How to be a RINO, courtesy of David Stockman

Did you catch 60 Minutes the other night? Republican-in-name-only David Stockman gives a good lesson in how to be a RINO. Notice how he correctly identifies the problem (budget deficits and debt) and then completely misses the correct solution (he was SO close, without even realizing it).

From CBS News:
"Deficits: The Battle Over Taxing The Rich"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/28/60minutes/main6999906.shtml

"And he [Stockman] says his own Republican Party has gone too far with its anti-tax religion.

"'Tax cutting is a religion. What do you mean by that?' correspondent Lesley Stahl asked Stockman.

"'Well it's become in a sense an absolute. Something that can't be questioned, something that's gospel, something that's sort of embedded into the catechism and so scratch the average Republican today and he'll say "Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts,"' he explained.

"'It's rank demagoguery,' he added. 'We should call it for what it is. If these people were all put into a room on penalty of death to come up with how much they could cut, they couldn't come up with $50 billion, when the problem is $1.3 trillion. So, to stand before the public and rub raw this anti-tax sentiment, the Republican Party, as much as it pains me to say this, should be ashamed of themselves.'"

And there is the problem, right there. Where Stockman's tiny little brain just ran out of steam. Did you catch it?

Here's the problem with Stockman: He takes it as a given that we cannot cut government. He has been co-opted by Washington. He has drunk the swamp water.

The problem, of course, is not that we are not paying enough taxes. The problem is that government is too big!

Let's look at Stockman's quote again.
"If these people [emphasis mine] were all put into a room on penalty of death to come up with how much they could cut, they couldn't come up with $50 billion, when the problem is $1.3 trillion."

Who are "these people"? They are the political class that Stockman socializes with. Unimaginative people who think that tax cuts "cost" the government money, as if it's the government's money. Actually, tax cuts don't "cost" a damn thing. It is government programs that cost the people money. That is the proper way of looking at it.

Stockman may be right in one sense: If we put all these people in the room they couldn't come up with $1.3 trillion in cuts (not even sure if that's the right number, maybe it's larger). But that just means we're not putting the right people in the damn room!!! It most certainly does not mean that we should just give up and raise taxes!


On a final note, this is just another example of discovering the problem and finding out that the problem is ... us. Of course it is obvious that government is too big. But good luck getting elected on a platform of, "I'm going to cut trillions of dollars from the budget." We did have a few good guys sneak into Congress in this past election, but not enough. And elections like this, where the small government ethos is popular, are few and far between.

If we insisted on politicians who tightened the purse strings we would not be in this situation. WE can control this. But WE do not.