Thinkin’bout Stuff

Congratulations to our Democrat friends on a big victory on Tuesday.  Sorry for the delayed congrats, but my ISP was down… really… no truth to the rumor I was too depressed to blog.    Actually, I was looking forward to sharing some thoughts, but most seem dated already, so moving on.

One of the easiest jobs in the world, or so it would seem, is the minority position in the House or Senate.  Oh sure, it’s hard to get any bills passed that are important to you, but so what; you get to blame the other guys for everything, don’t need to accept any responsibility for anything (even if you did vote for it), can spend an incredible amount of time telling anyone who will listen how bad the other guy is running things and how much better you could do it, and not have to present any solutions or ideas of your own.

Well, now they need to make the giant leap from critic to leader.  Behaving like spoiled children who whine whenever they don’t get their way won’t work anymore; it’s time to grow up.  A good start would be to actually present some real proposals for addressing the pressing issues facing our nation.

The biggest issue facing the nation right now is the War on Terrorism; the most politically charged is the conflict in Iraq; the greatest shame is the lack of real restrictions (or outright prohibition) on late-term abortions.  So what are we going to address first? Minimum wage of course.  OK, maybe not first, but it’s in the top three, which is more than we can say for Iraq and abortion.

Here’s Nancy Pelosi’s plan for the first 100 hours, presumably the Democrat’s top priorities in the House:

Day One: Put new rules in place to “break the link between lobbyists and legislation.”

Day Two: Enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Time remaining until 100 hours: Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients.

Ummm.. wasn’t the “War in Iraq” the biggest issue of the campaign?  Where’s that fit in?  Where’s the big plan? Come on folks, tell us how everything is going to be better now that you have the gavel. What did we buy on Nov.7 and when can we expect to receive the merchandise?

Let’s take these one day at a time

Day One: Interesting sound bite, what exactly does it mean?  Restricting money coming in to campaign war chests from lobbyists? Accepting the money but not providing access?  Accepting the money, providing the access, but only from lobbyists that support liberal positions because they act in American’s best interests (like pro-choice, affirmative action, labor unions)?

Day Two: All of the recommendations? Wonder if she’s read it yet. If you haven’t at least read through it, you should so that you know when someone is BS’ing you about the content. So.. click here to get your very own copy of the 9/11 Report.

A few excerpts from the recommendations (starting on page 361):

Bin Ladin and Islamist terrorists mean exactly what they say: to them America is the font of all evil, the “head of the snake,” and it must be converted or destroyed. 

It is not a position with which Americans can bargain or negotiate. With it there is no common ground—not even respect for life—on which to begin a dialogue. It can only be destroyed or utterly isolated.

But this process is likely to be measured in decades, not years. It is a process that will be violently opposed by Islamist terrorist organizations, both inside Muslim countries and in attacks on the United States and other Western nations. The present transnational danger is Islamist terrorism.What is needed is a broad political-military strategy that rests on a firm tripod of policies to 

• attack terrorists and their organizations; 

• prevent the continued growth of Islamist terrorism; and 

• protect against and prepare for terrorist attacks. 

Our strategy should also include defenses. America can be attacked in many ways and has many vulnerabilities. No defenses are perfect. But risks must be calculated; hard choices must be made about allocating resources. Responsibilities for America’s defense should be clearly defined. Planning does make a difference, identifying where a little money might have a large effect. Defenses also complicate the plans of attackers, increasing their risks of discovery and failure. Finally, the nation must prepare to deal with attacks that are not stopped.

Recommendation: The U.S. government must identify and prioritize actual or potential terrorist sanctuaries. For each, it should have a realistic strategy to keep possible terrorists insecure and on the run, using all elements of national power. We should reach out, listen to, and work with other countries that can help.

Recommendation: Just as we did in the Cold War, we need to defend our ideals abroad vigorously. America does stand up for its values. The United States defended, and still defends, Muslims against tyrants and criminals in Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. If the United States does not act aggressively to define itself in the Islamic world, the extremists will gladly do the job for us.  

Recommendation: Our report shows that al Qaeda has tried to acquire or make weapons of mass destruction for at least ten years. There is no doubt the United States would be a prime target. Preventing the proliferation of these weapons warrants a maximum effort—by strengthening counterproliferation efforts, expanding the Proliferation Security Initiative, and supporting the Cooperative Threat Reduction program. 

This is just a sample of the pages of recommendations…. all easily enacted on Day Two… luck with that.

Time Remaining in the 100 Hours:

• Raise minimum wage? Arguments can be made on both sides, but is this a top priority?  Or low-hanging political fruit.
• Cut interest rate on student loans in half…  sounds good to me (says the man with two kids in college).  On the other hand, the rates are already low.  Before we start handing out millions of dollars to subsidize interest rates for student loans, how about some hard data on how much this will lower monthly payments of student loans.  Cutting the interest rate does nothing to reduce the amount of principle that must be paid against the loan each month, so I’m betting the reduction in monthly payment will be minimal and this is essentially low-hanging political fruit
• Allow the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies? Do we really want to go down that path comrade?

So… now that we’ve solved all of the major, pressing issues of our time in the first 100 hours, what’s the plan for Iraq?  Anytime you’re ready, no rush, it was only the reason you believe you were elected.

Gina Cobb points out that we need to root for the Dems to succeed in leading us in a “helpful direction”… I agree… we can not afford to let politics get in the way of our nation’s security just because the Dems did.

UPDATE:  For a humorous take on the whole thing, visit Wake Up America

This entry was posted on Friday, November 10th, 2006 at 2:30 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.