In Defense of Republicans

In two recent letters to the Editor, Mr. Moses Mims attacks the Republican Party on a variety of issues. It is a vast improvement from his letters during the Bush Administration usually accusing President Bush of lying about one thing or the other. Now he focuses on our motives and roles as the party in opposition.

In one letter the Republican Party was accused of not providing a budget in opposition to the Obama budget. Not true. The Republican Party did provide a budget that Mims admits he did not read. Let me point out some important parts of the Republican budget. It spends $4.8 trillion less than the Democrats budget over ten years. It brings debt under control borrowing $3.6 trillion less that the Obama budget over ten years. It does not raise taxes. It creates 2.1 million more jobs than the Democrats budget. It suspends capital gains taxes through 2010. It reforms the tax code and it reduces the corporate tax rate to 25% from 35% which is the second highest in the industrialized world. Perhaps if Mims had read the budget, he would have been more impressed.

These conflicting budgets expose the primary difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans believe that the government is part of the problem while Democrats believe that government is the solution. Neither is criminal as Mims has frequently suggested in the past. It is simply a difference in philosophy.

Perhaps in his next letter, Mr. Mims could answer a few questions for me.

During the campaign, the President promised no tax increases for anyone making less than $250 thousand. He also promised transparency and vowed to put all bills on line for 48 hours before signing. However, he signed his first two bills without putting them on line for review and one of those bills imposed a tax of $.61 cents per pack on cigarettes. Can I assume that all smokers make more than $250 thousand or was the President less than truthful during his campaign?

During the campaign, the President vowed to work with Republicans to move the country in a new direction. Yet despite his words to the contrary, Republicans have not been permitted to work with Democrats to solve some of the most severe economic problems this country has faced since the Great Depression. Was the President less than truthful during his campaign?

The world is concerned with nuclear weapon proliferation by Iran and North Korea, yet the Obama administration has announced plans to eliminate missile defense, cancel plans for a new bomber, and not proceed with development of a new nuclear warhead. The Air Force has pilots flying the same B-52 as their grandfather (women did not then fly bombers in the 1960s). Did the President promise a defense worthy of a third-rate nation? Was he less than truthful during his campaign about his plans for our defense?

I agree as does the Republican Party that more temporary spending is needed to get us through the economic difficulty we now face. However, we need to be careful where and how much we spend. Signing a bill with 8,000 earmarks (some of them Republican) is not a good start for someone who specifically stated during his campaign that he would eliminate earmarks.

With regard to spending at SRP. I hope the projections about 3000 new jobs at the site are correct, but I have seen this game before. I do not believe the government figures are anything but wild guesses. This administration has set the pattern of promising whatever people want to hear.

I defend Governor Sanford in his efforts to control spending in South Carolina. Many in this community, including the Aiken Standard, want the Governor to accept and spend the $700 million stimulus on education and not address where we will get another $350 million in two years to continue those programs funded by the stimulus on an annual basis.

Many do not realize that even in this economy, our State Legislator proposed to spend more in 2009 than 2008. Don’t they get it! Why aren’t you angry at the Legislators who promised to properly fund education after changing the sales tax rates last year and are now breaking the deal?