Posted on 07/26/2011 11:48:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) criticized the Tea Party wing of the GOP on Tuesday for failing to get behind Republican leadership on a deficit plan.
"Our people have to understand that we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good," Barbour said.
Barbour said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had shown "courage" in the deficit debate by agreeing to compromise in order to raise the debt ceiling.
"In politics, purity is a dead dog loser," he said. "We cannot go out with the idea that we're going to be pure, or we're going to do nothing."
Speaking on conservative Laura Ingraham's radio show, Barbour warned that only compromise would produce a "good" deficit deal.
"If I had my way, if I were a dictator, we'd have no tax increases," he said. "But Republicans control one half of one third of the government."
Barbour said Tea Party Republicans such as Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) needed to get behind Boehner's effort, rather than clinging to the "Cut, Cap and Balance" Act which passed the House but "isn't going anywhere in the Senate."
DeMint criticized Boehner's plan as "essentially the same thing" as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) plan on FOX News Monday evening. Both plans "are political deals, not debt solutions," he tweeted.
The two-step plan offered by Boehner on Monday would raise the debt ceiling $1 trillion for a few months and make $1.2 trillion in cuts as the first step. Step two would appoint a commission to recommend additional deficit-reduction proposals for Congress to vote on and require a vote on a balanced budget amendment to the constitution.
DeMint pledged to continue working to pass the "Cut, Cap and Balance" Act, which conditions raising the debt ceiling on immediate spending cuts, capping annual spending and voting on a balanced budget amendment.
The Cut, Cap and Balance coalition, representing more than 100 Tea Party and conservative activist groups, also on Monday released a statement opposing Boehner's plan. The group said it could not support Boehner in part because it feared a Congressional commission would "make it easier to raise taxes than to institute enduring budget reforms."
However, the Tea Party movement may be more divided in its response on a local level. One local group in Boehner's home district organized a rally to show support for the Speaker on Monday that drew a crowd from throughout southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Ingraham, who urged her viewers to call DeMint and other Republicans urging them to support Boehner's plan, said she agreed with Barbour's message that Tea Party leaders needed to be told, "Don't stab your guy in the back."
Default is now our only hope.
The real conservatives (tea party types) in the house should pledge to switch parties the minute a worthless bill is passed with dem + rino votes.
Maybe the Boner will stiffen up when faced with losing the speakers office.
The madness must end.
I thought Haley Barbour was a better person than this. I used to respect him.
RE: Default is now our only hope.
We are NOT GOING TO DEFAULT.
We have more than enough money to pay off our debt obligations.
The lesser of 2 evils, is still evil.
I want to know if anyone can confirm that the Boehner plan raises the debt ceiling until April with contingencies for cuts and no new taxes. If this is correct, then I would say we should go for it, and send the thing to the Senate sticking firm on it being until April.
“...Barbour’s message that Tea Party leaders needed to be told, “Don’t stab your guy in the back.”
Since when is Boner “our” guy. Our guy is anyone who votes no, filibusters or has the balls to get on the stage and call out this fraud in the oval office.
So where are the former “Barbour for Prez” groupies now?
Well you beat me to it so I’ll just second that emotion.
If Barbour was President we most definitely would not be in this mess.
I can think of far worse scenarios.
First obama talks about being a dictator. Now Barbour. What’s up?
Boehner was on Rush this morning. It raises the debt ceiling until April.
He acknowledged there's a theoretical risk of higher taxes being recommended by the commission in step two where it identifies cuts to office the 2nd debt ceiling increase, which would be for a second debt ceiling increase. Boehner said the House isn't going to vote for more taxes so it's not a practical concern.
It's not a great plan, Boehner's said as much, but it's not the end of the world and importantly keeps the issue alive. It also guarantees a vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment after Oct 1 giving time to gets all supporters behind one version and sell it. Unity that didn't happen behind CCB which put us in this position.
I contacted my Congressman and CA's dimwit Senators to support Boehner's two-step just as I did for Cut, Cap & Balance.
Reid's plan is a scam. With $1 trillion of "cuts" coming from the already scheduled draw downs in Iraq & Afghanistan. "Savings" the credit houses said must not and will not be considered "cuts" because they're not.
The two-step keeps the issue alive. Obama's number one, two and three priorities are to get this out of the election cycle.
Too bad Boss Hogg dropped out of the presidential bid. He could have helped split the establishment/Big Government vote with Willard.
How does that work? I thought the debt ceiling was a dollar amount, not a calendar date. Just kidding, I know the idea is that Congress approves of deficit spending at a certain rate, and knows the new credit card limit will be reached less than a year from now, at the planned spending rate.
Congress, the House in particular, has to rein in the spending. That is is NOT doing so signals that the House is not really concerned.
Haley has grown into a good ole Rino boy.
For Rinos, it is perferred the the GOP be a minority wing of the International socialist party. That way everyone agrees on everything and America, her people and her freedom is sold down the UN river without any muss and fuss.
“The lesser of 2 evils, is still evil.”
That is what the GOP nomenklatura still do not realize - that we have figured this out, and that their “good faith and credit” is vastly overdrawn for the decade, if not a generation.
Senator DeMint, Haley Barbour...I mean Haley Barbour! I’d be sooooooooo crushed!
And YOU, Laura Ingraham, I consign you to the Ann Coulter Memorial Dustbin of Ex-Conservative History.
“-—It raises the debt ceiling until April. —”
They are trying to get the debt ceiling raised enough to get us to April.
So, when it comes up again in April, we will have this fight all over again...in an election year.
Obama wants the debt ceiling raised enough to get us through the election. So, he won’t have to deal with it.
It’s all politics and strategy, and that makes me sick.
None of them appear to care about this country anymore.
While I don’t agree with him on this, he is certainly not a RINO boy.
The rest of your post is just plain uninformed.
I don’t agree with Haley this time, and since the thread was posted, it’s all moot. Those who jumped on board so quickly look foolish.
The CBO has scored Boehner’s bill, and has found it lacking.
So...we are off to a rewrite, as well they should after the last fiasco.
They don't. And I have news for them, I don't care about the federal government either. In fact, I have animus toward it; it's nothing more than a "national" version of the "United Nations." I hope both institutions fail, spectacularly. Meanwhile, I live in a state, county, town, community and neighborhood; all of which have sufficient resources to get by even if there was no such thing as a federal government.
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