Stupid Republican Ideas

It's been many years since the Republican Party had any new ideas on how to improve America. That's probably a good thing, since the last idea they came up with was the infamous "trickle-down" economic theory (which said if you give rich people enormous sums of money they will eventually share some of it with the rest of America). It not only didn't work, it was the primary cause of the current and very serious recession (resulting in the loss of millions of American jobs).

But they keep trying. And some of the feeble solutions that some are now putting forward makes me wonder if there's any brain activity left in anyone in that party. Take for example Republican presidential nominee candidate Tim Pawlenty. He has come up with what he thinks is a brilliant idea for cutting the deficit.

Pawlenty calls it the "Google Test". He said he would eliminate federal funding for any item or service you can find by googling on the internet. He obviously has not thought this through because nearly anything can be found on the internet -- including many things best left to the government to do. Here are some examples:

* Most people rightly think that national defense should be done by the government. However, anyone can find professional soldiers willing to hire themselves out to the highest bidder on the internet. Using Pawlenty's reasoning we should stop funding the military and use these private soldiers.

* Private schools can easily be found on the internet, so this would mean that all public education should be eliminated.

* Psychiatrists and psychologists can be found on the internet, so all government help for the mentally disadvantaged should be discontinued.

* Private security companies abound on the internet, so there is (according to Pawlenty) no need to have city, county, or national policing agencies.

* Private doctors and hospitals are to be found on the internet (as well as private insurance companies), so it would be obvious that Veteran's Hospitals, Medicare, and Medicaid are not needed.

We could go on and on with this, but it is already obvious that this idea is incredibly stupid and could be used to eliminate any federal program or agency regardless of how much good it does. If this is the best Pawlenty can come up with, then it is obvious that he's not smart enough to be president.

But as dumb as Pawlenty's idea is, I think Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) has him beat. Rep. Rohrabacher thinks he has come up with a solution to fix global climate change. He said, "Is there some thought being given to subsidizing the clearing of rain forests in order for some countries to eliminate that production of greenhouse gases?" That's right, his solution is to clear-cut all the rain forests.

Frankly, I'm shocked that a person this stupid can be elected to any office. Even a school child knows that trees use much more carbon dioxide than they produce and replenish the supply of oxygen. Scientists say the rain forests use up at least one-third of the carbon dioxide produced by other sources. Clear-cutting the forests would make the problem much worse -- not better. We need more forests, not less.

Is it any wonder that with ideas like those proposed by Pawlenty and Rohrabacher we are doing nothing to solve either our economic or environmental problems? Their solutions would not solve anything -- they would just make things worse (and that seems to be what the Republican Party as a whole is really trying to do).

I really think they are trying to keep things as bad as possible so they can be voted back into power. The problem with that is that even if they do return to power they have no solutions. They would then just be able to destroy the government and the environment even faster.