When you’ve lived through several modern American presidencies and all of the mid-term battles for Congress, it’s easy to hear the same, recycled talking points used over and over again. Perhaps some of the more egregious (and successful) happen when “the government is running out of money.” Even that phrase is laughable, given we have a $20 trillion dollar debt (even more if you factor in unfunded mandates), but every time the budget battle rears its ugly head, suddenly, we are made to believe every public service or institution is going to come to a grinding halt, people are going to die and children are going to go without food.
Why do we continue to buy into such nonsense?
Because the GOP has had no idea how to win the PR battle in the public eye over the last few decades, the Democrats have been wildly successful at painting the Right as heartless and cruel whenever the budget is under discussion. They talk about kids losing funding for free lunches, the military not getting paid or seniors going without their fixed income payments. It’s always an exaggeration, but it’s always believed and because Republicans have been incapable of articulating the truth, they end up caving to the pressure of the propaganda campaign waged against them.
The simple fact is each time there has been a “government shutdown,” it’s resolved in short order and anyone who may have had their paycheck interrupted always gets made whole. The military does not shut down. The border continues to be guarded. Planes keep flying. Radio and television stations continue broadcasting. Seniors get their social security. And the debt just keeps on growing.
Here we are again, just hours away from the government running out of money and the Democrats, specifically Chuck “U” Schumer and Nancy “crumbs” Pelosi, are parroting the same tired prediction that the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse are set to ride if the Republicans choose to shut down the government.
Two items to consider:
- How sad is it we are so dependent on the federal government that if it were to “shut down” for a week or two, the Left starts to light their own heads on fire in abject fear of civilization collapsing?
- Why is the mainstream media and the Democrat leadership intentionally leaving the filibuster-proof voting threshold out of the discussion?
The first point should stand on its own merit. If anyone, Left or Right, needs confirmation our government has grown far too large for its own good, just read the headlines anytime the checkbook is running dry. Isn’t their reaction testament enough to make all of us think the government has grown too large if we believe the end of the world is tied to a stalled budget discussion?
The second point, however, should be discussed for a moment, because I am tired of talking heads, political leaders and the mainstream media failing to give the public the whole story. According to the current rules in the Senate, voting on a continuing resolution or budget must have 60 or more votes. Why? Because of the filibuster rule. Even though the Republicans maintain a slim majority in the Senate with 51, unless they have 60 YEA votes, a single Democrat can invoke the filibuster and kill the bill.
100 percent of Republicans could vote to pass the funding of our government, but without the support of at least 9 Democrats, the government will shut down. There is no other way to look at this debate. If the government shuts down, it will be at the hands of the Democrats in the Senate.
This is why Democrat leaders, aided by the PR wing of the Democrat party, the mainstream media, will not spend time discussing their culpability. They have been so used to getting their way through employing half-truths, misinformation campaigns and making wild exaggerations, it did not occur to them they would be on the receiving end of their own propaganda.
Moreover, to show just how the Democrats have painted themselves into a corner, Senator Dianne Feinstein first stated that if the government shuts down, “People will die,” then in the next breath, when asked how she intends to vote, said she did not know.
Think about that for a moment. Let’s assume the hyperbole from the good senator from the state of California should be taken at face value. Like the budget or not, if you really believe people will die, how do you not know how you will vote? And, if you choose to vote against it, are you not implicating yourself in the death of Americans? Or, perhaps the reality is she knows it is silly to make such an outlandish statement, but she is more interested in remaining a lock-step obstructionist, per Chuck Schumer’s demand, than in doing what is necessary to keep the government afloat.
The Left owns this vote. Period.
The mainstream media will tap dance faster than Michael Flatley on speed, trying to spin this vote as being a Republican problem. They will shout over and over that the Republicans have majorities in the House and Senate and control the Executive Branch. But, as I have explained many times to my own children, and will do my best to explain to the media, there are two kinds of lies: lies of commission and lies of omission. The former refers to the intent to manipulate facts by committing a false statement, whereas the latter is creating a false impression by intentionally leaving facts out of a statement. Having a majority has nothing to do with being able to pass the continuing resolution.
Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and the bulk of the mainstream media are lying by failing to remind voters and the American public about the filibuster. Unless nine Democrats choose to walk across the aisle, a failure to pass the continuing resolution cannot be the fault of the Republicans, no matter how they try to sell it. Democrats may be upset they are not getting their way on certain policy items, but abdicating their responsibility and then throwing blame on the other party is both childish and petty.
To report otherwise is not only a failure of intellectual honesty, but also further proof the mainstream media is not going to tell the whole story, just the pieces they like. They have a narrative to stick to and if they have to leave some information out to paint an altered version of the truth, they will.
Freedom Cocktail 