Banking veteran Christopher Whalen blogged his thoughts on the recent government shutdown via the website Breitbart.com Thursday.
His take on the situation: the founders expected heated disputes, especially when government types are borrowing money at unsustainable levels.
In his own words:
“My friends in the financial media warned ominously about the grave implication of disagreement between conservatives and liberals when it comes to the federal budget. The notion that Republicans, for example, might actually pressure the Democrats to reconsider their bad borrow and spend ways, is portrayed as irresponsible. But the fact of the matter is that our nation’s Founders anticipated just such confrontations. The Madisonian principle of “checks and balances” requires conflict.”
And from Whalen’s perspective being a bit scrappy in Congress, something Republicans were willing to do in parts of the House and Senate is what the forefathers envisioned:
"Democracy in America is not supposed to be efficient, especially when the issues dividing the country are so fundamental. On the left, the Democrats are basically saying that it is acceptable to borrow hundreds of billions per year from our children and grandchildren to pay today’s bills. Notice that when liberals in the media were fretting about the extension of the debt ceiling, there is never any discussion of cutting spending or balancing the federal budget. The whole focus of American liberalism is selfishness, this under the guise of pretending to care about the poor and unfortunate."
But you’re not off the hook, Conservatives. Whalen also had this to stay:
“Conservatives, on the other hand, angrily complain about deficits and new federal programs and mandates, but are singularly ineffective in stopping the expansion of the welfare state. When it comes down to really cutting back entitlements, the Republicans in the Senate are little better than their Democratic counterparts. The more conservative members of the House, at least, have been willing to go to the brink of national calamity in order to make the point that spending money we don’t have is unacceptable. But for the half the working age Americans who receive transfer payments rather than work, such policies are not popular.”
Click here to read the full blog.
