John Boehner math

Irony isn’t quite the word here.  On Tuesday, while John Boehner, the House leadership and the Party of Corruption were off cheering about cutting $6 billion from the budget, the national debt rose by $72 billion.

What do we call something like that?  Certainly not “winning!”

If this were any other business, other than the federal government, it would be belly up.  The cast of clowns in Washington, if they were the executive team would not only be out of a job, they might even be facing criminal investigation. 

But this is Washington.  The country sinks another $66 billion in debt; these guys pat themselves on the back and head off for another DC cocktail party. 

Something could have been salvaged from a bad week, except the GOP leadership decided they are not serious about the debt. They simply want business as usual.  The Bachman-King proposal that would have stripped $105 billion for Obamacare from the budget should have passed.  Defunding Planned Parenthood should have passed.  Serious budget reduction should have passed.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of serious leadership in the GOP.   

The real leaders in the GOP are people like Mike Pence, Steve King and Michelle Bachmann.  In the Senate, Jim DeMint, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Marco Rubio.   Unfortunately, they are the minority.

Had the GOP been serious this week, we could have shaved $37 billion from the deficit.  Not great but it is better than going $66 billion in the other direction.

A wise man once told me, when you are in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging. 

Unfortunately, wisdom is a commodity that is in very short supply in the nation’s capitol.

We in the Tea Party movement have patiently waited.  No more.   We have listened while the GOP, who we put in there, has suggested bite sized reductions in spending, that at the end of the day, have the effect of one step forward and two steps back. 

We in the Tea Party need to call for one simple thing.  We need $1.65 trillion in budget cuts.  That is the number it will take to balance the budget. 

The moderates and the liberals will have a fit over that.   They will say it cannot be done. 

Why not?

Let’s look at spending in the last two years.  What have we gotten for all of the spending that has taken place?  Where has that money gone?  We do not have new aircraft carriers to show for it.  We do not have a new interstate highway system, nor do we have anything to really show for it.  When Bush left office in 2009, people were not starving.  The world had not ended.  To start with, why can’t we go back to the 2008 budget?  Let’s start with those levels of spending.  That is an automatic $700 billion cut right there. Does anyone believe we cannot find another $800 billion in cuts just be eliminating wasteful programs in the government?  Defunding NPR and PBS will get us some more savings.  How about eliminating the $770 million to rebuild mosques from the State Department budget?

If we are serious, we can cut the spending quickly and get us to a balance budget.

The problem is, the GOP leadership in Washington is not serious.  Boehner has been on the job less than three months and it is painfully obvious he is not up to the job.  His sole qualification for the job is that was his turn. He has been there and worked his way up the GOP ladder.  Seniority is a tried and true GOP practice, regardless of qualifications or beliefs.   In The GOP, seniority rules with practices that would make any Union proud.

Despite our best hopes, it is obvious the leadership on both sides is not serious about cutting spending.  Obama is not because he wants to crash the American economy.  Reid is not, simply because he is an old fashioned corrupt Democrat.  I wish I knew why the GOP was so not interested.

Perhaps it is time for the people to go back to Washington to get our leaders’ attention.