The aptly named Republican “retreat” last weekend at the ritzy Greenbrier resort in West Virginia should have included Democrats because Republicans are behaving just like them.
There was President Bush arguing for his “bipartisan stimulus package” and supporting government handouts with borrowed money. House Minority Leader John Boehner implored his fellow Republicans to “sacrifice” by agreeing to a one-year moratorium on earmarks to “prove” that Republicans are the party that can fix Washington.
Their entreaties would have been more credible had they occurred when Republicans controlled Congress. What Republicans need is a dose of Barack Obama, who recently noted that “Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and a way that Bill Clinton did not.” That?s because Reagan had core principles from which he rarely deviated.
Republicans should promote some of Reagan?s greatest sayings. These include:
“Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States” and “Government?s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
My personal favorite is: “Man is not free unless government is limited.”
That last one should be tattooed on every Republican member of Congress. Have any of these core principles been proved wrong? Did not these ideas promote economic growth and Republican electoral prosperity? They did, so why aren?t Republicans advancing them again, instead of retreating and trying to buy votes with “stimulus” packages and pork barrel projects?
Cal Thomas is America?s most widely syndicated op-ed columnist and an author of 11 books.
