With the national debt in the neighborhood of $12,000,000,000,000 (that's Trillion) it might be wise for the Republican Party to make it clear to the American people how they would address this issue for the 2010 election cycle. Given the fact that they LOST in 2006 AND 2008, it seems something different, rather than business as usual, is in order.
The underlying premise on which this is based is that intergenerational theft is immoral and it is a sign of weakness on several levels. If the Republican party is to regain the trust of the American people, we must be bold and honest.
Therefore, I propose a 12 step program for Republican Congressmen and Senators who seek re-election and for candidates running against incumbents of both parties.
1. Apologize for the Trillion dollars plus of debt created during the Bush years. Admit that it was wrong, and that the Party now understands Basic Economics and the proper role of government to support free market entrepreneurship.
2. Provide acknowledgement to: A.) the voters in California ( May '09 vote on taxes), B.) the entire tea party movement, and C.) the handful of patriots that gathered in Washington D.C. on 12 Sept 09 that we have heard their messages LOUD and CLEAR.
3. Make every Republican Candidate for Congress sign a pledge that they will not vote for a budget that is more than 90% of the revenues taken in two years previous. This means, that the budget for FY2012 would be set at 90% of the revenues collected in FY2010.
4. Create joint House and Senate Solution Groups to review the programs and projects of each cabinet level department with the goal of reducing discretionary expenditures by 40% overall. These groups would update their status monthly to the American people on a collection of linked websites.
5. Create joint House and Senate Solution Groups for each major entitlement program (or mandatory spending program) with the goal of either elimination of the entitlement (corporate welfare, crop subsidies, land bank, etc...), or restructuring the entitlement to be sustainable at current tax rates for the next 50 years. These groups too would report out monthly.
6. Pledge to restructure Medicaid and Medicare to be insurance premium assistance programs instead of fee for service programs. Include a Health Care Spending Account for each recipient to handle the little things.
7. Make every Republican Candidate for Congress sign a pledge to eliminate any and all bureaucracies created by the Health Care bills currently moving through Congress. Replace them with free market solutions that start by divorcing health insurance from employment.
8. Make every Republican Candidate for Congress sign a pledge to put a finite limit on the number of Czars the President is allowed to have (a number very close to zero) and the total number of paid positions the President may appoint. Perhaps an average of the last six administrations, prior to the current one, would be a set of numbers to start with.
9. Make every Republican Candidate for Congress sign a pledge to not vote for any bill that contains any earmarks. The candidates, especially the incumbents, must realize they are not royalty, but merely public servants.
10. Make every Republican Candidate for Congress sign a pledge to cut the strings to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and get the government out of the mortgage business.
11. Make every Republican Candidate for Congress sign a pledge to stop all bailouts of private companies and states run by liberal Democrats. Given the fact that the Soviet Union failed, no business on Wall Street is too big to fail, and neither is California.
12. Pledge to reform banking laws that will end the fractional reserve system that leads to bank failures and bailouts by the taxpayer. The goal would be to eliminate any further bailouts of the FDIC program.
These times require bold actions, not pastel efforts. If you want the support of the American people who still love this country, we need to be bold.
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