Dear Mark: As a conservative I'm concerned about the latest budget compromise forged by Republican Congressman Paul Ryan and Senator Pat Murray, a super liberal from Washington state. It seems to increase spending while seemingly ignoring the ballooning deficit. What are we supposed to think? — Conservative Carl
Dear Carl: My initial thought was why in the world are Democrats signing on to this compromise? This agreement eliminates the biggest club with which Democrats could bludgeon Republicans in 2014 — the threat of government shutdown. Maybe Democrats are tired of being abused in the media as well these days.
I understand your concern. As a diehard conservative myself, I would love to see a grand budget agreement that cuts spending, reduces the size of government and puts the country back on a path to fiscal sanity. But as long as Democrats deny the reality of budgetary mathematics, control the senate and the presidency, there is no way a deal of that magnitude can be reached.
Don't worry; Congressman Paul Ryan has not suddenly become squishy, but actually seems to understand the political landscape. Republicans cannot implement the kind of budget that actually addresses Washington's spending addiction until Republicans win some more elections.
Because of Obamacare's failure, Republicans have a tremendous amount of political momentum, and the threat of another government shutdown would hurt that momentum going into the 2014 mid-year elections. I'll give Paul Ryan the benefit of the doubt until November 2014, but after that the GOP gloves better come off and make way for the Ted Cruz wing of the party.
Dear Mark: Why are Republicans so interested in implementing the Affordable Care Act on time when they are so blatantly against it? Shouldn't they be good citizens and help fix the problems with the ACA? — Citizen Shane
Dear Citizen: How can Republicans possibly help the smartest man to ever serve in the Whitehouse? They couldn't possibly propose anything that Professor Obama hasn't already thought of, now could they? President Frankenstein built this monster and now he needs to deal with the torch-bearing villagers himself.
The dilemma facing lawmakers is that Obamacare is already so far gone that it needs to be scrapped entirely and rebuilt from scratch. That doesn't appear to be an option, as the Obama administration is so ideologically stubborn that it either cannot see or refuses to see the abysmal failure of not only the website but also the law itself. With that in mind, I like the Republican's approach of letting the game come to them. The full implementation and subsequent implosion of Obamacare seems to be the only way to start over completely.
This reminds me of the father who caught his boy smoking cigarettes and forced him to smoke the entire pack to teach him a lesson. His son got dizzy, turned green, gagged and hopefully never touched cigarettes again. If Democrats want Obamacare so badly, let them smoke the whole pack without filters and face the consequences.
Dear Mark: I just read that the Obama administration is going to use People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" to help promote Obamacare enrollment among younger people. This disturbs me as a taxpayer, and I wonder how they can get away with wasting our money so foolishly. — No They Didn't
Dear No: When I first read this, I thought, "there's no way I'm promoting Obamacare," and then my wife gleefully pointed out they were referring to Adam Levine, the lead singer of Maroon Five and a judge on NBC's "The Voice." This is an obvious act of desperation on the part of Team Obama or maybe just a cheap opportunity for Kathleen Sebelius to meet Mr. Levine
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