The GOP is all talk

© 2016 Jim Spence - It is important to recognize how politics has evolved in America. Democrats have changed quite dramatically, and so have Republicans.
Harry Truman was a communist fighting Democrat in words and in deeds. There are none left in America. Truman also saw the excess power of unions as a threat to America and he fought them too. John F. Kennedy, like Truman, was also an ardent anti-communist. And much to the chagrin of 21st Century Democrats, who would like to alter documented history, Kennedy was an successful income tax rate cutter. Even the hapless Lyndon Johnson, who was America’s worst president of the 20th Century, used the U.S. military in Viet Nam to fight the spread of communism. Make no mistake; communism and socialism are pretty much one and the same. Truman and Kennedy understood that the spread of communism/socialism was a threat to basic freedom. This stands in stark contrast to 21st Century Democrats who have all sold their souls and their freedoms to the fantasies of socialism as if they were naive Venezuelans. Unlike 21st Century Democrats, Truman and Kennedy were not stupid about conceding fundamental truths.
Today Kennedy and Truman would fit the philosophy espoused by the GOP. Of course espousing a philosophy is one thing, and doing something to prove you believe what you say is another. But I digress to skip ahead.
As time has passed in America, it has become clear that Democrats are in favor of advancing a single point of view, from which all their public policies are to be driven. Democrats always want more government.....period. It does not matter what the issue or problems to be solved are, Democrats want government to get bigger. The solution to every problem in the mind of every Democrat is more government.
The last real effort to curb the size, scope, and control of the U.S. economy by our government came after Bill Clinton’s drubbing in the 1994 Congressional elections. Clinton, who blew with the political winds instead of having any core beliefs, actually teamed with Newt Gingrich to pass legislation that diminished, or at least held in check, the size of government. The result was the continuation of the Reagan recovery that was a watershed period in U.S. history.
Since the end of Clinton’s presidency there has been virtually no effort made by either party to work together to engage in an honest assessment of the capabilities of government and only fund aspects of government that are effective. George W. Bush did cut tax rates, but he also made government bigger. And during the first two years of his first term, Barack Obama made government infinitely more intrusive and wasteful by increasing taxes, exploding the rate of growth in government spending, doubling the national debt, and insanely regulating all forms of private enterprise.
The mid-term elections in 2010 put an end to the Democrats control of Congress, but not to the growth of government. The 2010 elections also rang in the emergence of a governing strategy in the White House that remains to this day.
In 2017, the way that America is controlled and regulated can be summarized with a single sentence. The president signs executive orders in an effort to govern, while Congress behaves as if it is against everything and for nothing.
Mr. Obama used executive orders to expand the size and scope of government in ways that are difficult to over-state. Obama tried to govern without ever passing or repealing a law. Bureaucrats became economic segment dictators under Obama. And Obama's use of executive orders forced Republicans to sue in the courts. Often in the courts, after lengthy legal delays, judges often stuck down Obama's over-reach and forced him to follow the constitution. However, while proceedings dragged out, untold damage was done to thousands of businesses and dozens of industries. You can expect the Supreme Court to affirm Trump's executive authority, but it will take time to get to those rulings.
Mr. Trump is using executive orders to undo much of what Mr. Obama did to harm American businesses with executive orders. While businesses have been getting life preservers tossed to them by Trump, it has been amazing to see the press suddenly discover the perceived dangers of executive orders. After ignoring the fact that it was the primary governing strategy of Obama for the final six years, the press has decided executive orders are only good if a Democrat uses them. And perhaps equally amazing, with full majorities in both houses, an executive order is now the only thing America has going for it.
Image result for mitch mcconnellOver the last eight years or so I have used this column to rail against all that hurts America. My columns often echoed the same chorus of “words” that were being sung by the GOP in Washington D.C. Mitch McConnell could be heard lamenting the difficulties of being in the minority from 2009 until 2011. Then he whined about divided government for the balance of Obama’s presidency, even after the GOP regained the House and then the Senate. Paul Ryan did the same as the GOP’s V.P. nominee in 2012 and then as House Speaker.
The GOP Congress is all talk. They have a White House that will sign their bills, but they won't produce any. Votes to repeal Obamacare came in a steady stream so long as the GOP knew Obama was there to veto them, or at least the Senate was there to filibuster them. Now that Obamacare has finally been repealed by the House, the Senate, for all the talk from Mitch McConnell and his brethren, has stalled the elimination of this catastrophic law. Tax reforms? Forget it. Nothing. You get a budget proposal from Trump that tries to reign in the size and scope of government control over all aspects of America and GOP Senators Lindsay Graham and John McCain tell the media the proposals are dead on arrival. There is nothing more worthless than a tenured U.S. Senator who will never be president.
Image result for paul RyanThe results of GOP Congressional intransigence are unconscionable. Washington D.C. is a sprawling cesspool of malignant bureaucracy. What was plaguing America under Obama is still plaguing America. Despite the fact the GOP has majorities in both houses of Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court, outside of Trump’s executive orders, nothing has been done to shrink to cancerous effects of big government. Yes, Trump is working each day. And Trump is taking all of the heat for trying to make a difference. In the meantime, the GOP Congress is still talking while doing nothing. It is the most pathetic development possibly imaginable for those who realized thirty-seven years ago that Reagan was right when he said, “Government is not to solution, government is the problem.”
All incumbent GOP congressional leaders should face primary opposition and be replaced by real leaders.