The
pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, free markets and individual
liberty
"There is but one straight
course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Obama, his team struggling with accuracy when explaining
cuts
President Obama and
top administration officials are struggling with accuracy in explaining the
impact of billions in federal budget cuts known as sequester that kicked in
Saturday morning — even getting called out by a Capitol Hill superintendent
about furloughs for support staffers. Carlos
Elias, the Capitol Building superintendent, sent out a memo Friday reminding
staffers that the current sequestration plan does not include “reductions in
force or furloughs” and that “pay and benefit of each of our employees will not
be impacted.” Though not directly mentioning Obama by name, Elias also said
in the memo that a “high-ranking official said employees that clean and
maintain the U.S. Capitol will receive a cut in pay.” Hours before the memo was
released, the president, in what
appears to be the administration’s attempt to maximize the potential impact of
the cuts, said at a press conference: “Starting
tomorrow everybody here, all the folks who are cleaning the floors at the
Capitol. Now that Congress has left, somebody’s going to be vacuuming and
cleaning those floors and throwing out the garbage. They’re going to have less
pay. The janitors, the security guards, they just got a pay cut, and they’ve
got to figure out how to manage that. That’s real.” The cuts were proposed
by the president and agreed upon by Congress in 2011 after Democrats and
Republicans failed to agree on a more measured way to reduce the deficit. The $85 billion in cuts in 2013 to the
Defense Department and domestic programs will be more like $45 billion when
pro-rated this year.
~~~~~~
Armed Services Chair: Never Seen Such Lack of
‘Truth-Telling’ from Commander in Chief
Chairman of the
House Armed Services Committee Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) said on Friday
that he has never seen such a lack of honesty from President Barack Obama over
the sequester budget cuts, adding, “I don’t know what extent this White House
will go to, but it’s got to end.” “I have never in
my lifetime seen such a lack of leadership and truth-telling emanating from the
White House and from our commander-in-chief,”
McKeon said during a press conference on Capitol Hill as the across-the-board
spending cuts, known as the sequester, apparently were going into effect. The
cuts, which constitute $44 billion less in increased spending in 2013, constitute about 1.2 percent of the federal
budget for this year.
~~~~~~
Spending cut debate casts pall over Obama's second-term
agenda
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Just hours after across-the-board spending cuts officially took
effect, President Barack Obama pressed Congress on Saturday to work with him on
a compromise to halt a fiscal crisis that threatens the economy and his broader
domestic policy agenda. The failure by Obama and Republicans to agree to halt
the $85 billion 'sequester' cuts virtually guaranteed that fiscal issues would
remain center stage in Washington for weeks,
crowding out Obama's proposals to reform immigration, tighten gun laws and
raise the minimum wage. The economic effects of the spending cuts may take
time to kick in, but political blowback has
already begun and is hitting Obama as well as congressional Republicans. A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Friday showed
neither Republicans on one side nor Obama and his fellow Democrats escaping
blame. Obama's approval rating dropped to 47 percent in a Gallup poll on
Friday, down from 51 percent in the previous three-day period measured. While
most polls show voters blame Republicans primarily for the fiscal mess, Obama could see himself associated with the
worst effects of sequestration like the looming furloughs of hundreds of
thousands of federal workers. He signed an order on Friday night that
started putting the cuts into effect. In his weekly radio address, Obama
appealed for Republicans to work with Democrats on a deal, saying Americans
were weary of seeing Washington "careen from one manufactured crisis to
another." But he offered no new
ideas to resolve the recurring fiscal fights, and there was no immediate sign
of any negotiations. "There's a caucus of common sense (in
Congress)," Obama said in his address. "And I'm going to keep
reaching out to them to fix this for good." At the heart of Washington's
persistent fiscal showdowns is disagreement over how to slash the budget
deficit and the $16 trillion national debt, bloated over the years by wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan and government stimulus for the ailing economy. The Democratic president wants to close the
fiscal gap with spending cuts and tax hikes - what he calls a "balanced
approach." But Republicans do not want to concede again on taxes after doing
so in negotiations over the "fiscal cliff" at the New Year. As Obama and his aides have done for weeks, the president
in offered a litany of hardships he said would flow from the forced spending
cuts. "Beginning this week, businesses that work with the military will
have to lay folks off. Communities near military bases will take a serious
blow. Hundreds of thousands of Americans who serve their country - Border
Patrol agents, FBI agents, civilians who work for the Defense Department - will
see their wages cut and their hours reduced," he said.
~~~~~~
The President does
not give a damn what you want or think!
In 2009, over 70% of the American people said they did
not want Obamacare, but did Obama listen to the American people? No!
He pushed it through against the will of the American people and now we are all
paying for it, literally. Obamacare is already costing most Americans thousands of dollars more for
healthcare, when we were promised it would keep costs down. It’s also
costing thousands of Americans their
jobs as employers lay people off because of their increased costs.
Millions of Americans are losing their employer provided healthcare benefits
because of the increased costs to employers. The vast majority of Americans want our international borders secured,
especially the border with Mexico. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer asked the
Obama administration to take action to secure the border and stop the flood of
illegal drugs and aliens. The only
action Obama took was placing road signs along Arizona highways telling
them that it could be dangerous to travel in the southern portions of the state
and drastically reducing the number of National Guard troops along the
border. When she passed state laws to protect her state, Obama
challenged them in court. Another act of
Obama’s will to surpass the will of the American people is evident in the White
House announcement that they are filing an amicus brief with the US Supreme
Court to overturn California’s Proposition 8. In 2008, the people of California voted in favor of
Prop 8 which defines marriage as one man with one woman and bans same-sex
marriages. The measure went to the citizens of the state and their
voices were heard at the polling booths.
~~~~~~
The President’s Enumerated Powers – Rulemaking by
Executive Agencies & Executive Orders
There
would be nothing to fear if Presidents obeyed the Constitution. But they don’t
obey it because the dolts in Congress don’t make them obey it!
Well, then! Here is
the complete list of the President’s enumerated powers:
Art. I, Sec. 7,
cls. 2 & 3, grants to the President the power to approve or veto Bills and Resolutions passed by Congress.
Art. I, Sec. 9,
next to last clause, grants to the
executive Branch – the Treasury Department – the power to write checks pursuant
to Appropriations made by law – i.e., by Congress.
Art. II, Sec. 1,
cl.1, vests “executive Power” [see
below] in the President.
Art. II, Sec. 1,
last clause, sets forth the President’s Oath of Office – to “preserve,
protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”.
Art. II, Sec. 2,
cl.1:
- makes the President Commander in Chief of the armed forces when they have been called by Congress into the actual service of the United States. 3
- authorizes the President to require the principal Officers in the executive Departments to provide written Opinions upon the Duties of their Offices.
- grants the President power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for offenses against the United States, 4 but he cannot stop impeachments of any federal judge or federal officer.
Article II, Sec. 2,
cl. 2 grants to the President the power:
- to make Treaties – with the advice and consent of the Senate. 5
- to nominate Ambassadors, other public ministers and Consuls, federal judges, and various other officers – with the advice and consent of the Senate.
Article II, Sec. 2,
cl. 3 grants to the President the power
to make recess appointments, which expire at the end of Congress’ next session.
Art. II, Sec. 3:
- Imposes the duty on the President to periodically advise Congress on the State of the Union, and authorizes the President to recommend to Congress such measures as he deems wise.
- Authorizes the President, on extraordinary Occasions, to convene one or both houses of Congress [e.g., when he asks Congress to declare War]; and if both houses cannot agree on when to adjourn, he is authorized to adjourn them to such time as he deems proper.
- Imposes the duty upon the President to receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers.
- Imposes the duty upon the President to take care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and
- Imposes the duty upon the President to Commission all the Officers of the United States.
That’s it!
Anything else the President does is unlawful and a usurpation of powers not
granted.
~~~~~~
Dangerous TB Patient Detained on U.S. Border By
BETSY MCKAY
In medical
isolation in South Texas, 100 miles or so from Mexico's border, is a man who
embodies one of U.S. health officials' greatest worries: He is the first person
to cross and be held in detention while infected with one of the most severe
types of drug-resistant tuberculosis known today. Multi-drug-resistant
tuberculosis has been a growing problem in India for years. Now an even more
extreme strain of the deadly disease -- resistant to all of the drugs normally
used to treat it -- is causing concern. WSJ's Natacha Butler reports from
Mumbai. His three-month odyssey through 13 countries—from his homeland of Nepal
through South Asia, Brazil, Mexico, and finally into Texas—shows the way in
which dangerous new strains of the disease can migrate across the world
unchecked. Tuberculosis, an ancient, fatal airborne disease, has been treatable
for decades with a cocktail of drugs. However, shoddy medical practices
world-wide have enabled the bacteria to mutate and, in some cases, become all
but untreatable. In recent months The Wall Street Journal has exposed widening
TB drug resistance in hot spots like India, and shown that the U.S. is
surprisingly unprepared for the growing global problem. Most U.S. cases of
drug-resistant TB occur in people who were born abroad, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Nepalese man detained at the
U.S. border carries a particularly deadly strain—XDR, "extensively
drug-resistant" TB. His TB is resistant to at least eight of the 15 or so
standard drugs, according to a U.S. government description of the case reviewed
by the Journal. His XDR strain has been seen only once before in the U.S., in
another patient of Nepalese origin, according to the government description. The
Nepalese patient was taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol in late
November as he tried to cross the border illegally near McAllen, Texas,
according to Department of Homeland Security officials. The government declined
to name him. What is it about controlling our borders
does Washington not get?
~~~~~~
When Cutting 8 Days Of Spending Is Seen As Disastrous,
We’re Doomed by Chris Graham
Everybody’s panic
over President Obama’s proposed and then phony condemned sequester–federal
budget cuts across the board–is really something to behold. But is it any
wonder? Obama has been telling people
that if these cuts go through, they and their kids won’t be able to eat, that
the roads and bridges of America will crumble, that our military will be so
weakened that who knows if we’ll be able to defend ourselves against a North
Korean or Iranian nuclear missile? For one thing, while the sequester is a
cut in the budget only technically, the
government will still spend more in 2013 than it did in 2012. Spending is
still going up in spite of this cut. Additionally, the amount to be cut from the
federal budget by the sequester is $85 billion. The 2013 budget is $3.8
trillion. That means the government
plans on spending $10,410,958,904 per day this year. I’d double-check my math
with Maxine Waters, but if I’m correct, that means that the $85 billion
sequester amounts to eight (8) days of federal spending. Eight days. We’re
panicking over eight days’ worth of spending.
~~~~~~
Why Liberals Want Ignorant Voters by
Our founding
fathers knew that an educated public was necessary to protect and preserve our
republic. Therefore, they passed the Old Deluder Satan Law in 1647 which
required towns to provide a school where reading, writing, and the Bible would
be taught. Since then, progressive educational policy makers have been
undermining that early view of our republic. Preserving our republic is still possible if
the root of the problem is understood, if energies are focused, and if
reformers are determined to eradicate the cause. To date, the approach to
educational reform has been like that of a neighbor whose yard is a bed of
dandelions. He picks the flower heads and leaves the roots to grow deeper and
stronger to produce multiple flowers next week. The root of the problem facing education has grown thick as a sequoia
tree. The Department of Education disseminates federal educational funds to
the states to make sure the mandates which follow those funds are properly
implemented. Common Core Standards are
federally mandated standards which define what is to be taught in each subject
in every classroom across the United States. According to the Aspen
Institute’s “A New Civic Literacy: American Education and Global
Interdependence,” increased federal
control of education is essential to provide policy experts unfettered access
to school curricula and to programs for teacher preparation. According to
the proposal, this move is vital to
“enhance the capacity of Americans to cope with interdependence,” a phrase
meaning a one-world order. These policies
are focused on changing the values and traditions of the American public—not on
improving the academic achievement of America’s students. Hundreds of federal policies and policy papers by
educational experts indicate that once the Federal government gains sufficient
control of schools, the next step is to increase UN involvement and to change
the way schools are funded. Once the states no longer fund the educational
system, citizens will have no more control over education than they do over
their retirement or their health care.
~~~~~
State Dept: No Reason for Obama to Block Keystone
Pipeline
WASHINGTON — A new
State Department report is the latest evidence that the long-delayed Keystone
XL oil pipeline from Canada should be approved, supporters say. The draft
report, issued Friday, finds there would be no significant environmental impact
to most resources along the proposed route from western Canada to refineries in
Texas. The report also said other options to get the oil from Canada to Gulf
Coast refineries are worse for climate change. The new report "again makes clear there is no reason for this
critical pipeline to be blocked one more day," said House Speaker John
Boehner, R-Ohio. After four years of what he called "needless
delays," Boehner said it is time for President Barack Obama "to stand
up for middle-class jobs and energy security and approve the Keystone
pipeline."
Kerry has promised
a "fair and transparent" review of the plan and said he hopes to
decide on the project in the "near term." Most observers do not expect
a decision until summer at the earliest. Canadian
Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said Friday that Canada will respect the
U.S. review process and noted the importance of the pipeline to the Canadian
economy. Obama's initial rejection of the pipeline last year went over badly in
Canada, which relies on the United States for 97 percent of its energy exports.
~~~~~~
Palin: Feds are ‘Stockpiling Bullets’ to Use Against
Americans
Sarah Palin says
America will eventually default on its debt and claims that the federal government is “stockpiling bullets in case of
civil unrest” to prepare. “If we are going to wet our proverbial pants
over 0.3% in annual spending cuts when we’re running up trillion dollar annual
deficits, then we’re done. Put a fork in us. We’re finished. We’re going to
default eventually and that’s why the feds are stockpiling bullets in case of
civil unrest,” Palin wrote in a Facebook message Tuesday. The former
GOP governor of Alaska was referring to the sequester, the automatic $1.2
trillion cuts in federal funding that take effect Friday unless lawmakers reach
a deal. “D.C.: Cut the Drama. Do Your
Job. Americans are sick and tired of yet another ginned-up crisis. D.C. needs
to grow up, get to work, and live within its means,” wrote Palin, the GOP’s
2008 vice presidential running mate of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). She
continued: “The real economic Armageddon
looming before us is our runaway debt, not the sequester, which the President
advocated for and signed into law and is now running around denouncing because
he never had any genuine intention of reining in his reckless spending.”
Palin wrote that she wants lawmakers to “stop the
hysterics.”
~~~~~~
The Ideological Cannibalism of Modern Liberalism By
Luke Hamilton
The ideological
clash in which we find ourselves is not new. The faces have changed but the
song remains the same because the ideas remain the same. Since nearly the dawn
of time, some have tried to jettison the past for the bright and shiny future,
while others have fought to hold onto the past as our touchstone to wisdom and
tradition, purchased at the cost of blood, sweat, and tears. It is a crucial tension in this country
today, as it has been for generations. In our day, this ideological struggle is
increasingly played out on the social battlefield: redefinition of marriage,
legalization of narcotics, abolition of the concept of “illegal” immigrants,
legally-mandated financial support for abortion, normalization of sexual
anarchy, government-sponsored secularization of our society, the list goes on
and on. At every front, conservatives
are told that we are standing in the way
of “progress”. Our values are mocked
as antiquated and our worldview dismissed as overly credulous, racist, bigoted,
and greedy. They are pushing ever forward and straining to rid themselves and
society of any vestiges of the past.
As Progressives
have done for more than a century, our
ideological opponents ride under the banner of “change” and “progress”,
those catchy buzzwords which describe the process of abandoning tradition for
the future. They were “anti-Establishment” 40 years ago. Now they are digging
deeper to uproot what they view as the foundation underneath the Establishment.
But what is the cost of this endless quest for progress and upheaval? G.K.
Chesterton wrote about this dynamic in his time:
Tradition
means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the
democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant
oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. . . Democracy tells us not to neglect a good
man’s opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good
man’s opinion, even if he is our father. I, at any rate, cannot separate the
two ideas of democracy and tradition; it seems evident to me that they are the
same idea.
G.K. Chesteron,
Orthodoxy
How can an ideology survive the intellectual
cannibalization of its dead? It cannot, if it
wants to remain democratic because tradition is intertwined with democracy. Progressives continue to cannibalize the
intellectual traditions of their predecessors and in doing so, move ever closer
to the fascism which they endlessly seek. Modern liberalism does not stand
on the shoulders of giants, it stands on the ground floor among the dismembered
limbs of the giants it most recently slew to add a bit more fuel to their
bonfire of the profanities.
When Ed Schultz rants, as he recently did on his radio
show, “the Founding Fathers aren’t here anymore. We are the Founding Fathers of
this country now,” we see the cannibalization happening right before our eyes.
To follow the trail of Ed’s statements to their logical ends, the country is
currently being re-founded and “we” (presumably, Ed’s listeners) are shaping
it. The opinions or decisions of anyone who “isn’t here anymore” are invalid and
need to be replaced. Does this sound like democracy?
Ed went on to opine, “The idea that we need to be stuck
in the mud of a different generation because some dead people think that’s how
we ought to live 200 and some odd years later, I’m not there. I’m not there…” Wisdom has an
expiration date, in the eyes of modern liberalism.
In a way, this is just Saul Alinski writ-large. Saul taught that what’s important is to forget about the identity of
the Have’s and the Have Not’s, and to help the Have Not’s in their endless
struggle against the Have’s. And so when the Have Not’s become the Have’s, they
now become the target. Chesterton, in his (long-dead-and-hence-invalid) wisdom,
spoke directly to this as well:
In
short, the modern revolutionist, being an infinite skeptic, is always engaged
in undermining his own mines. In his book on politics he attacks men for
trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling
on men. Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for
all purposes of revolt. By rebelling
against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything.
G.K. Chesterton, ibid
This can end in two
ways. First, the Progressives could
push too far too fast and leave the American people behind, as has happened in
the past. They will be left with depleted clout and an agenda rightly seen as
radical and detrimental. The concern here is that this outcome would require a
populace which can a) discern what
is detrimental to the body politic and b)
be bothered to care about the well-being of anything beyond their cable
package. Neither of these is certain in today’s America. Second, the Progressive agenda could pull the American people right
along with it, breaking completely with the foundations of this great country. The
moral pillars of this nation could collapse completely under the redoubled
attacks, literally turning good into evil and evil into good. The comforting
news is that either way, our mission is clear: boldly defend the principles on
which this great nation was founded. Regardless of whether America is destined
for laurels or manacles, the biblical principles on which she was founded are
eternal and it is there where we can make our stand, astride the great divide
between tradition and relevance. Our message is steeped in tradition and has
never been more relevant.
~~~~~~
FCC Costs Americans $142 Billion a Year
The Federal
Communications Commission is the third most expensive federal agency when it
comes to the compliance costs it imposes with its regulations.
Americans spend
$142 billion a year to comply with FCC regulations, behind only the
Environmental Protection Agency ($353 billion) and the Department of Health and
Human Services ($185 billion), according to a report from the Competitive
Enterprise Institute’s (CEI) Center for Technology and Information. The FCC was established as an independent
agency in 1934 and took over regulation of telephone and telegraph
communications and radio. It has since expanded to cover television, broadband,
and the Internet, and has a 2013 budget of $365 million. The agency enforced more than 25,000
regulatory restrictions in 2011 and added
108 more last year — an average of one new rule every 2.3 working days. Between 2000 and 2012 it published 2,705
proposed rules, and as of fall 2012, 86 proposed rules were at some stage
of the rule-making process, with seven
of them imposing costs of more than $100 million. The agency’s real costs could be
even higher, the CEI observes, “but it is hard to gather data because of an
alarming lack of transparency. Important information, such as the number of FCC
regulations in the books, how many more are on the way and how much they cost,
are scattered among obscure sources.”
~~~~~~
Obama Wrong again! Study Finds U.S. Infrastructure Not
‘Crumbling’
President Obama has
proposed spending $40 billion on “urgent upgrades” to the nation’s
infrastructure, saying that “crumbling” roads, bridges, airports and rail lines
are hindering U.S. economic growth. But countering the doom and gloom about
America’s deteriorating infrastructure is some surprising good news: A study by
the Reason Foundation reveals that U.S. roads and bridges have improved
significantly over a 20-year period. “There are still plenty of problems to fix,
but our roads and bridges aren’t crumbling,” said David Hartgen, lead
author of the report and emeritus professor of transportation at the University
of North Carolina at Charlotte. “The overall condition of the
state-controlled road system is getting better and you can actually make the
case that it has never been in better shape. The key going forward is to target
spending where it will do the most good.” The
Reason Foundation study measured the condition of U.S. roads and bridges from
1989 to 2008, based on seven criteria; highway fatalities; miles of urban
interstate highways in poor condition; miles of rural interstates in poor condition;
congestion on urban interstates; deficient bridges; rural primary roads in poor
condition; and the number of rural primary roads flagged as too narrow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
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