The deal is almost done.  McConnell, Reid, Boehner and Obama are on board.  The only thing certain is that Obama has taken an enormous hit.  It became increasing clear that Obama was out of the loop and the people who deserve the credit/blame for this legislation are McConnell and Reid.  The President’s speech in announcing the deal was beyond pathetic.  He couldn’t resist moaning about the need for tax increases on the wealthy when everyone else had moved on to spending cuts. 

This deal is not even the down payment on a sound fiscal policy.  That is not possible while Obama is President of the United States and Democrats control the Senate.  It will take ten years to have any real impact and we will be insolvent long before then.  But the pendulum has stopped swinging toward “tax and spend” and is beginning to swing toward cut, cap and balance.  I think the best way to describe this situation is to quote Winston Churchill after the battle of El Alamein:

Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning to the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning

Churchill was pointing out that defeating Rommel at El Alamein did not end World War II, but it did demonstrate that the allies were ready, willing and able to fight back.  Prior to El Alamein, Hitler had an unbroken chain of victories.  After El Alamein, the allies were the ones on the offensive.

On March 18, 2010, about 16 months ago, Democrats were gloating about all their achievements and Nancy Pelosi was swaggering across the mall carrying an oversize gavel to celebrate their great victory in passing Obamacare.  Major legislation was being passed with no republican input and no republican votes.  The Democrats had super majorities in the House and the Senate and had the most liberal President in our history.

Today, Nancy Pelosi is rarely mentioned and Obama is spending most of his time trying to explain why this disastrous mess is not his fault.  There are many more battles to be fought and we are far from achieving final victory, but the movement toward socialism has been stopped and the momentum is swinging the other way.

The Tea Party has reason to be proud.  This historic change was only possible because of a grass roots movement of individuals who stood up against the establishment and said enough is enough.  When one considers all those RINOs that were defeated in the Republican primaries and the massive victory in the House last fall, keep in mind that no one predicted any of this before the Tea Party exploded on the national stage.  It is the end of the beginning, and while that is a far cry from total victory, it is a very good thing.

TDM