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.