There have been lots of brave words in the media the last few days from Democrats and Liberals about how Republicans lost the debt deal fight.
There have been lots of sad words from Republicans too along the same lines.
“The result of the impasse that threatened the nation’s credit rating was a near total defeat for Republican conservatives,” triumphed the New York Times, “who had engineered the budget impasse as a way to strip the new health care law of funding even as registration for benefits opened Oct. 1 or, failing that, to win delays in putting the program into place.”
No doubt there’s some truth in this. But only a very little.
Conservative Republicans didn’t engineer anything.
Because if you think that the discredit belongs to “conservative” Republicans and not to the Democrats, Obama and so-called moderate GOP voices in the McClique (McCain, McConnell), then you need to consult the history I’m about to write.
Once upon a time the Republicans lost the fight to increase everyone’s taxes last year. At the time it was considered the crowning achievement of Obama’s 2012 campaign.
And it was a humiliation for Republican Speaker John Boehner, a poster boy for the McClique.
Predictably, he cried.
The liberal euphoria lasted until the first paycheck in January when everyone who had a job in America suddenly said out loud, as they held a lighter paycheck in their hands: “Oh, this tax increase applies to me too?”
Yes, yes it does.
And oh, by the way, so does this budget deal.
The “circus”-- as the media is pleased to call it—now leaves town and the elephants go back to the cages. But there was one side in this debate that stood for hope and change.
And there was one side that stood for the status quo.
And you can tell which side everyone’s on without needing a paid program from the New York Times.
The demand that conservatives just shut the hell up and let the government open up was almost universal amongst even people who I know who unimpeachably stand for smaller government.
I still like those folks; I just don’t trust them anymore.
They seem to have contempt for common sense.
Obamacare will go on damaging the country unimpeded as will spending as a result of this defeat. However, I don’t expect Liberal euphoria to last quite as long as it did last time.
Because Obamacare will go on unimpeded along with spending. And slowly but certainly the effects of these misguided policies are being felt by ordinary Americans.
Let’s call this economy what it is: Lousy.
But the blame there isn’t bipartisan.
300 years of history in North America tells us how we climb out of recessions.
For some unaccountable reason, however, Obama and the Democrats decided that during this recession they would consult European history instead.
Why are we surprised that they got European results too?
The result has been a host of social welfare programs, regulatory overreach, and wholesale dislocation of the economy that has prevented the normal business cycle from taking place
The result has been the worst recovery in the history of our country.
There is only one side that stood on the right side of the economic debate when the debate really mattered.
The American people deplored the shutdown apparently. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that the deal that opened the government back up and kept Obamacare going isn’t equally deplored by voters.
Things need to change. Americans need hope.
The status quo, Americans seem to be saying, is intolerable. They're right; it is.
Only one side in this debate doesn’t want hope or change.
That's the history that someone can write in 2014.
I'm waiting.