Rep. Campbell wants “entitlement reform” as part of plan to end Fed shutdown

It’s a good things Congressman John Campbell is stepping down in 2014 because his rhetoric on the federal government shutdown would give any candidate fuel for the fire to beat him at the polls.

Campbell, who had no problem voting for a bailout of the automobile industry, is one of the richest men in Congress.  Yet his solution to the government shutdown is more cuts to programs like Social Security and more tax cuts, because those worked so well during the Bush administration to stimulate the economy.  Campbell is supposed to be an accountant by trade and I’m glad he’s not handling my books.  The country is not going to add revenue by cutting it and tax cuts that help the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class only serves to widen the gap between rich and poor.

Campbell, writing in the FlashReport, says: “They want the “Sequester” to go away. The “Sequester” is the one thing that has reduced spending in recent years, and they want to see spending go back up. The president said in a meeting with Republicans that he wants more tax increases. This demand has been echoed by a number of his surrogate talking heads over the last few days. And, if you listen carefully when the left acknowledges the problems with ObamaCare, you’ll notice that they say its failings are not because the government has been given too much control over our personal health care decisions. Incredibly, they say that it’s because the government doesn’t have enough. They want full-blown, single-payer socialized medicine.

So what do Republicans want? We want spending to be reduced further by reforming the entitlement programs that all analysts on the left, right and center agree are unsustainable. We want to reduce the tax and control burdens of ObamaCare on the average American and give people more freedom to make their own health care choices and decisions.

And, we want to reform the tax code to have lower rates and fewer exemptions and deductions. None of this is new. Democrats envision a future where the federal government provides for all of us on an equal basis and takes most of our incomes in taxes to do so. That is called socialism. We, Republicans, see a future where the federal government has less and less dictates over our lives and we get to keep more of what we sow. That is called freedom.”

Campbell seems frustrated that the President won’t negotiate or compromise.  The truth is, he already has.  Last summer, Speaker John Boehner had a deal in place with the President and Senator harry Reid to curtail spending at the current sequester levels; this already hurts social safety net programs favored by Democrats.  Boehner couldn’t sell the deal to the Tea Party right, Campbell included, who now demand more tax cuts for people like himself and cuts in Social Security and other safety net programs that help the 99 percent.

And the accountant in him should know that flown blown single payer healthcare will dramatically lower the cost of health insurance for all Americans.

Campbell continues: “We want to use our leverage to try and make some gains, no matter how small, towards our freedom objective. That is why this battle has gone on so long and is so bitter. Both sides believe passionately in the righteousness of their respective missions, and there is no middle ground. You either spend more or less. You either tax more or less. You either require that people get permission from a federal bureaucrat before they do something more often or less often.”