With the GOP poised to retake the House and possibly the Senate they have released their "Pledge to America." This is supposed to outline some of the ways Republicans plan to govern this time around if they are given Congress back. In all honestly, what issues have changed, and also what is the likelihood of actually getting most of this done. Mainly, the person in the white house who has to sign these bills into law isn't the biggest fan of theirs. I'm definitely no democrat, and I'm not really that enthused with the Republicans either. I really don't think that this pledge has any real significance, and I don't think a whole lot of people have really taken it that serious. I do admit I didn't read the entire 40+ page document, but I did read through their smaller, pocket edition, of the pledge that lays out the general main points. Anyway, let's look a few points they lay out.
-It starts out talking about how they plan to not introduce any job-killing bills. I must admit that is a very good plan.
-Spending: They want to plan a way to balance the budget, and start reducing the debt. That would be good if they really intended to do that. One way they say to do this is by cutting spending to a pre-stimulus and pre-bailout level. That's nice except even before all of that the budget wasn't balanced. Also, put a cap on new discretionary spending. That's never really happened before, and I'm sure anything defense is exempt from this. They also say they will have weekly spending cuts. I hope no one is really that naive.
-They talk about getting rid of unnecessary programs. Unfortunately, this is much easier said than done, but I hope they can come through on this. Also they don't really list out exactly what programs they want to get rid of. Maybe this is in the actual document, but I have my doubts about that.
-There's a health care section, but we're all aware of the stances and situations there so there's not much to go into.
-There's a read the bill with a three day waiting period prevision, but let's be honest they never really did before so why start now. Most of them probably don't even completely read the short bills. Also, who would enforce this.
-They talk about how they will adhere to the Constitution, and require every piece of legislation to cite where that is legal under the Constitution. I like this a lot, but Bush and Republican blatantly violated the Constitution, so I don't expect that to really be truthful. I like having to cite where the Constitution gives congress the authority to do whatever, but this is sort of flawed. You can use the commerce clause or other things for just about anything, but I would at least still like to have this requirement there.
-Foreign Policy: This is where Republicans really don't understand much of anything, and where they're less government, lower spending, etc. doesn't ever come up. Instead this is the area where government should apparently grow and grow and never stop expanding. Point Two: Keep terrorists out of America. Thanks! I'm glad they mentioned that, or I would've thought terrorists were welcome. The next point says they will, "Enact an overarching detention policy for terrorists combatants." That is just completely ridiculous. I don't want Gitmo to continue to be what it is. Capture the dangerous people then try them then put them in a jail or execute the worst of them or something, but quit the indefinite suspensions of habeus corpus. That's not what America should be. Then Iran comes up, and I cannot fully figure out the fascination by conservatives of Iran. Yes their president is a crazy idiot. I do not deny that, but I'm not afraid of Iran. I'm pretty sure that Iran is never going to drop a bomb on America, and in reality Israel can defend itself since they have their own nukes. The thing that scares me most if Republicans come back to power is a possible invasion of Iran. I can't fathom how they think this would be a reasonable or good decision.
-Immigration is briefly discussed. We'll see what actually happens with that. I would guess nothing really sensible though. They say they will strengthen visa security. I'm not completely positive what exactly that is, but I would guess they are going to make it harder for people get visas. This would make it harder to come here legally therefore causing more illegal immigration. Let's face it this issue is never going to be fully resolved.
They go on to conclude with basically saying that they're not going to do anything that the Democrats have done. Good. I am just so doubtful that Republican policies will show any real difference than before. I don't agree with them on too much, and I probably disagree with Obama and the democrats more. Therefore, I say vote libertarian. Vote for freedom. Don't vote for the lesser of two evils because the lesser of two evils is still evil!
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