There is a possibility that Republican congressional leaders will capitulate Sunday to President Obama and the forces of the status quo, by agreeing to a deal in which 1) we take on trillions more debt without any guarantee of fundamental structural budget reforms; 2) our tax burden is increased, damaging prospects for employment and economic growth; 3) defense spending is recklessly slashed, endangering national security; 4) spending cuts are minor, vague, and pushed off into the speculative future; and 5) entitlements are squeezed a bit but not fundamentally reformed, thus resembling Obamacare's Medicare cuts rather than Paul Ryan's. Such a deal would also have been arived at in a manner Republicans have denounced; just last week, on Fox News Sunday, Sen. John Cornyn criticized deals arrived at in "secret closed-door negotiations" which are then sprung on the American people "at the last moment to say, you know what, it's this, take it or leave it, or else there's financial calamity."
If this happens, conservatives, Republicans--and others!--should oppose and seek to defeat such a deal. Such a deal wouldn't really solve the fiscal and economic problems it would claim to address, and so would be bad for the country. It would also be contrary to what Republicans said they stood for in 2010 and say they stand for today. A Sunday sell-out would turn the Republican party into the tax collectors for President Obama's debtor state. It would be the task of those who seek to lead the GOP in 2012, and the future, to oppose it and defeat it.
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