In catching up with the mail and stories that I've missed over the past week or so, I noticed one that seems to not be getting the full attention that it deserves. After Bush's whopping federal aid comittment to the people affected by Hurricane Katrina, and what is sure to be matching funds for Hurricane Rita, some people are beginning to ask where the money is going to come from. Of course when you ask the liberal side of the goverment that question, you get your stock answer. "We'll just tax the rich more." And if they were in control, I'm sure that's exactly what they would do. Of course with the state of our economy right now (high gas prices, other prices rising to compensate, distribution problems due to the hurricanes, etc), that reaction could very well send the US into a downward spiral from which we might never recover.

Instead, a small group of House Republicans have come up with a plan. It is being hailed as genius in some corners and most everyone agrees that it is a good idea. Of course I don't read liberal publications very much, but I have yet to read anything bad about it (and again, I'm not going to pay $50 just to hear Krugman talk about how it sucks). Everyone seems to be amazed at the ingenuity of the plan. So what is this plan? Act like a conservative. That's right, go back to the original conservative values of not spending more money than you have. These House Republicans want to start bringing government spending under control. And they want to start by reopening the atrocious highway bill that was just passed and removing 6,000 pork projects from it. There are many other changes involving cutting out excessive spending in many other areas as well, but this one stands out because most people are familiar with it.

But I have a problem with this plan. My problem is that we haven't been screaming for it from day one. How long now have we had a Republican controlled Senate, Congress and White House? Where was this group of brave Republicans when this highway bill was first passed? Honestly, some of them may have voted against it. But certainly not all Republicans did. If that were the case, it never would have passed. And our Republican President certainly didn't veto it. We would have heard about that. And what about all the other pork projects? Proponents of this plan are saying that we could save $1 Trillion dollars over ten years. Wow. That kind of money could sure go a long way toward making Social Security solvent. Or paying off our national debt. Or make one hell of a lot of tax return checks for us poor working stiffs.

So I'm asking you, is your Republican Senator or Congressman acting like a Conservatve? If not, maybe he needs a small reminder that elections are coming up very soon. And even if they aren't up for reelection this time, they are sometime. We've got Republicans back in office. Let's make sure now that we've got Conservatives.

Posted by: Drew at 09:00 AM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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