Social Security has to be fixed. President Bush opened a constructive debate and got kicked in the teeth. The fact remains, however, that if the dems are opposed to personal investment accounts, they must necessarily favor benefit cuts and tax increases, but they haven't been called out on it.
Health insurance needs to be reformed. The dems have scapegoated Evil Insurance Companies and Evil Big Pharma. They've sold much of the country on the idea that health care nirvana is around the corner if we just slap down some bad guys. Their solution is single payer, which means rationing and a long-term decline in standards of care, but they've not been called on it.
Energy policy is hot due to gasoline prices and our import dependency. The dems' solution, of course, is to scapegoat Big Oil and the automakers and pretend that all we need is conservation. Pure nonsense, but they don't get called on it.
Culture of corruption? Well, the earmarks haven't gone away -- they've increased -- but the dems will no longer have the CBO report on them. They're not going to get called on that either.
The war in Iraq? The dems want to cut and run, but won't be pressed beyond their talking point of "responsible redeployment."
Obviously it's the responsibility of the Republicans to carry the rhetorical battle to the dems, and we've been seriously deficient in this area. This is where the MSM is a killer -- any Republican who takes on these issues finds himself endlessly swimming upstream. But it still has to be done.
Unfortunately, however, the correction is likely to come after the nation elects a democrat government. That will expose the dems' policy bankruptcy in a hurry, but we will all pay a high price in the meantime.
P.S. One of the best things Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey did when they led the Republicans in the pre '94 minority era was to force the caucus to develop a Republican substitute on all major legislation, starting with the budget. The minority Republicans of that era actually thought through all the tough issues and developed a coherent response. The dems did nothing similar -- they spent their minority years in relentless negativism and papered over their own incoherence, in large part, by lying about the Republican agenda, Social Security and health care being leading examples. Now they're in the majority and the cupboard is bare. The minority Republicans need to restore the old discipline asap and start figuring out what they're FOR, not merely what they're AGAINST.
Good Point! Bush and company show no imagination or creativity and neither do any of the other Gop leaders that I can see except for Rudy who I believe is probably the only one who can unite the base and take the center and win. You have to have ideas and not just slogans. Many people on this board think you can win just by repeating cliches about Conservative government. Well you can’t! You have to have a can do problem solving capability and show creativity and imagination. We have to attack the structural imbalances in the MSM and other wise that that empty suit Bush is just not doing.We have just go to have leader above everything else.