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A Voice from Fly-Over Country
May 28, 2013
"Many Republicans Do Not Believe in Government"
by Robert L. Hale
fitzgerald griffin foundation
MINOT, NORTH DAKOTA — During an interview on National Public Radio earlier this year, Nancy Pelosi (D –CA) said, "Many Republicans do not believe in government." She described these Republicans as anti-government ideologues who have changed the GOP into a party that wants to destroy government.
… our elected representatives do not listen to us, represent us, or deliberate on what they do; they clearly have no idea what American Constitutional government is. Instead, they pass unwritten, unread, and unconsidered laws. Whether one is a Democrat, Republican, or independent, a reasoning person would be hard pressed to make sense of Pelosi's comments. This is hardly surprising to those not infected with an "inside-the-Beltway mentality." Little of what comes from either political party makes sense to those of us forced to fund and then live under the increasingly Orwellian government Americans have in place.
I very much believe in government. I do not believe in the government we now have, however — the one that Congresswoman Pelosi has proudly worked to impose and that she now seeks to expand. I believe in a limited, representative government — one that deliberates responsibly and considers carefully whether it has legitimate authority to do what it does before it forces its whims on us.
I believe in representative government, not one epitomized by the flippancy made famous by Pelosi. For example, when leading the Obama Administration's nationalization of health care, she told us that we would know what was in the law when it was passed; and when asked if the proposed law was constitutional, she blithely retorted, "Are you kidding?"
America's debt exceeds $16 trillion. Every dollar is a deferred tax, a claim on our families' current and future earnings and wealth. For decades, the majority members in Congress — regardless of which party has been in power — has ignored the financial mess that they created and that they continue to increase.
In 2011, Congress agreed to resolve the mess and set a deadline to do so. That deadline has come and gone, but the mess has not been resolved. In lieu of bold measures to restore fiscal sanity, Congress passed a bill on January 1 that imposes major tax increases and calls for substantial expansion of America's debt.
The Congressional actions and Pelosi's cavalier comments showcase the view of the majority members in Congress — this is the sort of government they seek, and they have every intention of building on their successes. Their views and actions are neither representative nor deliberative, nor do they adhere to the constitutional limits of the government that made this country the greatest in the history of mankind. For decades, the majority members in Congress — regardless of which party has been in power — has ignored the financial mess that they created and that they continue to increase.
As with the creation and imposition of Obamacare, our elected representatives do not listen to us, represent us, or deliberate on what they do; they clearly have no idea what American Constitutional government is. Instead, they pass unwritten, unread, and unconsidered laws. The governance they practice is not one in which I believe. It is not the one that guided our country for its first century and a half.
Our elected representatives did not read or analyze the 154-page "fiscal cliff" bill before imposing it on 330 million Americans. These representatives took exactly three minutes to read, consider, and discuss it after it was presented, and then they simply chose to pass and impose it. The bill did not address the growing deferred tax liability about to be imposed on Americans. It did not address unlimited, unaccountable, spending excesses, and it continued to ignore fiscal restraint and common sense.
Currently, we have a congressionally imposed debt limit, a limit that Congress has continually and routinely increased. In effect, the limit has become meaningless. Yet, it is a claim on the wealth of America that now averages $50,000 on very man, woman, and child in the country. Every additional trillion adds more than $3,000 per person.
The Republicans whom Pelosi claims, "don't believe in government," are "anti-government ideologues," and "don't believe in a public role" are the only ones demanding reductions in spending, the debt, and the size and growth of government. Pelosi, in contrast, said she would raise the debt limit; many in Congress are calling for an elimination of the debt ceiling altogether. President Obama says that not raising the debt ceiling is not negotiable.
The question is, does America want Pelosi's and Obama's mandated and unlimited government without deliberative representation by those we elect, or the American government our Founding Fathers gave us? We are about to find out.
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A Voice from Fly-Over Country is copyright © 2013 by Robert L. Hale and the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation. All rights reserved.
Robert L. Hale received his J.D. in law from Gonzaga University Law School in Spokane, Washington. He is founder and director of a non-profit public interest law firm. For more than three decades he has been involved in drafting proposed laws and counseling elected officials in ways to remove burdensome and unnecessary rules and regulations.
See a complete biographical sketch.
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