The sound-bite battle cry was the promise to eliminate $100 billion from the federal budget. Currently, there is a growing threat by the aforementioned "Tea Party" representatives and other hard-line Republicans to block the raising of the Federal debt limit ceiling.
As in 1995 (following the then highly-touted Republican sweep to power in Bill Clinton's first term,) such an action could force the shut-down of Federal operations. Our government could basically become kaput with no money on which to operate.
To borrow a phrase from Dr. Phil : "And how did that work for you last time?"
Anyhow, it seems that the enormity of the effort to actually deliver what they promised is coming home to roost for those who have arrived afresh in our nation's capital. There is widespread dissembling and disambiguation over the $100 billion budget cut pledge. As Howard Fineman, writing for the Huffington Post, reports:
...they are talking about cuts as slim as $30 billion, blaming the change on the fine print that no one read -- or if they read, did not understand.It turns out the $100-billion figure meant $100 billion from a budget that President Barack Obama proposed, which was never passed. And now that the fiscal year is nearly half over, well, there's just no way ... (emphasis mine, you can read the article here.)
Various other representative of this far-to-the-right wing have their own spin on what they meant, but the most honest representation may come from freshman representative Morgan Griffith (R) of Virginia:
"I still think it's realistic, but the trick will be how we get from here to there."
Aye, there's the rub!
Going to be interesting to see how it all plays out in the coming days and weeks. Maybe they actually will accomplish something new and different in Washington for a change. But it all sounds a little like the observation by Ambrose of Milan (Italy, not Tennessee!) in the fourth century:
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