Temporary Sanity
Published October 17, 2013
Editorial by Greensboro News & Record, October 17, 2013.
To say sanity was restored in Washington Wednesday would be an exaggeration. Rather, the more responsible lunatics agreed only to a temporary suspension of the madness. Crazy times will return soon enough.
It took immense pressure from outside the capital to force a deal that funds the government and raises the debt ceiling. States had to spend their own money to pay for some services. Credit rating agencies threatened punitive action. Business organizations warned of serious consequences. Oh, and polls showed Americans were disgusted with their representatives.
“We need to stop the bleeding, lessen the damage to the party,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said like a typical congressman — thinking first of political pain.
Republicans deserve to hurt. Those in the House set an irrational strategy drawn by a North Carolina tea party freshman, Rep. Mark Meadows of the 11th District. He and 79 others, including Rep. Howard Coble of Greensboro, demanded the defunding of Obamacare as part of any agreement to pass a budget resolution. They must have thought one of two things: either that Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama would abandon the Affordable Care Act, or the American people would welcome a government shutdown.
Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina called it the “dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” and it turned out to be wrong on both premises.
Americans were angry that many federal programs, from food for poor families to military death benefits, ground to a halt. In some cases, states or even private organizations stepped in with money, affirming the importance of these efforts.
National parks closed, triggering ripple effects. A Western Carolina University professor calculated that the regional economy lost more than $30 million because tourists could not visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This prompted North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam to announce Tuesday that their states would kick in money to reopen the country’s (normally) most-visited national park.
In Greensboro, the News & Record’s Richard M. Barron reported Wednesday, N.C. A&T was losing the opportunity to win federal research grants. This is money that subsidizes the cost of college education for North Carolina students and often leads to innovations that create jobs and strengthen our economy.
Conservatives are entitled to make the point that the federal government spends and borrows too much money. There’s evidence to support that assertion. They won’t get many arguments for the claim that Obamacare has big problems. But forcing the partial government shutdown and threatening to block further borrowing authority did not advance Republican objectives. These actions convinced many Americans that some members of Congress aren’t interested in governing at all.
An 11th-hour agreement to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling just for a few months doesn’t instill confidence that the perpetrators have come to their senses. They seem to be too fond of the chaos.
October 17, 2013 at 11:05 am
TP Wohlford says:
On further review, Obama was stupid not to take that 1-year delay in the individual mandate, which he could then blame on the GOP instead of his staff's incompetence.
No, rather, the goal was to make this delay go to the last possible moment. The Dems, believing that they won in 96 based on the Newt shutdown. IF the Dems didn't plan it this way, they certainly welcomed this situation, and made the most of it.
Round goes to the Dems. The match's outcome is, sadly, already assured, but for this round, the Dems won.
October 17, 2013 at 1:36 pm
John LaVere says:
Good perspective ... Thank you.
John L.
October 18, 2013 at 8:28 pm
Norm Kelly says:
So if $17TRILLION isn't enough, what is? Not a single liberal is willing to cut a single program. Obamacare, more correctly known as socialized medicine, isn't going to come in under $1trillion as original projected by CBO just days before it was passed. The new estimate for the first 10 years is well over $2TRILLION! What part of this program makes sense to anyone? Not even die-hard liberals, like the Greensboro N&R, can claim that another entitlement program with this type of projected cost makes sense. And when was the last time a government program came in at or below estimated costs? So, before the 10 years is up, the estimate of over $2trillion will be more than $3trillion in actual costs?
The country has already stuck my kids, grandkids, and then some, with OVER $17TRILLION in unpayable debt. At what point will Liberals everywhere realize that spending more, making more people dependent on government, isn't the answer? When someone continues to bang their head on the wall after complaining of a headache, what label do you put on that person? I would say that person is an idiot for continuing to bang their head on the wall. Washington is full of people head-banging! You come up with a label for them.
Asking for socialized medicine to be postponed for 1 year WAS the right thing to do. If the president can violate the law and make a ruling that businesses can be delayed for 1 year, then why can't congress follow the rules and pass a law to allow the same 'benefit' to everyday people? Liberals are so hell-bent on forcing socialized medicine on the average person that they refused to negotiate. This is what actually caused the shutdown. Not the Republicans in the House trying to do some dirty deed. But the Democrats refusing to come to the negotiating table. And the Dems refused to negotiate while they themselves were exempt from participation in socialized medicine, and fought tooth & nail to protect their exemption. So big libs, news media people, socialists, why do you accept that Washington exempts themselves from the laws they force on the rest of us? So big libs, news media types, and other socialists, why do you accept that the only solution proposed by Washington includes spending more that we don't have and taxing more that we shouldn't have to give them? Why do you big libs accept that having Washington interfere more & more in my daily life is a good thing? Why do big libs accept that Washington refuses to follow the Constitution? Why do you big lib types accept that SCOTUS doesn't even enforce the Constitution any more?
You big libs can continue to blame Republicans for standing up for the majority, for the Constitution, for the future, for my grandkids futures, but some of us have the ability to think and therefore come to the conclusion that people like Ted & Rand need to be celebrated not denegrated. People like David Price, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, BHO need to be castigated, reprimanded, removed from office for failure to follow the Constitution, failure to follow other laws, continuing to exempt themselves from laws.
