It's for the children. Uh, while I still have problems with, uh, guns in schools, public schools that is, so make no, make no, uh, mistake about it: Spending's not the problem. Gotta go, links are calling. Peace out!
Posted on 01/11/2013 5:52:32 AM PST by Kaslin
Did you watch the Notre Dame v. Alabama, BCS Championship game this week? Alabama beat Notre Dame 42-12. It wasn’t even close.
42-12, now that’s a big win.
You know who didn’t have an overwhelming victory? President Obama. His margin was significantly closer than the Alabama- Notre Dame game and it was a substantially closer than four years ago. So while there is no doubt that this year was a disappointing outcome for conservatives, the close election results mean that the Left lacks the mandate to enact the president’s liberal agenda.
There has been a huge victory in a recent election; it was in 2010 by conservatives. That victory by 63 small government Republicans who changed the make-up of the US House and derailed President Obama’s agenda was a mandate by the American people.
The silver lining in this election is that voters didn’t give the president a mandate.
Now unfortunately, because President Obama kept the presidency, the left feels they have a mandate to impose higher taxes and fight for more government spending. But the facts of the election and public opinion polls don’t support that notion.
First, although the President won re-election, it was with 33 fewer electoral votes and by only 3.8% of the popular vote as compared to 7.2% in 2008. That’s not an overwhelming victory and it certainly isn’t a mandate. Rather, for whatever reason the American people choose to give President Obama a second chance, working with Congress, to address the nation’s fiscal woes.
Second, the Senate remains the same. Like the presidency, Americans voted against change, leaving Democrats in control of the upper chamber for another session. The modest two seat net gain by Democrats was hardly a blowout. How can you describe winning two seats as a mandate? Once more, Americans are generously offering their senators another chance to pass a budget since those elected in the last two years haven’t had an opportunity to vote on one.
Third, the House didn’t change either. Republicans maintain their majority here with only eight seats of 235 turning blue. No liberal mandate there. In all three areas, for better or for worse, Americans chose the status quo in November.
To see what a mandate looks like, just rewind to 2010 where midterm elections swept fiscal conservatives into both chambers of the legislature. With 63 Republican, including many tea party conservative, additions in the House and six in the Senate (out of 37 seats up for re-election Republicans took 24, defeating 2 Democratic incumbents). The message the American people sent to Washington was “cut the spending!”
The mandate of 2010 hasn’t changed with this election.
Our government must learn to cut back, to reduce spending for the poorest among us. Without spending reductions and reforms today, vital programs for the poorest in our society like Social Security and Medicare will go bankrupt. This problem has only grown in recent years, as government spending has resulted in trillion dollar-plus deficits every year. Our debt in January 2012 became larger than the total size of our economy! Not only has government spending grown, but President Obama has stolen money from Medicare to fund new projects.
Furthermore in states like Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Kansas voters rewarded good policy decisions. Citizens overwhelming favored smaller government and lower taxes and understood the tough decisions that their legislators made. This is incredibly encouraging.
So while President Obama and liberals are crowing about a mandate to tax their way out of the massive debt problem, adamantly refusing to negotiate with conservatives and Republicans on a debt limit decision, remember that their victory was narrow and certainly not a mandate. This is a fight they can lose and conservatives can win.
The truth is that the Americans people still want spending reductions. In a recent survey, 72% of people agreed that a debt ceiling increase must be accompanied by spending cuts and reforms of a greater amount. In a different CBS survey, 68% of Americans said that the debt ceiling should not be raised, reflecting the belief that government is over spending and needs to live within a budget.
As our country faces some major spending battles, remember that conservatives still have the mandate of the American people to cut spending. Congressional leaders are on the side of the public and have the moral high ground as reforming these vital programs will save them for the poorest among us for the future. Our country desperately needs spending cuts and reforms. This is the year to make them a reality.
Because we knew it was all in the bag for Alabama.
EOs are Obama’s work around.
Once Harry Reid changes the rules in the Senate, Obama will get everything he wants.
The liberals can’t back off from their extreme positions. Those extreme positions aren’t nearly extreme enough for the liberal base. They can’t compromise and maintain that base. If they do they may face expensive primary challenges from even more extreme leftists. Also, there is no incentive to compromise from the left-most position. If there was, what would it look like? Giving away free stuff is a proven tactic. What platform would a conservative run on? “I’ll take away the free stuff and we’ll enact an austerity budget that will spend less on everything?” (That translates into no more free lunches, phone, Obama-money…)
Here's a bit of news for you....With no opposition from the other side of the aisle he can get away with whatever he pleases and if he has opposition he will just write exec orders which no one seems to think that they can or should oppose. IOW he's got his mandate, like it or not.
So what! The people lack the representation in Congress to do anything about it!
And Obamacare, now that the repercussions of its implementation are being seen and felt, is an absolute train wreck for Democrats seated in Congress.
And it all belongs to Obama.
This thing is going to implode big-time. The law’s principal mechanism by which the Feds were going to coerce the states into setting up exchanges was gutted by the Supreme Court.
The law provided no funding for a federal exchange. And we have the House.
No federal exchange means there is no way to make policies cheaper for the poor. It means extreme adverse selection for the insurance companies so premiums will begin to skyrocket, and Americans will begin to revolt. Just watch.
Grab some popcorn....
It's for the children. Uh, while I still have problems with, uh, guns in schools, public schools that is, so make no, make no, uh, mistake about it: Spending's not the problem. Gotta go, links are calling. Peace out!
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.