September 18, 2010 08:15 PM UTC

Undecided? Elections Have Consequences

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• by: harrydoby

(Go Harry! – promoted by DavidThi808)

Republicans have been tagged as “The Party of No” ever since the Democrats were voted into majority control of Congress and the White House.

So, if given the chance to reverse roles, what would Republicans, in particular Ken Buck, do as “The Party of Yes”?

1. Yes to increased government intrusion into private lives.  Ken Buck’s anti-abortion position, even in case of rape or incest, takes away the right of women to decide for themselves, in consultation with their family, their doctor and their spiritual adviser, whether to keep or terminate the unwanted pregnancy.

2. Yes to making the pursuit of illegal immigrants one of the highest priorities of the federal government.  Even though there are millions of law-abiding, tax-paying illegal immigrants making little more than minimum wage as construction workers, housekeepers, gardeners, and meatpackers, who are here for no other reason than to give their children the chance for a better life, Ken Buck’s record shows that he would spend scarce resources to drive them out of the country, at the expense of investing in things like green energy jobs, education and infrastructure.

3. Yes to policies that would ship more jobs overseas.  Rising health care costs are making it more and more expensive to keep jobs in America.  Repealing the health care bill would guarantee that the cost of insurance premiums would continue to spiral out of control.  And by denying healthcare to ten’s of millions of Americans, force them to continue to seek treatment from overcrowded emergency rooms, the most expensive, least efficient means of delivery, one that is paid for by you and me through our taxes.

4. Yes to putting social security funds in the hands of Wall Street.  By privatizing social security, Ken Buck would replace the guaranteed benefits currently available to retirees with the risk we currently share with our 401(k) plans that have supplanted the security of pensions.

5. Yes to economic policies that brought the nation to the brink of depression.  Ken Buck believes that the stimulus bill, rather than halting the slide into another Great Depression, was unnecessary “Pork”.  And somehow that the deficit mysteriously arose in just the last year or two.  That the stimulus bill saved our auto industry and millions of jobs, provided much needed support for all of the states (including GOP-governed states), saving the jobs of police, firefighters, teachers and many more means nothing to Ken Buck.  Naively, he believes it’s better to cut taxes and services, throwing millions out of work than to invest in our nation’s future.

6. Yes to increased coal, oil and gas consumption over alternative energy sources.  Domestic sources of these resources will never be sufficient to provide energy independence, not to mention the horrific cost to our personal health and the environmental costs associated with the exploration, extraction and delivery of that carbon-based energy.  Enlightened, job-creating investments in alternative energy, and the infrastructure to deliver clean energy to our homes and fuel our industries just isn’t on Ken’s radar.

And lest we forget:

7.  Yes to more suffering and shorter lives.  Ken Buck’s position on stem cell research would condemn millions to suffer from painful and debilitating diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, spinal cord injury, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, cancer, and burns.

Yes, elections have consequences.  I believe we all — GOP, Democrats and Independents alike — want the same thing: a stronger, safer, prosperous nation.  The problem is answering “How do we get there?”  Ken Buck’s track record and stated positions are counter-productive, and put the priorities in all the wrong places.