GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

Comments

  1. I like it.
    I would add as #3: Eliminate earmarks.
    While it’s true that EMs in and of themselves don’t amount to much, they enable the buying of votes in Congress (remember the “Louisiana Purchase” and the “Corn Husker Kick-back” to get ObamaCare passed), and the eventual legislation can be very expensive (again, ObamaCare). A good bill should be able to stand on its own merits without payoffs.

  3. 4. Bar the Department of “Justice” from using any funds to prosecute states for enforcing Federal Laws, or to oppose the enforcement of Federal Law by the states. Also, pass a “Sense of the Congress” resolution that the Department of Justice should be race-neutral in prosecuting violations of the Voting Rights Act and voter intimidation cases.

    5. Pass immediate, across-the-board 20% funding cuts to all non-defense Federal agencies.

  6. Oh yes, because with all the problems we have going on right now, NPR should be front and center. We just have two wars going on, prolonged economic stagnation, long term debt issues, and the list goes on. We have a Fed that seems rather hell bent on starting a currency war that will have a global impact.

    Come on man, no matter what you think about NPR, it is not the second most important issue on the list.

  7. A vote to extend/make permanent the Bush tax cuts for all taxpayers. (Let Senate Dems vote it down or better yet, if it gets out of the Senate, let’s see if our affirmative action president has the guts to veto it).

  8. While we’re at it, how about ending all ag/crop subsidies, all American product promotion funding, eliminate the Depts of Commerce, Labor and Education, end Amtrak subsidies by 1stQ 2012, end any additional spending of remaining stimuli funds, end conventional foreign aid of any sort to any quarter, withhold all UN funding until full audit is completed, privatize NEH, CDC, NEA, NEH and any other cultural or medical institution including Voice of America and –most especially– privatize the VA so that our wounded warriors can start having access to high quality medical care instead of being treated like 3rd class patients in the mungo-juju ward of a banana republic.

    Oh –and start a full scale investigation of the complicity of Obama’s campaign with ACORN in the 2008 election. I think ACORN picked up stakes and is now advising El Presidento for Life Karsai in Afghanistan given his recent revelation of “suitcases of cash” for corruption enhancement outreach.

    Those would be far more satisfying than going after NPR for firing da’Juan.

  11. As I noted before, the CPB is not the “parent agency” of NPR. NPR is a stand-alone, independent 501(c)3. Dan, I’m not quibbling with your opinion or position, just the implied facts there. 🙂

    I think #3 ought to be comprehensive “entitlement” reform – perhaps slowing phasing out Social Security in favor of a savings program the employee controls? But it needs to be phased over time, and needs to include provisions like income caps for SS recipients and increased age at which people get benefits. As we live longer, we can afford to increase the age.

    #4 – Serious tax structure reform.

  15. Sebastian Shaw, it’s not just GOP earmarks.

    Let’s clean up the Congress with eliminating all earmarks. Eliminate the capacity of senators to place holds on appointees. Put all bill drafts and amendments submitted to the chamber’s respective clerks for at least 72 hrs before debate or a vote can be had.

    And cut Congressional funding by 25%; staff by 25%. With the start –not end– of the 112th Session of Congress.

    And return the CBO to a nonpartisan, professional analytical agency chosen not by the Speaker & Sen Maj Leader, but by a bipartisan panel of non-Congressional advisors who help steer the CBO back to credibility and independence.

  17. Oh yes, because with all the problems we have going on right now, NPR should be front and center. (….)

    Come on man, no matter what you think about NPR, it is not the second most important issue on the list.

    True.

    But it sends a totally clear message that while going after the cancer we are not going to ignore the warts. It is a sort of “Come to Jesus” call for the EPA, the Department Edjumacation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bureau of Government Obfuscation and the SEIU to get their affairs in order because axes are being sharpened.

    I think NPR is the perfect choice and richly deserved.

  18. NPR may be low on the totem pole of what the most sweeping issues are but it also should be one of the lowest hanging fruit to pick off the tree as well. While a token action, it could be instrumental in generating good will and trust from the taxpayers.

  19. May I add?

    Let’s strip the TSA personnel from being operated by union thugs and PRIVATIZE it. This is something that Bush allowed to be railroaded through by Dhimmicrats who wanted “job security” for their biggest contributors.

    Regards,
    Peter H.

  20. I like Ace’s take from yesterday; if NPR/CPB are truly that unimportant and low-priority, then why is the government wasting effort and resources on them?

    First rule of business restructuring: identify what is core and get rid of the rest. Otherwise, you end up spending time and money that could be better devoted to the core.

  21. Let’s strip the TSA personnel from being operated by union thugs and PRIVATIZE it.

    Privatize the TSA and restrict it to cargo and luggage inspection. Arming flight crews and allowing concealed carry on aircraft will eliminate the threat of hijacking.

  23. Again, for a free market system to work, employers need to have a pool of safe, educated, and healthy workers. There is no conservative reason to oppose Obamacare. Conservatives can support universal, government-backed health care as a way of making sure employers don’t have to pay the cost for healthy workers and they can thus make more profit.

  25. There is no conservative reason to oppose Obamacare.

    The distinction between conservatism and progressivism is that conservatism embraces what has been shown to work and rejecting what has been shown to fail. Progressivism is the opposite.

    The failure of Government-Managed health care everywhere it has been tried, and the repeated demonstration that Federal programs are always vastly more expensive that initially estimated make the conservative case against ObamaCare.

  27. Sorry Ash but the way Obamacare is being implemented is anything but conservative. Older Americans including my own parents are already getting screwed out of treatment options because they are of less importance to the health care system than Obama’s core constituents. And friends are reporting that all of a sudden small and medium sized companies are being priced out of being able to offer health benefits all in the interest of feeding the Obamacare beast. The only thing that could have possibly added any conservative aspect (at least on paper) to the whole mess would have been the Public Option but wouldn’t you know it that was the one key provision that Obamawhore caved on.

    You can continue parroting the benefits Obama insists will happen but the reality is already the exact opposite. Talk to the people around you who are already having the health care rug pulled out from under them in the last couple months. Having said this, my new list of priorities is 1. Repeal Obamacare, 2. Repeal Obamacare again, 3. Rinse and repeat, 4. Rinse and Repeat, 5. flush Obamacare one last time, 6. reinstate Bush tax breaks, 7. eliminate NPR funding.

  28. Good news –the GOP incoming House leadership continues to prove they “got the message”.

    While NancyP is busy spending lobbyists’ money on a wild-assed, $250 a bottle champagne from her friend’s CA vineyard… John Boehner announced he will be flying commercial, business class to and from his home… he doesn’t need a private jet to transit dozens of staff and pals from CA to DC and back.

    Take away line by Boehner: “I won’t use the claim of being a few heartbeats away from the Presidency to abuse the taxpayers’ money and the voters’ trust.” Ouch. Someone needs to toss a bucket of water on NancyP at the party and let’s watch the ol’ witch melt, eh?

  32. There is no conservative reason to oppose Obamacare.

    I can think of a number of conservative reasons to oppose Obamacare, along with a MORAL reason to oppose it, but let’s just stick with the most obvious:

    It’s UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

    Glad to clear that up for you, Ashpenaz.

  34. “Prohibit government employees from being “organized” into unions AT ALL.”

    ———-

    Indeed!

    At least with a private corporation there is a finite amount of ‘stuff’ that a union can demand. Once the union consumes 100% of the value of a company, that company fails.

    When a public union wants more ‘stuff’, they simply raise the ceiling of symbolic value that a government division has, and raise our taxes to pay for it.

    A simple solution: Let’s compare each unionized government institution to it’s private counterpart, and set an absolute value. Once that value is exceeded, the contract is dissolved (as it would be in the private sector).

    It would be like a bankruptcy on paper. Restore the risk of failure back to the government run services (see: Post Office), or privatize them. Perhaps someone else can do the same job cheaper.
    .

  36. Sonic, you’re a bit premature on the No New Earmarks… wait til the House GOP Caucus meets in mid-Dec. Boehner’s staff have already alerted the future Maj Leader’s Office that it will be the House GOP’s intention to strip out any earmarks of budget/approps –irrespective of Senate or House origin. And will engage floor amendatory procedures if needed. Piece by piece.

    Effectively making the Sen GOP Maj Leader’s Office look a little late to the party to the taxpayers -for no appreciable political benefit.

  37. “for a free market system to work, employers need to have a pool of safe, educated, and healthy workers”

    Yeah, let’s do what the PIGs have done (Portugal, Italy/Ireland, Greece).

    Brilliant.

  39. Actually, the Baltic States and Ireland who have a flat tax and still pay for their citizens health care are doing pretty well. I also support a flat tax.

    Nobody pays for health care out of their own pocket, BTW. Here’s how insurance works: I pay a premium, you pay a premium, everyone on our little team pays a premium. If you get sick, all the money we’ve all put in goes to pay your bills. If I get sick, your money goes to pay my bills.

    Somebody other than you is paying your bills. Deal with it.

    If we switch the health care to the government, the EXACT same thing happens–we all pay a premium, and if one of use gets sick, the money from our premiums pays our expenses. NO ONE on this board is paying outright for his own healthcare, so don’t act so holier than thou. ILC, if you are on BCBS, then you are using MY money when you get sick.

    The only difference is that the government does the work. Because they are not in for profit, they will do a fairer job–just like they do with the military, education, food inspection, etc.

    What do you think of for-profit colleges, like University of Phoenix? Do you think they should be regulated? Do you think people should get student loans to go to for-profit colleges?

  40. Again, for a free market system to work, employers need to have a pool of safe, educated, and healthy workers.

    Actually, no.

    History shows that the free market system can work with any pool of workers – when it is allowed to. And that the free market system is the means by which a country gains a pool of safe, edumacated, and healthy workers. The free market system *creates* those workers. Sometimes by direct action, always by the indirect action of raising living standards – so that the safety, education, and health can then be paid for.

  41. Socialism is a beuracratic contraption created to support a flawed premise; the misguided belief that a man can be improved by someone other than himself.

    gastorgrab, I know we don’t agree on every issue but… that is brilliant.

  43. (continuing the thought at #40) So to make this clear.

    – You adopt a free market system in order to gain (or to make possible) a pool of safe, educated, and healthy workers.
    – You do not destroy the free market system – by passing, say, ObamaCare – in order to gain (or to keep) a pool of safe, educated, and healthy workers.

    When you want to gain or keep a value, you take the action that will gain or keep it. Not the action that destroys it.

    Sorry for spelling it out so heavily, but some of the slow kids around here need it to be “that spelled out”.

    NO ONE on this board is paying outright for his own healthcare

    That’s an ignorant comment and I beg to differ.

  45. Of course it’s ignorant. It’s Ashpenaz.

    I pay my premiums, my employer pays a portion of my premiums. They do this in lieu of paying me. Since Ash wants to parasite and not pay anything, he’s not ‘paying my premiums’.

    And the government isn’t dictating that I have insurance or go to prison. Ash wants me to pay for his insurance, at the point of a gun.

  46. Ash – I don’t know much about the Baltic states but Ireland is on an express train to financial hell (mostly caused by banksters) but I would also point to the growing unrest in the EU as public welfare programs collapse under their own weight.

    Once people become dependent on the gummint for their basic needs, the game is over (and we are perilously close).

    When your liabilities far exceed your assets and you’re borrowing to pay interest on debt you already have, good sense tells you that the new Lexus should be out of the question. Same thing goes for nations and their governments.

    Spending cut recommendation: defund State Department grants to Hamas (like the $150 million pledge today as another slap at Israel) – a good start to defunding most foreign aid (where poor people in rich countries send money to rich people in poor countries).

  47. “….or go to prison.”

    ————-

    Then all expenses paid. 😉

    The ‘ideal’ liberal environment envisioned for every American is exactly the same as for any federal penitentiary; free food, free shelter, and free clothing. The failure to to hold any progressive mind-set makes you the perfect progressive, by default.

    You are now the ward of a socialist state. Congratulations!
    .

  48. Ash, I agree with you completely.. up to the point where you say this:

    The only difference is that the government does the work. Because they are not in for profit, they will do a fairer job–just like they do with the military, education, food inspection, etc.

    You mean the same military that pays $3000 per toilet seat and $1000 per hammer, the same education dept that can’t seem to get out of its own way to improve education, and.. OK, I can’t think of anything for food inspection. But if allowed I’ll substitute the FDA….

  50. Because [government] are not in for profit, they will do a fairer job

    For my part… the above may well be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever read. I mean, the word “naive” is inadequate.

  51. To be precise: When government just concentrates on the few things it is supposed to do (police courts military), AND when the citizens watch it like a hawk as it does those things, it might do those things fairly.

    But a government which does a kajillion things, most of which it shouldn’t be doing? and the quantity of whose proceedings are vastly too much for citizens to watch, even if they were allowed to watch? Forget fairness. One example of a vast possible number: The Treasury and Federal Reserve operated under cloaks of secrecy, when they bailed out Wall Street.

  52. I have BCBS health insurance. Admit it–if you have BCBS, too, then anytime you go to the doctor MY money pays for it. How is that different from Obamacare? And why is it OK for you to spend MY money on YOUR healthcare, but I’m a lazy mooch if sometimes your money pays for mine?

    Yes, the government overspends. That’s not an issue which divides Democrats and Republicans. We all want government to spend less. But that doesn’t mean that the government shouldn’t spend anything–there are things, such as the military, education, food inspection, health care, etc., which a government can do efficiently and economically if the right people are elected to oversee those programs.

    You still haven’t answered my questions about for-profit colleges. Should they be regulated or not?

  53. How is that different from Obamacare?

    If you don’t understand that, you have no f’ing business voting.

    And give it up with the food inspection. We still have illegals wiping their asses with our vegetables. We could do a damn sight better than the FDA on our own.

  56. But that doesn’t mean that the government shouldn’t spend anything–there are things, such as the military, education, food inspection, health care, etc., which a government can do efficiently and economically if the right people are elected to oversee those programs.

    Ah, Ash, you just stumbled right into the crux of the problem. Who are The Right People. This is where the government solution answer always breaks down, because more often than not, your not going to have The Right People running things. I mean, come on, other than face lifts and tanning salons, what do either Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner know about the inner working of the health industry, of what it’s like to be a doctor and run a doctors office, practice or a clinic, to operate on someone, to give prescriptions to people without inadvertently killing them… You catch my drift.

    I have a simple question. Andrew Sullivan linked to this survey which shows some of the items in the Health Care Reform Act that a majority of people think are a good idea. Look at that list carefully. There are six items that I also like. Now. Be honest with your answer. Do you really think it was necessary to write a bill with 2700 plus pages to achieve all six of these items? Even if you double the list to a dozen, or even 18 good policy point… Is there any reason the bill that hosted these changes needed to be THAT LONG??? It’s 2700 plus pages because we don’t have the right people elected to oversee this program, and they weren’t the right people to create the either.

  57. Further, any of those news pieces you see about restaurants failing inspections, the inspections were all carried out by STATE inspectors and not the feds. It sure as hell was never Marvin Zindler, I can guarandamntee you that.

  58. You know the last poster who said Government would work with ‘the right people’? You guessed it, our favourite facist.

    Ash also seems to want to avoid talking about his voluntary entering into a contract with BCBS, vs. being forced to buy a product from the government.

    I’ll just link to my previous post, listing the better job government health care does.

    Ash is entitled to his own opinion, not his own facts.

  59. Just remind yourself that Ash’s idea of The Right People is arch-power-hungry-leftist Hillary Clinton, and the concept gets its full tinge of ridiculousness.

    The profit motive is, as I’ve explained, a moral and positive motive. To the extent that companies *lack* government support (as well they ought to lack it), they can only acquire revenue by giving people things they will pay for gladly – voluntarily. It is, in part, a motive to serve the customer and a motive to be efficient. If a company has government support – including government regulation, which tends to create “barriers to entry” of new competitors – those motives are unfortunately weakened, and then we get dysfunctional companies. But those motives are never wholly absent.

    The government has no such motives: it merely takes the revenue it needs, by force. That is a crucial fact. Because the government takes its revenue by force, its operatives have motives which are morally inferior to the profit motive. 1) The stagnation/parasite motive (which the government worker will often euphemize as her desire for “job security”). 2) Worst of all, the power motive (euphemize as the alleged desire to “serve”).

    The Founders were wise to limit government as much as they did, 220 or so years ago. We were unwise to violate those limits, in the last 80-120 years and especially the last 10 years.

    You still haven’t answered my questions about for-profit colleges. Should they be regulated or not?

    Oh yes I have. You just haven’t ever cared to understand my answer. Which is not my problem.

  61. Someone brought up food inspection. I don’t think that’s something the Government needs to do either. The Food Industry could set up an independent inspection consortium… funded by industry, but independent. The Consortium would allow companies that met its inspection standards to carry a Seal of Approval on their products. Consumers could make the choice to buy food from companies approved by the consortium, or take their chances on unlabeled brands. The threat of lawsuits would keep industry and the consortium honest, since failure to abide by its rules and standards would be actionable fraud.

  63. V: Yes, and… people could also go back to high school and take Home Ec to learn how to cook food correctly to destroy bacteria. (Ash has tried to claim in the past that it is government what makes my eggs and bacon safe to eat – LOL 🙂 )

    But, back on your proposal: it roughly follows the model of Underwriters Laboratories, founded in 1894. I believe UL is non-profit but, more to the point, non-government.

  65. Hillary is not a leftist. The reason she lost the nomination was because the left-wing loonies are in control of the party and they didn’t want her because she was too conservative.

    You can call me a fascist if that makes you happy, but don’t call Hillary a leftist. Nobody thinks that. She is power-hungry, though–and I hope she gets that power, because I think she’s use it wisely on behalf of the country she and I love.

    I am forced by the government to pay for the military, for education, for roads, etc. If that’s OK, then I am OK with being forced by the government to pay for health insurance. From your perspective, being forced to pay for public education is unconstitutional.

  66. Hillary is not a leftist.

    Ahem.

    “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.” – Hillary Rodham Clinton, June 29, 2004

    Hillary’s apologists will say that the quote was taken out of context, but the context was, she was telling affluent supporters about her plans to redistribute their wealth to pay for Government programs.

    Maybe “socialist” isn’t the technically accurate word for a politician that takes away the property of some people in order to redistribute it to her cronies, but it’s good enough.

  67. “From your perspective, being forced to pay for public education is unconstitutional.”

    ————-

    Can you clarify here? Are you talking about ‘people’ who are under 18, and don’t have the right to self-determination, or is this about colleges and universities?
    .

  68. Simple question, which you continue to dodge Ash,

    Where in the constitution are the defined and limited powers of congress requiring them to fund education or heath care?

    Roads and defense are both clearly defined and enumerated.

  69. Public Education is something arrogant leftists assume the states are just too stupid to handle without an enormous Federal Bureaucracy. The left elites are so arrogant, they assume that without the Department of Education, states would simply abandon public education and kids would be scrounging on the streets like Oliver Twist.

    It may come as a shock to the left, but parents care about their own kids. And states will educate their children just fine. We don’t need a Federal Education bureaucracy any more than we need teachers to be unionized bureaucrats with gold-plated pensions.

  71. I’ve seen the claim “Hillary is not a liberal” which is slightly defensible, as follows. If you mean the word “liberal” in its classical sense, “classical liberal”, a person who supports individual freedom under the smallest government possible a.k.a. laissez-faire capitalism, then OK, Hillary is not a liberal.

    But the claim “Hillary is not a leftist” lacks even that tenuous thread of a defense. I hereby call her a leftist again.

  73. Amd again Dooms reminds us why he’s not on speaking terms with reality.

    If Medicare doesn’t deny your claim, they’re likely paying someone else’s fictional claim. but hey, I’m sure they’ll treat their ‘patients’ with the same level of care Greece does.

  74. Anyone against national healthcare has clearly never been in a life or death situation.

    Because when people are in a life-or-death situation, they tend to think so rationally. In fact, all policy decisions that affect the economic and social health of an entire nation should be made by traumatized people with deep emotional scars.

    I mean, how can we expected to arrive at at sane and sustainable policies through rational analysis of economic reality and the experience of what has been tried and proven to fail in the past. Obviously, sentimental emotions attached to deeply traumatic events are the only truly relevant guide to policy.

  75. Anyone against national healthcare has clearly never been in a life or death situation.

    Or known someone in such.

    That is, quite possibly, the most ignorant generalization ever uttered.

    I have no idea who this “Doom” guy is, but from what little he’s contributed spewed here, I’d say we’re dealing with a world-class halfwit.

  77. “Anyone against national healthcare has clearly never been in a life or death situation.”

    ———

    When you walk up to a bank teller and demand; “I NEED it, therefore you OWE it to me”, it’s called ‘bank robbery’.
    .

  78. Hard as this may be to believe, the Democratic party is not made entirely up of leftist loons. It’s not even mostly leftist loons–they just happen to be the ones in power, so leftist candidates get the money and attention that conservative Democrats don’t. Democrats in Vermont get a lot more money and support than Democrats in West Virginia. Or Nebraska.

    As a Nebraskan Democrat, and thus conservative, I am sick of the left-wing hold on the party. And Hillary is in my part of the Democratic party, not Obama’s.

    There are, yes, socialist reasons for universal health care. But there are also free market, conservative reasons for universal health care. A Republican might way, “We’re going to take money from you for the common good to build a military.” Why is it bad when a conservative Democrat wants to do the same thing for health care? Every policy ever made means taking money from citizens for the common good–how is what Hillary said more socialist than anything else?

  80. While there may be a socialist argument for keeping the sewing system functioning properly, i don’t see socialism as a fix for everything.

    It’s not life itself that we would be taking from one person, and giving to another, as we can offer no guarantee to anyone that any ‘cure’ tendered by national health care will definitely solve the health problem of any patient.

    At least half of all illness involves elective injuries. One person’s recklessness on a snowboard means higher taxes for everyone else. Until the government also regulates the behaviors that affect our national health care costs, this will be seen as stealing from responsible people, and the rewarding of irresponsible people.

    Our health is directly tied to our own behavior, and our behavior is no one else’s damn business!
    .

  81. Anyone against national healthcare has clearly never been in a life or death situation.

    Or known someone in such.

    I’ll wager that I have more than you or probably anybody on this blog. I sure as hell don’t want the ass hats that FUBAR everything they touch running health care in this country. Haven’t you ever wondered why we should support the ideas of the same idiots who’ve spent 40+ years and trillions of dollars on eleminating poverty? These same morons have ADDED TO poverty in just the last two years.

    What the hell makes you think they can run health care?

    In the U.S., no one is ever refused at the emergency room.

    Unless you go to Michelle’s hospital. Then you get shipped off somewhere else so they have room for paying customers.

  83. Let´s throw FOREIGN AID in the mix. Middle eastern countries flush with oil don´t need it, unless were trying to buy good will. If so, we´re not getting much bang for the buck!