The principal theme of this election season is clear. Americans want change, and Central New Yorkers are no exception to this. Liberal Democrats, like Dan Maffei, claim to offer change, but they intentionally leave the word undefined. That’s because in reality, they have the same, old, failed solutions to offer: Confiscating the people’s earnings, and promising that it will be used to meet the people’s needs.

Americans want change in the form of higher paying jobs, and security that their jobs won’t be exported overseas. They want a stable economy, where the money they earn today can still supply their needs as adequately as it did yesterday.

These desires are not at all unreasonable, or “greedy,” as some would imply; they are the justified expectations of anyone who works for a living. But they will never be met as long as our elected leaders continue to offer the same worthless solutions that brought us the problems in the first place.

The survival of any business depends on offering a better product, at a better price. But Liberals can only offer government subsidization, socialization, and regulation. This doubles the cost of raw materials and production, doubles the cost of delivery, and doubles the end cost to the consumer. Add to that a sales tax (that also supposedly benefits the needy in some way), and what you end up with is an overpriced product, a dying business, and more Americans losing their jobs.

Central New York has seen far too much of this kind of Liberal solution. [I’m not talking here about one policy, one district, or one person. It’s a widespread, systemic problem. We see the same thing happening across New York State, and throughout America.] I could go on and on about failed liberal policies….but you don’t need me to educate you about how liberal, big-government solutions only make matters worse. Like I’ve said, we’ve seen countless examples of this, and for far too long.

Anyone would get their hopes up when they see a big, ornately-wrapped gift box under the Christmas tree. This is how I see the Liberal offer of “change.” The problems are real, the needs are important. But to the voters’ disappointment, the box is empty. What’s promised is change; what’s delivered is more of the same. It may not be intentional; people may think socialism will provide the change they really need. But the fact is Liberalism can never solve the problem; in most cases, - in every case! - Liberalism is the problem!

Here are the real solutions:
-Reduce government to its Constitutional limits.
-Bring real freedom back to the market.
-Stop punishing entrepreneurs for successfully meeting people’s needs.
-Stop interrogating companies for making a profit.
-Stop the constant grab, for every last dollar our workers earn, to fund an insatiable expanding government.

These are the measures we need to pursue actively. Republicans should not be trying to slow the growth of government; if we’re advocates of a smaller government, then working to slow the growth of government is pretty lousy, even for a compromise! No. We need to set out to reduce the size and scope of government, because the extent to which we’re able to do so, is the extent to which we restore freedom to the people. This is the path to revitalization that we’ve been looking for in Central New York. A constitutionally limited government means lower taxes, truly free markets, and, as a result, truly competitive products, services, and salaries, and a fundamentally stable economy.

Returning the government to the size allowed by the Constitution – now that would be a real change! And that’s exactly what we need to do.