|
|
The 2012 campaign for the GOP presidential nomination should, once and for all, end the myth that the GOP is the party of limited government, free markets and personal liberty. I submit it is instructive to look at the records of the three remaining GOP candidates not named “Paul.”
The following bullet points were excerpted verbatim from Reason.com’s candidate profiles. Yes, I have cherry picked items inconsistent with limited government, free markets and personal liberty. Yes, these same profiles mention positions of each candidate that are consistent with limited government, free markets and personal liberty.
The point of this post, however, is to show that none of these three candidates believe, as a first principle, in limited government, free markets and personal liberty. They each are more than willing to make exceptions when expedient. Therefore, any claim that they believe in limited government, free markets or personal liberty must be prefaced by the qualifier “when convenient.”
Mitt Romney:
- Defends the mandate-and-regulate approach to health care he signed into law as governor of Massachusetts
- He favors strong government surveillance powers to combat terrorism, and has praised the PATRIOT Act as a useful information gathering tool.
- previously backed … No Child Left Behind.
- He’s conveniently in favor of subsidies for corn-based ethanol.
Newt Gingrich:
- Opposes Obamacare but in 2005 joined Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) in “appearing to endorse proposals to require all individuals to have some form of health coverage.”
- Gingrich joined Obama’s “Race to the Top” in 2009, calling Education Secretary Arne Duncan “a serious innovator.”
- Gingrich likes ethanol subsidies and has accused “big cities” and “big urban newspapers” of trying to hurt the farmers who benefit from them. Also likes fossil fuel subsidies and said in 2010 that “a low-cost energy regime is essential to our country.” Supported cap and trade in 2007,
Rick Santorum:
- While he was in office … his record was, in the Club for Growth’s words, “plagued by the big-spending habits that Republicans adopted during the Bush years of 2001-2006.” He was a strong supporter of dairy subsidies, voted for Medicare Part D and the 2005 highway bill
- Sen. Santorum voted for the Sarbanes-Oxley law that he now wants to repeal. He also backed steel tariffs and was a player in the GOP’s corporatist K Street Project. After initial opposition to the program, he became a big AmeriCorps booster.
- “This idea that people should be able to go and do whatever they want and it doesn’t really matter as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody, that’s not our founders’ view of freedom.”
- He joined Hillary Clinton’s crusade against violent video games, used campaign finance regulations to threaten critics’ freedom of speech, and favors a porn crackdown.
- … he has warned against “the 10th amendment run amok.”
- He also has a history of supporting national schooling standards. He voted for the No Child Left Behind bill in 2001.
- … he has an on-again, off-again history of support for energy subsidies as well. In 2008 he called for Washington to “mandate that all cars sold in the United States…be ‘flex-fuel vehicles’—that is, they should be able to run on a blend that is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.”
Can we quit pretending? The GOP loves government programs. One might be able to make the case that the GOP loves government programs less than Democrats, but that is damning with faint praise.
The government built a school for $18.9 million. They used it one year. Now it is closed because it was built so poorly.
The money is gone. The building is useless.
… and some people want the government to take over your health care, too.
If you listen to this youtube clip, you may not think [...]
This health care reform has tentacles. It will control major aspects of our lives, including our ability to choose.
I know there are still people out there who believe the government is made up of good, selfless people who care only for their fellow man. But let’s just get over that, shall we? The government is [...]
According to an article by the Denver Post’s Michael Riley, “Feds settle suit over mismanagement of Indian trust land,”
the federal government agreed Tuesday to settle for $3.4 billion a lawsuit that claims it badly mismanaged millions of acres in Indian trust land over more than 100 years.
…
The federal government would return those lands to tribal ownership, reversing a controversial policy of privatization that dates to 1887, was reversed in the 1930s and is seen by many in Indian country as contributing to a legacy of poverty and underdevelopment that continues to this day.
…
the announcement finalizes a monumental legal struggle that had become a symbol of government neglect and mismanagement, one that a district judge last year called an “irreparable breach of fiduciary duty” by the Department of the Interior.
…
federal officials appeared to have lost millions of critical records dating back decades that were supposed to record income from trust lands and what was done with the money.
And some statists argue it is a moral imperative that we give these same people control over health care. These statists have a misguided faith in the government. They refuse to see the historical, proven inability of the government to manage a lemonade stand, much less the country’s entire health care system.
There are none so blind as those that refuse to see.
From today’s Denver Post:
Colorado has received millions in stimulus funding for projects in the 8th, 24th, 45th and 64th congressional districts, according to a federal website tracking the money.
But the state has only seven districts.
It turns out that the misclassifications were the result of mistakes, faulty interpretations and even guesses born of frustration with the stimulus-reporting software …
Yet the members of the Cult of the State continue to worship their Government God as the answer to all of society’s ills, real and perceived.
Perhaps these cult members should reevaluate their fealty to such a feeble deity. Perhaps they should look elsewhere for solutions.
Maybe the cult’s members are right and government’s impending takeover of health care will not suffer from similar incompetence.
However, it takes an unwarranted and unearned faith to believe so.
With the looming government run health care bill that may be taking over the health care industry in the United States, we might as well just say screw the children….and the elderly, and the middle aged.
What I find so crazy about this entire situation, is the way people talk about the government coming in and [...]
Hey everyone,
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve no doubt heard about the close House vote on HR3200, a.k.a. the health care gun to our heads. Aside from just bankrupting us and providing worse health care with ever increasing premiums and taxes, the absolute worst thing about this “reform” is that it creates another underclass that will be dependent on government. After all, if the government did not “give” us health care, who would??
I can guarantee that several decades down the road, our nation will have forgotten that at some point in time, health care was provided by doctors in a relatively free market. That dependency, my friends, is what is so sad about this takeover.
The good news is that the House bill looks to be “dead on arrival” in the Senate. Pundits are predicting a rough road ahead for Obama Care.
However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be proactive and contact our Senators Udall and Bennet and let them know how we feel about this government takeover.
Senator Mark Udall:
Washington, D.C. Office:
317 Hart Senate Office Building,
District of Columbia 20510-0605
Phone: (202) 224-5941
Fax: (202) 224-6471
Senator Michael Bennet:
Washington, D.C. Office
702 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5852
Fax: (202) 228-5036
That’s all for now,
Justin Longo
Legislative Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado
“Whoever wishes peace among peoples must fight statism.” -Mises
==============================================
Please forward this e-mail to friends and family who are concerned about defending our freedoms!
Urge others to sign up to receive these free alerts at:
http://lpcolorado.org/lpcolibertyalerts.aspx
You can read past “LPCO Liberty Alerts” at:
http://lpcolorado.org/lpcolibalertarchive.aspx
Sign-up to receive free e-mails from the National Libertarian Party at:
https://www.lp.org/signup
Support the Libertarian Party of Colorado by joining the 1776 Club:
http://lpcolorado.org/donate.aspx
My contact information:
Justin Longo
Legislative Director, LPCO
Phone: (703) 994-7104
LegislativeDirector@LPColorado.org
Change email address / Leave mailing list
Powered by YourMailingListProvider
Backed by some of the most powerful members of the Senate, a little-noticed provision in the health care overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses.
The provision was inserted by Sen. Orrin Hatch.
Senator Hatch, of course, is a Republican.
Supporters of a federal government mandate requiring everyone in the United States to buy health insurance often point to state laws that require everyone to purchase liability insurance before they can legally register a vehicle.
The comparison fails.
No one is forced to buy a car.
You would be forced to buy health insurance.
No one must drive a car (and many do not).
You must live (at least the alternative is rather drastic).
Vehicle liability insurance protects OTHERS against your negligence.
Health insurance protects YOU, not others.
|
Help Liberty on the Rocks (Denver) Grow. Donate Today!
Get Happy Hour Reminders!
|
