Categories
Accountability general freedom moral hazard national politics & policies political challengers responsibility tax policy

Bankrupt Leadership

Sharing

Sen. Rand Paul wasn’t the only thing absent from the GOP presidential stage last Thursday.

Also missing? Any meaningful talk about reducing federal spending and avoiding a sovereign debt crisis. The debt looms over all our heads. But you wouldn’t know it to listen to the GOP hopefuls. (And the same nearly goes without saying for the Democratic Party’s debt-​denying presidential aspirants.)

Way back when the Bush Administration had lost America’s confidence, deficits and debts were a common concern. Much of the disgust that birthed the Tea Party movement was disgust at Republican over-​spending, as well as at the bailouts that spurred the initial protests. And then came Obama, Obamacare, and a 70 percent increase in federal debt.

Why the silence now?

Nick Gillespie, of Reason, figures that Republicans don’t really care about deficits and debts.

Andrew Flowers, of FiveThirtyEightPolitics, wonders whether the GOP has abandoned the issue because Republicans don’t want to face the fact that Obama has, indeed, reduced deficits — though definitely not the debt, which has nearly doubled.

Alternative theory? Republicans have given up hope, because the last two Democratic presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, have successfully threatened government shutdown over even the itty bittiest spending cut, safe in the knowledge that the mainstream media’s full spin-​cycle will be blaming conservatives.

This has made it easier for Big Government Republicans to embrace greater military funding and other spending programs, as Gillespie notes.

But real leadership recognizes the present danger of debt.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


Printable PDF

national debt, debt, deficit, debate, Republican, Democrat, Tea Party, CommonSense

 

6 replies on “Bankrupt Leadership”

Perhaps one of the reasons Paul was exorcised from the podium. 
This is clearly not about leadership, it is about getting elected. 

I ponder the missuse of words such as calling the USA a democracy or referring to a political class as either republicans or democrats. There are neither. Today we have radical progressives and more of the same in the other party. All are corrupted by big money and power and have no regard for either the citizens they promised to represent or the Constitution they vowed to uphold.
The United States is no more and its just a matter of time before we succomb. I weep for my children and grandchildren. Welfare/​warfare has done us in.

Well said. All I would add is that both sides are willing to turn over personal liberties for what ever government /​statist program floats their own boat They imagine they will be exempt from the negativity of the programs they support. HOWEVER, the speed of communications now is on the side of more knowledge and rationality.

Obama did not cut any deficit. All of his deficits were higher than any deficit of the previous administration.

When yout quadruple the deficit, it’s easy to say you cut it by two thirds later yet still be adding more debt than ever before.

‘But real leadership recognizes the present danger of debt.”

Perhaps, but there is nothing to be gained from real leadership. The people don’t want it. Concern about excessive government spending has resulted in GOP being branded as racist for even suggesting cutbacks. The TEA party has also been consistently derided as racist for opposing ‘a black president[‘. Our leadership may be bankrupt but it’s exactly what we derserve. We voted for it. To say Obama reduced deficits is absurd. Spending continues to go up and up and up. We can’t even freeze spending without being accused of cutting government. The people want ever-​exopanding government. All of us will bear the consequences of government expansion. I’ve given up hope of any meaningful change. The gravy train of government will continue until voters decide hard but necessary change is worth the effort.

If you are seeking adult porn social signals, then take into
consideration buying our aduult social signal package.
It really is the most beneficial approach
to get higher search rankings in the search engines if you’re
a porn wweb page webmaster.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *