On Political Compromise

It's been a week where the Bush-wing Republicans have been speaking out once again for the need to compromise and how the "new" Republican party couldn't nominate people like Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush. I speak primarily of course, of Colin Powell and Jeb Bush and their thinly veiled disparagement of us Tea Party patriots.

Let us take a brief history lesson, shall we?

In 2006, Republicans were thrown out in a big way from Congress, losing control of both the House and the Senate. The federal deficits had grown from the end of the Newt Gingrich era in 1999 of a thirty-five year low 17 billion dollars to over 500 billion. The people were sick of the spending, the growth in government, and threw the Republican majorities out, looking for a change.

In 2007 the Democrats under Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid took over and the 2007 fiscal deficit doubled, to over a trillion dollars. And George W. Bush, being the typical namesake of his wing of the Republican party, didn't fight against this doubled deficit. Instead of taking a hard line stance and vetoing this outrage, he compromised and signed it instead. This wasn't exactly the change the voters had been looking for.

In 2008 Barack Obama was elected President, giving full control of the elected branches of government to the Democrats. The fiscal deficit that year nearly doubled again and was 1.8 trillion dollars. This included the continued bailouts of the UAW, and failed stimulus, all signed by Obama.

In 2009 the health care fiasco took place. The Affordable Care act ("ObamaCare") was rammed through the House and Senate with no Republican support and nearly two-thirds of the public against it. So much for compromise, eh? The fiscal deficit that year was 1.6 trillion dollars. No official budget was ever passed by the Democrats in Congress, and the spending from the previous year, including the trillion dollar stimulus was carried over.

In 2010, the budget, still carrying built-in baseline spending and the refusal of the Democrats in the House and Senate to pass a 2010 budget continued the built in baseline spending. In November, the voters threw the Democrats out of the House, and thinned their numbers in the Senate from 60 to 53. In January 2011, the Republican controlled House passed a budget that was deemed "dead on arrival" by Harry Reid in the Senate, and disparaged by the President. The Senate once again, did not bother passing a budget. The deficit for this year: 1.2 trillion.

We're still waiting on official numbers for fiscal 2011 since it runs until the end of September this year, 2012. But they're not going to be any better than FY 2010 since the Senate STILL has not passed a budget, and the softball leadership of John Boehner and Eric Cantor in the House refuses to shut down the government to force action. They instead continue to compromise with continuing resolutions that continue the Pelosi/Reid trillion dollar deficits.

So this is what compromise has gotten us. An out of control spending government, no matter who controls it.

The American people do not want compromise. They want a responsible government populated by responsible people. People who represent us, not dictate to us.

There's a reason why people like Senator Jim Demint and Congressman Paul Ryan are painted as "extremist". It's because they actually want to cut the budget. Not expand it, or just slow the growth of it. They want to cut it. And that said, several organizations have said that even Paul Ryan's "extremist" budgets may not be enough to save the United States from fiscal disaster. That's how knee jerk the Democrats and media are to any slowing in spending, no matter how modest it is. Incidentally, it's also why Newt Gingrich was forced out by his own party. He had successfully shrunk the deficits to nearly zero by refusing to compromise with Clinton and his own party, and disgruntled politicians in both parties were feeling the pinch of less money to spread around for political favors and votes. That, in Washington, is a high crime and ethical violation you know. And it's why most politicians and media types scream shrilly whenever they even think someone is serious about cutting budgets. Less money for them and all their friends.

Until more people like Demint, Ryan and Gingrich get a hold of the purse strings, and people like Pelosi, Reid, Boehner and McConnell are thrown out of leadership roles, nothing will ever change. But that's what primary elections are for. This isn't going to change overnight because we haven't gotten to this point overnight. Continued punishment of all these politicians that spend money that isn't theirs is required. Continued defense of people like Paul Ryan and Jim Demint is also required.

This is a lifetime commitment if things are going to be changed. The Republicans have been compromising their principles since throwing Gingrich out, and it's gotten us to 15.8 trillion dollars in debt, over 100% of our gross national production. That's the de facto definition of bankrupt, folks. And there's no getting away from that, no matter what political label you slap on yourself.

And when the fiscal house of cards finally comes tumbling down, the spending cuts will be immediate, and on everyone. There will be no social security, medicare, medicaid, SCHIP, food stamps, welfare, or disability. For anyone. That is what compromise will get you. It's long past time for that.

The Importance of a Philosophical Foundation

There's a saying that if you don't believe in something you'll fall for anything. As religion in the West declines, more and more people are left with nothing to believe in larger than themselves. This leaves a large void in life. And the need to fill that void can have disastrous results as a person searches for something, anything, perhaps not even knowing what s/he is doing.

Trust me as I can speak of this from experience. It is what leads many, otherwise independent thinking people into the trap of things like global warming (...climate change, whatever they're calling it this week...) and other things that prove ridiculous when thought about for any amount of time and applying common sense. But the need to be a part of something larger than yourself is a very big trait among human beings. And what could be bigger than "saving the planet"?

The decline of religion and people attending church or temple has also had an adverse effect on many communities in that people are no longer part of something other than their basic family structure. And even this is becoming more and more distant as people become more plugged into technology than people. This loss of community is felt when people fall on hard times, like in the most recent economic downturn. Before, churches and synagogues played very large roles in giving a helping hand for these people. People would willingly help out their fellows that needed a temporary hand up. Now however, the government has become the largest go to entity for this, and the hand up has become perpetual hand outs.

Government has come in to fill both of these roles, and for the Left, government is the new altar at which people are to pray. Government is all benevolent, can do no wrong, and (at least when they are in power) should be able to do anything it sees fit (in the name of the people of course). This is the stuff of which tyrannies are born.

For people like me, who are not particularly religious (I believe in a higher power but one that is non interventionist when it comes to humanity), that leaves philosophy to replace the hole that lack of organized religion leaves. And the Statists use this hole in belief to their maximum advtantage and press their propaganda on people who need something to believe in. Unfortunately in the propaganda mills that the public school system has become, if philosophy is taught, it is only one philosophy. That of the Statist and philosophies that praise big government and government power. Utopian ideas of Plato's Republic, More's Utopia, and Marx's Communist Manifesto are what rule the day in our schools now. Rather than the individual freedom and liberty ideals of the philosophers that shaped the founding of this nation. If even both sides were taught side-by-side, the majority of people would side with individual liberty; and that's why this situation would be intolerable to the Statists that run the public schools.

So that leaves it to us, the individual citizen to be educators to both young and old. To family and friends and co-workers. We must educate ourselves in the way of Edmund Burke, John Locke, Montesquieu, and modern equivalents like Milton Friedman. And be able to articulate their points to our fellow citizens. While most of the time it may seem like our points are falling on deaf ears, there will come that time in every person's life where Statist policies will touch them or their family. And then instead of big government tyranny being some ridiculous notion in some third world banana republic, all the things you've said to them will ring true. They will think of you and what you've said and seek you out for more information. It happens to me quite a lot these last few years. This is how a difference will be made and liberty restored in this nation. One person at a time. Just pray it isn't too late.

Forced Unionism on the Ropes

Everybody is talking about Gov. Walkers triumph over the public sector unions yesterday. Some articles are even telling the truth. This isn't about what it means to the politicians and the 2012 Presidential election. It was about us, the citizens, and a victory for tax payers and for liberty in general.

The tyranny of forced unionism in states is on the ropes. With Indiana becoming a right to work state this year, along with Gov. Walkers bold reforms, surrounding states, including Michigan, have been forced to follow suit in instituting reforms to stay remotely competitive in the region. Michigan has passed laws ending the forced collection of dues, and lawmakers are now emboldened by the results in Indiana and Wisconsin to begin pushing right-to-work legislation. If residents of Rust Belt states like Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin are all on the side of freedom, liberty truly is on the march once again in the United States. When given the choice, more than half of union members choose to leave the union that was forced upon them in the first place. This screams loudly for other states to follow suit. Not only does this free people from what is in fact, a form of forced servitude by way of forced dues paying, it also cuts off a major funding mechanism that the Marxist party -- whoops -- Democratic party -- has relied on as a given for decades. And makes the playing field much more level in the arena of fund raising for the first time in nearly 100 years.

In other places, like California of all places, voters turned out in favor of cutting government workers benefits and pensions. And it wasn't even remotely close. In the city of San Jose, the vote was nearly 3-1 at 72-28.

It's time for elected officials to start acting like elected representatives again. These results proclaim loudly that if they move to enact bold reforms that promote liberty for employees and tax payers alike, they will have broad support. And that the noise of the increasingly irrelevant unions is just that. Irrelevant.