Where Do Your Loyalties Lie?

Last week, the House of Representatives and Senate passed the  2011 Budget “Out of” Control “Debt” Act, in another seemingly disappointing act by Congress to kick the can down the road in order to “fight another day”, as they say.

Personally, I’m confused as to why the following illustration is difficult to understand:

Let’s say I earn a salary of $40,000 per year.  One would think that my annual budget, as a result, is $40,000.  Instead, however, I follow our federal government’s example and plan to spend $70,000 per year–resulting in an annual deficit of $30,000.  After doing this several years in a row, I realize this path is completely unsustainable and now I’m determined to cut spending.  As a result, as I earn a salary of $40,000 once again and I “make the tough choice” and use a “balanced approach” to cut my budget to $69,000 instead of $70,000.  All is good in the world and my credit rating should be just fine.

Congress calls this a savings of $1,000 and expects to get re-elected.

I’m not an extremist, I just use extreme common sense.

As we know, there were quite a few representatives in this debate, unfortunately, that surprisingly supported increasing our National Debt one more time and in a big way.  One of them was Congressman Allen West from Florida who has done an outstanding job taking on the progressive left.  His direct dealings with Congresswoman Debbie WasserName Schultz (who also voted with West in increasing our national debt) has certainly been inspirational in a town overflowing with political correctness.

As several tea party leaders turned on Allen West this past week for his disappointing vote, many were quick to defend him.  In a statement by one leader in Florida, he was concerned that we appeared “inconsistent”.  At one point, he argued, we loved Governor Rick Scott’s stances on Florida’s budget but we were quick to point out our frustration with his refusal or inability to block SunRail.  We expressed appreciation for Allen West’s commanding rhetoric in speeches but many jumped on him for his vote to increase our nation’s debt.  To this particular tea party leader, we seemed inconsistent.  To me, it’s a question of where our loyalties lie.

Below are excerpts from an email I sent to several tea party leaders around the country following the disappointing vote that lead to our national debt increasing and our AAA rating being downgraded:

IMHO, we have to remember where our loyalties lie.  We are loyal to our principles and values and with that comes consistency that cannot be shaken.  We are not “yes men” to any politician and we cannot appear to sway with the blowing wind of the votes of politicians.

It’s always dangerous to fully attach ourselves to Humans.  We are flawed beasts!!

“We’re Jeffersonians!”.  Uh, he owned slaves.  “We’re Reaganites!”.  Uh, he approved amnesty.  Damn!    “We believe in Liberty!”  Well, how can you argue with that without supporting Tyranny?

Is Allen West a breath of fresh air in a town that reeks with hypocrisy and wickedness?  Absolutely!

Are we proud to call him friend when he stands up for our principles and values and takes it right to our progressive enemies like WasserName??  You know it!!

Does that mean we turn a blind eye when for whatever strategic reason he doesn’t stand up to “leadership” and falls for and delivers manufactured talking points like “deadline” and “default” and “crisis” and “equal cuts for every dollar increase in the debt” (which we know is a farce) and takes a vote that sinks us further and further into debt without standing up to leadership for taking us down such an unnecessary path?  No.  We don’t turn a blind eye.

Yes, I agree, we shouldn’t “eat our own”, but he needs to know that we’re disappointed.  He needs to know that we appreciate it when he stands up and uses his platform to advance our principles and values, but when he gets in line and doesn’t stand up, he needs to know we’re hurt by that.

We cannot fall for the rhetoric they’ve put forth in this “debate”!  We demand better!  It’s an insult to our intelligence to try and sell this pile by talking about 10 year budgets.  We know the truth!  We know how this works now. We need them to ratchet up the “truth” meter and ease up on the ignorant-electorate rhetoric and start talking seriously.  I had the same conversation with Congressman Webster and Adams this weekend and again last night.  We The People are ready for the painful truth of what’s really going on and while we’re out there educating the electorate on the real numbers, on the real impact of mountains of debt, we expect our politicians to just do the right thing.

We didn’t hire these people last year to play it safe and wade it out and just make sure they don’t shake things up too much so they can get re-elected next year.  We hired them to do the right thing right now, take a bullet for the cause, make tough choices, face the painful truth and WE will worry about who gets elected next year.

We can’t just kick the can down the road.  We can’t just hope for some day one day maybe there will be a perfect scenario when we have the right number of people in the right spots in government and finally on the right day we’ll then begin dismantling the beast and eventually start doing what’s right.  THAT’s the mentality we’ve been fighting.  There is no perfect day.  There is not a perfect utopian time to start doing the right thing.  It’s right now, it’s every single day and it happens with every single vote.  Our beloved country doesn’t have time to wait for that day!!

So, does any of that mean we threaten them with a primary challenger?  Of course not.  It just means we need to talk to them about getting real with the American people, about leaving the tired talking points behind and just telling us the truth.  Sandy explained to me her strategic reasons and fear last night about why she voted the way she did.  To her, it made sense.  I believe she’s in line with our principles and values, but she had some concerns that others didn’t seem to have.  Does that mean we’re going to primary her?  No, and I told her that.  It did take me a while with her to let her know that we’re not falling for the rhetoric of 10 year budgets and “crisis” and “a dollar cut for every dollar increased in debt” and I told her my concerns with this version of the BBA and especially my concerns with “leadership” negotiating away any teeth it has.  I told her we’ve had enough of the rhetoric and talking points and she understands.  I completely appreciated her being direct and spending so much time explaining her reasoning and I told her that I wish she was louder and stood up to leadership with the path they took everyone down.  Nevertheless, we’ll be setting up a meeting with grassroots leaders later this week with her when she gets back.

Bottom line, we must remain loyal to our principles and values and not turn a blind eye when someone disappoints us.  That doesn’t mean we get emotional like many have and threaten this or that.  It just means we need to let them know we’re disappointed and we expect a greater level of honesty and direct discussion.  No more fluffy talking points.  We demand Honesty and the Painful truth.  And doing the right thing must occur every day.

Again, IMHO.

So when you’re voting with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in opposition to Senator’s Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Jim DeMint and Marco Rubio–who is being inconsistent and on what side do your loyalties lie?

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