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The Spectacle Blog
Charles Krauthammer explains that the debt ceiling negotiations are really about something much larger:
We're in the midst of a great four-year national debate on the size and reach of government, the future of the welfare state, indeed, the nature of the social contract between citizen and state. The distinctive visions of the two parties - social-democratic versus limited-government - have underlain every debate on every issue since Barack Obama's inauguration: the stimulus, the auto bailouts, health-care reform, financial regulation, deficit spending. Everything. The debt ceiling is but the latest focus of this fundamental divide.
The sausage-making may be unsightly, but the problem is not that Washington is broken, that ridiculous, ubiquitous cliché. The problem is that these two visions are in competition, and the definitive popular verdict has not yet been rendered.
Krauthammer goes on to argue that there is no possibility for conservatives to govern according to their vision without the presidency, and urges them to accept compromise on the debt ceiling.
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 7.29.11 @ 3:22PM
Krauthammer is wrong. Washington is broken and the ever increasing debt is proof of that.
What we have here is the result of vision from both parties and it adds up to one thing: Failure!
How can you not characterize failure as related to something that is broken is beyond me.
Many like Kruathammer have been in Washington too long and their elitism has become ingrained in their thought process.
The system is not only broken it's dangerously close to the end. There will come a day of reckoning and then many will realize the Krauthammers were horribly wrong.
JP| 7.29.11 @ 3:57PM
I actually agreed with Krauthammer until late this morning. After the so-called Plan C was unvieled. Boehner, it appears, was making a deal with Reid behind closed doors at the same time he was demanding that Teapartiers toe the line.
Plan-C gives Obama everything he wants save tax increases. And It wouldn't surprise me in the least that tax increases are in the bill hidden behind a bunch of legalese. Heck, Linday Graham loves the new plan. That in itself should send off alarm bells.
CalMark| 7.29.11 @ 3:42PM
Ah, yes. The Great Krauthammer.
Who sniffs at grassroots conservatives. To hell with him.
Chuck| 7.29.11 @ 3:50PM
Didn't Republicans have the White House, House and Senate from Jan. 2003-Jan. 2007? What happened? Why wasn't the budget balanced those four years and why wasn't a balanced budget amendment at least submitted to the Congress for a vote? Conservative President? The GOP frontrunner is Romney and he's no conservative.
C Bowen| 7.29.11 @ 4:06PM
Walter Mondale's Speechwriter giving us advice?
Pass.
randyinrocklin| 7.29.11 @ 4:10PM
Krauthammer, Karl Rove, McCain all RINOs have lost all credibility with the base. I don't listen or watch Fox anymore because they constantly push the same ole same ole time after time....ugh...too bad GB is gone...
George S| 7.29.11 @ 4:51PM
Someone inform Krauthammer that when Republicans had the presidency and the Congress in 2005 and attempted to get the ball rolling on social security reform, that there was no possibility for liberals to govern according to their vision without the presidency, and yet did not accept any compromise on the reform proposal, leading to its demise.
BD57| 7.29.11 @ 5:03PM
While liberals were intransigent in their opposition to Social Security reform, it went nowhere due to its lack of Republican support in Congress.
George S| 7.29.11 @ 5:10PM
Precisely. But for that opposition, the Republicans turned tail. What if the Democrats, instead, came up with their own "plan" at the time? We would have gotten somewhere amidst a compromise. Today, Republicans are insulating Democrats from eating their own that would have occurred if they tried to hammer out a budget. We are handing them their out.
Clint.| 7.29.11 @ 6:23PM
Apparently, That's How Krauthammer Rolls.
The Tea Party Fixes Krauthammer's Brakes.
Watch That First Step, KrautMan.
Occam's Tool| 7.29.11 @ 6:42PM
Clint:
I don't agree with Krauthammer, but the man is a quadraplegic. He will never have a first step. Of course, you have nothing but bad taste.