Wouldn’t you love to have been a fly on the wall as the Republican House members debated what to do yesterday? All week John Boehner and company have been saying that nothing could be done unless the Senate was called back. After approving a 60 day extension on tax cuts for the middle class and extending the unemployment benefits, it appeared that House Speaker Boehner had some kind of epiphany that insisted he change his mind. That’s okay, Mr. Speaker, we need a bit more proof that you and the rest of your Congressional colleagues are, in fact, Washington’s idea of comic relief. Perhaps I’m being somewhat unfair here. John Boehner is a good man; he’s an honest man. It’s highly unfortunate that he is surrounded in the House of Representatives by people like Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House Majority Leader. Cantor is like the kid who causes the trouble but runs away when the trouble starts. He, along with his tea party ship of fools, doesn’t really understand how government is supposed to work. In that regard they are not dissimilar to the Occupy movement. That is, “We know what we want but we have no real idea of how to achieve it.” As a result, in the case of the tea party, they turn to badgering the people in their own party who are in positions of genuine leadership. They coddle, cry, threaten, and moan, and in order to maintain peace in his own party, the leader attempts to mollify them to the detriment of Congress as a whole and the entire 99 percent of the American public.
To call this a major victory for President Obama is, perhaps, something of an overstatement. Truth to tell, Obama didn’t really bring to bear all of the pressure that I believe he could have. His is a leadership style that we haven’t seen in some time. To me it appears he has seen that the heavy hand rarely works and that consensus is the only way for progress to be made. Unfortunately, there are those in Congress who don’t believe in consensus decision-making and who will do everything possible to ensure its failure under this particular administration.
It will be very interesting to see what happens when Congress reconvenes in January. Personally, I believe that it’s time for Representative Boehner, in consort with President Obama and a few of the cooler Republican leaders to take the tea partiers one-by-one on a trip to the woodshed. At the very least, they could be told that there will be no leadership assistance during their next run for office. As the comic line in the old German spy films noted, “Ve haf vays!”
It really is a crime that our government has come to this impasse. We can’t reduce a multi-trillion dollar budget deficit “because it’s the other guy’s fault.” We can’t agree on a jobs bill that would put more Americans back to work “because it would give the other guy a win and we can’t let him win even one.” We can’t pass a one year tax cut bill “because that would look like we’re caving in to ‘them.’” Who the hell “them” is happens to be far beyond my ken. As I understand it, we are “…one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.” In my limited understanding of the English language, ‘all’ means every man, woman, and child in the country. So to Eric Cantor, the Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and Georgia delegations, which appear to be the largest groups of tea partiers I would say this, “Stop wasting the time and money of America. Start doing something right for a change rather than just bitching and wailing and wringing your hands. You are behaving like a group of spoiled children. You are not entitled to bring down government because you want something you cannot have. You are not entitled to get your own way every time you open your smarmy little mouths. Grow up and get with the program.”
As for you, Mr. President, lead the way to the woodshed for these people. Let them know exactly what steps you will take; just how far you will go; exactly what resources will be expended to ensure they are not returned to Congress. Like spoiled brats they will run to the newspapers; let them; like the little troublemakers they are, they will call you a bully; let them. And then, move ahead and jam those of your legislative packages that will help the country as a whole right down their angry little throats. We know it’s not going to be easy, but dammit, you’re the leader of the greatest country in the free world. It’s time you showed Congress that, along with the velvet glove, you also have a mailed fist!
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