Senator Obama:     “I’ll get all of the troops out of Iraq within 60 days.”

Senator Clinton:     “I’ll get all of the troops out of Iraq within 30 days and disarm our
                              military permanently."

Senator Obama:     “Did I say 60 days, I meant that I’ll get all of the troops
                               out of Iraq within a week, disarm our military, close our military 
                               bases around the world, and raise your taxes.”

Senator Clinton:      “You must have misunderstood what I meant by 30 days,

                                I intend to get all of our troops out in one day, disarm our
                                military permanently, close our military bases around the world, 
                                raise your taxes, give driver’s licenses and Volvos to illegal 
                                immigrants, and shut down the oil companies for good.”

And the crowd goes wild.  Of course, I’m paraphrasing here, but just barely.  It’s downright scary to listen to the promises the Democrats have to make to their primary voters.  Whatever happened to the John F. Kennedy Democrats that were strong on National Defense and in favor of cutting taxes?   There is just no place for them anymore in the Democrat party.  If you don’t believe me, just ask Joe Lieberman.  He supported the War and President Bush and was blacklisted by his own party.   Remember that he ran with Al Gore in 2000, so the Vice Presidential candidate of the Democrat Party in 2000 was cut-off financially 6 years later because he supported the War on Terror.  In 2006, he lost the primary election in his home state and was forced to run as an Independent to keep his seat.  If you don’t think that sent a message to Democrat incumbents everywhere, you’re fooling yourself.      

Now don’t waste time worrying about Hillary and Barack.  They know where their bread is buttered.   The primary message of both of their campaigns is simply “Change.”  Check out the signs at their rallies, they read: “Change.”   Watch their commercials: “Change.”  Listen to their speeches: “Change.”   We don’t know what they’re going to change or whether their changes will work because they don’t get very specific.  They don’t have to.  Their supporters just love the thought of “Change”.   I guess they choose to ignore that both candidates are influential Washington insiders that have contributed to the conditions that require change.  For example:

Pork Barrel Spending:

The practice of covertly slipping egregious earmarks into important Appropriations Bills has got to stop.  These are not reviewed, debated or budgeted.  Pork Barrel Spending costs American Taxpayer billions every year and is nothing more than a vote buying scheme.   Hillary Clinton is the Queen of Pork Barrel Spending.  Between 2002-2006, she placed 2.2 billion dollars worth of earmarks into spending bills.  That’s 2.2 billion and is by far more than any other Senator.  Talk about bringing home the bacon.  Some of her most egregious: $250,000 to a Seneca Knitting Mill and $1,000,000 for a Woodstock Museum.  

Illegal Immigration:

Experts estimate that there are between 15-20 million Illegal Immigrants in our country.  We have been begging our leaders to help us close the borders and get control of this situation.  In addition to being here illegally, these people sap the resources of our health care system, undercut the wages of our hard working tradesman, and discourage those that follow the rules and attempt to enter our country legally.  Not to mention that in light of 9-11 and the global jihad declared against us, controlling the flow of people into this country should be priority number one.   How do Hillary and Barack stack up on Illegal Immigration?  Not so good: both are against deporting Illegal Immigrants, both support Amnesty, and both have indicated that they would like to offer Illegal Immigrants driver’s licenses.   They don’t even like the term “Illegal Immigrant”.  They prefer “Undocumented” Americans.

Energy Policy:

In a previous column entitled: Black Gold, I detailed the importance of oil to our economy and way of life.  Without it, America as we know it would cease to exist, and yet, here we are in 2008 without a common sense Energy Policy.  The facts are: we rely too much on foreign oil and neglect our own supplies in exchange for campaign donations from radical environmental groups, we haven’t built a new oil refinery since the 1970’s, we watch other countries drill off our coast while we sit idly by, and we ignore the efficiency of nuclear energy.   Then we pour money into ethanol production which as it turns out is more expensive and less efficient than oil and drives up the cost of food.   Surely, this must be what Hillary and Barack mean by “Change”, a common sense Energy Policy.  Guess again. Hillary has voted 5 times against even exploring in oil rich Alaska and Barack rejects it as well.  Both are supported by the very environmental groups that consistently prevent us from creating a viable Energy Policy.

So, I guess we’re left scratching our heads here.  Besides pulling all of our troops out a strategic front in a war that we are winning, what are they going to “Change”?   Based on their past actions, they’re not going to stop out of control Pork spending, they’re not going to solve the Illegal Immigration problem and they’re most certainly not going to help us create an Energy Policy that protects our way of life.  Both are against the making the Bush tax cut permanent, so maybe the “Change” is raising our taxes.  Hopefully, we’ll never find out.

...more columns by Todd A. Carges