The word out of Washington is that another government shutdown may be on the horizon. This time the real issue is oil, and the Republicans need to be smart enough not to get saddled with the blame for everything from starving the young to freezing the old.
Many will remember the last government shutdown in the winter of 1995, when Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich went head to head over the federal budget, and the nation’s mainstream media made certain most Americans thought the world was coming to an end. The world didn’t end, of course, no one starved or froze—and in the final analysis, Americans learned that they were paying the hefty salaries of 800,000 “non-essential” government employees (including a staggering 99 percent of those at the Department of Housing and Urban Development).
This time, the battle lines are even more clearly drawn than in the previous set-to. And, if the Republicans communicate their message as effectively as they ought, it might be the Democrats who end up with the black eye. In fact, the truth be told, this time around the issue isn’t shutting down government at all, but rather opening up oil reserves. And that’s exactly how the GOP needs to frame it.
The Democrats, led by the always-enervating Harry Reid (D-NV), are threatening to extend the ban on offshore oil exploration when the current ban expires at the end of September. Their plan is to include the extension as a non-germane rider in legislation to continue funding the government for the 2009 fiscal year.
The Republicans, led by South Carolina’s rough and tumble Jim DeMint (R-SC) are countering with a threat of their own: If the Democrats include the offshore ban in the continuing budget resolution, they will block both the ban and the budget. And, just as it did in 1995, government—or, at least government’s “non-essential services”—will grind to a halt.
Leaving aside the question as to whether government should be spending hundreds of billions of tax dollars a year paying “non-essential employees” for “non-essential services,” the real issue at stake in the impending donnybrook is whether the U.S. government should be preventing the American people from becoming energy independent. Pure and simple.
The issue can be inverted and inveigled by the Democrat spinmasters any way they wish. But the fact remains: if Mr. Reid insists upon tying the budget resolution to an unrelated ban on exploration, it is he and his cohorts who are shutting down government. The Republicans are simply trying to open up America’s own oil reserves. And that’s the bottom line.
The Democrats need to understand that crying crocodile tears about a temporary shut down of “non-essential services” at a time when millions of families are forced to live without essential necessities could make Americans seethe. Add to that the growing realization that one of the primary reasons so many are doing without so much is that Democrats have driven up the price of gas by refusing to allow oil exploration, and that seething could quickly boil to the surface—right around November 4.
The Republicans, for their part, need to understand that this time around, they simply must talk straight to the American people about the real issue involved. In short: It’s not about shutting down government—it’s about opening up oil reserves.
That’s an essential message the American people can easily understand—every time they pull up to the pump.
ALG Perspective: Americans for Limited Government would like to praise those Republican members of the House of Representatives who have refused to go on vacation and who, as of this writing, are still on the floor of Congress fighting for more drilling. Together, with Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN), they are calling upon President Bush to bring Congress back from its recess for a special session of Congress to address the nation’s energy crisis. ALG News will keep you apprised of this developing story.
