He's back!

Monday – November 15, 2010

He’s back!

I ended last week with this quote.

In a letter to Jedidiah Morse, in 1822, Thomas Jefferson wrote - four years before he died at the age of 83:

“We are to guard against ourselves; not against ourselves as we are, but as we may be; for who can imagine what we may become under circumstances not now imaginable.”

I offer up this quote to bring into focus the circumstances that we cannot imagine. The new Congressional members are in Washington D.C. this week learning how to be members of Congress. They are being given their House Manuals, Blackberries, Laptops and the rules by which they should conduct themselves.

As the new members of Congress are learning the many rules of their new job, the President is also arriving back in Washington D.C. from his failed mission abroad. These new members will be responsible for rectifying the circumstances and failed measures that this President has gotten his country into. Jefferson was right when he wrote: “for who can imagine what we may become under circumstances not now imaginable.” The new members of Congress come into office with their constituency paying close attention to the way they conduct themselves and how they vote. We should all take time to consider what circumstances might occur that we cannot imagine.

This week, The Lame Duck session of Congress will meet to finish old business and to decide on what tax cuts will be appropriate to save the economy and help get people back to work. The Lame Duck session must pass the Bush tax cuts, so that America can have a chance next year at recovery.

John F. Kennedy knew exactly what to do to revive a stagnant economy and to stimulate the economy. He said: "A tax cut means higher family income and higher business profits and a balanced federal budget. Every taxpayer and his family will have more money left over after taxes for a new car, a new home, new conveniences, education and investment. Every businessman can keep a higher percentage of his profits in his cash register or put it to work expanding or improving his business, and as the national income grows, the federal government will ultimately end up with more revenues." John F. Kennedy, Sept. 18, 1963, radio and television address to the nation on tax-reduction bill.

I cannot imagine that our President will not encourage and sign on to extending the Bush tax cuts. I cannot imagine what our economy will look like in a year from now if this Lame Duck session does not act. I cannot imagine one more year of this assault on business and our personal liberties. With the failed economic agenda of this President, I cannot imagine his party supporting him if he doesn’t sign a new tax reduction package.

This week, look for unimaginable circumstances to start playing out in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, is showing signs of weakness, as he is telling the U.S. to reduce its “visibility and Intensity” in fighting the Taliban in his country. He is now negotiating with the Taliban in efforts for peace. We cannot imagine an Afghanistan under Taliban rule. This will happen, if Karzai continues down this road. The biggest threat in that part of the world is Pakistan and its nuclear arsenal. An Afghanistan under Taliban dominance would be destabilizing for that part of the world and would severely impact the security, given the Taliban threat and possible war with Pakistan to secure their nuclear weapons.

This is a scenario that is unimaginable and would be circumstances that a new Congress is going to have to deal with starting in January of 2011. The new Congress will deal with the unforeseen and the troubling scenarios that this President is now getting us, as a country, into.

The new Congress will have to learn very quickly the procedures and the rules so that they can be effective with legislation that will ultimately work its way up to the president for his signature. The new Congress, as they learn the ropes this week, will have to be forceful and use the voice that they were elected to use, even if the rules work against them. The new Congress will have a new majority that, if used effectively, can send the signs to the rest of the world that they have a plan and that they have a voice that will be heard soon. The new Congress will emerge from this Lame Duck session with new leadership and a leadership that can see the “circumstances not now imaginable.”

It is up to us to know our history and to make sure the new Congress does exactly what they were sent to do.

I think we should pay particular attention to the words of Washington, as we go into this Lame Duck Session and as the president gets ready to start his second half of his first term: “ It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.”

You see, a trip back into history can become a lesson in direction.
Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Pay close attention to this Lame Duck session, it will dictate the circumstances that might not be imaginable now.