I'll Pass on the Tea. We Need a Strong Cup of Coffee

We all know that way too many Americans are out of work, and those of us who are employed are not doing so well either. If you have your own business, your business is either down or if your orders are not down then your customers are not paying for the goods or services you have already provided. If you work for someone else, then there was probably no raise or bonus and you have to pay more of your own benefits. Not to mention the worry that you might be losing your job tomorrow.

The idea that Government is the solution to our problems is laughable when it was the Government that got us into this mess in the first place. Fans of government would have you believe that it was the excesses of the free market that caused the downturn. Don't you believe it. Who told the banks to lend money to just about everybody who asked? Who created the National Debt? Who took your Social Security withholding and didn't invest any of it? Who takes a huge amount from your paycheck and throws in down a rat hole? I can tell you one thing-it wasn't conservatives. I'm sure a lot of them masquerade as "conservatives" around election time, but most Republicans were almost as bad as Democrats during the Bush years. In fact, I contend that if the Republicans during the Bush years were careful with our tax money, McCain would be President now. (Not necessarily such a great thing I might add, but better than what we have now) He could have pointed the finger at Obama and said "We can't afford his trillion dollar stimulus plan!" But having lost the moral high ground due to their own profligate spending, the Republican warnings seemed absurd.

So not being able to make the case that Obama was going to spend us into even worse economic times, the Republicans lost the election and the American people had to suffer through the proof that Obama is indeed a left-wing ideologue whose ideas are bad for our country . And now they hopefully will be ready to hear and accept sense from a real conservative. I'm not talking about me because, well...nobody in the country knows who the heck I am. But if I were a fearless conservative candidate of the Republican party, and I didn't much care whether I were elected but wanted to make honest recommendations this is what I would propose:

1. Eliminate the Department of Education.

It does nothing except get in the way of the states and local school boards who should be trusted to teach what they see fit. It is arrogant to assume that any state wants uneducated children. Parents and communities know best. Big government knows nothing.

2. Eliminate the Commerce Department.

The Commerce Department does nothing.

3. Combine the Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency

Why can't Yogi and Flipper work together?

4. Institute term limits.

One term for Senators. Three for the House. No crossing over. Career politicians cause governing to keep themselves in power. Career politicians care about buying votes with the voters' own money, which is very convenient. No pensions. No use of military planes. Fly coach like the rest of us.

5. Forget about unfunded mandates to the states-just stop all mandates to the states. What the heck do you have states for if you have to tell them what to do all the time. If you want to do something, then do it. Don't tell someone else to do it for you and if it is unconstitutional then maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

6. Forget Campaign Finance Reform.

Just outlaw campaigning. The only campaigning I want to see is debates on C-Span. Candidates are given alternating ten minute time slots to say whatever they want for three hours every day from September to Election Day. They can respond to each other, go over their platforms or read the comics. How can the people learn the truth about candidates through sound-bites on television ads or newspaper "articles" that are filtered with the bias of the "journalist?"

7. Close the borders.

And if you let them in, then don't tell me that I can't hire them. My business is not your border patrol.

8. Torture the suckers.

A little sprinkle of Jean Nate' does not compare to what the Taliban does. If the survival of our children is at stake, you can water-board.

9. A fair, flat tax.

Everybody pays the same rate. You make more, you pay more. Don't take 10% from one guy and 50% from another. Stop the class-envy political nonsense. 10% of a billion is a lot more than 10% of $5,000. Why is that not fair? And stop using the tax code as your big social experimenting test tube. Let the people decide what to do with their own money.

10. Cut spending and taxes.

Take a hatchet to the budget. Cut everything and cut a lot of things out totally. Cut all subsidies of industries. Cut foreign aid in half. Eliminate welfare and leave it to the states. End the Federal School Lunch Program. Kids are not going to starve because the Federal government doesn't pay for their lunch. Immediately cut the Federal income tax by 25% for everyone. Across the board.

11. Drill baby drill.

Why let Venezuela and China drill in our outer continental shelf while we sit with our thumbs...well, while we sit idly by. Until the liberals find a way to run 18 wheelers on recycled kitty litter and butterfly wind power let's dance with the one that brought us.

12. Last but not least-Let Freedom Ring

Stop telling everybody what to think, what to say, what to eat, what kind of toilet to have and what kind of light bulb to buy and on and on and on. If you think you can improve on freedom and liberty then there is no hope for you.

So this is what we need to do. If we accomplish a lot of it our future will be more prosperous than ever. We will indeed be the shining city on the hill that President Reagan spoke about. If we do only some of it, things will get somewhat better. If we do none of it, then our standard of living will plummet and our morale will sink into a pit of socialistic finger-pointing. We cannot prosper when we take half of the fruits of our citizens' labor. We can't be free if we are over regulating our people and their businesses even if with good intentions. We cannot survive unless we defeat those who would see us perish and if that means getting a little rough around the edges, then so be it. We must first and foremost survive as a people but our survival-our existence-is only worthwhile if we are free from not only our enemies, but also from the tyranny of each other in the form of our own government.


posted by Steve Gargiulo