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A Test for the Supposedly 'Conservative' GOP 2012 Candidates

December 28, 2011 RSS Feed Print

Will the real conservative please stand up? Readers of a certain age remember a show called What's My Line? During the show people tried to stump a panel of celebrities about their line of work. One was struck by how certain answers could be both applicable to a broad range of professions and yet hilariously revelatory to the audience ("Do you spend more than three hours a day on the phone" applies to both congressmen and those answering 1-900 callers).

[Check out 2011: The Year in Cartoons]

After 18 debates since May 2011, people across the country—and certainly the residents of Iowa—must be getting pretty tired of virtually every Republican presidential candidate's claim to be constantly, genuinely, thoughtfully and tirelessly ... Conservative. Frankly, at this point we've discounted the currency of the term so much we should consider throwing it out. After all, we've lived through enough big government "conservatives" that I for one would rather have a small government advocate than any of the adjective or adverb enhanced stalwarts of conservatism. It seems to me to be a much better test regarding the proper role of the federal government.

[See pictures of the 2012 GOP candidates]

Let me play Steve Allen for a moment with a few questions for presidential contenders:

  1. Did you support the Paul Ryan budget?
  2. Do you oppose subsidies even when your friends, political contributors, or spouses' business partners benefit from them?
  3. Do you now and have you in the past opposed a federal mandate forcing individuals to purchase health insurance?
  4. Do you believe that the rate of increase in federal spending (because that's what we are talking about) should be reduced, even for entitlements and defense?
  5. Do you support fundamental tax reform and lowering marginal tax rates and the corporate tax rate?
  6. Do you reject grandiose government schemes as so-called solutions to everything from problems in the housing sector (caused, by the way, by a grandiose government scheme), energy sector (caused by a grandiose government scheme), healthcare industry (you get the picture), etc.
  7. Are you appalled at the Fed's loose money policy?

If you are honestly able to answer "yes" to all of the above, you can justifiably be termed an advocate of smaller government.

 

Tags:
2012 presidential election,
Republican Party

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Sandra of Wi.

Problem is now the goverment is trying to build and control the middle class . Capitalism and risk takers built the middle class . Anyone can be middle class and more if you depend on yourself , not the goverment . Goverment spending and expansion is whats killing it .

Hunter of WI 7:35AM December 29, 2011

Sandra of WI

1. Says “Why do conservatives want to eliminate the Middle Class?”

The BUM is killing middle class:

Senator obuma was against Bush debt hike. A reminder of what Candidate obama said before he ask for raising debt ceiling of $$$ 1.2 trillion as President:

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”

“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”

http://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/

___

“U.S. Debt Has Increased $48,994 Per SECOND Since Obama Took Office"

December 12, 2011

“When Obama took over for Bush in January of 2009, America was only $10.6 trillion in debt. In less than three years, the nation’s debt has ballooned past the $15 trillion dollar threshold”

“$48,994 per second works out to almost $3 million dollars per minute ($2,939,640)"

“or"

“$176,378,400 per hour"

“or"

“$4,233,081,600 per day – More than four billion dollars of added debt per day.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/u-s-debt-has-increased-48994-per-second-since-obama-took-office/

2. “Conservatives brought in to the "false war"

Democrats forecast war:

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."

--President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."

-Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998

"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country."

-- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction."

-- Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002

http://www.davidstuff.com/political/wmdquotes.htm

Bill Hedges of MO 12:22AM December 29, 2011

Why do conservatives want to eliminate the Middle Class? Do you believe they add no value? Do you not realize they have built this country? Conservatives brought in to the "false war" that killed thousands of Americans and now you want to destroy "Middle Class" American. I support our President and I think he is taking us in the right direct.

Sandra of WI 10:39PM December 28, 2011

Nancy Pfotenhauer

Nancy Pfotenhauer

Nancy Pfotenhauer is president of MediaSpeak Strategies, a national communications firm. Nancy was a senior policy adviser and spokesperson with the McCain for President campaign. She has served as president of the Independent Women’s Forum, director of the Washington office of Koch Industries, a cabinet level adviser, economic counsel to Sen. William Armstrong, chief economist for the Republican National Committee, and she served on President George H. W. Bush’s transition team in 1988. You can follow her on Twitter at @npfotenhauer.

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