Republicans fight government excess

Editor’s note: This column is in response to “GOP repels rational conservatives,” a column published in last Thursday’s Daily Lobo. The column addressed the lack of responses from Republicans to the call for political column submissions to opinion@dailylobo.com.

opinion@dailylobo.com

I read the letter Thursday in which the author said he was surprised that no Republicans were writing about the party position to the Daily Lobo. I didn’t know why at first, but then I realized we are all busy working. Because I get weekends off, I thought I would send in a response.

Republicans basically stand for minimal government intrusion into our lives. We generally give a lot of money to charities we like so that they can function without going around looking for a handout. We respect the lives of unborn children and have no doubt that they are persons, so we consider abortion to be murder. We want the federal government to shrink and pass on more of the workload to the states. Each state can then decide how it wants to run.

“Obamacare” is disliked, not because we are against health care, but because we are against the federal government telling us how to do it. We want a system that allows individuals to choose what works best for them, and believe that the decision should be made at the state level. We want Medicaid to be run from Santa Fe, not Washington. 

Why? Because if we don’t like the way things are being handled, we can change it. New Mexico has very little voice in Washington. We have only five electoral votes, so they pretty much ignore us.
We expect federal government to focus on things that affect all states — national defense, interstate commerce, immigration, foreign relations and homeland security. Republicans don’t like pollution any more than Democrats, but we don’t think you should stop drilling oil wells because there may be a possibility of a leak onto the tundra or that a pipeline might fail. For example, if the state of North Dakota didn’t want to risk a leak from the Keystone XL pipeline, they could prohibit the construction and Keystone could look for an alternate route or build it in a safer manner. We know the economy needs oil and gas to run while we look into alternatives like solar and wind. We don’t see $500 million handouts to companies like Solyndra as a wise solution, but we do see modest investments in solar research as very important.

Republicans believe that the social safety net is a last recourse.

If you are able, you should work, even if it is doing something you don’t particularly like. NPR once presented a story about the lack of workers in Alabama to harvest sweet potatoes. And a friend of mine who installs ATMs can’t find help because the work is too hard. We avoid welfare and we thank God for giving us the opportunity to do so. 

We go to church and when we see those less fortunate — the blind, those with disabilities, the old and infirm — we share our wealth with them willingly. We hate deceit and try to ferret it out. We have no problem with laws that regulate those who try to cheat us. There is some good in Dodd-Frank. The problem is that a growing percentage of our economy is going into the paperwork for regulatory compliance, because someone more than 1,000 miles away thinks it’s a good idea.

I can’t say we are fans of unions. In the early stages, unions were important for safety and protection from employer abuse. But over time, they became an example of the worst practices of greed and avarice. I had a United Auto Workers friend who was “laid off” every year at 90 percent of his base salary. He was a custodian for General Motors in Flint, Mich. making $26 an hour back in the mid ‘70s, and kept a house in Florida because the layoffs occurred at year end.

We worry about long-term trends, such as when the 53 percent who are not on entitlements drops to 45 percent or 35 percent. As tax rates rise, there becomes little sense in working harder. We won’t hide in Colorado like Ayn Rand’s John Galt, but why work when unemployment insurance pays so well? For example, up to $566 per week in Minnesota. And everyone knows of food stamp abuse. Republicans just don’t like that stuff.

Of course we do like our guns. There are some restrictions on possessing guns in Mexico, but we see how ineffective that is. The drug cartels have all the guns they need. As someone who lives in the Sandia Mountains, the response time of the local police can be 15 minutes or more. If I am ever threatened, I want the right for both myself and my wife to defend ourselves. But I also agree that I should keep a trigger lock on it and keep it out of the hands of someone who is too immature to use it responsibly. If I fail in that responsibility, I should make reparations.