GOP Congress: Good-bye and Good Riddance

Twelve years ago the GOP assumed control of Congress promising to reduce the size and scope of government and reform the way Congress conducted business.  On 3:06 a.m., December 8, 2006 the House of Representatives had the last roll-call vote that will be conducted under GOP control.  So did the GOP Congress fulfill its promises?  A look at the  subject of that last vote, and the circumstances under which it was held, give us some answers.

The bill itself, S. 3546, attacks consumer freedom to use dietary supplements by setting up an "adverse event reporting system" guaranteed to make supplements seem dangerous.  For example, cases where someone taken both prescription medicine and supplements has a health problem, the government will likely record this as a result of the dietary supplements not the prescription medicines!

S. 3546 was opposed  by many health freedom advocates, some of whom where assured by the GOP leadership that the bill would not come to the floor that week.  But a last-minute, backroom deal set the charge for the GOP to take one last bit of liberty away from us on their way out of town.  My sources tell me the bill was rushed to the floor as part of an agreement to facilitate the movement of legislation reauthorizing the (unconstitutional) National Institutes of Health through Congress.  Most members of the House where not informed that they would be voting on S. 3546 until 12:45 a.m. -- less than three hours before the vote!

So the Republicans failed to either reduce the size of government or reform Congress.  Instead they grew the welfare-warfare state to unprecedented proportions and set a new standard of congressional corruption, abuse of power, and arrogance.  The Democrats might not have deserved to win control of Congress, but the Republicans certainly deserved to lose control.

Richard Wilkins