It is very unfortunate that the Senate’s short-term agreement does not include any of the sensible reforms proposed by Republicans – such as a one-year delay of Obamacare or the individual mandate and the fairness and equality provisions under which Members of Congress and senior government officials would be required to live under the same laws they are forcing on the rest of America. The fact that Obamacare is going forward but yet those who foisted this sham on our country don’t have to live with it is a travesty worthy only of a dictatorship or a banana republic.
The shortcomings in the CR and debt limit bill are directly due to the absolute abdication of leadership on the part of a President who refused to negotiate with Congress on solutions to our country’s most pressing problems. We are also in this mess because Democrats voted to keep spending money we don’t have and protect their special privileges. Meanwhile, I applaud the many Republicans in Congress who, throughout the past month, have proposed several fair and responsible solutions to re-open the government and lift the debt limit. We must also recognize that fiscal conservatives are faced with a difficult vote on this bill because we failed to unite around a strategy to achieve our goal of limiting the harmful effects of Obamacare and replacing it with market-based, common-sense health insurance reforms that will actually work.
On the bright side, given the scheduling deadlines inherent in the Senate’s short-term agreement, Congressional Republicans can now finally engage Democrats and all Americans in an important national discussion on our deficit and debit crisis, and we look forward to a productive and spirited debate. In order for this debate to be productive, we need to cut out the dysfunctional behavior of the President and Democratic Congressional leaders and address the simple fact that we spend too much and borrow too much.
