I swear I thought I linked the following video when I first saw it a week or so ago, but Instapundit linked it yesterday and I didn’t — until now:
The point of the video is that regulations — including residential zoning laws — now place such a high threshold on going into business as an entrepreneur and then hassle small businesses so much that government is now actively killing jobs and destroying wealth creation in the very womb.
So, with Republicans elected as fiscal conservatives ready to take over the purse strings in the House of Representatives in January, thanks to their promises to end our economic depression and create jobs, what have they jumped on as their top priorities?:
- Job one looks like a purely social conservative agenda of ensuring second-class citizenship for gays and the right of the majority to impose their religion on everyone else. It is legitimate in a country born of the fight for individual liberty to coerce people to do things you have not been able to persuade them to do.
- Kill the useless eaters. Eliminate Medicaid and Medicare, which serve the most vulnerable members of society, most of whom cannot work. They are an intolerable burden and deserve to die.
I wonder if this is why we are called “Rethuglicans”? Contra Jim DeMint and John Hawkins, it’s starting to look to me like there is really no such thing as the fiscal conservative/social conservative. For one thing, the first is pro-liberty and the latter is most vehemently anti-liberty, especially regarding freedom of religion and equality for women and gays. The two inherently do not go together. And since a startling number of newly elected fiscal conservatives are ripping off their masks to reveal they intend to pursue the agenda of social conservatives as their priority, it’s reasonable to consider the possibility the ones doing that were liars all along.
However, supposing that the newly-elected fiscal conservatives are indeed honest and sincere, here’s what they doing that is crazy, now they will be ascendant in the House:
- Scaring the living hell out of the majority of the populace by vowing to balance the budget by gutting or eliminating the programs that mostly assist people who cannot work: kill the useless eaters. If you really, really, really, REALLY want people to stick like barnacles where they are AND to hate you with a passion, start by scaring them.
- Making sure people feel trapped and hopeless by telling them they must endure great pain and hardship for the rest of their lives because of their enemies, the grievance groups, and the useless eaters.
One definition of crazy is to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result. The “same thing” Republicans are doing is scaring people and focusing only on hardships and austerities, mostly for people who aren’t them. It’s crazy because it makes it simple for Democrats to position themselves as Santa Claus, even though they’re Stalin. If you want to lead people to a goal, the reason you use a carrot is that people will go straight for the carrot. The reason you don’t use a stick is that people will scatter and run in every direction that takes them away from the stick.
When the goal is to improve your financial situation, you can do it two ways: cut expenses and increase your income. If you increase your income enough, the only reasons you will have to cut expenses are positive ones: changes in your needs and priorities.
Fiscal conservatism is the REAL Santa Claus because it creates the structure required for the largest number of people to make the most of themselves and fulfill their dreams.
So, the objectives that fiscal conservatives can set that would be sane and honest — that is, consistent with the real values of fiscal conservatism — are the ones that increase our income, that create wealth.
In short, newly-elected fiscal conservatives, GET BUSY MAKING SURE CHUCK CAN GET HIS BUSINESS OFF THE GROUND!!!
“I wonder if this is why we are called “Rethuglicans”?”
It’s why I use that word. Thugs is the only appropriate word for that sort of nasty, brutish behavior. And the Dems as you said, can position themselves as the indulgent parent when what they really are is Stalin. It’s repulsive, and gives me ZERO hope for the future of this country. The Dims tell the lie about how compassionate they are, and keep shoveling money at their corporate cronies. The Thugs lie to people about how much they care about individual liberty, and keep shoveling money at their corporate cronies.
Either way, I’m screwed unless I’m a CEO of World Domination, Inc. So why the hell should I care again? Because Barky Obama has left-wing-friendly organic garden, isn’t that just DARLING? Oh, but George Bush is a Ka-RISH-chun like all GOOD right-wingers! Ignore the fact that both of them have done nothing but shovel MY money into other rich bastards’ pockets and destroyed the country in the process, AND eroded my rights.
It’s all sickening, absolutely sickening, and leaves me with no hope at all. Democracy is a form of government that ensures that we get no better than the government we deserve.
Janis,
There is hope, and I was remiss in not emphasizing that more. Fiscal conservatism creates the conditions for the largest possible number of people to prosper and to do it according to their own dreams. The more we turn on that light, the faster we dispel the darkness of the totalitarianisms on both the Left and the Right. Keep reading here and I will continue to explain why we can feel inspired and filled with enthusiasm about the future.
Cynthia
Well said. It has hardly escaped my attention that the bat$*t-crazies who want to use big government to institute theocracy hate the thought of gays and lesbians becoming Republicans and/or growing more conservative. They know that this is, for social reactionaries, the beginning of the end.
It is the one and only way to erode their power-base. But more importantly, it is the way to make this country strong again. All hands are needed on deck if we are to accomplish this.
I have taken some flak for having joined the Republican Party. Some of my friends and associates wrongly assume this means I am surrendering to “the enemy.” But quite to the contrary, this means that I refuse to surrender. I intend to fight not only for every yard of territory, but for every blade of grass. And I’ll fight our enemies on their own turf — which is where the battle must be won.
I wish those criticizing me would stop and think about this. Our enemies — those who really do hate us — want us to do what harms us, not what might help us. That it drives the social reactionaries nuts because we’re becoming more conservative should tell our “progressive” friends something. If they think they’re inflicting any real blows by persisting in their whiny leftism and toadying to Emperor O and the Democrats, they are living in a fool’s paradise.
Off topic reminder: how are you losing weight?
Stinky,
I’ll write about it this week for sure. If I haven’t posted about it by Thursday, please remind me.
Cynthia
So, care to tell me where exactly the newly minted class of Republicans has come out in favor of “gutting” Medicare and Medicade? ‘Cuz I haven’t seen it. Stating that the entitlements HAVE to be reformed isn’t scare tactics, or an attempt to “kill the useless eaters”, it’s the blunt truth. Those programs absolutely HAVE to be reformed, and put on a fiscally sound footing, most likely including means testing, or they WILL crash, they WILL bring the country down with them, and if you want to see a winnowing of the “most vulnerable members of society”, see what happens to granny when she tries to use her $1200/month SS check to buy food after Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation sets in. It’s fiscally conservative to recognize this fact and discuss it, no matter that doing so leaves one wide open to Democrat “OMG! THE EVIL REPUBLICANS ARE CUTTING SOCIAL SECURITY/MEDICARE/MEDICADE/WHATEVER!!!” scare mongering. So, unless you have some story that I’ve missed, (AP-Newly elected Congressman says “We have to eliminate Medicare”, for example), I’m not sure what you’re referring to.
Dave,
If you don’t know that Medicaid IS means-tested, you really don’t understand the discussion. Also, getting rid of Social Security is a standard GOP talking point and the primary alternative Republicans recommend is to let people keep their money so they can build their retirement nest egg by gambling at a casino — no, that’s not it — investing in the stock market.
You also totally missed my point, which is that Republicans and conservatives invariably start their discussions of the economy with their plans for increased austerity and hardship for people who already are hanging by a thread, with never a word for how their lives will be improved by MORE austerity and hardship.
Yet Republicans and conservatives DO have an alternative that would win all but the most hard-core Leftists to our side — increase prosperity by getting rid of everything that is killing it before it can be born or stagnating it so much it dies. We ought to do that first and get that job done thoroughly before making cuts, especially since the more wealth we create, the less cutting we’ll have to do. Plus, that’s the real way to guard against runaway inflation.
Cynthia
Medicare is not means tested, but I was actually refering to SSI. The first step to reforming Medicade is to convert it to block grants to the states.
While I agree with what you just said, I am failing to see the connection between the video and SSI, or Medicare/cade cuts. Yes, of course, over regulation is killing small business, but the vast majority of those regulations are instituted at the state or local level, what is congress supposed to do about them? Defund the EPA, mothball OSHA? I’d be all for it, but that’s not going to do much to address the problem, and the local governments that can ease the regulatory burden can’t do anything about SSI Medicare/cade. I’m just missing the connection.
Dave,
You do know that Medicaid and Medicare are different programs? However, they each target populations who can’t work. SSI is for people too disabled to work and too poor to qualify for SSDI and too young for Social Security and Medicare. People on SSI also get Medicaid. SSI is not welfare. Scaring the bejeebers out of vulnerable people by balancing the budget on their backs is pure folly. It’s crazy to keep doing it because too many people are too frightened about what could become of them to support the cuts AND it’s easy for Democrats to demonize.
The video illustrates how regulations strangle free enterprise, wealth creation and job creation. I’m calling on Republicans at every level of government to get busy clearing out the obstacles to free enterprise, wealth creation and job creation.
Congress is in a position to simplify the tax code, pass a flat income tax, secure our borders, end birthright citizenship, ship illegal aliens back home and bar them from ever returning, reduce or eliminate the capital gains tax, reduce corporate income taxes, and eliminate the inheritance tax — for starters. Congress also can get busy on securing energy independence for the U.S.
Our message should be about balancing the budget by getting government out of the way of wealth creators, rather than by cutting assistance to people who cannot work (infants, children, people with disabilities and poverty, the elderly).
Cynthia
Dave, a HUGE number of those state and local regs are there because of compliance with Federal regs; kill those and the local ones have less cover. As CA is proving, if the local regulatory burden stays bad, businesses, jobs, and people can move elsewhere (like TX where I live), as long as that Federal level umbrella can’t spread the misery.
Hanya E. Poczynok,
My late life partner of over 20 years was quadriplegic the last 10 years of her life and was on Medicaid. I am very familiar with the system. I do not regard it as perfect.
The purpose of the post was to challenge social conservatives who pose as fiscal conservatives to get elected, then as soon as they are in power pursue an agenda of imposing their religious beliefs on others through the government, usually by attacking gay equality or women’s equality. I want them to make fiscal conservative policies their priority. I also think it is foolish to begin the process of restoring the economy to prosperity by terrifying people. It would be much wiser to start with everything that would free individuals and businesses to prosper. When people are prosperous, they are more willing to be prudent.
Cynthia
My SO has been wracked with until-now undiagnosed central sleep apnea for upwards of 15 years now, and was misdiagnosed with (and disastrously treated for) mental illness instead. SSDI has been the only thing that has kept him stable while struggling mightily, and it’s the only reason he’ll have a chance to get back on his feet after gross mistreatment by private and public healthcare officials alike in his attempts to get examined for sleep problems.
This is not so uncommon. It is indeed scary to think that people don’t know or care to understand how many people are holding on by a thread, and how often their lives are already callously treated by people who already don’t think of them as fully human.
Let’s have some compassion. Yes, let’s bring commerce back to America. Then you can actually find places to employ many of the people who are now “the useless eaters.” How many confine themselves because they’d get eaten alive in a corporate setting because of anxiety disorder or ailments that corporate employers would balk at (epilepsy, for one)? I know more than a few. People as their own employers are always kinder than their corporate counterparts. Always. We need people at the helm again.
If austerity is indeed so necessary, let’s try reforming the institutions that take up half our budget, carte blanche, first. I do refer to our national security budget. We can still be effective and take billions off the bottom line.