Krauthammer: Compromise or run the risk of being blamed for economic ruin

Well we’ve come to a crossroads my little mobsters and at state could very well be who controls Congress in 2012.Charles Krauthammer tries to make the case that the tea party freshman in Congress are conservatives gone mad.  If these young freshman says Charles, turn down the banner deal, they run the risk of taking on a bad economy, and handing the election to Barack Obama.

Charles Krauthammer, clearly one of the leading voices of conservatism today writes that he understands how tea party conservatives feel, but they only control one  house of government. And with the election in 2012 on the line, it’s time to face reality.

I have every sympathy with the conservative counterrevolutionaries. Their containment of the Obama experiment has been remarkable. But reversal — rollback, in Cold War parlance — is simply not achievable until conservatives receive a mandate to govern from the White House.

Lincoln is reputed to have said: I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky. I don’t know whether conservatives have God on their side (I keep getting sent to His voice mail), but I do know that they don’t have Kentucky — they don’t have the Senate, they don’t have the White House. And under our constitutional system, you cannot govern from one house alone. Today’s resurgent conservatism, with its fidelity to constitutionalism, should be particularly attuned to this constraint, imposed as it is by a system of deliberately separated — and mutually limiting — powers.

Given this reality, trying to force the issue — turn a blocking minority into a governing authority — is not just counter-constitutional in spirit but self-destructive in practice.

Krauthammer goes on to add that to turn down the Boehner plan is to play right into the hands of the young president.

Obama faces two massive problems — jobs and debt. They’re both the result of his spectacularly failed Keynesian gamble: massive spending that left us a stagnant economy with high and chronic unemployment — and a staggering debt burden. Obama is desperate to share ownership of this failure. Economic dislocation from a debt-ceiling crisis nicely serves that purpose — if the Republicans play along. The perfect out: Those crazy Tea Partyers ruined the recovery!

Why would any conservative collaborate with that ploy? November 2012 constitutes the new conservatism’s one chance to restructure government and change the ideological course of the country. Why risk forfeiting that outcome by offering to share ownership of Obama’s wreckage?

I consider myself a proud member of the tea party movement. But I also understand what’s at stake. It is indeed a high-stakes game that’s going on right now. The tea party freshman could very well be right. This might very well be the last chance to get spending under control. And by accepting the Boehner plan you agree to add another trillion dollars for national debt. That does not sit well with me. On the other hand if the Republicans can’t move anything out of the house, or move something tougher to the Senate and nothing gets to Obama’s desk, the Republicans run the risk of turning the whole shebang over to the most liberal president this country has ever seen and then it’s Katie bar the door. Take the poll, you decide.

Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

19 Comments

  1. Lynn on July 29, 2011 at 8:43 am

    Jim, love these open-ended posts. Let the games begin! I am a pragmatist conservative, in every aspect of my life. I don’t and never have gambled. I am thrilled by the energy and perseverance of the Tea Party and like to participate when I have time. However, Obama is handled by ruthless and street smart thugs. This is no elite group, but down and dirty media wizards. They have been planning the take over of this country for decades.? Innocence? will be our downfall,? if we don’t accept this compromise. If Obama can blame us, he will be re-elected.? We can win the Senate and Presidency and take back our country, if we just are patient and have all the cards. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a fighter. But you can’t win a fight with one hand tied behind your back. Ok, let me have it.



  2. crystal4 on July 29, 2011 at 8:47 am

    “This might very well be the last chance to get spending under control.”
    What???? Obama offered 4 trillion in spending cuts and your TP Reps rejected it!!!
    The American people are not stupid, everyone can see this is solely to obstruct without any care about what happens to us…our credibility has already been damaged because of these fools.



    • Dimsdale on July 29, 2011 at 12:32 pm

      ?bama offered a framework, not concrete issues to be considered (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/13/president-obama-s-framework-4-trillion-deficit-reduction).? His budget bill was flatly rejected by anyone in the senate that could vote (97-0)!
      ?
      His framework would have evaporated back into the ether it is constructed of about six nanoseconds after he got a new debt ceiling, much like all of his other promises, pledges and “good ideas”.



    • ricbee on July 29, 2011 at 11:13 pm

      Wake up little girl.these people lie like rugs.



  3. sammy22 on July 29, 2011 at 12:03 pm

    If the Repubs do not even listen to CK, they are mad!



  4. Lynn on July 29, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    Well, Sammy there is no question that they are mad (angry) not mad (crazy).? It is the Kick the Hornet’s nest MAD.? I have to admit CK is always my last word.?



    • ricbee on July 29, 2011 at 11:15 pm

      I’ve always respected CK,but he’s wrong this time. This is the time to hold the line. No debt ceiling raise!



  5. sammy22 on July 29, 2011 at 5:18 pm

    Meanwhile, while Dims fiddles, the markets were deep red again today.



    • Dimsdale on August 1, 2011 at 11:23 am

      I believe that it is ?bama who is playing the part of Nero, and the Democrats who, for purely political reasons, won’t offer a real budget.? They just sit around and criticize those actually doing the work that needs to be done.
      ?
      The president “votes present” once again!



  6. essneff on July 29, 2011 at 9:17 pm

    What has happened to CK’s principles?……?Boehner should have walked away after his cap, cut & balance was shot down in the senate without a vote?& told Harry Cadaver to show something, anything!!??Instead, he came up with another plan so watered down that it is basically worthless….. we’re on the road to Greece folks



  7. sammy22 on July 29, 2011 at 11:14 pm

    Surely we need a balanced budget amendment at this juncture. May be pigs will fly when that happens maybe decades from now.



    • ricbee on July 29, 2011 at 11:16 pm

      Sam,Corrupticut has a balanced budget amendment….



  8. ricbee on July 29, 2011 at 11:18 pm

    Jim,I’m ashamed of you-I’m voting you out of the TEA Party.



  9. Lynn on July 30, 2011 at 6:38 am

    Ricbee, Now you’ve gone too far. You can kick me out but not Jim. We are in agreement that the WH and Congress lies. However, it is a matter of strategy. It’s a matter of who flinches first or that old game of chicken with hot cars. The WH Progressive political handlers are masters of repeating a lie so many times, it becomes “truth” to voters. I have little faith in voters.



  10. Lynn on July 30, 2011 at 7:07 am

    If I ever played “chicken” on the road, I want to be in a high speed Mustang not a Jetta. I want to be able to pass a Bill and not get it vetoed.



  11. crystal4 on July 30, 2011 at 8:55 am

    Only bit of brightness in all of this…these yahoos don’t have a prayer of holding on to the House after this.



    • Dimsdale on August 1, 2011 at 1:15 pm

      But maybe we will have a prayer of keeping the country because of them.? Legislating to keep one’s job is the biggest problem in Congress.



  12. JollyRoger on July 30, 2011 at 10:14 am

    Raising debt ceiling shouldn’t even be an issue!? Baby boomers are all transitioning from contributors to dependents on our system while SSA is broke, 14 Tril in debt is almost 50K per person in the USA, and our pols’ only answer is more of what got us here??? Washington needs an ENEMA!? I called Joe Courtney’s orifice in Enfield and some smarmy secretary asked me what I’d cut.? I’d start by closing four of Joe Courtney’s offices and make these pols fly coach with normal people- and they’d all be safe because of the comprehensive TSA screenings….? No more free haircuts, no more franking privileges, the president’s limo and motorcade must get 40 MPG or better…



  13. Tim-in-Alabama on July 30, 2011 at 10:44 am

    Reject stupid, but nuanced Dem speech “plans.” Get blamed for everything. Present own proposals, actually put them into writing, post them on-line and vote on them. Get blamed for everything. Compromise with Dems on plans they have emanating from a penumbra or teleprompter or something. Get blamed for everything. Hmmmm, what to do? What to do?



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