Why the Tea Party is unyielding on the debt ceiling

/4 Comments/in /by

The liberal media have gone to warp speed in their defense of President Obama and their attacks on the Tea Party. We are “extreme” and “dangerous.” Republicans are “afraid of” the Tea Party. And more.

The narrative in the media is that Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner were close to a deal last week that would have resolved the debt-ceiling crisis. It would have allowed for continued borrowing and more “revenue,” the euphemism of the day for tax increases. And the Tea Party said no.

The Tea Party did say no. Unfortunately, Boehner is not listening to those who elected him and is now pushing a plan with almost nonexistent budget cuts.

Why is the Tea Party intransigent on the debt ceiling? Why is the Tea Party pushing congressional Republicans so hard that we have a crisis?

As the founder of Tea Party Nation, I feel confident in saying that the Tea Party understands what so many in Washington seem to have forgotten: We do not have a debt crisis. We have a spending crisis. There is only one way you get to a debt crisis — you spend too much money.

Read More at The Washington Post By Judson Phillips, The Washington Post

Iranian nuke threat ignored because of debt crisis?

/0 Comments/in /by



The news is full of stories about where the United States is headed if we don’t do something quickly about the debt ceiling. Leaders of both political parties warn that a failure to raise the ceiling will result in market instability and perhaps even government default. Many tea partiers are more concerned that our extreme debt problems, left unchecked, will drive us into third-world conditions within a generation. From either perspective, the sky seems to be falling all around us.

In reality, it may be, but for a different reason. An immediate, existential threat to our way of life may be under development in Ahmadinejad’s Islamic Republic of Iran. And the debt crisis severely compromises our ability and willingness to face that threat.

Now don’t think for a second that I am some sort of neocon. I cannot support what the internationalists and crony capitalists have done in the Middle East over the past 10 years at the cost of thousands of American lives. Building foreign infrastructure projects, setting up regimes and establishing near-permanent U.S. bases, all costing hundreds of billions of U.S. tax dollars, find little support in the Constitution. But even if intended by the founders, these foreign entanglements are bankrupting the country almost as fast as Obama’s expanding socialism.

And, to make matters even worse, the regimes we have propped up with the blood of U.S. soldiers have failed to guarantee the very freedoms enshrined in our own Constitution. Free speech is frequently accompanied by assassination in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Religious freedom is under vicious attack in both countries. All in all, the neocon approach is a fiscal, constitutional and moral failure.

But the problems with our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan do not justify turning a blind eye toward Iran. This increasingly advanced nation, awash in billions of dollars of oil revenue, is aggressively pursuing nuclear technology. This is despite its energy-rich posture with the third-largest proven crude reserves and second-largest gas reserves in the world. Energy independence is clearly unrelated to Iran’s nuclear program.

Although suspicions regarding Iran’s nuclear program are nothing new, a number of revelations within the last several weeks reflect how aggressively this enemy is moving toward acquiring nuclear weapons. Last month, Iran’s nuclear agency revealed that it is tripling production of enriched uranium, a substance not needed for its nuclear power program. Earlier this month, Iranian war games displayed the reach of a newly developed radar-evading missile with a range sufficient to hit most of Europe and U.S. bases in the Middle East. And last week, it was discovered that Iran’s nuclear enrichment program is being moved deep inside a mountain near the city of Qom.

Read more at World Net Daily HERE.

Republicans: Don’t fall for elites’ fear mongering

/1 Comment/in /by

The playbook of the Washington establishment is getting old and almost boring.

Play No. 1 is this: Pass billions in unfunded new programs. Tell everyone we will take care of them from cradle to grave. Subsidized food, medical care, housing, and if your employer goes broke like General Motors or AIG, we will step in with a safety net to rescue the businesses with government loans and grants. The criterion for help and rescue is: Does your support come our way at election time?

Play No. 2 is this: If the American people rebel and say we don’t want to pay anymore for Congress’ wasteful government spending, tell Americans that if they don’t capitulate, the end of the world is upon us. And give “destruction day” a specific deadline for added fright power. This time the date is Aug. 2, 2011 – the day the world will end unless you support our out-of-control foolish spending.

Then the theatrics begin. The media are mesmerized and cued to play their well-honed part in the playbook. Weeks of reporting commence on all of the terrible results from failing to fully fund the government elite’s pet programs. Here are some of the outcomes we have heard referenced resulting from a failure to raise the debt ceiling: Unemployment will skyrocket. Thousands of businesses will shut down. Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will be abandoned without ammunition, pay or a way home. Your credit-card interest rate will double or triple. Your mom won’t get her Social Security check. Your local hospital will close. All stocks on the NYSE will suddenly fall to zero with massive bankruptcies filling the courts. Farmers will stop planting crops. The supermarket shelves are soon empty. One pundit even predicted mass psychosis if Los Angeles doesn’t get its monthly shipment of anti-depressants. He claims one-third of the population is on the government-subsidized pills.

Wow, no wonder John Boehner and the Republicans roll over and fund everything the Washington establishment desires. They would be personally responsible for the end of America, the starvation of 300 million people and the shutdown of your cable TV.

Read More at WorldNetDaily by Floyd and Mary Beth Brown, WorldNetDaily

Going Galt without even knowing it

/0 Comments/in /by

A blogger named David McElroy recently wrote of a Birmingham (Alabama) businessman who,after listening to a room full of moochers and leeches piss whine and moan about the evils of business, publicly threw in the towel regarding his attempt to open a new coal mine.

David compared what happened to a scene right out of “Atlas Shrugged” and then mused,“But I wonder how long it’s going to be before businesspeople really do start walking away and deciding it’s not worth doing business in America today. Or is it already happening and we just don’t know it?”

Well,David,it’s going on right now all around us and we do in fact know all about it. I have a good friend from high school who was drafted in the Vietnam era,then earned his civil engineering Bachelor of Science degree afterward at N.C. State via the GI Bill. He started his own construction company, and has run it ever since, directly employing dozens of people and spending millions annually on equipment and materials, thereby employing countless others. Until now; until Obama was elected.

The bottom fell out of the economy under Obammunist economic policies,and then Obamacare de-exempted small construction companies from the 50-employee exemption as demanded by the unions so they could kill all non-union construction companies. Well it worked.

My friend said he was finally fed up and was finally able to say what Obama has demanded that all productive people must say, namely,“I have enough money”. He said he figured he had worked hard all his life, saved his earnings, and it was finally it was time to enjoy his savings. My friend fired all his employees,gave away all his equipment (which was fundamentally worthless anyway since everyone else was dumping their equipment too) and retired. Like many who enjoy the work they do,he probably would otherwise have died with his boots on,contributing to society right until the end. But Obammunism forced his hand,and for him personally it was a good thing because he is developing health problems,and in the not-too-distant future would have eventually been unable to enjoy his hard-earned savings.

Read More at Coach is Right  By Basil Irwin, Coach is Right

Spenditol

/3 Comments/in /by

Obama – No Friend of Israel

/0 Comments/in /by

(by Randy DeSoto): Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the largest Pro-Israel organization in America (over 725,000 strong), made it clear that Israel presently does not find the same support in the White House that it has enjoyed in years past. At the group’s 6th annual DC Summit this past week, Hagee pronounced at its “Night to Honor Israel,” “The truth that many Americans do not want to face is this: President Obama is not Pro-Israel!” This brought thunderous applause from the record number of over 5000 attendees, who filled the expansive banquet hall, as Jewish shofars (ram’s horn instruments) wailed out from various corners of the room. Of course, the applause was in agreement with Hagee’s grim, but forthright and bold assessment. Hagee went on to remind President Obama that Israel is not a vassal state of the United States. “Barack Obama does not have the authority to tell the Jewish people what they can and cannot do in the state of Israel.” He added, “The Jewish people are not occupying the land of Israel, they own it.” This too brought huge roars of approval from the crowd.

Hagee shared the stage with Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren that evening, as well as Glenn Beck. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he has in years past, spoke to the Summit live, via satellite earlier in the day expressing his heart felt appreciation for the work CUFI is doing to support Israel and reaffirming the strong friend the Jewish state has in the United States.

The morning following the “Night to Honor Israel,” summit attendees took to Capitol Hill participating in hundreds of meetings with members of Congress and their staffs encouraging them to stand by Israel in this perilous time.  If Netanyahu’s reception in his speech to a joint session of Congress this past May is any indication, those advocating the support of Israel on Capitol Hill likely found receptive ears. You’ll recall that Prime Minister’s speech came only days after President Obama in his speech in support of the “Arab Spring” called on Israel to return, more-or-less, to its 1967 borders. President Obama was the first President to make a public proclamation stating the 1967 borders should be the basis for negotiating Israel’s borders with a Palestinian state. He said, “We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.“ Of course, those lines, among other extremely problematic aspects, included much of the Jewish ancient capital of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in Palestinian hands.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, visiting the United States, quickly responded stating Israel could not return to those borders because they are indefensible. These borders made Israel appear far too vulnerable to its neighbors in previous wars. At the narrowest point, the pre ’67 lines make the nation only 9 miles wide and gave its enemies the high ground and robbed Israel of the natural boundary created by the Jordan Rift Valley.

Two days later, President Obama walked back those comments using a speech to AIPAC (as he has during past controversies regarding Israel) to re-affirm his support for and America’s friendship with the Jewish State, though he didn’t entirely back down from his call for the use of the ’67 borders. One senses there is still an unease on exactly where the President stands on this issue and his support for Israel generally. The crack in his support among Jewish Americans is evidence of this. A new poll came out this week indicating that President Obama is losing support among American Jewish Voters: in 2008, 65% backed Obama, and now his approval is down to 43%.

 

Read more at Red County HERE.

Congressman: Only ‘theft’ would detour Social Security checks

/6 Comments/in /by

 

Did Barack Obama have one of those unwelcome political moments when the harsh reality of truth accidentally spills out when he said he couldn’t assure Social Security recipients that their checks would be mailed in August unless he got the debt ceiling increase he wanted?

Possibly.

Because, the facts are that although there is a specific Social Security trust fund in which Social Security taxes are tabulated, and the government reports there is a $2.7 trillion balance in that account, the taxes go into and the retirement and disability checks come straight out of the nation’s general fund.

That circumstance has prompted U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., to propose, along with half a dozen other House members, legislation that would make certain the payments to senior citizens are made in a timely manner.

The president’s comment came during an appearance recently on CBS.

Read More at WorldNetDaily By Bob Unruh, WorldNetDaily

Complexity and Collapse

/0 Comments/in /by

The most obvious features of recent political and financial “solutions” are their staggering complexity and their failure to fix what’s broken. The first leads to the second. Consider the healthcare “reform,” thousands of pages of mind-numbing complexity which slathers on thick layers of bureaucratic control on a system which already costs twice as much per capita as competing developed-world systems.

Sadly, the “reform” simply solidifies the Status Quo fiefdoms and cartels that control the U.S. sickcare system.

The healthcare reform fixes nothing, while further burdening the nation with useless complexity and cost. The same can be said of the Dodd-Frank “reforms” of the embezzlement-based U.S. financial system. The original Glass–Steagall Act separating investment banking from depository banking was a few pages in length; by one count, Dodd-Frank requires that regulators create 243 rules, conduct 67 studies, and issue 22 periodic reports.

Meanwhile, back in reality, the Financial Elites of Wall Street and the “too big to fail” banks still have the nation (and Europe) by the throat.

Complexity is itself a tax; the maintenance cost of complexity is high, and can only be justified when the added complexity solves a critical problem of the society as a whole.

Read More at Charles Hugh Smith’s BlogSpot  By Charles Hugh Smith

The ‘economic conservative’ compromise

/2 Comments/in /by

After more than 30 years of observing and covering politics, I wrote in “The Tea Party Manifesto” that there is a major misconception about a “divide” in the movement between so-called “social conservatives” and so-called “economic conservatives.”

What I found was that these labels are not only terribly misleading, but virtually meaningless if one’s goal is to understand the dynamics at work with the conservative movement.

In short and in broad strokes, so-called “economic conservatives” are not all that economically conservative when push comes to shove. And “social conservatives,” as they are wrongly dubbed, tend to be more economically conservative than the supposed “economic conservatives.”

There’s a great living, breathing illustration of this phenomenon for all to see right now. His name is Grover Norquist.

Norquist is the long-time president of Americans for Tax Reform. He has spent his activist career in Washington building relationships and alliances that have made him a powerful force in conservative politics. This despite his seemingly contradictory support from and for Muslim Brotherhood interests and a newer cozy relationship with the Republican homosexual special-interest group GOProud, for which he serves as a member of the board of advisers.

Read More at WND   By Joseph Farah, WorldNetDaily

Obama Prison Blues

/2 Comments/in /by