A great start!

Wednesday - January 5, 2011

A great start!

Today, Congressman Boehner of Ohio becomes the 61st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. The new Congress is the 112th to be seated. The new Congress will be treated to a reading of the United States Constitution. This is the first time it has been read at the beginning of a session, that I can remember.

This is a great start. This is what is needed to set the tone for the many agenda items that the new Speaker has in front of him.

The new Speaker has made it a mandate that Congress trims 5 % in spending across the board. This is a small amount in relation to the trillions that have been spent by the last Congress. However, it is a great start.

The new Healthcare law is once again up for discussion in the new Congress. As one of its first acts in the new Congress, the Republican majority is calling for repeal of Obama care. The text of the repeal bill is already online for Americans to read and a vote is expected on Jan. 12. (http://steveking.house.gov/_files/TextofObamacareRepeal.pdf)
Though it faces stiff rejection in the Senate and the President has veto power, if he needs it, the new law will undergo a new form of debate one that never occurred in the last session. This is a great start.

The Democrats are already calling a foul. They are saying that reform or repeal of this signature piece of legislation will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and cost jobs. This is also a great start, because the Republicans can now ask where the proof is in these statements. The Republicans were shut out of the process before and now they will be a part of the process of repeal going forward. This is a great start.

Democrat Congressman Chris Van Holland, of Maryland’s 8th District, is accusing the Republicans of “Enron type of accounting practices.” This is a great start by a partisan who single handedly lost control of the House. This will be the argument going forward by the Democrats.

When this new session of Congress convenes today, it will be the first time in 23 years that a Kennedy did not hold a seat. This is a great start.

When this new session of Congress convenes today, it will be one that does not quite know the power that the new members have and the mandate that they were elected to oversee. The mandate is reducing government and government spending. The government spends 3 and a quarter million dollars a minute on programs, entitlements and new legislation. If this new Congress and this new speaker can curb this spending then they will fulfill the mandate that they were elected to do. This is a great start.

A great start will take the form of forcing the Democrats to defend the spending and the growth of government. A great start will take the form of forcing Democrats to play partisan politics to demonstrate just how dangerous liberals are to our freedom and liberty.

A great start is relying on the words of the Constitution and teaching Americans the value of the document and how the document protects them from the government that they want to expand. A great start is enforcing the laws that we have forgotten about and which are detailed in the Constitution. One law is if you want to change the Constitution then use the amendment process. A great start is demonstrating that the last Congress passed a law that could be unconstitutional. If the amendment process was followed, then most of the liberal legislation that has been passed in the 20th Century would not have seen he light of day, because it would not have passed in the amendment process. If we depended on the Constitution, then the law that was snuck in under the lame duck session that now lets government regulate the Internet might not have passed.

A great start is returning to the Constitution for the purpose of finding our way out of the abyss that the previous Congress has placed us in. The Constitution does not have a provision to spend the nation’s wealth on entitlements. It does not have a provision to spend our posterity’s wealth. Listen to the reading today and make sure the new speaker and the new Congress abides by the document that they have sworn to defend.

Today’s FORUM is dedicated to my daughter Margaret Elise Dildilian. She turns twenty one today. Elise, as we call her, had a great start in life. It was not based on spending and giving in to every desire she had. It was based on the undying love that her mother and I have for her. It is based on the values that we raised her with. She now will have a great start in her life because of the values of love, faith in family and the country she belongs to. Her great start is one that we are proud of, because of the person she is.

Happy Birthday Elise - I love you, your Dad!

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Let’s make this year the year of the Constitution. Let’s make it a great start by understanding what it means and then making good on the principles that our forefathers gave to us.