How the GOP can regain its political “brand”

How can the Republican Party (GOP) really distinguish itself from the Democrats?

By taking clear, well-articulated positions for:

1. LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT - Retrenching the expanding federal reach, doing away with federal grants-in-aid to state and local governments while simultaneously reducing the federal tax burden so that state and local governments are at greater liberty to do what needs to be done based on local realities (or not do what does not need to be done, as the case may be). Along with this, Congress should take specific action to re-articulate and reinforce states' rights and the return of greater liberty to U.S. citizens.
   
2. FREE MARKETS - Taking a strong and well-articulated stand against corporatism and bailouts for businesses or unions, presenting a new vision for unfettered economic growth to the middle class. This vision should include reducing the regulatory burden on business and industry by granting increased liberty to individuals (the consumers) to decide more about what they want and don't want in products, in services, in their employment and in benefits.
   
3. SOUND MONETARY POLICY - Get control of the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB)  to help re-establish the value of the U.S. Dollar ( USD ), which is being gradually destroyed through inflation since the inception of the Federal Reserve banking system.

Wyoming begins study on “Doomsday Bill”

Probably not a bad idea?

Big Government damages the economy, reduces wages, and more

Without being overly dramatic, it is a fair statement that the presence of government is, in itself, induces economic distortions into the economy. This is true for at least two reason:

1. Taxes, collected in any form to support government operations, change the basis of economic calculation and take resources (e.g., capital, manpower) out of the private economy
   
2. Government regulations take further resources from the private economy, by forcing businesses to employ capital and manpower in efforts to comply with these regulations

The larger government grows, the taxes it takes to support it and the more regulations it promulgates, the greater the economic distortions. However, the effect of government growth (as a percent of GDP) is not linear. Instead, as government grows beyond a certain point, the curve turns upward exponentially.

Texas A&M University’s Edgar Browning, writing in Stealing From Each Other (2008), concludes that out own excessive government reduces average incomes in the U.S. by about 25 percent. The more the U.S. politicians insist on growing spending, the more average American incomes will be squeezed downward.

Mind you, the squeezing will occur only against the middle class. The extremely wealthy—especially those connected with international banking and capital brokerages (Wall Street)—are affected by this squeeze. Similarly, those at the bottom of the economy are not greatly affected. They are sheltered mostly because they are being propped up through (damaging) government entitlements and supports (e.g., welfare, minimum wage mandates).

There’s more damage

As government grows, the more it creates a top-down bureaucracy that was formerly alien to our American tradition of individual liberty. The growth in federal power and over-regulation tends to destroy both diversity and innovation in state and local governments by seeking to impose nationwide uniformity through its rules. Federal aid to states is always accompanied by reams of regulations that reduce freedom and operating choices.

In short—whether we run trillion-dollar deficits or not—cutting federal spending is beneficial because the cuts automatically contribute to the dispersion of power (back to the states) and the expansion of liberty.

Many of us are unhappy...

"Many of us are unhappy about our worsening economic problems, about the constant crisis atmosphere…, about our diminishing prestige…, about the weakness in our economy…, about our lack of strong, straightforward leadership. And many Americans today, just as they did 200 years ago, feel burdened, stifled and sometimes even oppressed by government that has grown too large, too bureaucratic, too wasteful, too unresponsive, too uncaring about people and their problems.

"Americans, who have always known that excessive bureaucracy is the enemy of excellence and compassion, want a change in public life - a change that makes government work for people. They seek a vision of a better America, a vision of society that frees the energies and ingenuity of our people while it extends compassion to the lonely, the desperate, and the forgotten.

"I believe we can embark on a new age of reform in this country and an era of national renewal - an era that will reorder the relationship between citizen and government, that will make government again responsive to the people, that will revitalize the values of family, work, and neighborhood and that will restore our private and independent social institutions. These institutions always have served as both a buffer and bridge between the individual and the state - and these institutions, not government, are the real sources of our economic and social progress as a people.

"That's why I've said… that we must control and limit the growth of federal spending, that we must reduce tax rates to stimulate work and savings and investment. That's why I've said we can relieve labor and business of burdensome, unnecessary regulations and still maintain high standards of environmental and occupational safety. That's why I've said we can reduce the cost of government by eliminating billions lost to waste and fraud in the federal bureaucracy…. And, because we are a Federation of sovereign states, we can restore the health and vitality of state and local governments by returning to them control over programs best run at those levels of government closer to the people. We can fight corruption while we work to bring into our government women and men of competence and integrity." -- Ronald Reagan (1980)