"Raising Taxes On High Net Worth Individuals"

Liberals love to brand conservatives as voters who despise the poor and support the rich.  That's about as inaccurate as saying all Democrats are big spending liberals.  What concerns conservatives about raising taxes is that, when the government gets their hands on more money, they want to create another give away program. 

I would like to propose a compromise between the two diverse positions.  Since Bill Gates and Warren Buffett bemoan the fact that government doesn't tax them enough, let's by all means raise their tax rates.  However, let's make sure we're taxing the truly rich; Obama's proposal to raise taxes on anyone who makes more than $200,000 dollars for an individual and $250,000 for couples is ridiculous.  It simply does not take into account the cost of living variances in different parts of the country.  For example, since New York City residents pay exorbitant city, state and federal taxes someone living in New York and other high costs cities have far less net take home pay than someone with that same income in Iowa or Phoenix.  A couple making $250k in New York city is not rich! 

Instead, if we are not going to do away with the IRS and implement a VAT only tax (see my blog from yesterday), then at least raise the parameters of salaries to a more reasonable $500k per year and raise the taxes for those folks accordingly. 

It should be noted that the top 20 percent of high wage earners pay 70 percent of all taxes today and only the top 50 percent of earners pay all of the income taxes taken in by the government!  I've seen thousands of posts on message boards that scream "tax the rich!".  Those posters are more than likely, not only not paying any taxes, but are in fact, getting all of their payroll taxes back plus very generous Child Tax Credit checks which rewards "breeders".   Don't believe it?  Just google "Tax Revenue By Income Bracket".  

While raising the taxes on the truly rich, let's also move to lower the corporate tax from the current 35% to 25%.  Our corporate taxes are the highest of any major economy and is the reason why many companies are leaving the U.S.  Yes, I've heard the news on the General Electric tax story but, if one truly understands financial accounting, they would know that General Electric's business sucked badly since 2008.  Most corporations indeed do pay 35% on their revenue and it is creating conditions for corporate migration away from the U.S.  That costs jobs, folks, and we don't need to be losing any more jobs.  Keep in mind that the workers on those jobs pay taxes!  By reducing the corporate tax rates you create jobs and actually boost tax revenue!  One caveat:  I do agree with Democrats that we need to get rid of some really stupid business tax loopholes and put everyone in business on a level playing field!

Finally, you know that tax on the rich I just suggested?   Put a condition on approval of any tax hike; that condition would be that all revenue from these tax hikes go to pay down the deficit!  None of that tax money could be used to support any other program except paying off the national debt! 

As I related in my blog yesterday, if the U.S. were to downsize the IRS and simply implement a VAT only tax the government could capture all of the funds now being hidden from view by tax cheats.  It would also force tax cheaters to contribute some measure of support to government programs.  It would also make better citizens of folks so accustomed to gaming the system.

Now, get back to that 1040 and get your checkbook out.

Arizona Republic Censors News, PART II

A while back I wrote about the ultra liberal Gannett owned newspaper chain mounting a massive campaign to legalize illegal invaders.  Gannett has used their papers to champion illegal immigration and apparently will go as far as to censor crime news when hispanics are involved in criminal activity.  No where is this more evident than with Gannett's Arizona Republic here in Phoenix.

In my earlier blog on Gannett's illegal amnesty campaign I cited examples where hundreds of times The Republic has censored the news when the criminal is hispanic but will list the ethnic origin if the criminal is black or hispanic.  The Arizona Republic also censors community comment in order to suppress the massive outrage of hispanic crime by our citizens.

Here's a crime report that was just published today.  I will first cite how the CBS TV outlet reported the crime, then show you how the Republic omitted completely the ethnic description just to protect hispanics.

Here's Channel 5, CBS TV report:

2 unknown males sexually abuse woman

Posted: Jul 29, 2011 10:02 AM MST Updated: Jul 29, 2011 10:10 AM MST

By Shine Salt - email

 

PHOENIX (KPHO) -

A 19-year-old woman was sexually abused by two unknown males Friday at 5:42 a.m. in the area of 4600 W. Whitton in Phoenix.

Sgt. Tommy Thompson from the Phoenix Police Department said the woman was out for a morning exercise when the two males pulled her shirt over her head and forced her to the ground.

The two males hit the woman several times in the body leaving her with broken ribs. She was transported to a local hospital, police said.

According to police, the only description provided of the suspects is that they can speak Spanish. 

Now read the Arizona Republic's report:

Phoenix woman, 19, attacked, fondled while exercising outside

by Brittany Smith - Jul. 29, 2011 11:51 AM
The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team

A 19-year-old woman was sexually abused while she was outside exercising early Friday morning in Phoenix, authorities said.
The woman was exercising in an alley near 47th Avenue and Osborn Road when two men grabbed her, pulled her shirt over her head, forced her to the ground and fondled her, said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department. The men fled.
The woman was taken to an area hospital.

NOTE THAT THE REPUBLIC REFUSES TO PRINT THE FULL REPORT EVEN IF THAT JEOPARDIZES THE PUBLIC'S HELP IN CATCHING THE CRIMINALS!

This censorship occurs a hundred times a week as the Gannett liberals continue to violate their responsibilities under the 1st Amendment.  It's bad enough when a newspaper reports with a biased attitude; however it is a crime when a newpaper actually censors the news in an effort to support their own editorial policy.

Here's Part One:  http://justcommonsense-lostinamerica.blogspot.com/2011/03/arizona-republic-censors-news-hides.html

"Political Revolution, Then and Now"

                                            

As I watch the news today and see that Speaker of the House, John Boehner, is having difficulty whipping up support for the latest Republican Debt Ceiling proposal, I am reminded of that first Congress that 235 years ago authored our Declaration of Independence.  The members of that Congress were also strongly divided over what course our nation was to take.

Speaker Boehner's difficulty is with those 87 Tea Party Republicans who are revolutionary in their attitude regarding raising taxes and in insisting that controls on spending be imposed through a balanced budget amendment.   The current crisis is not unlike the one that was brewing in that first congregation so long ago.  That early congress was strongly divided over the proposal to break away from Britain.  While all of them had strong concerns about British policy with the colonies, many of them believed that King George should be given more time in hopes that the monarchy would back off of policies with which the colonies cried grievance.  In point of fact, several letters had already been forwarded to Britain and had been ignored and scorned at.  Still, somewhat more than half of congressional attendees were opposed to declaring Independence.  Many weeks passed, with the harshest of words exchanged before consensus was reached to publish those marvelous Jefferson words.

In an age of common political skepticism, where it is thought that all politicians are without courage or principle, I have great admiration for those 87 Tea Party legislators who are trying mightily to stick to their guns and to keep their promises to their constituents.   These revolutionaries know that Boehner's proposal will do nothing to stop the explosive growth in government spending.  Even the Ryan plan, which sent the Washington establishment into snit fits, does not bring the budget into balance; it only slows the explosive growth.  These Tea Party patriots have stood tall in the face of ridicule from all sides; liberal Democrats as well as legislators like John McCain who demeaned their intent on the floor of the Senate yesterday.  McCain and the other establishment legislators, already corrupted by far too many years in Washington, just cannot understand.

Knowing Washington, my best guess is that some form of compromise will eventually be arrived at.  When "the deal" is done I will be sad and a little less hopeful that we Americans are brave enough to face up to our problems.  But, for now, I am awed by the courage of a small band of patriots who stood up to the big spending liberals and the corrupted souls of old world Republicans who sold their soul to special interests and to half a nation of "takers" who refuse to recognize that the gravy train has run off the track.

"Whites Demand Equal Rights in Commercial Advertising"

                                                                                       

Okay, it's been 45 years since the Voting Rights Act was passed.  It has been 42 years since racial preference quotas were mandated for everything from college entrance requirements to federal employment mandates.  Racial equality has made tremendous progress in the last five decades.  I think it's damn near time that we stop the "political correctness" in advertising.

I refer to the dozens of commercials where "the white guy" is always the dunce and the black guy is the "wise one".  How many of us have seen the Carfax commercial where the elegantly dressed and mannered black couple occupy the other side of the car dealership desk while the white guy in clown shoes is trying to deceive them into buying a car without a carfax report.

How about the ING commercial:  You have a black guy clipping his lawn hedge in the front yard of his elegant and upscale house.  Along comes this white idiot with a big dollar sign hefted across his shoulders.  The white guy stops and the black guy asks him what "dollar figure" he has planned for retirement.  The white guy "duhs" and "dohs" and says he doesn't have a retirement plan number.  The black guy asserts in amazement "so you don't have a plan", showing just how dumb the white guy is and how wise the black guy is. Some honkey must have complained because ING now has both the black guy and a white guy playing the superior.

Okay, you  say I'm making too much of a deal on this.  Okay, try this:  I challenge you to name me one commercial in which the hispanic or black guy or female plays "the dunce", "the clown", the "dummy!"  Name just one!  We have gone so far on the "politically correct" side in our society that minorities can never be portrayed as anything but endearing, wise souls who are never guilty of even the smallest faux pas.

We saw this trend begin with the black comedies in the 80's.  They all seemed to have a "token white dummy" on the show to utter really idiotic utterances to show just how superior the black characters were.

When I see an old 30's movie and I see how blacks were portrayed as servants who all uttered mush mouth pleadings to their white "betters" I am ashamed that our society demeaned a whole race in such a cavalier and harsh manner.

Yet, that is exactly what advertisers today do to white every day of the week 24-7. 

The Census Bureau says whites will be the minority class very soon.  Honestly, I can't wait!  I'll then be elgible for all kinds of preference quotas and, perhaps then, society will begin treating us with a little more respect.

Lost in America: "Looming Massive Inflation and American Ignorance"...

Lost in America: "Looming Massive Inflation and American Ignorance"...: " As bizarre as this looks, during the Wermacht regime in Germany in the 1930's, folks took wheel barrows to the gr..."

"Looming Massive Inflation and American Ignorance"

                          As bizarre as this looks, during the Wermacht regime in Germany in the 1930's, folks took wheel barrows to the grocer.  So worthless was German currency that this bought a loaf of bread.                                        

Wouldn't it be wonderful if our nation were not playing "catch up" with the current financial crisis?  Can one even imagine the number of new business start ups and the millions of new jobs that could be created if the government's ravenous hunger for the available money supply was not crowding out young businesses from the credit markets?  Think about this:  For the last decade, each year the federal government must soak up $3.9 trillion dollars of the available money supply just to keep operating!  After collecting federal taxes ($2.2 trillion) which comprises 25% of our entire out put of goods and services (GNP) the government must then go, hat in hand, to bond purchasers in Japan and China in order to get the other $1.7 trillion needed to fund the massive government programs, many of which are chock full of fraud, waste and abuse.

How has the U.S. government managed to do this?  First of all, by printing money that has no intrinsic value.  These greenbacks are no longer backed up by a gold standard, but is, instead, supported by the idle notion that the federal government will always pay its obligations.  The second means for achieving this massive "fund raising" has been to keep costs under control by the Federal Reserve's maintaining artificially low interest rates.  The Federal Reserve is hoping that the taxpayer is looking the other way as they rack up $2.7 trillion dollars in borrowing that eventually must be paid for by the taxpayer!  The only other way to get out of this massive debt problem is to inflate our way out of it.  Yep, if you've been following me, you will now realize that inflation is looming on the near horizon.  The only way the federal government can ever succeed in keeping up the interest payments on this massive debt is to inflate the currency and pay this debt off with cheaper dollars!  Is it any wonder that the wealthy investors have been buying up gold? It's gone from a $1,000 an ounce to $1600 plus as of today!

Why should you care?

Well, let's take a look at the last time this happened.  It was during the Jimmy Carter administration.  After Carter ran this nation into the ground we had a real mess and we all suffered enormously.  Now, all you "doubters", I want you to go to Google and type in "inflation rates; 1978 to 1980.  You'll find that the inflation rates rocketed up to 18 to 20 percent annually! 

Now, I want you to think about this.  At 20 percent annual inflation, your paycheck after five years, without a pay raise, is worth zip!  How many employers are giving you 20 percent annual pay raises lately?  It is even worse for those who are living on a fixed income pension.  Let's assume you are pulling in $20,000 dollars per year from an annual pension.  After five years of massive 20 percent inflation, your fixed income pension is worth $10,000 dollars per year.  Keep in mind that energy and housing and food costs are rising in lock step with inflation so your fixed income pension will now buy only half of what it would buy only five years earlier!

Also, dear friends, while you're at Google, type in "home mortgage rates for the years 1978 to 1981.  Would you believe you'd be paying 14 to 16 percent mortgage interest rates?

Do you now understand all of the games the feds are playing with you?  By printing worthless paper dollars, by keeping current interest rates artificially low and by the government's massive spending, the federal government is setting up the "perfect storm" for financial collapse and the resultant pain and suffering of millions of Americans. 

What's the answer?  Any clear thinking citizen must support the efforts of those who wish to stop the massive government spending.  Be it Republicans and Democrats who spent stupidly from 2001 to 2008, or the Democrats who have staged a spending orgy (raising the current debt from $10 trillion to $14 trillion plus in less than three years!), we must get our financial house in order!

Let's put this in perspective.  In May the House passed the Ryan Plan budget.  The Ryan plan called for cuts in government spending of $6 trillion dollars over ten years.  Sounds pretty impressive, doesn't it?  Well, the Democrat-controlled Senate gagged and voted it down quickly!

Guess what?  Even if the Ryan Plan had taken effect our national deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will continue to grow from the current $14 trillion to over $20 trillion over the next decade! The Ryan plan only slowed the rate of deficit growth; it didn't stop it!

What was the Democrat's solution?  Well, the Democrats have controlled Congress since 2006 and for the last 815 days they haven't even proposed a budget!  Know why?  Because they know the American people will revolt at the real costs of all of their in-place entitlement programs!  We do have the Obama budget proposal that was submitted to Congress in April.  The CBO scored it and reported that, under Obama's proposal, the deficit swells to over $26 trillion dollars in ten years! 

So why are Americans putting up with this?

1) Half of all Americans pay no income taxes at all and could give a fart less what the government spends.
2) Most Americans are too damn lazy to read anything of consequence about our debt problems and won't even know what hit them when the inflation storm hits.
3) Many people are more than willing to listen to Obama's eloquent promise to "take care of them".
4) There is just too few of us who give a damn
5) The only people that can even imagine the pain of massive inflation are those of us who lived thorough the Carter years.

Sad, Damn sad.

If you care, take five minutes and write a three sentence email to your senators and congressman.  Simply say "I want this debt spiral to stop now!"

"Radical Idea! Ask Congress To Vote No On Raising Debt Ceiling"

Despite all of the panic cries on what would happen should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling next month, I've come to believe that is just what we need.  I believe the government, and the American people, need a wake-up call. 

I'm amazed that most people have so little feel for how bad the national debt is.  Obama came out with a "smoke and mirrors" proposition for reducing our debt which was no more than a slight reduction in the amount of deficit spending.  The Republicans plan, the Ryan Plan, proposes a $6 trillion dollar reduction in "spending" over a ten year period.  How many know that, after that ten year period, we will still not have brought our annual debt in balance and will not reduce the $14 trillion of debt at all?  In fact, under the Ryan plan that all the liberals claim will destroy our country, the national debt will actually have swollen to $20 trillion because we still will be paying enormous interest on the debt, and will still be running an annual deficit!  Under Obama's plan the national debt will have swollen to $26 trillion!  Read the neutral Congressional Budget Office's estimates of this on their site!

I believe its time that we get serious about tackling this problem.  I just heard a panel of economists lay out a scenario that is likely to occur should Congress fail to extend the debt ceiling next month.  First of all, in contrast to to what many are saying, the U.S. would not be in bankruptcy.  Nor would we be defaulting on our government bonds and send the markets into panic.  Keep in mind that the U.S. is pulling in over $2 trillion dollars in revenue.  If the national debt is not raised Congress would be forced to prioritize spending that $2 trillion.  Let me present what I would do to budget our limited resources under a complete freeze at current debt levels:

My budget under a debt ceiling freeze:

Scenario:  I have $2.2 trillion of revenue to spend
                I must cut spending and I must raise revenue

1)  Continue paying interest on our government bonds and other debt obligations.
2)  Pull all American troops out of Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan immediately; we can't afford to fund Muslim wars.  (Savings $450 billion per year)
3) Vote to amend the 14th amendment to stop making illegal children automatic citizens; refuse to pay the hospital costs for their birth, refuse to pay any WIC, food stamp, medicaid, welfare benefits.  (Based on Center for Immigrations Studies, a savings of $150 billion dollars)
4) Raise the taxes on anyone making more than $500,000 per year to the 35 percent tax rate ($400 billion in additional revenue based on Obama's economics advisor)
5) Anyone making over $25,000 per year, but less than $40,000 per year, must pay taxes at a 5 percent rate to insure they have skin in the game and begin to care about how government money is spent(additional revenue of $400 billion per year)  All other tax brackets would remain the same.
6) End Government subsidies to Planned Parenthood and Public Radio (savings of $1 billion per year)
7) End all foreign aid (A savings of $8 billion per year)
8) End all military assistance funds to foreign nations (A Savings of $40 billion per year)
9) Reduce Congressional pay and benefits by 50% until the budget is in balance

Summary:
Under the above cited additions to revenues, and reductions in spending,  I just proposed a balanced budget without denying American citizens a single benefit that they are enjoying now!  Add the revenue additions and spending reductions and you'll see that we just closed the gap between the revenue we take in versus the government spending required.  I didn't even touch Obama care!  I didn't touch Social Security so our seniors are not eating cat food!  I didn't touch Medicaid for American citizens (which could use a good scrubbing to eliminate fraud) and I balanced the budget!

Look at my budget and tell me that you can't live with this.  Tell me American families haven't had to do more with a hell of alot less.  Tell Congress we don't want the 74th raising of our debt level!  Vote no next month on raising the debt ceiling!  Then Congress will have to actually live within a budget.  The markets will love this, we will, once again gain respect with our foreign friends and, without the government crowding out all other borrowers in the loan markets, more money will be available in the economy to create jobs which would actually boost tax revenue!


Note:  There are several charts sources to show revenue gains should the bottom 50% of Americans pay even a marginal 5% income tax (currently the bottom 50% of all wage earners pay no federal income tax; payroll taxes are returned to them at tax time).  The best source is from the Independent Tax Foundation of America:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html
If you care to read it you'll find the old liberal cry of "tax the rich" is moot; the top 3 percent of wealth in America pay 70% of all government tax revenue.

Lost in America: "Radical Idea! Ask Congress To Vote No On Raising ...

Lost in America: "Radical Idea! Ask Congress To Vote No On Raising ...: "Despite all of the panic cries on what would happen should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling next month, I've come to believe that is ..."

"Medicaid Fraud; Liberal Mantra versus The Truth"

                           



Good Morning, folks,

Every Sunday morning talk show and literally all of the budget talks in Washington are focused on cutting the Social Security and Medicare programs for seniors.  They cite the "staggering costs" of these programs....and never mention that seniors paid into both programs through payroll deduction for their entire working lives, continue to have to pay monthly Medicare premiums and both doctor and hospital co-pays.

Nowhere do you hear a politician mentioning the massive waste, fraud and abuse of the Medicaid program, most of the recipients of which never paid into the system and continue to get a complete free ride; no premiums, no co-pays.

Liberal Mantra:  "We will fight tooth and nail to preserve Medicaid for the poor and needy!"

Truth:  The annual costs to the taxpayer to fund Medicaid is 333 billion dollars!

Truth:  There are 62.3 million Americans who receive Medicaid and don't pay a dime toward their own medical care.   http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/health/policy/01medicaid.html

Truth:  Despite massive waste fraud and abuse in the Medicaid program, there exists no effective program audit to cull out those who are not eligible.  http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/02/20110217a.html

Truth:  Although the most attention in Washington toward deficit cutting has been about cutting senior medicare, seniors paid in trillions of dollars into the Medicare program over their lifetime, are required to pay annual premiums and doctor/hospital co-pays, while tens of millions of the "poor and needy" receive Medicare who never paid a dime into the program and, by law, pay no co-pays, and cannot even be billed for missing an appointment!  And under Obama's Healthcare plan, passed last year, Obama intends to cut $500 billion in Medicare to pay for even more "free riders" on Medicaid!

Truth:  Liberal Democrats derive their re-election support from those who are getting a "medical free ride" and the "free riders" have no interest in controlling costs.  According to federal guidelines the "poor and needy", unlike the average taxpayer,  cannot be charged a co-pay and cannot even be charged a $5 dollar fee to aid in reimbursing the costs to a medical facility when the patient misses an appointment. 

Truth:  There are tens of millions of people who have been on Medicaid for their entire lives.  They began to be covered as young children and continue to receive free medical right into adulthood.  22 percent of them begin to develop adult onset diabetes and are obese by the age of 12.  The costs of treating the accompanying diseases are staggering.

Truth:  Seven percent of the "poor and needy" will become pregnant and bear children by the age of 16.  Hospitalization, Welfare and WIC and federal and state sponsored childcare to these "children of children" is staggering!

Truth:  Nearly 30 percent of the "poor and needy" are addicted to alcohol and/or drugs.  The costs to cover rehabilitative treatment programs are staggering!  The costs of dealing with drug-related crime is staggering!

Truth:  While working American families must forgo medical insurance for their own kids because of the high costs of premiums, an illegal alien can come to the U.S., bear an anchor baby, and have that anchor baby given free Medicaid, WIC and state and federally funded child care!

How do these inequities continue to thrive?

Because, too damn many of you are too damn willing to "roll over" and allow yourselves to be reamed by "free riders" and corrupt politicians!

Sad, Damned Sad.

"The Gannett Open Borders/Amnesty Campaign Rolls On"

                                            
Well, the big guns at the ultra-liberal Gannett Corporation have reved up their semi-annual "love the invaders" campaign.  Using the might of their army of newspapers across the country, including their flagship, USA Today, Gannett has again started up another massive campaign to garner sympathy for illegal invaders. 

Just this past two weeks the Arizona Republic has begun running almost daily editorials advocating for the Dream Act, Illegal Amnesty and attempting to minimize the effects of illegal crime in American communities.  All of Gannett's editorial board must have renewed orders to crime reporters to extract hispanic ethnicity from crime reports involving hispanics.  Scores of crime reports have been published in the past weeks; murder, home invasions, drive-by shootings, robbery and rape, identity theft, with the majority of these reports failing to identify the suspect unless they are black or white.  We have gotten used to this practice and have now learned to "cross-check" the news reports with on-line television news sites   In almost all cases when we've suspected vital information has been extracted from the crime report facts, we find the suspect is hispanic and/or illegal when we check the TV news sites. 

Gannett newspapers across America are bleeding red ink because they have lost credibility with the average American.  The Arizona Republic here in Phoenix sends out "beggar" subscription cards weekly, almost giving the paper away, trying to muster up sufficient readership to preclude still another round of Arizona Republic employee layoffs.  Nothing has worked and the paper appears to be on a rapid downward spiral, having failed to get the message that readers want to see objective reporting...and not the perpetual editorializing in favor of invasion...and violating the terms of the 1st amendment by intentionally omitting vital news information and misleading information. 

The Republic might know this except they continue to censor both the news and community comment on their news operation.

Sad.  Damned Sad.

"The Illegal Invasion; Gated Neighborhoods; Gated Minds"

                                                                                  
I sometimes receive emails from folks in response to my blogs advocating the halting of illegal immigration.  While the less reasonable responses attack my sense of fairness and accuse me of racism, some of the more thoughtful ones question why I am so much against illegal immigration.  When I receive these missives from these folks my first response is to question why they are "for" open borders and amnesty for people who invaded our nation.  Based on the discussions I've had with those who support amnesty I find that it is usually from those who least affected by illegals.

For example, I've found that supporters of amnesty normally fall into two economic classes: 1) the very rich who live in gated communities protected from illegal crime, whose home values are so high they serve as an economic barrier so as not to be under the threat of being driven down by hordes of new residents blasting mariachi music and cars tripled parked on neighborhood lawns, or having to install iron bars on the windows due to the soaring neighborhood crime rates.  These "amnesty folks also hold high-paying jobs whose salary is not threatened by the "under-the-table cash payments to illegals that drive down the average wage of the working citizen.  2) The second class of amnesty supporters are those who live on the government dole, who pay no taxes and are unconcerned about the costs incurred by taxpayers to support illegals.  Thirty percent of this class are drug users so having porous borders is advantageous to insure supply channels are always available. 

It is the other forty percent of us who are troubled by the invasion.  It is the middle class who continue to pay taxes to support anchor babies and illegal families through Section 8 housing, WIC, Food Banks, Welfare and ever-rising property taxes to fund the build out of more schools to provide court-mandated education to illegal children.  It is the working class who have seen our wages suppressed by employers who can pay cash under the table to illegals and fore go having to pay a "living wage" to American citizens.  It is those of us who have seen our middle class neighborhoods degraded by the invaders.
For example, here in Phoenix, support for illegals comes from the wealthy in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, the government "takers" in Phoenix central while whole middle class communities have been devastated by the illegal invasion. 

Prime examples:

Maryvale is a community in Phoenix, built in the 1950's.  It was built for thriving and growing families in the western suburbs of Phoenix.  It was a thriving middle class community full of happy residents.  Over time Maryvale was taken over by illegals and is now one of the most crime ridden communities in the United States.  Infested by latino gangs it is a war zone with crime reports of rape, robbery, home invasions and drive by shootings emanating nightly to the local police precinct. 

Amazingly, a little pioneering senior community on the west side of Phoenix called appropriately "Youngtown" decided to lift the 55 plus age restrictions just a few years ago.  The town now is rife with hispanic crime, drug activity and tripled park cars on the front lawn.  The once serene little senior community is now an urban sewer with a tax base that can neither support an adequate police force or even fund their own schools.

The illegal invasion has hit Phoenix so hard that we now have at least a dozen suburban communities that are no longer livable.

So, when I hear the advocacy for illegal immigration coming from both the "gated community elite" and the government "dolers" I realize that neither group has any skin in the game.  Their "gated protectiveness" leads to "gated minds" who fail to see the tragic effects of the the illegal invasion.

 For the rest of us, illegal immigration has become a pox on our way of life and a real threat to the safety and security of our middle class communities.

Sad.

"Democratic Cowardice Continues"

                                              
This week CBS conducted a poll about what Americans think about the current debt ceiling discussions.  The poll indicates that 70 percent of Americans support the President and oppose Republican intransigence in not compromising with Obama.

Okay, one question for those who are supporting Obama; what "plan" are you talking about?  Since neither the Democrats nor Obama have ever put anything down on paper, just what is it that you are supporting.  Granted, you may oppose the Republican plan for spending reductions but, since they alone have had the courage to actually put down proposals on paper, how are Americans coming to the decision to support Obama and Reid and Pelosi?

How many of you supporting Obama have taken the time to actually study the problem?  How many of you are aware that Obama proposed a 2012 budget in March and his plan, which increased spending for next year by an additional trillion dollars (an astounding $2.4 trillion dollar deficit!) and his plan got not a single vote in Congress, not even from his fellow Democrats!  Look it up!  Obama's budget proposal was voted down in the Senate by a vote of 97-0!

At least Obama offered a plan.  Congressional Democrats have not proposed a budget plan at all!  They know that as soon as they do they will face the wrath of voters because, if they get funding for all of their pet projects, the bill will total over $3 trillion dollars above and beyond tax revenues!  Democratic cowardice is without precedent!  How many of you remember that the Democratically controlled Congress last year was supposed to have finalized a 2011 budget last October...and they never did!  Remember that was the reason for the threat of a government shutdown in April?

I suspect those who participating in the latest opinion poll are either ignorant or suffering from Alzheimer's.  How stupid do you have to be to completely overlook the fact that Dems have failed to complete a budget for 2011 and have yet to propose a budget for 2012?

Like it or not, at least the Republicans had the courage to propose a budget...and put it down on paper for voters to see!  The Dems have had a wild spending orgy for almost three years and, now that "adults" must show up to pay the bills, the Dems are no where to be seen!

Sad, Damn sad!

Lost in America: "Marco Rubio; If Not Now, When?"

Lost in America: "Marco Rubio; If Not Now, When?": " Recent polls have shown that approximately 70 percent of Republican voters are unexcited ab..."

"Marco Rubio; If Not Now, When?"

                                               
Recent polls have shown that approximately 70 percent of Republican voters are unexcited about the current field of Presidential candidates.  Getting voters to support any of them is like getting kids to eat their broccoli.   I am frankly amazed that, in a country of 300 million people, we can only come up with a handful of heavily flawed candidates who are willing and consider themselves capable of leading our nation toward a more promising future.

I look at Mitt Romney and I see a guy who partnered with liberals in Massechusetts in establishing a socialist health care plan that is even now crippling the finances of that state.  The son of a wealthy auto magnate and former governor of Michigan, Romney is a rich kid who was given his first million and told to "go out and make a million!".  Could I ever trust him to hold a hard line against free spending liberals in Congress?  No!

I look and listen to Governor Rick Perry in Texas and I hear an eerie similarity in speech and mush-mouth platitudes of a George W. Bush.  Listen to him!  He sounds exactly like George Bush.  That alone would lose the support of Independents!  It's unfortunate but there are alot of Independents and Republicans who are still weary of the free-spending Bush and Perry just looks and sounds too much like Bush.  Fair or not, Perry could not win.

I look and listen to Michelle Bachman and immediately know she has neither the finesse or intellectual depth to handle the Presidency.  Her gaffes with regard to our Constitutional history have been amazingly stupid and her manner of speech is grating.

Pawlenty is non-flavored yogurt and the rest of the field have already been marginalized into obscurity.  If I had to take a guess at this moment the fight will be between Romney, Perry and Bachman...to which I say god help us.

Folks, we had this same conundrum in 1996.  Republicans were riding a wave of popularity which gave them the majorities in both the House and Senate.  Then, when the Presidential merry-go-round of candidate nomination came around the Republicans decided that it was good ole Bob Dole's turn.  While Senator Dole was an able legislator, and a good man, he was about as exciting as the aforementioned broccoli and the Republicans lost.

Now, at this critical time, the Republicans need an eloquent spokesman for traditional American values and someone who can restore fiscal sanity to government.  The only candidate I see on the immediate horizon is Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.  He is a true conservative, he is eloquent and uplifting and he is the only candidate who can match and exceed that of the smooth-talking Barack Obama.

Alas, he was only recently elected Senator from Florida and believes he must "pay his dues" by serving his state.  No doubt he is fearful of being considered a "carpetbagger", full of ambition that would appear to supercede his loyalty to his fellow Floridians. 

I say the country needs Senator Rubio much more than does the state of Florida.  We are at a critical juncture in our nation's history.  We will either stop Obama's efforts to socialize our nation or, if Obama wins a second term, we may very well have gone past the point of no return and our nation of "producers" will become just like the underachieving socialist states of Europe.

I will once again invite you to listen to an outstanding speech that clearly defines Senator Rubio's values and his vision for an American future:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WgBnCINauQ
    

"Aloha To Hawaii", Part I

                                     
Living in paradise for nine years cannot be described in one blog so I'm calling this "part one".  I arrived in Hawaii in January 1977.  Still in the Air Force I was more than ready for Hawaii after having served three tours in Vietnam, three years in frigid North Dakota and a year in Korea. 

The first thing I noticed upon disembarking in Hawaii was the sweet scent of plumeria.  When we all get to heaven surely the scent of plumeria will be the first welcoming sign.  The second thing I noticed was the validation of the "post card effect".  How many of us have looked at picture post cards of a particular place and, upon arrival, find that the post card was "doctored"; greenery and deep blue lakes were not nearly as beautiful as the post card.   Hawaii countered that notion; it was even more beautiful than any post card.  Upon arrival in Hawaii your senses are assaulted by powder blue skies, pristine beaches skirting azure blue waters that are as warm as bath water.  Plumeria and Hibiscus and other tropical plantings are a feast for the eyes and the warmth of the Hawaiian people will touch your heart as nothing else can.

My family and I quickly embraced the Aloha spirit and delighted in the joy of just being alive in paradise.  "Aloha Friday" signals the end of the work week.  By 2:00 pm on Aloha Friday, the collective "butts" of the working class are squirming for the end of the work day.  Mai Tai's awaited us at some palm shaded table with an ocean view.  Trade winds cooled our sandaled heels as we anticipated body surfing at Sandy Beach or a Huli Huli Chicken barbecue in Kapiolani Park on the weekend.  If football was in season we would plot out a tailgate party at the stadium in Aiea before heading in to see the Hawaii Rainbows take on mighty BYU...or even dream of an upset against mighty USC!

Being in the Air Force had its advantages; we had the commissary to ameliorate the high food prices in the islands and, on weekends, my family would travel over to the other side of the island to Bellows Air Station where we could rent a beach side cottage for less than $20 bucks per night.  We'd fill a couple of bags of groceries, pack our swimsuits and spend wonderful weekends in quiet respite from the demands of military duties. 

One day in the spring of 77 I read a book by Jim Fixx called "The Complete Book of Running".  The book inspired me to take up jogging and there is no where more pleasurable to jog than in beautiful Hawaii.  I eventually built my jogging routine to five mile per day jogs and a ten miler on the weekends.  I was never more healthy or happy in my life.  One of my more memorable experiences was participating in Carole Kai's Fun run from downtown Honolulu out to Aiea to the stadium.  Runners often speak of a "runner's high" when body and spirit become as one and the runner feels no pain and no fatigue.  Though I had enjoyed my jogs I had never experienced a "runner's high".  However, one night at home I had just finished a book and felt restless.  I looked out the window and in the early evening sky I gazed out at a full moon.  I donned my running shorts and shoes and set off on an evening jog around the base.  After jogging a few miles I began to experience something like an out of body experience;  my legs were strong and my breathing was even as I began to take in the beauty of the golden moon above, the scent of plumeria in the air and the silence of the evening.  I could not stop running.  As I ran the perimeter of the base I passed the ships in Pearl Harbor, marvelled at the beauty of moonlight on water, delighted in the scents of sea and tropical flowers.   I ran and ran that night, ran as if I could run forever.  Finally, after almost three hours of jogging I came home to a quiet house.  Everyone had gone to bed.  I took a quick shower and quietly slipped into bed next to my wife.  The window above our bed was open and the cool trade winds cooled my body as I lay quietly in the night and thanked god for what I knew even then was an magical experience that I would remember for the rest of my life.

My kids grew up in Hawaii.  They still love it to this day.  Christmases were especially nice.  One would think the spirit of Christmas would seem somehow less when the temperature is 80 degrees on Christmas day.  The opposite was true; the Hawaiian people absolutely adore the Christmas season and the spirit of Holiday Aloha is so very strong one can't help but get caught in their high spirits! 

I resumed my off duty college courses while in Hawaii, first enrolling in University of Hawaii courses conducted on bases in the area, then finishing up in residence at Chaminade University.  I graduated in 1980 and was selected for Officers Training School and a follow-on assignment (back to North Dakota!)  At that time the Air Force had a standing policy that you could not return and serve at an assignment as an officer where you had served previously in an enlisted capacity.

We left Hawaii for a second tour in North Dakota in 1982 after five years of blissful living in paradise.  But we would soon return!  Stay tuned for Aloha To Hawaii, Part II, to find out how!

Aloha!

"Life In Black And White"

                                                       
Sociologists can break down all manner of interesting information about the particular dynamics of specific generations; I've read studies about the personality traits of "baby boomers", "Gen Xers", "GenYer's", etc.  I suspect some of the societal conclusions are drawn with scientific accuracy.  Some seem to draw conclusions that seemed "stretched", to say the least.  However, I, as an amateur, can offer one specific and insightful conclusion about anyone born before or after 1960;  it is that most of those born before 1960 still have an attraction to black and white television while those born after run from it with gusto!

I've seen my kids and grand kids surf the remote and fly past those old Twilight Zone episodes as if they were spreading the black plague, sneer at Barney's hapless antics on Andy Griffith and watch Lucy and Ethyl on the candy conveyor and snarl cause there's no "color". 

We baby boomers on the other hand, watch Andy and Barney and remember that it was on Tuesday nights at 8pm and if we hurried home from the Boy Scout meeting we could catch it.  Today, for us old farts, Mayberry is a pretty damned special little town because it was not unlike our own little hometown, a place where you could ride your bikes without a helmet, eat a burger at the drive-in without having to read the calorie and fat count signs and leave your windows and doors open without fear of a burglar...or worse.

Back then, the Twilight Zone was the scariest thing on television.  Today you have so many more choices; you can watch one of those reality crime investigation shows and see bloated corpses and scalpel cuts which, if you're aspiring toward a career in autopsy, puts you well up the career prep ladder.  Or, if you really want to be scared these days just watch the evening news!

So, while we boomers may be attracted to the seamier and more colorful side of today's television, we still like to retreat to an earlier time when we didn't have to see every skin pore in HD, didn't need to hear what the Trailer Trash on Jerry Springer think about their significant others and didn't need to see Andy and Barney conducting SWAT sweeps or tazering old drunken Otis.  We knew that, at the end of the day, Otis would be sleeping it off in the jail after Aunt Bee delivered his Fried Chicken supper, Andy would go home to take Opie for late afternoon fishing...and Ole Barney would be smooching with Thelma Lou out on the porch swing.

So Gen Xers and Gen Yers, I think we boomers have the best of both worlds.  We can watch the old boob tube in dazzling, high definition color...but when our souls become just a bit weary of all the pain of today's reality, we can cozy up in the old recliner and watch Barney ticketing someone for jay-walking.  Sometimes that's about all the action I can take.

Lost in America: "I Love"

Lost in America: "I Love": "I love.... I love getting up early in the morning, walking out on the patio and watching the dawn tease its way up the horizon. I love th..."

Lost in America: "I Love"

Lost in America: "I Love": "I love.... I love getting up early in the morning, walking out on the patio and watching the dawn tease its way up the horizon. I love th..."

"I Love"

I love....

I love getting up early in the morning, walking out on the patio and watching the dawn tease its way up the horizon.  I love the morning breeze whispering through the trees.  I love breathing the fresh clean morning air in the silent birth of a new day. 

I love watering my yard and watching little birds taking a bath in the pondings of water beneath my trees after I have watered them.  The birds stomp around in the cool water, dip their beaks into it and transfer the coolness to places beneath their wings.  I love having the little hummingbirds flit around me as I hold the hose and water my yellow bell and jasmine.

I love making my way into a baseball stadium, feel the exciting anticipation of the home crowd, being aware of the wonderful aroma of hot dogs steaming, then moving toward my seat, all the while overwhelmed by the emerald, pristine beauty of the playing field. 

I love the first moments of setting out on a long trip.  Since I've already looked at maps beforehand, the blue highways and landmarks of the journey are clear in my mind and I hear all the songs of all the roads I've travelled before.  The long drive is never boring because I use the time to replay a host of "life-plays"; recalling memories of past journeys, but also re-visiting old triumphs and old regrets, my moral compass always re-setting itself to the moment.  Loved ones, now gone, visit me on these journeys and I hear their voices with greater clarity without the diversions of home.

I love watching my wife take a nap; she looks so sweet and vulnerable and watching her elicits in me a sense of protectiveness.  There has never been a time in my life when I didn't think my wife was beautiful; I love the grace of her as she walks away from me...and the gleeful smile as she returns.

I love having my soul uplifted by beautiful music

I love opening any history book and having a long dead historical figure leap to life from the page and speak eloquently to me, telling me just how it was...and why.

I love escaping my own mundane-ness with a well written book of fiction.

I love that my children always remember to call me on Father's Day.  I think it is so cool that they take the time from their own life to remember me.

I love my two little doggies; they are a source of unconditional love.  They don't care if I'm fat and ugly, or if my hair is messy or even if I've left a spot of mustard on the corner of my mouth.  The two little girls stage mock gladiator battles with each other for me, growling and gnashing teeth and brawling fiercely as long as I continue to laugh at their efforts.  They will dance in delight on two hind legs just at the prospect of a shared piece of toast or a bit of egg yolk left from the breakfast plate.  If I am harsh and yell at them they will retreat to their bed but require only a single tender word to send them leaping into my lap, all hurt forgotten and forgiven.

I love listening on the phone as my baby grandson throws either a tantrum or yelling in ecstasy as the first image of his favorite baby icon appears on the tube.  I love hearing the mush-mouth utterings of my baby granddaughter as background muzak when talking to my daughter.

Each time I see my older grandchildren I'm always expecting them to be hormonally-challenged beasts with a philosophical sneer for the "older set" and am always amazed and delighted that they have evolved into loving and caring people.

I'm a naturally cynical person who is deeply concerned about my world.  But I am also blessed that my creator has given me so many things to love.

Life is good...and sometimes beautiful.

"Revising The 14th Amendment"

                                            
The explosion in the growth industry of "anchor-babying" is attributable to the Open Borders/Blanket Amnesty folks twisting the 14th Amendment in justification for giving citizenship to people who invaded us!


The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads as follows: 

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article

Does anyone think that our Congress wrote this amendment to justify the invasion of over 40 million illegal Mexicans in the last forty years?  Please show me anywhere in the amendment that justifies the support for ten million anchor babies?

Wouldn't you say that the first sentence of section 1 is pretty thin justification for allowing citizenship for anchor babies?

Yet that is what liberals and open borders/amnesty supporters use to justify automatic citizenship for those who's families invaded our country and have literally destroyed America's social safety net system!

Please write your legislator and demand that they begin the process of amending the 14th Amendment to preclude invaders from relying on it for justifying their encroachment into our country.

"LIfe Like A Wheel"

                                                
Eastern religious thought developed the concept of "The Great Mandala"; an idea that has, as its basis, that life is but a series of "circles" or "wheels".  The inner circle is of course, the "self".  It then permeates outward to wider circles of family, community, etc.  Although I know little about Sanskrit the idea is thought provoking because it is so basic for identifying how our problems develop and  how, if we are to resolve them, we must value the importance of all facets of the "wheel".

Consider this; our society can certainly be thought of as a series of wheels, each spoke providing support to the overall strength of the wheel.  The family is the "hub" of the larger societal wheel and is strongest when all the spokes (family members) are secure and well tethered to the whole.  The same is true with the larger family of community.  The health of the community is dependent on the health and security of each individual spoke of the community wheel. 

In the past few years there has occurred major breakdowns in the spokes of our common wheel, the breakdown of the nuclear family, major disruptions in our communities and a growing neglect in our caring for each other.

This has not always been the case. 
From the founding of our nation until 1965 our very survival depended on everyone working hard and contributing to the common good.   An agrarian farmer need everyone in the family to work the farm to survive.  An urban factory needed every worker to be productive in order to compete and thrive.  Moreover, those who failed to contribute would surely starve; there was no social safety net to allow one the luxury of loafing.  I can't think of a better incentive to inspire work and productivity than starvation.  This work ethic and a healthy morality saw both the family and community through tough times.

When economic conditions were such that the mass of our people suffered, those conditions taught valuable lessons.  Folks learn to live leaner and scared themselves into saving for a rainy day.  Those commonly referred to as The Greatest Generation certainly learned that by enduring the Great Depression and the threat of world-wide foreign domination.  Those lessons spurred that generation to working so hard as to propel America into an era of prosperity heretofore unknown in human history.

In the last three years or so our nation has had to weather some pretty severe economic storms.  I've been wondering lately if, in the long run, that is not a good thing.  Perhaps families are now having to unite more strongly in order to survive these difficult times.  Perhaps those who spent unwisely and saved little will have learned to live leaner and save for a rainy day.  Perhaps they have learned that a home is not a financial instrument to be pawned for second mortgages to finance swimming pools and annual vacations.  Maybe families, not diverted by material quests, have turned back to enjoying themselves as a family unit.  It would be nice to know that these tough times have strengthened the family unit and enhanced our willingness to save for the future.  This would certainly strengthen the "central hub" of our larger community!

Business too needs to begin thinking about more than the bottom line; provide good jobs, help solidify the community, think "country" over excessive profits

Government needs to scale down, increase audits for program fraud and abuse, get out of the notion that they can create wealth or create jobs

America itself needs to start putting America first! 

Perhaps, if the many smaller "spokes" are strengthened the great "Wheel" of family, community and country can once again roll onward to a better future.

"A Tit-Sucking Baby Never Cries!"

                                                  

You will never see a baby crying while sucking on mommy's tit.  Never ever.  Won't happen.  So why are Americans surprised that there is huge support for Big Government's fraudulent and wasteful social programs? 

Consider this:  Despite the liberals crying that the rich need to pay more taxes, the Tax Foundation reports that the top 5 percent of the wealthy pay 58 percent of all taxes, the top ten percent of the wealthy pay 80 percent of all taxes and fully 50 percent of all Americans pay not a dime in income taxes.  Sixty million Americans are on Food Stamps and half of them have been on Food Stamps for their entire life, not just the few million that have had to resort to Food Stamps during the current recession!  A recent Pew research study showed that 75 percent of illegals are on some form of welfare program so of course they are angry that Americans want them deported!  

There are tens of millions of Americans who have been on welfare and Food Stamps for their entire life!  They breed children which assures them continued welfare and Food Stamps, then their children have children who continue on welfare and Food Stamps and the sorry parade goes on and on! 

Those same tens of millions of "perpetual tit suckers" have also been on Medicaid their entire life.  They have never had to make a co-pay to a doctor or hospital.  They have never had to pay a dime in health care premiums.  Because they pay nothing for health care they run to the doc at the first sniffle of a cold and the U.S. Surgeon General reports that a majority of these Medicaid tit-suckers are obese, thanks to the new "Food Stamp Credit Card" that allows them to buy fast food with their food stamp money!   An astounding 22 percent of Food Stamp kids have developed adult onset diabetes by the age of 12!

And what are the morals of these generations of welfare takers?  Just watch the news!  Just yesterday the national news reported on the "mob robberies" where fifty black kids enter a convenience store and strip it bare!..and they can't help it!  They are so used to "taking" they have never developed the values of honesty and the reward of "earning!".

To be fair some of these tit-sucking generation do take up careers!  They join gangs and deal drugs, commit robbery and adopt a life of crime to augment their welfare income!

So why do the Liberals promote this?  Because this is their power base!  These are the people who vote for liberals; they must vote for liberals to keep the freebies flowing their way!  The Liberals promote dependence on the government tit in order to maintain control!  They know that if they ever took the tit away the baby would whine and cry and they'd be finished!

Guess what?  The tit is rapidly running dry.  The Chinese and Japanese are already telling America to get their financial house in order or they'll stop buying U.S. government bonds.  Since the Libs are are already borrowing 46 cents of every dollar spent on keeping the tit full, the tit suckers are in dire straights. 

When that tit is finally taken away, watch out folks!  Having never developed the career skills, or the work ethic to earn a living, you're going to see the tit-suckers screaming loud and often!

Read my earlier blog on "A 2nd Civil War".  It's coming sooner than you think!  http://justcommonsense-lostinamerica.blogspot.com/2011/03/2nd-civil-war.html

"Are All Dem Politicans Psychology Majors and Lawyers?

President Obama and his supporting regime of Pelosi and Reid seem genuinely perplexed by the economy's failure to create jobs.  How is it possible that they don't see that the burdensome costs and regulations associated with Obamacare have businesses scared to death, thus refusing to hire more employees?

How is it possible that Obama and company cannot put themselves in the place of a business owner just for a few minutes?  Don't they realize that the threat of higher taxes causes employers to hold off on incurring new labor costs?

Can't Obama and the Dems understand the the Dodd Frank finance bill hampered the business owner's ability to secure investment credit?

When Obama and the Dems decided to intervene in the natural cycle of housing sales, why couldn't they realize that allowing housing prices to seek their own level would have cleared out the excess housing and allowed the free market to bring prices back up...just as they have done in every boom and bust housing cycle?

Why is it that Obama and the Dems can't understand that folks who saw their housing prices drop by half will have no incentive to continue paying the mortgage payment on a house for which they clearly overpaid during the housing bubble?  And, once realizing that, why did Obama and the Dems intervene and order a stop to foreclosures and blamed the banks and not the owners of the home who chose to go for second mortgages to build swimming pools and finance trips to Europe!

How is it that Obama and company cannot understand that when they hammer the banks, including the community banks that had nothing to do with the financial collapse, when Dems micro manage banking reserves, that credit to finance small businesses will dry up and choke off an economic recovery?

How is that Obama and the Dems cannot understand American rage at coddling illegal aliens to the point that they are destroying our social service safety net by rewarding the invaders with WIC, Welfare, Section 8 public housing, free medicare and free education for illegal kids?

The answer to all of these questions is that Obama and Pelosi and Reid have never run a business or even worked a day in their life as an "employee".

Do we want to continue allowing lawyers and liberal "psych majors" to make the critical decisions on what direction our nation should take?  Or do we want leaders who have walked a mile in our shoes?

The choice is pretty clear to me.

"Okay, I'll Eat Dog Food Under One Condition"

                                             
Good morning,

The talk in Washington for two months has largely centered on the need to cut Medicare and Social Security, programs that were fully funded by us, but stolen from a set-aside fund to pay for other government goodies.  Very little talk about cutting the fraud out of Medicaid, a program which costs the taxpayers $333 billion per year and is fraught with fraud, waste and abuse, and for which the government does not require the beneficiary to pay a medical co-pay or for premium coverage.

If I were a new immigrant I could apply for Medicaid even though I have paid nothing into the system, having just arrived here.  If I were an anchor baby my parents could apply for welfare and Section 8 housing support and WIC and food stamps, and  yes, Medicaid, even though I paid nothing into the system.

However, I'm not a newly-arrived green card immigrant.  I was born here and started paying into Social Security and Medicaid when I was sixteen years old.  For me, that's 47 years worth of contributions.  While I am now eligible to receive Social Security I must pay taxes on my Social Security pension.  Remember, that was the one I paid for.  The deductions came out of my gross annual income every year, which was also taxed as I earned it. 

As to my "paid-up" Medicare, I will be relegated to that system soon.  As such, I will pay a monthly premium each month to fund my Medicare (yes, the one I paid into for 47 years).  I must also pay a co-pay every time I go to the doctor...and to a hospital when I am hospitalized. 

If I had quit working a couple of decades ago I could really be "crapping in high cotton" as they say down South.  I could just ride Medicaid right into my sunset years and say the hell with having to pay anything!
Nice benefits if you can get them! 

Once I am on Medicare, if I was really stupid and wasteful and spent everything I earned in my early years I can get Medicare for free also!  They have a program especially for folks who lived for today..and not tomorrow.

But...okay, let me be reasonable here.  Let me offer a concession.  Since I have had no Social Security raise to keep up with a 20 percent increase in food prices...and $4 dollar per gallon gas, in two years, I'm willing to supplement my diet with a little dog food if the Congress really thinks I need to sacrifice a bit more.

But, I agree to eat dog food, only if Congress passes a bill that audits just ten percent of those folks on Medicaid.  If they do, and if the audit shows these folks on Medicaid have big screen televisions, IPODS and IPADs, a late model car and a state of the art video gaming system, then Congress must demand that Medicaid recipients begin to pay Medicaid premiums and doctor and hospital co-pays. 

I personally know lots of folks who own all the goodies listed and pay not a dime for the government bennies they are receiving.

Gotta go now...Safeway is running a sale on Alpo.

"Democratic Lies and Half-Lies"

                                                
Most Democratic politicians have a special quality that is highly unique.  To be a Democrat politician you must be willing to suspend the science of logic.  You must be willing to avoid facts at all costs.  You must have the unique ability to "lie by manipulating the facts". 

In 2007 I gave up on the Republican party and declared my independence from Bush and his costly wars, Republicans in name only like John McCain and dozens of free-spending Republicans who failed to live up to conservative values and spent like drunken sailors.

I am now an Independent and I look to support only those political candidates who will put our country's interests first, and not the interests of any foreign entity.  I seek political candidates who are willing to vote in Congress to end the waste of a trillion dollars per year in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I will only support candidates who refuse to support illegal amnesty in any form.  I will support a candidate who will work tirelessly to spur economic activity to create jobs, raise tax revenue and eliminate incentives for folks who are content to suck on the public tit for a lifetime.

Having said all of this, the only time I really get angry is when I hear the Democrats lying out their asses with regard to the economic success of the Clinton administration.  Democrats wrongly take credit for a stitch in grand economic times for which little credit is due. 

Democratic mantra:  "Under the Clinton Administration we had higher taxes, a thriving economy with low unemployment and record tax revenues."

Fact:  Clinton's approval rating in 1994 was sinking like a rock.  The country was in economic trauma and government social programs threatened to choke off the economy for good.

In 1994 the American people had seen way too much of a Democratically controlled Congress and voted the Republicans in to a massive majority.  The Republican controlled congress passed welfare reform against Clinton's opposition (after its success Clinton took credit for it!)and knocked half of the welfare pukes that had been sucking at the government tit for two generations.  The wording of the Welfare Reform Law included dictates that anyone on welfare would be required to work to get a welfare check, whether it be raking leaves in the parks or in day care centers.  Half of the tit-suckers left the welfare rolls and saved the taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars.

Fact: From 1995 to 1999 the U.S. economy surged with one the greatest eras of prosperity in our history.  The surge was solely attributable to businesses that had been born during the 1980's; businesses like Intel, Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and a hundred other businesses that owed their birth to Ronald Reagan's achievements in reducing excessive business regulation and favorable tax policies for small business.  The Internet boom during those four years produced massive capital gains tax revenue for the federal government and enabled the U.S. to achieve balanced budgets.  The boom also created hundreds of thousands of new jobs and the accompanying increase in payroll tax revenue.

Fact:  Ten months before George Bush took office the U.S. economy went into another recession as the Internet boom turned to bust.

Fact:  18 months before 9/11 Clinton had the opportunity to go after Bin Laden at a CIA-identified Afghanistan terrorist training camp.  He refused to pursue it.

Fact:  Democrats loved to talk about how Bush screwed up the economy.  Although Bush should share the blame, not one Democrat mentions the fact that our economy tanked after 9/11.  Airlines quit flying, the tourist industry dried up and citizens hunkered down to comprehend the disaster and quit spending.

Fact:  Democrats blame the 2008 Financial Crash on Bush but Congress came under Democratic control in January 2006 and it was Senator Chris Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank who oversaw Banking and Finance, as well as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  They refuse to take any blame at all.

The bottom line is this:  I have no problem attributing Bush's failings and Republican failings.  Neither do the Republicans!; they have admitted to straying from conservative financial principles.

However, the Democrats are incapable of honesty!  They are so afraid of the truth that they continually distort the facts to protect themselves from the voter.  Only now, after the American voter has said "enough", only now after spending a trillion dollars on a pork-laden stimulus program that did nothing, only now after they have committed an additional $15 trillion dollars to fund Obamacare, do these Democrats begin speaking about reducing the deficit!

I can forgive a sinner, but I'll be damned if I'll ever support a party rife with compulsive liars!