Are Republicans Representing Their Constituents?

The Republican Party, in its quest to better represent its constituency, has launched a questionnaire to feel the pulse of the voters by asking specific questions in order to streamline their message. The message is always very important, the actual implementation of goals depends on the elected representatives and senators and the powerful lobby in Washington.

The GOP wants to know if “Americans support efforts to reform entitlements, cut spending, and put our nation on track to a balanced federal budget without raising taxes.” Judging by the anemic economy, the weak and statistically manipulated GDP, the high unemployment rate, the huge welfare rolls, the alarming part-time labor force, the answer is yes.  

Conservatives have been faxing and calling their Congressmen, protesting around the Capitol, rallying around the country, holding town hall meetings, writing op-eds, but their wishes have fallen on deaf ears. Efforts to cut entitlements are non-existent; on the contrary, 11 plus million illegal immigrants will be added to the welfare rolls and to Social Security via blanket amnesty which Republicans cannot wait to pass if we are to judge by their constant radio and television ads in support of amnesty.

I am unsure if a balanced federal budget is possible any time soon since bill after bill is full of pork from both sides, most of which have little to do with the title of the bill. Case in point is the Farm Bill which includes more food stamps and other non-farm items. The national debt is past $17 trillion, galloping to the $19 trillion point of no return, and Republicans go along with the spending.

The GOP questionnaire asks if conservatives want Republicans in Congress to “block funding and implementation of the Obamacare legislation.” Republicans should have read the bill and blocked it before they voted. Are they really serious about defunding it and is that even possible when considering discretionary and non-discretionary spending?

Congress seems to be more preoccupied with exempting themselves from the law rather than representing the wishes of the majority of the American people who do not want Obamacare. Those include Republican voters, Democrat voters, unions, Democrats who helped write the bill and call it now a “train wreck,” municipal employees, unionized school teachers, and all Americans who want to keep their doctors and the stellar healthcare they now receive. Even the IRS chief wishes to keep his current healthcare – he understands how bad Obamacare is because he is going to be in charge of enforcing it and keeping 307 million private medical records on file.

The next question is asking if “Republicans in Congress should give up and rubber stamp the Obama agenda, passing Democrat sponsored tax hikes, spending increases and liberal expansion of government.” I am not sure if this is a serious question or is written to elicit anger or head scratching.

Government has expanded so much lately, in spite of the fact that Republicans control the House of Representatives. Republicans have pretty much rubber stamped the Obama agenda, voting in favor of everything Democrats have asked for, demanded, or forced Congress to pass. God-forbid should Republicans be labeled uncooperative or bad team players. They might not be invited to famous D.C. soirees and cocktail parties.

Reince Priebus, the RNC Chairman, wants to know if Americans “support opening more nuclear power plants, expanding offshore drilling and increasing exploration for domestic oil and gas reserves to lessen our dependence on imported fuels.” This must be a trick question – who wants to pay $4 per gallon when gasoline was $1.79 a gallon when the current administration began governing.

We have asked for more nuclear power plants for four decades but Congress has given so much power to the EPA, we have not been able to open a new one since the early 1970s and this reality is not likely to change.

President Obama put a moratorium on domestic offshore drilling and blocked the XL Keystone pipeline. Every Republican and Democrat in office has campaigned on reducing our dependence on foreign oil but has done very little to bring about that outcome. On the contrary, Saudi Prince Alwaleed warned against the shale oil threat to the kingdom’s economy. http://www.worldoil.com/Saudi_Prince_Alwaleed_warns_against_shale_oil_threat.html

 
The GOP should know that Americans are angry that the party of fiscal responsibility is abandoning conservative principles and ideals and is becoming more of a branch of the Democrat Party. There are 30 Republican governors but they are stifled by the Washington corruption and the ever-increasing federal government control through grants, grants-in-aid, and regulations.

There are many issues that Republicans have failed to address or to deliver a favorable resolution in Congress:

-         Strengthening border security

-         Reducing federal spending

-         Keeping taxes low in order to encourage job creation

-         Keeping military well trained, equipped and prepared (they have unnecessarily sequestered the pay of government employees as a political tool, reduced meals to our soldiers, reduced training time, reduced equipment)

-         Stopping implementation of Obamacare (it is an expensive “train wreck” that nobody can afford in the short- or long-term)

-         Stopping amnesty of 11 million illegal aliens at a time when 28.1 million Americans work part-time involuntarily and there are more people on food stamps than there are Americans working

-         Expanding domestic exploration for oil and gas

-         Stimulating job creation in the private sector, not part-time, but full-time jobs

-         Impeding the growth of U.S. manufacturing by continuing to support free and open trade with countries like China who do not play by the same rules we advocate

-         Investigating the Solyndra debacle, Fast and Furious, and Benghazi

Republicans have failed their constituents by allowing the massive redistribution of wealth, the massive entitlement spending, the out of control government spending, the expansion of corruption, crony capitalism, the weakening of our national security on many fronts, including the explosion of national debt which is the number one national security threat, destroying our health care and replacing it with Obamacare, failing to defend traditional marriage, religion, the pro-life stance, but most importantly, failing to address the indoctrination of our children into global citizenship, contradicting our Constitution and our American values, diluting our national identity.

The GOP should not support the shrinking of our military might and presence, the reduction of American ships in the U.S. Navy at a time when China has launched its first aircraft carrier and is flexing its military muscles around the world.

The GOP should not pander to specific groups such as Hispanic, Asian, or Black, we are all Americans, and representation should be equal to all Americans, anything less is pandering.

A simple solution to begin fixing the economy and all the other problems that plague the country is to change the wages for life of our Congressmen, making it less attractive and lucrative to be a “public servant,” although many can argue that we are the ones serving their interests and fortunes. When one considers the average income for seniors on Social Security of $12,000 and the average salary of a soldier deployed in Afghanistan of $38,000, it appears obscene to give a House/Senate member $174,000 for life, the Speaker of the House $223,500 for life and the Majority/Minority Leader $194,400 for life, especially when some Congressmen “serve” just one term while others make a life-long career of destroying the interests of the American majority.