Tell your representative to oppose the continuing resolution (CR)

Tell your representative to oppose the continuing resolution (CR).

Here is why:

Last week, Congress voted to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through December 11, 2014 (319–108 in the House; 78–22 in the Senate). Among other provisions, this measure authorized the arming and training of Syrian rebels and extended the Export-Import Bank’s charter until June 30, 2015.

In the span of six months, bloggers were able to take Ex-Im from a little-known corporate welfare entity to the public poster child for cronyism and corruption. Bloggers indeed won the policy argument, and this short-term extension will deprive members of the political argument next June (as Leadership will be unable to attach reauthorization to a must-pass funding bill). It would have been better for Congress to have simply allowed Ex-Im to lapse, but we are still poised to stop this agency from being reauthorized long-term.

But the accountability battle must not waver. When you talk to your member this recess, ask how he or she voted on Ex-Im, and secure a commitment to oppose reauthorization in June.

Woman breaks up with the man that broke all his promises

Woman breaks up with the man that broke all his promises

More Income, More Debt, Less Wealth: Student Loan Poverty

More Income, More Debt, Less Wealth: Student Loan Poverty

by Mark Horne

 “College Debt Leaves Generation X Grads Less Wealthy Than Parents.”

Most college-educated 30- and 40-somethings earn more than their parents did at the same age, yet they’re saving less. Student debt is partly to blame.

While 82 percent of Generation X Americans with at least a bachelor’s degree earn more than their parents did, just 30 percent have greater wealth. A smaller share of workers without college education — 70 percent — have surpassed their parents’ incomes yet almost half had higher wealth, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts report released today.

Lackluster saving among the cohort, those born between 1965 and 1980, has come as student-loan balances persist into middle age. Generation X’s financial straits could come with economic aftershocks, making it difficult for parents to afford college for the next generation and forcing workers to hold onto jobs longer or lower their living standards as they age.

Some of the blame may belong to credit cards but student loans seem more significant:

While credit cards also played a role, student loans are a big contributor to that debt load: Four in 10 upwardly income-mobile college grads hold education debt, with a median balance of $25,000, according to the Pew report.

This isn’t just another expose of the college loan scam, but it is also a lesson in the folly of debt spending in general as a strategy for “stimulating” the economy. The tuition and textbook costs “the college-industrial complex” has generated for the present will cause a crash in the future.  By going into debt, today’s students are destroying the savings that would enable them to send their children to college. There is no way to avoid a price collapse.

And this is true of all government debt-as-stimulus schemes. Our government wants to spend money forever so it sponsors economic sophistry. Money and “prestige” go to intellectuals who invent justifications for what politicians want to do. But just like what is happening to these college graduates, the debt load eats up the possibility of future spending. The money that should be saved and invested will instead go to pay bondholders—only interest and never principal.

What seems to be unthinkable to everyone is living on less now. But why not? If the coming generation is going to “lower their living standards as they age” anyway, then why not put up with the reduction while you are young and healthy in order to save for the future? What is the virtue of starting out in life with a crippling amount of debt—so much that your net worth never exceeds that of your parents? Better to simply start off poorer and build up wealth debt-free.

As I’ve mentioned before, there is also a demographic drag from this debt-slavery system:

Kate Curtis-Bozio, 31 and from Woburn, Massachusetts, is among millennials struggling to gain financial security as she works to pay back the $44,000 in student loans she took out while pursuing her master’s degree.

“Financially, we can’t even plan to have any children right now, because we know how expensive it is for childcare,” said Curtis-Bozio, who is married. She works in crime analysis and mapping at a local police department during the week, and is a restaurant hostess on weekends in order to make her monthly loan payments.

“I worked there throughout grad school, and I was planning on getting rid of it when I got a full-time job,” she said. “Once I started paying back, I realized I can’t afford to get rid of this job.” They can’t afford childcare and can’t afford to stay home with the kids. We are not only going to be poorer, but there will be a population shortage. This will hasten the collapse of other government debt pyramid schemes, like the welfare state.

What needs to happen? Prices need to go through the floor and many of the millions employed as college staff and faculty need to be reassigned to more needed industries. There is no way to get to a better economy except to suffer through some economic pain.

The government will do all it can to pretend that college bailout schemes are really student aid. Don’t fall for it.

MORE LETHAL THAN ISLAM: Barack Obama’s Cowardice and Lies

MORE LETHAL THAN ISLAM: Barack Obama’s Cowardice and Lies

by Pete Parker

Barack Obama’s incessant lies and cowardice make him more lethal than the world’s most barbaric ideology–Islam.

That’s correct: More lethal than Islam.

From Obama’s steadfast public denial (lie) that Islam has nothing to do with ISIS–to his whiny and cowardly, ad nauseam political decrees that he will not put “boots on the ground” in Iraq–he is making America (on the world stage) look like a nation without balls.

Though ISIS is following in the exact footsteps of its Prophet Mohammed (rape, beheadings and sundry other atrocities)–our president is busy holding press conferences to lecture his subjects on Islam’s “boundless peace and tolerance.”

As I have mentioned in my previous articles–Mohammed was a serial decapitator and rapist. His penchant for violence and mayhem was second to none. And for that reason–historians have recognized him as one of the most bloodthirsty figures of the 7th century.

Yet, Obama’s continuous lies that Islam has nothing to do with ISIS only serves to further embolden the enemy simply because it views said lies as a sign of profound weakness.
That’s correct: A sign of profound weakness.

Why? Because only a weak and cowardly leader resorts to lies in a time of crises.
After all, ISIS knows it represents Islam. And why is that? Because its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, holds a PhD in Islamic Studies.

Moreover–Obama’s stated decision not to put boots on the ground is purely political. By making this decree–he demonstrates to his rabid, left-wing base that he is the anti-Bush.

But, by engaging in this brand of political expediency (after telling the world that ISIS possess a direct threat to America)–he is letting our enemy know that he doesn’t have the will, nor the spine to confront it on the battlefield.

(Just a side note: Most military and foreign policy experts–including Allen West and John Bolton–have publicly stated that “boots on the ground” is the only way to defeat ISIS.)

In the final analysis–Barack Obama’s lies and cowardice might very well usher in America’s demise. And thus, my friends–the end of Western Civilization.

And that makes him more lethal than Islam.

Multiculturalism gives Islamists a foot in the door

Multiculturalism gives Islamists a foot in the door

By Walter Williams

German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that in Germany, multiculturalism has “utterly failed.” Both Australia’s ex-prime minister John Howard and Spain’s ex-prime minister Jose Maria Aznar reached the same conclusion about multiculturalism in their countries. British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that multiculturalism is fostering extremist ideology and directly contributing to homegrown Islamic terrorism. UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said the United Kingdom’s push for multiculturalism has not united Britons but pushed them apart. It has allowed for Islam to emerge despite Britain’s Judeo-Christian culture. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the roots of violent Islamism are not “superficial but deep” and can be found “in the extremist minority that now, in every European city, preach hatred of the West and our way of life.”

The bottom line is that much of the Muslim world is at war with Western civilization. There’s no question that the West has the military might to thwart radical Islam’s agenda. The question up for grabs is whether we have the intelligence to recognize the attack and the will to defend ourselves from annihilation.

Multiculturalism is Islamists’ foot in the door. At the heart of multiculturalism is an attack on Western and Christian values. Much of that attack has its roots on college campuses among the intellectual elite who see their mission as indoctrinating our youth. In past columns, I’ve documented professorial hate-America teaching, such as a UCLA economics professor’s telling his class, “The United States of America, backed by facts, is the greediest and most selfish country in the world.” A history professor told her class: “Capitalism isn’t a lie on purpose. It’s just a lie.” She also said: “(Capitalists) are swine. ... They’re bastard people.” Students sit through lectures listening to professorial rants about topics such as globalism and Western exploitation of the Middle East and Third World peoples.

Some public school boards have banned songs and music containing references to Santa Claus, Jesus or other religious Christmas symbols. The New York City school system permits displays of Jewish menorahs and the Muslim star and crescent, but not the Christian Nativity scene. One school district banned a teacher from using excerpts from historical documents in his classroom because they contained references to God and Christianity. The historical documents in question were the Declaration of Independence and “The Rights of the Colonists,” by Samuel Adams.

The U.S. is a nation of many races, ethnicities, religions and cultures. Since our inception, people from all over the world have immigrated here to become Americans. They have learned English and American history and celebrated American traditions and values. They have become Americans while also respecting and adapting some of the traditions of the countries they left behind. By contrast, many of today’s immigrants demand that classes be taught – and official documents be printed – in their native language. Other immigrants demand the use of Sharia, practices that permit honor killing and female genital mutilation.

Multiculturalists argue that different cultural values are morally equivalent. That’s nonsense. Western culture and values are superior. For those who’d accuse me of Eurocentrism, I’d ask: Is forcible female genital mutilation, as practiced in nearly 30 sub-Saharan African and Middle Eastern countries, a morally equivalent cultural value? Slavery is practiced in Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Sudan; is it morally equivalent? In most of the Middle East, there are numerous limits placed on women, such as prohibitions on driving, employment and education. Under Islamic law, in some countries, female adulterers face death by stoning, and thieves face the punishment of having their hand severed. In some countries, homosexuality is a crime punishable by death. Are these cultural values morally equivalent, superior or inferior to Western values?

One need not be a Westerner to hold Western values. Mainly, you just have to accept the supremacy of the individual above all else.