Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
Russel Kirk in his classic 1974 work, The Roots of American Order:
The American Republic still asserts the validity of its old moral principles and the practicality of its established institutions. Of other great states, Britain is almost alone in making a similar claim.
Although Kirk died in 1994, I think we know what he would have made of the present moment. The Tea Party, Kirk would have seen, is still proclaiming the old moral principles. And, over the howls of leftists such as Paul Krugman and Hendrik Hertzberg, who denounce our constitution as antiquated and obstructionist every time Republicans in the House or Senate thwart the will of Barack Obama, our established institutions have, yet again, demonstrated their practicality.
Elections matter. America still works.
Now, before Brother Tommy De Seno tells me I've lost my mind, let me explain that I predicate my comments on the assumption--a good one, I think, but I want to lay it out for Tommy and others--that conservatives will, as Paul Ryan put it the other day, "keep pounding." The debt ceiling deal asserts, very simply, that the government suffers from too much spending, not too little revenue. Now the commission needs to find much more spending to cut (and the GOP leadership need to make certain Paul Ryan is on the commission). And we need a presidential candidate to make the argument.
Lots could still go wrong. But for the first time in history the debt ceiling has been used to force the federal government to cut spending, not to allow it to spend still more. That represents an achievement--yes, a glorious achievement.
If we keep pounding.
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May '10
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
While you certainly can't turn the Queen Mary 2 with a swizzle stick, you can start. I am an ever optimistic American, with faith in the nation and its people.
Jan '11
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
Also Kirk:
"Conservatism, I repeat, is not an ideology. It does not breed fanatics. It does not try to excite the enthusiasm of a secular religion. If you want men who will sacrifice their past and present and future to a set of abstract ideas, you must go to Communism, or Fascism, or Benthamism.
But if you want men who seek, reasonably and prudently, to reconcile the best in the wisdom of our ancestors with the change which is essential to a vigorous civil social existence, then you will do well to turn to conservative principles.
The high–minded conservative believes in Principle, or enduring values ascertained through appreciation of the wisdom of dead generations, the study of history, and the reconciliation of authority with the altered circumstances of our present life.
He is a highly reasonable person, although he looks with deep suspicion on the cult of Reason––the worship of an abstract rationality which asserts that mundane planning is able to solve all our difficulties of spirit and community. But the high–minded conservative detests Abstraction, or the passion for forcing men and societies into a preconceived pattern divorced from the special circumstances of different times and countries."
May '11
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
Glorious until you realize you've been sucker punched. Here's today's White House fact sheet statement on how the debt deal promotes the president's committment to shared sacrifice:
"Enforcement Mechanism Complements the Forcing Event Already In Law – the Expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts – To Create Pressure for a Balanced Deal: The Bush tax cuts expire as of 1/1/2013, the same date that the spending sequester would go into effect. These two events together will force balanced deficit reduction. Absent a balanced deal, it would enable the President to use his veto pen to ensure nearly $1 trillion in additional deficit reduction by not extending the high-income tax cuts."
Remember, the $2.4T deficit reduction in the debt deal is off the March 2011 CBO baseline budget that already assumes a $3.5T increase in revenue from the lapsing of the Bush tax cuts. So, if Obama uses his veto threat to extract tax reform for another $1.2T in revenue, I'd count that $4.7T in real revenue increases in exchange for $1.2T in "cuts" in the future spending INCREASES. Glorious victory? Indeed.
May '10
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
Don't immanentize the eschaton, someone once said.
Mar '11
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
When is a cut not a cut? When it "happens" in Washington not now but "over ten years." C'mon Peter! It's OK if you want to use "their" language, but please have the decency not to impose it on those of us who still know what "cut" means OUTSIDE of the beltway.
Oct '10
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
Allow me to anticipate Tommy's position: The debt deal is another one virtually identical to the last snooker. Except, of course the "commission". The tooth fairy of fiscal conservatism.
What Russel Kirk said in so many words is that conservatism isn't a militant philosophy. It is the considered belief system of a self disciplined people who contain their desires for longer term good. And where does that discipline come from other than from people who have a belief in a future that transcends their own lifetimes, and, I would add, have the expectation that they will share in the benefits of that goodness.
Here in Colorado I see many people who share in these beliefs, and would be the foundation of America into the future. In case you have not noticed, however, the Governor, both legislative houses, both Senate seats, the state courts, and the Mayoralty of the city with over one-third of our population, Denver, are all soundly Democrat... and not even close to conservative in their views.
How can this be?? Where's the optimism.
May '10
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
That's such a terrible phrase. It sounds like something Jonah would say in reference to the Borg.
Sep '10
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
Sep '10
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
The debt debate has seen Krugman's (and a great many other progressives') howls turn the other direction en masse - the long-present but not always visible anger on the left toward Obama (for a plethora of reasons that roughly equate to "the guy can get a shot in here or there, but boy he doesn't like to get hit") is starting to manifest itself in amazing fashion.
We're about one more tragicomic episode of "Amateur Hour With The Administration" away from seeing the POTUS / TPOTUS duo primaried.
Oct '10
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
Peter, you were probably there so have a better understanding, but I thought a debt ceiling increase was also instrumental in the passage of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, the increasingly laughably-named Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, which still governs budgeting today.
Look how gloriously that worked out.
Mar '11
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
I favored the Boehner plan as a practical first salvo and as a way to reframe the debate about debt. I think we've accomplished that. It is one very small victory in a much longer campaign against statism. Ryan is right.
Now we need a candidate who can bring that argument credibly to the people and persuade them to elect a government that will make choices that restrain the people's own worst appetites.
That is a difficult task because it requires that government both be able to control the governed, and obliged to control itself (as Madison once wrote), but also because the people must affirmatively choose that course themselves.
If we prove capable of persuading them, and they prove capable of making this choice, then we will have proved that the American project of self-government (in both senses of this term) is alive in well.
Apr '11
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
A $9 trillion increase or a $7.5 trillion increase is not a cut, it is an increase. One of the first things that needs to be done if we are serious about controlling spending is rescue the English language from the political class. A decrease in an increase is not a cut. It is an increase. How can conservatives even talk sense if they wallow in the linguistic swamps of postmodern relativism or social constructivism?
Mar '11
Re: Messy? Certainly. But Glorious.
Will GOP keep pounding? Two months until the first test. FY2011 ends September 30th. Congress has yet to pass any appropriations bills. The House has been diligently passing spending bills, yet the Senate has passed none. Unless I missed something in the debt deal that will pass today, we face another possible government shutdown in 60 days or so. Will House GOP continue to press the spending issue or simply go along with Senate on another year-long continuing resolution that does not cut any additional spending?