Angry anti-GOP mobs are rampaging across the internet, screaming that this budget deal is the worst betrayal in US history, right up there with Nixon signing the Paris Peace Accords, The Compromise of 1877, and Art Modell's betrayal of the city of Cleveland
We Have Not Yet Begun to Fight
How would these critics of Boehner and the GOP have reacted after the battle of Lexington that began the Revolutionary War? Would they have gone home in defeat because there were still British left standing? This is just an early skirmish in a long war to reshape the federal government. We still have the debt ceiling fight coming up in May.
Republicans wrapped up a deal that takes us through 2011 while cutting $38 billion, and thank God for that. It folds the tents on this nickle-dime DC circus sideshow (they were arguing over less than 1% in cuts) and clears the field for debate on Paul Ryan's long-term strategy for cutting Trillions from the federal government, and enacting fundamental reforms.
Don't be a Sore Winner
For reasons unfathomable, some on the right are angry with Boehner. I'd like for someone to explain how a government shutdown would have helped the GOP, who the American people still view with mistrust. Here is what he and the GOP did, despite Democrat control of the Senate, the White House and the news media:
The history of offers on this bill goes something like this. Democrats first offered no cuts, then $4 billion, then $6.5 billion, then $33 billion, then settled at $38.5 billion. (Fox News)
The spending cuts amount to $78.5 billion below what Mr. Obama had requested for 2011. (Washington Times)
"...an estimated $38 billion in reductions — represented the “largest real dollar spending cut in American history.” (NY Times)With the DC kabuki agitprop out of the way, Paul Ryan can now conduct an adult conversation based upon stark facts. This is harsh terrain for unserious liberals who rely on the usual freakshow histrionics. Americans are ready for a serious debate on ending our profigate ways, and the Republicans are the only ones discussing it seriously.
Do you want to reform government spending, or do you just want to burn the damned thing down?
It's a serious question, and if your answer is the latter, you are in the camp of the libertines who turned the French Revolution into a violent rampage that forever knocked that nation off of her powerful and glorious perch. Such a sentiment also puts you firmly outside the camp of the founding fathers. They had righteous anger, but they channeled it into constructive projects that built the greatest nation in the history of the world.
By clamoring for a shutdown, we feed into the left's stereotypes that we are a rabble of anarchists with torches and pitchforks clamoring to burn down government. The broad middle does not respond well to such wild displays. Ask "Pitchfork Pat" Buchanan, the latest in a long line of failed American populists.
Fiscal conservatives on Capitol Hill need the support of patriotic Americans who follow the example of our original revolutionary patriots. Screaming libertines and bloody guillotines provide propaganda fodder for the leftwing statists struggling to preserve the status quo, and end up working against government reformers like Paul Ryan and Tom Coburn.
UPDATE: American Thinker editor and publisher Thomas Lifson declares, The GOP Did Just Fine. It is a great wrap-up.
Tea Party Activists Give Boehner Nod of Approval
Lefty Ezra Klein is all Pouty
Fox News - Who Won the Shutdown?
Salon - Boehner Won
WaPo - Boehner Gets $39 Billion, Reid Gets Nothing
