Establishment Republicans have given up -- it's time for the rest of us to do their job

Oct. 16, 2013: Speaker of the House John Boehner, (R-Ohio), walks to the chamber for the vote on a Senate-passed bill that would avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Once again the Republicans have given up, kowtowing to Democrat fear-mongering and ignoring their grassroots constituents who actually want to fix our nation’s problems. President Obama, the Democrats and establishment Republican leadership are hailing this as a grand “compromise.” In reality, it’s a full surrender of the GOP and then some.

The line separating Democrats and Republicans is fading. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell were just as instrumental in this “deal” as Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Today’s political battle is less about party, and more about Washington insiders versus the rest of America.

Politicians in both parties are content to govern by crisis. Every few months, the media explodes with hype over the latest drama, uttering predictions of America’s imminent demise if a “compromise” isn’t reached right away.

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Remember the sequester? The sky didn’t fall after that, and it didn’t fall after the partial government shutdown of the past two weeks. Yet somehow the Democrats and the media get people to believe their apocalyptic predictions, and the GOP keeps giving in.

Contrary to the spin, conservatives and libertarians in the GOP have been the only ones offering real solutions. They proposed three continuing resolutions to fully fund the government and 15 mini appropriations bills to fund specific parts of the government. All of their deals were rejected. Clearly, compromise isn’t what the other side wants.

It feels a lot like the environment following the TARP Wall Street bailout, and similar to the wave of electoral upgrades in 2010, the valueless GOP establishment should be on the lookout for principled primary challengers.

America is almost $17 trillion in debt, with nearly $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. We borrow close to one-fifth of every dollar we spend. And with Obama’s unworkable health care law, we’ll be spending trillions more over the next decade.

Throwing borrowed money at a broken program is not the way to fix it – it’s the definition of fiscal insanity.

It’s a shame the Old Guard of the GOP couldn’t have talked about that, rather than forming a circular firing squad around those who dared to take a stand.

Recent FreedomWorks polling shows that Americans overwhelmingly want Republicans to take leadership and get our fiscal house in order. Two-thirds of Republican voters want their Congressmen to “stick to principles,” while a majority prefer candidates with “strong principles” in 2014 primaries.

Establishment Republicans have given up on the future of America. It’s time for the rest of us to do the job they won’t.