The Tea Party Keeps Fighting The Good Fight

08 Aug, 2011 by Kathleen McKinley

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So, as we all know by now, Standard and Poor’s has downgraded the United States’ credit rating by one notch from AAA to AA+ for the first time in the history of the ratings. One had to laugh at John Kerry and David Axelrod: on the Sunday shows this weekend trying to start the meme “this is a tea party downgrade.” : They are trying to argue that the Tea Party back lawmakers who refused to raise taxes and insisted upon Cap, Cut and Balance, are the reason S&P decided to downgrade. It’s completely absurd. If our debt were a drug addict, the Tea Party lawmakers are the ones taking it to an intervention. If not for them, our long addiction to spending would continue until we a had a drug overdose. It’s the Tea Party that is trying to save us.

This the simple truth. The S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating because basically they said they do not believe we can contain growth in public spending : in order to stabilize the general government debt burden by the middle of the decade. : In other words, they don’t believe we can stop spending so dang much. It’s all about The U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio. Our debt is out of control.

Who are the only lawmakers that anyone can see who are fighting tooth and nail to contain the growth in public spending? The Tea Party backed lawmakers. So, Kerry and Axelrod trying to blame the Tea Party for the downgrade is like trying to blame the trainer at the gym you never go to for you being fat.

Another simple truth is that this administration is in way over it’s head. Remember back in April when US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner: said that a credit rating downgrade wasn’t going to happen? He said there was no chance of that. “No risk of that, no risk,” Geithner said on one of the leading television business networks in April, 2011.* This was our US Treasury Secretary.

Not only has Pres. Obama not learned from his past mistakes, he wants to repeat them:

There he goes again. Out on the campaign trail, President Obama is proposing more federal spending as his answer to sluggish growth and jobs. That won’t do it, Mr. President.

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He wants to lengthen 99-week unemployment insurance, although numerous studies have shown that continuous unemployment benefits are associated with higher unemployment.

And he wants to extend the temporary payroll tax credit, which is not a permanent reduction in marginal tax rates, has no incentive effect, has not worked so far, and is really a form of federal spending – not real tax relief.

The bottom line is that everyone, Democrats and Republicans, are to blame for where we are today. We have spent ourselves into the mess. The only people looking at this in a sane and objective way are the men and women who, backed by the Tea Party, got involved in politics (many for the first time), got elected, and went to Washington to FINALLY make a difference. : Rep. Paul Ryan, his budget plan, and the Cap, Cut, and Balance Bill are the only true reform D.C. has seen in my lifetime.

I understand why the Democrats are upset by these things. When one’s entire political: philosophy is based on more and more spending by the government, I can see why being slapped in the face by reality would cause them to lash out at those trying to stop them.

Now, if you haven’t been keeping up with the details of all this debt ceiling fight, you might be asking, “Didn’t they reach a deal? Didn’t they pass a bill in the House and Senate to raise the debt ceiling?” Well, yes they did. But as Mary Steyn points out, that is where the trouble lies:

America will be cutting federal spending by $900 billion over ten years. “Cutting federal spending by $900 billion over ten years” is Washington-speak for increasing federal spending by $7 trillion over ten years. And, as they’d originally planned to increase it by eight trillion, that counts as a cut. If they’d planned to increase it by $20 trillion and then settled for merely $15 trillion, they could have saved five trillion. See how easy this is?

Washington spends money like a dishonest wife. She tells her husband that she only spent $200 for a designer handbag. She tells him it was on sale from $400, so she actually SAVED them $200! : She says, “Since I only spent $200, and saved us $200, it’s really like I didn’t spend anything at all.”

Washington has gotten away with this forever. Telling us things are “cuts,” when they are nothing of the sort.

Here is the point where I go off the Tea Party reservation and tell you something about how the American people feel in general. They feel that many able bodied Americans are not giving their fair share in this country. That goes for the lower class to the super rich. Contrary to what Obama and liberals would like you to believe, the Bush tax cuts cut just about everyone’s taxes, not just “the rich.” According to: a nonpartisan analysis by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, nearly 75% of all families got a tax cut.: Liberals know this. Obama knows this. But “tax cuts for the rich” creates the kind of class warfare that gets them votes. The cuts worked well, and we prospered despite the horror of 9-11, the wars, and the historical tragedy of Katrina. But we are not prospering now. I think that most Americans, and even myself would not mind our taxes being raised if we believed for one second that those in Washington would actually enact true deep spending cuts and stop the waste, abuse, and fraud. But we all know that that must come before the other. We won’t keep throwing good money after bad.

In other words, if D.C. could actually truly cut spending and reduce our debt in a real way, I think Americans would then be willing to increase our taxes to help as well. We are a fair and generous people after all. But so far, we see no sign of that happening. Every time a true common sense measure is introduced, like Cap, Cut, and Balance, the Democrats fight it down. The Tea Party backed lawmakers promised us that if they were elected they would not raise our taxes when it was clear that Washington was determined to keep up it’s reckless spending. They promised us they would fight the bloated monster that is our federal spending. They kept that promise. A rare thing in Washington. : Washington cannot ask the American people to have their taxes raised if they are not willing to make the necessary cuts in government spending. Let’s stop pretending that raising taxes on “the rich” will have an significant effect. The only revenue that will make a difference will have to be across the board. But that conversation cannot be had until we pass a Balance Budget Amendment.

Don’t let the demonization of the Tea Party by the Democrats sway you from the truth. Until we send more elected officials to Washington to do the job that needs to be done, and elect a President willing to make the tough decisions, we will continue this downward spiral.