It’s pretty clear that the big issue this election was spending. Not high taxes, or the lowering of taxes. Not war. Not illegal immigration. Not regulation. Not abortion. Above all these issues has emerged one supreme: high spending, over-spending.
According to increasing numbers of Americans, it’s the level of spending by government that must decrease. We must balance budgets. Soon.
One could play sloganeer and say “It’s the spending, stupid”; or, twist that, to say “It’s the stupid spending.” But however you formulate the problem, what the new Republican House must do is find a way to cut spending.
And, as I argued last week, it’s the House that has the constitutional duty to decide money matters.
But talk by the Republican hierarchy, about returning to 2008 levels of spending, will hardly cut it.
Indeed, that idea, of just returning to 2008 spending levels, seems to be a subconscious repudiation of the best thing that Republicans said on Tuesday, that “we’ve been given a second chance.” But to go back to 2008 levels merely takes government back to “before Obama,” and reflects an attempt to let themselves off the hook for the Bush-era spending extravaganza.
There are reasons why I put so little hope in politicians as such, and more in the direct actions of citizens. Even the best politicians tend to lack real convictions.
If the GOP offers any hope, it depends entirely on continued pressure applied to them by the people.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
5 replies on “Issue No. 1”
It is apparent to me that we should be shouting “MICHELE BACHMAN FOR SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.” It will go back to business as usual with the established R’s taking leadership.
I do not believe Michele should settle for conference chair. She has shown more backbone and intestinal fortitude in her short time in office than these men have when put together!
We may perceive a general distrust of spending, but the base ideology is fear of the inevitable abuse that comes from the creeping expansion of government powers and thus intrusion. This phenomenon has been known for centuries, but is easily forgotten.
“The greater the power the more dangerous the abuse.” – British statesman Edmund Burke, 1729-1797
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents… If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one… The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. … There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” – American Statesman James Madison, 1751 – 1836
“Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. … Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Thus the beneficiaries are spared the shame and danger that their acts would otherwise involve. But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them and gives it to the other persons to whom it doesn’t belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another… Then abolish that law without delay; No legal plunder; this is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony and logic.” – French philosopher Claude Frederic Bastiat, 1801-1850
On Nov.3 I sent a letter to Rep. Boehner demanding that the budget be balancec NOW. I advocated that the first thing to do is cut out all congressional perks to get the support of the people. then elininate all foreign aid. Eliminate all grants to NGOs and a number of other things. If we don’t take drastic measures now we are doomed to bankruptcy.If the new Republican majority doesn’t act decisively this election was a waste of time.
But will people accept lower spending if it’s THEIR pet project that gets cut? The same people who say we spend too much on defense will fight like crazy to keep a military project in their own state or district. Everyone wants someone else’s project to be cut. Nothing that benefits THEM is wasteful. It’s not only pressure that’s needed. The people have to SUPPORT the elimination of programs and the wholesale cutting of the federal budget. The people have gotten what they voted for since 1932: government in a never-ending growth cycle. Even when taxes were cut, as in the 1980s, spending continued to rise. Revenues streamed into Washington and were immediately used up. Those who tried to cut spending were denounced as “cruel” and accused of “trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor”, and most were defeated in subsequent elections. Courage was not rewarded. We voters can’t have it both ways.
Republicans are cowards who should all be hung from the highest poles in their respective State capitals, (as soon as we’re done with the Democrats). The problem can be clearly seen when you look at the winning Republicans’ proposals: the weakness with which they want to slightly reduce government, without “resorting to extreme measures”.
Get extreme, you bastards! A once capitalist nation has been reduced to abject socialism by its unconstitutional central bank, unconstitutional prohibitions, and loss of jury trials! It’s time to get extreme!
It’s time to get extreme, you worthless, dickless, cowardly “Republicans”. It’s time to impound State money! It’s time to nullify the racist drug war, and unconstitutional “gun control”. It’s time for governors to show up at tax, gun, and drug trials, and testify against the IRS, ATF, and DEA! (Even when it’s “just a poor nigger” on trial, as it usually is, since the drug war is so openly racist, and has been since its very beginning!)
Yet not a single such “bold” action is called for. We have people so happy to now be included in the ranks of the parasites, that they have forgotten all their harsh (and meaningless) rhetoric to oppose parasitism. And was even the rhetoric harsh? No, not really. After all, it never attacked the bloated military spending, police-state border apparatus, or grossly murderous drug war. After all, Republicans like unrestrained Stalinism when it comes in the form of one of those kinds of police state adventurism!
And no, I’m not a Democrat. I’m a libertarian.
A pox on all politicians, may they all find themselves on the other side of the guns and bayonets they love so much.
For Peace and Individual Freedom,
-Jake