Washington Vs. Washington

Founding Principles: Voters on Tuesday will take a measure of power away from those now running Washington. More than two centuries ago, George Washington warned of such rulers.

As Americans exercise their precious right to vote, it's well to consider the words of the man who led the Continental Army and helped establish our unrivaled system of free government. What could make this newly born country, the United States of America, great? George Washington told us shortly after his unanimous election as president in 1789.

In a letter to Lafayette, Washington promised "my endeavors shall be unremittingly exerted ... to establish a general system of policy, which if pursued will ensure permanent felicity to the Commonwealth."

"I think I see a path, as clear and as direct as a ray of light, which leads to the attainment of that object," Washington wrote. "Nothing but harmony, honesty, industry and frugality are necessary to make us a great and happy people."

Have we ever in American history seen a group of politicians for whom frugality is of less value than the Democrats now running Congress and the White House?

What could be less frugal than spending a trillion dollars of the taxpayers' money on bigger, more powerful and more intrusive government — promising, in return, millions and millions of new jobs that never materialize?

What could be more anti-industry than allowing the expiration of the Bush across-the-board tax cuts — killing millions of potential private-sector jobs as businesses sit on an estimated trillion dollars worth of investment?

What could go more against honesty than President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid claiming to have averted a second Great Depression with their discredited Keynesian stimulus spending — a method of combating recession that has never worked in recorded economic history?

And on that same subject of honesty, how about the disgraced and ousted chairman of this Democratic Congress' tax-writing panel, Charles Rangel?

On Halloween, trick-or-treating for a fellow Democrat, Rangel told a Manhattan crowd that his colleague "sets the moral standard for our state." A pronouncement on moral standards from Charlie Rangel?

Coasting to re-election in his Harlem district, Rangel last month boasted on the BET network that "any political threat to me is nonexistent." Such corruption is as far from George Washington's ideal as can be imagined.

Regarding Washington's exhortation on harmony, how about the discordant conduct of this 111th Congress and 44th president?

Shortly after his inauguration, House and Senate Republican leaders met with President Obama and protested the massive, unprecedented spending in the Democrats' stimulus package, as well as their refundable tax credit for people who don't pay income taxes — in effect, using the tax system as a welfare program.

The then-highflying president's response? "I won."

What could be more disharmonious than the president and the Democratic Congress' reaction to the near-impossible election of a Tea Party-backed Republican to Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts early this year — an obvious voter protest against ObamaCare?

Turning a deaf ear to the vox populi, the Democrats used legislative chicanery to nullify the election of Sen. Scott Brown with regard to ObamaCare, enacting it as if the voters had not just taken away the Senate's filibuster-proof Democratic majority.

Washington was convinced that Americans had devised the greatest political system ever. In discarded notes for his first Inaugural Address, Washington expressed certainty that senators and congressmen could never "exempt themselves from consequences of any unjust and tyrannical acts which they may impose upon others. For in a short time they will mingle with the mass of the people."

And "besides," Washington added, "their reelection must always depend upon the good reputation which they shall have maintained in the judgment of their fellow citizens."

If through some crystal ball he could have seen today's Congress, George Washington might have had second thoughts. But the father of our country would be proud to see what "the mass of the people" do today at the voting booth.