For years I’ve been asking people a simple question: what kind of compromise do you get when you have one political party seeking massive increases in government spending and the other political party seeking to spend more too – but just not as much?
The answer is – what we have now: big and growing government no matter who is in power.
Compromise in politics is inevitable. The problem is, and always has been, the starting point for Republicans. If our GOP politicians weren’t just pretending to support limited government, the logical opening position they should hold when it comes to spending would be to call for spending cuts. The compromise that would then result might actually at least hold the line on big fat government bloating even more.
On a similar theme, Heather Richardson Higgins, the chairman of the Independent Women’s Forum, wrote a piece last week in the Wall Street Journal with this title:
No Compromise on Health ‘Reform’
Why the GOP should resist all entreaties to be ‘bipartisan.’
She warns readers that despite the headlines that Obama-Pelosi health care reform is on the ropes, “the odds still favor passage.” Just one example of the political left gearing up for a fight is this: “the AFL-CIO just allocated $15 million for mobilization and communication.”
Republicans who talk of bipartisanship typically hurt the cause of getting good reforms. Seeking to be “reasonable,” they actually help those who want a left wing government take over of health care which the media will portray as “centrist.” Higgins assures readers that “It won’t be” centrist.
“[T]he larger point is that Democrats aren’t proposing a subsidy to enable people to get the care they need. Rather they want to shift decision-making authority from the American citizen to the government bureaucrat.
These proposals are yet another manifestation of the no-growth, redistributionist mindset, combined with an elitist, authoritarian philosophy of government. To buy into them and ignore the reality they’ve produced elsewhere is to love humanity more than human beings, and value utopian ideals of equity over the tremendous individual costs they inflict.”
Higgins provides a knock-out punch with this:
“It makes no sense to try to achieve a bipartisan consensus when the fundamentals underlying the Democratic approach are so contrary to the entire foundational idea of who we are as Americans. We’re the country that believes that individuals have the right not to have their decisions interfered with, and that individuals are best able to make those decisions that most affect their life and happiness.
Nothing could be more central to that than the ability to control one’s own health and the health options of loved ones.”
Friends, a similar dynamic exits in other areas as well. Republicans and Democrats are supposed to disagree on the fundamentals across the board: education, taxes, energy, and the size of government itself. When our side caves in like it did even while Republicans held power under Bush and Hastert, the country gets what it has now.
Click on the following headlines and tell me that the leadership of the Republican Party both here in Illinois and nationally has been starting with the right position when it comes to the size, scope, and management of government.
Hidden Pension Fiasco May Foment Another $1 Trillion Bailout
Rep. Bachus: “Social Security Could Face Default Within Two Years”
