From Red County Magazine:

We Refuse To Support a Permanent Minority

The grumbling. The head shaking. The anger.

Congressional Republican leaders clearly have no idea what we, their fellow GOP members (and financial backers), say to one another when we get together, yet for years one refrain has been constant: our extreme discontent over how the former GOP majority blew it on spending.

Budget earmarks, which jumped by 285% between 1994 and 2005 as their cost soared by 60%, stand as the perfect symbol of the GOP-led profligacy that drives us crazy still. In and of themselves, earmarks are admittedly a small part in the budget process, amounting to roughly 2% of the federal budget in 2005.  Yet they epitomize the fiscal recklessness that led to Republicans becoming a minority in 2006.

Unable to rein it in on the smaller earmark items, it's no wonder the Republican leadership continued to fail on the more critical structural spending issues such as entitlement reform and a reduction in federal spending (hello Prescription Medicare). 

Still oblivious to the source of our discontent, a number of free-spending Republicans recently rushed to meet House GOP leader John Boehner, urging him not to back an earmark reform proposal from the Republican Study Committee. The idea they fought so mightily against? A ban on earmark requests from Republican members of Congress for one year.

The porkers' struggle is typified by Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia--sponsor or co-sponsor of $83MM in earmarks in last year's budget alone--who, amazingly, defended earmarks as "being entrepreneurial about bringing something home."

In response to us on that remark, former Speaker Newt Gingrich scathingly replied, "There's nothing entrepreneurial about the Appropriations Committee spending other people's money."

Alas, bold GOP leadership on earmark reform is still nearly absent in Washington.  Michigan's Thad McCotter highlights this by arguing the futility of fighting for earmark reform, saying members of the House can't lead on the issue because, "...we are not the field marshals, we are the foot soldiers."

Thank goodness Newt Gingrich suffered no such humility in 1994.

And that's just the point, isn't it? Today's Congressional Republicans have lost all resemblance to the revolutionaries who then typified the principles our party could--and should--stand for.

Indeed, because today's Republicans are so addicted to pork and big-ticket spending, it is time to demand dramatic action.

Therefore, as a start, we strongly support and call upon the House GOP leadership to institute a minimum one year moratorium on earmarks by Republicans, and for the Senate GOP leaders to follow suit.  Concurrently, we urge other Republican donor groups to reinforce this important beginning through their influence as well, with the ultimate intent to work towards substantial Republican spending reform.

Second, we are dialoguing with like-minded groups across the country about electing new Congressional Republican leadership in both houses of Congress.  Regardless of November's outcome, it is time to make a clear statement to voters that we intend to establish a new team and goals, re-discovering our lost principles of a government limited in size, scope, and spending.

It is not credible to ask the American people to return Republicans to the majority when all we offer them is the same group of leaders and policies they so recently rejected.

It's not just "branding," but the right policies which will breathe new life into the Republican Party and re-energize voters.

And one more thing: come November 5th, should the current GOP leadership in either house survive to lead in a new Congress, the Lincoln Club of Orange County will review its financial backing of all Congressional Republicans, and we urge others to do likewise.  A GOP caucus that would re-elect such leaders is not one we would likely continue to support.

Because, simply put: we refuse to support a permanent minority.