Cantor suggested that the parties opt for a short-term deal to avert the debt ceiling deadline, but Obama adamantly refused. "Enough is enough," said Obama. "I've reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this."
Why is it acceptable for Obama to be overtly uncompromising but express outrage that his GOP opposition is unyielding? It's as if he's saying, "How dare you be as intransigent as I'm being."
Obama also warned Cantor, "Don't call my bluff." Notice all the I's and my's in Obama's threatening language. Did anyone ever tell this narcissistic man "no" before he became president?
He acts as though the United States is his personal chattel to do with as he pleases, and no one (including members of the coequal legislative branch) and nothing (including the Constitution) dare get in his way. He masquerades as a mere bystander in all this instead of the primary mover in accelerating this financial catastrophe and the primary obstructer of the reforms necessary to avert it...
Whether or not he accepts this reality, Obama owns this economy and the alarming explosion of the debt in recent years. He is the one whose reckless policies have greatly exacerbated our dire financial condition. He is the one whose unconscionably wasteful and irresponsible economic policies have tanked the economy and suppressed employment. He is the one who, along with his party, has not presented a budget in 800 days. He is the one who formed a bipartisan deficit commission and then ignored its findings. He is the one who hasn't presented a concrete budgetary plan. He is the one who refuses to reform entitlements despite objective evidence that if we don't, the nation will go belly up. Yet he is the one who is pointing all the fingers of blame against the Republicans as if they were the culprits.
Republicans, choose your spokesman (Rep. Paul Ryan would be a good choice), and call daily pressers to make your case instead of always ceding that turf to Obama. In charge of the purse, you have every bit as much right to speak out on fiscal matters as does Obama. Then begin passing your reform bills over and over again, forcing the Democratic Senate and Obama to reject them. It's time that the president and party who are "creating the mess" were put back on their heels and exposed for their wanton fiscal destruction.
Terrific stuff from David Limbaugh. And he's not done. Check out the rest of his excellent column right here.
And, while we're dealing with the desperate need for Republicans to call Obama's bluff, read this article by Charles Krauthammer. He too is spot on. Here's Krauthammer's opening paragraphs to tease you:
President Obama is demanding a big long-term budget deal. He won’t sign anything less, he warns, asking, “If not now, when?”
How about last December, when he ignored his own debt commission’s recommendations? How about February, when he presented a budget that increases debt by $10 trillion over the next decade? How about April, when he sought a debt-ceiling increase with zero debt reduction attached?
All of a sudden he’s a born-again budget balancer prepared to bravely take on his own party by making deep cuts in entitlements. Really? Name one. He’s been saying forever that he’s prepared to discuss, engage, converse about entitlement cuts. But never once has he publicly proposed a single structural change to any entitlement...
