1. Blaming Bush. With all due respect, the Administration has been in office for a year. Even though James Carville said to do it, this narrative needs to end. Accept some responsibility.
  2. Class warfare. Honestly, blaming “the rich” for the nation’s ills is so 1917. What happened to that whole “a house divided cannot stand” thing?
  3. Targeted tax hikes on banks or anyone else. They’re only going to be passed on to consumers somehow.
  4. Health care will “cut the deficit” or “save money.” It is not possible to spend over a trillion dollars and save money. We’re not changing the laws of mathematics.
  5. “Jobs creation” programs that only encourage specific industries. Call it a jobs bill, call it a purple unicorn, but the American people can see that it’s just another stimulus spending boondoggle. The government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers with taxpayer money. For example: green jobs. Honestly, it just looks like a union handout… because it is.
  6. Disingenuous “spending freezes.” CUT spending, don’t freeze it at artificially high levels. According to Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, “the portion of the budget to be frozen grew 60 percent between 2000 and 2008, during a period of low inflation. And since this portion of spending excludes defense, homeland security, and veterans’ affairs, it has nothing to do with the response to 9/11 or various foreign wars.” If it’s not addressing everything, it’s just empty rhetoric.
  7. Arbitrary deadlines. Setting withdrawal and closure dates sets the government up for failure and provides benchmarks for our enemies. Planning on making major policy changes? Fine, great! But be flexible in case things change in the future.
  8. New regulations. The economy is fragile and cannot handle additional burdens. Stop shackling businesses and discouraging entrepreneurs, and let people do what they do best. Looking at you, cap-and-trade bill.
  9. Attacking the Citizens United ruling. It’s called “checks and balances.” Deal with it.
  10. Temporary tax cuts. Ok, I just threw this in to see if you were still paying attention. Tax cuts are great, and anything that reduces the government’s revenue is okay in my book! But to really make a difference, make them PERMANENT, so people don’t change their behavior to get around the code.