By Theodore King

There is much material to cover in this column. I begin by congratulating newly-elected Congressman James Lankford of Oklahoma's 5th District. His nomination last summer came as quite a surprise to many of us, myself included. I have seen his online videos and am impressed; obviously, so were the voters. I also congratulate Mark Costello, Oklahoma's new Labor Commissioner -- and the right fellow. I have known Mark and his family for several years, and they are great people.

Just after the election, the White House Debt Commission, co-chaired by Irskine Bowles, a Democrat from North Carolina, and Alan Simpson, a former Republican Senator from Wyoming, presented their recommendations. Here are a few of them:

On Social Security: raising the retirement age to 69 by the year 2075; lowering the cost of Social Security to below the inflation rate, which will mean less for recipients; and reducing benefits for middle and high income earners by the years 2050.

On spending: they recommended capping federal expenditures and revenues at 21% of the gross domestic product (GDP), reducing American forces in Europe and Asia by a third, eliminating the V-22 Osprey program, cutting $900 billion in fossil fuel research programs, eliminating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ending low priority Army Corps of Engineers programs by 2015, reducing farm subsidies by $3 billion a year, eliminating NASA funding of commercial space flights, combining the Department of Commerce and Small Business Administration and then cutting their budget by 10%. They also recommended that foreign aid should be reduced by 10% and our contributions to the United Nations and State Department's budget be reduced by 10%.

The White House Debt Commission also said Congress should either reform the tax system or raise taxes by next year and every year thereafter until Congress finally does enact tax reform. The Commission additionally recommended that the federal gas tax be increased by 15 cents a gallon, and with respect to Medicaid/Medicare, low income people should be moved into Medicaid-managed care, and Medicaid co-payments should be increased and home healthcare eliminated.

Some fundamental changes have already occurred during this past lame duck session of Congress. SB 510, The Food Safety and Modernization Act, has been compared to the government takeover of health care earlier last year because the government will take over how food is handled. This bill was authored by Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin. There were 12 co-sponsors in all, including the late Senator Ted Kennedy. What should be alarming to us is that there were eight Republicans who joined the likes of Dick Durbin; Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota; the late Ted Kennedy; and Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa. These Democrats are really socialists. The Republicans who co-sponsored were Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Orrin Hatch of Utah, John Isakson of Georgia, and David Vitter of Louisiana.

Our own Sen. Coburn offered an amendment to the bill that would have required greater co-ordination between the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration on streamlining inspections and allowing private inspectors at food processing facilities rather than have a large government bureaucracy doing all the inspections. Dr. Coburn's amendment was rejected on November 30th by a vote of 62 to 36. All but four Republicans voted for the amendment. The four voting NO were Mark Kirk of Illinois (newly elected), Richard Lugar of Indiana, David Vitter of Louisiana, and George Voinovich of Ohio (retiring).

Sen. John Tester, Democrat from Montana, offered an amendment to the bill that was adopted by the Senate, exempting small farms that make under $500,000 annually and sell directly to the public within their states or a 275-mile radius of their farms at what are called farmers' markets. They are still subject to previously existing state and federal oversight.

These small farmers will still be subject to federal inspection of seed cleaning machines under this law. Food giant Monsanto, which pushed for this law, will have an advantage over the seed market and genetically-modified seeds under this new law. Organic farmers shun genetically modified seeds in favor of the traditional non-modified variety.

On November 30th, this bill passed the Senate by a vote of 73 to 25. Both Senators Coburn and Inhofe voted NO. President Obama signed the bill into law on January 4, 2011. The Christian Science Monitor online quoted Senator Coburn as saying this bill, now law, will cost taxpayers $1.4 billion over four years.

One hundred years ago, Gilbert Keith Chesterton wrote a book titled What's Wrong with the World, and in it he wrote about the unholy alliance between big government and big business. He nicknamed them Hudge and Gudge, respectively. Hudge and Gudge support one another at the expense of the individual. Lefties talk about the "military industrial complex" but don't mind Hudge and Gudge when they are propping up nonmilitary leviathans. Hudge and Gudge wrote this food safety bill and made it into law.

There was some good news mixed in with more unnecessary spending. Congress and the White House, dealing with political realities, decided to extend the tax cuts of President Bush for two more years. They were set to expire at the end of last year. H.R. 4853, Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, not only extends the tax cuts but also extends unemployment benefits for an additional 13 months for those already receiving them. This takes away the incentive for those who have been out of work for an extended period of time from looking for work.

Senator Coburn proposed an amendment to cut $156 billion from the bill over a five-year period. According to Senate rules, 67 affirmative votes were needed for passage of the amendment. It was voted down 47 to 52.

The Senate passed its version of this bill, December 15th, by a vote of 81 to 19. Senator Inhofe voted in favor while Senator Coburn voted against. On December 17th, the final version of the bill, (H.R. 4853), passed the House by a vote of 277 to 148. Congressmen Boren, Cole and Lucas, along with Congresswoman Mary Fallin, voted for the bill while Congressman Sullivan voted against it. It was signed into law by the President later that day.

A new law which will mark the decline of our nation was the repeal of the so-called Don't Ask, Don't Tell law that allowed homosexuals to serve in the military while not revealing their sexual orientation. This law was adopted in 1993 after then-President Bill Clinton wanted to let homosexuals serve openly. on't Ask Don't Tell was a compromise that Senator Inhofe says has worked. Saturday, December 18th, the Senate passed repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell by a vote of 65 to 31. Both Senators Coburn and Inhofe voted against repeal. Seven Republican Senators joined in betraying military morale. They were Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, John Ensign of Nevada, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski (Lisa the Selfish) of Alaska, Mark Kirk (newly elected from Illinois), Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and Olympia Snow of Maine. This repeal is nothing short of treason, and I have no respect for these people who have imposed the cancer of political correctness on our military. The President gleefully signed the repeal, December 22, 2010.

A friend of mine was an Army Ranger officer who served in Iraq. He recently went into detail as to why allowing homosexuals to serve openly is unworkable in military life. The military is far different from civilian life. One example, without stating the matter in sordid, graphic detail, is that when you work in an office, you don't have to share the same shower with your co-workers. Legitimizing gay marriage will be next, and that will be the final nail in the coffin for the American family.

With the Republicans in control of the House and having a stronger presence in the Senate, this is a good time to bring up an article I read in The Washington Times of March 1, 2010 titled A New Contract with America. Two tea party candidates from Indiana and Missouri proposed nine reforms they wanted to see Congress enact. Neither of the candidates was nominated and elected unfortunately because the ideas are sound. 1) Passing real tax reform like the fair or flat tax; 2) Requiring Congress to approve any federal agency regulation; 3) Banning earmark recipients from making campaign donations; 4) Prohibiting federal ownership of private companies; 5) Requiring proposed bills be posted online five days before a vote; 6) Performing a constitutional analysis of all bills; 7) Proposing appropriations bills that reduce spending by 5%; 8) Prohibiting federal funding of abortions and; 9) A constitutional amendment for term limits on members of Congress.

The new Congress is requiring that new bills be posted online for 72 hours, not 5 days, and they are beginning every day by reading the U.S. Constitution. These are good moves, but without other reforms previously listed they will prove meaningless.

British writer and traditionalist Evelyn Waugh once commented that he would never again vote Tory (Conservative) because the last time they were in power they did not move the clock back one second. He died in 1966, 13 years before Margaret Thatcher came to power, so he did not live to see a principled Conservative Party in Britain, at least on economic matters. The challenge for Republicans now is to lead the fight against the destruction of this nation.

Republican leaders who believe that these are ordinary times are fools. Should the Republicans fail to offer a real alternative to the Obama socialist agenda, they will cease to matter, and the nation will fundamentally change for the worse. If the agenda of Oklahoma Speaker of the House Kris Steele is any indication (municipal smoking bans, corporate favoritism) of national Republican leadership, then the Republicans should go the way of the Whigs.

President Reagan's 100th birthday is February 6th.

"No other state better exemplifies the American experience than does Oklahoma....Some who've never lived in this state often wonder why with a population of only three million you can produce such great football teams. Well, after overcoming tornadoes, floods, drought, and Oklahoma winters toting a ball down a field a hundred yards just isn't such a hard job even if there are eleven guys in front of you trying to stop you."

- President Ronald Reagan speaking before the Oklahoma legislature, March 16, 1982