Former President Bill Clinton stumped for fellow Democrat Jack Conway on Monday, delivering a strongly-worded repudiation of Republican Rand Paul and his “radical ideas” for a smaller government.
We might as well start there, with the "radical ideas" for a smaller government. There is no moderate, prudent, incremental way to get out of a 14 trillion dollar debt. Screw it, it can't be done.
Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race is between a practical, progressive moderate who has a plan....
....O God, another Democrat with a plan. He's also a "moderate". I'm sick of moderates who reach across the aisle in a bipartisan effort to work with the other side to move the agenda forward and "get something done for the American people". I wish we could boil our choices down to the extremists in each camp.
Moderates have almost compromised us out of existence.
.... versus a guy “with radical ideas and no record to back it up,” Clinton told a few thousand people gathered outside the Administration Building at the University of Kentucky.
Once again, the job is going to require radical ideas. Radical ideas aren't a defect. They're a selling point.
Clinton said Paul would roll back federal protection for people with disabilities....
When time permits, go here to see how much the Americans With Disabilities Act has helped Americans With Disabilities. (Their employment rate was increasing nicely until our government decided to help 'em out.)
.... while pushing tax cuts for rich people.
This dead horse has been beaten until it's a pulpy mess that even vultures are avoiding. The top 50% of the earners pay 97% of the taxes. If taxes are going to be cut significantly, if we're going to get more money out into the productive economy, if we're going to stop politicians from giving your money to their friends, contractors, military suppliers, drug warriors, hangers-on, deadbeats, regulators, worry-warts, global warmists, human barnacles, bureaucrats, slot-fillers, inspectors, teachers who can't teach, African Genital Washers, border guards, obesity police and ethanol subsidizers, then the tax cuts are going to have to go to the people in the top income levels. It really is that simple. You can't cut any lower than zero, and the non-rich are already at zero.
He also mentioned the possibility of cuts to food safety....
These are the people who gave a huge thumbs-up to Oxycontin, but continue to outlaw medical marijuana. For decades, they advised that you eat 6-11 daily servings of bread, cereal, rice and pasta.
....air traffic control....
Heck yes ! Privatize it !
....education....
Oh, for the love of God and all things holy. Is there any dollar amount that will ever be enough? In the last 25 years we've almost doubled the spending on education, and the needle hasn't budged. Privatize it tomorrow. Let a thousand flowers bloom. See what else works and watch parents flock to it.
and workplace training
In the last 9 months, I've probably cycled through 100 Temp Employees. Almost all of them have been through some kind of workplace training, courtesy of Community Colleges, Job Training Boondoggles, or even Porkulus funds. One of them, one out of a hundred, could do a halfway decent job of making some numeric signs with Microsoft Word. I think we can cut Uncle Sam's workplace training programs with no loss of national productivity.
....among other things. Republicans try to portray Democrats as the party of big government spending while claiming to be the party of restraint, Clinton said.
Well, he got that right. Until Obama, Reid and Pelosi made them look like skinflint penny pinchers, Republicans spent more than Democrats. If you're interested, here's something I wrote back in the bright sunshiny period of 2008, back when I actually thought that there was no way ANYONE could EVER outspend George W. Bush. It's pretty funny to look back on.
Sheesh. Obama has made Bush look like Ebeneezer Scrooge.
Anyway, back to my point....There is no moderate way to get us out of a 14 trillion dollar hole. Seriously, can you imagine the Republicans shutting down the Department Of Energy? It's the biggest waste in Washington, but no Republican candidate has mentioned closing it. Department of Education? No way. How about privatizing Social Security, or at least letting us opt out of the program? Nope. That's the 3rd rail.
Republicans spend like there's no tomorrow, usually on a war against drugs or terror or imported wheat or illegal Messicans.
So please consider the Libertarian Party this November. We don't want to run anything, we simply want to kill The Beast. We don't want to lead you, we want you to be left alone. We want to march on Washington and demand.....nothing.
And remember what Bill Clinton said, and what has been the case for the last 30 years or so. If you want a smaller government, voting Republican is a wasted vote.
2 comments:
Actually, I'm pretty sure Rand Paul said he'd like to close the dept of Energy, but that he thought it was unlikely he would ever get a vote on it. So he wants to kill all the bad programs in it, instead.
Anon,
In one of the recent issues of Reason magazine, in their "20 years ago" section, they quote Rand's daddy as saying how pleasant it would be to go through D.C. auctioning off the contents of various departments and then bulldozing the buildings. Energy was one of them.
That apple didn't fall too far from the tree, did it?
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