Nothing could be clearer to me based on what we all witnessed in Washington during these last few weeks and these last five years, than Barack Obama and the Democratically controlled Senate have no interest in making anything approaching a “grand bargain.”
The Democrats in Congress have had several opportunities to be the sort of statesmen and stateswomen that the times require, but they would not do it. They are ideologically committed to not only maintaining but growing the entitlement state, regardless of the perilous fiscal consequences to our country.
Although I haven’t given up on my party, I must admit that it is looking more and more like Glenn Beck may be right: we are living under a one-party system.
The Washington establishment continues to muddle blithely on as though all is right with the world, seemingly oblivious to the impending train wreck just over the horizon.
Establishment Republicans are so deluded as to think that everything will be all better with a little more technology, better messaging, and milquetoast candidates who are acceptable to Democrats and the press.
I have a word for them: It’s the debt, stupid!
Going along to get along in Washington is simply not going to fix the problem. As Senator Ted Cruz recently pointed out, it took a whole lot of bipartisan cooperation to get us $17 trillion into debt.
If we stay on our current trajectory, the National Debt will have nearly doubled on President Obama’s watch, to say nothing of the estimated $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. This Administration will have committed your children and grandchildren to as much debt in eight short years as all the previous presidents combined.
Common sense tells us that we can no longer afford the status quo. Not only does it threaten our children’s future, it is an existential threat to our security here and now.
In 2010 the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs declared the National Debt as our number one National Security threat, and the debt has since increased by more than thirty percent.
During Mark Begich’s short 5-year tenure in the United States Senate, the deficit nearly quadrupled, and the national debt has risen by more than 60 percent.
Alaskans must never forget that Senator Begich was the 60th and decisive vote for Obamacare: a vote he continues to staunchly defend. He does so despite virtually none of the promises about the new entitlement program proving to be true. Further, the estimated costs of the so-called Affordable Care Act have skyrocketed from $900 billion when the bill was passed in 2010 to a CBO projected $1.6 trillion last year to the most recent projections finding it may cost upwards of $3 trillion.
All this has resulted in the downgrading of our credit rating, massive quantitative easing from the Fed, and the consequent devaluing of our currency.
Just this week it was reported that the United States faces the possibility of another credit downgrade if we do not squarely face our massive debt and deficits.
This news comes amidst Democrats most recent bargaining position calling for an end to the Sequester cuts: the only fiscally rational action that has been undertaken during the entire five years of the Obama Administration.
Yet the junior senator continues to march in lock-step with Harry Reid and Barack Obama as they bring us ever closer to fiscal collapse.
Make no mistake about it, Senator Mark Begich is part of the problem. It’s time to send him packing!
We need a senator who can make the hard choices, and confront the challenges facing our nation in these turbulent times. There’s too much at stake to settle for pyrrhic victories.
Now is no time milquetoast candidates more interested in holding a position than linking arm-in-arm with those committed to bringing about a restoration of common sense to American politics. We have the words of Thomas Paine to spur us on in the fight:
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”
If you are ready to remedy the crisis of leadership in Washington, I need your help today!
This is our moment. Let’s return Washington to fiscal sanity, and save the future of the country we love.
For the Future,
Joe
