We Are All In The "Let It Burn" Camp

We got an interesting question for the mailbag this week that I'm going to steal for this post. I'm not entirely sure it's theft since it was directed to me and I may not make this week's recording so I'll give it a go here.

For Drew: When are you going to go join Red State w/ the let-it-burn crowd?-Jumble

First, thanks for writing in Jumble.

Second, there's no need to leave for Red State or anywhere else to join the "Let-it-burn crowd" because it's everywhere.

Note the actual phrase begins with "let". It's a passive word. No one is saying "Start a fire and burn it down". It is burning already.

Out of control entitlement spending, zero political will to control discretionary spending and an unchecked debt is the fuel that is feeding this fire.

You want to know who is actively fanning the flames of this fire? Mainstream Republican candidates and office holders, not tea party fanatics or people who simply have lost interest in trying to stop the conflagration.

In fact, it's these "grown ups" who are so darn "electable" that are actively doing something....putting more fuel on the fire.

The Budget Control Act which led to the sequester was imperfect to say the least but it actually worked to cut spending. Who forced the Republicans to give that up and hike spending again? It wasn't the so-called "let it burn crowd". Nope, it was the mainstream of the Republican party.

Was it the so-called "let it burn crowd" that forced the GOP to cut a deal with Maxine Waters to give back modest but real reforms and cuts to the national flood insurance program? Nope. That was the House GOP leadership going around conservatives.

Was it the so-called "let it burn crowd" who resorting to anti-democratic means on the floor of the House to increase Medicare spending? Again, no.

Obviously I could go on and on with examples of this but I think we all agree we're in a mess that predates the "tea party" or "let it burn".

I know there are people who think if you vote for enough Republicans things will get better because, um, er, the Democrats are worse! A vote for more "mainstream" Republicans isn't a vote against the "let it burn crowd" it's a vote to control how much faster you want it to burn.

Until people realize that with the GOP as presently constituted stopping the increase in the rate of burning, let alone putting the fire out isn't on the menu and nothing will change.

So don't look at those of us who have washed our hands of this mess as the ones unwilling to stop the burning. We tried and were told to shut up. You guys who insist on voting for the GOP which will add more fuel to the fire are the ones who are grunting "fire good!", not us.

Added: An enlightening but wrong view from a commenter.

Yeah, pretty much everything Drew said is childish bullshit.

Adults have to make the best of a bad situation. Adults have to muddle through and make least-bad decisions.

Children bitch and run away. Which is their right, as children.

Just don't expect praise for your childish bullshit.
Posted by: An adult at April 24, 2014 11:07 AM (S6HUO)

My response:

Actually you have that exactly backwards.

Adults can tell children that things are bad for them (as conservatives are telling the GOP and the country that out of control spending will lead to disaster) but children won't listen.

Sometimes children will only learn by example and doing. In this case you will spend you way into oblivion by insisting that spending more but not as much as Democrats is an actual solution.

You will learn but like a child touching a hot stove after being told not to, you will have to be burned first.

Posted by: DrewM. at April 24, 2014 11:10 AM (r5Qcm)

posted by DrewM. at 11:02 AM

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