Two Sides of the Same Coin

Someone commented on my posts and said that for a Libertarian, I seem to only target Republicans and not Democrats. They are partially correct, in that I target Republicans more often than Democrats, but this is the reason why. Democrats are the party of Big Government. They say so in their platform and don't shy away from it in their campaigns or literature. They believe in Big Government principles, and while I definitely do not share those principles with them, I respect the Democrats for at least honestly representing what they stand for to the American public.

The Republicans, however, are not that forward with what they actually stand for. If someone was to actually read their platform, or the infamous "Pledge to America", it would sound quite similar to Libertarian ideals. They claim to stand for smaller government, lower laxes, lower spending, less regulation, etc..... However, their actions do not match their words. In the new legislative rules that govern the House, the Republican majority passed regulations that essentially equaled to stricter Pay-As-You-Go rules, which force new House bills to secure funding before they are legally allowed to be passed. The new rules require that major entitlement bills can only be established with cuts or elimination of other entitlements. It also forbids a bill being passed that increases federal spending in one, five, or ten year windows. While that may sound like a good Small Government bill to pass, the exceptions listed in the bill make it a whole new ball game.

They allowed extending the Bush tax cuts, repealing the Health Care bill, cutting estate, small business, alternative minimum taxes, and trade agreements to be exempted from the new rules. Essentially, they have successfully exempted their entire legislative agenda from being tied down, while at the same time trying to gain political points for "battling the deficit and debt". They are telling the American people that they can sneak by them without any fear of consequence or repercussion.

What is even worse is that they have completely ignored the group that is qualified to accurately predict the financial impact of a bill, the CBO. The CBO, or Congressional Budget Office, is a non-partisan organization that reads legislation passed or considered in Congress and determines the financial implications of enacting that bill into law. They sent Speaker Boehner a letter that told him repealing the health care bill would add billions of dollars to the deficit over the next ten years. His response: "I don't think it will". Completely disregarding the most qualified experts in budget analysis by any member of any party is irresponsible. He refuses to acknowledge, or simply doesn't care about, the potential consequences to repealing that bill. Boehner honestly feels as though he knows better than the people who make it their career to accurately predict these things without bias or opinion drawn in.

The Republican Party is my main target of attack for this reason: they are a wolf in sheep's clothing. They have said time and again that they stand for reducing the deficit and battling the debt, all while recklessly increasing military spending and cutting taxes (which is how the government/military gets its money) and exempting themselves from rules that would otherwise battle a serious problem facing America today. Big Government policies are not the way to achieve stability and growth over the long term. And while Democrats push for these policies, they do so out of conviction and do not hide from that fact. It is time for Republicans to finally man-up and do the same. From the USA PATRIOT ACT, to the Cut-As-You-Go rules, the Republican Party doesn't stand for smaller government and more freedom. It is just the other side of the Big Government coin, and it is time that it is taken out of circulation.