The last two messages re our elected reps lack of fiscal responsibility & budget gimmicks caused me to check the details of the Continuing Resolution (CR) that became law yesterday. I also received responses from two more Ron Paul leaning supporters such as "Hi Doug: I believe it is too early to unconditionally commit to a candidate. However, I am leaning toward Ron Paul. The national media, on the other hand, is engaged in an organized anti-Ron Paul campaign. I was upset when I learned Ron Paul received only 89 seconds of air time during the last 90 minute debate. Muzzling a candidate during a national debate is reprehensible."
It may be early for us in NJ but for people in Iowa, NH, & SC it is pretty close. We have readers in NH & SC so for them the time is closer than you think to make a choice. BTW – Ron Paul's first 30 seconds in the last debate was the best answer of the night – all about the Constitution & having Congress declare war rather than answer questions about whether or not the President should invade places like Libya. All of the others bit.
The other Ron Paul leaning response was "Maybe you can explain this to me? In WWII, it took us about 4 years to win the war against powerful foes. Now we are fighting a war against inferior forces - and this war has been going on for years. Look at the money saved, if we were not in this war."
The answer of course is that we fought in WWII to win. Since Vietnam our war efforts have been more about building schools & trying to win the hearts & minds of people who hate us. In Iraq we see our boys killed by IEDs with signs on them that say "made in Iran." We should either fight to win or come home so that the citizens have the same chance of dying @ home as the troops who are fighting with one hand behind them do overseas. That approach may change the way we fight.
With re to the CR – this latest temporary spending measure was passed one day before the government would have shut down @ midnight tonight. This CR will keep the government funded until December 16. The CR was passed as part of a larger spending bill, known as a minibus (as opposed to omnibus), that funded the Agriculture Department, the Food and Drug Administration, the Transportation Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, among others through September 30, 2012. The CR was necessary because Congress once again failed to complete its full budget appropriations process.
Now the handful of fiscally responsible Members of Congress (led by Jeff Flake (AZ) & Steve King (IA) in the House & Jim DeMint (SC) in the Senate) once again fought against this type of measure. The good news is that the size of the good guys appears to be growing. Can barely believe it myself. Jim DeMint famously said a few years ago that he would rather have 30 senators like him that 70 like Specter. I hope he has this base to build on.
Of course establishment old guard Republicans like Boehner, Cantor, & McConnell all voted for the CR (we have got to get rid of these guys as quick as we can) as did Brown (MA), Collins (ME), Graham (SC), Kyl (AZ), Snowe (ME), & Murkowski (AK). It was very encouraging that Lankford (OK), Noem (SD), & Ryan (WI) voted the right way. Freshmen Tim Scott (SC) & Tim Huelskamp (KS) continued their show of fiscal responsibility. Most disappointing to me is Jerry Moran (KS), Allen West (FL), & of course Rob Woodall (GA) – all of whom voted with Boehner again.
To save my NJ neighbors some time Frelinghuysen, Lance, Runyan, LoBiondo, & Smith all continued to vote against you. Check the lists below to see how your elected reps voted – I hope you are pleasantly surprised. If so please let them know because the pressure is immense for them to go the other way.
---- House NAYS 121 ---
| Adams Akin Amash Amodei Austria Bartlett Barton (TX) Blackburn Boustany Brady (TX) Brooks Broun (GA) Bucshon Buerkle Burgess Burton (IN) Canseco Chabot Chaffetz Clarke (NY) Coffman (CO) Conyers DesJarlais Duffy Duncan (SC) Duncan (TN) Ellison Farenthold Fincher Flake Fleischmann Fleming Foxx Franks (AZ) Fudge Garrett Gingrey (GA) Gohmert Gowdy Graves (GA) Griffith (VA) | Grijalva Guinta Harris Hastings (FL) Hensarling Herger Herrera Beutler Holden Huelskamp Huizenga (MI) Hultgren Hurt Jenkins Johnson (IL) Jones Jordan King (IA) Kinzinger (IL) Kucinich Labrador Lamborn Landry Lankford Lee (CA) Lummis Mack Marchant McClintock McCotter McHenry Meeks Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Mulvaney Murphy (PA) Myrick Neugebauer Noem Nugent Paulsen Pearce | Pence Petri Poe (TX) Polis Pompeo Posey Price (GA) Quayle Reed Reyes Ribble Rigell Ross (FL) Royce Rush Ryan (OH) Ryan (WI) Schakowsky Schmidt Schweikert Scott (SC) Scott, Austin Sensenbrenner Southerland Stark Stearns Stutzman Sullivan Terry Tipton Towns Velázquez Walberg Walsh (IL) Waters Westmoreland Wilson (SC) Woolsey Young (IN) |
| Bachmann Biggert Bishop (GA) Brown (FL) Courtney | Filner Gardner Giffords Manzullo Napolitano | Paul Richmond Roskam Shimkus |
| ||||||||
Doug - You have just put your finger on the problem we have before us next November. Whichever Republican candidate becomes the contender against BO next year, should he/she win the election, the probability of any real change in fiscal policy will be as stalemated as now unless the body of the Congress also drastically changes as well. I can't see our current Congress agreeing with the policies of any of this group of candidates. As for Ron Paul, he is on the right track in cutting out whole Departments but some of his other ideas won't fly. We're in for a tough time at best but in my mind, having BO for another 4 years is not an option. I wonder, did anyone believe that the so called Super Committee was really going to come up with a plan? The people on that Committee were chosen because they were fixed on their party's agenda so the outcome was preordained. It was doomed to fail. I think this was part of BO's strategy. That will give him another reason to blame the opposition just in time for his campaign to gear up.
ReplyDeleteAm surprised McCain voted no. To your question, they change the meaning of war as with many words. Thanks to the complainers during Bush years (Dems.) and politically correct phrases being called killers by our own countryman is why we lost the goal to win.
ReplyDelete