Does this sound like someone you know? “So there I was – my checking account overdrawn, my credit cards maxed out, and all my monthly bills were coming due. I didn’t have any money to pay them because I’d already blown it elsewhere. No problem!
"I just went out and borrowed some money and paid everything for the month. It was so easy, I think I may do it again next month. Why not? I can always get more money..."
If you said, “Sounds like the government,” give yourself an A-plus.
A decade ago, conservative and centrist voters had finally had enough of the tax and spend ways of the Democrat Party and voted them out of power. The Republicans would be the party of fiscal responsibility, high morals and true economic freedom. Or so we hoped.
The Republican Party has fallen flat on its face and frankly deserves to be left where it lies. But when you consider our options, we’d be in even worse shape by allowing the wacky Democrats back into power. Neither party has a clue in regards to spending restraint. During the long years when the Democrats held control of Capitol Hill, taxes rose to grotesque heights never before seen in American history.
Under the Republicans, taxes have rightfully gone down. But there’s one problem – someone forgot to tell the Repubs about cutting spending. The Republicans in Congress have spent even beyond George W. Bush’s expectations, and Bush is definitely not a fiscal conservative.
The Dems are presently working to convince us that they are the party of fiscal restraint, but their record belies their assertions. The Dems don’t like deficits, but their answer is to blindly raise taxes on those who create American jobs, with no regard to the long-range consequences.
Republican congressional pork and Bush’s social programs have sent us into a realm of debt and deficit that’ll take decades to escape. And we can’t begin to make our escape until government actually begins spending less money. I don’t mean reducing the rate of increase. I’m talking about fewer actual dollars. A smaller budget. A transparent budget. A budget with no “off-budget” items.
If you, like me, subscribe to the notion that “we are what we do” then one can only conclude that in terms of spending the current incarnation of the Republican Party is nothing more than a pack of free-spending liberals. The only real difference is that the Republicans “borrow and spend” instead of “tax and spend.” I’m sick of high taxes. I’m sick of gigantic debt. I’m sick of a government that expects more and more from its employers and offers less in return. The average citizen has no real representation in Washington.
The last straw for me was the recent Senate vote to raise the debt ceiling. Ask yourself: If someone is up to their eyeballs in debt, is it wise to increase his credit line? Is it asking so much for the government to exist in the same reality as the citizens it supposedly serves?
Now I’m sure that many of you are thinking that “Well at least the Repubs are strong on national security and the War on Terror.” Not so. Take a look at our porous southern border. Consider the fact that 21 airports recently failed to detect bomb-making materials during a test by federal investigators. In supposedly liberated Afghanistan, a man who converted from Islam to Christianity is facing the death penalty for betraying his “faith.” And, since we liberated Afghanistan the opium industry has returned with a vengeance. Ah… progress.
So… do we give the Dems another chance? Incredible as it may seem, they’d be even worse. The first thing they’d do would be to destroy what little progress we’ve made both here and abroad. They’d undo the tax cuts that brought our economy out of the post-911 doldrums and send unemployment back to levels not seen since Jimmy Carter was in charge of mismanaging the nation. They’d gut our military and leave us even more vulnerable to terrorism than we are today. Bush has at least taken steps to keep us safe. Assuming that political pressure and bogus charges by lunatics like Russ Feingold don’t undo it, Bush’s foreign surveillance program (aka “domestic spying”) has been working quite well.
And, the Democrats would certainly work to undo the progress we’ve made along the battle lines of abortion and homosexual issues. The Republicans have for the most part been reliable in this regard.
Sadly enough, the Republicans remain our best choice. The problem here is that the present Republican leadership in the House and Senate couldn’t manage a lemonade stand. Strong leaders in both houses of Congress, and a commitment by the President to not just stand firm but to push ahead with the war (get it over with!) could bring the stumbling Republicans back in line.
As things currently stand, America is rudderless in a sea of big spenders, small thinkers, and political opportunists. It isn’t a failure on the part of conservatism. It is a failure on the part of the Republicans to implement a conservative agenda. We are a nation teetering on the edge of disaster, and only strong conservative leadership can pull us back from the brink. For this reason, the elections of 2006 and 2008 are quite possibly the most important elections in the last 40 years. Job One is to keep the Republicans in power. Job Two (or maybe 1-A) is to give’em a slap upside the head and remind them of who put them there, and why.
Related Reading…
Senate Approves Rise in Debt Ceiling
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=\Politics\archive\200603\POL20060316b.html
TSA Screeners Fail Federal Bomb Test
http://usgovinfo.about.com/b/a/217087.htm
Christian convert faces death penalty in Afghanistan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1734776,00.html?gusrc=rss
Blair's latest expedition is a Lawrence of Arabia fantasy (Afghan opium)
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1699409,00.html
Alan Burkhart is a freelance political writer, cross-country trucker, and proud citizen of the reddest of the Red States - Mississippi. You can reach him via e-mail at: alan@alanburkhart.com or by visiting his website: www.alanburkhart.com.
