A Republican Agenda of Real Change | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

A Republican Agenda of Real Change | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The Republican Party is resurgent. But the last two periods of GOP dominance ended in political disaster. Unless Republicans promote real change — namely limited, constitutional government — they are likely to be sent back to political oblivion again. And deservedly so.

Today Republican candidates are capitalizing on the wave of popular anger over excessive federal spending. Yet they are as responsible as Democrats for America's financial and constitutional crises."

"Republicans constantly cite the founders, but imagine what those who backed the Bill of Rights would have thought of the claim that the president could order the arrest of an American citizen on American soil and have him be held in solitary confinement — potentially forever. And what the original revolutionaries would have thought of the GOP suggestion that there was no constitutional, congressional, or judicial limit to the president's war-time powers? Which, given the fact that the 'War on Terrorism' may go on forever and that the chief battlefield is the American homeland, means that the president has the powers of an elective dictator if he chooses to wield them."

"the only welfare that the federal government should consider supplying is for the poor. No more corporate welfare. No more pork-barrel hand-outs to local voters, campaign supporters, and influential interests. And no more middle-class welfare, benefits for Americans who can afford to care for themselves. This means directly confronting Medicare and Social Security, ending benefits for the well-to-do and allowing younger people to opt out of the programs."

"Most of what Washington does today has nothing to do with protecting America. The big U.S. commitments are simply a form of international welfare. The Europeans don't need defending: after all, collectively they have a bigger population and economy than America. South Korea has huge advantages over North Korea. Japan has much at stake in a stable international economic order, yet devotes less than one-fourth as much effort to defense as we do.

It is bad enough when the Republican Party forces U.S. taxpayers to pay for an American welfare state. But why should the GOP make working Americans subsidize even more lavish European welfare states?"