To listen to Republicans you would have to believe that their philosophy is for a smaller, less intrusive government; for authority and responsibility to be divested from Washington and vested in the individual; families not bureaucrats should be the ‘deciders’.
They believe the basis for government and law should be the Constitution and ‘original intent’. And that the tenth amendment is the prime directive for locating political authority with the state.
Well that’s what they say but not what they propose.
Republicans are scathing in their condemnation of President Obama’s Keynesian approach to job creation (John Maynard Keynes proposed that governments use deficit spending to stimulate demand during economic downturns). But even as they claim that the government suffers from a ‘spending problem’ and that the Democrats just ‘throw money’ at problems they are demanding that we ‘throw money’ at defense, border control and homeland security.
They claim that we are protecting some vital national interest, that people who question the cost of fighting or who want to stop the wars are traitors. But when you consider the waste and fraud in procurement and the type of weapon systems politicians foist on the military it is reasonable to see part of the billions we spend on defense as nothing more than a government profit plan for big business; the transfer of wealth from the tax payer to corporate America.
Republicans say that we cannot sustain the current level of entitlement spending, but the last big addition to the social safety net – the senior prescription plan – was a Republican creation, signed into law by Bush Jr. after it was enacted by a Republican House and Senate.
Their big government philosophy encompasses more than money. They are also big into values – their values. It was despite fierce conservative opposition that contraception was legalized, that women gained the right to their own bodies, that consenting adults could decide for themselves what constitutes acceptable private behavior.
Despite a supposed reverence for the Constitution (including the First Amendment) they are eager to ban books; not just because they are too graphically sexual or violent, but for political and religious reasons.
Despite the Establishment Clause – (1st amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”) - they are constantly trying to shoe horn religion – specifically Christianity and a very specific Christianity at that – into the public arena; most egregiously into science classes.
Despite their professed love of the individual and original intent they persist in fighting a ‘War on Drugs’ that has cost $2 trillion (there’s that waste of tax payer money again) and has done nothing to reduce drug use. Nowhere in the Constitution or in the jurisprudence of the first 100 years of the Republic are there any anti-drug laws.
They esteem the Tenth Amendment – (“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”) - as a tool to contain the reach of the Federal government – sometimes. To Republicans it is applicable, except when states pass laws permitting assisted suicide, medical marijuana or same sex marriage or when a State Supreme Court allows a husband to take his comatose wife off of her feeding tube.
Both political parties are addicted to spending but the Republicans are not so eager to pay for it. Both parties are eager to tell other people how to lead their lives but the Republicans pay homage to the rights of the individual. Both parties love the power and size of government but the Republicans won’t admit it.
Republicans will have you believe that they don’t like big government but that doesn’t stop them from applying for entry to the club.
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