And Harry Reid Thinks I'm An Extremist? I Think Not

One irritating trait that seems to be common to President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid is the trait of calling others names when they do not get their way. During the mid term elections last year, President Obama told an audience at a Democratic fund raiser that they had to "punish their enemies," which unfortunately turned out to be any American who dared to have a difference of opinion with the President's policies. Nancy Pelosi decided that any American citizen that dared to have a different opinion on Obama Care than her was un-American, i.e. in a free country, a difference of opinion, in her eyes, makes you a traitor.

Not to be outdone, Harry Reid this week characterized those in the House of Representatives trying hard to get out-of-control government spending reined in as being "extremists." Since I truly and honestly believe that this national debt problem has the highest potential of destroying the country and our democracy than any other threat in a very long time, I would guess that Harry would consider me an extremist also.

But who really is any extremist, Mr. Reid? Let's look at your track record regarding extremism:

• You have been the majority leader in the Senate since 2007 and have ruled that chamber with a Democratic majority for the past five years and will add another year in that span up to the elections in November, 2012. During that five year time period from 2007 through 2011, the Federal government added almost five TRILLION dollars to the national debt.
• If you include the estimated deficit for the next year, the Federal government will likely add almost $6.1 TRILLION to the national debt.
• This additional debt, created while you controlled the purse strings in the Senate, comes out to a debt burden of almost $54,000 for EVERY U.S. household.
• The smallest amount that was added to the national debt while you controlled the Senate occurred in 2007 and 2008, $161 billion and $459 billion respectively, possibly because you were reined in by a Republican President. Once the Republican President was replaced by a Democratic President, the nation's annual budget deficits increased by about three fold, on average, once Obama was in office.
• The total annual deficits rolled up during your tenure as Senate majority leader and the expected deficit next year, include five of the highest annual deficits this country has EVER incurred on a dollar basis. 
• The annual deficits as a percentage of GDP were 1.14% and 3,18% in your first two years as head of the Senate but under a Republican President. Once a Democratic President took office, the country's deficit as a percentage of GDP while you ran the Senate exploded to 10.0%, 8.82%, 10.91% and 6.96% (est. in 2012).
• Even though a recent CNN poll showed that a substantial majority of Americans were in favor of a balanced budget amendment to get debt under control, an issue that had already been passed by the House of Representatives, you would not even allow it to come to the Senate floor for a vote, despite the will of the American public.
• While the Senate was under your control these past five years, you have presided over an economic stimulus program of $830 billion that failed miserably.
• You were complicit in bailing out dysfunctional banks, brokerage houses, auto makers, and other companies, rewarding their incompetence with billions and billions of taxpayer dollars.
• You were complicit in passing legislation that was useless when it came to remedying the country's economic ills including Cash For Clunkers, Cash For Appliances, Cash For Caulkers, the HAMP mortgage program, the first time home buyers rebate program, the small business investment legislation and others.
• You shadily snuck Obama Care through the back door of reconciliation in order to get passage, a piece of legislation that is likely to go down as one of the worst ever written when compared to its objectives and its expected and growing negative financial impact.
• We are still losing the war on drugs, our public schools are still failing, our tax code is a disgrace, we still have no national energy policy, our military is bloated, wasteful, and preparing to fight yesterday's wars, and our election processes are driven not by freedom but by the obscene amounts of money that you and others in the political class allow to distort the will of the people.

And you call me, and others like me, an extremist for wanting to keep the country financially solvent? You call me an extremist for not wanting my kids and grandkids to end up paying for the record setting and record shattering debt and deficits you allowed to incur during your time as the head of the Senate? You call me an extremist for assuming that once in a while the Federal government might actually resolve a major issue in a cost effective manner? You call me an extremist for having a difference of opinion when it comes to the catastrophic waste and spending the the Federal government has incurred under your watch? As the numbers prove above, you cannot blame Bush for this, he at least kept the deficit and debt reasonable in your first two years as the head of the Senate, things did not get really out of control under Bush left office.

Mr. Reid, if I am an extremist for wanting America and Americans to be free again, free of the financial burden that the Federal government's outrageous spending and debt has incurred over the past five years, years when you were in a powerful position of leadership, then I would put forth that I am in pretty good company when you consider the following historical insights:

"A wise and FRUGAL government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government." Thomas Jefferson

"A politician looks forward only to the next election. A statesman looks forward to the next generation." Thomas Jefferson

"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of the opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all of its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." Harry Truman

"The politicians just don't want your money. They want your soul.  They want you to be worn down by taxes until you are dependent and helpless. When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both." James Dale Davidson

"The government is merely a servant - merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. It's function is to obey orders, not to originate them." Mark Twain

"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeat myself." Mark Twain

If these are extremists, than I am proud to be considered in their company. Americans who want government to get out of our lives as much as possible. A government that is responsive to the major issues of our times. A government that is FRUGAL with our hard earned wealth.

You are none of these things, Senator Reid. The Federal government spending you have presided over is extremist by any measure possible. Your name calling and suppression of other Americans' opinions is extremist by any measure. Your incompetence to resolve any major issue during your leadership tenure  is extremist by any measure, namely nothing has been resolved during your tenure, nothing, nada.

So please, start acting like a statesman for once in your life, stop whining if you do not get your way, and stop demonizing us "extremists" who just happen to have a difference of opinion. As Will Rogers once said: "Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest of us."  Stop acting like a politician and start acting like an American, an American that has the country's best interests at the forefront and an American that respects the diversity of opinion that should exist in a democracy. Astonish us for once.




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