The Republicans need to grow a backbone

Mark Parent
Opinions Editor

Over the last few weeks, the same media narrative has bombarded us all: the Republicans would be silly to shut down the government.

Well, as we all now know, this prediction never came to fruition, and the government is still up and running…at least until Nov. 5.

But, as a conservative, I am really angry that the Republicans didn’t shut down the government.

I know this viewpoint is supposedly crazy, like Tea Party crazy. But, if anyone is truly honest with himself or herself, I firmly believe he or she will come to the same conclusions I have stumbled upon.

For starters, under the Obama Administration, negotiation might as well be impossible. The president has repeatedly shown a stunning unwillingness to compromise, buoyed by the unwavering support of Senate Democrats who are able to maintain the 40 votes needed to filibuster any dissenting legislation.

On top of that, the administration refuses to address serious foundational problems plaguing the American economy. For instance, the national deficit and debt remain out of control, while economic growth is anemic — CNBC reported last week that real unemployment, which factors in underemployed individuals and those no longer receiving unemployment benefits, at a staggering 10.3 percent.

Of course, the media and the Democrats would love for you to forget these facts. Instead, they’d like to focus on petty social issues and the tactical strategy of the opposition.

So, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Republican elite, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is hesitant to even challenge the president.

Now, obviously, the elites are scared of losing the public relations battle that so often accompanies a government shutdown. In fact, many senior Republicans have publicly explained that another government shutdown — whether it was last week or this upcoming December — would be a political boon for Democrats and doom the Republicans in the 2016 elections.

To be completely honest, this is maddening. The main reason for such dysfunction at the federal level is that Democrats and Republicans continue to prioritize reelection and their own desire for power above the interests of their constituents. Oh, and it should be noted that this way of thinking is patently wrong — just look at the Republicans performance in the 2014 elections.

Plus, this government seems immune to progress in lieu of crisis.

During the summer of 2011, for instance, the country was in a bind. The Republicans had just gained a majority in the House of Representatives and were poised to make good on one of the promises they made to their constituents; that promise, of course, was to bring fiscal sanity back to the U.S.

But the president was, as usual, unwilling to negotiate a long-term debt deal with the Republicans. So, in order to achieve any progress, the Republicans took advantage of the debt ceiling, which is the maximum borrowing limit of the federal government.

And since our government spends money like a 13-year-old at summer camp, this meant that the treasury would default on its payments unless a debt ceiling hike was approved by the House of Representatives.

This harsh reality forced the two parties to negotiate and eventually led to a deal of sorts. You see, the two sides could not come to any type of reasonable agreement — both Republicans and Democrats were at fault — so they decided to kick the can down the road, and if it couldn’t be solved at that point, then something called sequestration would be automatically implemented.

Sequestration involved across-the-board spending cuts to everything but entitlements; this means that research, grants, education, defense and a whole lot more was on the cutting room floor. Certainly, everyone thought, this would cause Republicans and Democrats to come to some kind of agreement.

Well, they didn’t. We have been living under sequestration for the better part of two years, and it has slashed the deficit in half — ironically, both Democrats and Republicans take credit for this deficit reduction, while still bashing sequestration cuts.

Now, the point of detailing this saga is to prove that our government is so dysfunctional that the only way to achieve any sort of progress is through brinkmanship.

I’m not advocating for hyper-partisanship that only ends in midnight deals to avert a catastrophe. Instead, it’s a realistic appraisal of the capabilities of this government.

Simply put, the White House and Congress is so preoccupied with their ambitions and legacies that they need to be put under intense pressure in order to do what is right.

Opponents of these tactics, however, claim that it’s a type of hostage-taking that is unfit for our constitutional form of government.

Sorry to break it to these naïve individuals, but they’re dead wrong. According to the Constitution, Congress controls the power of the purse, not the president or the minority in the Senate. This is basic civics and economics, folks.

Now, I’m well aware that the president possesses the power to veto legislation, thereby reinforcing the futility of hyper-partisan efforts, such as the government shutdown over Obamacare in 2013.

Yet, brinkmanship requires cooperation and a level of bipartisanship.

Clearly, this idea is a bit unconventional and should not be used for frivolous purposes. This means that government shutdowns and debt-ceiling showdowns should be reserved for major issues, such as government spending and entitlement reform.

It saddens me to advocate such draconian measures, but under this current hyper-partisan system, we have no other choice. Republicans have to set aside their ideological crusades, and Democrats must learn how to do arithmetic.

Or, we can just hope that Paul Ryan and Chuck Schumer work out a tenable budget deal.