Dakota Beacon

 The sixteen-day government shutdown ended. True, Obamacare remains intact with all its warts and pimples. The debt ceiling was raised allowing Obama to spend even more money. He was given authority to commit America to live far beyond her means and adding to the national debt.

 Republicans-in-Name-Only capitulated to join our radical leftist president and his fellow travelers in the Democrat-controlled Senate.  During Obama's first term alone the federal debt increased by $5.8 trillion exceeding the combined debt accumulated under all presidents from George Washington through Bill Clinton. The debt now stands at $17 trillion and climbing.

 In retrospect, conservative Republicans in the House and Senate did not fare as poorly as the dominant media makes them out to be. Conservatives prevailed in the area of fiscal policy. The point is that Republicans slowed the increase in the rate of spending by means of the sequester. The debt ceiling fight and government shutdown did nothing to reverse the sequester.  The conservative Republicans win by slowing the growth of government. Obama's agenda has been stalled inadvertently. As a result, Obama's intended policies including gun control, comprehensive immigration reform, climate change legislation, infrastructure investment, voting rights protections, minimum wage increase have been sidetracked. This is because the Republicans, especially in the House, stood firm on the sequester, Defense spending not withstanding.

 Some people "get it." Here is how it works according to leftist journalist Peter Beinart writing for "The Daily Beast." He penned an article "Why the Shutdown is a Republican Victory."

 ".In 2011...President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 which cut
 government [discretionary] spending by $917 billion [$350 billion from
 Defense] over 10 years. The agreement also created a congressional 'super
 committee' charged with finding additional cuts. If the committee failed to
 do so, cuts totaling $1.2 trillion [50% from Defense] over ten years would
 kick in automatically at the end of 2012 via a process called
 'sequestration.'"

 Sequestration was Obama's 2011 idea when faced with a Republican threat of a federal debt default and the Budget Control Act of 2011 was his proposal. "Traditionally in Washington, budget compromises had meant Democrats agreeing to cut domestic spending and Republicans agreeing to raise taxes.  But by raising the specter of default, Republicans had changed the equation.  In the Budget Control Act, taxes weren't raised a dime. Democrats compromised by cutting spending and Republicans 'compromised' by agreeing not to let America default on its debt.."

 Democrats didn't believe the Republicans would go along with the sequester but the Republicans stood firm playing Democrats for suckers. "Not surprisingly, conservatives liked the deal more than liberals. In the House, Republicans backed it by a margin of almost three to one while Democrats split evenly.

Fast forward to the beginning of this year. Despite months of  negotiations, the super committee failed to reach an agreement, and so this March, automatic sequester cuts kicked in..If Democrats disliked the 2011 Budget Control Act, they disliked its bastard stepchild, the sequester, even more..Obama calls the sequester cuts: 'harsh' and 'arbitrary' and warned that they would 'devastate priorities like education, energy and medical research'..

 "Republicans, being less supportive of federal spending.were more supportive of the sequester. Indeed, as recently as last month, GOP leaders described locking in the sequester cuts -- via a 'clean' continuing resolution (CR) that extended them into 2014 -- as a major victory.In a
 memo to fellow Republicans on September 6, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor
 boasted that by 'signing a CR at sequester levels, the President would be endorsing a level of spending that wipes away all the increases he and Congressional Democrats made while they were in charge and returns us to a pre-2008 level of discretionary spending." The authorized debt level has been raised but Obama can only use it in a budget. The Democrat-controlled
 Senate has not passed a budget submitted by the House since April 2009!  Obama cannot spend money from a debt limit increase within a continuing resolution!

 The press is covering the recent crisis more as political theater rather than conservative-driven policy. "Most of the press is missing this because most of the press is covering the current standoff more as politics than policy. If your basic question is 'which party is winning?' then it's easy to see the Republicans as losing, since they're the ones suffering in the polls. But the partisan balance of power and the ideological balance of power are two completely different things..The GOP keeps moving the ideological goal posts and the press keeps playing along."

 Senate Democrats are trying to repair the damage. They are already bending on sequestration by proposing to give top Defense Department leaders the ability to pick and choose what gets cut -- and spared -- with across-the-board sequester cuts.

 Meanwhile, a new generation of conservative leaders has emerged from the rubble -- Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. In these young Turks the moderate Republicans grabbed a tiger by the tail.

 The 2014 midterm elections will be a referendum on controversial issues facing a disgruntled population. It is one thing to target and vilify single high-office candidates such as Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney. It is far more difficult to target multiple candidates for the Senate. Republicans
 currently hold the majority of governorships and state houses. In all likelihood they will hold the House and might, just might, take control of the Senate if conservatives do not stay home and sulk as in 2012.
 
 Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or
 bnt@midstatetel.com.