During the presidency of George W. Bush, Republicans also controlled both houses of Congress for about four of those eight years. Unfortunately, during that time, Republicans did little with their control of 2/3 of the federal government that was really conservative. They did little to advance conservative agenda items, and spent money like drunken Democrats.
This sort of Democrat-lite behavior contributed to the GOP loss of congress in 2006, as well as the White House in 2008 and 2012.
Is there any chance the Republican Party might have learned from these incredibly costly mistakes, and, now that the GOP again controls 2/3 of the federal government, will finally push forward aggressively to implement conservative principles and the Republican Party Platform?
While several years of fecklessness and betrayal by the “Republican” led congress, coupled with Donald Trump’s record of liberal behavior and supporting liberal causes, leaves me dubious to say the least, at this point, there is no other option to which we can look for another four years, so a conservative might as well hope and dream (at least until those hopes and dreams are dashed by hard reality).
We’ve listened to the Republican castrati congress whine for several years now that there was nothing they could do to oppose Barack Obama’s liberal agenda (even though they campaigned on doing something about it) because Democrats might be mean to them and call them names.
Well, Democrats no longer control either house of congress, nor do they control the executive branch. There are no more excuses for inaction and enabling of liberalism from this so-called “Republican” Party.
Based on the principles of the Republican Party Platform, the boasts and promises of campaigning Republicans for several years now, the conservative values of the Republican Party, and on constitutional principles, there are several critical changes that need to be made in our federal government to restore our nation to health and to get it once-again operating within constitutional parameters. These include but are not limited to:
- Repeal ObamaCare completely, and replace it with free market reforms that gets government completely out of meddling in health care
- End deficit spending and get the nation’s budget under control
- Once the budget is balanced, pay down our massive $20 trillion national debt
- Institute a flat tax to replace the confiscatory Marxist progressive income tax that currently punishes success and breeds envy
- Reduce or replace our high corporate tax rate which punishes the economic engine of our country
- Dismantle the EPA and other unconstitutional and oppressive regulatory agencies
- End the Department of Education and return control of education to the states where it constitutionally belongs
- Get a plan underway to get government out of the welfare business and phase in free market reforms to return retirement, charity, and other functions that the federal government has usurped back into the hands of the people and the private sector
- Pass a constitutional amendment affirming marriage as it has been understood by every civilization throughout history, and taking it out of the reach of SCOTUS
- Defund Planned Parenthood, as well as all the other Leftist organizations the federal government funds
- Nominate and approve only judges (at all levels) who can be relied on to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law
- Remove burdensome restrictions on fossil fuel exploitation on federal lands, including ANWR
- Reinstate the policy (going back to the American Revolution) that homosexual behavior is incompatible with military service, including accommodating people who are confused about what genitals they have between their legs
- Repeal Obama’s pro-homosexual executive actions and replace them with legislative safeguards of marriage, family, religious freedom and morality
- Repeal Obama’s pro-transgender executive actions and replace them with protections of religious freedom, public safety, and rationality
- Pass personhood legislation to protect preborn human beings from being killed in the womb
- Repeal Democrat legislation interfering in the free market, including overregulation of the financial industry (e.g. Dodd-Frank)
- Rein in the courts–including the Supreme Court–by taking things like marriage, gun control, religious freedom, unborn life, out of their jurisdiction. This can be done constitutionally by congress.
- Secure our nation’s borders, enforce our nation’s immigration laws, and deport every illegal alien we find
- Curtail the ability of presidents to legislate by executive order. Even if you believe Donald Trump would be responsible with executive orders (I don’t, not for a nanosecond), he won’t be president forever, and the lawlessness we saw exercised by Barack Obama (and other past presidents) through executive orders MUST be brought to an end.
These are some of the most important things that our fresh Republican congress and White House should do right out of the gate in 2017.
You know, all the stuff Donald Trump CLAIMED he would do, as well as all the stuff our “Republican” congress has been whining that it couldn’t do because Obama had them peeing their pants at the thought of opposing him.
There’s a lot more that could and should be done, but this is a start.
They might not succeed at all of these conservative initiatives, but you lose 100% of the battles you don’t fight.
But who’s going to stop them? If Republicans act like Republicans, then there won’t be a majority of Democrats in congress to stop them, there won’t be a Democrat in the White House to stop them, and if they rein in the rogue Supreme Court using the power given to them by the U.S. Constitution, the Leftists in the Supreme Court can’t stop them from returning this nation to constitutional government.
If the Senate gets rid of the filibuster, and if Trump uses that bully pulpit like his ego and claims of conservative house cleaning would dictate, we should be able to leverage majorities in both houses to pass these things without a problem.
If Trump and congress will do this, they can restore fact-based faith in Republican leadership.
Republicans had control of the White House and Congress through most of the Bush years, and they completely wasted the opportunity. They used 911 as an excuse to spend massive amounts of money, and took virtually no action whatsoever on all the conservative initiatives that had been begging for years to get done.
Despite the fact that America just chose to elect an amoral, lying liberal with an “R” after his name as president, I’m very excited at the prospects of next year.
After all the claims Trump has made about being such a biiiiig conservative and all the whining our “Republican” congress has done about wanting to do all this conservative stuff (but that mean ole’ Obama just wouldn’t let them, sniff, sniff), we can fully expect a MAJOR effort from our Republican executive and legislative branch to immediately implement the things I’ve listed above (after all, they’ve been claiming for years that they wanted to do them).
When I see these things pushed through in earnest, I”ll have to admit I was wrong about being able to trust RINOs to do conservative things. But it’ll be a tiny price to pay in order to see the things I’ve been saying for years needed to be done–a price I’ll pay grinning ear to ear.
And if our Republican White House and Congress doesn’t do these things, if they instead push through liberal policies (you know, the ones the Democrat Party likes), or if they don’t take action on repealing unconstitutional Leftist polices, then at least I’ll be able to gloat and point fingers and remind everyone of just how right I was to oppose supporting Democrats who put an “R” after their name.
I’d rather have the first scenario, because America would be the beneficiary of such unexpected blessing. But I’ll settle for the second, if poison trees do indeed bear the fruit we naturally expect from them.
If our constitution is to mean anything at all, and if this republic that the founders gave to us is to survive in health for our children and our children’s children, we cannot continue down this road of Leftist destruction. We must do a hard 180 and put this nation back on the course of liberty and responsibility that it was founded to operate on.
Republicans have talked big. Now let’s see if they have what it takes to deliver…or if they really are the frauds many people fear they are.
