Election Day is a scant 24 hours away – which means that it’s almost all over but the shouting. Most Americans long ago decided whom they will support. For those who might be wavering, here are a few reasons why Election 2010 is so important. Tomorrow, I will be voting a straight Republican ticket because:
1. I want to live in an America where economic success is celebrated – not penalized. From President Obama and his Treasury secretary – who actually argued that extending low tax rates for successful small businesses, investors and earners would threaten the economic recovery – to the rest of the Democrats, an anti-business climate has run rampant in Washington over the last two years. A slew of burdensome new regulations, health care and financial “reform,” the GM bailout putting unions’ interests ahead of bond holders’, and the usurpation of the student loan business by the federal government signals a clear animus among Obama/Pelosi Democrats to a robust American economy based on free enterprise. That needs to stop. Businesses that are constantly threatened by new taxes, regulations and other government mandates will not hire new employees – hence our unemployment rate of 9.6% (according to CBS News, the national unemployment and underemployment figures come out to a whopping 17.1%).
2. I want ObamaCare repealed. The full extent of the catastrophe that ObamaCare will visit on the American health care system is yet to be fully known. What’s already clear is that ObamaCare takes the unprecedented (and likely unconstitutional) step of forcing Americans to purchase a private product – health insurance – even against their will, thereby redistributing a cool $1 trillion from American taxpayers to insurance companies between 2014 and 2025. In the same period, it reduces Medicare Advantage benefits by an average of $21,000 per enrollee (except in South Florida). It limits competition and patient choice, and turns doctors into government bureaucrats. Oh, and it costs $2.5 trillion without doing anything to lower health care costs. It’s a disaster, and it needs to go. Obviously, without a veto-proof majority, repeal won’t happen so long as President Obama is in The White House, but a determined Republican majority can at least minimize some of the damage.
3. I want the federal government to reverse its metastatic growth. The Obama/Pelosi Democrats have exploded the national debt. Since 2006 – when Democrats retook the congressional majority – federal spending has increased by nearly a trillion dollars. As early as May 2009, economist Michael Boskin noted that the President’s $3.6 trillion budget blue print not only redefined the role of government in Americans’ lives, it also more than doubled the national debt, adding more to the debt than all previous Presidents (George Washington to George W. Bush) combined. Only during World War II has the federal government matched current spending levels (25% of GDP) and deficits (10% of GDP). The Congressional Budget Office has projected that debt held by the public will rise from 41 percent of GDP in 2008 to 57 percent in 2009. It will then skyrocket to 82 percent of GDP by 2019. Our current course is not sustainable, as even Peter Orszag (the President’s former budget director) acknowledged, but the outlandish spending won’t stop as long as Democrats are in control.
4. I want a House and Senate that respects the popular will. Starting with heated town halls in the summer of 2009, House and Senate Democrats understood how unpopular ObamaCare was. The elections of Republicans Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell to the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia signaled public discontent with the Obama/Pelosi agenda. Finally, Republican Scott Brown was elected to the Senate seat held by Ted Kennedy – on the promise of being the vote that would stop ObamaCare. Instead, the President and congressional Democrats resorted to procedural tricks and paid off reluctant members – in knowing and outright defiance of Americans’ clearly expressed wishes. That kind of insolence from those who have a sacred responsibility to represent us cannot be rewarded with electoral success.
5. I want to be able to disagree with Democrats without being slandered. Remarkably, President Obama and the Democrats repeatedly extend the hand of friendship to an Iran seeking nuclear weapons in defiance of international law, even as they stigmatize fellow citizens who disagree with them. Americans who are part of the Tea Party – or even those who agree with some of its aims – have been characterized, without evidence or reason, as ignorant racists. Those of us who object to the construction of a mosque at the site of Ground Zero, or even openly acknowledge the threat of Islamofascist terrorism, have been accused of Islamphobia and bigotry – again, without a shred of evidence. By voting against those who have engaged in this kind of bullying discourse and their allies, Americans will send the message that the politics of smear and intimidation are unacceptable.
6. I want to be free. I am tired of a government that routinely favors the elite and/or connected, and which deems itself entitled to an ever-growing share of taxpayer money even as it seeks to exercise an ever-greater control over Americans’ lives. Republicans have pledged to reverse this approach and this attitude; it’s time to give them a chance to live up to their promises.
Vote tomorrow for a freer, more prosperous America – one which respects its citizens and believes in its own exceptionalism. Vote Republican.