How about this pledge: “I will not swallow any more crap sandwiches”
Making pledges is easy. Keeping them? Not so much. Just ask Mr. Hope and Change. The new GOP pledge is fine as far as it goes — especially the upfront acknowledgment that government’s powers derive from the consent of the governed, not from the penumbras emanating from the fingertips of all President Obama’s czars.
But actions speak louder than words. And no action bespoke of the gap between conservative rhetoric and reality louder than the hysterical votes of 91 Republicans who voted with Chicken Little Democrats under the Republican Bush administration to pass the TARP all-purpose banking/auto suppliers/life insurance/AIG bailout.
For a depressing look at how so many supposedly limited government Republicans caved in the face of panic fomented by naked-emperor financial bureaucrats, see my liveblog of the Crap Sandwich vote on October 3, 2008.
Here is the roll call vote from that day.
Print and save it. It’s a useful reminder of which Republicans stood by their principles — and which ones abandoned their fine pledges to uphold the Constitution, laws of the United States, and free-market principles in the heat of battle.
***
Words that will live in infamy: “This is not a time for ideological purity.”
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I don’t need to print it. None of my “representatives” will be on it.
Only time will tell if the “pledge” is worth the 21 sheets of paper it is printed on.
Repeal Obamacare, cut spending, cut regulations, cut taxes, restore the Federal government to its enumerated powers, respect the US Constitution. DO IT NOW!
I may actually vote for one or two Republicans this year. I am making no “pledge” to do so in 2012 until I see what the GOP does this time around. I WILL BE WATCHING…
How about we totally swear of crap sandwiches. The current pledge seems to say we are fine with all the new regulations, bans and intrusion in our lives. Hell no is my answer.
Suave for the anxious, what happened in 1994 after the gun guys were hoping mad over the AW ban — They saw it as the government banning militia weapons.
They still don’t get it, carry on with the destruction of big government.
It ain’t their fault they got skeert & voted that way!
As I said from the previous thread, here’s the only pledge they should consider:
TO PRESERVE, PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, SO HELP ME G-D.
There is nothing that they could have produced that could have overcome our complete lack of trust. But the Boehner strategy had been to coast into November without saying anything. We pushed them off of the dime and forced them to produce a document that captures the spirit and many of the specific results we are seeking. That is progress. We forced them to give a new hammer to hit them with and we can start using it right now.
I think it’s a great hammer.
Michelle’s point that we couldn’t trust them to honor the Constitution before (aka law of the land), a document they had taken a solemn oath to protect and defend, so how can we trust them to honor a mere pledge?
We can’t. That is why we need to hammer away with our new hammer. They didn’t write nor sign the Constitution but they wrote and signed this.
One more point and I’m going to work. We have forgotten that the Contract with America was a major success as a campaign gimmick for getting the 1994 Republican takeover. But as a governing document, it was a miserable failure. The Gingrich-led House weaseled out of voting for the contract terms once they “fulfilled” their pledge to get the bills on the floor.
The pledge is written more broadly and in terms that can strangle weasel talk later.
The Pledge to America is a good start, but the best advice we could all take to heart is trust but verify. If we decide that the pledge is a good faith effort to win our trust, fine, but we will be watching.
My Rep, John Linder, GA 7th, didn’t cave.
However, GA Sen Saxby Chambliss almost lost his re-election bid because he voted for it. There was actually a run-off, in an almost solidly Republican state!
I am pleasantly surprised to see Phil giving a strong endorsement to the Republican pledge. The libs must be quite unhappy to see this growing sense of unity and purpose on our part. I agree that this pledge is something the people, mainly Tea Party people, have forced upon them. Now when the GOP gets a majority we have something to hold their feet to the fire with. By the way, I just love the part that says all bills should have a part that explains their constitutional basis.
I was going to wax eloquent by Phil spoke for me. This is a wonderful opportunity for America and we the people.
However, if the GOP weasels, if they wink and nod, then all we have left is this hammer. And as the old Russian proverb says,
“When all you have is a hammer, treat everything like a nail.”
My counsel to the GOP is now that you have pledged in paper, you’d best be willing to risk all to keep it. Otherwise, you will not have to worry about the Democrats unseating you. We will.
Ahem…WRONG. They passed bills pertaining to most of the issues, and as the contract actually promised, they brought all of the issues to the floor and debated them. Some were vetoed by Clinton and not enacted. It as hard to overcome a veto since they didn’t have 60 votes in the Sen. At least one was ruled unconstitutional and reversed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_with_America
I wish people would stop jumping on the Reps as if they are THE problem. The TARP act had to be passed one way or another. Those banks that needed the money are going to pay for needing it too with increased government scrutiny, so it’s not like they aren’t going to suffer for going along with it. We had to stabilize the banking system, since the government PROMISED to backstop the system. Not doing it would be breaking a promise.
It may indeed be a better idea for the government not to promise to backstop the system, but make that change when there isn’t a problem. It’s unethical to pull the rug out from the system at it’s greatest time of need.
To belabor Obeyme’s analogy, if the GOP “get the keys back”, don’t let the Dems tell you where to go! If they start yelling “Turn Left HERE!!!”, keep your eyes on the road and a firm grip on the wheel and keep driving toward the goal!
Exactly. If this ” is not a time for ideological purity” when is?
“I can be principled in good times but when things get rough I cave” is not terribly comforting.
===
Let your sidearm be like American Express:
Don’t Leave home without it.
Boy, I can’t help it but I have to say it! “YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT”
That is technically true but Gingrich’s weasel talk about why they wouldn’t fight to overcome the vetoes still echo in my ears. The pressure was relieved by a burgeoning WinTel-driven economic breakout that had nothing to do with anything either party did. That Congress was instrumental in laying the foundation for the economic mess we are in today.
It is important to distinguish between the TARP and the Stimulus. One could debate endlessly the moral issue of whether the federal government should be in the business of giving loans to big banks that were careless. But the TARP was vastly different from the corrupt Stimulus. The TARP was a series of government loans to banks and the loans were all collateralized. All of the loans had high interest attached to them. By and large, these loans have been paid back and the government is making some pretty good money on the interest it charged. Eventually the government will get all of its loans paid back with interest or the feds will seize the collateral.In contrast, the Stimulus was just stealing money from the taxpayers and giving it to public sector labor bosses. The money was all used for unnecessary public spending and the vast majority of stimulus money went to state and municipal labor bosses and there was zero property tax relief. What President Bush and Secretary Paulson did could be debated on a moral basis. If you don’t believe in government loans, then it was wrong. But it was not stealing money from taxpayers and just giving it away. BAC and other banks already paid it back with interest aplenty. The Stimulus was just legalized theft and giving your money to Obama cronies. It was immoral.
As for the TARP, my hero Dick Cheney supported it and that is good enough for me.
Anvil: voting list of who voted for the crap sandwich.
Hammer: “The Pledge”
Hammer away.
They can sign all the pledges they want and swear on a stack of Bibles that they’ve learned their lesson, but I still wouldn’t believe or vote for more than a handful of them. The biggest need is Term Limits for Congress, and they’ll never pass that bill.
Medicare Part D will prove to be the most egregious offense of the recent GOP.
90+% of Congress needs to be replaced every election cycle.
If McCain, Graham, Snowe and Collins sign on to this pledge, the document will have to be renamed Charmin. Roll it on a cardboard tube, promote it as two-faced two-ply, ultra soft on socialist destruction, specially designed for septic systems.
The “Pledge” is simply a step in the right direction by a few that view it as a “sales tool”, a way to distinquish themselves and their party from the current administration, and Yes, from the resident RINOs of Washington. It is always up to us We-the-People to enforce policy & pledges. Vote them out when they disappoint.
I could cut an easy trillion dollars from our budget on the first day of my presidency. 1 cut each administration department to the level of 1985 in people and budget. If it wasn’t needed in 1985, it isn’t needed now. 2 shut down all the embassies in all muslim nations, as no visas would be issued from those countries period. 3 remove ourselves from the UN, and all other world treaties without another dime being spent on international aid. 4 bring all our military home from overseas land based posts, and RIF 80% of the pentagon and 40% of the admin warriors sitting in cubicles counting paperclips. Our military needs to be trigger pullers and bomb deliverers, not nation building beaurocrats. 5 Remove the US taxpayer from being the insurer of mortgages(fannie and freddie) of bank deposits (fdic) of pensions (FPG) of agricultural prices (fba) of colleges stupid spending (NIH etc). When the US was the most productive nation on earth, these things didn’t exist and our tax rate was around 5% of gdp. Now we tax 25% of gdp, the gubmint spends 45% of gdp running up huge deficits, and we are becoming another france which produces nothing, and arrogantly proclaims itself to matter somehow. So if we went back to 1960 5% of gdp that is a government spending of 700 billion dollars per year. The defense budget, the SS budget, and the healthcare budget are all larger than that by themselves.
DA, remember this little tune?
Dee doodee doom doom…..
Seven little girls
Sitting in the backseat
Hugging and a kissing with Fred
I said, why don’t one of you
Come and sit beside me
And this is what the seven girls said
(CHORUS)
All together now, one, two, three
Keep your mind on your driving
Keep your hands on the wheel
Keep your snoopy eyes on the road ahead
We’re having fun, sitting in the backseat
Kissing and a hugging with Fred
Dee doodee doom doom…..
Crap sandwich indeed! I’d like to know what O’Donnell thinks of it.
This pledge comes from inside the Beltway, folks! They’re trying to save their RINO butts. After the election they’ll go back to business as usual.
this “pledge” is weak and very disappointing. I really didn’t expect much when I heard that lamebrain Cantor was involved. he’s worthless and can’t even speak well much less be a real conservative.
GOP, you didn’t help yourselves with this Joke and all we are is MORE pissed now than we were before. great job morons.
It’s absolutely true and it set the tone for a belief that government needs to be restrained. The number of people claiming conservative views has increased since that time.
Reforms of the 1980s set up the 1990s. There would never have been an “Win-tel” explosion without capital spending by existing companies, opened up by numerous fundamental changes like financial deregulation and energy cost stabilization. The Y2K bubble is what we are dealing with now. Irrational exuberance is what created the 2000 stock bubble, and the wealth moved into real estate when the Y2K stock bubble burst.
The real estate bubble was facilitated by financial institutional fear of being labeled “racist” and an HONEST desire by all of J. Q. Public to ensure everyone that should get loans could get loans. Congress AND THE US PUBLIC deserve the blame. Without insidious pressure and ignorance from the public, the bubble would have been less dramatic.
Good post Marc. Stimulus = stupid. TARP in some form = necessary.
Maybe this will help some of you to think this through. I have watched several party spokespeople from both parties comment and debate the pledge this morning and this is how it is beginning to look.
Establishment RINO “pundits” are apoplectic about the foolishness of “unnecessarily stirring the pot” when the GOP is riding a tidal wave to victory in November.
Tea Party supporters see it as a victory in that the GOP has come out and declared official positions while incorporating the Tea Party message into their message and in a very broad way.
The Dems are just pushing the same tired old “this is just a return to the failed GOP policies that got into this mess” arguments.
If you are a RINO, you are siding with the Democrats. If you are a Tea Party person, we now have further confirmation that the entire establishment standing on its head while they try to keep a foot on both sides of the irreconcilable political divide. The only to be found traction is on our side of that divide.
We are winning. Let’s take that and move on. The Pledge is clearly helping us but is hanging over the RINO establishment like the “sword of Damocles”.
Have to agree Phil, the “Pledge” is at least forcing some of the clown troupe out into the open. This November election really is Citizen versus Ruling Class, be they R or D.
Has anyone ever told these wimps that fortune favors the bold?
The GOP can’t afford to muck things up. They have already wavered on some issues. Either they stand for something or they don’t. If they don’t, they need to resign. The GOP had better stop being bipolar and stiffen their spines – the country is at stake. They can either be part of the take over or they need to get out of the way. They screw this up and the Tea party will squash them.
If anyone believes that after the election that the voters can just relax on the issues they care about, they are mistaken.
I have a better idea, Dexter Alarius. When a Dem says “turn left”, that is when you turn up the radio, push his/her ejector seat button and keep driving…
Let’s not wait until after the election. Hammer them now.
That says it all, just as Ben Franklin said after the founding fathers dispersed after signing the Constitution into law. Ask what they gave us, Ben replied with, paraphrasing, “a Republic if you can keep it”. The entire significance of the Constitution puts the power in the hands of the people, we have to take responsibility to regain and keep the Constitution along with our beloved country.
God Bless America
BTW, it says something that Jeb Hensarling (didn’t eat the crap sandwich) is carrying the ball today and wrapping himself in the Tea Party. Reporters invariably ask him if he isn’t just allowing the Tea Party to “destroy” the Republican Party. Without equivocating, “No!”. Tea Party is the voice of America.
So far, so good.
HOw in the world can you look at any increase in government as a good thing is beyond me.
As for “TARP needed to be passed,” poppycock. When business models fail, bankruptcy is the markets way of flushing out the malinvestment. The government has an obligation to protect the people with deposits in those institutions, but not the institutions itself.
Providing unlimited financial assistance creates “too big to fail” monoliths, and does nothing to minimize the risks. In fact, knowing that the government will prop any foolish idea they try only encourages them to take excessive risks.
Another good sign, Bozo the VP just guaranteed Democrats will maintain control of both House and Senate in November.
Giggle.
Wasn’t TARP meant to save the financial system, and mostly paid back?
I agree.
Yes. Precisely. And it worked exactly as it was intended to work.
It’s all of the wasteful spending since then, including the Democrat hijacking of the repaid TARP money, that has kept the brakes on the recovery.
TARP was Bush. Everything since then? Obama and the Democrat Congress.
The truth is not complicated: Democrat politicians are evil.
TARP should never have been necessary. We had a President and Treasurer asleep at the switch, telling us that everything was just hunky dorry. The problem was the Bigger Fool Theory in California and nearby states. No matter how much you pay for a house, a bigger fool would pay more. The corollary also was at work. No matter how much that mortgage was, Some bank will make a bigger second mortgage. TARP is the effect. The fraud (supported by corrupt politicians) was the cause.
The Big Fat Flaw in that post is the assumption tea partiers are looking for ‘ideological purity.’
We are not. Not even close.
So GIGO.
Saying the sacking a leftist Democrat like Castle who’s pretending to be a Republican is because of the application of a test of ideological purity is pure bunk.
Roland, Castle was a “moderate”. As in, anyone who is to the right of Marx is a “radical”. The further to the left of conservatives (who represent the poitical center), the more “moderate” you are.
We need to recalibrate our language and terms to reflect the reality on the ground.
Daily Caller, 2/14/10: Paul Ryan explains his votes for TARP, bailouts, and tax on AIG bonuses
On TARP: He voted for it to avoid a depression and to prevent a greater, swifter expansion of government resulting from such a depression.
On auto bailout: It was either a $25 billion Energy Department bailout with this legislation, or automakers would get a blank check bailout with TARP funds. Ryan favored the former. In the end, automakers got tens of billions in TARP money anyway. (And GM is still trying to pay back $40 billion dollars.)
On AIG bonus tax: Ryan admits he expresses regret when voting for this one. He says they were given six hours to vote on the final version of the bill. The lawyers said it was not a bill of attainder, and he was forced to make a “snap judgment.” It was only after more research after the vote that the lawyers declared that it was a bill of attainder.
$ and dollars–lots and lots of money.
GOD BLESS YOU; Michelle, for saying – in more eloquent words – that this document is “OK but inadequate.”
I’m sick of the d*mned blowhards on the right (e.g. Erickkson) behaving as destructively towards the Right on this matter as Krauthammer/Kove et. al. did with O’Donnell.
HOLD TOGETHER. HOLD TIGHT.
Too true. And what about the people who took those excessive risks? Dodd, still on the job; Frank, still on the job; Bank executives of institutions receiving a bailout, still on the job. This was one of the biggest financial disasters of all time, based on incompetence and malfeasance, and yet no one in the upper echelon of either government or banking even lost their job over it.
Having broken a tiny bone in my hand, I will be typing this s-l-o-w-l-y, just so the RINOs and D-people aren’t insulted.
There, that out of the way, I want to start a movement to let Congress know that we need to remove the Crap from Congress…and that they ARE that crap.
We need to send PRUNES to them. So they KNOW that they will be MOVED. Give them a chance to get their stuff packed. You can get the individually wrapped prunes so they GET THROUGH the security people.
There. That’s OUT. Don’t you feel lighter already?