You asked for it.....
February 20, 2009
Mr. Michael Steele
Chairman
Republican National Committee
310 First Street
Washington, DC 20003
Dear Mr. Steele,
I have been composing some thoughts for you about our country and the role of our party lately. After watching Glenn Beck tonight covering the doomsday or worst case scenario, I felt it was time to get moving.
I only hope this letter finds its way through your staff and you actually take the time to read it.
If ever our country needed leadership it is today and I feel the Republican party, under proper guidance, can really head off the scenario which was so brutally outlined on Mr. Beck’s show this evening.
Let’s begin with the problems. To me the biggest problem we face today is the population has lost faith in our government. When you said that Republicans had lost their way I started shouting at the TV, this guy gets it!
Here is how I believe that a conservative Republican Party can take over and get this ship righted with the least amount of pain to American citizens.
It is time to use some judo where we take the opponents force and energy and apply it to our advantage. Let’s start with the low hanging fruit.
My theme for another “Contract with America†type sign on with candidates would be this. Our government has stopped listening. That needs to be changed. We are listening America!
I would take the easy stuff like right here in FL our democrat senator said publically that the calls to his office were 10-1 against the stimulus package yet he voted for it. I would then go to Mr. Daschle’s book where he said the reason that the Clinton health care bill got derailed was debate and delay and they needed to ram it through before opposition could be mounted.
If one could document just a few of the obvious things like that and then go from there.
How about this? We have a huge social security crisis, the system is going to go bankrupt etc. The democrats have screamed for years that the rich should pay their fair share, when does congress step up and pay their fair share? They saddle social security with entitlement after entitlement while they get a bit of a different pension. How would you like to have a pension of 100% of your salary for the rest of your life the day you quit your job? Well that is what the fat cats in congress have set up for themselves.
Therefore, if we are elected we will introduce a bill to immediately discontinue all congressional pensions and replace them with social security instead. Why should we continue to pay out millions of dollars in pensions to the folks who got us into the mess to begin with and refuse to fix it? Most of them are fat cat millionaires, they can afford to have pensions just like the rest of us…..social security, period! It’s time for congress to sacrifice a little and pay their fair share!
Think that wouldn’t sell the public??
While we are at it we could leverage the democrats once again. They want to impose a $500,000 salary restriction on top executives of companies who take government bailout money. I ask you this. Why then should the people running Amtrak, the Post Office, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and all the other areas of government business not also do their fair share? They all lose money and your tax dollars go there each and every year to bail them out.
If elected we will introduce a bill to not only limit their salaries but PROHIBIT any government organization from making any campaign donations. Think about how absurd that concept is. A government business is losing money, yet they give millions of our tax dollars away to candidates of their choosing who protect them…..our tax dollars are being used to reinforce the system that gave the executives in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonuses of close to $100 million for getting us in the mess we are today. Elect us we will put a stop to that.
Second issue I would deal with is congressional power, citing many examples of where congress acts, or refuses to act based on their own personal agendas. Our founding fathers missed one big point when they drew up the Constitution. I doubt seriously that they would have ever dreamed of a career politician. The founding fathers had to leave their homes, businesses and farms to go serve their country and it was indeed a sacrifice. They didn’t get private jets, fancy limousines, huge retirement plans, they did it because they felt they could make the country better.
Therefore, if we are elected we will introduce a bill to limit members of congress to 12 consecutive years in the House of Representatives and 12 consecutive years in the senate. Now you will hear the congressmen squeal that it is unconstitutional, people can vote them out any time they want to but pay no attention to it. They are just scared that they might have to get a real job in the real world. We have many good community leaders and business leaders that would do a fine job without having the career and power aspirations that has gripped congress now for decades. This has to stop. As a matter of fact, we would be willing to grandfather any current member of congress so they are not protecting their jobs because in the long run we all know the country will be better off with congressional term limits. The last poll I saw some 80% of the Americans polled were in favor of it…..but once again our government has stopped listening to the people they represent.
Want another example of our government not listening? Why is it that Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid refuse to let a bill come out of committee to drill in the north slope of Alaska and other places. Why did President Obama, his first week in office issue an order to stop the movement toward drilling in Utah? Why, because of millions of campaign donations from special interest groups. They ignore poll after poll of our citizens who want to drill domestically and drill now.
Why is that important? Well for one we have a huge budget deficit remember. Just imagine all the billions of dollars the oil companies would bid to the federal government for the rights to drill. Think how many jobs right here in the United States that would create. And let us not forget that the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world has taken place over the last 20 years as we Americans pay people in other countries for their oil, while, in some cases they take that money and help arm our enemies. The President of Venezuela has openly said that it is time to bring down the American Regime. Why would we want to send him our money to help him with that?
And finally the best reason for drilling is this. The price of oil is set by the law of supply and demand. That is until OPEC controls most of the supply because we decided as a country to stop drilling and send our money over there. If the supply increases our prices will come down and stay down because OPEC will not maintain that control.
That is not to say that we are opposed to alternative forms of energy. We just do not need to go bankrupt while we are waiting for it to be developed. If elected we will offers a stimulus package that includes investment tax credits and assistance for companies to be encouraged to develop and produce alternative energy sources.
One form of alternative energy in nuclear energy. We have had ships at sea now for a couple of generations operating on nuclear energy. The technology is much more advanced from the days when we had our near tragedy in PA. It is time to use logic, rather than emotionally reacting to fear tactics by the uneducated crowd when it comes time to use nuclear power. That will free up our other natural resources and reduce our dependency on foreign oil as well.
Speaking of incentives. We have set up a set of welfare rules that were well intended and well meaning but have incentivized some very expensive behaviors. In any problem solving course one of the tests in arriving at a decision is this. Look for the effects of your decisions, sometime your solutions can cause a bigger problem. Well let me give you a doozie.
When Lyndon Johnson set up his Great Society, he provided for government money for unwed mothers…..to be sure the children were provided for. Unfortunately that became an incentive program that has causes thousands of mothers to have more children because the government gives them more money. Look at the lady who had the 8 children on top of the six she already had, she readily admitted she did it for the government money.
A few years ago the State of Wisconsin and I think New Jersey decided to change their system to say that after the second child, there would be no more additional payments for additional children. While folks howled, the illegitimate birth rate plummeted. Instead of the federal government looking to that and learning they ignored it. If you elect us, we will stop the insanity. It is better for the country and the families involved.
We will pledge to you that we will look at every government spending program and if we find more examples of this type of situation, they will be fixed to stop the incentive to stay on the government dole. Living off the government should not be a lifestyle of choice.
In order to get our ship righted we have to look to ways to cut cost. In industry, you know the real world, if times are tough it is not unusual for management to order each and every department to cut their costs by 5-10%. In our government however there is an illusion, something designed to fool the taxpayers and that is automatic budget increases. Each and every department will automatically get a budget increase unless congress says no they cannot have it. Therefore if congress said to a particular department their budget for the coming year would be exactly the same as last year they would start screaming, they are cutting our budget, you are not going to get this that or the other thing. That is just not true.
If we are elected, we will sponsor a bill to stop that practice. No longer will any department of this government get automatic increases, each year’s budget will have to stand on it’s own. I believe we could go a long way to cutting into our deficit if we just froze the budgets at the current dollar levels for a couple of years. While the government always looks to the public to sacrifice, it is time for the government to do the same thing.
Now let’s discuss health care. There are two issues here which are important. The first one is this. Our government is not listening to the people. Would all the people who want some government employee to have the power to decide that you can have or not have a proper medical procedure based on what is deemed cost effectiveness please raise your hand? Why then are our so called reformers so hell-bent on modeling our government health care after other countries where that is the rule, not the exception. In England they ruled that if an elderly person needed surgery for macular degeneration, the only time the government would pay for it would be after they have gone blind in one eye. It took four years of public outrage for that to get changed.
If you vote for us we pledge to you that any health care plan that is adopted will still allow the patient and doctor control over what type of treatment you and your doctor feels is necessary. That is your RIGHT, and we will not let the government take it away.
The second issue regarding government health care is this. Our opponents say we have a “crisis†on our hands. Everything with them is a crisis. Well on this issue we agree, we have a crisis……a leadership crisis!
How do we know if we have a crisis when we continue to be the only country in the world to spend literally billions of our tax dollars treating people who are in this country ILLEGALLY. Now I know the current administration calls them undocumented, but when you enter this country without a passport and proper permission you are here ILLEGALLY.
We are the only country in the world who does this by the way. Go to Prague and you must post a $50,000 bond to prove you can pay for your health care if something happens before you are allowed into this country.
We make this pledge to the American people. If an Illegal alien comes to a medical facility in need of treatment, they will be treated, that is the humane thing to do. At the same time, we will also deport them, send them home. Now we will also offer them an incentive. If they choose to pay for their treatment, and later wish to apply for citizenship they will be allowed to do so. If they do not pay for their treatment, they must do so before they will be allowed citizenship.
And finally, it is time that our government starts listening to the majority of the people on another issue, securing the borders. Poll after poll indicates that the majority of the American people want our borders secure now. We pledge to the American public that will be one of our top priorities.
Here are a couple of things we would consider. The Rio Grande river is the border between the US and Mexico for several hundred miles. There are times when the river is so low that people can actually walk across the riverbed to the United States. Well one thing to consider is taking some of the stimulus money and building dams along the river so that forms a much more natural border. At the same time we could put generators in those dams along the way to provide for more alternative energy and less dependence on foreign oil.
In addition to that, there is an area south of San Diego where the government was building a fence to secure the border. It seems that some special interest group went to a liberal judge and he ordered that 20 miles of the fence could not be built because it may potentially harm some species of animal. Can you name any animal that you have ever seen that has been harmed by a fence? When it comes to our national security, keeping illegals and terrorists out of this country should be our priority, some common sense has to prevail. It is time to stop the insanity.
Mr. Steele if you could get the republicans running for office to commit to those items in a platform, and straight talk to the public, media be damned, we would win in a landslide.
The public is fed up. Each and every issue I mentioned you will find poll after poll indicating that the vast majority would support the position I outlined.
IT IS TIME TO START LISTENING TO THE PEOPLE WHO HIRED US, THE GOVERNMENT HAS TOO MUCH POWER, IT IS TIME TO MAKE SURE IT IS VESTED WITH THE PEOPLE ONCE AGAIN.
Mr. Steele, the one way to avoid the doomsday that was portrayed on the Glenn Beck program is to have strong leadership THE PUBLIC CAN TRUST. The Republican party has the means to provide that leadership.
MY QUESTION TO YOU IS DO THEY HAVE THE COURAGE?
Best personal regards,
5412