Our organization strongly opposed the Budget Control Act, which raised the debt limit in 2011. We saw that it would inevitably lead to “massive tax hikes, massive defense cuts, or both.” The BCA was another example of Washington kicking the can down the road and refusing to deal with the huge set of problems facing our country.
Before the BCA, we had opposed a series of short-term continuing resolutions that were designed to buy time and avoid necessary policy choices, thus facilitating the eventual deal that was the BCA. Our opposition to those measures was angrily panned in some quarters of the Republican Party as trying to force a government shutdown.
But our position was never for a government shutdown. Rather, our position was against Washington’s refusal to acknowledge reality.
In 2011, we were $14 trillion in debt, staring down the barrel of a massive new top-down, government-controlled health care regime; pondering how to deal with an exploding set of entitlement programs; and dealing with real unemployment levels in the double digits. And it’s hard to convince anyone that things have gotten better.
With the 2010 elections, the American people sent a clear signal to Washington that the status quo was no longer acceptable. Unfortunately, conservatives in Congress who agreed with this assessment were steamrolled by greater forces that still hold sway in Washington. And the result is exactly as predicted.
The country now faces a perfect storm. If nothing is done between now and the end of the year, we face an economy-crushing $500 billion tax increase and cuts to our defense budget that will significantly weaken our national security.
The mandated defense cuts are the prize hostage taken by the class-warfare artists in the Democratic Party during the BCA negotiations. Because the BCA stipulates that the defense cuts are to take place in December, national security conservatives who understand the damage this will do to our armed forces’ ability to effectively protect this nation have been put in a position where they’re told to choose between protecting America and increasing taxes on hardworking Americans.
The backdrop for this Washington witches’ brew will be the lame-duck session, in which members of Congress who have been sent packing by the American people — and are thus unaccountable to their constituents — will play a leading role.
And this is all by design.
The Left’s game plan is to create a crisis scenario. Rahm Emanuel’s maxim, to never let a good crisis go to waste, has been internalized by the party. Democrats won when there were swirling crisis winds in the economic disaster of 2008; they won when they stirred up a false crisis leading to the BCA; and, if conservatives don’t get wise to it, they will win in a lame-duck session.
Conservatives should refuse to play their game and instead pass a continuing resolution now that funds the government until the next Congress has begun. Conservatives should also pass measures through the House that would permanently eliminate the $500 billion tax hike and prevent the gutting of our defense capability. This would force President Obama and Harry Reid to either acquiesce or explain their position to the American people.
In his recent speech laying out his vision for future tax hikes, President Obama said he believes this fall’s election would be the deciding factor. He is correct. It follows that a newly elected Congress, not an unaccountable lame-duck Congress, should make these critical decisions.
We relish the opportunity to take this issue to the voters once again. It is rude to ask them twice, especially when the first answer was so resounding, but Washington is so dense and out of touch right now that America must repeat itself.
Michael A. Needham is CEO of Heritage Action for America. Tim Chapman is the organization’s chief operating officer.
