(George Getz) – I have been watching “talking head shows” in shock and horror as Tea Party leaders, Republican officeholders and prominent conservatives were unable to come up with an answer to this question:
“What would you cut?”
Incredibly, most couldn’t think of a single thing. Even one supposedly conservative Republican governor whose name has been floated as a likely presidential candidate!
For a libertarian conservative like me, there’s a better question than “What would you cut?”
It is: “What would you keep?”
After all, the federal government has become so greedy, arrogant and powerful that it is doing something to offend almost everyone.
What’s more, the vast majority of federal programs have no constitutional authority whatsoever.
Even so, if we want smaller government we’re going to have to fight for it. And that means fighting back against the liberal media when it tries to pillory anyone who suggests cutting even one dollar from the bloated $3.5 trillion budget.
We can’t keep letting ourselves get bullied on national TV by liberals like Anderson Cooper, Eliot Spitzer, Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews and the rest of the White House communications staff.
The best defense is a good offense!
So I decided to come with a list of cuts that would be – are you ready for this? – POPULAR with the majority of the public. I skipped over two of the most obvious cuts – abolish NPR and the TSA – because others are already making the case quite well.
Of course, this list will not be popular with the roughly 20 percent of Americans who identify themselves as liberal. You know – government employees and contractors, Big Labor, Big Media, Big Business, Big Charity, academia, community organizers, lobbyists and everyone else who sees government as one big fat milking cow.
But the list will appeal to the vast majority of Americans who identify themselves as conservative, libertarian or independent. These are the same people who just cleaned up the House and almost cleaned up the Senate . . . the same good folks we need to keep aboard so we can all do more cleaning in 2012.
So here is a list of 10 politically popular cuts we can throw in the face of the next clueless liberal who demands to know: “What would you cut?”
(1) Let’s start by repealing Obamacare, which would save trillions of dollars over the next few years. Does anyone really believe we can cover 50 million more people and spend less money? Of course not. As the writer P.J. O’Rourke says, “If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see how much it costs when it’s free.”
(2) Take the $250 billion in unspent TARP money and return it to the taxpayer – not the government. Divide that quarter of a TRILLION dollars by the number of taxpayers and send everyone a check. Maybe the check will only be for $5. But you know what? It’s the principle of the thing.
(3) Liquidate private companies owned by the government. Then send every taxpayer a check for that as well. The U.S. government has no business propping up a private company – much less owning companies like GM, Chrysler and AIG.
(4) Abolish useless Cabinet agencies. The Department of Education has never educated a single child. Eliminate it. The Department of Energy has never produced a single drop of energy. Eliminate it. And why in the world do we need a Department of Commerce? America became the freest, most prosperous nation world on Earth without any so-called help from the government. You and I know the best way for the government to promote free enterprise is to get out of the way.
(5) Pull out of the U.N. This relationship has been a one-way street for far too long. Americans pay the most of the bills. And in return, nations that hate us get a forum to bash us. Time to pull out.
(6) Privatize the Post Office. We put our addresses on our houses. So how hard is it to deliver the mail? Must be very hard, since the Postal Service is expected to run a $6 billion deficit next year, even though it has a monopoly on the delivery of first-class mail. Time to turn mail delivery over to efficient private companies like UPS and Fed-Ex.
(7) Oink, Oink! Citizens Against Government Waste publishes a Congressional Pig Book every year. Dubbed “the little pink book Washington doesn’t want you to read,” the 2010 Congressional Pig Book lists 9,129 pork barrel projects totaling $16.5 billion. So . . . what would you cut? How about every single one?
(8) Eliminate corporate welfare. According to the libertarian Cato Institute, politicians spend about $90 billion a year giving subsidies to rich companies like Sunkist Growers, Welch’s Food and The Wine Institute. Why is the government robbing the middle class to give money to the rich?
(9) End foreign aid. Politicians claim they’re trying to fix the economy. So why are they sending $49 billion a year of our money to foreign nations?
Defenders of foreign aid love to point out it’s a tiny fraction of the overall budget. If that’s true, they’ll never miss it, right?
And my personal favorite . . .
(10) Slash the salaries of federal workers. USA Today reports the average federal worker makes $123,000 a year in pay and benefits. That’s twice what the average private-sector worker makes!
Let’s put a salary cap of $100,000 – or less – on federal workers. While we’re at it, let’s cut Congressional salaries, which start at $174,000.
Whew! That was easy. Ten cuts that should be politically popular, at least for the vast majority of Americans with common sense. And really, why should we care what the liberals think? They’re the ones who got us into this mess, remember?
Now it’s time to put the heat on Congress by spreading the word that budget cuts can be made – cuts that are politically popular because they would make government smaller, more efficient and more responsible.
Here’s how you can help pressure Congress to make these cuts. First, go here to pick your three favorite cuts out of the 10 listed. ConservativeHQ.com will send survey results to every member of Congress, the White House and conservative news media outlets.
Then share the poll with all your friends, relatives and co-workers who want to help shrink the government and ask them to take the survey as well.
(George Getz is senior copywriter at American Target Advertising, Inc., the Manassas, VA-based direct mail marketing agency founded by Richard A. Viguerie)