By DAVE HAMRICK
Editor-at-large

I think that if they mulled it over carefully, most conservatives — nonpolitical ones, I mean — would agree that, of all the changes they would like to see in our government, the two most critical are the permanent dismantling of the Internal Revenue Service and the ratification of a balanced budget amendment.

When I say “nonpolitical,” I mean conservatives like me, average folks who want to see our freedoms preserved but who are not attached at the hip to any political party.

We vote Republican more often than not, at least on the national level, because that's the party most likely to do the things we want done. But after we vote for Republicans, we watch them with a certain amount of cynicism to see if they are really going to do what we want done, or if they just said they were going to do those things to get our votes.

A case in point is term limits. They were part of the so-called contract with America, and part of the reason the voters turned Congress over to Republicans. And although Republicans did, in fact, fulfill all of the promises in the contract — to bring all ten items to a vote — you can tell which items they considered truly important because they brought them up again and again.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I've heard one word about term limits out of the Republican Party since the one vote failed. Limits are pretty much a token issue, placed on the contract because polls showed that conservatives want them.

But politicians of any stripe, once elected, get to liking the power, the ego-stroking attention, the many personal benefits lavished on members of Congress, and they don't want to give that up no matter what their constituents want — no matter what they may have wanted themselves when they first decided to seek office.

The need for term limits is not the top issue on my list, but it's a lot more important than you might think. A return to a citizen House made up of people from all walks of life who go back to their former pursuits after six or eight years of service would be a watershed change that would automatically shift the focus of those people while they are in office.

But doing away with the graduated income tax so that the majority of Americans no longer have to fear their government, and placing within the Constitution a guarantee that our leaders won't buy today's votes with tomorrow's dollars are “tens” on a scale of ten, whereas the term limits issue is around a three.

Unfortunately, our Republican Congress has focused its efforts on trying to out-Clinton Clinton. Congressmen are fighting with Clinton over each program and each budget, trying to show that they can spend more than he does on some of the hot-button items, but doing it in a way that's more Republican.

Currently it's education. They put more money in the education budget than Clinton was asking for, but tagged it as block grants to give the states ultimate control rather than the federal government.

If you want to give the states ultimate control, then leave the money in the states to start with. Don't collect those taxes at all. Do away with the federal Department of Education entirely.

But in the meantime, don't give in to tunnel vision and get so focused on those little fights that you forget what's most important. Take advantage of your control of Congress and mount some serious efforts toward a balanced budget amendment, and income tax eradication — not reform, eradication.

We conservatives don't have much of a choice. If we put Democrats back in control, they wouldn't balance the budget for one year, much less limit themselves to doing so in the future.

The Reform Party? I believe in diversity, but not total disparity. There's no agreement among the leading candidates as to what that party is all about, so it's basically a joke.

But here's a warning, Republican leaders. If someone comes along and puts together a truly conservative, no-nonsense party with a balanced budget amendment and tax reform as the foundation of its platform, and then finds some candidates who can articulate their philosophy and fight for a basic, conservative government, you won't have to worry about alienating your base... you won't have one.8`

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