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March 20, 2006
BORROW AND SPEND IS GOOD? I don't think so!
This is hardly breaking news, but if you listen to Rush, Fox News, Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly, etc., you know there are a lot of very knowledgeable, well spoken conservatives, saying exactly what I'm saying here: The White House and the GOP Congress are in trouble and they are both running a high risk of losing in the next two elections.
I realize "security" is not the democrats strong suit and so far that single issue (plus the radical loudmouth left) has kept the democrats far behind the GOP's faltering popularity. However, that "fear factor" will only work for a time and absent another 9/11, that time is about up. The GOP needs to make bold reforms from the IRS to our borders. They must take strong, decisive measures to give us both economic and domestic security or risk losing at the ballot box. To date, the GOP has had total control over the White House, Congress and the Senate and what have they done? They have given voters squat when it comes to reform, like fixing the wasteful spending in a growing federal bureaucracy. They were supposed to be the great reformers and downsize government, so what happened?
Accountability looms, as the reality of the mega spending and the political blunders by President Bush and the GOP take their toll.
But, if you still want to use security as the one major reason to vote for the GOP, then I worry if voters might somehow notice how well the Republicans have protected our southern border from invasion?
Sure, we can try to excuse this record high spending and the trillions in deficit, to the high cost of running the world's greatest economy and fighting terrorism around the globe; but there's mounting evidence of wasteful "liberal-like" spending and some very obvious holes in our nation's security, beginning right on our border with Mexico.
The CATO Institute is not exactly a bastion of liberal ideologists and here is what they had to say about Bush's spending back in 03:
"The Bush administration's newly released budget projections reveal an anticipated budget deficit of $450 billion for the current fiscal year, up another $151 billion since February. Supporters and critics of the administration are tripping over themselves to blame the deficit on tax cuts, the war, and a slow economy. But the fact is we have mounting deficits because George W. Bush is the most gratuitous big spender to occupy the White House since Jimmy Carter. One could say that he has become the "Mother of All Big Spenders." Not much has changed since that report came out, spending remains an all time high and the blunders have only gotten worse, i.e. “ports sale�.
Like I said, I want to be objective and for balance you should also take a look at this article on how it's not the size of the deficit that counts, it's the relationship between GDP and the deficit that really matters. I don't buy it, least not completely and I remain very concerned about the 1.3 trillion green backs held by Japan and China. I don't like us to be a debtor nation, selling off our nation's industrial might, bit by bit, just to buy us an extension of credit in China!
If the GOP loses, as I fear they could, it will be because of an angry voter backlash, not because voters like the democrat's message. This is all about accountability and how else do we get their (politicians) attention? If we are not serious about holding them accountable to their promises, why should they be?
Posted by Post Scripts at March 20, 2006 12:43 PM