Serious About Leadership? Hardly.

What's the biggest issue of the current day, and is almost certain to be the biggest issue of the next election?

The economy.

It's no surprise.  That's the biggest one most of the time.  Pretty much every other major policy somehow swerves its way into the economic realm, and it's only when the economy is humming along that other things rise to the top in a big obvious way.

Now, for a bit harder question: when was the last time the United States government operated under a lawfully enacted budget?  Got a guess? Here, this should help:

And that was from back in January.  That's right, the U.S. has been operating outside a budget for almost 1,100 days now.

Of course, it's not like there haven't been any opportunities for the Democrats -- and yes, this one lies solely at the feet of the Democrats because Republicans have passed multiple budget resolutions in the House, but the Democrat-controlled Senate refuses to do anything with them -- to get this done.  Not only is it a Constitutional requirement that Congress pass a budget every year, but it's also a process that the House has initiated every year since the GOP has been in charge.  But, for some inexplicable reason, this keeps happening:

In case you were wondering, this is the most recent attempt (earlier this week) to work on a formal budget proposal.  The far side of the table is where the Republicans sit, and the near side of the table is where the Democrats sit would have been if they'd bothered to show up.  Thus:

For the third year in a row, the Democrats didn't even show up.  Kind of hard to take them seriously, huh?


Why, you ask?  What could they hope to accomplish with such irresponsibility?  Well, it's pretty simple.


Operating from a budget enshrines both the priorities and the discipline of our elected representatives.  What they formally choose to spend money on shows us what they value.  Their ability to adhere to the budget shows us how responsible they are in the stewardship of the American government.

Look at the past three years.  I know, the problems go back much longer, but for the purposes of this next election, it's all about what the current crop has done.  Unemployment has doubled since Bush was in office, and even the 8.X% rate we see today is purely the result of gimmicking the numbers.  The economy has dropped from a fabulous 5-7% growth rate to an anemic 1-2% growth rate.  Housing sucks.  Manufacturing sucks.  Small businesses are suffering due to vast new regulations that penalize growth and achievement.  Obamacare is a wrecking ball poised to drop onto the heads of every man, woman, and child in America...two thirds of whom didn't want it and would like to see it repealed.


This is hardly a record to be proud of, much less useful for winning an election, so they had to come up with a different tactic.

The Dems have adopted a strategy of refusing to take responsibility (see this previous post on liberal responsibility). They deliberately refuse to establish a budget so they can't be held accountable for the dangerously reckless overspending that they've done over the past three years.  They also can't be held accountable for who got how much money.  Not much formal record of companies like Solyndra -- one of many 'green' energy companies that went bankrupt after accepting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from the Obama administration -- or the Fast and Furious debacle, where the Obama administration appears to have sold guns to drug dealers (who used them to kill American border patrol agents) with the intent of attacking the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.  It's only in drips and drops that the American people hear about these things, and only when the liberal media fails to completely squelch the truth.  Remember, Barack Obama's policies over just the past three years have increased the national debt by $5 trillion.  But without a formal budget, they can distract Americans with other, less consequen...HEY LOOK SOMETHING SHINY OVER THERE IT MUST BE AN EEEEEVIL RICH WHITE GUY DON'T YOU JUST HATE EEEEEVIL RICH WHITE GUYS!!!


They also get the added benefit (ironic and deceitful though it may be) of accusing Republicans of obstructing their process.


That's the plan, plus a gratuitous helping of race-baiting, class warfare, and personal assaults.


I personally believe the American people have finally awakened to the truth, or at least enough of it.  I think that this election will be about Barack Obama and his actions, and a rebellion of the common man against the blatantly liberal media.  Will it be enough to kick out the socialists currently trying to tear down America from within?  Only time will tell, but the facts are pretty clear.


Now it's simply a matter of educating the uninformed, and rallying the electoral army of the Right to wipe away the liberal destruction we're currently witnessing.