Thursday, July 28, 2011

Support Boehner's Bill

House Speaker John Boehner's debt limit bill is grossly inadequate and completely insufficent in terms of spending cuts, but it's the best conservatives can reasonbly expect to obtain today. Moreover, it's certainly more than we're likely to get at the end -- because the Democratic controlled Senate is going to have to put its imprimitur on whatever becomes law. Nevertheless, Republicans should hold their noses and support the Speaker tonight.

The Republican Party has insufficient leverage to impose its legislative priorities: it controls one House of Congress only and is divided between more traditional conservatives and the Tea Party movement. To accomplish what is necessary, in terms of cutting spending, and making some effort to reduce the US debt; and to prevent the govenrment from eating the whole economy, Republicans must put their case to the people in 2012, recapture the White House, and whittle-down liberal power in the Senate. But that's all for another time. We cannot have what we would like, yet, so we must accept something that will do.