Friday – December 3, 2010

Nancy, it’s time to go home!

The Speaker of the House, now soon to be Former Speaker, has not given any one an early Christmas gift. The Democrats have played their last game and it has hurt everyone. The Democrats truly believe that tax cuts don’t create jobs and that unemployment benefits do. The failure of the Democrats to extend the Bush tax cuts to all is just politics as usual and this is why they were voted out. The House passed a bill Thursday to extend middle class tax cuts while letting those for the wealthy expire, even as talks continued on extending them all.

The House bill was a political maneuver to satisfy Democratic lawmakers' supporters who oppose extending tax cuts for the wealthy. It has no chance in the Senate, where Democrats need Republican support to pass tax legislation. Sweeping income tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush are to expire at the end of the year. If Congress does not act, taxpayers at every income level would be hit with a significant tax increase.

The fear now is that the wealthy will sell off their stock before year’s end so that they get a benefit of a lower capital gains tax. This could crash the market due to a massive sell off. Unemployment notched up last month to 9.8% the highest it’s been in thirty years. There were only 39,000 jobs created last month.

I cannot wait for Nancy to just go home!

This month, I am changing the format of the FORUMS just a bit. I am going to write about famous events that have occurred throughout our history for the day that I write. This will set us up for our organizing efforts in January of 2011. For those who have filled in the name and contact information to become a Pinecone Conservative Organizer I will be contacting you soon to discuss how you can help to organize for conservative thought and action.

In these few short weeks before the holidays, my hope is to illustrate how you can take an issue and perform a compare and contrast discussion with those that you discuss conservatism with. This week, I have started to do that with the FORUMS. For instance, on yesterday’s date December 2, 1970, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed by President Richard Nixon to protect human health and with safeguarding the natural environment: air, water, and land began operation. Amongst other things they do are to provide and monitor the EPA fuel economy test manufacturers use to advertise the gas mileage of their vehicles.

The compare and contrast argument is: When government decides to propose what seems to be a good idea at the time it quickly becomes just another out of control bureaucracy. The EPA today can regulate all environmental law, policy, fines and other things it wants to enforce under the guise of protecting the environment. For instance, they would be responsible for enacting the cap and trade policy if the legislation passed in the current Congress. The EPA today can set policy and regulate what they want without Congressional approval. This is what Progressives do when they control the bureaucracy. The EPA should be reformed with accountability built into its reorganization. It is nothing more than a bloated revenue eating behemoth. This is one more reason why jobs are not being created in the private sector. Government organizations such as the EPA are job killers. This is why Industries have moved there manufacturing facilities overseas where environmental requirements are not disincentives. In short the EPA has grown from a monitoring organization to an organization that would be found in places like the old Soviet Union, out of date and out of pace with the times.

This is a simple example of taking an issue, discussing its history and making an argument against the growth of a bigger government. It is important to know history because history can show us how to avoid the pitfalls of governing and how to take back our government when it gets out of control.

We have been a republic since 1789. This country has never had a strategic plan that looks forward. Our leaders act only for the moment without any regard for the nation’s future.
The examples that I use will be easy to translate and easy to use in your discussions. There is a lot of history, so the topics will be plentiful.

I believe that this approach will provide examples and provide a FORUM for discussion going forward.

We have a great deal to be thankful for, but we also have a lot to question. The recent election has started the process of change that is required to restore the liberty and freedoms that our Forefathers intended for each one of us to have. It is now up to organizations such as Pinecone Conservatives to ensure that the change moves forward and does not move us backwards.

I end each week with a quote. Today, I end with the words of John F. Kennedy. He was a fiscal conservative and he had the compassion to extend the greatness of this country to those who needed it. He said: “There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

The next few weeks will be fun and they will be full of great stories and facts about how liberty and freedom should work! The next few weeks will also start the process of moving us forward to organize for conservative thought and action. I promise!

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Action is the only way to bring about change. The inaction of Congress over the extension of all the Bush tax cuts will prove to be one example in the future of how not to govern. This is why Nancy will go home this year, as the former Speaker of the House!