Anybody else see the line that screams "Jr. Partners"? - Granite Grok

Anybody else see the line that screams “Jr. Partners”?

From Roll Call, on an impending deal between Republicans and Democrats on the Federal Budget:

Budget negotiators are nearing a deal that could ease the way for leaders to avert another government shutdown before the 2014 elections, but only if rank and file — particularly in the House — buy into the agreement.

Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., are expected to announce a framework in the coming days that would set a top-line number for appropriators higher than the current sequester levels but lower than what Democrats have previously demanded.

According to sources, the increased spending would be offset by less controversial pay-fors, including spectrum sales and some mandatory health care cuts. The two lawmakers have been meeting regularly, including a session Wednesday. Murray attended despite the Senate’s recess.

Oh yeah, I made it easy for you.  There are a LOT of Establishment Republicans that are upset with that phrase “Junior

Partners with the Democrat Party”.  Too bad.  Limited (as in Limited Government) means “NOT more!”.  Now, I may not agree with all of the sequester law as it now stands, but for the first time in a long time, costs got cut.  So here are the Republicans saying “Congratulate us – it isn’t as bad as the Dems wanted!”.  Which, I will remind these chuckleheads, leads to the next phrase that they deserve simply because their results speak louder than their words: “Vote for us because we’re a little less bad than the Democrats!”

More of this Object Lesson:

But many top leadership aides in the Capitol are skeptical that any agreement between Murray and Ryan can pass the House, and those aides feel largely in the dark about what might happen after the deal is struck, with or without successful votes on it in both chambers. Republican leaders have vowed they will not shut down the government again, but how Congress will keep it open remains up in the air.

Appropriators could move forward with the agreed-on top-line numbers without full congressional approval of the Murray-Ryan proposal and spend the four weeks between an announcement and the Jan. 15 government shutdown deadline to put together an ominbus spending package. But they would have to do so under the assumption that enough House Republicans would break from party hardliners and join House Democrats to pass the spending measure.

In other words, they’ve done two things:

  • Democrats equate “operating Government” with “breathing” in keeping people alive.  Taking that bargaining chip away, and what have the DC Republicans done?  Yeah, that’s right – a promise to agree to anything as long as Government stays open.  And Government will get bigger.
  • Principle, Party, Career – which do you think best would fit “ enough House Republicans would break from party“?  That that imply that they run on the Platform, implicitly make that promise to voters?

And then some Establishment Republicans can’t seem to understand why Republicans are sitting on their hands and no longer voting?  They are refusing to understand that they have made those people not care anymore.  To win, you need enthusiastic voters – people who no longer care aren’t enthusiastic.   Words are no longer enough – the campaign rhetoric MUST be Consistent with actions, legislation, and votes.  Nothing else will suffice.

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