The Next Conservative Renaissance is on its way....

[Washington1776]

<H2 class=" unread">Positively Republican Update February 18th, 2009</H2>From Positively Republican!Wed 11:19amI thought I would send you an article written by one of our members for your review this week. Stay informed. Stay involved. Stay positive! CW

 

Obama Spurs the Next Conservative Renaissance

By Darrin Moore

 

On the day that will mark the end to his fourth week in office, President Obama will have accomplished something quite remarkable. Riding sky-high approval ratings with expectations to match them, the young president has managed to pass through Congress an astronomical spending bill that will cost every American family more than $10,500. It shoots the moon by assembling not just a wish list of liberal spending that makes Bill Clinton look like a piker (Bill’s ‘93 emergency stimulus was a meager $16 billion) but it bundles in a decade’s worth of liberal legislation which they dare not try to pass using the typical legislative process.

 

Adding another $838 billion to an existing 2009 annual deficit of $1.2 trillion means we have reached a spending level never before seen at 13.5% of GDP. But Obama and his team are quick to point out that this only one leg of the stool and that comparable ‘emergency’ spending bills are forthcoming to rescue credit markets and to shore up the faltering housing sector.

 

The bill also bails out states which have not been fiscally responsible. The fed government is borrowing from their Federal Express card to pay off the states' unmanageable Master Charge. Do we think the spendthrift states will suddenly take the opportunity to be frugal with taxpayers’ money and stop overspending? How’d you like to be in a state which has scrimped and saved to stay in the black when those states that are running in the red are getting all the green?

 

The spending in this bill has hundreds of ‘bridges to nowhere’ including an $8 billion for building a superhighway to fantasy land by linking Vegas with California’s Disney which has been dubbed; “the bridge to fantasy land.” For more about the swine feeding at the trough you can always count on the Citizens Against Government Waste and their Swineline; http://swineline.org/2009/02/13/more-on-the-stimulus-bill/ It gives good old fashioned kick-backs to groups like ACORN with $2.2 billion to intimidate banks and businesses into making unprofitable decisions (see From Little ACORNS Big Scandals Grow; http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...15/746zemwq.asp ).

 

The bill also sneaks a little communism on us. The bill will roll back (and then some) the incredibly successful welfare reforms enacted in ‘96. Obama’s bill creates new welfare spending of about $6,700 in new welfare spending for every poor person in the U.S.. The bill actually rewards the states for adding people to their welfare rolls instead of helping them find a job. Perhaps most frightening, the bill sneaks in Tom Daschle’s language to give the federal government not only access to your medical records (which they’ll be able to use against you) but it also gives government bureaucrats the power to “guide” your doctor’s decisions in caring for you.

 

Even thought President Obama promised unparalleled transparency and bipartisanship, he and the democrat majorities have written this bill behind close doors, passed it with breakneck speed in the cover of darkness so that it could not develop an allergic reaction to daylight or crumble under the weight of scrutiny in the public forum. Obama has proven that he learned well from Bill Clinton the lesson of how to practice politics as the art of the possible. He understood that his popularity would likely never be higher so he parlayed that political capital into passing a major portion of his platform with out having to go through the normal legislative process.

 

As the secrets came out that this bill was a health care bill, an energy bill, an environmental conservation bill, a massive new welfare bill, and a bill to give --as one of many examples of how this is not just a stimulus bill-- $200 million to compensate Pilipino victims of WWII, Obama felt the pressure of his poll numbers dropping. So he went on the road, hopped on the stump and began selling it with language that attacked his opponents as nitpickers who cling to the failed policies of the past. Those attacks didn’t seem to match his promises about being bipartisan. His bill received 3 republican votes but there were a 8 dems who did not vote for it.

 

But here’s the rub; the scrutiny of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is not going to stop as Obama puts his pen to it. Just as we’re learning stories how there was great waste of Bush’s TARP funds, because so much of this surplus won’t be spent for years, this pork-barrel boondoggle will stimulate a never-ending stream of stories about the waste. Americans instinctively know that they can spend their own money better than the government can. As they learn of the waste and see the soundness of our economy crumble, they will become more open to the argument of Keynes vs. Hayek; socialisms vs. free markets. The twentieth century already settled this debate but most folks don’t know the result. To learn for yourself, check out the greatest documentary I’ve ever seen; Commanding Heights on PBS.org. Although a small minority of Americans will ever dig deep enough to find the answer, a majority of Americans will soon become painfully aware again that, as democrat Paul Tsongas once said, “If you believe efficiency and government belong in the same sentence, we have counseling available.” The people instinctively know the government usually creates more problems than it solves and they’ll soon be seeking an answer that isn’t simply more government spending while racking up huge debt and raising taxes.

 

Historians are watching and taking notes and the Press is watching the barometer of public opinion. A perfect storm is bringing forces together that will rain down a trillion arguments that illustrate why this government spending will hurt more than it helps this economy. History has a way of repeating itself. It took four years of Carter to give us Reagan and it only took two years of Clinton to give us Newt and Armey who showed us with Welfare Reform that socialism can be turned back. Margaret Thatcher came to power when tax-and-spend policies, combined with nationalization of vital industries proved ruinous. Today much of the Western World is learning the sophistry of socialism and are beginning to shed it.

 

As VP Biden said from the podium as he introduced Obama, “this is a landmark achievement.” I believe it will mark the point in history when the pendulum began to swing back to fiscally conservative, common-sense policies. IF the producers of the world unite and begin to beat back the looters with fresh new persuasive arguments for timeless free market ideas and principles we have a great opportunity to roll back the socialism in this bill. When Big Brother comes knocking on their doors, the people who made up what was once called the land of the free and the home of the brave won't just look for a protector who will slay the leviathan, they'll take up the battle themselves. If the champions of liberty and capitalism are still around and properly prepared, when that moment comes, the intellectual tipping point will fall our way and the Next Enlightenment will begin to bloom.

 

Congratulations President Obama, your American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has spurred the next conservative renaissance.

(read less)I thought I would send you an article written by one of our members for your review this week. Stay informed. Stay involved. Stay positive! CW

 

Obama Spurs the Next Conservative Renaissance

By Darrin... (read more)

[Wildcat_20]

I just hope in two years conservatives take back congress and get rid of Pelosi and Reid.

[DLeihman32878]

It's definitely possible to take back the House.

 

Look, I was born into the Republican Party, literally. From the time I was born I was going to fund raising events and on the campaign trail with candidates. I split with the party during the Bush administration because the GOP forgot one simple philosophy--focus on the things that unite us, not those that divide us.

 

We are a nation of states united by our desire for freedom--freedom of religion, freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom in the markets, freedom from the heavy hand of government. The past 8 years the Party forgot that this alone will win you elections; there's no need to fight a culture war with our government.

 

[Rhino2K]

The only good thing that's going to come out of the cluster-freak that the current administration is causing is the next conservative surge.

[BGR]

If the vast majority of American people don't wake up and see what this administration and Democrat controlled congress is doing we are in BIG BIG trouble. Hopefully this is motivation enough for people to start paying attention and digging deeper than just listening to the talking heads.

[Wildcat_20]

I think they have already turned alot of people off, I mean we are almost in March and they cant even get cabinet picks or congressional appointments without something coming up.