I personally will never forget the horrendous 2009 Christmas Eve Senate vote for Obamacare.
Around the same time, the “stimulus” legislation that eventually became the American Recovery and Investment Act was being bandied about the halls of Congress with tons of hyper-partisan theater.
Now, it seems the House of Representatives will continue the pattern of legislation-by-panic in addressing the dreaded “Fiscal Cliff” this holiday season.
Call me a “Grinch”, but one of the benefits of being a Tea Party Democrat is that I remain highly skeptical that most power-players within the Beltway of either party will do anything under any circumstance that will weaken their grip on the clout they think they possess. Frankly, it is my suspicion that Speaker of the House John Boehner already knows exactly what deal will be made during another Christmas season filled with fiscal drama, despite press coverage otherwise. I hope my fellow citizens will not get sucked into the this year’s production, and be ready to make personal economic adjustments while focusing on state and local level protections from the upcoming chaos.
Boehner’s recent action removing fiscal conservatives from key committee positions forecasts that the only real losers in the upcoming “negotiations” will be the taxpayers. SoCal Tax Revolt Coalition pundit and San Diego citizen activist Shane Atwell has this analysis of Boehner’s long-term treatment of Tea Party supported representatives.
Boehner’s move is the latest and most significant in the war between the established GOP moderates and the other more principled wings of the party. The moderate (and sometimes the religious) wing have not had much good to say about the Tea Party or Ron Paul wings…unless they wanted votes (see Orin Hatch and Brian Bilbray). Even after 2010, Ron Paul was only given a sub-committee.There was the disenfranchisement of the Ron Paul vote in Maine and again in the GOP convention. There was the successful Florida GOP effort to get rid of Allen West through redistricting. There was the tepid support of Richard Mourdock in Indiana by the GOP. The Tea Party and the fiscally conservative Republicans have won a few battles (Ted Cruz), but lost more (debt ceiling, budget proposals, Patriot act reauthorization…).Boehner’s latest move has all the marks of standard leftist techniques, perhaps because he agrees with the statists so much. As a moderate, a bridge between statism and freedom, he knows he has no argument, so he uses bully tactics. “We’re watching your votes.” Well at least the issue is coming out in the open.
Conservative writer Dan Riehl expresses a similar sentiment:
By his actions, Boehner has made himself the tanned poster child of everything that is wrong with Washington. It’s two parties vying for power, the will of the American people be damned! What does this idiot Boehner hope to do, split the party officially?
Given all the evidence, I hope Tea Party supporters are mindful that all the statements and stances coming from Boehner’s offices during the fiscal cliff negotiations are there to serve him and his supporters first. Given the failures of Obamacare and the “Stimulus“, if the fiscal cliff deal does anything positive for the average American, it will be a Christmas miracle.
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