JUDSON PHILLIPS: Republican Party of Clueless strikes again

You’ve got to hand it to the Republicans. They truly are the Party of Clueless.

First in December came the “Cromnibus” bill. After winning a mandate in November, instead of funding the government for only a couple of months so Republicans could come in and make the major decisions, Congress funded the government for almost an entire year.

Then far-left Democrat Congressman Jim Moran begged his fellow liberals to support the bill because it gave them almost everything they wanted!

Now the burning issue for Republicans is to raise the gas tax.

Could the GOP really be that clueless?

Yes.

The American people are pretty savvy. They know the Democrats are the party that stands for higher taxes and the Republicans are allegedly the party that stands for smaller government, reducing government spending and taxes. Americans had a pretty clear-cut choice in November and there is a reason why the Republicans now control the Senate and have their largest majority in the House since before the Great Depression.

Why in the name of Ronald Reagan would Republicans now want to raise taxes?

Real Americans have suffered through six years of the Great Obama Depression. Real Americans have suffered as Mr. Obama’s energy policies have caused gas prices to skyrocket.

Gas prices are falling now for one reason: The Saudis are flooding the market with oil to bankrupt America’s shale oil producers. Once that happens, oil prices will climb back up again.

So the Republicans want to strike while prices are low so Americans won’t be outraged by the new taxes.

The party line is that taxes must be raised so that infrastructure can be repaired.

Roads and bridges must be maintained. There is no argument about that. The real argument here is that those roads and bridges should be maintained by the states and not the federal government.

But ignore that philosophical argument for a moment.

The federal government budget for fiscal 2015 is going to be just a shade under $4 trillion. The government currently spends about $33 billion on roads and bridges.

Before the government raids the wallets of real Americans for another dime, it needs to clean up its own house. In 2014, the General Accountability Office (GAO) reported that federal agencies had made more than $100 billion in improper payments in the last year. To put that in perspective, that is more than the budget of the U.S. Coast Guard, Customs and Immigration, Border Patrol, Secret Service and FEMA combined.

One survey showed that Americans estimate that 51 cents of every dollar the government spends is wasted.

Before the Republicans start trying to tax real Americans and destroying their party, how about cutting spending? The GOP doesn’t have to do anything controversial, just eliminate waste. No one likes waste and fraud in government spending. Even Democrats are against that. At least allegedly they are. Eliminate waste and fraud in government spending. Then Congress can redirect some of that money toward roads and bridges and more of it back to taxpayers.

But here is another idea. Congress is loaded with committees in both houses that have one ultimate aim at the end of the day. That is to grow government. There is not a single committee or subcommittee devoted to reducing government.

How about the Republicans create two new committees. These would be the Committee of Reduction and the Committee of the Repealer. The Committee of Reduction would have one simple task. Go through the budget, hold hearings and make recommendations on spending that can be eliminated because it is wasteful, fraudulent or perhaps the government program is simply a complete failure.

The Committee of the Repealer would be a committee to go through every federal law and regulation and recommend laws and regulations to be repealed.

One of few good things the GOP could do is create an establishment within government that is dedicated to reducing the size of government, not increasing it.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party has a choice. It can follow the siren song of the Democrats and the Washington Establishment and try to raise taxes on real Americans or it can live up to what it allegedly believes.

But before Republicans decide to vote for higher taxes, there are three words they should remember.

“Read my lips.”