The Wall Street Journal - America Won When Obama Came to the Table

Op-Ed

By: David Schweikert

Within minutes after the budget deal that prevented a government shutdown was made public, members of the media were handicapping the "winners" and "losers" of this fight.

However, what you don't see in Friday's box score is the true victory that was won that evening. Forging this deal not only gave us $39 billion more in spending cuts, it finally brought President Obama to the negotiating table.

No longer is he able to ignore the $1.5-trillion deficit gorilla in the room. President Obama not only broke the Administration's taboo Friday by admitting we have a problem with the size and cost of government, he also was forced to walk back his previous positions on spending cuts.

Due to the resolve of House Republicans and Americans across the country who knew we could do better, President Obama can no longer sit on the sidelines and ignore a problem that he bears major responsibility for causing.

After years of double-digit spending growth, we are finally decreasing Washington spending and making the hard decisions necessary to get our country back on the road to prosperity.

Though this is only the first of many hard battles to be fought, the fact that the President has joined us in the fight to negotiate, after weeks of avoiding the debate, is a victory for limited government.

When all is said and done, $39 billion in spending cuts is merely a drop in the bucket toward solving our fiscal crisis. But hopefully, the President's willingness Friday to recognize the seriousness of our budget problems is a sign that he is committed to getting our fiscal house in order. If he does that, we all win.

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