Recently posted quotes:

"There is no distinctly American criminal class - except Congress." Mark Twain (1835-1910)

“Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.” -Will Rogers (1879-1935)

"Stability in government is essential to national character and to the advantages annexed to it." -James Madison (1751-1836)

"Liberty must at all hazards be supported." -John Adams (1735-1826)


Thursday, October 17, 2013

Comments on the Shutdown and the Debt Ceiling controversy



There has been a lot said back and forth by many, both in the know and some completely out of the know, over the Federal Government Shutdown and the ensuing Debt Limit crisis over the past six to seven months.

The hub-bub started with Texas Senator Ted Cruz stopping at nothing to remove ObamaCare from the national psyche. Although the health care reform had been the law of the land for some three years, passed by both houses of Congress, signed into law by the President, upheld by the Supreme Court and further confirmed by the re-election of Mr. Obama to the presidency.

These facts still had no impact on Mr. Cruz and his Tea Party cronies.

A like argument comes to mind—I saw this in some form the other day and establish no claim to the idea—concerning the 2nd Amendment in relation to the right to keep and bear arms.



Amendment II

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the 
security of a free State, the right of the people 
to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.




Just where would Mr. Cruz stand if some upstart Democrat or far left-leaning Republican should have said they would stand against some favored legislation unless all funding was withheld from the policing of the public’s ability to keep and bear arms, buy weapons from authorized federal firearms dealers or ammunition from the local hardware store around the corner?

The law of the land is the law of the land. The job of congress is to see that these laws are carried out through the funding of the branch of government responsible to do so. They cannot pick and choose which they like and don’t like. That is not what we elected them to do.

There are established rules and procedures to tackle laws and situations that might need repealing. Once a law is a law, the responsibility to adhere to the law becomes paramount.

I keep hearing that the Health Care act is opposed by the majority. I find this hard to believe or Mr. Obama would have not been re-elected. However, this may be the case and the procedure to rectify the situation is appropriately spelled out by the constitution and those opposing the law have the right to follow the procedures just like those that put the law forward did when the act was originally passed—like it or not.

Taking a stance that puts 880,000+ Americans out of work (temporary or not, still out of work) is not appropriate and I believe will backfire on those that adopted this strategy. Just as FDR has been credited with dragging the country out of the Great Depression (while it was probably the War and not the New Deal that did so), so should the Obama administration gain credit to putting millions back to work after the Great Recession—this is how it’s done in the credit game. So should Mr. Cruz gain credit for putting the 880K out of work, even if temporary, for an ideology that was never going to win and foolhardy at best—what goes around comes around.

While the battle may be over for now, it has really only been kicked down the road and both questions will be revived in a couple of months.

Congress passes the legislation and establishes the funding for that legislation to be put into practice. Therefore, it is their responsibility to insure the bills for what they have voted into being be paid by the appropriate departments of the government carrying out the Congress’ wishes. Should Congress not want these liabilities to be generated, they have complete authority to enact legislation reducing the size of government, thereby reducing the outlay of funds. But funds that have been spent and bills that continue to be generated have to be paid.

I saw several reports coming from Britain and European journalists and they made the U. S. government look like the scum of the earth. You cannot walk the Big Stick and not live up to the Big Stick Talk!

2 comments:

  1. Totally agree with you Mr. Hatfield. Mr. Cruz has abused his office, at the very least.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Carla. I appreciate your visit.

    ReplyDelete