EXCLUSIVE: Congressman Hunter Spills the Latest on the Debt Limit Debate

This is the sort of news that neither Fox nor memeorandum is reporting! I've been lucky the last couple days to corner both a Senator and a Congressman and get their thoughts regarding the debt limit- yesterday I wrote about what Senator Murkowski said (EXCLUSIVE: Senator Spills on the Latest on the Debt Limit)- today I'm going to pass on to you, my good readers, what Congressman Duncan Hunter (R, CA), told me today regarding the current debate about raising the debt ceiling.

According to Congressman Hunter, the situation looks grim. Cantor is pushing for $2 trillion in cuts and a corresponding increase in debt limit. The problem is that there are no real easy cuts to make- there is very little non-military discretionary spending in the budget and not enough to really close the gap, so any sort of real cuts will have to hit Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. “This is the budget today”, he said- the budget and purpose of the government has now simply become to redistribute wealth from those who work hard and produce wealth to those who don't. So in order to actually cut anything, you’d have to reform our entitlement programs. But the Democrats have drawn a line in the sand and refuse to do anything on the budget unless taxes are raised, and then after income taxes are raised, any entitlement reform will be 'in the future'- aka, passed on the future Congresses to really enact.

The biggest problem facing our nation is an utter lack of leadership in the office that is supposed to be providing the most leadership for our nation when it faces a crisis- the President. President Obama refused to released is a plan to Congress- something with numbers and words and written down that can be scored and marked up and analyzed. All Obama produces is rhetoric- in every meeting, he walks in with talking points and words and that's all. He has refused to actually take any sort of real stand or leadership on any issue facing our nation- the GOP keeps begging him to just release some sort of real hard numbers and something in writing, but he refuses because he thinks that if he takes any sort of positions on any issues it will damage him in the coming election.

“I really hope that after 2012 we will have an administration that will be more favorable towards moving legislation,” he said, pointing out also that the Democrats in the Senate have also completely abandoned any attempt to pass anything at all- Congressman Hunter says that “I don’t think the Senate is going to pass any budget on anything until after 2012”- he says that the reason why the Senate is refusing to even think about possibly considering passing any sort of budget is because it does not benefit them in any political sense- if the Democrats take any sort of stand on any important issue, they may be held accountable to voters and made to account on it.

So what is next, if we have a Democratic party that is refusing to take leadership and pass laws and face the real issues facing our nation. On this issue, sometime around August 1st to August 5th, the GOP- the party that controls 1/3 of the government and has controlled this institution for only a couple months- will have to step up and choose one of two options- agree to the Democrats plan, which, since they refuse to compromise will be basically lots of tax raises combined with empty promises to cut things in the future, or “hit rock bottom.”

“It is worth letting the market fluctuate for a short time if it means that our kids will have a market in the future,” Congressman Hunter said.

UPDATE: Thanks so much for linking to this story!