Here we go, folks... Pat Buchanan's latest column!
Pat's focus is on ObamaCare and what the Republicans should do... must do...
(*PAUSE*)
But the column applies to any number of contentious issues where if only Republicans would fight... well... they'd win!
(The problem of course is that in addition to pure cowardice on the part of many Republican officeholders, there's also the reality that many of these "Republicans" are RINOs - Republicans In Name Only. They're "progressive" Republicans... big government Republicans... Wall Street over Main Street Republicans.)
Are there enough true Constitutionist Republicans in the House to stop Boehner and Cantor from leading the herd over the cliff? We'll see.
Anyway... heeere's Pat!
(With yours truly strategically throwing my two cents in!)
* * * * * * * *
After his narrow defeat by Gerald Ford at the Kansas City
convention in 1976, Ronald Reagan was seen as a has-been.
Came the Carter-Torrijos treaties of 1977, however, which
gave away the Panama Canal, and the old cowboy strapped on his guns: “We bought
it. We paid for it. It’s ours. And we’re gonna keep it.”
America loved it.
Bill Buckley [on the other hand] said we must "recognize
reality" and transfer the canal.
GOP Senate leader Howard Baker was the toast of the city
as he led 16 Republicans to vote with Jimmy Carter.
The treaties were approved.
Reagan’s consolation prize? The presidency of the United
States.
(*LEAPING TO MY FEET IN STANDING OVATION*)
Voters in New Hampshire in 1980, remembering his lonely
stand, rewarded Reagan with a decisive victory over George H. W. Bush, who had
defeated Reagan in Iowa. When Howard Baker came in, he was greeted as “Panama
Howie,” and did not survive the primary.
The Republican war over whether to bow to the seemingly
inevitable and fund ObamaCare is a Panama Canal issue.
How one votes here may decisively affect one’s career.
* LET US PRAY...!!!
Ted Cruz may have, as Richard Nixon used to say, “broken
his pick” in the Republican caucus. Yet, on ObamaCare, his analysis is right,
his instincts are right, his disposition to fight is right. (These are more
important matters than the news that he is out of the running for the Mr.
Congeniality award on Capitol Hill.)
If ObamaCare is funded, the subsidies starting in January
will constitute a morphine drip from which America’s health-care system will
not recover.
* YEP...
If not stopped now, ObamaCare is forever.
(*NOD*)
Senate Republicans should be asking themselves why Cruz
and Rand Paul, two newcomers to the Senate of decidedly different temperaments,
are being talked of as credible candidates in the presidential primaries of
2016. Answer: Both are clear in their convictions, unapologetic about them and
willing to break some china to achieve them. And...
(*PAUSE*)
...[the electorate] upon which the GOP depends most is
increasingly frustrated and angry with those who run the national party.
* DAMN STRAIGHT...!!!
Americans don’t want a dignified surrender on ObamaCare.
They want someone to drive a stake through ObamaCare. And the question that is
going to be answered in coming weeks is: Is the GOP willing to shove its whole
stack into the middle of the table for a showdown over ObamaCare? Or will the
House GOP in the end cast the decisive vote to make ObamaCare permanent? For,
as columnist Terry Jeffrey writes, “Make no mistake. If ObamaCare is funded and
implemented, it will be because Republican members of Congress decided to do
it.”
As Terry notes, Congress has absolute power over the
public purse.
Article I of the Constitution says, “No money shall be
drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law.”
The law authorizing President Obama to spend more money
for ObamaCare expires Sept. 30.
(*PAUSE*)
If the House refuses to vote for any bill that contains
new ObamaCare funding, ObamaCare is dead.
(*SILENCE*)
Thus the Republican House controls the fate of ObamaCare.
(*NOD*)
But if we don’t fund ObamaCare (comes the Republican
wail) Harry Reid will let the government shut down, the American people will
blame Republicans, and all of our pundits say we can’t win this fight.
* ALL OF THE USUALLY WRONG PUNDITS AT LEAST!
For sure you cannot win if you do not fight.
* AMEN!
But if a Democratic Senate refuses to pass the
House-passed continuing resolution funding the government because ObamaCare is
not in the bill, who is shutting down the government?
* DEMOCRATS!
If Obama vetoes any continuing resolution funding the
government that does not contain ObamaCare, who is shutting down the government
then?
* OBAMA!
Who is putting the U.S. economy at risk to protect a
bollixed program the American people do not want and Congress would never
approve if they voted on it today?
* OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS...!!!
What House Republicans have lacked is not courage, but a
political and communications strategy.
* THERE'S A REASON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS CALLED
"THE STUPID PARTY."
(*SIGH*)
Having provided a continuing resolution to fund the
government - except ObamaCare - the House should next begin passing
[individual] Continuing Resolutions – one for each department. A Continuing
Resolution to fund defense and veterans affairs. A Continuing Resolution to
fund state, the CIA and Homeland Security. A Continuing Resolution for justice,
transportation, energy, etc. One every day.
* SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN!
Would Harry Reid refuse to fund the U.S. Army and Navy
unless John Boehner’s House stuffs ObamaCare into the defense budget?
* NOT FOR LONG!
(*LAUGHING*)
Do Republicans really feel incapable of winning this
argument?
(*SIGH*)
* UNFORTUNATELY... MANY DO.
(*ANOTHER SIGH*)
Are Republicans so tongue-tied they cannot convince
America of the truth: They have already voted to fund the government.
(*GNASHING MY TEETH*)
* UNFORTUNATELY... MANY ARE.
If Republicans capitulate and lose this battle, and this
unwanted mess passes into law, there is something deeply wrong with the party.
* IT'LL MARK THE DEATH KNELL OF THE PARTY. THE LAST
STRAW.
Two weeks ago, a brave Congress, listening to America,
stood up and told Obama: Your red lines be damned; we’re not voting for war on
Syria. Now House Republicans need to tell the country: Come hell or high water,
we’re not voting to fund ObamaCare. We will pass a Continuing Resolution on
everything else in the budget, but ObamaCare is not coming out of this House
alive.
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