Posted on 07/08/2008 7:59:04 AM PDT by ZGuy
[The Lincoln Club of Orange County is threatening to pull its financial support for Republicans in the House and Senate if they do not replace their leaders.]
The grumbling. The head shaking. The anger.
Congressional Republican leaders clearly have no idea what we, their fellow GOP members (and financial backers), say to one another when we get together, yet for years one refrain has been constant: our extreme discontent over how the former GOP majority blew it on spending.
Budget earmarks, which jumped by 285% between 1994 and 2005 as their cost soared by 60%, stand as the perfect symbol of the GOP-led profligacy that drives us crazy still. In and of themselves, earmarks are admittedly a small part in the budget process, amounting to roughly 2% of the federal budget in 2005. Yet they epitomize the fiscal recklessness that led to Republicans becoming a minority in 2006.
Unable to rein it in on the smaller earmark items, it's no wonder the Republican leadership continued to fail on the more critical structural spending issues such as entitlement reform and a reduction in federal spending (hello Prescription Medicare).
Still oblivious to the source of our discontent, a number of free-spending Republicans recently rushed to meet House GOP leader John Boehner, urging him not to back an earmark reform proposal from the Republican Study Committee. The idea they fought so mightily against? A ban on earmark requests from Republican members of Congress for one year.
The porkers' struggle is typified by Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia--sponsor or co-sponsor of $83MM in earmarks in last year's budget alone--who, amazingly, defended earmarks as "being entrepreneurial about bringing something home."
In response to us on that remark, former Speaker Newt Gingrich scathingly replied, "There's nothing entrepreneurial about the Appropriations Committee spending other people's money."
Alas, bold GOP leadership on earmark reform is still nearly absent in Washington. Michigan's Thad McCotter highlights this by arguing the futility of fighting for earmark reform, saying members of the House can't lead on the issue because, "...we are not the field marshals, we are the foot soldiers."
Thank goodness Newt Gingrich suffered no such humility in 1994.
And that's just the point, isn't it? Today's Congressional Republicans have lost all resemblance to the revolutionaries who then typified the principles our party could--and should--stand for.
Indeed, because today's Republicans are so addicted to pork and big-ticket spending, it is time to demand dramatic action.
Therefore, as a start, we strongly support and call upon the House GOP leadership to institute a minimum one year moratorium on earmarks by Republicans, and for the Senate GOP leaders to follow suit. Concurrently, we urge other Republican donor groups to reinforce this important beginning through their influence as well, with the ultimate intent to work towards substantial Republican spending reform.
Second, we are dialoguing with like-minded groups across the country about electing new Congressional Republican leadership in both houses of Congress. Regardless of November's outcome, it is time to make a clear statement to voters that we intend to establish a new team and goals, re-discovering our lost principles of a government limited in size, scope, and spending.
It is not credible to ask the American people to return Republicans to the majority when all we offer them is the same group of leaders and policies they so recently rejected.
It's not just "branding," but the right policies which will breathe new life into the Republican Party and re-energize voters.
And one more thing: come November 5th, should the current GOP leadership in either house survive to lead in a new Congress, the Lincoln Club of Orange County will review its financial backing of all Congressional Republicans, and we urge others to do likewise. A GOP caucus that would re-elect such leaders is not one we would likely continue to support.
Because, simply put: we refuse to support a permanent minority.
Rich Wagner is the President of the Lincoln Club of Orange County. Chip Hanlon is a Lincoln Club board member, President of Delta Global Advisors, and Founder of GreenFaucet.com.
The cause should be helped with the departure of the three blind mice — Stevens, Warner and Domenici.
I got a letter from a Republican congressional fundraiser, asking for money, yesterday. It went right in the trash. They can kiss my a**. I’m not sending a dime until they learn what it means to be a Republican again. I’m so sick of this multi-trillion dollar sink-hole called congress, I’m just done with the lot of them.
Dems are worse, but so what? How can we stop them with these GOP big-spending dem clones?
I’ll continue to vote for the most conservative candidates I can find, but the GOP fundraisers are dead to me.
And this whole McLame nomination is like the icing on the cake. Here comes the obamanation.
Earmarks should be totally outlawed. It is thievery. If Congress wants money, they should have to vote on it before the people. It is the peoples money, not theirs.
Today’s Congressional Republicans have lost all resemblance to the revolutionaries who then typified the principles our party could—and should—stand for.
The R’s did not get the message in 2006. They are not listening now.
Here’s my message:
If Republicans act like Democrats, why do we need two parties?
The LCOC supported Arnie and his leadership and look what it has gotten us.
THE LCOC recently rode the wrong horse in the OC Sheriff’s debacle.
Consider the possibility that too much of the electorate just isn’t buying what the GOP is selling. Curling up into the fetal position, harboring a healthy dose of indignation, and expecting conservative advancement, when too many people just want nothing to do with it is silly and immature.
It may feed a shallow sense of superiority, but until the GOP starts making a strong case for its messages, it will be on the short end of congressional power and see more losses at every level.
He’s absolutely right. The Republicans have lost their attractiveness because of the ludicrous government expansion taking place especially in the last 8 years. Both parties preach statism and a federal government that will handle everyone’s needs. They both spend like drunken sailors. One party taxes which devastates the economy while the other party borrows and prints which adds to the debt and increases inflation (and thus the devaluation of the dollar). It’s a sad day for conservatives and people who generally love liberty and limited government.
Couldn’t agree more.
I’m not even sure how one can Constitutionally anction earmarks. Seems to me that they would be beyond the scope and ability of the federal government as laid out in the Constitution.
I like these guys. It’s time more people stand up and tell the national Republicans to grow a pair.
Aren't the Dems in control of both houses of Congress? Complete control.
I could see this anger from the Lincoln Club prior to 2006, but now it is just blowing smoke giving more ammunition to the liberal wack-a-doodles.
Seems to me we would all be better off going after the sector of government which currently holds the purse strings... and at the moment, that is Harry Reid and friends.
...deserves repeating
These are my exact feeling as well.
It made no difference at all. The mailing continued, the calls continued.
Last week some poor guy got me at Sunday lunch or something like that and I let him have both barrels.
The calls haven't stopped. Now they just ask for my wife.
I'm kind of glad that, now that he's messed us over really well, Newt seems to have found something to occupy his time other than chasing skirts, cheating on his wife, uh, wives, and worrying about which door on Air Force One he gets to use. But I need a little humility from him as well.
How amazingly brief was the time from 1994 until the Republicans started acting like Democrats with bad haircuts! Ramos and Compean languish in prison, while "entrepreneurial" Republicans find new ways to sell us out.
Seems to me we would all be better off going after the sector of government which currently holds the purse strings... and at the moment, that is Harry Reid and friends.
You are correct. However, that would require voters to be informed as to how our government works. We do not have informed voters.
The R’s are playing the Dems game. The R’s after all have allowed the D’s to define the terms of the debate. Few are concerned with this nation’s future and growth beyond the next election. The Rockefeller Republicans sound too much like Democrats for me. They speak in the same tongue as to how to get the most government largess and control.
As government expands, liberty contracts.
My main annoyance with Republicans in Congress is this. Does anybody in Congress want to be the majority again? All I hear from the Republicans is that we have to elect John McCain. Well that is fine and important but what plans is there to retake Congress?
The Democratic Congress approval is at 9% yet the Republicans plan to lose seats? At least Newt wanted to be in the Majority. If Republican office holders would go out and hit the Democrats on drilling for oil, hit them for corruption (Chris Dodd)like they hit us in 2006. The Democrats at least will fight, the Republicans in Congress might as well be French.
“Does anybody in Congress want to be the majority again?”
I don’t think they do. It’s easier to oppose than to propose. Since the first priority of any politician is to get elected, and the second to get re-elected, they can do just fine in the minority by putting on a show. A majority party actually has to deliver.
ROFL! Too funny!
Sure they want to limit government--limit it to their own special-interest pocket-filling priorities.
These guys have supported every RINO in the book in California. They and the "New Majority" have done more to destroy the GOP than most others.
Lets not forget the contributions of the moribund CAGOP and its former Grand Poobah, Dufus Sundheim. It wouldn't be fair to overlook the West Coast Branch Office of GOP Big Tent RINO Central...
Yeah, and now I see someone pingin me to a thread about another RINO runnin for Governor... Tom Campbell. He’s not a bad person and I would be willing to do business with him, but I don’t want him to be Governor because he’s NOT a consistent, committed conservative!!!
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