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DEL.ICIO.USBurkhalter on the GOP platform: When disaster hits, Americans shouldn’t feel abandoned by their government
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Burkhalter got back from Minnesota on Thursday, having helped to hammer out the GOP platform that will be approved during next week’s national convention.
Burkhalter, who is House speaker pro tem in the state Legislature, was chairman of the platform subcommittee that handled fiscal issues and government reform.
The platform is notable for the several instances in which it differs from the positions of Republican nominee John McCain — on civil unions for gay couples, stem cell research, climate change and such.
But the GOP platform, according to Burkhalter, also acknowledges that the Bush Administration botched the handling of Hurricane Katrina, which came ashore three years ago.
Another hurricane, this one called Gustav, is likely to overshadow the first days of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
Here’s what Burkhalter had to say about it all:
Insider: Is it significant that the GOP platform and its presidential candidate don’t always line up together?
Burkhalter: The idea of a platform is that it should come from the bottom up, and not the top down. I think the lion’s share of what we came up with is very consistent with John McCain and his positions.
John McCain is Republican, this is a Republican platform report that we came out with. It’s healthy to have a cross section of Republicans who have a lot of ideas to come together. It’s healthy for the party. It’s healthy for John McCain.
Nobody has any apologies for the work product. I’m very proud of it, actually. It’s the most forward-looking, principled platform — and concise platform — we’ve had in a long time. We went from 40,000-plus words down to 20,000. We cut it in half.
Our party changes. It’s not always the same. We’re not the same party we were four years ago, or eight years ago. It changes based on Republicans in all 50 states.
Insider: Do you agree with all of it?
Burkhalter: I certainly voted for it. I don’t think anybody walked out of the room saying I’m 100 percent. But that’s the process. It’s like a budget in the Legislature. You end up voting for something that may not include everything you think is right.
Insider: One of your sections was on disaster response. What does it say? Hurricane Katrina is a big issue, even now.
Burkhalter: We wanted to make it abundantly clear that Americans who become subject to natural disasters should never feel abandoned by their government. Ever again. That’s very important.
We encouraged the federal, state and local governments to coordinate and cooperate better. We also felt like government, in the aftermath of Katrina, was really a hindrance to allowing businesses, non-profits from coming in and facilitating the relief efforts.
Because they had tremendous resources, and they wanted to spend them, but there was a bureaucracy that had a wall around the relief effort.
Insider: Did Americans down there feel abandoned by their government?
Burkhalter: And I think that’s the beauty of our platform. We took areas, I think for the first time ever, as Republicans, and said, ‘We’re not perfect. We’ve made mistakes.’ But we acknowledged those mistakes. And we’re going to get back to our core principles. And we’re going to do better.
Part of my section, front and center, was government reform and spending. I came right out of the gate, and we said, ‘Washington is a failure. The budget process is a fraud.’ But we turned right around and said there is no other issue that this party is more known for than controlling government growth and government spending.
And there’s no issue we should reaffirm our position more on than shrinking the size of government. I think it’s a great, healthy admission that maybe Congress lost its way. And as a result lost the majority.
You can’t fix problems until you acknowledge there was one. …I thought it was beautiful. A lot of people live in this world of denial. They say, ‘Well, you can’t say we made a mistake.’
Absolutely, say it. You poll the average guy on the street. If you know nothing else about Republicans, you know they’re the ones for less taxes. You can’t lose the mainstay of your party. And we’re not going to do that.
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Comments
By TopAssistant
August 31, 2008 7:22 PM | Link to this
I am glad the platform address illegal immigration. The rule of law means guaranteeing to law enforcement the tools and coordination to deport criminal aliens without delay, the draft explains. And: It means requiring cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement and real consequences, including the denial of federal funds, for self-described sanctuary cities, which stand in open defiance of the federal and state statutes that expressly prohibit such sanctuary policies, and which endanger the lives of U.S. citizens.