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Portrait of a principled Republican
NY Post ^ | December 8, 2010 | George F. Will

Posted on 12/09/2010 3:20:36 AM PST by Scanian

On a midweek afternoon in February 2009, a month into the Obama presi dency, Republican Rep. Mike Pence arrived at Columbus in his east-central Indiana district for a town hall meeting, the sort of event that usually attracted a few dozen constituents. Surprised to see the hallway outside the room crowded with people, "their arms folded and brows furrowed," Pence shouted down the hall to an aide, asking him to get a janitor to open the room.

The aide shouted back that the room was open -- and overflowing. Congress had just passed the stimulus (Pence voted no), and Hoosiers were stimulated to anger. Soon the Tea Party would be simmering.

Five months earlier, on a Friday, TARP had been proposed. The original three-page legislation sought $700 billion instantly, no time for questions; Pence's staff figured the cost would be about a billion dollars a word. On Saturday, Pence announced his opposition, but thought the bill would pass the House 434-1. On Monday, however, other members started approaching him, almost furtively, "like a secret society." A week later, the House rejected TARP, 205-228.

Four days later, the House passed TARP's second, 451-page, pork-swollen iteration, 263-171. That weekend, Pence, who voted no, was at a Scout jamboree at the Henry County Fairgrounds. A man approached to thank Pence for opposing TARP. The man said that although he had lost his job the day before, "I can get another job but I can't get another country."

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Indiana
KEYWORDS: pence; stimulus; tarp; teaparty
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1 posted on 12/09/2010 3:20:45 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Scanian

Means test all entitlements.


2 posted on 12/09/2010 3:37:42 AM PST by November 2010
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To: November 2010
Drug test entitl-ees (sp).
3 posted on 12/09/2010 4:05:02 AM PST by Aevery_Freeman (Fear God and Government - especially when one tries to become the other!)
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To: Scanian
"You would not be able to print enough money in a thousand years to pay for the government you would need if the traditional family continues to collapse."

It wasn't an external enemy that made war on the American family.

4 posted on 12/09/2010 4:05:54 AM PST by Jacquerie (Our Constitution is timeless because human nature is static.)
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To: November 2010
"Means test all entitlements"

Including social security?? I don't think so, bubba. I paid into that all my life. I shouldn't get benefits just because I worked my ass off and saved my money as well??

5 posted on 12/09/2010 4:07:23 AM PST by Wonder Warthog
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To: Wonder Warthog
Rahr Rahr! (Gabby, Blazing Saddles)
6 posted on 12/09/2010 4:08:49 AM PST by Aevery_Freeman (Fear God and Government - especially when one tries to become the other!)
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To: Wonder Warthog

Pence didn’t say to means test SS. He wanted to means test the prescription drug entitlement that was going to pass whether he liked it or not.


7 posted on 12/09/2010 4:18:04 AM PST by dforest
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To: Wonder Warthog

Means test including social security. There is no fund. There never was. You’ve known that all your life as has every other baby boomer voter. You didn’t do anything about it. Kept nominating McCains and Bushs and the like. Now, we the Ponzi scheme ends one way or another. You can pretend we can keep all these obligations. But you’ll lose anyway unless you are very old.


8 posted on 12/09/2010 4:24:14 AM PST by November 2010
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To: Wonder Warthog

You paid into nothing. You were taxed, along with every other worker, along with every employer, to send money to the permanently unemployed. (retired, disabled, dependents, etc) The only corrolation between what you paid and what you may receive is that you will probably receive less than 10% of the fair market value of your taxes if you live long enough.
When you die your heirs get nothing. If you die before payments start your heirs get nothing. If this were a policy there would be a payout.
This is an illegal ponzi scheme run by the Federal government. If any organization in the private sector played with money in this manner they would be fined and imprisoned.
You have paid into nothing and you have nothing, guaranteed, coming. Do not act like this is some kind of retirement program. It is not.


9 posted on 12/09/2010 4:25:18 AM PST by Louis Foxwell (The American Revolution is just as unpopular with statists today as it was at our founding.)
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To: Scanian

I pray this man is our next president!


10 posted on 12/09/2010 4:36:09 AM PST by Shery (in APO Land)
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To: Scanian

If he can resist trying to reward illegal aliens with taxpayer funded benefits or any kind of amnesty, I’m all for Mike Pence.


11 posted on 12/09/2010 4:46:33 AM PST by Spiff
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To: Wonder Warthog; November 2010
Tell you what. Just return the payments my employers and I made to social security at 6% compounded interest and you can keep my monthly check. I would never run out of money and my kids would have something to inherit.
12 posted on 12/09/2010 4:58:19 AM PST by Cracker Jack (If it weren't for the democrats, republicans would be the worst thing in Washington.)
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To: Cracker Jack

It’s a ponzi scheme. If you are younger you’ll never see your money. And all the current seniors want their turn at the payout end of the ponzi scheme, country and young people be damned.


13 posted on 12/09/2010 5:06:22 AM PST by November 2010
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To: Cracker Jack

Unfortunately, there is no money to give you the refund. The govt. could print it, but if that was done for everybody the value of the money you got wouldn’t buy a dozen eggs. You, I, and everybody else paid into a Ponzi scheme and we will lose our money.

By the way, compound interest is also a scam which can only work in an expanding economy. A wise man recently said “The plan was unlimited growth. The problem is it ain’t possible.”

Plant some turnips and hope for the best.


14 posted on 12/09/2010 5:07:18 AM PST by tickmeister (tickmeister)
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To: Wonder Warthog
The reason we're in this mess is because everybody says, "Well, I'm different. I'm actually entitled to my government check."

It's a new day, and I think a lot of people are going to lose things -- whether that is fair or not. We don't have much choice, and sacrifice will come to us all.

As a Conservative, I feel that I am in a much stronger position to say "Defund the Dept of Education" if I am not also saying, "Don't touch my stuff! It's mine!"

15 posted on 12/09/2010 5:09:24 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: Scanian

Pence is a good man. If he runs and gets the nomination I’d vote for him in a heartbeat.


16 posted on 12/09/2010 5:10:59 AM PST by Artemis Webb (What, if not a bagel and a cup of coffee, confirms the existence of a just and loving God?)
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To: Spiff

I haven’t seen the breakdown but I’m quite sure he was against the Dream Act.


17 posted on 12/09/2010 5:20:02 AM PST by Scanian
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To: tickmeister
Unfortunately, there is no money to give you the refund. The govt. could print it, but if that was done for everybody the value of the money you got wouldn’t buy a dozen eggs. You, I, and everybody else paid into a Ponzi scheme and we will lose our money.

Yes, I agree with you. My buyout example was offered to make the point that we have spent enough to provide for our own individual futures, but the government has cheated us.

Bush's social security reform that would have allowed younger workers to invest a portion of their FICA tax in their own (government-managed)account was a step in the right direction. But of course, democrats (the party of the l-i-i-i-tle people) had to kill anything that would make us peasants more independent.

18 posted on 12/09/2010 5:26:47 AM PST by Cracker Jack (If it weren't for the democrats, republicans would be the worst thing in Washington.)
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To: November 2010
Means test all entitlements.

Phase out all entitlements. There is no such thing as an entitlement.

19 posted on 12/09/2010 5:31:33 AM PST by SamuraiScot
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To: Amos the Prophet
I think it was the Johnson adm. and congress that decided to dump all SS money into the general fund to pay for his failed war on poverty....Sorry but those that paid into SS all their working lives and didn't have that money to invest took the government at their word. They put thousands into the plan, its not their fault that the government spent it on other things, don't bitch at them (or me) the government picked your pocket, bitch at them and don't pay any of those FICA taxes and find out where your spend some time....

Young folks should be spitting mad, but until the laws change, people should quit bellyaching at the seniors, they are not taxing you. Send your outrage to Washington and the IRS.

PS Hubby died at 51 and never collected anything, those that bitch all the time about the seniors must smile a lot when one dies, cause they aren't on SS anymore...

20 posted on 12/09/2010 5:48:22 AM PST by goat granny
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