An Open Apology to Speaker Boehner and the Republican Party

Over the past couple of days I have been highly critical of the Republican Party, especially Speaker Boehner and the Missouri delegation in the US House.  I have been doing a lot of thinking about that, and it is time for me to apologize.

Before I do that, let me remind readers of this blog of two things I have been saying for quite some time.  The first is that I have been on something of a learning curve regarding politics, especially local politics and the Republican Party.  The second is that I have been on a mission to reform the Republican Party, back to what I consider its ideological roots of limited government and individual liberty and fiscal responsibility.

I will always continue learning but this phase of my education is pretty much complete.  I have a good idea about a great many things that I did not fully understand before.  As for my mission to reform the Republican Party, that mission has now come to a close.

Our government has now passed a massive $1 trillion Omnibus Spending Bill championed by Speaker Boehner, who had to call on President Obama to help him get it passed.  The bill includes an incredible amount of pork and goodies for people on Wall Street and K-Street.  It provides money for a tourism business in Las Vegas to promote gambling.  It provides protection for Wall Street for investments in risky derivatives trading.  It provides relief for ex-pat health insurance providers from the devastating effects of Obamacare (but no relief for you or me).

It does not stop Obamacare or stop the President from acting unilaterally on Immigration.

This Omnibus Bill funds the government through next September, and avoids a shutdown.  It also continues spending at levels that far outpace revenues.  It does nothing to address the $18 trillion in federal debt, and will not even cut the deficit.

There were no town hall meetings for voters to carefully consider this bill.  Even lawmakers had less than 48 hours to consider it, despite the fact that everyone knew this deadline was coming for many months and there was plenty of time to work something out that could be more carefully considered.  All of that was done on purpose, specifically so voters and lawmakers would not have time to consider the bill or voice objections, and so lawmakers would be pressured to pass the bill or shut down the government.

Like many others I have been furious at lawmakers but especially Speaker Boehner for pushing through such a monstrous bill in this manner, and have taken them to task on social media for not passing a short term CR to continue the status quo until the new Congress that was just voted in could convene.  They could have properly funded the government one piece at a time with 12 or more bills to fund each section of the government one at a time without pork and secrecy and the pressure of last minute deadlines.

Instead people like Mary Landrieu and others who were just rejected by voters got to make the decision instead.  How convenient.

Speaker Boehner said yesterday that he didn’t want to do it this way, either.  He said that he would have preferred to do it the right way but his hands were tied.  The Speaker of the House said he had no control over the bill that has been labeled the Boehner Omnibus Spending Bill, the one that he lobbied for and had to bring in the president to help sell, since there was so much opposition.

Speaker Boehner, I apologize.  I am sorry for assuming that you wanted your own Omnibus Bill. More importantly Mr. Speaker, I want to apologize for trying to change you and your party.  I realize that people like me have been more or less unwanted guests in the Republican Party, and for that I apologize.  The stupid libertarians and Tea Partiers have been trying to change a Party that was just fine being what it was.  You are the head of the Republican Party and you are not interested in changing.

My apologies as well to Mitch and Reince and all of the leaders of a party that have no interest in smaller government or cutting spending or fiscal responsibility.  I am sorry for not understanding that these Omnibus Bills are just the way you work to get the things you want.  I am sorry for trying to change people who do not want to be changed.

My apologies to Congresswoman Ann Wagner for not understanding the value of the PORK that this bill brings home to your district.  After watching you crow about bringing jobs to your area and business to your constituent Boeing I now realize this is exactly what you wanted and you could care less about any small government or national debt concerns of mine.  Oink, Oink.

I want to apologize to my Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer for not realizing that you represent John Boehner in the House of Representatives.  I am also sorry for not realizing that the 1% or 2% cuts in the projected growth of a couple of programs is actually fiscal conservatism.  My bad.  I am sorry for not realizing that you are pro-business, not pro-free markets.  I did not understand that you had no intention of cutting spending, just cutting deals for cronies.

I want to apologize to Jason Smith for being surprised that he did not vote against this Omnibus Bill.  I am sorry for not realizing that you also did not like this bill but that you had very limited choices and all you could do was vote for this lessor of evils.  Like Speaker Boehner, your hands were tied and you could not join 67 other Republicans in the House by voting NO.

I want to apologize to all of the Republicans in Washington for not believing you when you say that kicking the can down the road is the best way to solve the problem.  I am sorry for thinking that the best time to do the right thing is now, not in September.  Forgive me for cynically thinking that next September will come and you will produce another Omnibus monstrosity right before the deadline with little time for it to be fully considered.

I want to apologize to my grandchildren and great grandchildren for sitting here like Speaker Boehner and Congressman Smith, claiming that my hands are tied and there is nothing I can do.  I apologize for the debt that was just handed to you to pay.  I am sorry that we are leaving you with a country that is worse than the one that we inherited.

I am sorry for trying to change a Republican Party that does not want to change.  This party is quite comfortable being the party of rich crony businessmen.  The Republicans in Washington do not want to balance the budget or reduce the debt, and I am sorry for thinking I could change that.

I am sorry for trying to bring my ideas of limited government and fiscal conservatism and free market competition and individual liberty to the party of big business and big government and authoritarianism.  Republicans don’t favor individual liberty or free markets or any of the other libertarian ideas of Justin Amash or Rand Paul.  John Boehner hates the Tea Party with their idea of limited taxation. 

Republicans need to be left to themselves, to be funded by their big donors, just like the Democrats.  I will now stop being a thorn in their side, and I will stop trying to change the party from the inside or the outside.  Instead, they can have their party.  It does not represent me and they are not going to change.  Anyone who believes that they are going to suddenly address tough issues somewhere down the road is mistaken.  It won’t happen in January or September or in 2016, because it is not going to happen.

I don’t really know where I will go from here.  It may be time for a new third party.  It may be time to look at the Libertarian Party. Obviously I am no Democrat.  It may be that my learning curve will just continue down a different path.  I am not done; I am just done with trying to change people that do not wish to be changed.

I have met some great people in the last couple of years.  If you are one of my new liberty-minded friends please know that you are still my friend and I will still support those good people and ideas that I have been supporting.  There are a lot of good people and important things going on here at the local level.   But changing the Republican Party has just been scratched off my list of goals.

Sorry.