About Me

In writing the "About Me" portion of this blog I thought about the purpose of the blog - namely, preventing the growth of Socialism & stopping the Death Of Democracy in the American Republic & returning her to the "liberty to abundance" stage of our history. One word descriptions of people's philosophies or purposes are quite often inadequate. I feel that I am "liberal" meaning that I am broad minded, independent, generous, hospitable, & magnanimous. Under these terms "liberal" is a perfectly good word that has been corrupted over the years to mean the person is a left-winger or as Mark Levin more accurately wrote in his book "Liberty & Tyranny" a "statist" - someone looking for government or state control of society. I am certainly not that & have dedicated the blog to fighting this. I believe that I find what I am when I consider whether or not I am a "conservative" & specifically when I ask what is it that I am trying to conserve? It is the libertarian principles that America was founded upon & originally followed. That is the Return To Excellence that this blog is named for & is all about.

Monday, December 28, 2015

Establishment Republican Tax & Spending Bills Continue BO's Dependency Programs

"I think the Democrats really got basically everything they wanted & the Republicans got much less than I would have expected." - Lily Batchelder, former tax aide to BO speaking about the $650 billion tax bill passed by the House that was merged with the $1,150 billion Omnibus spending bill that was passed by the Senate & signed into law by BO on December 19. 
 
"Everything we have done for the last five years as a Republican majority we just undid this week." - Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador, one of nine founding members of the House Freedom Caucus speaking about the aforementioned Omnibus spending bill.
 
click on graph to enlarge
 
House Speaker Paul Ryan, referring to the Omnibus spending bill that funds the federal government until September 30, 2016 – just in time for its expiration & renewal to be a factor in the presidential election - said that "no one gets exactly what they want" – & I certainly did not get what I wanted but knew all the time what we were going to get – a broad spending & tax bill that was negotiated as usual behind closed doors strictly on Democrat terms in which Republicans breathed a sigh of relief just to not have the government shut down as a result of the appropriations portion of the U.S. budget & spending process.
 
See lists below for those who voted against the Omnibus spending bill.  Any Member of Congress not on the lists below voted with the establishment Republicans that gave BO more than he expected.  Note presidential candidate Marco Rubio "not voting" - meaning he stayed on the campaign trail & did not show up for the floor vote in the Senate.
 
The 2,009 page Omnibus spending bill was released shortly before 2 AM on Wednesday December 16.  The bill was passed & signed into law on Saturday December 19 – meaning that no one read it & we will find out what is in it to our detriment during 2016.  Not a good likelihood for a Happy New Year.
 
In short, there is no difference between Boehner being Speaker or Ryan – the result is the same because the deck is stacked against the Republicans @ least for overpromising during the 2014 senatorial campaign when they pledged to fight back against BO's onslaughts if Republicans gained a majority in the Senate & maintained their majority in the House.  To the untrained eye these majorities would seem to put Congress on a footing to @ least partially put a check on BO's remaining time in office.
 
This simplistic view did not take into account that the Senate rules require 60 votes to bring a measure to cloture – otherwise there is deadlock.
 
This point is best illustrated in 2008 when BO won the presidency & Democrats had a majority in both chambers of Congress including a 60 vote super-majority in the Senate – some center right country isn't it?  Even with this commanding position it took over 14 months for ObamaCare to be signed into law – remember the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback, the disputed 300 vote Senate win of Al Franken in Minnesota, the death of Ted Kennedy, the party switch by Arlene Specter from Republican to Democrat, & the tricky budget reconciliation legislative maneuver that allowed ObamaCare to finally pass 56 to 43 in March 2010.  The Republicans have no where near BO's original commanding position being six votes short of the Senate super-majority meaning that the Democrats control the agenda unless the Republicans are prepared to shut down the government – which of course they are not.
 
Shortly after the passage of the Omnibus spending bill I watched a news conference in which Senate Democrats Reid, Durbin, Murray, & Schumer appeared – Schumer bragged about the Omnibus spending bill with its higher spending levels, not only above those specified in the sequester, but even higher than BO had suggested.  The final number is $80 billion over the sequester level during the next two years.
 
Is there any wonder Republicans are furious?  For starters: 1) the combined Omnibus spending bill (+$80 billion) & tax bill (+$650 billion) will add $730 billion to the national debt over the next ten years - after the Republicans started the year pledging to totally wipe out deficits over the next decade, 2) ObamaCare will continue to be funded after the House previously had voted to repeal it over three dozen times & Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell assured us he wants to tear it out "root & branch", 3) Planned Parenthood was fully funded @ previous levels as if the barbarous practice of accepting financial payments for the body parts from aborted babies had never happened, 4) sanctuary cities were provided funds to assist & relieve illegal aliens, i.e., welfare to people who are dangerous to all Americans like the man who killed Kate Steinle in SF, 5) Syrian & Iraqi refugees will be admitted to & resettled in America without restriction (including of funds) in accordance with BO's plans, 6) legal immigration under the H-2B visa program was expanded by a factor of four thereby increasing the number of low wage foreign workers to compete with Americans for jobs & ultimately provide votes for Democrat candidates, & 7) many of the welfare programs created by BO's 2009 stimulus law were permanently extended & expanded after being set to lapse in 2017 after BO left office.
 
In brief, none of the trends shown on the graph above or the following ones will even start to be reversed by the actions of the Republican majorities in Congress:
 
 click on graphs to enlarge
 
So why did Ryan do a Boehner-like cave?  Ryan, as did Boehner (& McConnell), knows that Americans who are receiving welfare benefits are much more interested in continuing receiving these benefits than they are about discussing budget deficits & the national debt, Planned Parenthood's profits from harvesting aborted babies' parts no matter how repulsive, or sanctuary cities who protect murderers, rapists, robbers, aggravated assaulters, & other convicted felons from the federal government – unless such practice directly affects them.
 
There is no one to blame but ourselves.  Until the mindset of "I deserve, I'm entitled to government benefits" is changed our elected politicians like Boehner or Ryan will keep providing these benefits – I don't mean only weak people like Boehner & Ryan but all of our elected politicians - including the next president of the United States.
 
The needed mindset change is a constant theme on this blog.  America is in urgent need of a return to the bedrock principles that the country was founded upon & originally followed that produced the liberty to abundance & prosperity stage of our founding – limited government, personal responsibility, & free enterprise.
 
It is these bedrock principles & needed mindset changes that De Tocqueville perfectly described when he visited America in 1831 & wrote "I should have loved freedom, I believe, @ all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it."
 
Today the statists have battered the liberty principles of our founding into submission to the point that over 108 million Americans receive some form of federal welfare – the Cato Institute has identified 126 welfare programs.  Only 102 million Americans work full time year round so the proportion of the population getting welfare from the federal government exceeds those getting full time checks & over 9 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force since BO took office – source Dick Morris, Power Grab, Pages 48 & 56.  The average middle class family receives over $7,000 more in benefits than they pay in federal taxes each year – source Scott Hodge of the Tax Foundation.  The Pew Research Center reports that more than 65% of millenials (people born between 1981 & 2005) support reducing military spending in order to preserve spending on these welfare programs – source Mark Levin, Plunder & Deceit, Page 157.
 
The unsustainability of the trends shown on the above graphs is explained by the above statistics – namely, welfare & government dependence have overtaken wealth creation & American's love of liberty that De Tocqueville described above – all prosperity comes from unleashing the free human intellect & that is what we are losing.
 
Ayn Rand said she wrote about men like John Galt & Howard Roark because she knew they existed.  Well, we obviously need them now & they can't appear soon enough to suit me.
 
Reference Posts:  
 

The Ryan Speakership & Z Standing For Zero

 

Boehner Elected Speaker - Not A Good Start For The New Congress

 

Mindset Change - Dependency To Freedom - Republicans Have The Chance To Make It Happen

 
FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 705
(Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)

      H R 2029      YEA-AND-NAY      18-Dec-2015      9:49 AM
      QUESTION:  On Concurring in Senate Amdt with Amdt Specified in Section 3(a) of H.Res. 566
      BILL TITLE:
Making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes


YEAS NAYS PRES NV
REPUBLICAN 150 95   1
DEMOCRATIC 166 18   4
INDEPENDENT        
TOTALS 316 113   5
 
---- NAYS    113 ---
 
Abraham
Amash
Amodei
Babin
Barletta
Becerra
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Brat
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Buck
Byrne
Carney
Clawson (FL)
Crawford
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Doggett
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellison
Emmer (MN)
Farenthold
Fleming
Forbes
Fortenberry
Franks (AZ)
Gallego
Garrett
Gibbs
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Graves (LA)
Griffith

Grijalva
Guinta
GutiƩrrez
Hardy
Harris
Heck (NV)
Hice, Jody B.
Holding
Hudson
Huelskamp
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt (VA)
Jenkins (KS)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan
Kelly (PA)
King (IA)
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Latta
Lieu, Ted
Lofgren
Long
Lummis
Marino
Massie
McClintock
McDermott
McKinley
Meadows
Meehan
Miller (FL)

Mooney (WV)
Mulvaney
Palmer
Perry
Pocan
Polis
Pompeo
Posey
Ratcliffe
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rohrabacher
Rothfus
Salmon
Sanford
Schrader
Schweikert
Shuster
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (TX)
Stutzman
Takano
Thompson (MS)
Tipton
Walker
Waters, Maxine
Webster (FL)
Welch
Westerman
Whitfield
Williams
Wittman
Yoho
Young (IA)
Young (IN)

 
---- NOT VOTING    5 ---
 
Cuellar
Fincher

Johnson, E. B.
Kennedy

Kildee
 
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 114th Congress - 1st Session

Vote Summary

Question: On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amendments to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 2029 )
Vote Number: 339 Vote Date: December 18, 2015, 11:31 AM
Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Motion Agreed to
Measure Number: H.R. 2029 (Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016 )
Measure Title: A bill making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes.
Vote Counts: YEAs 65
NAYs 33
Not Voting 2
 
NAYs ---33
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Enzi (R-WY)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Grassley (R-IA)
Lee (R-UT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
McCain (R-AZ)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Merkley (D-OR)
Moran (R-KS)
Paul (R-KY)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Sanders (I-VT)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wyden (D-OR)
Not Voting - 2
Boxer (D-CA)
Rubio (R-FL)
 
 
 

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Christmas Message From A Secret Santa

Click here to see how the Christmas spirit can turn things around – providing help to those in need & bringing joy to those who serve their communities.
 

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

An Analysis - Socialism In America

 
click on graphic to enlarge
 
The last post presented the results of a Quinnipiac University poll that showed Socialist Bernie Sanders beating all of the top four GOP presidential candidates in head to head matchups by the same or wider margins than Hillary Clinton does – she beats all four also in this poll (although she trails slightly to Carson & Rubio in a more recent poll).  Some responses to the post blamed the pollsters or the polls – talk about shooting the messenger.
 
The above graphic shows the befuddled thinking that could produce such electoral results.
 
Before dismissing the Sanders-Hillary favoritism please consider how government schools have contributed to socialism's rise in America.  Professor Friedman wrote in the Cato Policy Report, March/April 1999 - "Any institution will tend to express its own values and its own ideas. Our public education system is a socialist institution. A socialist institution will teach socialist values, not the principles of private enterprise."
 
Over the decades as government schools deteriorated, & local control was reduced to fewer school districts, younger Americans started to have a much better view of socialism, & worse view of capitalism, than their elders did – which is especially true the last seven years with the elevated U-6 unemployment rate - still 9.9% in November (up from 9.8% in October) – all per BO's design.
 
The Pew Research Center also found in 2011 that 49% of people aged 18 to 29 viewed socialism favorably while 46% viewed capitalism favorably. 
 
All of this set the stage for this latest poll favoring both Sanders & Hillary over the top Republicans – it is easy for people who have grown up with a dependent mindset to prefer leisure & redistribution of other people's earnings & wealth to working in a free enterprise system that has been purposely shackled, obstructed, & demonized by BO.  Just try to name one of BO's policies that would make people believe in the American dream & capitalism – you can't because all of his policies favor socialism.
 
Look @ the graphs below to see the anemic full-time job growth that struggles to get back to even pre-recession levels.
 
click on graphs to enlarge
 
Look @ the graph below to see that all but the top quintile (& top 5%) are making less in inflation adjusted dollars since the start of the last recession.  The table below presents the sorry story for all Americans the last 15 years.
 
click on graphics to enlarge
 
BO has focused on five areas of government control of the American citizenry – 1) entitlement programs (expanding every one of the 126 entitlement & welfare programs identified by the Cato Institute form a suicide pact & giveaway of our way of life), 2) healthcare (making people totally dependent on government - both financially through taxes & physically through universal healthcare), 3) illegal immigration (ushering in the poorest, least educated, lowest skilled people BO can find who will permanently vote Democrat in return for taking away & receiving your life's savings), 4) climate change (using bureaucratic EPA regulations to change every aspect of our lives through false claims of global warming & the costly elimination of harmless emissions of CO2), & 5) gun control (taking away people's guns will render them helpless so that gaining control of the military & police forces will be easier so that the citizenry will have no choice but to capitulate any remaining rights or freedoms not already lost).
 
All of the tactics BO uses to displace capitalism with socialism in America are based on the Alinsky Method of community organization explained & detailed in Rules For Radicals – a book & method that Hillary is also very familiar with.  All of the above fits neatly into the final stages of Death Of Democracy – we are certainly in the apathy to dependence stage teetering on the dependence back into bondage stage – which is the stage BO & Hillary have in mind for us.
 
The problem for you & me with all of this is that the poorly educated people just do not know that over hundreds of years & countless societies socialism has imprisoned so many people with a life of mediocrity & misery while capitalism, as established by our Founders, set people free – a freedom so great that hordes today wrongly take it for granted – figuring they will continue to enjoy all of their current freedoms never seeing any of the personal tolls coming their way. 
 
 

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Socialist Sanders Tops Poll In Head To Head Against Top GOP Candidates

"We need to actually have ideas." – From Speaker of the House Paul Ryan's address @ the Library of Congress on December 3 in which Ryan called for the GOP to spell out their plans to keep control of both Houses of Congress & win the Presidency in 2016.  Imagine that – calling for Republicans to have ideas that win elections.
 
click on graphics to enlarge
 
The above poll results show the same top four GOP candidates – the table on the left is from the Quinnipiac University & the one on the right is identified as a CNN/ORC poll.
CNN Politics writes concerning their poll: "The poll reflects Trump's dominance over the rest of the field on the issues voters deem most important to them. He holds massive margins over other Republicans as the candidate most trusted to handle the economy (at 55%, Trump stands 46 percentage points over his nearest competitor), the federal budget (51%, up 41 points), illegal immigration (48%, up 34 points), ISIS (46%, up 31 points) and foreign policy (30%, up 13 points)."
 
But the danger for America is revealed in the Quinnipiac poll that reports the current results of the top four GOP candidates in head to head match ups with Hillary & Bernie Sanders.
 
Quinnipiac writes:
 
American voters shift to Clinton as the Democrat gains ground against Republicans:
  • 47 - 41 percent over Trump, compared to 46 - 43 percent November 4;
  • Clinton at 45 percent to Rubio's 44 percent, compared to a 46 - 41 percent Rubio lead last month;
  • Clinton tops Cruz 47 - 42 percent, compared to Cruz at 46 percent to Clinton's 43 percent last month;
  • Clinton at 46 percent to Carson's 43 percent compared to Carson's 50 - 40 percent lead last month.
But Sanders does just as well, or even better, against top Republicans:
  • Topping Trump 49 - 41 percent;
  • Getting 44 percent to Rubio's 43 percent;
  • Beating Cruz 49 - 39 percent;
  • Leading Carson 47 - 41 percent.
From the looks of the above results the GOP better follow Speaker Ryan's remarks & get some actual ideas – & quickly.
 

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Greg Gutfeld's Differentiation Between Conservatives & Liberals Needs Libertarianism

Click here to hear Greg Gutfeld deliver a very good differentiation between conservatives & liberals.

Now if every conservative & every liberal would check or @ least reassess their premises to challenge their beliefs to make sure they champion liberty to the fullest extent possible we would be on to something.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Thanksgiving Proclamation In The Year Of The Independence Of The United States Of America The Nineteenth

The first national Thanksgiving Proclamations were those issued by the Continental Congress between 1777 & 1784.  From 1785 to 1788 there were no national Thanksgiving
Proclamations.  George Washington issued the first Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789.
 
Not all early Thanksgiving celebrations were in November.
 
President Lincoln started the tradition in 1863 of celebrating Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November – later changed to the fourth Thursday in November.
 
Below is President Washington's second Thanksgiving Proclamation issued on January 1, 1795 – with Thanksgiving to be celebrated on February 19, 1795. 
 
 
George
George Washington
Proclamation 6 - Day of Public Thanksgiving
January 1, 1795
 
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

When we review the calamities which afflict so many other nations. the present condition of the United States affords much matter of consolation and satisfaction. Our exemption hitherto from foreign war, an increasing prospect of the continuance of that exemption, the great degree of internal tranquility we have enjoyed, the recent confirmation of that tranquility by the suppression of an insurrection which so wantonly threatened it, the happy course of our public affairs in general, the unexampled prosperity of all classes of our citizens, are circumstances which peculiarly mark our situation with indications of the Divine beneficence toward us. In such a state of things it is in an especial manner our duty as a people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience.

Deeply penetrated with this sentiment, I, George Washington, President of the United States, do recommend to all religious societies and denominations, and to all persons whomsoever, within the United States to set apart and observe Thursday, the 19th day of February next, as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, and on that day to meet together and render their sincere and hearty thanks to the Great Ruler of Nations for the manifold and signal mercies which distinguish our lot as a nation, particularly for the possession of constitutions of government which unite and by their union establish liberty with order; for the preservation of our peace, foreign and domestic; for the seasonable control which has been given to a spirit of disorder in the suppression of the late insurrection, and generally, for the prosperous course of our affairs, public and private; and at the same time humbly and fervently to beseech the kind Author of these blessings graciously to prolong them to us; to imprint on our hearts a deep and solemn sense of our obligations to Him for them; to teach us rightly to estimate their immense value; to preserve us from the arrogance of prosperity, and from hazarding the advantages we enjoy by delusive pursuits; to dispose us to merit the continuance of His favors by not abusing them; by our gratitude for them, and by a correspondent conduct as citizens and men; to render this country more and more a safe and propitious asylum for the unfortunate of other countries; to extend among us true and useful knowledge; to diffuse and establish habits of sobriety, order, morality, and piety, and finally, to impart all the blessings we possess, or ask for ourselves, to the whole family of mankind.

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done at the city of Philadelphia, the 1st day of January 1795, and of the Independence of the United States of America the nineteenth.

GO. WASHINGTON.

By the President:

EDM: RANDOLPH.

 

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Kentucky Tea Party Governor-elect Matt Bevin - One To Watch

One of the brightest spots coming out of the November 3 election was Tea Party candidate Matt Bevin winning the Kentucky governorship 53% to 44% with 3% of the vote going to an independent.  This election result is further indication of the political outsider mood in the country epitomized by Trump, Carson, & Carly.
 
Bevin has pledged to shutdown Kentucky's ObamaCare exchange, expressed concerns about the expansion of Medicaid in Kentucky under ObamaCare, & supports Rowan County clerk Kim Davis's First Amendment right to not sign her name to homosexual marriage licensesMrs. Davis had been imprisoned in a cell by herself without bail a few months ago for being in contempt of court for defying a court order that followed the Supreme Court's decision that homosexual marriages are constitutional.  U.S. Judge David Bunning of the Eastern District of Kentucky found the aforementioned Supreme Court ruling & anti-discrimination laws take precedence over Mrs. Davis's First Amendment rights.  Bevin disagrees.
 
In addition, Bevin intends to oppose BO's war on coal in Kentucky by ignoring the EPA's regulatory overreach & its effects on Kentucky.  Bevin believes that the EPA has no legal authority over Kentucky & all the EPA bureaucracy can do is sue the state because the EPA has no enforcement arm themselves – in a reversal of recent trends (where states do the suing) that would make Andrew Jackson smile. 
 
Although coal production has been cut by over 40% since 1990 & coal mining jobs have been reduced by over 75% during that same period Kentucky is still considered a coal state - for most of the 20th century coal had been the foundation of jobs & a source of low cost energy.
 
Many Kentuckians, including Governor-elect Bevin, blame federal regulations for this decline in their standard of living — including, most recently on August 3, 2015, BO's Clean Power Plan that calls for reduced carbon emissions from existing power plants – in an attempt to destroy the coal industry.  BO joins socialist Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in pretending to believe that climate change is the world's greatest problem in that the Clean Power Plan shows the world how committed the U.S. is to leading efforts to address climate change as opposed to leading or even participating in lesser Democrat perceived threats to America like the ISIS murders in Paris over the weekend.  Ridiculous.
 
Click here to hear Governor-elect Bevin discuss his plan with Glenn Beck as to how he will fight BO & the EPA through his understanding of the 10th Amendment of the Constitution.
 

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Carly & Some Common Sense Climate Change Questions

In this interview, with over 1 million views, Carly Fiorina shows her grasp of facts on yet another subject as she provides a very reasonable approach & analysis regarding climate change, formerly known as global cooling in 1975 & more recently global warming.
 
I hope everyone who is on the fence concerning whether or not there is any validity to the climate change issue will consider Carly's common sense points made on the video with an open mind or @ least contrast them with BO's commentary regarding skyrocketing electricity rates under his proposed cap & trade system that targets putting coal burning plants out of business.
 
Just last week, to no ones' surprise, BO officially rejected the Keystone XL pipeline project after almost seven years of delays & State Department reviews.  This is just the latest example of BO's subterfuge using environmental issues to ruin one piece after another of the American economy - as if we need more examples of BO purposely working against America.
 
But before you surrender your way of life to socialist climate change regulations (that will put U.S. businesses @ a competitive disadvantage with developing nations who have no such regs or ignore them if they do) that reduce innovation & productivity thereby resulting in higher energy costs, slower economic growth, & reduced job creation please do not panic & concede defeat to someone who can not address to your satisfaction the points Carly makes in the above video or the following few points I present below off the top of my head:
 
1.  In recent years it was determined that the polar ice caps were melting.
 
2.  Where is all of this carbon dioxide greenhouse gas - the density of CO2 is greater than air?    How did CO2 get into the upper atmosphere to form a thermal blanket over the earth?
 
3.  The specific volume (inverse of density) of ice is greater than liquid water - meaning that as ice melts to liquid water the resultant material takes up less volume not more.  Where does the flooding & rise of sea level come from?
 
4.  What is the cost of adapting to global warming if it is real?  The economic consequences of pouring money into complying with regs resulting from unproven (political) science consensus could be much worse than the warming itself.  As far as the so called consensus is concerned - it is a good thing for us that Columbus didn't believe in the consensus that the earth was flat in 1492.
 
5.  Are we to believe that we will wake up one morning 100 years from now & the sea will be higher to flooding levels all @ once or is there a profile of what we can expect & measure in (say) three or five year increments?
 
6.  Why are some politicians more worried about the effects of climate change 100 years from now than they are about Social Security's financial integrity?  Who knows what other issues we will face in 100 years but we do know that Social Security has been paying out more in benefits than it collects in tax revenue since 2010 & that the program will run a deficit by 2022 when the combination of tax revenue & interest earnings are exceeded by benefit payments - such that across the board benefits cuts of about 25% are projected by 2035, if not sooner.  
 
The enjoyment of the American way of life takes energy - we consume 25% of the oil produced in the world every day.  Before I will feel guilty about employing the blessings that God has bestowed on this earth for human use I want to hear some definitive answers to both the points Carly makes in the above video as well as the above six preliminary common sense questions so that a real debate can begin instead of just emotional points designed to mislead. 
 
By the way, the melting polar ice caps that I mentioned in point #1 above - they are the ones on Mars.
 

Monday, November 2, 2015

The Ryan Speakership & Z Standing For Zero

"This begins a new day in the House Of Representatives.  John Boehner served with humility & distinction, & we owe him a debt of gratitude.  But tomorrow we are turning the page.  We are not going to have a House that looked like it looked the last two years." – new Speaker of the House Paul Ryan commenting on the new start for congressional House Republicans after former speaker Boehner cleared the deck of immediate problems for Ryan by 1) leading another suspension (not just raising) of the debt ceiling, this time until March 15, 2017 – well after the 2016 presidential election, & 2) negotiating a two year budget deal that establishes overall funding levels through September 30, 2017 that increases spending $50 billion above the sequester caps in fiscal year 2016 & $30 billion in FY 2017.  In short, the Republican led House under Boehner once again gave BO everything he wanted & on Friday the Republican led Senate under McConnell followed suit.
 
Ryan won the speakership 236 to 184 with 9 Republicans (see below) voting for Congressman Daniel Webster of Florida.  Congressman Jim Cooper of TN voted for Colin Powell; Congresswoman Gwen Graham voted for Congressman Cooper; Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema voted for Congressman John Lewis; & Congressmen Gregory Meeks, Ryan, & Webster did not vote.
 
 
Brat
Clawson (FL)
Gohmert
Gosar
Jones
Massie
Posey
Weber (TX)
Yoho
 
Now Boehner certainly cleared the deck for Ryan to get a fresh start as indicated above.  The aforementioned debt ceiling & budget legislation passed the House 266 to 167.  The incongruity of Boehner being a Republican House Speaker who passed major legislation with 187 Democrats (all but the one who didn't vote) plus a minority of 79 Republicans against the majority of 167 Republicans (see below) who voted against the legislation shows what an effective Democrat speaker Boehner has been.  BO has painted the Republicans into such a corner that he gets his way more with this leadership arrangement than if he had Pelosi back as speaker.  I cannot think of one thing that BO wanted that he did not get with this deal.
 
Not boding well for the fresh start was Ryan saying "I think this process stinks" referring to the closed door negotiations between BO, Boehner, & McConnell - before promptly voting for the budget & debt ceiling legislation himself.
 
---- NAYS    167 ---
 
Abraham
Aderholt
Allen
Amash
Amodei
Babin
Barletta
Barton
Bilirakis
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Boustany
Brat
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Buck
Bucshon
Burgess
Byrne
Carter (GA)
Chabot
Chaffetz
Clawson (FL)
Coffman
Collins (GA)
Crawford
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers (NC)
Emmer (MN)
Farenthold
Fincher
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Garrett
Gibbs
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Graves (MO)
Griffith
Grothman
Guinta
Hardy
Harris
Heck (NV)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Hill
Holding
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurd (TX)
Hurt (VA)
Issa
Jenkins (KS)
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
King (IA)
Knight
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Latta
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lummis
Marchant
Marino
Massie
McCaul
McClintock
McKinley
Meadows
Miller (FL)
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Newhouse
Noem
Nugent
Olson
Palazzo
Palmer
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Pitts
Poe (TX)
Pompeo
Posey
Price, Tom
Ratcliffe
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (SC)
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney (FL)
Roskam
Ross
Rothfus
Rouzer
Russell
Salmon
Sanford
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Stewart
Stutzman
Tipton
Trott
Wagner
Walberg
Walker
Walorski
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westerman
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Williams
Wittman
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)
Young (IN)
Zeldin
Zinke
 
On Friday the Senate followed the same capitulation principle when Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), acting as the effective Democrat leader of the Senate, passed the House bill with 18 Republican senators joining all 46 Democrat senators over the majority of 35 Republican senators who voted against the measure – see below.
 
NAYs ---35
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Corker (R-TN)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Enzi (R-WY)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Gardner (R-CO)
Grassley (R-IA)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
Moran (R-KS)
Paul (R-KY)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Toomey (R-PA)
Not Voting - 1
Vitter (R-LA)
 
Please note that Jeb made a fool of himself @ the last debate scolding Rubio for missing Senate votes; but Rubio did return to Washington to vote against the debt ceiling & budget legislation.  Go figure.
 
None of the above is meant to be totally cynical toward Boehner.  He (& McConnell) were asked to deliver more than they could & accordingly they never defined the problem correctly – namely that they (we) are outnumbered & cannot pass bills 1) without a 60 vote filibuster-proof majority in the Senate that brings debate to cloture & a floor vote & 2) a veto-proof majority in both chambers that will be able to override a presidential veto.  Short of both of these conditions there is nothing but frustration for people who are seeing the country deteriorate in front of their eyes as BO continues his deliberate path of destruction virtually unabated. 
 
There is no substitute for winning elections & it was not long ago that the Democrats won the presidency & controlled both chambers of Congress in what Sean Hannity calls a center-right country.
 
If Ryan was the answer to conservatives' prayers to start reversing BO's programs there would have been no need to clear the deck of problems for him -  he would have simply done the work that conservatives have longed for that Boehner supposedly couldn't.  But neither Ryan or any member of the Freedom Caucus or any other caucus could have done any better than Boehner did in the long run because the numbers are just stacked against them (& us).  All that happened last week was that the Republicans moved past the usual debt ceiling & budget problems that have dogged them during BO's entire presidency – but @ tremendous cost as Pelosi & Reid, who were both all smiles last week in welcoming Ryan to the speakership, were only too happy to go along with the charade since they got everything they wanted & are ready to pull the rug out from under Ryan when the appropriations bills must be passed, likely in an omnibus bill, by December 11 – the date the government's current funding expires.
 
Prior to the Senate vote Senator Ted Cruz took to the Senate floor to 1) protest Ryan's deck clearing start orchestrated by Boehner, 2) forecast no change of results under Ryan's speakership, & 3) describe the above situation to a tee – namely that McConnell would pass the debt ceiling & budget legislation with every Democrat & enough Republicans to overrule the majority of Republicans – all with no fight. 
 
Senator Cruz went on to provide seven different things the Senate Republicans could do to show some fight such as using the Default Prevention Act of 2015 that requires the Treasury to pay in full & on time the principal & interest due on the debt regardless of the debt ceiling status.  Cruz pointed out that the Treasury takes in over $200 billion per month in revenue & that the interest payments approximate $40 billion per month so there is enough money coming in to honor the interest payments.  The problem of course with this line of reasoning is that this means that funding of other government programs will not be honored under this scenario & we will quickly find out just how unimportant honoring the country's debt obligations are to the people dependent on government programs.
 
BO implies he is financially responsible when he frequently points out that raising the debt ceiling does not authorize more spending – it authorizes the government to pay for things that Congress has already agreed to spend money on.  With this explanation BO tries to shift the blame for the nation's debt problems to Congress's spendthrift ways as if he is just an innocent bystander.  At the very least, when the debt ceiling is approached, potential reductions in government spending should be front & center for all elected officials to consider, including BO, so that raising the debt ceiling ad infinitum can be reversed.  Of course BO's purposeful destructive plan for America precludes such teamwork.
 
But it is not just BO & Congress who do not want to take bumping up against the debt ceiling as an opportunity to become financially responsible – it is the 108 million Americans who got means-tested government benefits in 2011 (compared to the 102 million Americans who work full time – source Dick Morris, Power Grab - Page 48).  It can be nothing but dangerous to the Republic when the number of people who get welfare from the government exceeds those working full time.
 
To the majority of Americans – those receiving government benefits - the 2016 election will not be about such things as B standing for budget, C standing for concerns about a rising national debt, D standing for debt ceiling, or H standing for hope that Ryan's speakership will restore order & respect for the people's House; but rather Z standing for zero which is the chance that any Republican presidential candidate has to win the presidency in 2016 unless there is a dramatic mindset change to restore lasting liberty & wealth-producing jobs through a return to our founding principles of limited government, personal responsibility, & free enterprise.

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