Rare News Desk
When Congress comes back in to session in the second week of September, there will be nine working days until the current Continuing Resolution (CR) expires on September 30. I know, for normal working people, coming back to work on September 9 and a deadline of September 30 works out to about 21 working days, but Congress isn’t normal.
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Congress should be in session every day, all day, until the problems are solved and the deals are made, but that’s just me. I’ve never worked a 40 hour week in my life. Whether a buyer at Rich’s in Atlanta, a stay-at-home mom and manager of my husband’s medical practice, or in my media career, I’ve juggled multiple jobs with lots of hours every week of my adult life. I’m not saying I never take any time off, but I’m like most Americans and I don’t take enough time off.
Congressional Republicans are starting the dance of “the debt ceiling is the place to do the negotiating.” We have to do everything we can in every cycle. Putting anything off all together regarding fiscal sanity is a mistake. It is fair to say, with the sequester in place, discretionary spending will be down year over year. Fiscal conservatives can make the case we are going in the right direction. But is it enough?
For those Republican members and staff who were around for the government shutdown of 1995 (which by the way laid the groundwork for 4 balanced budgets from 1997-2001 with some debt reduction), that event is a marker for them. They don’t want to go there again. With all the bravado and talk, they are not willing to do what it takes and they need our backbone.
So, what’s a fiscal conservative to do? Keep pushing. Find an issue you care about, whether it’s Obamacare or an overall reduction in spending. We’ve got to be happy warriors on the fiscal issues and we’ve got to take the records of our representatives in total, not throwing them aside over one vote we don’t like. That may sound contradictory, but it’s not. We’ve got to be rational in our approach.
We are winning. Let’s not throw it away, let’s stay the course. If we don’t defund Obamacare in the CR discussion, that’s not the end. People will start getting their “new and improved” healthcare insurance rates and by the time the debt ceiling needs to be dealt with later this year, there will be a ground swell from the American people, Democrat and Republican against Obamacare. When people start finding out “free” healthcare is 40 to 100 percent more, they will be hit in their pocketbooks and they will care.
Republicans will be blamed for everything by the media and this administration and we have to be happy warriors. Stay the course, we are winning.
Martha Zoller is the editor-in-chief of zpolitics and the co-host of Georgia’s Morning News with Zoller and Bryant.
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