Karl Rove: Why the GOP Should Welcome a Budget Battle

The Obama Budget isn't worth the paper it is printed on -- looks like he wanted to lay a trap for House Republicans but he is no Bill Clinton and this House is on to what Obama is trying to do to put them in a bad light. The Republicans asked for a second chance which the American people gave them and now they will set out to take on the hard task of cutting the budget. It is going to be interesting to see the House Republicans point out where Obama is scamming the American people.

Obama and his advisers are not dealing with moderate Republicans in the House who are in very short supply, but with rock ribbed Republican conservatives. With Paul Ryan leading the fight on the budget, we are in great hands. Paul Ryan is Obama's worst nightmare because he is not afraid to take on Obama and the tax and spend progressive Democrats. Our Committee Chairs are now out to take back every last dime of stimulus money that Obama hasn't managed to waste.

A new day has dawned in America where Common Sense reigns supreme not some gimmicks to spend and tax like Obama wants. This is only the beginning and looking forward to seeing what more Committee Chairs are going to do.

OPINION
FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Why the GOP Should Welcome a Budget Battle
Americans understand the need for spending restraint now

By KARL ROVE

President Obama's 2012 budget is not a serious governing document. It's a political one, designed to boost his re-election chances.

Mr. Obama's budget includes $1.6 trillion in tax increases that are real enough—but most of the spending cuts are not. For example, as Rep. Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman pointed out to me, the administration projects war costs for Iraq and Afghanistan at surge levels for the next decade, and then conjures up about $1.3 trillion in defense savings by assuming drawdowns in each theater—drawdowns that were already in the cards. Outside of this sham transaction, according to Mr. Ryan, there are only $104 billion in real spending cuts over the next 10 years.

Moreover, the administration simply ignores entitlements. This is a dereliction of duty, although it has a certain political logic: The budget is not meant to be taken seriously—it's meant to be quickly forgotten so that the administration can turn attention to, and attack, what congressional Republicans do about federal spending.

Mr. Obama wants House Republicans to take the lead in cutting current spending and proposing future restraint in entitlement and other mandatory spending. He's betting that letting Republicans take the lead will cripple them. This misreads public opinion. But it is plausible to believe that Republican mistakes can help revive Mr. Obama's political fortunes. So it's important that the GOP offers real budget cuts without coming across as angry and frenetic. Republicans need to patiently show what they are doing and why, and to express their sadness and disappointment over Mr. Obama's failure of leadership.

Congressional Republicans need to make methodical and sensible recommendations for cutting discretionary outlays and restraining future entitlement spending. They must explain to the public why the Obama budget will lead to our nation suffering horrific tax increases, massive austerity cuts, and real human suffering. They need to show that the president's fiscal path is, to use a favorite word of his, unsustainable.

Tactically, Republicans should respond to Mr. Obama's agenda as they did to his infatuation with high-speed rail projects. Three days after Vice President Joe Biden touted the magical balm of high-speed trains, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers released the continuing resolution for the balance of fiscal year 2011.

It cut the rest of this fiscal year's high-speed rail funds, rescinded $3.5 billion appropriated in previous fiscal years but still unspent, and rescinded $3.75 billion in unspent transportation money from the 2009 stimulus, almost all of it from Mr. Obama's high-speed rail plan. Overall, nearly $8 billion was cut from transportation, but none from vital road projects that are real priorities for the states.

The result: Very few Americans believe the billions Mr. Obama wants for speedy trains from Milwaukee to Madison, or Columbus to Cincinnati, will spark economic recovery. This still leaves transportation spending higher than it was two years ago, when Mr. Obama came into office. Republicans can reasonably ask the public: Are we better off with all the spending and red ink Mr. Obama has added over the past two years?

Excerpt:  Read More Karl Rove analysis at:  The Wall Street Journal

Rick Scott,Governor of Florida said rejected federal dollars for high speed rail and at the same time said Florida will not spend any dollars on high speed rail. Now we are hearing from Karl Rove that the Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Hal Rogers, has said no taxpayer dollars for high speed rail anywhere in the Country and is pulling back stimulus dollars plus cancelling any dollars in the budget for high speed raid including the FY11 budget. Common sense is gradually returning to America. Waiting to see more of the stimulus returned to the Treasury and stop the Obama boondoggles.