It's enough to make disheartened voters believe Republicans are lying when they say they've seen the light...they won't repeat the big spending, high borrowing Bush years if we just please "give them another chance."
I'll admit, I don't have the answers to these questions. But I do know one thing. Republicans already have the power to dramatically reduce government spending overnight, and without taking control of the White House and Senate.
A very dear friend of mine, who just happens to be a conservative, confided in me that he doesn't have health insurance and that if it wasn't for medicare, he wouldn't be able to pay is wife's medical bills. And yet he takes every opportunity to rail against "socialized medicine" and the Obama Health Care plan. It's as if he doesn't understand the connection between government spending and the benefits his family receives from Uncle Sam.
On radio station KMOX recently, conservative talk show host Mark Reardon lambasted a progressive caller who claimed restoring the traditional tax rates for the rich should be part of the effort to return the national debt to traditional levels. Why. Reardon asked, don't you simply write a check to the government if you think taxes are too low? That got me to thinking. Why don't conservatives understand the real power THEY have to reduce the size of government without relying on government to do it for them?
In most of the recent Presidential elections, the nation has pretty much been divided nearly 50/50 at the polls. If all those conservatives who believe in solving their own problems rather than depend on government simply refused to use government benefits, the U-S budget would improve dramatically overnight.
Why wait for a government mandate? If you don't believe in socialized medicine, then prove it by not filing a claim for medicare. Or better yet, stop filing for medicare benefits after you've used up the amount specified in the Republican's voucher plan. If you truly believe in not burdening our children, then share the pain....even if you've older than 55, and are therefore "safe" from future Republican inspired medicare reductions. One sick person alone could reduce "government spending" by hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
There's also no law that says you have to accept social security, or that you can't send the check back. And with so many Republican Governors, they have the power to reduce government spending overnight by simply not accepting Government funds. Some say the money would simply be rerouted somewhere else instead of paying off the debt. And that, at least, is something that could be addressed during the debt ceiling negotiations. Politicians who don't have the courage to make cuts would jump at the chance to allow others to make the cuts for them.
So why isn't there a Tea Party movement to urge conservatives to live their convictions? And why isn't there a pledge for conservative Presidential hopefuls that urges them to promise to turn away Federal dollars to their states?
