Obama’s Bold New Plan

Four years after being elected to fix our economic mess, President Obama is waving around a pamphlet. And what is the bold new plan contained in the pamphlet? He wants to raise taxes on the rich, invest in green energy, and invest in education. In short the bold new plan is to …wait for it…tax and spend. Why didn’t anyone think of that before?

If You Knew Lilly, Like I Know Lilly

The Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act already address gender-based discrimination in pay in the U.S.  So what does the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act do? It extends the statute of limitations for pay-discrimination cases. 

Who does this help?  It helps lawyers, for sure.  

How about small businesses? Well, now small businesses open themselves up to law suits if they have to let a female employee go.  A disgruntled, female, ex-employee now has a sure-fire way to get back at her former employer.

 

Surely it helps women.  Not so fast.  If a small business has a choice of hiring a man or hiring a woman, who are they going to hire; the man or the potential law suit? 

This law just kills mosquitoes.

Our Fearless “Lead-From-Behind” Leader

Let’s face facts. President Obama is pathetic. He is. I’m sorry. He is. President Obama holds the office once known as “The Leader of the Free World”. Does anyone really think of President Obama as the Leader of the Free World? Let’s look at the facts.

His excuses for the economy he was elected to fix include: Bush, the tsunami in Japan, oil prices, speculator­s, corporate Jet owners, corporatio­ns sitting on money, ATM's and the Internet, the Tea Party, Republican­s, Big Oil, insurance companies, pharmaceut­ical companies, tax cuts, Wall Street fat cats, unrest in the Middle East, European economies, Fox news, talk radio - to name a few. Pathetic.

A new phrase had to be coined just to protect him from any fallout from his decision to bomb Libya, “Lead from behind”. Does anyone really know what that even means?

President Obama is going to get tough on Syria. How, you ask? He is establishing an Atrocities Prevention Board. An Atrocities Prevention Board! Pathetic.

He is letting Hillary Clinton take the fall for the Benghazi debacle that cost four American lives - so much for “the buck stops here”.

When he finally does do something decisive, he claims he was forced. When President Obama agreed on extending tax cuts and unemployment insurance, he likened it to negotiating with hostage-takers and being forced to agree so that the hostages, the American people, were not harmed. He couldn’t even deal with his own Congress. Pathetic. This is the guy we expect to stare down Ahmadinejad?

Now a real crisis faces this country. There is just not enough revenue for the federal government to keep spending at its current rate. What does our leader do? He launches into his tired old “fairness” diatribe to stir up class warfare. His only answer is the Buffet rule. Really? According to the Congressional Budget Office President Obama’s Buffett Rule will raise $3.2 billion per year. As Mark Steyn points out, that is “what the United States government currently borrows every 17 hours. So in 514 years it will have raised enough additional revenue to pay off the 2011 federal budget deficit. If you want to mark it on your calendar, 514 years is the year 2526.”

It is so pathetically clear what President Obama is doing. He refuses to put a budget out that substantially cuts the federal government. His 2013 budget proposal was unanimously shot down in the House, 0-414. Then he has the gall to criticize Paul Ryan’s plan. Even when he had majorities in both the House and Senate, no budget was signed. (I don’t count the first budget he signed when he took office because he claimed that although he thought it spent too much, he was just finishing up the previous year’s business. In other words, it was President Bush’s fault.) He doesn’t want anyone to be able to say that President Obama cut your – insert your favorite federal government giveaway here – to any potential voter. Instead he will pick a fight with 1% of the population to pander to the other 99% in hopes of getting reelected even though it is clear this will not fix the problem. Pathetic.

We need a leader to help lead us out of this mess; someone who is willing to make the hard decisions necessary to get this country back on track. A leader that our enemies fear and our allies trust. We better get someone soon.

Constitution or Bust

The powers granted to Congress are listed in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. They are limited and enumerated. The list is only 429 words long. Our Founding Fathers were so fearful of a powerful central government they added the Tenth Amendment, 28 words, to reinforce the concept of a limited federal government with all other powers reserved for the states and the people. Those 457 words are easy to read and understand. Nowhere in those 457 words does it say the federal government should control healthcare, provide cell phones for the poor, fund television and radio, or perform any other benevolent act. If we want to expand the role of the federal government, then an amendment to the US Constitution is required. 

To reinforce how much the Constitution’s meaning has been twisted and tortured beyond its original intent, I have copied excerpts from a good article by Walter E. Williams:

 

James Madison is the acknowledged Father of the Constitution. In 1794, when Congress appropriated $15,000 for relief of French refugees who fled from insurrection in San Domingo to Baltimore and Philadelphia, James Madison wrote disapprovingly, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” 

A few years later, James Madison’s vision was expressed by Representative William Giles of Virginia, who condemned a relief measure for fire victims. Giles insisted that it was neither the purpose nor a right of Congress to "attend to what generosity and humanity require, but to what the Constitution and their duty require." 

In 1827, Davy Crockett was elected to the House of Representatives. During his term of office a $10,000 relief measure was proposed to assist the widow of a naval officer. Davy Crockett eloquently opposed the measure saying, “Mr. Speaker: I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member on this floor knows it. We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.” 

In 1854, President Franklin Pierce vetoed a popular measure to help the mentally ill saying, “I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity.” To approve the measure "would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.” 

The framers addressed the misinterpretation of the “general welfare clause. James Madison said, in a letter to James Robertson, “With respect to the two words ‘general welfare’, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.” James Madison also said, “If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.” James Madison laid out what he saw as constitutional limits on federal power in Federalist Paper Number 45 where he explained, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined . . . to be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce." 

Thomas Jefferson explained in a letter to Albert Gallatin, “Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.” 

The full article can be found here: http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/articles/fee/constitution.html. It is well worth a read.

Say It Ain't So, Joe

Vice President Biden is sure to claim during tomorrow’s debate that he and President Obama successfully bailed out GM. Most people believe the bailout saved GM from bankruptcy. The truth is, after receiving TARP money, GM went bankrupt anyway. Congressman Ryan should make sure everyone knows the truth.

"In the end, even $19.4 billion in federal help wasn't enough to keep the nation's largest automaker out of bankruptcy. The government will pour another $30 billion into GM to fund operations during its reorganization.”¹

1. http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/01/news/companies/gm_bankruptcy/

Let’s Kill This Myth Once and for All

The following myth promoted by President Obama must be addressed once and for all: The policies of the last administration led to the crisis I inherited.  I believe he is referring to tax cuts and deregulation.  (I am not sure because no one in the media has asked President Obama to which policies he is referring.)

The fiscal collapse in 2008 was due to the Democrats in Congress and liberal do-gooders.

The liberals believed that everyone should be able to buy a home.  They pushed through the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) enacted in Congress and signed by President Carter in 1977. The intent of the act was to “encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate¹.” 

Through the years mortgage lenders were pressured to offer loans by the regulations in the CRA and by community activists like ACORN who claimed their strict lending practices were discriminatory.

Normally risk-adverse lenders made loans knowing they could sell them to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for a profit and pass the risk on.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were chartered by the U.S. Congress as government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs).  These GSEs along with low interest rates increased home ownership but were also responsible for the housing bubble.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made large profits for more than two decades. 

Fannie and Freddie’s rivals on Wall Street didn’t want to be left out in the cold.  They found a way to join the fun through financial innovation, and sub-prime loans took off.  Investors, insurance companies, hedge funds, and other financial entities also wanted to take advantage of the housing boom so they invested in mortgage-backed securities.

As early as 2004 the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) warned that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in trouble.  Yet, the Democrat-controlled Congress refused to intervene. In 2007 the GSEs began to experience huge losses.  In 2008 the housing bubble burst causing ripples throughout the country’s financial institutions precipitating the collapse from which we are still trying to recover.

The video linked at the bottom of this post shows Democrats in 2004 prior to the housing market collapse.  Knowing what we know now, they look pretty stupid.  It shows Republicans insisting on more regulation of the government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie and Freddie.  It shows Democrats ripping into the regulator from OFHEO.  Democrats are all for regulation until it regulates anything associated with government.  It also shows Barney Frank’s involvement.  The Democrats recently passed a bill to fix the problem they created.  Many analysts claim this bill has over-regulated banks to the point that has slowed the recovery.  The bill is the Dodd-Frank act.  Yes, the same Frank as in the video (see Killing Mosquitoes, written in 2009 well before Dodd-Frank,  below).  Dodd was involved with causing the problem as well but is not mentioned in the video.

Once this myth is killed we can start on the myth that Republicans want to kill old people, don’t care about kids with autism, and hate Big Bird.

 

1.       http://www.ffiec.gov/cra/default.htm

Remember, You’re My President, Too: An Open Letter to President Obama

When you said during you’re acceptance speech "To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too," I believed you.

But today you incite Americans to confront those who have different views than yours, but you’re their president, too.

When you vilify wealth creators in this country, remember, you’re their president, too.

People in the states of South Carolina, Alabama, and Arizona that you sued for trying to enforce immigration laws, you’re their president, too.

People in Pennsylvania that you say “cling to guns or religion,” you’re their president, too.

When you tell Latinos to “punish our enemies”, meaning Republicans, and when you tell Republicans that “they can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back”, remember, you’re their president, too.

When you said that you “did not watch the rally” of over 300,000 people in Washington on anniversary of Dr. King's speech, remember, you’re their president, too.

Americans who work hard, make good decisions, and want to help their fellow Americans the way they see fit without the federal government distributing their hard-earned money, you’re their president, too.

Americans who think that the federal government has grown outside the confines stipulated in the Constitution, you’re their president, too.

Instead, you seem to be leading Americans against Americans. You may think doing that is the path to reelection by in the end it is only weakening our country.

And, although you may not agree with me, remember, you’re my president, too.

The Ben Affleck Syndrome

Ben Affleck said recently, Romney's inability to connect with everyday Americans will cost him the election. He said, “Romney just had such trouble coming off as just like the kind of person you see at the grocery store”. I have heard people complain that Romney is unable to empathize with people because of his upbringing.

That got me to thinking. When you hire a plumber, do you care if his parents were poor immigrants or just that he can fix your leak? When you hire an accountant, do you hire the guy you would think “feels your pain” or the guy that knows tax laws? When you select a surgeon, do you think about whether she’s had the same affliction so she can relate to your situation, or do you seek out the most qualified person? For that matter, when you go to the movies, do you go to see actors who you can relate to or an actor who is good at his craft?

I think I know the answers to those questions. But when it comes to hiring a person for arguably the most important job in the world, we vote for the person we would most like to have a beer with. Beautiful.

Declaration of Restitution

While re-reading the Declaration of Independence it became painfully clear that many of abuses of liberties that We the People of the United States of America are enduring under the current administration are similar, if not the same, as the grievances listed in that declaration. Below is the text of the original declaration with only minor modifications to address our current situation. Our Founding Fathers were willing to pledge their Lives, Fortunes and sacred Honor to fight for our God given rights and yet this generation is letting those same rights slip away. What are you willing to do about it? Are you willing to sign a new Declaration?

Declaration of Restitution

The Declaration of We the People of the United States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to redress the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to demand the restitution of their liberties.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to reestablish the noble intent and protections built into the structure of that long established Government or throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance these states; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to reestablish their former Systems of Government. The history of the standing President of the United States of America is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these states. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

• He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good, as demonstrated by his implementation of the Dream Act by presidential fiat and his waiver of the work requirements for welfare, thereby failing to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed”.

• He has forbidden Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, as demonstrated by his attempted blockage of immigration laws, and his refusal of federal support in the local execution of those laws. He joined with foreign nations against his own constituents in the effort.  

• He directed the misuse of a legislative process (reconciliation) to limit debate of the Senate on the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare .

• He has made “recess” appointments while the Senate was conducting “pro forma” sessions. 

• He has erected a multitude of New Offices, as demonstrated by the establishment of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which gives unprecedented regulatory power to a board whose director is not accountable to Congress. He has appointed approximately three dozen czars who are also unaccountable to Congress.

• He has restricted our religious liberties. 

• He has pitted American against American in the advancement of his own political agenda. 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our elected brethren. We have warned them from time to time of their attempts to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice.

We, therefore, the People of the united States of America, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this country, solemnly publish and declare, that these abuses of power be rectified. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Mark Bezanis

Was Karl Marx Right? - 2012 Update

Karl Marx believed that capitalist societies would eventually transition to socialist societies. This would be achieved through class warfare. Today, Democrats are all too eager to break Americans into classes and stir up class warfare. They prod Americans to ask, “What’s in it for me?” More and more candidates pander to the public by promising federal giveaways. And since the government doesn’t generate wealth, those giveaways are paid for with money taken from other Americans. This is the slippery slope that will lead us to socialism. As the government continues to redistribute the wealth of Americans, the phrase, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” sounds more like a campaign slogan from our President than a belief promoted by Karl Marx. America’s Founding Fathers called their dream “the great experiment.” The federal republic they founded became the most powerful and free country in history. They envisioned a land where the powers of the federal government were enumerated and limited; a land where Americans were self reliant and if someone needed help we would take care of each other through charitable giving and not rely on the government. But today we see more and more Americans who feel entitled to things just because they were born in this country; Americans who resent the success of their fellow Americans. More and more Americans are being convinced that it is the government’s job to take care of them. So where is America heading? Will the country lurch so far left that the “great experiment” becomes contaminated beyond repair? Alexis de Tocqueville is quoted as saying, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." So will the American Republic endure as it was originally envisioned, or was Karl Marx right after all?