By ,
Published May 10, 2017
I know the president seems to dismiss what happened last November.
But I'm beginning to wonder whether Republicans did as well.
Because I can see him merrily going along with his spending.
But I'm kind of shocked Republicans have done little to stop that spending.
This week is their chance.
They promise they're going to submit a budget of their own that proves they're everything the Democrats were not when they were in charge.
That they're disciplined, and determined to bring spending down.
Thing is, not everyone's on the same page.
Some Republicans are eager to abandon sequestration cuts agreed to by both parties, because those cuts disproportionately hurt defense.
My immediate question is, "and you will make up for those rescinded cuts...where?"
Because I'm thinking in a $600 billion defense budget, surely you can re-set those priorities--there.
That's the thing about cutting out on established cuts, you risk cutting the last sense of fiscal resolve Washington ever had.
And you leave Democrats open to doing the same.
So, Republicans, prove you're different.
Show how you're going to balance budgets in ten years, and not through the trillions of dollars in new taxes the president's proposing, but the real discipline you are promising.
Explain to the American people that another game of debt brinksmanship is off the table, and a whole new approach to honest accounting and accountability is on the table.
That you won't play games and you won't play favorites. That you'll mean what you say when you say the problem isn't all the money coming in to Washington it's all the money, and then some, going out.
Risk banging heads when you willingly choose to bang some of your party's own heads, those that will pick and choose what treasured programs they want no different than Democrats picking and choosing the treasured programs they want.
Prove you get math. And you get not spending more than you take in.
That you get it's not your money. It's our money. And our future.
Prove that you'll be the party you claimed you were last fall and not a cheap political trick doomed to fail.
Americans are smart. But they don't like politicians who are smart asses.
Or worse act like asses.
Break out the spread sheet and come up with a plan.
And stop spreading the sheet and just fulfill your promise.
Remember history is littered with parties that said anything to get elected, only to be defeated because they didn't do anything they said.
Don't be that party.
Don't be a pale imitation of that other party.
Stand for something.
Be something.
Do something.
This isn't about finding a budget.
This, Republicans, is about finding something else.
A backbone.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/cavuto-republicans-need-to-prove-theyre-different