Things I Hate About Republicans

1. They Spend Like Democrats
Since the GOP have controlled the Presidency and Congress, spending is totally out of control. Major increases for the Department of Education (which the GOP said they wanted to eliminate in the 1990s), a huge Medicare prescription drug plan (who says it's the government's responsibility to provide for your health care?), the sometimes unbridled throwing of money at victims of natural and other disasters, and the tremendous pork incorporated into the recent Transportation bill are just a few examples. What has happened to their goal of a smaller, less costly federal government? Forget about it!

2. Illegal Immigration
With both parties' pandering to the Hispanic vote, nothing of any substance has yet been done regarding illegal immigration. Hell, all I'm asking is that they enforce the laws that are currently on the books! Is that too much to ask?

3. Social Security
Whatever happened to President Bush's proposal to privatize social security? It was shot down by a lack of support in his own party! Not only is social security a horrible investment (less than 2% annual return), there are no guarantees that you'll ever see a dime in benefits, and it is unfairly discriminatory against men (lower life expectancies) and minorities (especially Blacks). My individual IRA and 401(K) plans are growing at 10 to 15% a year ... if I could take 1/2 of what I pay into social security and put it into these other plans, I would realize 5 to 7 times more growth than social security.

4. Forced Patriotism
Flag burning, the Pledge of Allegiance, if "you're against our goals in Iraq you're against our troops" (no federal Republican officeholder, to my knowledge, has ever actually questioned a Democrat's patriotism ... the Dems are just a little paranoid) rhetoric needs to go. If folks want to burn flags ... do we really care? If folks don't want to say the Pledge of Allegiance ... again, who cares? Can folks support our troops but not the mission in Iraq? Sure they can.

5. Religion in Government/Schools
The fact that President Bush occasionally makes reference to his religious beliefs or God, in general, doesn't really bother me. In fact, I'm somewhat relieved when I hear a politician say he believes that there is some force in the world more powerful than him/herself. What I'm fed up with is this idea that we must have prayer in school or the ten commandments in court houses or religious programs in schools. While the constitution doesn't really address any of these issues (it says "... Congress shall pass no law ..."), there are so many more important issues that government ought to be involved in and we're just wasting time and money pushing or fighting (depending upon your outlook) one moralistic view or another. For example, schools should be educating children ... if the kids want to pray on their own, who cares? But we should not take time away from what is already inadequate instruction time to spend it on "holiday" programs. The kids should be in class, not in the auditorium. If they want "holiday" programs, they should have them after school or on the weekends ... not during the school day.

6. They're Too Nice
When the Democrats are in power, they don't give a rat's ass about cooperating with the GOP. When the GOP are in power, they pander to the opposition (i.e., Trent Lott, No Child Left Behind, Supreme Court nominations, Medicare, etc., etc.). When you've got power you've got to do the things you said you were going to do if you got power ... otherwise, you won't be in power much longer.