Greetings once again from the beautiful Big Island of Hawaii. I am here for a week of R&R with my
mom and dad, and enjoying every minute of it. Today by the pool, I ran into some folks from San Francisco, who had been here almost a week. I asked them if they had voted in the special election. Their response was a very cynical, "We didn’t think our vote would matter." We all agreed that it was a good thing for all of those darned political tv commericals to be off of the air…
Tonight we had drinks at the beautiful Mauna Kea Hotel before enjoying a nice dinner. Here is a photo of the three of us!
"FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE, SOCIALLY MODERATE" IS A MYTH
I keep hearing over and over again from folks that the GOP, especially in California, can only win if we present a fiscally conservative, but socially moderate face to the voters. I am here to tell you that MODERATE is MODERATE. I’ve yet to run into a moderate who is truly fiscally conservative (well, maybe my friend Mark Johnson. But other than Mark…).
I think that the main reason for this is that social and fiscal issues are inextricably tied. There is an article today in the New York Times, House Leaders Postpone Vote on Budget Bill.
This excerpt really tells it all:
"For more than a month, Republicans have been trying to bring a budget bill to a vote, but competition between moderates and conservatives has prevented the leadership from being certain enough of the outcome to move forward.
The fiscal fight is not limited to the House. Senate Republicans on the Finance Committee had hoped to approve a bill with $68 billion in tax cuts over the next five years. But they were forced to postpone a vote on Thursday after failing to win over a crucial dissident, Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, despite two hours of closed-door talks.
In the House, Mr. Blunt and other top Republicans said a main impediment was the unity of the Democrats, who would not provide a single vote for the plan, forcing Republicans to rely on party support for a measure that makes moderates nervous because it contains politically charged cuts in food stamps and health care for the poor.
Democrats said the postponement reflected growing resistance within the Republican Party over its direction on spending and tax issues. Democrats have begun home-state attacks over the budget cuts against Republicans deemed vulnerable."
This same story is told in print in stories in all of the major dailies today.
So Republicans ‘control’ the government, with a majority in both houses of Congress, and George W. Bush in the White House. But ‘control’ is relative when you have members of your own party, these self-described moderates who aren’t with us on the most important FISCAL issue of the day.
If Republicans can’t stand together in saying that the federal government is too big and spends too much, it is a sad day for the Grand Ol’ Party. Unless we want to see a sea-change to Democrat rule of this country, we’d better start self-policing our party, and putting up primary challenges to incumbents who are elected as Republicans, but aren’t really committed to limited government and freedom and liberty for Americans.
I wonder if any of these so-called moderate Republicans who are opposing federal spending cuts are from California? If so, we may have to start a Wall of Shame right here on the FlashReport.
While we are at it, I challenge any FlashReport readers to send me the name of an elected Republican represenratives at any level of government that labels themselves ‘socially moderate’ and fiscally conservative.
Aloha!
Jon