Bailout: How did your representative vote?

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"It's not that liberals don't know anything; it's just that they know so many things that aren't so." - Ronald Reagan

Remember how the Gipper used to inspire us from the Oval Office and on the stump? Remember "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" George W. Bush could learn a lot from the great communicator.

On the recent outburst by a Chinese dissident during a joint press conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao, I would have loved to have heard my president say: "What you are witnessing is freedom of speech in defense of freedom of religion, Mr. President. These rights are granted by God to Americans, and to all people, and are confirmed and defended in our Bill of Rights. It's why the United States of America will always defend liberty for oppressed people everywhere."

Instead, Bush apologized to this dictator, who presides over a government as evil and repressive as any that has ever existed on this planet. Meanwhile, the protestor was arrested for disturbing the peace. Granted, the president did issue an official statement that China should allow greater freedom of worship, but he also assured the Chinese Communists that he supports their despotic claim over the lives of the free people of Taiwan.

On the issue of illegal immigration, I would love to hear my president say: "America has always been a beacon of freedom to the world, but we cannot long remain so with uncontrolled illegal immigration into our country. My foremost constitutional charge is to defend and protect our nation's borders. Rest assured that we will do so, by whatever means are necessary."

On the press and the war in Iraq, I would love to hear my president say: "Without the free flow of information, no free society can long remain free. But the American people have not been given a free flow of information. Instead, they have been treated to a continuous string of negative stories about America's involvement in Iraq. In fact, if Ernie Pyle had worked for CNN, America would have given up on World War Two long before we were anywhere close to victory."

On education: "The federal government has failed miserably at educating our children. The Ted Kennedy education bill of 2001 has been another power grab for control over the future of the next generation. Therefore, my next budget will contain no funding for the U.S. Department of Education. Those funds instead will be block-granted back to the states for use in school choice programs that will put parents and local officials back in control. The education of America's children is too important to trust to bureaucrats in Washington."

On taxes: "The current tax system is no longer salvageable. We are burying our nation's productivity beneath an antiquated tax code. This punitive system is driving our corporations to flee our shores. The only answer is to unleash the engine of prosperity we have known for more than two hundred years by replacing the federal income tax with a national consumption tax, otherwise known as the Fair Tax."

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