The Chapter Where Republicans Remind Me Why I Voted Libertarian for 30 Years

Despite personal inconvenience and minor hardship, I supported shutting down the government to achieve the goal of lifting the individual mandate of the ACA for one year, to grant a level playing field to the ordinary citizens of this country.  They should be granted the same compassion that the President has shown for his big business cronies.  Of course, the Republican party caved early on that fight and then decided to drag out the fight over the debt limit and federal funding over other issues in an incoherent strategy that resulted in their public humiliation.  Here are some goals worthy shutting down the government over:

• The aforementioned relief for ordinary citizens' mandate under the ACA.
• Changing the rules for calculation cost of living increases for Social Security and Medicare to slow their long term growth and make it more fair to young taxpayers.
• Further cuts to federal spending beyond the current "sequester."

A feckless, undisciplined strategery-challenged GOP would have had to pick one, and only one, goal and defended it to the brink and over the cliff if necessary.  Further, it would have had to thought out the strategy months in advance so that it could pass appropriations bills for stuff it wanted to fund early in the cycle and use HHS funding or some other appropriation vehicle to extract the necessary compromise.  

In fact, Republicans were only dragged into the fight reluctantly and only because they felt pressured by the tea party caucus.  The leadership's heart was never in the fight, they fought only to save face, and lost even that.  It was like playing prevent defense when you are already behind in the score, trying to stop the other team from running up the score when you had already lost the game.  It was pathetic and the outcome predictable despite some moments of optimism.  

The other reason that we lost is that the tea party wing does not represent a majority of the voters in the country (the linked Gallup poll quizzes conservative, liberal, moderate, but is a decent proxy).  The response of all liberty movement groups should be to continue to educate and persuade and point to the inevitable consequences of current policy.

The article that explains my GOP reluctance is here, also known as The Chapter Where I Was a Teenage Libertarian.  

Harry Reid Wants to Seize a Bank Near You

Supposedly, Harry Reid is close to invoking a cloture vote on a financial regulation bill. This is an opportune time for the Republicans to truly grasp this issue and say no to more Democrat inspired crony capitalism. The GOP appears fearful that they will be tarred with a pro-Wall Street taint if they oppose the supposed increased regulation of the financial sector. As my readers are aware, I am no fan of the cozy relationships that allow the banks and other financial firms to get away with gambling with taxpayer backed dollars and then receiving bailouts when things head south. But the "Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010" does not such thing. Instead it grants the administration, of either party in power, the authority to take over any darn business it feels like. From the WSJ,

The federal government would get the power to seize teetering financial giants and dismantle them, just as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation now seizes failing banks.

The Republicans need to unite, now, against that one aspect of the bill. Think about the horrible power we are investing in the federal government. First, let's say your a big bank executive and you criticize the administration; whose to say if you aren't "teetering;" perhaps an emergency audit might show you are, so watch what you're saying. Second, and more worrisome, is that whole "dismantle" option. Whose to say how much dismantling is really dismantling. What if you are Bank of America and you just bought Merrill Lynch. Let's say that it turns out that was a dud buy. Let's say you make some big campaign donations. Let's say you get "dismantled" by the government buying Merrill Lynch and taking it off your hands.

I really don't care that much about the rest of the bill; it's probably crap too, but on the same order of crappiness that we are currently living with, so who cares. I just want the stinking bailouts to end. Is that too much to ask? Call your congresscritter and let them know that we just want the bailouts to stop. We want all power to bail out financial firms stripped from this legislation.

P.S. What is wrong with Republicans? The no bailouts argument is compelling and easy to understand. They could be kicking butt by making it. Instead they are cowering in abject fear that a vote on this stupidity will make them look bad. Well of course it will; if they continue to act stupid.