Posted on 07/28/2011 11:37:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This afternoon Sarah Palin issued a vague threat to freshman Republicans just ahead of the House vote on a bill to reduce the deficit and raise the debt ceiling. Does Palin want Republicans to vote it down? She wouldn't say precisely. On her Facebook page, Palin cited quotations from a 2010 letter she issued to Republicans reminding them that they "campaigned on a promise to rein in out-of-control government spending... promises that you must keep." She punctuated her reminder with an ominous post script: "P.S. Everyone I talk to still believes in contested primaries."
So does that mean she's threatening to run hard-right candidates against Republicans who vote for the bill supported by House Speaker Boehner in the next election? A number of conservative Republicans were upset that the GOP's Cut Cap and Balance bill was abandoned. But those left puzzling over her Facebook postings were just as confused as we are.
Sheila Marikar at ABC News writes:
"That could be a threat -- suggesting that she won’t support members of Congress who vote to raise the debt ceiling – or a reference to her 2012 aspirations."
CNN's political unit:
"Palin, who is considering a bid for the White House in 2012, has said raising the debt ceiling is inevitable, but that Republicans "better get something out of it." She has also been a proponent of the "Cut, Cap, and Balance" pledge passed through the Republican-controlled House and failed in the Senate."
But Jim Geraghty at National Review has it all figured out:
"If she were any clearer, they would have woken up with horse’s heads in their beds this morning."
For Geraghty, it's clear she's asking them to vote against the Boehner bill. Giving Boehner a little support, he justifies the speaker's position.
Of course, in the eyes of John Boehner and his allies, his plan is the best remaining option to stick to the principles that propelled their campaigns, rein in out-of-control government spending, and so on. And it’s not like Boehner’s plan is generating much pats on the back from “the Left in the media.”
Well, my understanding is that they're masking the total amount by doing a trillion right away, and then doing the rest by spring, after another phony committee meets.
All along, the "leaders" of both parties have been focused on borrowing in excess of two trillion more. One way or another, all their "plans" do that.
So, it is quite obvious that all this hullabaloo is nothing more than positioning for the next election and nothing else. They're deciding who gets what political cover.
The amount of the loot has never been the issue. It's how do they deal with the politics. How can they successfully fool the people once again.
As far as I know, she only appeared ONCE with him, during his campaign, and endorsed him at that time. Doing anything else would have been ungracious. Even J. D. Hayworth, at the time, said he understood completely why she did it, and didn't hold it against her.
EV, what reality are you living in? The pubbie HOUSE could say not one penny more, and the dem senate would guffaw themselves all the way to China.
She was damned if she did, and damned if she didn't. If she had snubbed McCain when he asked her to endorse him, Palin detractors would be pointing at it and criticizing her for her lack of loyalty.
And as ansel12 pointed out on another thread, had Palin failed to back McCain in the Senate race, ... it would have shown the 2008 ticket as a sham, a fake out of the American people, it would have dominated the news, destroyed Palin, stopped our gains in 2010, made Obama look like the only sane choice in 2008, and McCain would still have kept his Senate seat.
She was between a rock and a hard place, and instead of weaseling, she faced it and dealt with it.
I repeat: I believe that many (not necessarily you, kevao) who criticize Palin for supporting McCain when he asked her to, would have criticized her just as harshly if she hadn't. Me, I'd have probably thought less of her if she'd thrown McCain under the bus. She didn't -- and I respect her for having made a very difficult choice, and for doing it with guts AND honor.
Huge Sarah fan. Run, Sarah. We have no one.
EXCELLENT comment!
Did you vote for McCain in 08? I detest him, but only voted for him because Palin was on the ticket, and I don’t feel the least damn bit bad about it.
Some info please. If a Balanced Budget Amendment ever goes through, whereby (spending = revenues), do you ever need to borrow money again? Do you then even care what Moody’s or S&P says? Just wondering.
Not one penny gets spent without the U.S. House of Representatives.
You might want to ponder that.
-- Thomas Jefferson (Letter of November 26th, 1798)"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution ... taking from the federal government their power of borrowing."
My God, the press are a pathetic pack of screeching, yapping poodles, pissing themselves whenever Palin simply talks straight.
If Obama did the same thing they'd report it as "The President put his political muscle behind his convictions today..."
Something I wish folks childishly calling him names would think about--though that might be asking too much. Yeah, he should come up with a bill that's all cuts, exactly what we here all want, and then watch Reid kill it, which would do exactly what for us?
Maybe if he did not act like it is his job to placate the marxist and do the job he was elected it would be easy to 'respect' him. He told US from the get go of his speaker-ship that he would not break Nanny the Red Pewlouise's rule to stop BamBamKennedy's deathcare project. There is nothing Boehner is offering now that is going to fix anything. It is just like he is putting on a bigger log under the spit to serve up burnt ends.
He'd have just given him the debt ceiling increase if that were his job. Instead he's trying to get something with the leverage he has.
I know it'd be so easy if one of us were there--we'd offer a bill that cut everything, and Reid and Obama would just happily sign it--but reality doesn't work that way.
Reality is that from the get go Boehner should have pulled the plug on funding BamBamKennedy's deathcare project. Instead he bowed to Nanny the Red Pewlouise, and honored her rule. He blew this from the get go. Not sure he knows that yet but he is about to find out.
Harry Reid could do nothing to keep the deathcare project alive IF the House cut that funding totally. Wonder is that funding still in this budget... the Speaker has not been touting that all funding has been cut? Wonder why not?
You are seriously misinformed on this, but so are many people.
Much of the Obamacare funding is done under MANDATORY spending which can’t be just stopped, and the rest is under discretionary spending—which can be put back by the senate (and would be). Any bill defunding Obamacare would then go to...Obama.
From openCongress:
“A Republican-led Congress would send Obama an appropriations bill minus the money for enacting the health care law and dare him to veto it. If he vetoes it, no funds are appropriated and unless Congress folds and sends it back with the health care money included, funding for the government would start to run out. Most of the health care funding would be contained in the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, which funds a lot of the programs that get the most use, like public schools, low-income heating assistance, unemployment insurance, job training, and public broadcasting, so it would be a very high-stakes game.”
Yes, we know, YOU don’t care about all that, but watch what happens when the above scenario is enacted: it’s an old song, called ‘Bill Clinton’s Second Term.” This time sung by a president who’s dropping in he polls until we hand him his second term.
So Boehner didn’t put up a bill that would have no meaning? Big flippin’ deal.
Folks around here seem to think Boehner is a dictator who can simply wave his magic wand and make all our dreams come true. Maybe if we’d elected a few more senators we’d have a chance, but we didn’t. Boehner isn’t my idea of a great politician, but he’s facing a Democrat Senate and a Democrat White House. All the whining about betrayal won’t change that, and the facts of how spending happens in Washington, one bit.
Less name-calling and more facts will help you here.
Excuse me, how is it that ‘mandatory’ spending is untouchable? Congress can pull the plug on anything they decide to, even so called ‘mandatory’ spending.
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Hold that against her if u wish, but she repaid a one-time debt.
If it were only just that, a ONE time debt then this conservative would understand. The only problem I have with her backing of McCaniac is when does it stop? How long will she be backing his brand of Republicanism. When will she go after the biggest scumbag RINO in the US Senate now that she supposedly PAID back her debt?! Is it true that she has become a neighbor of McCaniac in Arizona or is considering it? I've always heard that politics sometimes make for strange bedfellows. Her relationship with Juan McCainiac beyond helping him win re-election is troubling for this conservative that's all I'm saying here. I refuse to trust McCain therefore I ..........
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