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Congressman Allen West Explains Controversial Debt Ceiling Vote
August 15, 2011
30 Responses to “Congressman Allen West Explains Controversial Debt Ceiling Vote”
Now the world knows why we want that MAN for POTUS …. he is so open and honest,speaks as he finds and he is NOT frightened to stand his ground with Integrity,Honour and Character ….. AND HE SAYS HE AIN’T READY FER THE WHITE HOUSE YET !!!! ????? Allen,YOU are more than ready …..
You gotta be kidding. He caved.
I hope he has thought very hard about the fact that if we don’t win in 2012, there may not be an election in 2016..He needs to step up to the plate…
Interesting to note now we have Congressman Clyburn now wanting to redistribute the wealth thru the deficit committee: http://alturl.com/w7tgv
President Obama is on his “MAGiCAL MiSERy Tour” at taxpayer expense, after that he is off to a favorite Progressive Democrat vacation spot on Martha’s Vineyard, again at taxpayer expense.
We can NOT afford four more years of this administration that continues to be disingenuous with the truth and facts, they continue to destroy our economy and jobs. Since 2007 the Progressive Democrats have held the purse strings to our country. Since 2007 we have had crisis after crisis. We have had over five years of FAILED leadership in Congress and almost three years of both FAILED LEADERSHIP in the WH & Congress.
In 2010 we got a ray of hope thru the TeaParty, thru NEW Congressional members like Allen West. We need to win the super majority of both the House and Senate of Congress and we must win the WHITE HOUSE, period.
If not our country is lost.
Without the TeaParty the dialog in DC or Congress would not have changed. That is why the Progressives are going nuts with accusations right now, they see the TeaParty growing…
It is no longer dismissed as just ‘astro-turf’ … it has taken root and is growing at a rapid pace because it is a grass-root movement from the silent majority of WE THE PEOPLE.
Spread the word and support candidates like Allen West!
Very well said JL… YOU ARE RIGHT ON THE MONEY with your comments.
Florida MUST defeat Ben Nelson and we MUST HOLD THAT LINE and VOTE for ANY ONE of the Republican candidates. We may each have our own preferences…but when it comes down to the Nominee…we MUST ALL hold that line and Vote Obama OUT OF OFFICE! This country can not stand even another year of what this Administration has done to this country.
Great speech as always and he is right that he is not perfect. He did make a mistake under pressure. We still love him but he needs to stand strong to the DC politicos. We at Tea Party are mad at him for how he voted but we have not given up on him. We will continue to support him but we will closely watch his every vote.
[...] of his debt-ceiling vote, they apparently back him almost to the hilt. Here’s video via the Shark Tank of West justifying his vote at another town hall yesterday. [...]
I love Allen West, but I fundamentally disagree. The Founding Fathers set the government up for very precise reasons. The People’s House has the most power, the purse, and therefore the shortest terms. This was so a rogue president could be stopped in his tracks before doing too much damage. They should have stood on repeal of Obamacare and not given one dime to this government until Obama folded. Not one dime. That was what we sent them there for. Alas, I fear Mr. West has fallen into the trap of playing political games instead of doing the hard work of standing solely on principle. Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead! He is not the first good man who goes to D.C. and becomes entangled in party politics over principled leadership and he won’t be the last. If this continues, you will not recognize him in 4 years.
No, Keith…Allen will be OK…He stands on principle and he will do the job he was sent to do. It was a tough vote for all the Freshman class…and they felt they did the best they could under the circumstances. Allen will be just fine. TPP will stand with him.
Keith you are exactly correct.
This was THE TEST for the new Republican Majority in the House and Allen West WAS perhaps the most highly thought of and nationally recognized example of the “Tea Party” (or whatever you might attribute this narrow but vitally important shift in the House political majority) recovery of America.
BUT HE WIMPED OUT and voted with the LIMP BOEHNERS of the RINO brigade (which we didn’t risk throwing ALL out of office along with the 68 Obama-Communist-Democrats who lost their seats in 2010).
I am astonished at this LOSS of guts in West’s first congressional battle. Too bad. A terrible loss for America. West can be “popular” now, in the Communist media and in Washington….”everywhere” that doesn’t count in the battle to save our nation.
Having spent 20 years in the Army, I can assure you that, when faced with a decision, we were taught to analyze every possible course of action and then to take the course that produces the best results with the least negative byproducts.
IMHO, if the Freshman Republican Reps were successful in killing the increase in the debt ceiling, in 2013 we would be inaugerating President Obama for his second term as evidenced by the hit in popularity the Tea Party took this summer. It could have been a lot worse if saner heads had not prevailed.
Rep West made the correct decision! I, for one, will be waving my Allen West for U.S. Senate in 2012 sign on prominent street corners during his Senate campaign.
“Honor, Integrity and Character” qualities missing in so very many politicians. Qualities West has in abundance. The Dems are slinging tons of mud at the true Tea Party reps. Many “Tradition Repubs” have joined them! WHY? Because people like Allen West believe in the things the Tea Party stands for. Smaller government, less spending are anethema to career politicos- feathering their own nests and those who pay to keep them in place are their goals.
I hope Allen moves on to the Senate for wider recognition of the Strong Leader he is. Then runs for the Executive Office whose last strong leader was R.R.
We can`t cave in no mather what. We may not have a country to cave in on. Now just how did Gov. Perry go ahead of the class, is some one pushing him ahead of every body. Now who is thoes someones, News org. like Fox or CNN or Obama org. Some one has to stept forward or is it to take away Rep. Ron Paul. You can`t compete in Iowa and miss nining by less than 1%.
Re: Randald…I was at the Iowa Straw Poll…but Ron Paul will not be nominated and he can’t win..He is NOT a Republican…he is a Libetarian..and he will just split the vote and OBAMA will be in again for another 4 years. Ron Paul may do well in a Cabinet Post..but President..no way! He does have some good ideas..but that’s as far as it will go.
West would be a great senator, but we’ve been making the case for Congressman West to run for President for quite some time. He is the one person who can defeat Obama and his political machine soundly, and would absolutely destroy BHO in a debate. Even with the progressives’ bag of dirty tricks and the media ignoring Obama’s failings and lies, West would win by a huge margin.
The race card will not work against Allen West. They will resort to name-calling, but that will not work either. It just shows West that he is getting to them and makes him even more determined to expose the liberals for what they really are and what their agenda is. He would be tough as nails against them and would speak from his heart; not from a teleprompter or relay rehearsed talking points.
The American people would have no doubt who is feeding them a line of bull and who is straightforward and speaking the truth. They would also see in an instant who should be the commander in chief of our country and who is the true leader. Allen West is the liberal’s worst nightmare, and they know it!
GO WEST!!
@Keith – That’s exactly where I am, as well. LTC West is clearly a man of integrity, but I just think he threw in the towel too quickly. Conservatives had the upper hand in the debt negotiation. The debt ceiling has been raised and we’re borrowing money again. $1.5T in cuts over ten years IS NOT NEAR ENOUGH! I object to the Select Committee for Debt Reduction; it’s a closed-door joke. Congress is not serious about spending cuts. A ‘balanced approach’ – meaning tax increases – is wrong. The United States of America cannot handle another four years of Barrack Obama. If we don’t get our country turned around in the next few years, we may not have a country in ten. I still like Allen West; I just think he missed the mark on this one.
LTC West is a great man and I still support him. HOWEVER, he messed up big time here and regardless of his clear communication of “why” he did it….IT WAS BAD AND WRONG.
West should have been among those to NOT cave on this. This was one of those times that tested the kind of resolve for an issue that he shold have been among the brave group who held.
On this point he failed!
It doesnt mean he cant recover from this MISTAKE and re-energize and tow the hard line for the future.
Being from the Panhandle, we had our own battle to beat Allen Boyd. Steve Southerland won and has voted conservatively, including the vote against the Boehner bill. I was one of the first to give to West’s campaign and was glad to see him win. I watched the above video and still wish Allen would’ve voted against the bill. My take is that Allen’s star has risen so fast he’s under extreme pressure by the GOP to follow their wishes.
I hope he’s closer to the Allen West I contributed to in 2009 when he comes up for re-election.
All this banter back and forth on whether he should or shouldn’t have voted for raising the debt ceiling would be mute if we change and gain control of the Senate and the White House in 2012. That should be our goal, not the petty disagreements among family and friends. Let the Democrats eat their own, not the Republicans.
http://chuckontherightside.blogspot.com/
Chuck Lehmann
AGREE CHUCK LEHMANN… Let us stop the talk of what might have been/what should have been…we must concentrate on winning the Senate AND the White House…Then, we CAN get some thing accomplished and turn this country around! Keep the Faith Folks and HOLD THAT LINE!
Trouble with West, and too many others, is that he hasn’t recognized yet that the enemy within is just as deadly to America as the enemy on the foreign battlefield. The damage the Democratic Party has done to this country and continues to do has iuts own timetable and it’s operating at high speed striking often and hard. By comparison, those who think like Colonel West aren’t even moving!
I think West’s analogies are all wrong. We are not a party, we are a group of individuals that have always been out here. We have sent guys like him to congress for 30 years, and watched each one of them become part of the problem It isn’t first and ten, it’s fourth and thirty. There is only a few minutes left on the clock and we need a touchdown, not just four yards!!! What did we get for Allen’s deal? Obama got his spending increase, which he spent immediately. We got a downgraded credit rating, because we didn’t actually cut spending. We have another “super committee” to make a decision loaded with “no entitlement cuts, more tax” liberals, and oh yea they are still blaming everything on the tea party movement!! If the committee doesn’t come up with anything is Allen West going to be able to tell the troops he served with, “We just cut 500 billion from your budget next year, but I tried my best!”? There was a principal that I thought Allen West ran on, “to cut government spending”! I am not mad. I am simply disappointed. He is another elected official that couldn’t stand on principal. I don’t care if we make Obama look bad. I want my children and grandchildren to have a free and prosperous future, and this will take men of principal and guts!!!
West is correct, we do have a game plan and it includes him, Now he needs to step up to the plate and do the right thing and run for the GOP nomination for President 2012
President Obama and I are thrilled if I could vote for would do it without thinking. I brought changes to improve our country. The changes are not made to-day a couple other was at the expense of TRENGTHENING and TRENGTHENING is not a day reperesenta time and work. I just think you need to allow time for these changes to take the level that is waiting to enjoy a win like that we can fit and happy. Top it tiemo and opportunity. I think that
What was all that babble?
I like Allen West but he knows as much about negotiating as the Bohner does.
You don’t negotiate a sell down of your own proposal (Cut Cap and Balance) until that gets voted down and a counter proposal is presented by the other side. It was the only thing on the table. Obama had zip, the Senate had zip at that point they were the ones stopping progress.
So Reid wouldn’t let it be voted on, then he was the one to be demonized because of that fact. The voters are quite stupid but even the majority of them would have seen Reid was stopping the government from working.
At that point every Republican should have said “hey we did our job, the Democrats sat on this problem for years and just kicked it down the road. We cannot do that anymore with out it hurting our future and our credit rating. Default is Obama’s threat to hurt every taxpayer for political gain. He is trying to black mail every one into giving in to him. the real problem is not default but the size of the debt, and we solved that in our plan. This arbitrary deadline was cooked up by Obama and Geitner to create a crisis that doesn’t exist, every economist knows that. So now the taxpayers know who is playing political games and it is not the Republicans or the Tea party. We know that the over whelming majority of citizens out there know that this CRAZY DEFICIT SPENDING CANNOT CONTINUE TO GO ON ANY MORE! It is now time for every citizen to call all your Democratic representatives and the President and tell them its time to CUT BACK THE DEBT AND THE SPENDING just like the President has been telling us citizens that we need to cut back and sacrifice for the good of the country.”
INSTEAD, WEST WENT ALONG WITH THE BONER PLAN THAT ONLY CUT 2/10 OF ONE PERCENT THE FIRST YEAR—THE ONLY YEAR THAT IS BINDING ON CONGRESS !
NOW he’s calling that a good compromise–NO IT WASN’T THEN AND IT IS NOT NOW, He’s not the man I thought he was, he’s spinning instead of admitting he made a mistake going along with the BONER, and promising to do better next time.
Allen West is just saying what any rational and logical person would think and do. When you only have 1/6 of the power the only thing you can hope for is to slow down the socialist agenda. With a filibuster proof Senate and Rick Perry as preident you can turn things on a dime.Any coward who wants to pander to the ferocious Tea Party so they can get elected or re-elected can vote no.The only 2 people up there with any plan at all were Speaker Boehner and Paul Ryan. I could vote No on everything too-and take the 178,00 salary and perks without a brain cell in my head or a spine in my back. .Where is the creative energy ,where is the roadmap to get us out of this mess?
We must stay united.
While I am a strong supporter of not compromising your principles, I ask if you were as outraged at Ronald Reagan for raising deficits? Don’t take your eye off the ball. The line we draw in the sand after the 2012 will be as insurmountable as the as the north face of Mount Everest. Choose your battles carefully and win the war.
Congressman Allen West, Statesman, Patriotic American and Gentlema needs our continued support and prayers!
Now, a few thoughts about the Debt Ceiling.
1 – We cannot borrow ourselves out of debt. Many citizens/homeowners have tried it unsuccessfully.
2 – We need to STOP foriegn aid until we become more stable. Besides if we have to buy friends the relationship is not worth a ‘plug nichol!”
3 – We need a line-item veto and we need o use it often. In fact, we should pass a law that only one budget item can be presented in a bill and stop hiding pork in the package!
4 – No money for silly project like giving as little as $2.6 million dollars to China to help prostitutes get off of drugs. Let China help China. Why are we giving this money when we could use it to pay off our debt to China? H-e-l-l-o out there!
5 – It is crazy to borrow money toloan or give to a nation when we are soooo unstable ourselves at this time!
6 – Limit the president’s vacation package to (a) transportation and security for his spouse and children, and not the whole flock. (b)Personal items are at his/her own expense,(c) charge-back actual cost of excursions they take while on a needed/necessary trip for national business.
7 – No personal dinner parties and entertainment at taxpayer expense.
8 – Scrutinize all expenses and allow no give room.
9 – Real leaders sleep in the fox hole when the heat is on. If the individual in the seat finds it too hot, give him the boot, would you not?
We must remember, the current individual at the helm is NOT a king, should not be a dictator and We the People will accept nothing less than a Leader.
Citizens and lovers of America, it is time to raise the standard.
Thank you & may the CREATOR and only GOD have mercy on America, again!
[...] Allen West: After some thought, I’m going to recommend the guy. His vote for the debt ceiling capitulation kept me out of his corner for a good long while, but weighed against the fact he’s actively [...]