 | Michael Steele Says "Enough" to...Republicans!
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| |  Why is America in the fix it's in? Is it because the liberals and Democrats are having their way? We all know what they want. They want to tell us how to run our families, our businesses, our schools...our very lives. They want to control health care, education, the banks, Wall Street, the real estate market, the insurance industry and the even the auto companies.
But is this country sinking into the socialist mire because of them? Let me suggest that perhaps we are in this situation not because Democrats are being Democrats, but because too many Republicans have stopped being Republicans. Let me quote from Michael Steele in his recent book, Right Now.
"Enough of the arrogant liberal lie that we can tax and spend and borrow our way back to prosperity. Enough of Republican politicians who let liberals get away with mortgaging our children's future with stimulus packages that are mostly pork, political paybacks and taxpayer funded delivery of a long-awaited wish list from the Democrat Party. But you know what else? Enough of Republican politicians who let them get away with it! Enough of one-sided compromises, running from our principles, complaining about big government when we are out of power but embracing it when we are in power. What in the world happened to Republicans' conservative principles?
"Liberalism doesn't deserve all the blame for our economic decline...the other half of the equation is this: Republicans stopped putting up a fight. Our credibility snapped; we failed to live up to our ideals."
|   There are two members of Congress in Michigan, Republicans who in just one key vote, violated the constitutional principles which have made this country and the Republican Party great. Fred Upton and Candice Miller have both voted for over $1 trillion in new government programs and spending which have piled hundreds of billions in new debt on our grandchildren. But one vote in particular singles them out as Michigan's most liberal Republicans: The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, HR1105, with its $300 billion deficit and 9,700 earmarks was strongly opposed and roundly criticized on gop.gov the official website of the Republicans in Congress. And while 158 Republican members of Congress indeed voted against this spending bill, Miller and Upton were the only Republicans from Michigan to vote "YES". The gop.gov website said this about HR1105: "The $32 billion increase represents the largest one-year hike in annual appropriated spending percentage since the Carter administration, with the exception of funding immediately after September 11th. And since many of these programs and agencies received funding in the recent "stimulus," the combined increase is $301 billion or 80% over Fiscal Year 2008." As reported by the Heritage Foundation, the bill was loaded with pork, including things like: - $1,049,000 to combat Mormon Crickets in Utah,
- $332,500 to build a school sidewalk in Franklin, Texas,
- $225,000 for Everybody Wins!,
- $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California,
- $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming,
- $237,500 for theater renovation in Merced, California, and
- $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia.
Here is a partial list of concerns listed in the GOP website: - DC School Vouchers: Eliminates the District of Columbia (D.C.) school voucher program. H.R. 1105 prohibits any new students from receiving vouchers and sunsets the program after the 2009-2010 school year. While the bill eliminates $18 million for the successful school voucher program, it contains funding for countless other "priorities."
- International Family Planning: Provides $545 million for State Department to fund foreign family planning programs, funds that will flow to abortion providers now that the Mexico City Policy has been repealed by the Obama Administration.
- UNFPA: Contains language exempting federal funding for the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) from the Kemp-Kasten provision, which denies federal funding to organizations or programs that support coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.
- Abstinence Education: Reduces funding for the Community Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program to $95 million, a decrease of $13 million. Conversely, the bill increases funding for Title X family planning programs by $7 million.
- Amtrak: Includes $1.45 billion for Amtrak, a program that fails to be competitive and continues to need federal subsidies to cover operating losses and capital costs.
- ACORN: Provides $181 million for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation for housing counseling. ACORN has been a past recipient of such funding.
- NEA: Provides $155 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, in addition to the $50 million for the NEA provided in the "stimulus" bill.
- The list goes on for pages.
It is time to call them to account for his behavior. The attention in the past few weeks and especially last week has been on the Health Care Bill and the solidarity of the GOP in opposing it. Every member needs to be thanked and congratulated for sticking together to make their point. But that good behavior does not excuse members who otherwise fail to uphold the core principles. They need to be respectfully reminded that they are being watched and that even their own National Party Chairman has said, "Enough!"
Contact Congresswoman Candice Miller. Contact Congressman Fred Upton. Ask them to pledge to never again vote for bills that grow government beyond its constitutional mandates. Tell them you are watching. Tell them "Enough." | |
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