Posted by
Boomer911 on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:01:32 PM
I don't think its any secret to those who follow politics that the United States government is out of control. The Democrats (socialists) feel there isn't one problem the country faces that can't be solved with huge tax increases and expanding the size of the federal government. The problem is too many Republicans have fallen into line with this sort of thinking as well. The Founding Father's vision of "limited government" was thrown out the window decades ago and the march to socialism continues on at the peril of our liberties and our fortunes. There is coming a time in the not too distant future when we are going to have to STOP the path we are on or face a very grim reality that the United States is dying a slow death brought about by the very ones we the people elected to save us. Unfortunately, an uninformed and apathetic electorate don't seem to notice the dilemma and continue to throw gasoline on the fire.
It is important to acknowledge those out there on the front lines of politics who are really standing up for the people of this nation by spreading their accomplishments, and this is the exact reason for this post. Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is one of those true conservative heroes, standing up to government interference, regulation, and expansion. Over the past year,
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has placed “holds” on dozens of bills that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had slated for expedited passage through the Senate. With the legislative session drawing to a close, Reid has now bundled all of these bills into one massive package that he plans to cram through the Senate with one single vote. Learning of Reid’s plan, Coburn
spoke from the Senate floor:
That bill is coming about because myself and several other senators have refused to allow those bills to go without debate on this floor and without the ability to amend them. Now, some of them are very good things we ought to be about. But we should not be about it until we are going to inculcate and act as senators the same way every other family in this country has to act; that is, by making a decision based on priorities. …
By historical standards, this is supposed to be the greatest deliberative body in the world. In the 110th Congress, 890 bills have passed — 890. Fifty of them have had debate. Only 50 have had debate. And for most of those, the debate has been extremely limited and shortened through the power of the majority leader. …
So is it any wonder that only 9% of the American public has any significant confidence in the Congress to put forward their interests? We are going to be doing this at a time when the No. 1 issue in this country is energy security and energy prices, but we are going to put a bill on the Senate floor that grows the government, that creates 70 new programs, and spends somewhere between $25 billion and $50 billion.
I would tell my colleagues that most people sitting down to their dinner table think we have our priorities messed up, and they are right. We do.
Earlier in his speech, Coburn noted that according to the Government Accountability Office, federal spending is already around 20% of GDP. If we do nothing to change current policy, it is set to rise to 35% of GDP by 2038. That number is a huge threat to the liberty of America. It is high time the Senate started an honest debate about it.