Classic Liberal Blog

First, a little background on where we are.

Tax Freedom Day: Real or Imagined?

Americans this year will spend more on taxes than on clothing, food, and shelter combined. Obviously, we sometimes make bad purchases. Some of the clothes we wore fell out of style and some of the meals we ate were tasteless. Some of the houses we lived in proved hard to sell.

But consider the value of the government "services" that we received: bailouts of banks, companies, homeowners, labor unions, and most everyone else with political connections; a coming federal takeover of the health care system, which will reduce both the choice and quality of care; a gaggle of foreign "welfare queens" on the American military dole, dedicated to doing as little as possible for their own defense; expanding government bureaucracies at home determined to micro manage our lives at work, at play, and at home; out-of-control entitlement programs set to wreck federal finances; and thousands of pork barrel projects designed to reelect the very politicians who voted for all of the aforementioned programs and policies.

Now, the truth about Republicans.

Republicans Against Repeal

Kirk noted "a sliver of good things in the bill which Republicans agreed with." Judging from the similarities between the new national health care regime and the Massachusetts bill Republican Sen. Scott Brown voted for and GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney signed into law, for some Republicans it is more than a sliver.

Republicans against repeal have found an amen corner in the cooler heads among conservative commentators. One Oliver Garland even counseled that repeal was fundamentally unconservative: "True conservatives are not radicals; they respect tradition and work for stable reform to fix institutions."

There you have it: Repealing a bill that became law last month is radical. Acquiescing to a decades-long flurry of legislation that effectively repeals the Constitution's limits on federal power is conservative. Ronald Reagan should have raised taxes to conserve the Great Society and shouted, "Mr. Gorbachev, remember and reform that wall!"

Then again, this appears to be the working definition of conservatism embraced by most GOP politicians. Republicans campaign on canceling spending programs, shutting down government agencies, and overturning Roe v. Wade. But once safely in office, they tend to leave most liberal handiwork alone, failing to repeal even Bill Clinton's tax increases. Occasionally they add a few big-government flourishes of their own -- a new entitlement to enlarge Medicare's unfunded liabilities here, a record increase in federal education spending there.

When David Frum blogs about the Republican pedigree of some ideas in the Democratic health care bill and suggests Republican snouts should have found their way to the trough, there is outrage. When Republicans actually govern this way, too often there is silence -- eerily like the hush that falls over antiwar protests after Democrats are elected on promises to end wars, even though the wars still continue.

Conservatives, don't count on the Republican Party to turn this country around. Support individual candidates only. That 'R' on the lapel ... is meaningless.