CAUCUS: Don't applaud anarchists
In the Oct. 23 editorial the claim is made that the Freedom Caucus, described as “crazies,” are fiscally sane. That reminds me of a saying by John Milton: “License when the cry liberty; for who loves that must first be wise and good.” Are the Freedom Caucus and by extension, Raul Labrador wise and good? I think the answer must be no.
When I was in college and studied computer accounting systems design we were taught that when starting up a new system you should run the present system and the new system in parallel for at least one accounting cycle to make sure the new process didn’t have any hidden bugs. According to Dickinson, “… they … throw themselves on the gears of government and bring things to a halt and start to bring change by any means necessary.” The liberty they claim to desire is the liberty of the rich to oppress the poor; the healthy to starve the handicapped; the young to cast aside the elderly. They are not conservatives, but rather anarchists. Their cry is better no government than a government with flaws.
Yes, we are facing a financial crisis: to show how blind sighted and ideologically chained the Freedom Caucus is, Raul Labrador has signed a pledge not to raise taxes. Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyoming, once described this as, “no new taxes, under any circumstances, even if your country goes to Hell.” I would think that a total government shutdown and default on our loans is certainly the road to Perdition.
Let’s look at things that the government can do without leaving our most vulnerable citizens to freeze to death on some deserted ice floe. According to the Washington Post, America spent more on defense than the next 13 countries combined. That does not include veterans’ services. The United States could divest itself of its role as “World’s Policeman” and return to the ideals stated by George Washington in his Farewell Address. Washington urged the United States to avoid an overgrown military establishment, one of the greatest dangers to liberty.
Washington also warned of political factions that would impede the functioning of any of the branches of government, saying they might claim to be answering popular demands or solving pressing needs, but their real intent is to take power from the people and put it in the hands of unjust men (NATO On-line Library). I think it probable that the Father of our Country would look ill upon throwing a monkey wrench in the gears of government.
It would also make sense to implement tariffs on foreign goods and give incentives to bring industry and manufacturing back to America. We could also invest in the future. Reinvigorate the space program and reap the rewards of orbiting power plants, manufacturing things that can only be made in free fall, mining the asteroid belt for minerals and creating new ideas that we Earth-bound people can’t even dream of. The United States has always been a frontier nation and space offers us the High Frontier.
We can raise the tax on capital gains from 15 percent back to what it was during the Reagan Administration — 28 percent. It might hurt the wealthy but, to quote Dickinson, “they’re willing to accept some short term pain.”
For all that the Freedom Caucus claims to be conservatives, their actions say they’re anarchists. The Founders were idealists, but they were also intensely pragmatic men. The Freedom Caucus won’t cut defense spending. They won’t raise taxes. They won’t invest in industry and new technologies. Their only solution to a major problem is to shut down all of our government, including paying our troops, our handicapped, our elderly, our sick, food inspectors. Their response to a national migraine headache is to shoot themselves in the head. That’s hardly a sane response.
JEFF BOURGET
Coeur d’Alene