By Mike Huckabee
June 5, 2023
|
|
I spent the biggest part of this past week with all 7 of my grandchildren on a trip to the beach. I have spent most of the week dodging flying food, picking up more towels than you’d find in a Super Bowl locker room, and answering the same question 300 times a day, “Can I have a snack?” I fully expected to be duct-taped to a lawn chair in retaliation for not thinking that chocolate ice cream is not a proper breakfast food or that 6 popsicles a day is an adequate allotment of sugar. But, folks, I survived! And boy did I look forward to getting here to the studio this week!
I fully understand that Republicans only hold one half of the legislative branch of government while the other half is controlled by very liberal Democrats and that the Executive Branch is led by the most liberal President in history. I wasn’t expecting that the fight over the debt-ceiling would be something to cheer about, but I did hope that Speaker McCarthy would sit tight and play hard since the Republicans in the House were the only ones to actually pass a bill and put something specific on the table as opposed to Joe Biden and the Senate which did nothing. Biden wouldn’t even meet with McCarthy for 100 days and only got interested when the entire economy was at risk over the brinkmanship.
I wasn’t privy to the details of the negotiation so I’ll be somewhat cautious in my assessment of the “deal” that was made, but time will tell if we ended up with more symbolism than substance; more caving than taxpayer saving; more surrender than success.
The late, great Kenny Rogers had a famous song that reminded us that you “have to know when to hold ‘em; know when to fold ‘em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run.”
I sure wish Kenny Rogers had been in the room! Not sure, but I kind of think Kenny would for sure walked away and very likely would have run from a deal. But it’s probably the best we can get given that Republicans have a very slim majority in the House and the Dems control the Senate and some Democrat controls the White House, but we doubt it’s Joe Biden. Over 60% of Americans said they didn’t want a debt ceiling agreement that didn’t have spending cuts. We slowed some stuff, but didn’t stop it. Kind of like how Southerners in small towns don’t actually stop at stop signs, they just slow down and roll through them.
Governing is hard. Much harder than campaigning. I’ve done plenty of both. And both are much harder than commenting on elected officials and the things they do. It’s what I do now so I’ll tell you it’s the easiest job of all, so I am trying to be charitable and wait until we understand all the details. But what I’ve seen so far isn’t exactly making me giddy with joy that we have stood up to the big spenders in Congress and said, “NO! We need to live within a budget we can afford, just like all the taxpayers have to do.” Both the far left and the far right hate the bill and voted against it, which may be a good sign that no one loved it and most just accepted it as better than defaulting on our debt.
And that’s really the point. Do I want the government to default? Of course not. But neither do I want them to pretend that we can just keep spending money we don’t have and borrowing money we have no way to pay back.
Our world is crazy enough with retailers like Target choosing to become groomers and entice children to cross dress and parade perversion like it’s as normal and pretending to be a cowboy or princess. Disneyland now has a mustached man dressed like a woman to welcome children into one of its attractions. I don’t find ANYTHING attractive about it. So with all the crazy happening in the commercial world, I’d love to see our government act like responsible adults and start building budgets that won’t bankrupt our children and grandchildren and turn our nation into a future socialist cesspool. But it doesn’t look like that will be happening any time soon.
Permalink: https://www.mikehuckabee.com/2023/6/governing-and-the-debt-deal
Leave a Comment
Note: Fields marked with an * are required.