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Five Good Men
Townhall.com ^ | January 7, 2013 | Katie Pavlich

Posted on 01/07/2013 6:06:33 AM PST by Kaslin

There are a few good men. And by “a few,” I mean five.

Certainly there are far more than five good men in America. But in the U.S. Senate, there are just five moral Republicans.

Who am I referring to? Let me introduce you to the five men in the Senate who stood their ground while their Republican peers (save two abstainers) voted for a fiscal cliff deal that essentially codifies theft:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).

I think conservatives and libertarians should praise and uphold these leaders—and fire their Republican peers who may as well be Democrats.

I expect my leaders to keep their word. If they tell me they are Republican, I expect them to act like Republicans. And being Republican means voting a certain way; saying “no” to new spending, inflation and taxes—and saying “yes” to virtue, freedom, growth, prosperity and small business opportunities.

Like these five men, I believe we should have gone over the so-called fiscal cliff. Here’s why:

1. Spending cuts would have occurred. Instead, Republicans voted to add $4 trillion to the national debt, which already parallels our GDP.

2. Republicans justified voting for this deal by saying it would not raise income taxes on most Americans. But more debt will increase taxes on all Americans via inflation; the unconstitutional Federal Reserve will “create money” through tactics like printing money and keeping interest rates artificially low to “pay off” the debt. And inflation is a hidden tax that especially hurts poor people and young people who are less established and have fewer savings.

3. If we had gone over the cliff, practically everyone would have experienced higher taxes, which would have motivated Americans to embrace lower taxes in the long run. It is human nature to care more about your own tax rate than your neighbor’s. So, Americans who currently pay little-to-no taxes would stop voting to redistribute wealth if they experienced the pain associated with paying higher taxes themselves.

4. This deal discourages entrepreneurship. If you are successful as an entrepreneur and make it into the highest income bracket, you could face a 60 percent tax bracket in a high-tax state like Minnesota, New York or California. Who wants to work hard to become the next Steve Jobs if it means entering a tax bracket where you may only keep $4 of every $10 you earn? No one in his or her right mind.

5. This deal will lead more Americans to move their companies, jobs and/or wealth abroad.

Indeed, here are some of the reasons these five good men give to explain why they voted against the fiscal cliff deal:

Sen. Paul explains: “…there’s no objective evidence that we are good with money up here [in Washington], so we shouldn’t send more money up here; we should leave more money in the private sector. Now Milton Friedman recognized this when he said: ‘Nobody spends someone else’s money as wisely as you spend your own.’ That in a nutshell, that in a once sentence, explains to you why the private sector is more efficient than the public sector; [in] the public sector…it’s not their money…that’s why they [politicians] spend a trillion more than they have each year… And guess what? When you raise taxes on two percent of the people, there’s a chance you don’t get more revenue.”

Sen. Shelby broke down the political situation: “…I believe you never know — if we would have held out, maybe it would have done something. The pressure was building on the president to do something. He certainly doesn’t want us to go into recession. But we need fundamental tax reform. We need to reform our entitlements. We need to look at the spending ledger.”

Sen. Rubio explained his vote thus: "Thousands of small businesses, not just the wealthy, will now be forced to decide how they'll pay this new tax and, chances are, they'll do it by firing employees, cutting back their hours and benefits, or postponing the new hire they were looking to make. …Of course, many Americans will be relieved in the short term that their taxes won't go up. However in the long run, they will be hurt when employers pass on to them one of the largest tax hikes in decades.”

Sen. Lee tweeted his viewpoint: "Even the best #fiscalcliff deal will leave 99% of a dysfunctional system intact."

And Sen. Grassley tweeted: “When will Wash start work to control spending? Deal failed 2 do so& President made clear he wants more tax increases. Yet prob is spending”

Let’s give these five good men a round of applause. And let’s only entrust men and women like them with political power.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: chuckgrassley; fiscalcliff; marcorubio; mikelee; randpaul; richardshelby

1 posted on 01/07/2013 6:06:42 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

so true. I hope these guys split off. I am so tired of ball-less wonders who are afraid to stand up for freedom.


2 posted on 01/07/2013 6:09:19 AM PST by Chickensoup (Leftist Totalitarian Fascism coming to a country like yours.)
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To: Chickensoup

Four, actually.
Rubio wants to fill US up with Illegal Mehhhicccans.

The gop is SO over.


3 posted on 01/07/2013 6:14:48 AM PST by Flintlock (PARANOIA--means having all the facts.)
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To: Kaslin
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah)

Three of the five are newcomers, Paul, Rubio, and Lee and have not been corrupted (yet) by Washington's siren call of money and power.
Shelby has been there a long time and is for the most part a stalwart conservative.
The only one of the I really would not trust with my money is Grassley. He has voted FOR every farm pork bill that as been voted on. he really is part of the problem. A Pork and Spender.

4 posted on 01/07/2013 6:21:16 AM PST by Tupelo (Hunkered down & loading up)
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To: Kaslin

I want ALL of them gone. Democrat, Republican, I don’t care. And some of than should be in jail.


5 posted on 01/07/2013 6:22:05 AM PST by fatnotlazy
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To: Kaslin

90% of our congresscritters are sold American before they even make their run for national office.

So, yeah maybe 5 in the senate and another 5-10 in the house are worth a bucket of warm spit. As with another poster here, I’m not in love with Rubio’s open-borders mentality. I don’t think he’s evil, just VERY wrong on something critical to the future of the country. The rest are good solid representatives, and we do need to let them know we’re paying attention on votes that matter and appreciate their fidelity in voting for the good of the country.


6 posted on 01/07/2013 6:22:30 AM PST by CowboyJay (Lowest Common Denominator 2012 - because liberty and prosperity were overrated)
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To: fatnotlazy

I want ALL of them gone. Democrat, Republican, I don’t care. And some of THEM should be in jail.


7 posted on 01/07/2013 6:23:45 AM PST by fatnotlazy
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To: Flintlock

Rubio has a major crush on the UN.


8 posted on 01/07/2013 6:27:14 AM PST by stanne
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To: CowboyJay

Tell Rubio we will talk about immigration AFTER the borders are secured.


9 posted on 01/07/2013 6:42:34 AM PST by Roses0508
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To: fatnotlazy
I want ALL of them gone. Democrat, Republican, I don’t care. And some of than should be in jail.

I hope you are not talking about the five good ones?

10 posted on 01/07/2013 7:02:54 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin
In the new Senate, you can add Tx Sen Ted Cruz, who, potentially, could be better than all of them.. Just my opinion.
11 posted on 01/07/2013 7:06:08 AM PST by ThomasPaine2000 (Peace without freedom is tyranny.)
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To: Flintlock
Rubio wants to fill US up with Illegal Mehhhicccans.

You're full of this


12 posted on 01/07/2013 7:08:05 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Tupelo

Isn’t Iowa a farming state? So why are you surprised that he did? And this is your only complain you have about it?


13 posted on 01/07/2013 7:12:58 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Tupelo

What I mean to say is, I doubt you will find one politician that has no flaws


14 posted on 01/07/2013 7:16:16 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin

Five Americans, and a whole passle of traitors bent on the overthrow and looting of the American Government.


15 posted on 01/07/2013 8:17:17 AM PST by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: Kaslin

The only one I’ll call ‘good’ will be the one who refuses to stop screaming ‘murder’ until the jail door slams behind Obama for murder in Benghazi. They’re all full of crap.


16 posted on 01/07/2013 8:36:11 AM PST by bramps (Sarah Palin got more votes in 2008 than Mitt Romney got in 2012)
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To: ThomasPaine2000
Wait and see.

My experience is that newcomers come in on a wave of adulation and 6 months later they are labeled "RINO" for making an error.

Truth is...no one is perfect.

17 posted on 01/07/2013 10:33:23 AM PST by what's up
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To: Kaslin

None of them are good. They all become corrupted sooner or later.


18 posted on 01/07/2013 10:47:13 AM PST by fatnotlazy
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