New Years Resolutions

Once again the calendar has rolled over, and we’re now beginning the year of our lord 2011. It’s dating me I guess, as I can remember having trouble remembering the date when 1950 rolled around. Where does the time go!? Among other things, it’s traditional for us to make New Years Resolutions, and then promptly break ‘em. (With that, I don’t even bother making resolutions anymore.) In some ways, the "hope," "change," and "yes we can" shenanigans of the ‘08 presidential election seem like yesterday, with “hope” having shifted to despair, “change” has become a disaster, and “yes we can” appears to be stalled somewhere between “no we can’t” and “Why bother”. Still, we’re only a few days into the New Year, and a new Congress will shortly be sitting in the puzzle palace on the hill. Might there be a few New Years Resolutions we can think of that our legislators should make, and hopefully remember to abide with?

It often seems like every political news article I read manages to get in the one liner “It’s the Economy Stupid!”, and yes, nearly all our current set of national problems stem from the unpleasant economic situation we face. The national debt has most of us quite concerned, as we realize that the bottomless well is rapidly going dry. According to CNS News, "The federal government has accumulated more new debt -- $3.22 trillion ($3,220,103,625,307.29) -- during the tenure of the 111th Congress than it did during the first 100 Congresses combined." (Huh… So much for Nancy Pelosi's promise of "no new deficit spending".) Rep. John Boehner, the new House Majority Leader, has promised to roll back spending to 2008 levels. I’ve got a better idea, let’s roll it back even further, like say to about 1960 or so levels… Rand Paul (R-Ky.) recently declared, "I think that every piece of major legislation that goes forward from now on needs to have attached to it spending cuts." That’s one of the best ideas I’ve seen recently, but I have serious doubts about its viability. Politicians at all levels seem to be of a mind that they should constantly raise taxes, so they’ll have more money to spend on “services”, and whenever someone mentions cutting back on those services, we promptly hear the lament “which school teacher do you want us to fire?” Well, at the local level many of those services are a necessity I suppose, but by the time we reach the federal level about all that’s a dire necessity is the military and probably the Post Office! I will strenuously suggest that congress cut spending (and borrowing), before they bankrupt the country, and I’ll bet that’s not a long way into the future either!

ObamaCare seems to be a real hot button subject with most folks, including me. The United States has about the best medical care available in the world… if you can afford it, which is giving a lot of people economic and political heartburn. ObamaCare does little more that present us with a European style, government controlled, socialized medicine program, and drag our showpiece medical system down to a third world level. Yes, the system needs an overhaul, or at least the economic side of it does, and I’d hazard a bet that the medical industry could do a much better job of straightening things out than could congress. It's time to completely cut the funding for ObamaCare right now, and get hot on a long-term commitment to repeal this bucket of worms. If it's not funded, it won't happen.

It's time to stop worrying about what may or may not make us popular around the world, and start doing what will promote our economic and national security. That means tackling the problems of Social Security and Medicare. According to a recent CNN poll, 40 percent of us have the most confidence in congressional Republicans on major issues facing the country today, compared to 35 percent who have more confidence in President Obama. A lone 15 percent have more confidence in the Democrats. So, to the members of the 112th Congress, we're counting on you to pull our national chestnuts out of the fire. Put an end to business as usual and wishy-washy “feel good” nonsense. Give us back our states rights and stop spending money we don't have. Cut the vague promises along with the empty rhetoric, and reject “compromise” that will only hasten the destruction of our country.

Remember Mr. Congressman, the Republic will be nothing more than a chapter in the history books if you fail… and your names will be in those history books as well… accused of leading that destruction.