 |
EMIL
FRANZI |
Why can't Republicans
just say 'No?'January 18, 2007 |
One major observation about the
late Republican-controlled Congress on which everyone
concurs: they had absolutely no discipline when it came to
spending. They spent money like the proverbial Drunken
Sailor — or like a sober Democrat.
The supposed conservatives in the leadership have now further validated that view by bouncing Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake from his position on the House Judiciary Committee, ostensibly because the Democrat takeover called for a reduction in membership. Forget the cover story, Flake was bounced for remarks on “60 Minutes” before the election not complimentary about the GOP leadership and because he’s a vociferous champion of genuine fiscal responsibility. That embarrasses GOP leaders who really aren’t. Flake is a genuine maverick, unlike Sen. John McCain who is simply quixotic. Flake’s actions stem from a consistent philosophy, not a box of mood rings. Many supposed conservatives have kept a good voting record with groups like the American Conservative Union by voting one way on the floor and then slipping in anonymous earmarks that aren’t recorded. They can look responsible while dolling out the pork. Don’t expect the new House Democratic leadership to reform the practice. They’ve already gone beyond even Tom DeLay by eliminating roll call votes in the House Rules Committee where all legislation goes. Many Republicans secretly concurred. Nancy Pelosi learned a lot as a bag lady when her daddy was mayor of Baltimore. Maryland always competes with New Jersey, Illinois and Louisiana for top spot in political pork. What makes supposedly conservative Republicans turn into squanderers when they reach Congress? That’s what they learn at the lower levels. Try the Arizona Legislature. Putting aside the mostly fraudulent claims that “Arizona is 49th in___________,” to be filled in by whatever group is hollering for more money, real figures indicate that Arizona is somewhere near the middle in per capita taxation based on income. Arizona spends a lot of money on something, unlike genuinely frugal states like New Hampshire which still has neither an income nor a sales tax. They don’t say “no” in Phoenix either. Neither do supposedly hard right GOP candidates, many of whom drink the political Kool-aid offered by the dogmatically leftist concept of public financing of elections. Their excuse is that they can’t raise enough money to oppose the business wing in GOP primaries, a fundamentally left wing argument. As the Church Lady said on Saturday Night Live, “Well, isn’t that special.” Once you have rationalized principles for need, everything else comes easily. Saying “yes” to public funding of your own campaign will make it much more difficult to say “no” to public funding of anything else. Locally, witness GOP behavior on the non-partisan Oro Valley Town Council. Goo-goo type policy wonks abolished partisan local elections many years ago. Too bad, it forced candidates to have agendas and coalesce before being sworn in and helped prevent them from being co-opted by the bureaucracy. It also gave voters a better idea of what they’d be getting and made some entity responsible for candidate recruitment. You can still note some partisan differences, however. There are five Republicans on the Oro Valley Council: Mayor Paul Loomis, Vice-Mayor Terry Parrish, and Council members K.C. Carter, Helen Dankwerth and Al Kunisch. Four of them keep trying to raise taxes, with some success. Carter usually votes more sanely with Paula Abbott and Barry Gillaspie on tax matters. The best excuse for the new utility tax and the proposed sales tax hike given by the current tax-and-spend majority is that they don’t want to impose a property tax. They don’t just drink the Kool-aid, they guzzle it. Here’s an option. Spend less. Don’t roll over for every bureaucrat or artsy-craftsy group with an agenda. Notice how everybody got along just fine without whatever it is they now want. Try to represent all the folks who aren’t hustling you for something special. Learn how to just say “no.” |
BUT WATCH WHAT YOU SAY! |
|
|
|||
