Breaking the “Party of No” Label
*The following was my opening monologue to start my internet radio show “Gillespie” airing Tuesdays at 7pm on FTRradio.com. In case you miss the show I will be posting these here every Wednesday following the Tuesday show.*
Friends, if you caught last week’s monologue, you heard me discuss the two main competing philosophies of government here in the United States. We specifically discussed the benefits of the limited government philosophy under which the nation was founded, the principles which have enabled The United States to become perhaps the greatest nation which has ever existed. We talked about the importance of a consistent framework of laws to operate under as well as allowing free people the room to use their own creativity and energy to thrive.
However, in this current environment, the left has done a fairly decent job of painting the GOP as an obstructionist party, the so-called “Party of No”. But this silly “Party of No” nonsense would have you believe that Republicans in Washington are just a collection of frat boys trying to annoy the Democrats in charge by being as big of a pain in the rear as possible. At least, that what Democrats and their allies in the media would like you to believe. They want you to think that Republicans are just wandering around Capitol Hill trying to see what mischief can be caused next.
Unfortunately for them, we have Congressman Paul Ryan, a policy wonk with a reverence for bold new ideas. Congressman Ryan approaches new ideas the way Nancy Pelosi does a fundraiser, with an energy and excitement that literally overtakes you. He’s not afraid to put something out there for discussion, nor is he reading the latest polls, or God forbid, a teleprompter, in order to decide what he should say next.
But the funny thing about Congressman Ryan’s “Roadmap”, is that there isn’t anything on it that you would classify as “far out there” or truly off the map. Well, unless you’ve made government your god and worship at the altar of Keith Olbermann. Instead, Congressman Ryan’s Roadmap is filled with the kind of ideas that swept a soft-spoken former Governor of California into the presidency about 30 years ago. In fact, there’s no question that Congressman Ryan would’ve been very much at home in the Ronald Reagan administration.
The sad thing about this discussion is that Democrats will say that these ideas are “simple”, that governing is too complicated to fit onto a bumper sticker. As if “Yes We Can” was the deepest policy statement in the history of political campaigns.
Cutting taxes to allow more people to keep the money that they’ve worked so hard for? Just more “tax cuts for the rich” say our friends on the left.
Reducing the size and scope of our government so that the final bill can be lowered? Just more attempts to starve the poor or hurt women and children, is the predictable response from liberals.
It’s just too bad we don’t have any way to prove that our ideas on the economy actually work, or at least evidence from a more recent time than the Reagan Administration. Or do we?
Well, it just so happens that the good folks of Germany have provided us with such evidence. Germany, you say? The land of the cradle-to-grave welfare state? Birthplace of Marx? Why yes, that very same Germany is currently providing us with all the needed evidence to prove that we are correct, that Congressman Ryan’s Roadmap is exactly the prescription that this sick economy is crying for.
What if I told you that the German economy has essentially recovered from this so-called “great recession”? That economic growth and unemployment figures are better than when this global slowdown even began? Would you believe me? Would you believe New York Times columnist David Brooks, one of President Obama’s biggest fans?
According to Mr Brooks’s latest column entitled “The Parent Model”, he describes how this recession was a great opportunity to demonstrate two completely different economic theories, the borrow and spend approach favored by American liberals, and the cut and reduce model eventually enacted by the German government. So, while the US borrowed about 6% of our GDP in an attempt to spend our way out of trouble, the Germans spent only 1.5% of their GDP on some immediate, short-term items.
As Brooks writes in his column:
“American economists accused German policy makers of risking a long depression. The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, countered, “Governments should not become addicted to borrowing as a quick fix to stimulate demand.”
In the immortal words of the great philosopher Homer Simpson, “DOH!”.
So, there you have it. Actual physical, real-life evidence that conservative economic theory is superior to liberal economic theory. This debate has moved out of the textbooks and into history and we have won. Our ideas are superior and they work, and we can now (again) point to the evidence.
As Lady Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually
run out of other people’s money.” Well Lady Thatcher, I’d say that we’ve arrived at that point.
