The 2006 election is over. I wish I could say that until the next election we have done with our public duty. I wish I could say that we can now sit back and simply enjoy the holiday season and feast on Thanksgiving turkey and enjoy the gift-giving and family togetherness of Christmas. I cannot; now is the time for dirty deeds.
As cartoon below illustrates, in a democracy, your right to vote threatens every other right. After all, we have not elected saints and humble wise men and women to public office, we have instead elected ambitious people who have made promises. Some of their promises were very unwise.
Chuck Asay works for the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. His work can be found online at http://www.comics.com/editoons/.We now have a little less than two years to the next election. During the lame duck session and shortly after the new Congress convenes, our leaders will try to do their dirty deeds. When they hope no one is watching, when there is plenty of time for us to forget before the next election, they will pass those bills we are most likely to abhor. Here are some examples.
D.C. Voting Rights
Congressman Tom Davis, one of our own, is pushing a bill to make the District of Columbia a congressional district. In addition, to make his bill “politically neutral,” Davis’s bill would create a congressional district in Utah, a red state.
Davis’s bill is not politically neutral. Davis would have Congress exercise power the Constitution does not give it. The Constitution empowers Congress to create new States. States have congressional representation by virtue of the fact that they are states.
Immigration/Amnesty
The rich people in this nation dearly love inexpensive labor. If you own capital assets, factories, meat packing plants, farms and such, the availability of cheap labor increases your profits. That is why we have millions of people in this country illegally. Unfortunately, it is no secret President Bush wants a guest worker program and the Democrats would love to have another amnesty program.
The last amnesty did not work, and we do not need another. Instead, we need to encourage the folks who have entered our nation illegally to go home and straighten out their own countries. We have too many people, most of them poor and uneducated, overrunning our southern border.
For our children’s sake, we must stop this vast inflow. Because these people are not learning our language and about our culture, their sheer numbers will inevitably balkanize our society.
Minimum Wage
As their first step in showing how wonderfully compassionate they are, the Democrats will seek to increase the minimum wage. Such stupidity needs to be nixed in the bud.
The minimum wage is based upon absurd economic theory. A simple question demonstrates this absurdity. If increasing the minimum wage by a dollar is a great idea, why not increase the minimum wage by a hundred dollars?
Of course, if we increased the minimum wage by a hundred dollars, employers would not be able to afford to pay such a wage. Like it or not, employers cannot pay people more than their labor is worth. That is true whether you increase the minimum wage by a dollar or a hundred dollars.
Iraq
In an attempt to salvage the people of Iraq from the clutches of a maniacal tyrant, our nation has invested its blood and treasure. Do not let our leaders confuse your disgust with the recent performance of the Republican leadership with a faint heart. Let your congressman, senators and the president know that you know the difference between retreating with honor and desertion.
What can we do?
Remind your Congressman that you are paying attention. Write letters, emails (http://www.house.gov/) and ask your friends to do the same.
Let’s not forget energy prices. The Dems have a pathological urge to attack “Big Oil,” never mind that things like “windfall profit taxes” only hurt consumers, and that oil revenues to have not been all that high compared to other industries.
And as much as they hate actual sources of energy, they adore pipe dreams like ethanol and solar power. So we can expect more tax dollars wasted on pointless subsidies of unprofitable industries.