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No longer the party(s) of our fathers
By Roger Haley
Contributor
Published November 6, 2009
September 29th we got a beautiful new addition to the family, a great granddaughter named Lynlee Michelle. (And yes, she is beautiful; I’m not just saying that!) I haven’t had the heart to tell her she already owes nearly $40,000 on our ever increasing national debt, or that her parents, as taxpayers, owe nearly $200,000! I also haven’t mentioned that unfunded liabilities of our government have her nearly $400,000 in the hole. I think she’s still a bit too young to face that reality, but are you?
If the bills currently being debated in Congress ever become law, these amounts will seem a pittance. Our new and improved government, it seems, is determined to totally destroy our economy. Cap and Tax, Card Check, and government health care options will bankrupt us. I am not anti-union, but why does the government have to dictate how people decide whether to unionize or not?
I am not against health care reform, but why can’t we have it in smaller bites? Why not open competition between insurers and corral tort costs first, then tackle Medicare abuses, before we even consider a government program? Why must a trillion dollar plan be the only answer? Do we really want government involved at all in our health care choices? Do you believe our economy can stand the hit it will take? We were promised no tax increases for 95 percent of us, but how can that be true when the deficit, and the national debt, is increasing daily?
In our President’s own words, If Cap and Trade passes, energy costs would “necessarily skyrocket.” Wouldn’t that have as big an effect on your budget as a tax increase? Isn’t it, in effect, a ‘hidden’ tax? Can the people with lower incomes, or on fixed incomes, afford it without sacrificing something else ... like food or medicine?
Who do we, the people, turn to with our questions, with our fears, our desires, or our needs? Do the people we elect truly serve us anymore?
My father was a lifelong Democrat, as he told me his father was. Even when I was young, I wondered about politics, and asked him about his party. He offered me the reasoning that the Democrats were the party of the people; they looked out for the little man. I wish he were still here, but glad he never saw what his party became.
And, the Republicans, the party of limited government, low taxes, and controlled spending? Well, they, too, are but a mockery of the image they have for years tried to project. Huge deficits, earmarks, and unfettered spending of our money, seem to be the new credo of both parties. Unless one of them regains some semblance of common sense and a real desire to help America, I’d like to see them both become relics of the past.
I found the Nov. 3 elections interesting in several ways. Not really surprised at the Republican sweep in Virginia, the New Jersey governors race caught my attention. Here was a decidedly blue state with a race no one envisioned just last year and, the Republican won it! The spinmeisters of both parties will try to make it either the greatest race in recorded history, or so unimportant as to be meaningless, but it did mean something. It means the status quo is getting very tiresome to most of us.
Another interesting race took place in upstate New York. The local Republican party leaders had chosen to run a RINO, (Republican in name only) named Dede Scozzafava, a very left leaning candidate, in hopes of taking the seat in the House. Unable to raise money, or garner votes, she bowed out of the election. Left to run against the Democrat was a mild mannered, but very conservative, unknown, Doug Hoffman. He ran as a conservative, without the Republican party’s backing, and very nearly won! Even as Dede lived up to her RINO label and supported the Democrat, Doug nearly pulled it off because, again, people were tired of politics as usual.
We’re lucky in Northeast Texas because it seems our senators and local representative do try to support our views, so how can we help stop the madness? I suggest a call, e-mail, or a letter to the White House saying, “Enough, already! Stop with the bailouts, the earmarks, the cap and trade, the health care fiasco, and the stimulus spending until someone figures out how to save the economy and halt the growing deficits. Just put the brakes on and STOP!”
To paraphrase Edmund Burke, “All that’s necessary for the loss of our country, is for good men to do nothing.”
Roger Haley is a Lamar County resident, retired from the U.S. Navy and occasional contributor to The Paris News.
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