{"id":1799,"date":"2013-01-03T20:18:31","date_gmt":"2013-01-04T02:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/?p=1799"},"modified":"2013-01-03T20:18:31","modified_gmt":"2013-01-04T02:18:31","slug":"a-failure-to-communicate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/?p=1799","title":{"rendered":"A Failure to Communicate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost everyone over the age of sixty will remember the 1967 film, Cool Hand Luke<\/em>, starring Paul Newman.\u00a0 In the film, Luke (Paul Newman) is severely disciplined by a man known as the \u201cCaptain\u201d (Strother Martin), the brutal warden of a Florida prison camp, following one of Luke\u2019s many unsuccessful escape attempts.<\/p>\n

As Luke is struck with the Captain\u2019s cane and tumbles to the bottom of a ditch, the Captain announces to the inmates gathered nearby, \u201cWhat we have here is\u2026 failure to communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although congressional Republicans actually have the strongest hand to play in the ongoing struggle over the so-called \u201cfiscal cliff ,\u201d watching them being regularly taken to the cleaners by the likes of Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi is almost more than any rational observer can endure.<\/p>\n

The only success that the principal negotiators for the Republican side, Speaker John Boehner (R-IL) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), can claim is that they\u2019ve been successful in turning their strong hand into a losing hand.\u00a0 Watching them snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, day after day, week after week, one can\u2019t help but be reminded that what we are seeing is simply a \u201cfailure to communicate.\u201d\u00a0 For those of us who consider ourselves to be on the Boehner\/McConnell team, it is distressing beyond words to have to conclude that they don\u2019t seem to understand what game they\u2019re playing in, or the rules of that game.<\/p>\n

A USA Today<\/em>\/Gallup poll posted on the Internet is clear evidence that the vast majority of Americans understand that the federal deficit is primarily the result of too much spending, as opposed to too little tax revenue.\u00a0 Overall, 73% of those polled agreed with Republicans that the deficit is caused by too much spending, while only 22% agreed with Obama and the Democrats that taxes need to be increased to meet all of our revenue needs.<\/p>\n

Sorted by political affiliation, 91% of Republicans, 73% of Independents, and even 56% of self-identified Democrats agreed that the federal deficit problem, hence the burgeoning national debt, is the result of too much spending.\u00a0 Only 7% of Republicans, 20% of Independents, and 38% of Democrats felt that government raises too little revenue through taxation.\u00a0 Yet, if we were to ask the American people which of the two opposing forces\u2026 John Boehner and the Republicans, or Barack Obama and the Democrats\u2026 is on the right side of the issue, the overwhelming number of people would name Obama and the Democrats.\u00a0 Go figure!<\/p>\n

One would think that, after contending with Democrats in the White House and in Congress on a daily basis for twenty, thirty, forty or more years, Republican leaders would have caught on to the Democrats\u2019 game by now\u2026 but that obviously is not the case.\u00a0 Nor are they willing to take good advice.\u00a0 While Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and other Democrats get all the time they need or want before the national television cameras, Speaker Boehner has a tendency to make a brief statement, field three or four questions, and then turn abruptly and walk away\u2026 as if what awaits him in his office is anywhere near as important as informing and educating the American people.<\/p>\n

When Democrats elect leaders in the House and Senate, they look for leaders with glib tongues and the ability to lie with a straight face\u2026 people with the ability to take one side of an issue today and the opposing side tomorrow, and do it smoothly and seamlessly.\u00a0 In short, they look for those individuals with the least integrity and the least intellectual honesty.<\/p>\n

Republicans, on the other hand, look to seniority, breadth of congressional experience, and knowledge of the issues.\u00a0 They pay little or no attention to the prospective leader\u2019s ability to generate quotable quotes or to take the hide off Democrats.\u00a0 In my lifetime, Republicans have had one Senate Leader, Everett Dirksen of Illinois (January 1959-September 1969), and one House Speaker, Newt Gingrich of Georgia (January 1995-January 1997), who understood the nature and scope of congressional leadership.\u00a0 There has not been a single Republican House Floor Leader in my lifetime who has had the ability to go \u201ctoe-to-toe\u201d with the Democrats.<\/p>\n

In the recent crisis, for example, Speaker Boehner never seemed to understand what it was the people failed to understand about the \u201cfiscal cliff\u201d negotiations.\u00a0 Trying to be helpful, I have written letters to the Speaker and I\u2019ve left messages on his office telephone, suggesting that he needs to paint a mental picture of the situation that all adult Americans can understand.\u00a0 I\u2019ve suggested that, after his next fruitless negotiating session with Barack Obama, he go before the TV cameras and say this:<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery working American understands that it\u2019s impossible to spend and borrow their way out of debt.\u00a0 Short of taking a second job, the only way to keep from going further into debt is to reduce non-essential spending.\u00a0 The same is true of the U.S. economy.\u00a0 We can\u2019t reduce our deficits by spending more and borrowing more.\u00a0 The only way to get out of the fiscal hole we\u2019re in is by growing our economy, yet the president insists on taking more money out of the pockets of those who invest money and who create jobs with their investments.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me put it in terms of a metaphor that everyone can understand.\u00a0 I know that the president doesn\u2019t drive his own car.\u00a0 I don\u2019t even know if he has a driver\u2019s license.\u00a0 But I do know this: if he drives a car the same way he tries to run the U.S. economy\u2026 with one foot pressing on the accelerator and the other jammed on the brake\u2026 I\u2019d be scared to death to ride with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the most economically illiterate Democrats would understand that concept.<\/p>\n

However, there are those of us who have felt that, while professing otherwise, Obama would like nothing better than to see the U.S. economy go over the \u201cfiscal cliff.\u201d\u00a0 That being the case, the Speaker had nothing to lose by being painfully honest with the American people.\u00a0 He could have described the frustration he felt from negotiating with an inexperienced dolt like Barack Obama by going before the TV cameras and saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cLadies and gentlemen\u2026 it is difficult (sigh).\u00a0 In attempting to negotiate a solution to our fiscal crisis with the president, I have 232 Republican colleagues that I have to satisfy\u2026 all of whom understand how the U.S. economy functions.\u00a0 But we have only one president, a man who has absolutely no experience whatsoever in the private sector.\u00a0 After four years of trying to work with him it is finally quite clear to me that he simply does not understand how the U.S. economy works\u2026 how jobs are created and how the economy is made to grow.<\/p>\n

“That being said, it begins to look less and less as if we will be able to reach an agreement with the president on what needs to be done.\u00a0 The members of the House have done their job.\u00a0 Our Budget Committee proposal, which contained some really tough choices, passed the House on April 13, 2012, by a vote of 235 to 193.\u00a0 By comparison, I feel compelled to remind everyone that the president\u2019s latest budget proposal failed in the House in March 2012 by a vote of 414 to 0, and in the Senate on May 16 by a vote of 99 to 0.\u00a0 Not a single Democrat, in the House or in the Senate, has voted for either the president\u2019s budget or ours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe budget passed by the House, a very responsible approach, has been gathering dust on Harry Reid\u2019s desk since May 17 of last year.\u00a0 The only thing I can suggest is that the American people demand that Mr. Obama and his friends in Congress finally get serious about our debt problem.\u00a0 If they don\u2019t, every American is going to suffer and the poor and middle class will be hurt the worst.\u00a0 Now, I have an hour to spare.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be happy to take your questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two things should be crystal clear to almost every thinking person by now.\u00a0 First, it should be perfectly clear that all Democrats, from Barack Obama on down, oppose any form of spending cuts.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because, for the past eighty or ninety years, Democrats have built their party by catering to special interests, all of whom want something from<\/em> government.\u00a0 What makes it impossible to put our country back on the road to fiscal sanity is that, at every turn, we run headlong into one Democratic constituency or another.\u00a0 When Democrats confront spending cuts, the first thing that pops into their minds is the loss of votes on Election Day.<\/p>\n

And finally, the American people need to understand that whenever Republicans talk about the need to cut spending, the first words out of every Democrat\u2019s mouth are, \u201cExactly what would you cut?\u201d\u00a0 If they could get even one Republican to suggest which entitlement programs they would cut, for weeks thereafter the lead stories in the press would be about nothing more than how those \u201cheartless Republicans\u201d would put old folks out onto the street, take food out of the mouths of school children, or subject workers to unsafe conditions in the workplace.\u00a0 Democrats don\u2019t mind if the United States becomes a failed state, going over the \u201cfiscal cliff.\u201d\u00a0 Their only concern is that they be at the helm when the end comes.<\/p>\n

While the one thing that most typifies Republican leaders is their inability to communicate with the American people at a level they can comprehend, they are at least wise enough to avoid stepping into the trap of getting out front on specific spending cuts.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans fail to understand these basic facts of political life and it is the fault of the\u00a0 Republican leadership that they do not.\u00a0 It\u2019s time that we all lean on our Republican senators and representatives, demanding that they elect only leaders who have the ability to communicate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost everyone over the age of sixty will remember the 1967 film, Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman.\u00a0 In the film, Luke (Paul Newman) is severely disciplined by a man known as the \u201cCaptain\u201d (Strother Martin), the brutal warden of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1800,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions\/1800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}