The King's Speech

Rather belatedly, the President has come out to defend his budget-busting spending plan, his hand forced by the House GOP. I don't know if you saw the speech, but the entire transcript can be read here: http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2011/04/13/obamas-deficit-reduction-speech/. Although it is largely full of lies and half-truths, surprisingly, it also steals a number of Republican ideas. Mr. Obama is always quick to take credit for a good idea, even if he wouldn't have proposed it himself in a million years. The only problem is that his actions in office haven't matched his grandiose words. It's really hard to believe that suddenly, now that a few in the GOP have found the courage to stand up to him, the President has been for spending cuts all along. The speech lurches from spending cuts to tax hikes to 2008 campaign rhetoric about investing in bridges and schools (despite how the stimulus turned out). For goodness sake, he even defends death panels! It's clear this man doesn't have a clue what he is doing.  No, Mr. President, recessions do not automatically lead to more spending. Usually people cut back in times of financial hardship. Overall, the good news is that he has been forced to admit the severity of our debt crisis. The bad news is that he still doesn't realize that he's complaining about the very deficits HE created! It boggles my mind.

Let me try to put the situation in perspective. Imagine that one day, out of the blue, the President calls you up and asks if you would like to have dinner with him and the First Lady. Shocked and delighted, you quickly agree. He takes you to the very finest of restaurants and orders up fine wines, exquisite steaks, and mouth-watering desserts. You don't really know why he is doing all this, but you are overjoyed! Would you vote for this guy again? Definitely! But then when you start eating, something doesn't taste quite right. The wines turn out to be cheap grape juice, the steaks tough and stringy, and the deserts not very sweet. By the end of the meal, you're starting to feel nauseous, and you suspect food poisoning. Just as you're seeking an excuse to leave the table and just get home to your own food, the bill arrives. You catch a glance at the bill and are stunned, but after all it's the President's treat right? Just as you start to thank him for the meal, the President walks over and gives you a hearty pat on the back as he hands you the bill. "Well, friend, I hope you've enjoyed this dinner. I've got to go meet with another constituent and I really can't afford this right now, but I'm sure it will all come out right in the end. You are the one you've been waiting for. Enjoy!"

Now, how would a sane person react? Most of us would respond, "You ______! You fed me horrible food that gave me food poisoning at an outrageous cost. You now expect me to pay the extraordinarily overpriced cost of this junk food, and you think this is supposed to help? Why would I ever vote for you again?" But sadly, all too many Americans just nod their weary heads in agreement with whatever the President says. After all, he's the best and the brightest, right? And he sounds sooooooo good! Well, if you haven't figured out the allegory by now, the meal is government spending, the food poisoning is the resulting state of the economy - high unemployment and economic malaise, and the bill is, of course, the taxes the President now expects you to pay for his failed experiment in big government spending.

And the House GOP? Well they're busy compromising with the President. When they were campaigning in 2010, they promised $100 billion cuts. Even before budget negotiations started, that number was cut down to $61 billion, by a "pro-rating" argument. As it turns out, Speaker Boehner only asked for $30 billion in cuts, and only after reluctantly having his feet held to the fire by the rank and file of the GOP was he able to up that to $38.5 billion in cuts. But the worst part? As it turns out, these so called "cuts" are a mix of accounting tricks that adds up to only $0.35 billion: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/cbo-budget-deal-cuts-this-fiscal-years-deficit-by-just-353-million-not-38-billion-touted/2011/04/13/AFFJnkWD_story.html. Yes, you read that right, only 1/3rd of a billion! While the deficit is $1500 billion, or 4,500 times the amount of the cuts! Seriously? Perhaps if we would have started with the $500 billion in cuts Rand Paul had proposed, the GOP would have at least been able to keep their promise to cut $100 billion by the time Democrats had finished mangling it. To their credit, there is a block of around 50 representatives who have consistently opposed breaking their campaign promises and have found the spine to stand up to big spending D.C. Dems. And now even mild-mannered people like Mike Pence and Tim Pawlenty are opposing this deal. Personally, I hope that Cory Gardner will oppose it as well. It appears that without a government shutdown, Democrats will not budge on their out-of-control spending.

So what can we do? Well, we can protest and prepare for 2012, when we will have another opportunity to elect people who mean what they say about cutting spending and put principle over political expediency. The choice has never been more clear. We can choose freedom, or tyranny, as Mark Levin has put it. We can pursue individual rights and freedoms, or settle for Borg-like slavery to the collective. Do we still believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Or do we believe that the worth of the individual depends at any given moment on the views of 51% of the population, that the government should control our lives from birth to death, and that we must resign ourselves to misery? I, for one, object! Let us not succumb to the siren song of government largess. The supremacy of the collective over individual rights has been tried time and again. It has failed, whether in communist Russia, socialist Europe, or Carter-era America. How do we oppose these dangerous ideas? Well, for starters, you can stand up and speak out this April 15th. You can make your voice heard at the Tax Day Tea Party rallies this weekend. Join us on the steps of the capitol on April15th from 11-1, and Saturday April 16th at North Lake Park in Loveland from 3-6 (march starts at 2). And bring your friends. More details on these rallies can be found at http://www.loveland912project.org/ and http://hearus-now.org/?p=1858. The speakers are fantastic this year, and the events, as you know, are completely free.

Folks, we've only got one shot to do this right. If we do not stand up to leftists and prepare to take back both the Senate and the Presidency in 2012, it will be very difficult to ever undo the socialist path that our current president has put us on. It's not too late to change things if we act now!