Advice To Republicans

Republicans have a difficult task in Washington. They know all this government spending is harmful to the economy and the American people. They realize it will just get worse if spending is not restrained. Yet, too many people in this country don’t see the harm in overspending, and if they do, they don’t see the link to over-spending and the worsening economic situation most are facing.

One, stop swinging for the fences and trying to hit a political homerun every time up. Republicans don’t control the US Senate or the Presidency. Republicans swung for the fences with the government shutdown, and were destined to strike out because they would have never gotten anything through the Senate or signed by the President.

Two, the silver lining of the government shutdown is the overspending and debt issues are now front and center. Exploit that. Educate people on why over-spending leads to excessive borrowing, taxation and the printing of money, and how all that is contributing to their decline in standard of living.

The people can feel inflation is not 1.5% like the governments says it is, but much higher due to all this government borrowing and printing of money. They also know their incomes are growing much less than the prices are going up. Plus, they are having to work harder and longer than they did before. In sum, the people realize they are falling behind economically. Republicans need to explain to the people the root cause of that is government overspending, like I did in my last letter.

Three, the US House controls spending bills. Republicans need to take advantage of that too. Their focus should be on eliminating wasteful spending and useless departments (we’ve all seen the lists). Force the liberal Democrat leadership to defend those wasteful programs and departments, and ask moderate Democrats to join Republicans in making the cuts. It is not a ton of money. It’s millions, not billions, but it moves the ball in the right direction a few yards, and that is the best Republicans can hope for without controlling the Senate and the Presidency.

If the people like what the Republicans are doing with the limited power they have, next election the people will give Republicans more power, maybe the US Senate, and then hopefully the Presidency in 2016. At that point, they can make a significant change in the direction of government, for example, repealing Obamacare.

Republicans in Washington need to recognize the limits they face, play to their strengths, and be patient moving the ball to the right when they can and how far they are able to.