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Opinion
Jul. 25, 2008
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EDITORIAL: Exemplars of rectitude, fiscal sanity

Oklahoma senator earns wrath of Reid, Democrats

Considering the performance of the two elected obstetricians most recently in the national eye, it's intriguing to speculate how much better off the country might be if we could send the 533 big spenders currently holding down seats in Congress on an extended world cruise, replacing them for a term or two with randomly selected members of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, requiring only that they read aloud Article I Section 8 of the Constitution (the powers of Congress) before taking their seats.

In the lower house, Texas Rep. and baby doctor Ron Paul has received the honorific "Dr. No" for his determined opposition to allocations of tax money for purposes not authorized in the Constitution. That is to say, to most of the spending bills that now sail through Congress with hardly another discouraging word.

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    • Coincidentally enough, over in the upper house, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is also a baby doctor -- and also drives fans of "unlimited government" to distraction.

    Under Senate rules, a single senator can put a "hold" on almost any bill, barring it from slipping through without full (time-consuming) debate unless 60 fellow senators vote to overrule that "hold."

    And Sen. Coburn has used that power widely enough to draw the ire of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose Democratic-socialist coalition now sees 35 of its pet spending projects waylaid by Sen. Coburn's predilection to exercise his "hold."

    Sen. Reid has now packaged up those 35 bills, which he argues have "virtually unanimous" bipartisan support -- though, curiously, Sen. Reid hasn't been able to cobble together 60 votes to override Sen. Coburn's "hold" on a single one -- and now demands an up-or-down vote on his package, possibly on Saturday or Sunday.

    The Democrats brag that their package of bills includes funds for paralysis research and a national database for victims of Lou Gehrig's disease -- the kind of measures which (true enough) few politicians wish to go on record opposing, lest they be accused of "favoring disease" ... though in fact the Constitution grants Congress no power to fund medical research.

    The Democrats are less likely to mention that the package authorizes $11 billion in new spending and creates at least 34 new deathless federal programs, according to Sen. Coburn's tally. They're also reluctant to mention it includes more money for the counterproductive War on Drugs; funding for a War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission (we can't wait till they get to the Mexican War), and an act to prohibit the commercial sale of apes and monkeys. (When do they get around to dogs?)

    Even the bills authorizing money to fight crippling disease "do so ineffectively, by duplicating spending and existing programs that have not demonstrated results," Sen. Coburn charges.

    "This legislation prioritizes the parochial wishes of many senators above the true needs of the American people," Sen. Coburn said on his Web site.

    "The fact that he wants things paid for, that is a good thing, that is fiscal discipline," Nevada's other senator, Republican John Ensign, said in Sen. Coburn's defense.

    Don't mistake what this fight is about. In Washington, a few lonely examplars of rectitude and fiscal sanity are standing at a bottleneck in the road to bankruptcy, like Leonidas and his Spartans.

    Against them the majority -- led by Harry Reid and his Democrats -- seek to pour through like a barbarian horde, spending billions more tax dollars at a time when American taxpayers are struggling to keep a car on the road and food on the table.

    America does not need $11 billion in new non-essential spending, much less 34 new federal programs (including the War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission) that will still be sucking tax dollars when many of us are in our graves.

    The best thing the Congress could do now is to repeal the ban on drilling for oil offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; repeal or suspend any federal laws which block the rapid and reasonably safe construction of new oil refineries and nuclear power plants, and then go home.

    But for those vital steps to jump-start our economy -- we will doubtless be told before September by these same Democrats now hyperventilating over the commercial sale of monkeys -- there "just won't be time." Will there?



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    Where is the Republican Waste? EVERYWHERE! wrote on July 25, 2008 08:05 PM: Just watch the video, AM radio psychos posting here: tim, Hellen, dennis1944, Lawrence:

    The books are Republican cooked:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj1rT4bszWg


    Republican Corporate Welfare wrote on July 25, 2008 08:01 PM: But what about all the Republican corporate welfare we fund that this editorial ignores?


    dennis1944 wrote on July 25, 2008 03:42 PM: I doubt very much that the dems and liberals ever heard of "The Constitution". I am sure there are many of them who certainly don't understand what the reservation of powers means. Probably they "NO HABLA ENGLISH"


    timinator wrote on July 25, 2008 11:59 AM: Fafner, it isn't whether there should be a War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission, it's whether the federal government was granted the power by the states through the Constitution to fund such things.

    Most of the republicrat federal spending over the last 80 years (and it's incumbent $9 trillion debt) is because of unConstitutional largess.

    And that includes policing and subsidizing the world, for you "liberals" out there.


    Fafner wrote on July 25, 2008 09:58 AM: "funding for a War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission (we can't wait till they get to the Mexican War)"

    Yes, god forbid Americans should become better-informed about their history. I'm sure you would also applaud the Vermont school district which, in the interests of saving time and money, instructed that American History classes would begin with the Civil War and proceed forward from there.


    HELENWEILS wrote on July 25, 2008 09:18 AM: I'm so disgusted I could barf. The RJ is
    spot on and so is Lawrence, tim, br, and b. God help us all!


    Lawrence Hyde wrote on July 25, 2008 07:45 AM: Wait till next year, we will have obama as president, reid running the senate and polosi running the house. Taxes will go through the roof the costs of everything will increase more sharply than ever, (partly because of the increased taxes), and they will be giving more and more of this country to other countries. I can understand why the government is in favor of doing away with any mention of God. Without him the common person has no one. It is going to be a sad, sad situation.


    tim wrote on July 25, 2008 06:32 AM: 34 new federal programs?holy SH#@!does harry live in a bubble?scratch that we already know he does.
    just think of all the new gov.workers unions they could invent.more pigs gorging at the trough,led by the king of waste, our own harry (never saw a tax he did'nt like)reid and his band of merry morons,the democrats.
    well i'm sure they will get their way,look who,s in control of congress.someboby throw me a liferaft,i'm sinking!


    br wrote on July 25, 2008 06:15 AM: Meantime, Dingy Harry is fast tracking his anti-pologomy bill through the system. He can't be bothered by the petty stuff like spending bills or the energy crisis.


    b wrote on July 25, 2008 05:28 AM: Yep, I can just hear Harry Reid saying "there won't be time". Funny, he has time to get all senators and my money tied up in his church. It's funny we don't have something in place to imprison a person like Reid who has gotten completely out of control.