Pep Talk. Pep Talk 2. Pep Talk 3:
The debt ceiling fight and “deal” were emotional, and many of you have been left feeling let down or betrayed. Relations among people who agree on the goal but not the strategy have been strained.
But keep things in perspective.
Just months ago Obama was demanding a multi-trillion dollar “clean” (that is, completely unaccountable) increase, and then an increase with a trillion dollars in new taxes, and then taunting you to call his bluff, and then you were called extremists and hostage takers and terrorists by the mainstream media and pundits and politicians …
… and hobbits …
Sure, it wasn’t everything you wanted, and maybe not even most of what you wanted. But you changed the direction of the debate to your terms.
So while it is understandable that you don’t view the debt deal as a win, don’t view it as a loss.
Think how they must feel today knowing that they no longer are on the side of history… and we are.
So shake off the gloom, get your asses in gear, get over it, and get to work continuing to fight the worst government policies “since the Great Depression.”
We have no other choice.
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Comments
I notice you refer to us conservative Americans (Tea Party) as “you” until you get to the results of our efforts, then it becomes “we”. You sir are not one of us and have more than shown that during this debate.
Be consistent and stop back pedaling.
Woah there, Spanky. Professor Jacobson most certainly is one of us; one of the great things about being one of us (as opposed to one of THEM) is that we don’t expect everyone to think with one mind and do what they are told. If someone has an opinion that differs from your own, you lash out like this? Like a . . . well, like a progressive socialist? That’s not really right, now is it?
Nice to see someone sticking up for me. Don’t all rush to my defense at one time, you may bump into each other.
While POTUS has signed nothing yet, the left joined in pushing an actual bill over in the House — and they wouldn’t do that without White House endorsement. The enforcement mechanisms are striking. The baseline for a 2013 tax hike, due to sunset of the Bush tax rates, is a bit concerning but that anxiety was here anyway — the rates were going up unless both houses and POTUS changed the law (and perhaps the 2012 election will make that change possible). POTUS gets a lot more debt to work with, but he can only spend on appropriations bills that actually pass both houses.
Obama’s strutting and scolding and distorting only confirmed his impotence to the deal-makers and weakened the left’s hand. I went with the head-fake; I really thought he would welsh on T-Bills the first chance he had. But he caved when poll numbers exposed his histrionics for what they were.
Thanks for the pep talk….I woke up to that familiar feeling of impending doom that I have had since Nov. 2008. That rock in my gut seems to be building to the size of a boulder! 2012 can’ get here soon enough but I can’t seem to shake the feeling that it might be too late.
God Bless America.
Hang in there @nlynch. I had that feeling for days during 2008, and quite often since, as well. But, there is great hope. Boehner had to work with TEA Party patriots who are determined to right the course of our nation. Reid was frozen out. Cutting spending is the phrase making the Left so crazy that they have resorted to the terrorist ad hominem attacks – yet again. A sure sign of success! 😀
We are on the right path. But it is a slow, painful process to slay Leviathan.
Read my post/comment. This is war – political war. And this enemy will NEVER surrender.
This is my view as well, as I noted in one of your prior blog posts (not even sure which one – Pep Talk 1, perhaps?!).
This is going to be a long political war. Each battle takes us toward our goal, toward victory. Even small gains in ground are progress; our victory in this was holding the conversation to cutting spending – no mean feat with these ravenous spendthrift monsters. Remember – this is one skirmish, one sortie, one battle in the necessary war to win back our country, to shrink Big Government and save our nation from economic destruction.
Prepare for more to come. The economy is the key issue for the 2012 election. It will not go away as long as this man is president, as long as the Senate is in the hands of the Democrats. And they will NEVER quit. Tenacity is their mantra. They worship Alinsky, so be prepared for the mud-slogging long haul. Think Bataan (the 2nd time). Think Iwo. Think D-Day. Politically, of course. 😉
Priorities. Perseverance. Perspective.
“Never give in. NEVER give in! NEVER GIVE IN!!” –Winston Churchill
My thoughts exactly. I’m not thrilled with the deal (far from it), but major political changes take time and more than one election to bring about. This is a good start, but it’s no time to stop.
Let’s remember the lessons of Sun-Tzu about attacking a superior force.
You don’t tackle it head on, since that leads to defeat. Instead you flank and snipe. You chip away at your enemy.
Let’s enjoy a cup of tea with our hairy feet up for a moment before we go back to battle.
The war of a thousand battles has just begun.
I agree, we must move on, and patiently keep chipping away. Apathy won’t get us to our goal which is to oust Obama and as many Democrats as possible in November 2012. We’re fighting the good fight. And this is a battle royale.Onwards!
Gandhi framed the credo for the Tea Party and other conservatives “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
So the “Hobbits”, “radical fringe”, “fiscal terrorists” and their ilk have won – at least for now! Still more work to do, though.
Since there’s little difference between the establishment Republicans and the Democrats, Boehner and McConnell would have sold us down the river weeks ago. The Tea Party has made a difference and, I hope, continue to keep them in line.
The most disheartening part of the legislation is that it cuts defense spending, as if one of the government spending problems is military spending. I think this is an extremely bad example to set for the short and medium term. Our nominee needs to stand up strongly for defense and the restoration and modernization of our military as part of our restoration of America.
I’ve been following your commentary throughout this horrid ordeal and appreciate your perspective. Tea Party patriots are not giving up and have only begun to fight. Let’s move forward and work together to rid our country of these insidious fools! We can all agree that this was a bad deal and a dreadful process. Much work to be done….for a long long time. Everyone keep up the good work.
In fact, we TEA Party people got virtually nothing from this fiasco.
Obama has a new $2.4 trillion slush fund to use to reward his allies and friends between now and the next election.
We got no real cuts in spending, AGAIN.
We got no real spending caps.
We got no real balanced budget amendment.
We got a phony “super committee” that will almost certainly continue the status quo of ever increasing government spending.
Boehner is either stupid, inept, corrupt or complicit in all the problems that define Washington, DC. Of course, he may be all four…
The fact that we aren’t paying higher taxes today ignores the fact that we, our children and grandchildren, will be paying additional interest on $2.4 trillion in new borrowing for decades.
We lost, our children lost, our grandchildren lost, and the Republic lost.
You really need to take a longer term view. Dr. Jacobson’s article and some of the posts here describe it well. With control of only the House, the Republicans did OK politically. Substantively, little was accomplished, but the political war must be waged well to get the substantive policy changes that are needed.
Do we need to cut spending and balance the budget yesterday? Of course. Can that happen? No. Can that happen before January 20, 2013? No. So, make sure it does happen soon after 1/20/2013. That is the only path available to saving our country. Will lots of damage happen before then? Most likely it will. But we will recover from it and there is nothing we can do about it anyhow.
Apparently you neither read nor comprehended my post and seem to fail to apprehend reality.
The “longer term” view has so far resulted in “establishment Republicans” and Marxist-Leninists, aka “Democrats, spending us into oblivion in the last 18 years. The projections for the next 10 years is at least $10 trillion in ADDITIONAL DEBT.
How much “longer term” should I consider? My life expectancy is a real limiting factor in this issue…
Well, actually its been nine 2 year terms, not “18 years”. That’s how you have to think in politics and your comment proves why “we” have not been doing too well in the last six or so terms. But if we quit shooting each other because some of us speak with different dialects and emphases, even though we all want the same results, then maybe we can get back to the job at hand and throw some more Dhimos and Rhinos out of office next year. Wouldn’t that be great? Or would you rather grump because you only got a small taste of the pie?
Like a super aircraft carrier, the good ship America has begun to turn. It takes a while. As unsatisfied as I am with the results so far, I’m gonna continue to do my part to make sure the helm stays “hard a-starboard”. Hope you do, too.
All true. But let’s play “let’s pretend”: If the TEA Party hadn’t come on the scene, we’d have: single-payer healthcare, massive new debt and deficit (this is nothing, nothing at all, compared to what would have happened); congresscritters buying and selling votes for airports and museums (none of that this time, did you notice? No cornhusker kickbacks, no bayou buys, none of it); the DOJ and WH gun running to undermine the Constitution (oh, wait, we still go that, but we’d also have); umpteen new entitlements we haven’t even dreamed of, a new law that makes gay marriage legal, amnesty for millions of illegals, and God alone knows what all else. This deal sucks. But it could, and would, be a lot lot worse if the TEA Party didn’t kick up a fuss and then succeed so well in the 2010 elections. Keep your eye on the prize: the WH and both houses of Congress in 2012. Only then can we see what these schmucks are really made of and decide whom we’ll kick out next. We, the people, will finally be in charge again. As it should be.
Your pep talk sounded fine until I read this:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43975590
When they call us names…just laugh at them. Marxists and Alinski lovers think that we will not be able to handle that, and that we will shut up if they intimidate us.
Stay Strong, as we are on the right side of history, and Obama and his ilk will go down in history as the worst of the worst.
Thank you for the pep talk, Professor. Let’s focus on the elections and continuing to make noise and consolidating power. A war is not won or lost in the initial battles.
Sorry, not buying it. If we’d really “changed the direction of the debate to our terms” then the deal would have included at least a symbolic $1 cut in spending. Instead, it continues to increase spending, and the entire “achievement” is that the increase is slightly smaller than had been planned. That’s not even the beginning of a victory. We’re still retreating, not advancing.
Steve Kelly
[…] Jacobson offers another pep talk: Just months ago Obama was demanding a multi-trillion dollar “clean” (that is, completely […]
Professor, I was pepped by your pep talk until:
The Obama administration put up an infographic on whitehouse.gov full of lies, misleading info, and prevarication. Peter Wilson does a good job of critiquing it with facts at http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/obamas_idiotic_infographic.html
I am losing hope about defeating this evil administration in 2012 unless G-d intervenes. As my Israeli friends say “We don’t believe in miracles,
we depend upon them”. So should we.
Israelis like Avi Lipkin seem certain that unprecedented voter fraud and waves of Muslim immigration will totally change the American demographics and Obama will steal the election again.
November 2012 can’t come soon enough. If all 3 branches of government are taken, then all this theater will be forgotten and we will get to the real business of cutting spending to 2007 levels.
Wish I could be optimistic about the state of the State. I took the time to thank Madame Speaker this morning. She–whoops–he passed the bill so we could see what was in it. Guess what–Cr*p sandwich. But the (R) Cr*p Sandwich tastes SOOOOOO much better than the (D) one!