The debate over federal budgeting and debt doesn’t fall within the mission of the Texas Freedom Network, but we admit to being a bit puzzled when we read Texas Sen. John Cornyn’s Houston Chronicle op-ed column about the urgent need to rein in government spending. From his column (emphasis added):
If we don’t reduce spending and reform our three biggest entitlement programs – Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security – then we will strangle economic growth, destroy jobs and reduce our standard of living. With the national debt above $16 trillion, and with more than $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities hanging over us, our toughest fiscal decisions cannot be postponed any longer.
Republicans are more determined than ever to implement the spending cuts and structural entitlement reforms that are needed to secure the long-term fiscal integrity of our country.
The coming deadlines will be the next flashpoints in our ongoing fight to bring fiscal sanity to Washington. It may be necessary to partially shut down the government in order to secure the long-term fiscal well being of our country, rather than plod along the path of Greece, Italy and Spain. President Obama needs to take note of this reality and put forward a plan to avoid it immediately.
We wonder: where was Sen. Cornyn’s concern about entitlement spending when he voted for President George W. Bush’s Medicare drug prescription program in 2003? That bill, with a 10-year cost estimated in 2009 at more than a half-trillion dollars, was funded through deficit spending. In fact, just a few months before voting for the Medicare drug plan, Sen. Cornyn voted for a second installment of President Bush’s tax cuts, which lowered tax rates on capital gains and dividend income (among other cuts). And, of course, 2003 was the year the United States invaded Iraq — another federal expense funded entirely by deficit spending on Sen. Cornyn’s watch.
Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve noted that Sen. Cornyn’s words don’t always appear to match his actions. During the 2012 election campaign, Sen. Cornyn — who chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) — called Missouri Senate candidate Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin’s shocking comments about rape “wrong, offensive and indefensible” and declared that the NRSC wouldn’t back the religious-righter’s campaign. Then after the election Politico reported that the NRSC sent $760,000 to the Missouri GOP just as the state party was buying TV ads supporting Akin in the final days of the campaign.
Join us and Vote Cornyn OUT of office come 2014: https://www.facebook.com/TexasWomensCoalition#!/events/469987949719945/
Texas has the self imposed misfortune to have two Senators that will not represent our interests well. Cruz with his Tea Party philosophies doesn’t really reflect what middle and lower class citizens need from their government. Cornyn, in his role as a party leader, too often reflects the voice of his party rather than his constituents. Unfortunately, his Republican party is mislead from within by the power of the tea party.
“Republicans are more determined than ever to implement the spending cuts and structural entitlement reforms that are needed to secure the long-term fiscal integrity of our country.”
Translation: We have been trying to kill off Social Security ever since the 1930s, but we have had no luck. If we cannot achieve that within the next year, it is likely that we will never achieve it. Now, please do not get us wrong on this. We have nothing against old folks. It is just that we are ideologically opposed to the idea that government should help anyone with anything. You like to build cars? Then build your own damn personal highway and leave my wallet out of it.
Charles says:
Yes, we probably need some sensible entitlement reforms, and I could support that in the right way with a proper heart. I thhink most Americans could, but that is not what guys like Cornyn want. They want to see Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and AFDC wiped completely off the face of the Earth until there is nothing left but a thin greasy spot about 1 inch in diameter. However, he and his fellow dipschitts like Michele Bachmann know that they cannot get it done in a single, bold stroke. As the Wicked Witch of the West said, “These matters must be handled delicately.” Instead, you start off by draining its blood just a little bit until you weaken it just a tad. Then you arrange to take a little more blood five years from now. When you get a majority in both houses of Congress, you take a lot more. Keep it up until it has no more blood left and simply dies. Mission accomplished.
I hope Senator Cornyn visits TFN and reads this. We know what you are trying to do, and 200,000,000 Americans are hear to say that you will have to go over our dead bodies to even get a start at draining the first drop of blood. We will fight any and all designed Republican proposals to cut entitlement programs. If such cuts are ever to be made, we trust only Democrats and responsible Independents to do it and do it in the right way because we know that their goal is not to totally kill these programs.
Exactly! Long term strategy: “Starve the Beast”. Cornyn is one of Norquist’s greatest allies.
Numerous reports have documented the facts that George W Bush spent far more than Barack Obama has ever done (two Middle East wars, drug plan to benefit drug makers rather than consumers, massive increase in defense spending, etc.) and reduced revenue far more than Obama has ever done (Bush tax cuts). See and
. Now Obama has certainly continued spending on one of those wars and has continued most of the Bush tax cut, but he had no option not to.
Senator Cornyn voted for the wars, defense spending, drug plan, tax cut, etc. so he is a fracking (Battlestar Galactica, not Big Oil) hypocrite. Shutting down the government will do Cornyn no more good than it did Gingrich. Defaulting on U.S. debt payments will cause a global financial meltdown that would really hurt Wall Street, so the Republicans won’t do that, either. I think Obama will offer a balanced spending cut-revenue increase, 1:1 or 2:1, and the Publicans will be forced to accept.
Haven’t commented in awhile, but still reading every post. Keep up the good work in 2013, TFN.
Doggone Ben. I love you and miss you.
You and my other past friends here at TFN Insider are always welcome to visit me over at my blog:
http://contextintn.wordpress.com/
The subject matter is American archaeology and Tennessee archaeology, but I sometimes put up a political/current issues post that relates to those subjects and dovetails with key TFN concerns.
Unfortunately, I get few comments because the archaeologists who read it live off of government funding—so they try to pretend that they do not exist and lay low beneath the radar as if even the most benign comment might one day cost them their job or deny them an opportunity for a job.
I also have one comment of concern about TFN Insider. We used to have some really good and meaningful discussions about current issues—things you could bite your teeth into deeply. Then I saw things go to what I would call “down hill.” I think iPhone texting, Facebook, and Twitter are the culprits here. These media are oriented towards communicating with great brevity. It is very hard to have a meaningful conversation when the entire conversation consists of something like this:
“The Texas SBOE really sucks the big one.”
“You got that right.”
“Ditto on that.
“Double ditto.”
Now, c’mon people!!! We can do better than that. Rather than catching TFN Insider on the fly while heading to McDonalds with the kids, I would like to encourage all of you to wait until you get home, spend a few minutes on your PC or laptop at TFN Insider, and get some meaningful conversations going here—like in the old days. I think those conversations actually helped people who were examining the assorted TFN issues for the first time. Give it a try. I will try to post more meaningfully here as well.
Charles,
The science textbook adoption is coming up in a few months — I think the science curriculum debate in 2009 is around when you discovered TFN Insider. Glad you and Ben (and everybody else) have stuck around for the new battle. And congrats on your blog!
Thanks, Charles!
What does the word “entitlement” mean? Let’s have a look at a dictionary meaning: From Wikipedia: An entitlement is a guarantee of access to benefits based on established rights or by legislation. A “right” is itself an entitlement associated with a moral or social principle, such that an “entitlement” is a provision made in accordance with legal framework of a society. Typically, entitlements are laws based on concepts of principle (“rights”) which are themselves based in concepts of social equality or enfranchisement.
In a casual sense, the term “entitlement” refers to a notion or belief that one (or oneself) is deserving of some particular reward or benefit[1]—if given without deeper legal or principled cause, the term is often given with pejorative connotation (e.g. a “sense of entitlement”).
Now let’s take a non-political look at that word. Let’s say that you have purchased $10,000 worth of savings bonds from the United States government. You are then ENTITLED to receive $10,000 when the bonds mature. Does that make sense?
There is a law called the Federal Insurance Contribution Act – FICA. When one pays their FICA “contributions” to FICA one is ENTITLED to receive the money they have put into the INSURANCE.
The INSURANCE pays for retirement, survivor’s benefits, unemployment, etc. Medicare came into the picture and because I was permanently disabled in 1997, I received my retirement benefits TO WHICH I WAS ENTITLED.
Cornyn and the rest of the Republicant Party could care less about those of us whose only income is Social Security and our only medical care is Medicare because they get all of their platinum health and retirement for the rest of their damned lives, so why should they give a damn that SOCIAL SECURITY DOES NOT AFFECT THE BUDGET AT ALL. All they want to do is to leave those of us who have worked our rear ends off all of our lives and wind up with NOTHING.
I live in Hurst. That means I have NO representation at all, none. Not in Austin and not in Washington.
And now it looks like the man I voted for as president has stabbed us all in the back because he has seemed to put entitlements on the table.
I will NEVER make another contribution to any political party. It’s over, done, kaput. If I can’t even trust a Democrat, then I know my rights as an American citizen have been thrown in the gutter.
I would LOVE for those offspring of unmarried parents to try living on less than the $20,000 a year I live on. Also, I’d love to know why nobody has gone to jail for throwing my life’s savings away.
I’m finished.
David Barton said “Hate is a Virtue”. Really!? He’d better not let Jesus hear him say that.
Beverly,
I never thought I would ever see the day when caring for a hungry child or a sick person—and trying to help—would be called a “sin” and that clergy and members of the so-called “church” would be on the frontlines advocating against the most basic human relations requirements in Judaism and Christianity—and labeling heartlessness as being a good Jew or the right kind of Christian.
Moreover, I am encountering more and more people who either tell me or honestly believe that I am unAmerican because I choose to care for such people—and they accuse me of doing so because I am a no-good-for-nothing freeloader who wants to kick back, relax, and “continue to” live off my free monthly government checks that I have been receiving for years. Trouble is, I work in a regular job at a scientific/ engineering firm, make lots of money at it(plus benefits), and receive no monthly entitlement checks from government at any level. The only thing I can conclude is that many of my accusers are mentally detached from reality and living in some fantasy zone created by morons.
Its partisan politics for Cornyn all the way……………….
Too many of our legislators are not seeking workable solutions to deficit spending and voluntary wars.
Mr Cornyn is one of them. Too bad the electorate is not paying attention. As tin ancient Greece, the citizens are getting the democracy theu deserve by their own participation, lack thereof, misnformed decisions, or just plain lack of thought. A dogmatic, polarized, economically separated between the haves and have nots, and creationism oriented educational system will create more non thinkers. Perfect.!!!
Just finished watching the revisionaries on PBS. I also just moved back here to Texas and have to say I am sick about the republican takeover of this state. I held out hope that something could be done to prevent these right wing religious nuts from putting their “beliefs” in the textbooks my grandchildren are using, but I see the loony’s won. Are there any Democratic groups in the Richmond area? All I can think about is trying to figure out how to get Cornyn and Cruz out of the Senate. They are such shallow men with no intelect. I really hope things get better here in Texas, because so far I’ve seen nothing but bad news from these repugs.