I’m increasingly encouraged by this “government shutdown.” If we can just make it permanent, it’ll be the greatest reform measure ever implemented. It looks like we finally learned what it takes to make Democrats admit that at least 60 percent of their beloved mega-government is “non-essential.” It’s more like 95% over at the EPA.
It’s too bad about all the government workers that would lose their jobs in a permanent “shutdown.” But then, Democrats didn’t give a flying fig about all the private-sector workers who lost their jobs over the last five years, and they have no chance of returning to work and collecting back pay. Besides, Obama keeps assuring us the private sector is “doing fine” and “poised for recovery.” Let’s see him prove it by sending a core Democrat constituency – unionized government employees – out to find some jobs in that wonderful pre-boom economy he spent trillions of our dollars priming for explosive growth.
It’s amazing how many Deputy Third Assistants to the Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Paperwork that we suddenly don’t need, isn’t it? How many billions are we paying in bloated salaries and benefits when the government isn’t “shut down?” Does the shutdown mean no luxury vacations for the Royal Family? Great – I was wondering what it would take to put a stop to that flagrant raid on the taxpayers. If the Left wants more funding for its pet projects, maybe they could recoup some money by shutting down Lois Lerner’s pension benefits – make that the price for invoking the Fifth Amendment to cover up abuses of power. Think of all the “transparency” that would suddenly burst from this opaque, corrupt government.
I see Harry Reid is whining about Republicans “trying to cherry-pick a few parts of the government to keep open.” Awesome. We should absolutely demand nothing less, and demand the resignations of Harry Reid and anyone else who doesn’t like it. We’re $17 trillion in debt, on course for $20 trillion in no time flat. We can’t afford luxuries. We can’t handle any more slabs of deep-fried pork delivered by omnibus; Uncle Sam is cruising for a fiscal heart attack. Let’s cherry-pick the living hell out of this rotting pile of waste and fraud, discarding all the junk left over when we’re done.
If Harry Reid doesn’t like this state of affairs, maybe he should have obeyed federal law and passed a budget sometime in the last four years. We’re going to keep the government running with an endless series of “emergency spending resolutions?” Fine – we’ll only fund emergencies. Let Congress work overtime assembling and passing targeted bills to keep crucial functions running for the next year or so… then we can ask the American people how much of the remainder they really miss, take stock of how many previously government-run functions have been taken over by the private sector, figure out where the budget stands, and ask the taxpayers how much of the non-cherry-picked crap they really feel like paying for.
The White House is caving, apparently after the utter humiliation of the World War II memorial showdown, and inviting congressional leaders to talk about ObamaCare and the debt ceiling. The shutdown shouldn’t just lead into debt ceiling negotiations; it should be the opening bid. Keep Leviathan on its back until Obama and the Democrats submit a budget – a real, honest-to-God budget – that not only eliminates the deficit over the next couple of years, but actually reduces the national debt. The big spenders would have to make some tough choices about how much “non-essential” junk they want to keep, and how much money they’ll have to raid from their favorite giveaway programs to pay for it. Nothing could be finer.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.