For the better part of the last two years, indeed, for the better part of President Barack Obama’s (D-USA) administration, the game plan of the Democrats has been simple: abdication of responsibility.
The Democrats apparently believe that the best political policy is to do nothing, and to blame the Republicans when things go wrong, or attack the Republicans when they actually attempt to do something.
Don’t believe me? Let’s look at a few examples, shall we?
A search of “Obama blames Bush” on Bing is a good place to start. 96,000 results. You see, nothing bad that happens to Obama is his fault. It’s always Bush’s. He’s abdicated complete responsibility for anything bad in his administration.
Then there’s Obama’s signature piece of legislation, the so called Affordable Health Care Act. Despite campaigning about it for over a year, and consistently saying “my plan does” and “my plan does not”, he never offered up a single plan. Instead he abdicated that responsibility to Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-08). They in turn abdicated that responsibility to any and every special interest that could claim to have any interest in socialized health care.
Then, after it was written, Congressman John Conyers (D-MI-14), voiced the opinion of all Democrats when he laughed at the idea of actually reading it.
“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill,’” said Conyers.
“What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”
Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) had essentially the same statement.
So, once again, Democrats abdicated their congressional responsibility of actually reading the legislation before passing it. And they thought it was funny that anyone would even suggest that they read it.
In a similar exchange, Madame Pelosi couldn’t care less whether the bill was constitutional.
CNSNews.com: “Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?
Pelosi: “Are you serious? Are you serious?"
Want more abdication? I’m still in 2010. How about Democrats in congress avoiding their constituents?
A New York Times article is reporting that the leaders of the Democrat party urged members of congress not to engage in any town hall meetings during the latest break so that legislators wouldn’t have to face the voters in what could be a heated argument on the issues.
Democrats heeded the advice of party leaders and tried to avoid unscripted question-and-answer sessions
Instead of actually facing their constituents, the following is what the Democrat leadership proposed:
hold events in controlled settings — a bank or credit union, for example — or tour local businesses or participate in community service projects
Of course you remember that 2010 was an election year. And that Democrats received a “shellacking”. The Democrats, however, did everything they could to limit the shellacking. They even avoided not only passing a budget, but writing one. This is the one Constitutionally mandated duty of the House of Representatives. And yet, somehow, Madame Pelosi and her party couldn’t find time to write one.
But, 2011 has brought us new, unbelievable levels of abdication of responsibility.
Democrat lawmakers in Wisconsin and Indiana decided that rather than do the jobs they were elected to do, and are paid to do, it would be better to leave the state in an attempt to shutdown the government. Give the Democrats in Washington, D.C. some credit. They at least still show up for work. For now.
As I have indicated numerous times on this blog, we are facing an impending economic crisis. Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI-01) has offered up his Path to Prosperity to head off this crisis. Democrats response? You guessed it. Abdicate. Do nothing. Demonize the opposition.
See, the Democrats aren’t completely stupid. They know the crisis is coming. But they’re caught between a rock and a hard place. Their core constituency will abandon them if they attempt the serious entitlement reforms necessary to stave off the crisis. Their only other option is to raise taxes on every single person in America by about 30-50%. They know if they do that that the GOP will likely claim veto proof majorities in both chambers of Congress. And they know that there will be an even louder cry to repeal ObamaCare if they admit there’s a financial problem. The Democrats need for power is far greater than their need to preserve the United States. Plus, they figure that when the end comes, there will be someone else to blame it on. So, we have Nancy Pelosi saying:
It is a flag we’ve planted that we will protect and defend. We have a plan. It’s called Medicare.
No, Ms. Pelosi, Medicare is the reason we need a plan. It’s not a plan. But she knows the Democrats can’t create a plan of their own. They only thing they can do is attack anyone who does.
Senator Reid is on board with Pelosi to the bitter end:
“There’s no need to have a Democratic budget, in my opinion,” Reid told the Los Angeles Times last week. “It would be foolish for us to do a budget at this stage.” Instead, Reid wants to wait to see if the deficit-reduction meetings led by Vice President Biden bear any fruit. Before that, Reid wanted to wait for the Gang of Six — now nearly defunct — to come up with something.
Sessions was appalled when he read Reid’s words. “It was a fundamental statement that they’re playing politics,” Sessions said. “They don’t think it’s politically smart to produce a budget. They’d rather produce nothing and attack Paul Ryan and the Republicans and think they’re going to gain politically by avoiding their fundamental statutory responsibility. It’s pretty breathtaking to me.”
Reid isn’t alone. The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Kent Conrad, is also happy to not produce a budget. Last week, he told reporters that he planned to “defer” work on a 2012 budget indefinitely.
As the above article notes, it has been, as of 5/24/2011, 755 days since the Senate Democrats passed a budget. Abdicate and attack. It’s the Democrat way:
At Reid’s instigation, the Senate will engage this week in a meaningless faux debate over the budget. Reid wants the Senate to vote on the House-passed GOP/Ryan budget, so that Reid and fellow Democrats can accuse Republicans of voting to kill Medicare. In return, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will likely force a vote on President Obama’s proposed budget from a few months ago that did virtually nothing to reduce the deficit, so Republicans can accuse Democrats of ignoring the fiscal crisis.
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The most amazing thing about all this, to Republicans, is that Reid’s abdication of responsibility has attracted so little attention. In a country drowning in debt, where’s the outrage?
Well, I’m outraged. But, I’m not surprised that the issue isn’t attracting much attention. If the last 2 1/2 years have taught the Democrats anything, it’s that abdicating responsibility is their best play.
