Letter from Mike Huckabee

Yesterday, President Obama gave a stern lecture to Congress for not cutting a deal yet to end the debt ceiling standoff. And he made some good points about the need for action. Unfortunately, some were offset by the fact that the people he was lecturing aren’t the people who caused the problem. They’ve only been in office since January and haven’t even had time to write a budget yet. It was the last few Congresses that ran up trillion dollar-plus deficits and failed even to propose a budget for over two years. Obama also used what cynics call the “don’t kill that puppy” ploy. It’s where you set up a false choice to make the other side look unreasonable, as in “either you want to do it my way, or you want to kill a puppy.” For instance, he asked if Republicans would jeopardize children’s safety and college educations to protect tax breaks for private jet owners. But there’s really no connection between the two. You’re not throwing children to the hyenas just because you preserve a tax break that helps create jobs for aviation workers who have children to support themselves. Besides, you’d think he’d approve of that tax break, since it was part of his own stimulus bill.

The President is right about Congress needing to take action to get the nation’s finances in order. But that will only happen when both sides come to the table with serious intent and mutual respect, not by using the crisis as a pretext for impugning the other guys’ motives and playing class warfare for political gain. Obama also told Congress that it was irresponsible to go on vacation while the nation’s in fiscal crisis, so they’ll stay in Washington through the Fourth of July. A noble thought, although it might do us all more good if they went home, soaked up a little outside-the-Beltway patriotism, and got an earful from their constituents. And it could be argued that if Congress had spent less time in Washington, we wouldn’t HAVE a debt crisis. Meanwhile, Obama must be confident that the crisis will soon be over. His own vacation house in Martha’s Vineyard is already booked for mid-August.

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Eugene, Oregon
Just how liberal is Eugene, Oregon? Would you believe the most controversial issue the City Council took up this month was a vote to say the Pledge of Allegiance before their meetings? Sponsor Mike Clark thought it would be a no-brainer. He didn’t count on fellow council members declaring themselves citizens of the world and denouncing the Pledge as divisive and tantamount to reading the Communist Manifesto – which I suspect they wouldn’t have gotten half as worked up about. In the end, they compromised and will say the Pledge only at four meetings a year, close to patriotic holidays. I guess council members who oppose it can just pledge allegiance to the UN flag. Although that wasn’t the flag that was flying at all the battles that won them the right to hold free and open meetings.