l****z 发帖数: 29846 | 1 By Christopher Chantrill
The fear in the back of every Republican mind is that the American people
will blame John Boehner and Republicans for shutting down the government.
Just like they blamed Newt Gingrich in 1995 when President Clinton shut down
the government in a budget battle with Newt and the first Republican
Congress in 40 years.
Could the Republicans get blamed again? Of course they could. But I don't
think they will.
For sure, the president and the Democrats and their bribed apologists in the
mainstream media will give it one more college try. But don't forget Marx'
s memorable line. He was comparing Napoleon III to the first Napoleon.
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages
appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the
second time as farce.
In the current debt crisis it might end up the other way around. The farce
of 1995 could very well be the tragedy of 2011. In any case, I think that
the words of Lloyd Bentsen apply to Barack Obama: "Mr. President; you're no
Bill Clinton." There was something of the brilliance of Napoleon I in the
political footwork of Bill Clinton, and we will never see his like again,
certainly not in a president who's careful to keep to the script on the
TelePrompTer.
The likeliest outcome of the debt-ceiling debate, I suspect, will be "a pox
on both their houses." That would be a win for Republicans. Maybe Speaker
Boehner can persuade the American people that he tried, he really tried to
put together a package that would cut spending and revive the economy. But
the president just couldn't buck his Democratic wire-pullers. So now it
would be up to the voters in November 2012 to put America back on the road
to prosperity.
There's another difference between now and 1995. President Obama just doesn
't look and doesn't act like a leader. Leaders don't whine, and leaders don
't point fingers. Leaders crack heads together, they get Congress to agree
on a bi-partisan package, and then boldly lead their people into a future of
hope and opportunity.
Some people fear the president as an adept of Saul Alinsky and his Rules for
Radicals. But don't forget that Alinsky's advice was not for presidents;
it was for activist insurgents trying to embarrass the system and The Man.
It's one thing to run for president as the Washington outsider; it's another
thing to make like the outsider while actually running the government. Mr.
President, I've got news for you. You're not the outsider any more. Today
you are The Man.
One thing The Man never does is make empty threats, as in:
"Well, when it comes to all the checks, not just Social Security -- veterans
, people with disabilities -- about 70 million checks are sent out each
month -- if we default then we're going to have to make adjustments. And I'm
already consulting with Secretary Geithner in terms of what the
consequences would be." Earlier he said in an interview on CBS News: "I
cannot guarantee that those [Social Security] checks go out on August 3rd if
we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money
in the coffers to do it."
There's only one problem with that. Social Security is supposed to have $2.
4 trillion in the Social Security trust fund, as Stanford Law Professor
Michael McConnell has pointed out. What happened to all that money? And
now the president has started making veiled threats about chaos in the
financial markets:
I think it's very important that the leadership understands that Wall Street
will be opening on Monday, and we better have some answers during the
course of the next several days.
Talking down the markets, Mr. President? But suppose the Treasury market
opened on Monday without any problem? What empty threat would you come up
with then?
No, it isn't 1995, or 2008, or 1960 or 1936 or any year that looks good to a
Democrat. To return to Marx and Napoleon, 2011 looks more like 1814.
After the debacle of the 1912 retreat from Moscow and the 1813 defeat at the
Battle of Leipzig, Napoleon was still the best army commander in Europe,
and he could still beat the uncoordinated allies in battle. But it didn't
matter any more. The game was up.
Democrats are still good at calling for "balanced packages" and "revenue
enhancements" and "shared sacrifice" and blaming millionaires and
billionaires. But it just doesn't matter anymore.
The old game is up. We still don't know what the new game will be. The
American people will decide that next year in 2012. It won't be another
1996.
Christopher Chantrill is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. See
his usgovernmentspending.com and also usgovernmentdebt.us. At
americanmanifesto.org he is blogging and writing An American Manifesto: Life
After Liberalism. |
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