Even if the pubbies do lead a tsunami into Washington, the Tea Party’s work will have only just begin. We will have to hold their feet to the fire and start preparing for 2012. Otherwise, we’ll achieve nothing: newly elected GOP’ers, just as in 1995, will decide they really like the Georgetown restaurants and the embassy receptions and coctail circuits, and their place at the front of the line at the federal trough. Immediately ban earmarks, eliminate or drastically reduce the departments of education, commerce, and others, and put a stake in the heart of ObamaCare: repeal it completely and comprehensively.
It would also be a good idea to start fencing in and reducing the federal judiciary. Congress has the constitutional power to determine matters over which the federal courts have power, but has used that power only very rarely. I would, for example, remove from federal jurisdiction states’ criminal court decisions. The only criminal court actions being dealt with by federal judges should be violations of federal statutes. Once a killer has been tried and convicted, and appeals in the state system exhausted, there should be no way to get the matter into the federal court system for further endless appeals. After the state supremes have spoken, strap ‘em into old sparky and let ‘er rip. (We could probably eliminate 75% of federal judgeships if every matter which doesn’t belong in the federal court system was effectively kept out.)
Big talk. Do you have any specific policies and strategies to offer? Or is the Tea Party still opposed to such unhelpful distractions.
You'll need 67 votes in the Senate and 290 votes in the House to repeal it while Obama is in the White House. Winning 26 new GOP members of the Senate and 110 plus new GOP members of the House while holding all of the current GOP seats in Congress would be quite a feat.
I'll be happy if we have majorities in each house of Congress and defund the worst provisions of Obamacare for now. Getting veto-proof majorities is no easy trick, although the Senate might be possible by 2014. A GOP controlled, filibuster-proof Senate, seems very possible by 2014.