2) The Department of Education and “Leave No Child Behind”, (3) Abstinence Education, (4) Manned space exploration, (5) Fannnie Mae, (6) Freddie Mac, (7) Student Loans, (8) The War on Drugs, (9) Housing and Urban Development, (10) The War in Afghanistan, (11) New Attack Submarines while retiring current Submarines, (12) The War in Iraq, (13) Foreign Aid, (14) Steel import quotas and (15) Prescription Drug Benefits???? No doubt there are vastly more programs that violate Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution and economic sense without even getting to the two BIGGIES – Medicare and Social Security.
And where was Ebenezer Scrooge McConnell when Bush and the Republikeynesians were in power? Leading the credit card charge! Making sure Republicans re-elected a loyal “principled” Republican “winner” like Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey in 2004.
Had McCain won in 2008, the GOP would be happily handing out promissory money and pushing through amnesty.
As I have said before robbing Peter to pay Paul will always get you Paul’s vote. We need to get tough here and we are so wussieized and womanized and spineless we won’t/can’t do it. Land of the free and home of the brave? More like land of the whiner and home of the same.
The problem contains its own solution. An unsustainable government must eventually collapse. The only questions are how long the collapse will take and how much unpleasantness it will involve.