Shutting the government down

Get ready for a repeat of 1995. And get ready to see Republicans lose again.

The reason is simple – House Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans are digging in their heels over discretionary spending. If they don’t reach an agreement with Democrats by early March, the government will shut down.
But discretionary spending is the wrong fight. President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats are missing the real fight, too. Discretionary spending makes up only a small part of the budget. Much of it goes for programs that really do matter.
The real fight was summed up well by Steve Forbes on Friday during a speech he gave in Salt Lake City.
“Tax reform, entitlement reform (Medicaid, Medicaid and Social Security) and strengthening the dollar are three key ways to address our nation’s economic challenges,” the Deseret News paraphrased him as saying.
Not coincidentally, that also was the message of the president’s own deficit commission, but no one seems to be listening.
It’s understandable that politicians don’t want to tackle the real problems. Even ardent conservatives want their Social Security checks and their Medicare benefits. But if a politician were to be bold enough to articulate the problem and advocate a solution, wouldn’t many people grudgingly have to respect the honesty?