GOP Rep Matt Salmon: ‘It’s About Time’ For A Government Shutdown

Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) paid a visit to CBS’ Face the Nation this past weekend, and argued that a government shutdown would do us all some good. Referring back to the 1995, Salmon argued a shutdown could bring about some real progress on the fiscal front.

“I was here during the government shutdown in 1995,” Salmon said, noting that there was a divided government at the time, with Democratic President Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress.

“I believe that that government shutdown actually gave us the impetus, as we went forward, to push toward some real serious compromise,” he added. “I think it drove Bill Clinton in a different direction, a very bipartisan direction.”

“I think it would be terribly irresponsible,” Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN) countered. “The last thing we ever want to do is to essentially declare the United States of America bankrupt — that would just be terrible, it would be devastating.”

Repeat for good measure. The real truth unlike the lying and deceiving proceeding forth from the open mouth of the one.

The MSM and liberals (=democrats) will claim that not extending debt limit is defaulting on loans.

That is not correct. The cost of servicing the debt is less than 7% of the budget, and tax revenues are 60% of the budget.

So there is plenty of tax revenues to pay all debt obligations.

The feds can just furlough all federal agencies, postpone construction projects and postpone military purchases, and there will be enough tax money left to cover all social security checks, Medicare, Medicaid etc.

14 posted on Tue Jan 08 2013 01:15:14 GMT-0700 (Mountain Standard Time) by entropy12 (The republic is doomed when people figure out they can get free stuff by voting democrats)

I doubt any DC politician really wants us to discover we can get along perfectly fine without them.

We know how the story will go. Rather than cutting a few 1,000 non-essential bureaucrats so government can continue operating on tax receipts, they will threaten us with cutting off military paychecks, Medicare and SS.

I have complained for years about tone deaf Republicans, and this is a classic example. A government shutdown would be disruptive in the short run, unsupportable if continued for any length of time, and highly damaging politically for whomever gets tagged with the responsibility.

That doesn't mean we have to roll over and give Obama everything he wants.

Republicans should pass a budget with serious spending reform and not a penny more. The debt limit increase should be contingent on the dems meeting us halfway. But we can insist that Harry Reid pass a budget in regular order, so the House and Senate can go to conference. Etc., etc, etc. The point is, pass a Republican budget with spending cuts, and let the democrats take the blame for any shutdown.

So start by getting the Republican caucus in a room and take turns writing on the chalkboard a hundred times apiece: "Pass a Republican budget FIRST, and let the democrats take the blame for a shutdown." To do that, Republicans have to pass a budget, defend their budget, and then with every breath express regret that democrat intransigence is shutting down the government.

But noooo ... here we have Republicans rushing out to bluster about shutting down the government to extort a deal from the democrats. I.e., we're going to shut down the government in order to force cuts in social security, medicare, and medicaid. And some of our members can't wait to rush out and boast about it.

Why don't we just paste a sign on our backs said "I'm stupid, kick me."

People complain about Democrats playing chess while Republicans are playing checkers. Sheesh ... these guys aren't even competent to play checkers.

Bingo.

1. We must blame any shutdown on dems and not make it appear the pubs want it

2. What conservatives want is to address spending. So don’t distract from the message which is to reduce spending. A shutdown only happens if the dems force it. The message is not “shutdown”. It is to “reduce govt spending”.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.