It is time to get real. It is time for former Presidents Bush(s)- both George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush- to oppose and end the Mad Hatter Tea Parties. The Bush(s) are the last living Republican presidents, and they both expanded the federal deficits enormously. Famously, Bush W's vice president Dick Cheney claimed that "deficits don't matter. Reagan proved that."
Huh? The Mad Tea Party claims that Republicans who vote to increase the debt limit are RINOs (Republicans in Name Only). Do they honestly believe that President Bush I, President Bush II, Dick Cheney and President Reagan are all RINOs?
By Glenn Beck's standards and Sarah Palin, only a handful of ideologues are real Republicans and the rest are RINOs. Objectively, they must believe that even Abraham Lincoln was a RINO- he had to increase debt so much to fight the civil war that the 14th Amendment had to be passed to ensure that civil war debts could be paid.
Lincoln also was the originator of red tape. When veterans came to get their benefits, their files were bound up in red tape, and that was the origin of the term.
The two Bushes now need to have the courage of their convictions. They borrowed trillions to advance their Republican agenda. It is insane that Obama be blamed for the money borrowed by the Bushes. If the Bushes believed that running huge deficits was in the interest of the country, they need to say so now.
Surely, they did not borrow trillions with the idea that the United States would not pay the money back or pay the interest owed on the Republican spending spree.
Dick Cheney - how can you not back raisng the debt limit that you advocated for?
S enator John McCain finally had the courage of his convictions to finally speak out against the Mad Tea Party. What about the rest of Republicans? You all stood behind Reagan and the two Bushes as the deficit shot out of sight. You all voted for it. Now are you so craven that you don't want to pay back the money you voted to spend?
The Mad Tea Party leaders have drunk the pre-Keynesian Kool-Aid, and deny that deficit spending is needed to fight recession. Or, do they want the rest of the country to drink the Kool-Aid and die, while the Tea Party lives high on book deals, propaganda and demagoguery?
This is as if Jim Jones never drank his own poison, and walked away after all his followers departed the planet. If the Tea Party wants to wreck the country, they need to drink their own brew first. And the Bush's need to tell the country about what was already drank during their presidencies, and the slow, spreading poison.
Now is the time for the Bush presidents to man up. They borrowed the money, now they need to defend what they did. They need to make clear that real Republicans- from Lincoln, to Reagan, to Bushes, did not shrink to borrow when it was in the nation's interest.
Real Republicans do not shrink from defending their own actions and policies. How dare the Republican establishment allow Sarah Palin define who is and who is not a Republican? Palin actually thought that Paul Revere was on the British side of the revolution! Palin thought that we were allies with North Korea, not South!
The Bush presidents need to protect some shred of dignity. Go public and admit what you did, and why. If you believed that deficits don't matter- tell the country now! If you regret your borrowing binges, then just apologize. But don't sit on the sidelines while the economy is blown up. You were both the leaders of the free world and of your party. How can you be silent as all we have worked for as a nation is undone?
Tell Sarah Palin and her buddies know that they, not you, have violated Republican principles. Palin and crowd are the RINOs.
As former Republican presidents, you have few duties. But a few words from you could save the Republican party, the US economy, and our country. This is surely a moment for serious adults to join in bipartisanship to end the lunacy that threatens to crater our economy.
The time to speak is now.
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