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Townhall
Finance...
Obama’s
Speech a Shovel Ready Moment
By Jeff Carter
9/9/11
Peter
Berkowitz wrote an editorial in
the Wall Street Journal today about Conservatives and compromise. In
it, he
cites Reagan compromising with Democrats to get a lot of his agenda
passed. He
also cites William F. Buckley’s big tent conservative principles as a
guidebook
for the future.
I
don’t disagree that conservatism is
a big tent movement-and that in the last election cycle the Tea Party
blew a
couple of Senate elections by putting forth bad candidates. I think
they call
that “learning”.
I
challenge Mr. Berkowitz presumption
of compromise on a few key issues.
Obamacare.
Where is the compromise
between socialized medicine and a medical system based on the free
market? I
think everyone in America can agree that our present health care system
is
economically messed up-but should we quietly acquiesce to socialized
medicine?
There is no compromise between Obamacare and a voucher system like Paul
Ryan
envisions.
Stimulus
versus Cutting Spending/Tax
Cuts/Elimination of Loopholes. Where is the compromise between the
Keynesian
big government views of the Obama administration and the Democrats, and
the
Classical economic small government views of the Tea Party? It has been
proven
that no infrastructure projects touted by government post stimulus were
shovel
ready. The multiplier effect of government spending on GDP is zero.
What makes
you think that any proposed government spending on items like
infrastructure
would be any more efficient now? There is a chasm in the economic view
of the
world between the socialist Democrats and the free market Tea Party.
Mr.
Berkowitz advocates for a minimum
social safety net. I don’t disagree, but how we administer that minimum
social
safety net is a big issue. Even allowing the camel nose under the tent
invites
expansion. FDR wanted a minimum social safety net which begat the
albatross we
have today.
Candidates
like Rand Paul and Marco
Rubio won handily in their election races. If the Tea Party were to get
behind
more candidates like that, it will win even more political contests.
There
is no doubt that an agenda
cannot be advanced without some compromise. But the issues that the Tea
Party
are advocating are no different than President Reagan’s denouncing of
the
Soviet Union. On that, there was no compromise.
Read
the column at Townhall Finance
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