You Know They're Scared When Democrats Declare GOP Bills DOA

Isn't it funny how something as reciprocal as compromise is taken hostage by one party to use against the/another?

Boehner's debt limit bill hadn't even passed in the House yet yesterday, but Wonderboy, Harry Reid, Dick Durbin and Chuckie Schumer all pronounced it DOA- Dead On Arrival.

And yet, in doing so, none of those Democrats thought or worried they would look recalcitrant, intractable or unreasonable. All of which they are.

When in a process that will probably require compromise, who is to say whose ideas are unacceptable or DOA?

What if Boehner had come out earlier and declared that anything but his House bill would be DOA when it came back for reconciliation in that chamber? How would Wonderboy and Harry have reacted to that?

What's worse is, all that Boehner and his colleagues have done is reacted to the 2010 election results and the public's disgust with decades of overspending. The House GOP has sensibly paired a debt limit increase with spending cuts and, while questionable, the understandable appeal to write and pass a Constitutional amendment for a balanced budget.

I laughed and turned the channel when I heard Dick Durbin sputtering about how unnatural and unreasonable it was for the House to attach a BBA demand to a debt limit increase.

Here's another perspective on the whole process. One which esteemed conservative pundit and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer echoed on Friday evening on Brett Baier's program, in contrast to a liberal kiss-up, whiny guest on the panel at the program's end.

Essentially, what we are witnessing is a seismic political shift begun by the election of a core of about 87 Tea Party House members and a handful of Tea Party Senators from the GOP last November. They are sufficiently numerous to affect House bills. If 100 Senators had been up for re-election last year, instead of only 32 or 33, it's quite possible that the GOP, with its Tea Party component, would have taken control of that chamber, as well.

But, as it is, a new political wind is blowing through Congress. Dick Durbin's astonishment notwithstanding, the new House members represent the public's awakening to the unwanted actions of its Congresses of the past several decades.

As Krauthahammer intoned, and I heartily agree, screw bipartisanship. You need a good partisan battle over the nation's direction at the federal level at least once every generation. This is that moment, in the post-Reagan era.

It's pretty clear that, based on his last three years of behavior, Wonderboy couldn't be re-elected today if it was a strictly 'yes/no' vote. The Senate will probably go Republican next year.

For Democrats to simply scream that it's outrageous to attach spending cuts to a debt limit increase, and try to curb spending both now and in the future, tells you they are scared. Scared to death that they've finally maxed out the nation's federal credit card and lines, and won't be able to continue with their lavish social programs.

In fact, despite their cries that Republicans want to preserve tax cuts for "the rich" while cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, that's precisely what's going to happen, more or less. With time, tax rates will fall, special deductions and tax preferences will disappear, and overall tax receipts will rise as the economy recovers. But the bases for determining social spending will have to be shifted toward current defined contributions. There's simply no other way for such promised benefits to be sustained into the future.

That Wonderboy and his Senate and House minions are screaming 'DOA' to Boehner and his plan simply telegraphs how truly scared they now are, having seen the inevitable handwriting on the wall.