EDITORIAL
TEA party republicans are not only bashing their fellow GOP'ers, they aren't supporting them financially either, says a report at POLITICO. The National Republican Congressional Committee is doing well with its fundraising, but TEA party protesters like Thomas Massie and Justin Amash are out to hurt re-election efforts.
As I reported earlier, Massie bragged about how proud he was to learn that his idol, Ron Paul, had never contributed anything, zero dollars, to the republican effort in the House. Though most House members are expected to donate in the six figure range, Massie has only donated $6,000.
It is quite clear that these folks not only do not want to play by the two party system they are engaged in a pattern of conduct clearly destined to do harm to the republican majority in the House of Representatives.
The election and re-election of republicans in the House is crucial to offsetting the otherwise absolute control of the government by Barack Obama's democratic friends.
Granted, the TEA party malcontents don't like the agenda or the behavior of the "establishment republicans" and have carved out a niche for themselves among Americans who feel the same way, but the fact remains that a strong GOP is the only check on a runaway progressive future for America and working inside the halls of Congress to weaken that line of defense suggests that these guys aren't really republicans at all. In fact, their are the new RINO's.
As I have pointed out many times, the work these individuals should be concentrating on is developing a plan with details about how they will address the spending issues about which they so often complain.
While the President feels free to threaten that the TEA party plan is to impose draconian cuts to Medicare and Social Security in order to scare the most vulnerable in our nation, the TEA party needs to step up and address this issue squarely. It is simply a fraud on the American people for them to say they are going to bring government spending to a halt in order to impose discipline. What are they going to do away with and how much will it mean?
Take a look at this chart. The only thing the Congress can do is to tinker within the range of "discretionary spending", or make cuts to the military budget or to cut deeply into Social Security or Medicare, exactly what the President is saying.
In other words the TEA party folks in Congress are building their entire brand around cutting government spending without being precisely clear about where they would make the cuts. Sure, ending the days when the military was given a blank check to buy $100 hammers makes for a good anecdote in a stump speech, but those little tweaks don't among to a hill of beans when it comes to the size and scope of the spending.
Clearly Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are the biggest outlays next to the military. And sure, raising the retirement age, ending future social security benefits for people now under 18, or other such proposals are good ways to reduce future expenses, but none of those things deal with the here and now.
Why these folks can't bring themselves to even say the words "increase revenues" is beyond me. During the 2012 Congressional campaign every time I mentioned those words in the middle of a bunch of people drunk on TEA they immediately became enraged by the notion that any form of taxes was so terribly bad that even discussing them was the mark of the devil.
Well let's be adults here. How in the hell do you think we pay our soldiers? How in the hell do you think we build bridges, repair highways, maintain national monuments except with tax revenue? How do these nit-wits in Congress think they get paid except with tax revenue? So why do they let their brain numbed audiences shout down any discussion of increasing revenue?
Are they willing to let the people of the nation become so dumbed down as to think that all increases in revenue will result in tax increases on individuals? What kind of public servant would let that happen?
Apparently the TEA party bunch will, and they are.
NO, increasing revenue DOES NOT mean raising taxes. It can also be accomplished, as Ronald Reagan said, by improving the economy. "A rising tide lifts all boats."
Why don't we hear plans for making the economic engine of America more productive? Why are they so laser like focused on cutting spending that they can't imagine how the government could inspire more productivity, more spending by private industry on employees, equipment, building, development of new technologies or even helping to brand "Made in the USA" as once again the mark of the best products in the world?
How about using the power of the Federal Government to inspire industries to bring jobs back to the USA? When we increase the number of people paying into OUR Treasury rather than a foreign treasury we increase revenue.
How about eliminating the IRS and the individual income tax and replacing it with a consumption tax? Oh, the progressives will cry, but that will put more of a burden on poor people. Seriously? When nearly half of the population pays no taxes and the top 1% pays about 18% of income taxes, we are going to let that kind of argument win the discussion about the fairness of taxes?
And how about just turning the subject of the conversation away from the sophomoric monotone of cutting spending and come up with a real plan, say, legislating away the power of a huge bloated bureaucracy to interfere with every aspect of our lives and taking the lid off of a nation where freedom and liberty were the only fuels needed to make us the greatest, most powerful and prosperous nation of individuals in the world?
Look, if these TEA party dunderheads want to keep you dumb so they can stay in office, why don't they go do it in their own party? Why try to undermine the thin line of defense the GOP is holding against runaway progressives in this country?
And if they do form their own party they can even look back in history and choose a familiar name for themselves. I suggest the Know-Nothing party. There are more parallels than you might imagine.
Wasting your breath.
The tea party crowd does not care about the Republican Party.
If the "Status Quos" aren't willing to budge on corporate welfare or military spending then they are the problem, not part of the solution.
The "Status Quos" high jacked the party in the early 80s and the so called "Tea Party" crowd simply wants it back.
The "Tea Party" crowd is willing to negotiate. It is the "Status Quos" that are rigid and unwilling to give up anything.
After this cycle, you can blame the "Tea Partiers" until your heart bleeds with content, but, in reality, this crowd would rather have a Democrat that would agree to spending cuts than a Republican that is up some lobbiests ass so far that they are willing to increase spending as long as they get their pet military project or farm subsidy.
You are wasting your time. Get on the bandwagon. It is going to be a fun ride.
God Bless.
Posted by: Mr. Scott Ryan | October 21, 2013 at 03:46 PM