🚀 go-pugleaf

On 2007-06-10 19:28:34 -0400, Bat T Ball <ballbat@rangerscantwin.com> said:

> On Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:47:32 GMT, Mike Smith <mws@wt.net> wrote:
> 
>> On Sat, 09 Jun 2007 04:16:15 -0700, IronMikeKaty
>> <rackjite@netzero.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Jun 9, 6:04 am, Mike Smith <m...@wt.net> wrote:
>>>> On Fri, 8 Jun 2007 23:30:01 -0400, Slim <s...@pickins.com> wrote:
>>>>> June 9, 2007
>>>>> NEWS ANALYSIS
>>>>> As Senate Deal Sinks, So Does Bush's Power
>>>> 
>>>> Could be worse... He could be a member of our Congress...
>>>> 
>>>> Mike Smith
>>> 
>>> Actually, I prefer a weakened sorry president and a ineffective
>>> congress.  G W is an idiot and I voted for him twice.  I just couldn't
>>> vote for Gore or Kerry.  This next election, I will vote for a third
>>> party candidate.  Just look at this group of presidential hopefuls.
>>> Barack hasn't been around long enough plus I don't trust the muslim/
>>> raghead influence.  Hilary can't stand her ground.  You can say a lot
>>> about G W but he does stand his ground.  Edwards is for the poor (LOL)
>>> and I don't want someone creating class warfare.  Gore is full of
>>> himself!  The repubs aren't worth mentioning!
>> 
>> 
>> Well... There's always Fred or Newt.
>> 
>> We are WAY past due for another Contract with America!
>> 
>> Mike Smith
> 
> What bullshit that was.  Just what we need, another contract that
> isn't worth the paper it was printed on or reported in penned by
> politicians who care only about themselves.

With the Republican takeover of both houses of Congress in 1994, the 
Republicans announced that a new "revolution" had swept America, led by 
Senator Robert Dole and Representatives Newt Gingrich and Richard 
Armey. Of course, there was the famous "Contract with America," but the 
provisions of that document involved minor tinkering with the system, 
at best. The Republican "revolutionaries" and their conservative 
supporters went much further.
After decades of failure, the Republicans proclaimed, it was now time 
to dismantle the New Deal, Great Society welfare-state programs that 
had caused so much misery and destructiveness to the American people. 
Conservative editorials appeared in newspapers all across the land 
explaining the immorality of government's using its power to take money 
from one person to give it to another. Speeches filled the airways 
about the necessity to reign in the bureaucrats who were endlessly 
harassing the American people and eating out their substance. Now that 
Republicans were finally in charge of Congress, hundreds of departments 
and agencies were going to be dismantled. At the very least, we would 
finally see the end of the Departments of Education, Energy, and 
Commerce. It was time to return to the Constitution, as our Founders 
envisioned it, the Republicans announced.
Yes, it was the rhetoric of old. Republicans were harkening back to 
their libertarian roots. The New Deal programs and the Great Society 
programs that had been built and expanded ever since the 1930s were 
finally going to come to an end.
The Republicans were right about one thing: If the welfare state and 
the regulated economy had been repealed, it would have been one of the 
most monumental revolutions in American history.
Unfortunately, however, the Republican "revolution" lasted about three weeks.
One of the "revolutionary" leaders, Bob Dole, helped the "revolution" 
to fizzle out early on. Soon after the election, a big "test" arrived. 
Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, announced that 
it was necessary to send $50 billion of American taxpayer money to 
Mexican politicians and bureaucrats, who had issued mountains of debt 
and overinflated their currency. The Democratic President, Bill 
Clinton, quickly signed on to the Greenspan proposal.
Here was the grand opportunity for the "revolutionaries." "It is wrong 
for government to use its power to take from some to give to others," 
the "revolutionaries" could have proclaimed. "Welfare is morally and 
economically wrong, even for Mexican politicians and bureaucrats," they 
could have said.
Alas, it was not to be. Bob Dole caved in before the "revolution" even 
got a good start. He agreed to cooperate with Clinton and Greenspan in 
what amounted to a joint political rape of the American people.
How many Republicans voted for the proposal? Voted? There was no vote. 
Imagine — $50 billion sent to Mexican politicians and bureaucrats by 
three political hacks without even the semblance of congressional 
approval. (We should note that the German chancellor in the 1930s 
begged the Reichstad for that kind of power — the power to rule by 
decree — the power to make decisions affecting the lives and fortunes 
of the German people without asking for permission of their elected 
representatives.)
And what about the rest of the Republicans — those stalwart defenders 
of the Constitution — defenders of the constitutional provision 
regarding separation of powers — of the constitutional powers of 
Congress to tax the American people and to appropriate tax money? Well, 
the followers of the "revolution" were relieved that Clinton, 
Greenspan, and Dole were acting unilaterally, so that they would not 
have to go on record on the matter.
That was when the Republican "revolution" ended. What could be more 
evil — more immoral — than to take money from the American people (who 
perhaps could have used it to help with their children's education or 
perhaps to take a little nicer vacation), without even the consent of 
their congressmen — and give it to Mexican politicians and bureaucrats, 
who, we all know, do not live on bribes, do not put the mordida (the 
"bite") on people, do not have Swiss bank accounts, and, of course, do 
not engage in the drug trade?
And today, two years later, Dole and Clinton, the joint conspirators 
and perpetrators of this political evil, have the audacity to tell the 
American people: "If you don't want to waste your vote, you'll have to 
vote for one of us." It's like two rapists smiling at their victim and 
saying: "You'll have to hug one of us — you don't really have a choice."
Then came the second test — the shutdown of the nonessential parts of 
government.
What do the Republicans tell us today? The same tired things they have 
told us during every political campaign since the 1930s. They want to 
get government off our backs, repeal regulations, abolish departments, 
lower taxes, reform welfare . . . blah, blah, blah. For years, they 
said that the only reason they couldn't do all of this was because the 
Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Today, they say, the 
reason they still can't accomplish the task is that there is a 
Democratic president.
What nonsense. The rhetoric is false. Deliberately false. It raises 
hopes and secures votes, just as it has done for decades. It disguises 
the true goal: access to the plunder and the loot that comes with 
controlling the welfare state and the regulated economy. The Republican 
goal is what it has been for decades — control over the levers of 
political power, not freedom for the American people.
How do we know this? Because the Republicans deliberately passed up one 
of the grandest opportunities that could possibly have occurred to do 
what they were promising to do: shut down a large portion of the 
government. And they didn't need a Republican president to do it.
When the national debt hit its ceiling in 1995, all the Republicans had 
to do was to refuse to negotiate an increase of it. Nothing more needed 
to be done. And after all, what's the point of a "ceiling" if it's 
going to raised? When Clinton laid off the government parasites, the 
Republicans could have ensured that the layoffs were permanent. (The 
parasites themselves admitted that they were "nonessential" personnel. 
Of course, after the first shutdown, government officials ordered that 
they were no longer to be called "nonessentials." Instead, they were to 
be called "nonemergency workers." It seems that the parasites' 
self-esteem was being damaged by the term "nonessentials.")
By refusing to negotiate, the nonessentials would ultimately have had 
to leave government "service" and do what the rest of us do — find 
productive work in the private sector. Imagine how many departments and 
agencies could have been closed down! Imagine how much money that could 
have saved the American people! No longer would the American taxpayer 
have to suffer the enormous tax load of carrying the parasites. No 
longer would the parasites be sucking the lifeblood out of the American 
people. And it all would have been proper and legal under the terms of 
the debt ceiling.
But Bob Dole said no. His allegiance was to his constituents — the 
government bureaucrats. Bob Dole, the revolutionary, indicated to the 
American people that he was not there to shut down the nonessential 
parts of government. These nonessential government workers, he felt, 
had a right to be put back to work in the government.
In other words, what mattered to the "revolutionaries" was not the 
American people, but rather the government parasites who apparently 
have a perpetual "right" to continue sucking the blood from their 
hosts. The bureaucrats were sovereign and supreme. Nothing was more 
important than to restore them to their positions in government, where 
they could continue serving and sucking the American people.
At the same time, the other two "revolutionaries" — Gingrich and Armey 
— were crying to the press about how their positions were being 
distorted. These two "revolutionaries" were upset that the press was 
saying that the Republicans were "cutting" social welfare programs.
"Revolutionary" leaders Gingrich and Armey whined that they were not 
cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, or Meals on 
Wheels but rather cutting the size of the increase in these program. 
They pleaded with the press to please make their position clear.
Here was where the great Republican "revolution" of 1994 had arrived — 
the leaders of the "revolution" pleading with the press to report that 
Republicans were, once again — as always — increasing the size of big 
government. The "revolutionaries" had come into office announcing the 
end of the New Deal and Great Society programs and now, just a few 
months later, were begging the press to report that they were actually 
expanding them.
What a grand "revolution"!
Imagine if Dole, Gingrich, and Armey had been in charge of the 
revolution in 1776:
The "revolutionaries" : "We won. We won." The colonists : "What do you 
mean?" The "revolutionaries" : "We won the revolution. We negotiated 
and cut a deal with King George. And he has agreed to increase his 
control, taxation, and regulations over us by only 5 percent a year." 
The colonists : "Whoopdeedoo."
A sad part of all this is that at least two of the Republican 
"revolutionaries" — Gingrich and Armey — know better. Gingrich teaches 
a course in the "American heritage." What does he teach in such a 
course? Does he teach that such welfare programs as Social Security, 
Medicare, Medicaid, and public schooling are part of America's 
heritage? Surely not. Surely, he teaches what he has to know is the 
truth — that all of these welfare programs originated with German 
socialists and that our American ancestors said no to them for over 125 
years.
Dick Armey is a former economics professor who is well versed in 
Austrian economics. What did he teach his students back in Texas? That 
Austrian economics involves the support of the welfare state and the 
regulated economy? Surely not. Surely he taught students the truth — 
that sound economics rejects, on grounds of efficiency and prosperity, 
the welfare-state, managed-economy model. Surely he knows that such 
regulations as the minimum wage, that Republicans are now supporting, 
hurt those at the bottom of the economic ladder.
A sad spectacle indeed.


-- 
"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in 
England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after 
all, IT IS THE LEADERS of the country who determine the policy and it 
is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a 
democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist 
dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to 
the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL 
THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of 
patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY 
COUNTRY."
 
--Goering at the Nuremberg Trials