QOTD

From Stephen Green:

Republicans spent the last eight years trying to do the “smart” thing, by buying out the Democratic agenda. It was "smart" to "take Medicare off the table" by expanding it in ways so vast even Democrats hadn’t gotten away with it in 40 years. It was considered "smart" to "take immigration off the table" by forging a grand alliance with Ted Kennedy. It was considered "smart" to "take education off the table" by federalizing it under No Child Left Behind.

Well, we’ve tried the smart thing and all it got us was a bigger, more meddlesome government. Now it’s time to do the right thing. . .

When the president calls for tax hikes, we should not play the old lap dog, me-too Republicans and put on our green eyeshades, trying to compromise on slightly smaller tax increases. We need to push for cuts, at least as deep as the ones President Bush pushed through during his first term.

It’s time to walk the walk on earmarks and hold the president’s feet to the fire on his campaign promises. Republicans, when in power, proved just as corrupt on this issue as the Democrats ever were, so we have some serious repenting to do. Now is the time to start — and you can help by lending support to Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn, and anyone else willing to pick up the ball and run with it.

Most importantly, we need to push for a sunset provision to all this so-called “stimulus spending.” Here’s a measure so simple and commonsensical, we should have no problem explaining and selling it to the American people. As political junkies, we know the stimulus was really Porkzilla, with most of the "emergency" spending of this monster back-loaded into 2011 or beyond. The Democrats can be cornered on this one — demand that any back-end spending provision expire as soon as the economy returns to positive growth. The American people want their economy to recover, but polls show they remain wary of Porkzilla. Give them an out and they might just force the Democrats to take it.

If not? Then at least we’ll have offered them "a choice, not an echo."

(via Conservative Grapevine)