Who are the “hostage-takers” now? Convinced by opinion polls that the media will let them get away with it, Democrats are now refusing to pass a “clean” continuing resolution to end the government shutdown, as well as a straightforward debt ceiling increase, in order to undo the sequester cuts that went into effect earlier this year. They are the ones holding a gun to Republicans’ heads, threatening default if their demands are not met.
Just like Obamacare, the sequester–passed in the Budget Control Act of 2011–is the “law of the land.” And yet Democrats want to undo it–or else they will keep nearly 400,000 federal employees out of work and let the country risk not paying its bills. Where is the outrage at this disgusting hypocrisy? Where are all the dire warnings about children with cancer and catastrophic interest rates and the end of civilization as we know it?
Democrats are threatening to destroy the economy unless they can increase government spending. And yet the media are silent, their corruption and mendacity on full display. The Wall Street Journal, for its part, is more interested in settling political scores than pointing out Democrats’ hypocrisy: according to its editorial Monday, this is all Ted Cruz’s fault: he weakened the GOP, provoking the Democrats, you see. Absurd.
So hell-bent are the mainstream media–even its nominally conservative elements–on punishing the Tea Party that they blame it for Democrats’ misdeeds. Know that whenever a Democrat or a journalist (they are virtually one and the same) is accusing conservatives of putting politics ahead of the nation’s welfare, he or she is exhibiting what psychologists call projection–accusing others of what you do. So it is with the sequester.
The Democrats’ new demand should re-invigorate and unite House Republicans. If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Dick “Dinner” Durbin and the rest want to change the Budget Control Act and increase spending, then they must swallow a one-year delay in the individual mandate of Obamacare. That would still be a bad deal for the country, which needs to cut spending and get rid of Obamacare. But it’s politically fair.
And note where President Barack Obama is in all of this: nowhere. He, who in his imperial swagger declared Republicans arsonists for failing to pass a continuing resolution or a debt ceiling hike, has done nothing to insist on a deal, or keep his own party in line. Vice President Joe Biden, normally a back-room wheeler-dealer, spent the weekend on vacation at Camp David, open in the shutdown. And where are the media? Disgrace.
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