RepRichCebra's Blog

By Rep. Rich Cebra 

In recent months, it has become clear that the Democratic Party is no longer the party of Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy or even Bill Clinton. Regardless of their personal failings, those presidents usually worked for a better future for our country. The Democrats who control the federal government today, however, are a breed apart – left-wing zealots whose economic ignorance is matched only by their contempt for national security. We now have evidence that they also hate our children.

On April 3, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives voted to condemn our kids to a future of debt and national desolation. The budgets they passed will double our national debt in five years and triple it in 10 years to $20 trillion. This will be the legacy of the “progressive” Democrats – a bankrupt America.

Not a single Republican in either chamber voted for this budgetary monstrosity. House Democrats voted for a fiscal 2010 budget of $3.6 trillion, the same staggering sum proposed by their leader, President Barack Obama. The Senate, in a wild fit of fiscal “discipline,” cut that to $3.5 trillion. Both versions will bring on budget deficits in the $1 trillion range as far as the eye can see, and the end result will be financial collapse. The Democrat Congress, driven by either sheer stupidity or an actual desire to terminate the United States as a free country, has apparently set out to wreck the nation.

I realize that most people will find this hard to believe, but facts are facts. Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, put it this way: “The practical implication of this is bankruptcy for the United States,” he said. “There’s no other way around it. If we maintain the proposals that are in this budget over the 10-year period which this budget covers, the country will go bankrupt. People will not buy our debt; our dollar will become devalued.”

For those of us who love this country, it is incredibly sad to watch these Democrats in action. Now in total control of Washington and drunk with power, they have become completely unhinged from reality. The ringleader of this financial fiasco is President Barack Obama, a man who had never run so much as a hot dog stand before deciding that he should be the leader of the free world. He now seems determined to take our country over a cliff. Sure, he “charmed” the queen of England and slickly maneuvered through Europe, but style is superficial and shallow. The inner guts of the man are very different. The millions of Americans who have fought for our country, and the thousands who have died defending liberty, probably never imagined the day would come when our own government would seek to hasten our demise.

Obama knows precisely what he is doing. He knows that the country is dangerously in debt already, but he has no qualms about making the situation much, much worse. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a highly respected, non-partisan group, predicted that the Obama budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink over 2010-2019. Obama’s own budget director, Peter Orszag, said that if the CBO’s forecast proves accurate, Obama’s budget would produce deficits that could not be sustained. And mind you, none of this even includes the coming fiscal cataclysm when baby boomers hit Social Security and Medicare in their full force of 80 million people.

A prudent leader would examine these facts and take action to curb spending and set a course for financial survival. But not Obama. And not the Democrats who control Congress. They all ignored the voices of reason. Sen. Susan Collins, who sided with Obama on the stimulus plan, came out strongly against the president’s budget from her vantage point on the Senate Appropriations Committee. As she said, “It poses a threat to the basic health of our economy.”

It also poses a threat to our national security. The Obama budget slashes military spending to get more money for his lavish new social welfare programs. The Pentagon, now working on its piece of the budget, plans to reduce the Navy’s aircraft carrier fleet from 11 to 10. It also will likely cancel out the F-22 stealth jet fighter, designed to enhance U.S. air superiority and pilot survivability. Other projects to be scrapped include the Army’s Future Combat Systems program, which combines manned and unmanned ground vehicles and drones acting in sync. As the Pentagon’s spokesman said. “These are not changes at the margins. This is a fundamental shift in direction.”

Stop and think about this for a moment. We now face a resurgent Russia and an increasingly belligerent China. We have a madman in nuclear-armed North Korea, who recently launched a long-range missile in the direction of the United States. Iran is on the verge of obtaining nuclear bombs and has pledged to obliterate Israel. Hugo Chavez and his fellow left-wing dictators in South America have formed an alliance against our country, and communist China controls the Panama Canal (thanks to Jimmy Carter).

Considering these ominous and growing threats, what kind of president would decide that now is the time to weaken our national defense? And what kind of Congress would agree to such lunacy? With these poltroons in charge, our future is looking very grim, but most of all I feel sorry for our children. They will inherit the bankrupt carcass of a once-great nation. The 2010 election will be too late to sweep out the Obama Democrats. The damage has already been done.