Friday, February 18, 2011

Shut Down the Government

By Matt Towery at townhall.com

It sounds harsh and cruel, but U.S. House Speaker John Boehner's threat to shut down all but essential federal government services if the Democrats on Capitol Hill can't actually reign in spending is not only the fiscally responsible approach, it is also one that would be popular with the public.

imageEnough with the gamesmanship of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the silliness of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. It's time for Republicans to let America know that the GOP means business -- cut the budget deeply, or shut her down!

In January, InsiderAdvantage conducted a national survey of voters who identified themselves as either Republicans or independent voters. Those two demographic segments make up the majority of the nation's current electorate. In the survey, we recited in a very straightforward manner the shutdown of government that House Republicans imposed in November 1995 and then again from Dec. 16, 1995, until Jan. 6, 1996.

Then we asked, "What is your opinion of the actions the Republican-led majority took in temporarily shutting down nonessential services for short periods of time to, in the words of their leader, 'prove to the president we were serious about a balanced budget?'" Seventy-one percent had a favorable opinion of that shutdown, and 59 percent said they had a "very favorable" opinion of it. (We polled more than 1,000 respondents, for a margin of error of plus or minus three percent.)…

The GOP must stand its ground on the budget deficit, regardless of what the so-called "mainstream media" thinks about their efforts. It only took two short shutdowns before former President Bill Clinton started working toward deficit reductions and a balanced budget. Let's see if President Obama will learn the same lesson, and by the same hard way.

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