Chairman's Page

Carolyn Cox

 
CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE MAY 24, 2013

A Teachable Moment

Obama Administration officials, rocked by scandal, seem amazed that anyone questions their motives or their style of government. Trust them, they plead. They mean well. Yet the Lefties don’t understand the core reasons for the failures besetting them today.

History is a good teacher. Republicans started winning in the 1960s when they embraced states’ rights and devolution of power. They started losing forty years later when they abandoned these principles.

The twentieth century saw the White House grow at the expense of Congress, and the federal government at the expense of the states. Once started, no federal program gets smaller.

A couple of days ago, Cal Thomas, conservative columnist, wrote that, “Tyranny is no longer lurking. It’s here.” He was talking about the IRS practice of targeting conservative groups who filed for tax-exempt status, but it could equally apply to the other scandals now reaching the light of day.

Because of the corrosive and seemingly unlimited taxing and borrowing power of the federal government, combined with its ability to print money, we must seriously address the kind of government we want. The executive branch has usurped more power than an honest media should permit. And the checks and balances normally expected from the House and Senate have, to a large extent, been usurped by regulatory agencies and appointed bureaucrats who seem to operate by their own dictates.

The U.S. Constitution, in particular the Bill of Rights guarantees the liberty of the individual. The European Union (EU) Constitution is mainly concerned with the power of the state.

Why would we want to mimic the central planning of Europe?

t is grossly apparent that the implementation of a health care system by the federal government is a failure of central planning. There are hundreds of millions of dollars of expenses popping up that the planners never anticipated. The top-down management of this administration is imploding before our eyes. None of the liberal elites, no matter how smart they think they are, can ever replace the efficiency of markets–sellers meeting the needs of buyers to determine prices.

Eternal competition is perhaps the major constraint upon a statist government. Top down planning can never replace market freedom. That’s what we know. This is our teachable moment. Pass it along.

Carolyn Cox, Chairman

Pima County Republican Party