OPINION

News of the GOP Demise Greatly Exaggerated

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With the Obama Administration and the Democrat-led US Congress rolling full steam ahead with their liberal-left agenda, the message continuously bombarding Americans by the elite media -- including some so-called conservative pundits -- is that the Republican Party is in total disunity. Well, many members of the GOP may not agree with that assessment including North Carolina's conservative stalwart Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (N.C.-5).

For example, Americans looking for jobs and struggling to pay bills were disappointed by the "Stimulus" package written by Congressional Democrats and signed by President Obama. The transparency and bipartisanship that President Obama promised the American people was sacrificed to pass a pork-laden bill without any public review or meaningful Republican support.

And so, congressional Republicans, including Rep. Foxx -- one of just 38 Republicans to score a 100 percent approval rating from the American Conservative Union -- voted against this dishonest legislation.

No one could argue that in these difficult economic times, it is imperative that Republicans and Democrats work together to create new jobs and grow the economy. But instead, Congressional Democrats worked behind closed doors to write legislation fell short of creating the promised new jobs, but guaranteed a larger debt burden on Americans' children and grandchildren, argues Foxx and many conservative members of the US Congress.

Republicans were unified in their disagreement with Congressional Democrat leaders and President Obama on the bill. It all came down to this: the overall Democrat plan focuses on putting Americans on the public dole, while the Republican plan of Rep. Foxx and her conservative allies focuses on putting America back to work.

The Republican Party stood ready to work together in a bipartisan manner with the Democrat leaders in Congress and the President. But such a unified approach did not occur, which saddened Rep. Foxx and other Republican lawmakers, and resulted in

“America faces great economic challenges and Congress must take decisive action to stem this economic tide,” Foxx said following her vote against the so called Stimulus package.

“And yet in the face of these challenges Congress has passed a bill that will not effectively help our economy. We can do better,” she said. In the House, not one Republican voted for the taxpayer money give-away.

“This stimulus bill is generational theft—passing on a record-breaking pile of debt to the next generation. Instead of targeting the real sources of job creation, America’s small businesses and entrepreneurs, this legislation is honeycombed with pet projects to satisfy liberal special interests,” she warned.

“We can do better. Americans are hurting and runaway government spending is not the only thing that can fix this recession. A fast-acting and job-creating tax cut-based alternative that I voted for would have created twice the jobs at half the cost. Attempting to borrow and spend our way to prosperity is failed policy. We can do better,” said the three-term congresswoman who serves on the powerful House Rules Committee.

Foxx points out that most people agree that federal spending has been out of control for many years and that the deficit continues to grow daily.

"If we don't do something soon to restrain spending, our children, grandchildren and future generations will be burdened with ever increasing debts. Federal budget deficits are the result of too much spending, not too few taxes. It has long been said that the federal government doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem," said Rep. Foxx.

"Holding spending growth to the rate of inflation or below is common sense and restraining spending will lower the deficit."