Thoughts on the 2014 race

I was talking with a nationally known conservative political pundit today. He had just got off the phone with a Georgia state senator who said that he was also going to run to fill Phil Gingrey’s 11th district congressional seat next year. And that was after I heard that a former libertarian congressman is going to run as well.

The only candidates who have a chance in the 11th are Republicans, or perhaps independent conservatives. Why? Because the 11th votes Republican, or at least conservative. Libertarians and Democrats need not apply. To illustrate the point, Republican Speaker Boehner ran unopposed last year even though the Democrats would have loved to have removed him. They knew it was useless so they saved their money and didn’t sacrifice a Democrat candidate.

Unfortunately as only a tiny fraction vote in the primary, those few will likely “appoint” the next congressman from the 11th. Why? Because only one of the Republican primary candidates can move on to the general election, and that name will have “Republican” against it on the ballot. The Republican majority in the 11th district will vote for the Republican. The same goes for the Democrat voters, but as they are in the minority that candidate will lose.

The shame is that during a primary, candidates tend to make less centrist statements, (read more extreme) so that the Republican or Democrat voters will be more likely to vote for them in the primary. They get more centrist during the general election cycle to attract opposing party votes.

It’s a successful strategy as candidates also try to slam their opponents for changing their ideas during the general election race, compared to the primary. It’s called flip-flopping. It isn’t. It’s a strategy.

As you know, our country is in a financial mess and getting worse by the day. When both parties talk about balancing and cutting the budget, they don’t mean matching outlays to revenues, or even having a surplus to pay down our enormous national debt, and far bigger unfunded liabilities.

This Office of Management and Budget graph shows the Republican debt reduction budget proposal versus President Obama’s plan. Note that although it shows much lower spending than the Democrat’s plan, debt continues to spiral until 2045! That projection illustrates a massive debt increase, with debt reduction only starting over 30 years in the future! Almost all congressmen, women and the president will be long retired or gone before then. The red line is the Democrat’s doomsday path.

What they mean by “cutting”  is slowing down the rate of growth by not borrowing as much money as the other guys. If you ran your household like Washington does, you’ll either be bankrupt and living in a tent under a freeway bridge, or your family would commit you for being insane.

Fortunately for Washington, the vast majority of the public are so focused on their day to day personal issues that they believe what they are told without thinking. Washington depends on this.

If all voters thought about the nonsense coming out of Washington, they would not repeatedly vote in the incumbents. But they do. So here’s how we start to fix our problems.

See part II. Click here.