Editorial: GOP needs to figure out its priorties

The Republican Party has some soul searching to do about the basic tenets of freedom and limited government.

Many Americans, including your humble editor, were outraged when a British newspaper (have a think about that for a moment) exposed the fact that the US government is actively engaged in spying on its own citizens.

Those of us who have protested the usurpations of privacy and civil liberties under the PATRIOT Act were not really surprised by the news. America – with the support of both parties – gave up too much, too fast, with too little oversight. Extracting the federal tentacles from our lives will be difficult, and this has been clearly proven in the last several days.

Last week, the US House of Representatives defeated an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that would have halting the unconstitutional seizure of American phone records by a 217-205 vote. Ninety-four Republicans and 111 Democrats voted to kill the program. But 134 Big Brother loving Republicans and 83 Obama lackeys across the aisle kept it alive.

The program narrowly upheld by the House was approved by a secret court, and it makes all of us suspects in the War on Terror. God forbid you send the wrong text or make a flippant remark on your cell phone, because if you do the Watchers might declare you an enemy combatant and cause the Imperial President to pick up his Wii controller and fly a drone down your chimney.

What would Ronald Reagan think of this? What would Thomas Jefferson think of it? America is not free if we cannot trust our government to stay out of our business. But when we know the government is spying on us and treating us like the enemy, then surely we have crossed the line between a free republic and bureaucracy that is bordering on becoming oppressive.

Unfortunately, the program has powerful backers, and it is they who are using fear as a weapon against us in this supposed War on Terror.

Last week, Gov. Chris Christie weighed in on the subject. The New Jersey Republican is frighteningly considered a strong contender for the GOP presidential ticket in 2016. He said that those of us who oppose the NSA spying on American citizens just need a little reality check by visiting with the relatives of those who died in the 911 attacks. But frankly, we don’t need any more laws driven by emotions, especially the emotion of fear.

Christie went on to criticize people like Senator Rand Paul and the patriotic Republicans and Democrats who voted to kill the NSA spying program.

“This strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties right now and making big headlines I think is a very dangerous thought,” Christie said.

No, sir. What’s dangerous are politicians who oppose personal privacy and liberty. What’s dangerous are a bunch of government types who think my Verizon cell phone account is somehow any of their damn business. What’s dangerous is a government that operates in secret, distrusts its own people, flaunts the Constitution, and pursues an agenda of spying on its own citizens.

The Republican Party needs to decide if it is for freedom or against it; and if it’s for it, then it has to stand up and stop these abusive programs.

Meanwhile…

Speaking of stopping abusive programs, it is becoming more and more apparent as the days go by that ObamaCare will be a national train wreck that must be stopped by any means necessary. Health care premiums, which are supposed to be going down, are going up. Large employers are moving more and more to part time workers in order to avoid mandatory health coverage costs, and even the Obama administration has acted to delay implementation of the law (which is not something the executive should be able to do).

The US Senate – with its Democratic leadership and a number of spineless Republicans like John McCain – is a lost cause, so the ad nauseum attempts by the US House of Representatives to repeal the so-called Affordable Care Act are futile. However, the House still controls the purse strings since all spending bills must originate there, and that is the only way that ObamaCare will ever be defeated.

There was some chatter in the news over the weekend that House Republicans might threaten to shut the government down rather than fund Obama-Care, but a few days later that had died down. That is unfortunate. The House leadership, if they are truly in favor of getting rid of this monstrosity, should pull the plug on the whole thing.

But this will not happen. Republicans have not exhibited that kind of courage since the Clinton administration when they forced the president’s hand to reform welfare and balanced the budget. Today’s Republicans are only mouthpieces when it comes to limited government. Their actions too often do not match their words.