I am a Republican, but I haven’t been too happy lately. This has more to do with the legislative than the executive branch because that is really where financial policy is made for this country.
The reason I am a Republican in the first place is because I consider myself fiscally conservative. I am not necessarily socially conservative; in fact, I probably lean a little to the left in the social balance. I was a huge fan of Newt Gingrich because, in my opinion, he was the last person to do the Speaker’s job responsibly. He balanced the budget with his “Contract with America”. I would like to see someone step up and do this now.
If I consider myself a fiscally conservative Republican and the Republican Party is not fiscally conservative, than where does that leave me? I think many people are in the same boat. In the latest legislation, 40 percent of the proposed pork in the bill is from Republicans. This is hugely frustrating because I don’t know where to turn for fiscal sanity. The Democrats are even worse and are spending us straight into Socialism. It shouldn’t be up to me to pay for a train from Disney to Las Vegas in the same way that people in Nevada shouldn’t have to pay to save the Everglades. And none of us should have to pay for someone else’s health insurance or mortgage.
There are really only two possible alternatives to what we are dealing with now. First, we can try to find new people who will step up and do the right thing, regardless of party affiliation. This is tough because where do you find the new people? And how do you know that they won’t fall victim to the same backroom dealing as the rest of our representatives?
Alternatively, we can pressure those already in office to do the right thing. The more likely of those being Republicans because they stand to gain politically by doing what is right. The conservatives want our representatives to be responsible with our money (important distinction – not the government’s money). Hopefully, on the heels of the Conservative Political Action Conference www.cpac.org, we can influence those in power to curtail this out of control spending. The Senate still has the power of the filibuster if all of the Republicans are on board, and I believe the conservative movement is picking up momentum. The next Congressional elections will say a lot about whether conservatives have any real juice to make change.
The bottom line is that we, as Americans, are left holding the debt for the decisions that our elected officials are making with or without our blessing. Let’s let them know that we care and that we don’t want them continuing as if they have a blank check. Until elections, we can at least do that much.
