Twinkees and Such

            It's all about spending. SPENDING.

            Why can't the administration and its media cohorts get this? The problem with our crippling national debt is not insufficient revenue. It's that we are spending too much. For every dollar the federal government takes in, it spends $23. This is insane. No family managing a budget would ever do such a thing. So what should we do about it?
            Everybody except irresponsible legislators like Senator Dick Durbin agrees that entitlements must be reduced. But how?
            First, we have to come to an understanding that cradle-to-grave security is not what our Founders had in mind when they drafted our Constitution and defined the role of the federal government. This idea started with Woodrow Wilson, blossomed under FDR, and found full fruition with Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. Since then, we have just been piling on the benefits. Forget the Founding Fathers.
            OK. A rich nation like ours should take care of its less fortunate. But a safety net is meant to catch the falling. It's not meant to prevent falling. A welfare family collecting $60,000 a year in benefits is not about to hit bottom; a 300-pound woman who uses Food Stamps to fill her shopping basket with Twinkees, potato chips and Mountain Dew is not likely to be on the verge of starvation; the retired Long Island railroad worker who cashes his disability check on the way to the bowling alley is probably not experiencing debilitating pain; and a man who voted for Obama because "He will take care of me" is surely not a go-getter who values self-reliance over dependency.
            Legislators created this mess of fraud and abuse, and it's up to legislators to clean it up. But so far the only consistent message coming from the Left is to tax the rich. Heaven forbid Senator Durbin should ever offend the slaves on his Illinois plantation. Even proposals like Paul Ryan's fall far short of what it will take to stop the madness.
            The only weapon Conservatives have is in the House of Representatives...if our lawmakers  would only be willing to use it. It is the power of the purse. Why does President Obama want the authority to raise the debt ceiling without going through Congress? Because he knows that Congress can stop his spending by refusing to raise that limit. Senator Lindsay Graham has already said that he will not vote to increase the debt limit unless the President puts forth a serious and comprehensive plan to reduce entitlements. I hope his colleagues in the House get the message and take the pledge.
            Republicans have nothing to lose. They are already being blamed for everything, so why not use the only weapon in their arsenal that has a shot at forcing real reform, even if it means bringing the federal government to a standstill. They lost the election. They're wounded and bleeding. But they are not dead.