I think we really have to listen to what our GOP friends up on that stage are really saying. There was a consensus up there that the problems we face was caused by a drunk GOP Congress spending too much money during the last six years. What was some of their solutions? One candidate said we must rid ourselves of the Departments of Homeland Security, Energy and Education. Another candidate says that the only purpose of government is defense and nothing else. It was stated that America can no longer afford the trillions spent on entitlements. Of course, those FOX propagandists will never ask the follow up questions that really had to be asked about all this. If true follow-up questions were asked, the American people would begin to understand the consequences of these statements.
Questions should have been asked about the effects of doing away with these cabinet departments. What could possibly happen if we do away with the Department of Homeland Security, or should we say, some of the orginal departments that make up this bureaucratic mess created by the Bush Administration? I think the American people really need to know that the GOP solution to dealing with natural and man-made disasters is to completely do away with FEMA (which is part of the DHS). Yep, the next time a level five hits the mainland, no help at all should come from the Feds. Let us leave relief to our stretched thin national guard units who presently lack the material support they need. Of course, many on the right will be interested in realizing that to do away with DHS is to do away with any type of immigration enforcement. Without homeland security, that function will also be gone. After all, there is no mention of it in the United States Constitution.
Just when we thought that energy independence was becoming part of our national agenda, it makes obvious sense that the department that overseas such issues should be done away with. Who needs pollution controls? Who needs regulation of the oil industry? Who needs possible subsidies for alternate fuel sources? Those white faces we saw on TV tonight have no worry about global warming. After all, who will need energy when the rapture is just around the corner.
Of course there are problems with the No Child Left Behind Act. As an educator, I will be the first to admit this (in another diary). However, the solution proposed by some of these fellows is to completely do away with the Department of Education. Who needs a clearinghouse for educational resource? Who needs those Federal dollars to struggling school districts? Who needs the monitoring of the Individual Disability Education Act and the few subsidies that are given to aid in the education of children with learning differences?
What about those horrible entitlements? Why did not FOX ask this question: Which entitlement will you get rid of? Of course, someone should have mentioned social security. Americans no longer need that waste of Federal dollars. We should be saving our pennies for our old age. If one becomes disabled, that should be a family responsibility. How about Medicare? This is a total waste. Old folks are healthy, and if not, it should be the responsibility of every adult child to pay $200,000 a year for their parent's nursing home. How about unemployment insurance? Why, doing away with this, will force those lazy and shiftless welfare queens who own Cadillac Eldorados to work for a living.
However, at one point, a little truth did come out. When asked what they would cut from the Feds, I only heard one specific answer. Someone stated that in the Department of Health and Human services, they would get rid of stockpiles. However, I never heard this person say what stockpiles? That was mainly all this crew could come up with. Why? If they state what they really would like to do, those on the podium would find out how aghast America would be. These men should remember that the little taste of such ideas America got during the last six years has caused their esteemed leader (who was really never mentioned) to have an average popularity in the thirties. Let us see how much lower we can get these poll numbers to go.