If You Want a Real Democrat, Vote for Republican Boustany

Townhall.com ^ | October 3, 2012 | John Ransom

[Kaslin]

The crisis in this country isn’t really economic.

It’s a crisis of confidence in our political leaders on both the Left and the Right.

After a decade of elections predicated on change, policies have essentially stayed the same: Central banks have enabled central governments to fuel deficit spending in pursuit of consolidating central control of society.

Perhaps the spending priorities change depending on which side of the aisle you inhabit, but one thing is certain: both Democrats and Republicans have complicity in creating the fiscal crisis that now faces the country.

Unless Republicans offer a real alternative to the big government vision and become something other than “Democrat Lite,” expect no real change in Washington.

That’s why Tea Party types are closely watching Louisiana’s jungle primary in the new 3rd Congressional district.

The new district pits Tea Party freshman Jeff Landry against establishment Republican Rep. Charles Boustany.

Boustany and Landry lead the field in the five-way contest to be decided on November 6th. Boustany has the cash advantage, but that’s about where his advantages end- if he wants the conservative vote.

[Breto]

Like the last few elections this is an contest of nanny staters running against Nanny Staters. Some would argue its nanny staters against a NANNY STATER but none the less there is no path to liberty or a return to the constitution with either of the two dominant political parties.

[RIghtwardHo]

Exactly. Very well stated.

[Soul of the South]

“Perhaps the spending priorities change depending on which side of the aisle you inhabit, but one thing is certain: both Democrats and Republicans have complicity in creating the fiscal crisis that now faces the country.”

Very true. George W. Bush set the stage for the current Obama mess:

1) Would not use his veto pen to restrict spending, particularly in the first term. In his first term the Republican Congress went on an unchecked spending spree. Remember the $200 million bridge to nowhere in Alaska.
2) Passed an unfunded Medicare drug program.
3) Dramatically increased federal education budget (no child left behind).
4) Prosecuted two hugely expensive overseas wars without establishing a funding base and without a plan to “win” and end the engagement. These unfunded wars, plus the rapid rise in entitlement spending contributed to the end of the balanced federal budget under Clinton and began exploding the federal deficit. During the 8 Bush years, the size of the federal deficit doubled from $5 trillion to $10 trillion.
5) Appointed Ben Bernanke, the great money printer, to be chairman of the Federal Reserve.
6) Ignored his first two non Wall Street Treasury Secretaries (O’Neill, and Snow) who tried to reduce the power of the big Wall Street banks and impose stricter spending controls. He fired O’Neill for warning about the future deficits of $500 billion per year and opposing the unfunded Iraq War.
7) In 2006 appointed the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Henry Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury giving control of fiscal policy to Wall Street and enabling Wall Street to fully protect its interests during the 2008 financial crisis at the expense of the taxpayer. During the financial crisis of 2008 Bush abdicated management of the crisis to Paulson, Bernanke, Geithner, and the CEO’s of the big Wall Street banks.
8) Dramatically exploded the deficit with TARP, a taxpayer bailout of Wall Street. Spent TARP funds to delay GM’s bankruptcy.
9) Throughout his two terms consistently failed to respond to ongoing relentless and untrue Democrat attacks on conservatism and his policies. His unwillingness to defend himself and his policies helped contribute to the American peoples loss of respect for him by the end of his second term.
10) After 9/11 failed to identify radical Islam as the source of the terrorist threat to the USA, instead publicly calling Islam the “religion of peace”. Chose not to indict CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) in 2004 for its terrorist activities in collusion with Hamas. Brought CAIR into federal agencies for “sensitivity training”.
11) His weak enforcement of immigration laws resulted in millions of illegals immigrants flooding the country, taking low paying jobs from poor Americans, and overwhelming social services in many communities thereby accelerating growth of entitlement programs.
12) Endorsed and got passed 25 year extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which today gives Eric Holder effective veto power over the electoral process in most of the conservative southern states.

Republicans often say he tried to get Congress to do something about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He proposed reform legislation in 2003 but was unable to persuade the 108th Congress to pass the legislation. While Republicans blame Barney Frank for blocking reform, both houses of the 108th Congress (2003, 2004) were controlled by Republicans so he had the votes to pass the reform if he had really pushed it. There is no evidence Bush every aggressively tried to rally the American people to support reform of Fannie and Freddie. If he had truly perceived a threat to the nation, he should have pushed for reform as hard as the Democrats pushed for Obamacare.

If Bush had pursued a responsible fiscal policy and sustained the balanced budget he inherited throughout his two terms, it would have been very difficult for Obama politically to accelerate deficit spending in his first term. It was impossible for Republicans in 2009 and 2010 to argue with any credibility for responsible fiscal policy when the Republican President Bush had spent the preceding 8 years doubling the size of the nation’s total debt.