I talked briefly to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for yesterday’s story, but I didn’t get to use one of his comments. He voted against the House’s CR, arguing that it cut too little. He was fairly evasive with reporters on whether he’d vote against any CR that didn’t cut the $500 billion we wants to cut. So I asked how this was materially different than what Democrats were accusing Republicans of: Wanting to shut government down unless they were getting their way.
“The thing is is that it’s not an either/or situation,” said Paul, “either they get what they want or they shut the government down. It’s really them talking about it, I think, mainly because they want a cheap PR victory. They see it as, oh: We’ll blame it on the Tea Party, or we’ll blame it on Republicans. I don’t want to shut the government down. In fact, I’ve always said you could simply spend what comes in. We bring in $200 billion a month. That’s over $2 trillion per year. You could spend what’s coming in.”
But while I was writing this, the Campaign for Liberty – Ron Paul’s organization, which also supports Rand – put out a statement calling for members to vote no on a compromise and force a shutdown.
Recent reports indicate that House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid, and Vice President Joe Biden are scheming behind closed doors to cut a deal to keep government spending money it does not have when the current continuing resolution expires on April 8th.
This “compromise” would nick spending by $33 billion, barely 1% of our budget and 2% of our deficit .
Republicans were not elected to nibble around the edges in a desperate attempt to keep the government openfor business so they can “save face.”
Liberty and Tea Party activists sentRepublicans to Washington with marching orders to either get spending under control immediately, or shut the governmentdown .
That’s why it’s vital you contact your congressman […] and send a clear message that if they lack the courage to shut the government down to bring out of controlspending to heel, you will find someone else who will.
