Right After Rubio Dropped out, Gov. Nikki Haley Reveals Who She’s Backing Now

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After throwing her support behind Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was forced to re-evaluate the field after Rubio suspended his campaign Tuesday night.

Looking at the remaining candidates vying for the GOP nomination, Haley said on Wednesday that she is now “privately fighting for” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to win the primary election . . .

“Ask me when the time comes again,” she said. “But as of now, I strongly believe I will support the Republican nominee.”

At this point in the race, however, Haley said that her “hope and … prayer is that Sen. Cruz can come through this.”

Though Trump picked up key primary victories in Tuesday’s elections, Haley said she still believes he can be defeated. (Read more from “Right After Rubio Dropped out, Gov. Nikki Haley Reveals Who She’s Backing Now” HERE)

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Washington Made It Easy for Iran to Fire Its Ballistic Missiles

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D5LAUNCHIranian officials spent the frantic final weeks before last year’s nuclear agreement pushing Washington to eliminate a long-standing U.N. prohibition on its ballistic missile program. They didn’t get the ban scrapped, but they did get it softened.

Now, eight months later, a recent series of Iranian missile tests has many in Washington angrily calling for new sanctions on Tehran. But Obama administration officials shouldn’t be surprised by Iran’s decision to test its standing on the international stage to fire the missiles: To the contrary, the nuclear deal may have made the missile launches inevitable.

Before the July 2015 nuclear pact, Iran was expressly prohibited by U.N. resolutions from launching ballistic missiles capable of developing nuclear weapons. U.N. Security Council resolution 1929 states that the 15-nation body “decides that Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” In U.N. legal parlance, invoking the word “decides” places an unambiguous legal obligation on all states to comply.

But in exchange for Iran’s signature on the landmark nuclear accord, the United States granted Tehran greater wiggle room to advance its ballistic missile program. Last July’s U.N. Security Council resolution 2231 — which endorsed the nuclear pact — replaced the prohibition with more permissive language: “Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” (Read more from “Washington Made It Easy for Iran to Fire Its Ballistic Missiles” HERE)

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Did Alaska Learn Anything From Its Last Great Recession?

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The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly just passed a resolution asking the Legislature to implement a sustainable budget. I voted against it since it specifically asked for taxes, and those aren’t helpful or necessary for the present situation. During the testimony it was shown that there were a lot of misconceptions about our State budget situation, so I wanted to clarify some of the details.

First, the state will be entering an economic downturn, or recession. It has nothing to do with the legislature making cuts; the state spending more dollars will not stop the recession. We should all be prepared for this natural response to low oil prices. Please understand that the lingo about “don’t cut too much or we’ll get a recession” is just a political ploy by big spenders in the legislature who don’t want the gravy train to stop. They’ll use it in the elections the next few years to try and sell the voters that any legislator that made cuts caused the recession. Please think for yourself and don’t buy it. Remember, if taxes or PFD cuts go into effect, that money will be taken out of the economy. So any government spending from that was with money already withdrawn from the economy, so it gives no help to the economy. Actually, it makes it worse because government can’t redistribute money without using some, so less gets back to the economy than came out of it.

Second, most of the proponents of taxes or PFD cuts are targeting a goal of having a zero deficit. This isn’t needed, and in fact goes against having a sustainable budget, since it has a mindset that we should spend all we get. Since the large money started coming in from high oil prices the state has budgeted based on high oil. The Governor’s plan is now reacting to that and budgeting based on low oil. To achieve a sustainable budget, we need to realize that oil prices are cyclic, the will rise and fall over and over again. We can therefore create a budget that is the same (indexed for inflation) ongoing by knowing that fact. Once you get to this sustainable budget number (around $4.3 billion now), you can have a structured deficit in the lean years, and build your savings back up in the good years. Isn’t that why we have savings accounts, to handle unexpected crises?

Third, a sustainable budget plan I’ve described has already been worked out by Economist Scott Goldsmith with ISER (UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research). It is based on using our two current primary revenue streams, oil and investment income. With that revenue and cutting to a sustainable budget number, we won’t have to implement onerous taxes or PFD cuts.

Fourth, the investment income is mostly put into the Earnings Reserve of the Permanent Fund. It doesn’t affect the Permanent Fund, and it doesn’t have to touch the PFD at all. We can completely protect the PFD while implementing this plan.

I agree that we need to appeal to the Legislature to implement initiatives to achieve a sustainable budget, and I would encourage everyone to do that. Please remember when doing

so, that it can be done with a structured deficit, without taxes of PFD cuts, by using our existing revenues. I was here in the late 80s when we had our last big recession, and while it was miserable, we survived, and we can do it again. Hopefully this time we learn our lesson and stop increasing government spending constantly in the future.

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Lance Roberts is an engineer, born and raised in Fairbanks. He is a member of the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly. The views expressed here are his own and do not represent the assembly or borough administration.

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More Tips for Persuading the Young Socialist in Your Life

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Do you have a leftist you love? Are they “Feeling the Bern” or “Ready for Hillary?” Have you been failing in your attempts to sway them from the dark side?

In Part 1, I offered some strategies which should help you woo your friends and family members to the right side. I suggested you should accept the fact that your loved ones truly like socialism, avoid the Nazi references, make emotional arguments and avoid personally attacking people they respect. Today, I offer three more tips.

Questions not Answers

People who care deeply about political issues tend to forcefully condemn expressions of bad political dogma and passionately assert their own views, but this instinctual style of direct confrontation is usually the least successful in actually convincing people. When someone makes a forceful argument, people tend to get defensive and make forceful counterarguments, but these counterarguments often ignore substance and follow tangents or new avenues of attack, so what is gained in vigor is usually lost in focus.

In contrast when responding to a pointed question, an intellectually honest person must weigh the issue carefully thereby viewing the situation from a new angle. In this manner, carefully crafted questions often reveal contradictions in someone’s philosophy.

For instance, the Democrats are constantly arguing that the federal government is corrupted by the rich and powerful who buy favors and that the federal government must have more power to keep the rich in line. What if you asked, “If you believe politicians are in league with the rich elitists and are using federal power to benefit the wealthy, wouldn’t increasing the power of corrupt politicians just allow the rich to buy more favors?” For those who say the rich aren’t paying their fair share, ask them, “Exactly what would be a fair share?” Chances are that many leftists would propose numbers much lower than the wealthy’s current tax burden.

Remember, a carefully crafted question can often do far more to make someone reevaluate their views than a thousand forceful assertions.

Principles not Party

Let’s imagine you are trying to convince a young Democrat that conservatism is superior to Progressivism. You point out that conservatism is not about favoring big business but about empowering the humble individual entrepreneur to make it on his or her own. Conservatism is about defending the Constitution, fiscal responsibility and upholding religious and ethical values, and as the shining alternative to the political horrors that are Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, you present the beloved and inspiring face of Republicanism…Donald Trump.

Let’s just quickly review the biggest faces of the Republican Party for the millennial generation. We’ve got Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Donald Trump. I’m sorry folks, but none of these men are true alternatives to big government principles.

If you want to convince a socialist of the values of small government, then you can’t point to Republicans as a true alternative. You can certainly argue that Republican ideology is less corrupt and favors smaller government than that proposed by Democrats, but the simple truth is that Republican aspire to a different form of control over the population rather than true self-governance. If you fail to admit this, Millennials will rightly call you on your hypocrisy.

Instead of arguing that Republicans are the answer, admit that many of them are also part of the problem and ask the leftists to be a true revolutionaries and fight for the cause of liberty against both parties.

Plant Seeds and Love Them

Accept the fact the your best efforts will likely fail to convince socialists that socialism is bad and love the socialists anyway.

I know, it’s depressing, but if you think back to the political changes you’ve experienced over the years, I’d be willing to bet that anytime you’ve changed positions, there has been a single moment where you realized your values had changed preceded by many smaller moments in which you’ve questioned your prior values. I can’t think of a single time where someone has discussed something with me and I found myself turning a complete philosophical 180 through the course of the discussion, but I can think of dozens or perhaps even hundreds of comments that challenged my worldview, stuck with me and required me to think long and hard about what I truly believed. This is what you must do for others. If your mindset for every discussion is conversion or failure, then you better be prepared for a lot of disappointment.

We must love people. Sometimes we get so caught up in our frustration that we allow our politics to overshadow our friendship and even our kinship. If all anyone hears from you is condemnation, they will stop listening. People are of more value than politics, and if you let your anger control you, you’ll lose both the person and the argument.

Your job is not to convert people but to plant seeds and water with love. Place a little idea in someone’s heart, and only time will reveal what might grow. (For more from the author of “More Tips for Persuading the Young Socialist in Your Life” please click HERE. You can follow him on Facebook HERE and Twitter HERE.)

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Exposed: Sinister Source Donated $200K to THIS Republican Candidate

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By Kevin Whitson. In a multi-part series special, former Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck exposed George Soros to the world as the man behind machine, the political puppeteer who was actually controlling U.S. politics, news, financial markets, among a myriad of other things.

Beck’s career at Fox News came to a screeching halt shortly after the exposé making the accusations aired, a result he said was due in part to his commentary about Soros.

There’s no question that leftist liberal Soros is heavily involved in the Democratic campaigns for presidency, but some may be surprised to learn some Republican candidates are also on the take. Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) has been the beneficiary of Soros funds. In a tweet by Scottie Nell Hughes, Hughes revealed Kasich has received $202,700 from Soros’ fund management.

In a reply to Hughes’ tweet, another Twitter user tweeted Donald Trump was also a recipient of Soros’ funds. A user named Pete pointed Hughes to a New York Times article from 2004. In the article, it was revealed George Soros invested $160 million into Trump’s Chicago skyscraper project.

So, at least two of the remaining four Republican candidates have done business with Soros. Yet Soros spoke out against Trump in January 2016 saying he was, “doing the work of ISIS,” by alienating Muslims with his disparaging comments to bar them from entering the U.S. (Read more from “Exposed: Sinister Source Donated $200K to THIS Republican Candidate” HERE)

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Ohio Saves John Kasich — Again

By James Downie. Last August, at the first Republican presidential debate, Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly asked Ohio Gov. John Kasich to defend acquiescing to the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. Normally, it would have been an awkward question for Kasich. Many Republican governors — including several of Kasich’s rivals on the stage that night — have rejected the expansion, denying some three million Americans health insurance. It is an article of faith for many Republicans that the expansion, as part of Obamacare, must be fought tooth and nail. In most debates, Kasich’s unapologetic defense would have gotten him boos or at best scattered applause.

Luckily for Kasich, the first Republican debate was held in Cleveland, Ohio. The Republicans in the audience, for whom Kasich has been a popular figure for decades, loudly cheered him. Thanks in part to their applause, many observers gave Kasich positive reviews — good for keeping donors on board, at the very least. And on Tuesday Ohio Republicans came through for Kasich again. He won 47 percent of the vote in the state’s GOP primary, beating Donald Trump by eleven points and handing the frontrunner his biggest defeat (by delegate count) of the primary. Despite never coming close to double digits in any national poll before mid-February or close to winning any other primary contest, Kasich has somehow managed to become one of the last three GOP candidates standing. (Read more from “Ohio Saves John Kasich — Again” HERE)

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After Discouraging Loss in Florida, Marco Rubio Suspends Campaign

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By Julie Bykowicz. Donald Trump won a decisive victory in Florida’s primary Tuesday night, forcing home-state Sen. Marco Rubio to abandon the race for the Republican presidential nomination. The brash billionaire also picked up North Carolina and Illinois, but faltered in Ohio.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich notched his first and only victory of the primary season by carrying his home state, but he has the fewest delegates of anyone still in the running and had virtually no electoral path to the nomination.

Trump, holding forth at his resort Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, urged Republicans to unify in support of him. They are reluctant to do so. (Read more from “After Discouraging Loss in Florida, Marco Rubio Suspends Campaign” HERE)

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Marco Rubio Suspends Campaign After Losing Florida Primary

By David Sutta. “I want to congratulate Donald Trump on a big victory in Florida.” With those words, Marco Rubio opened his speech to supporters in Miami Tuesday night after learning Trump won the GOP primary in Rubio’s home state.

“While it is not God’s plan that I be President in 2016 or maybe ever, and while today while today my campaign is suspended, the fact that I’ve even come this far is event of how special America truly is and all the reason more while we must do all that we can to ensure that this nation remains a special place. I ask the people do not give in to the fear, do not give in to the frustration.”

With those words, Marco Rubio’s quest for the White House came to an end. Inside a packed lobby at Florida International University’s arena, Miami’s native son sounded like he left it all on the court.

“I just want you to know there is nothing more we could have done. There is nothing more you could have done. You worked as hard as anyone worked. I want you to know we worked as hard that we ever could.” (Read more from “Marco Rubio Suspends Campaign After Losing Florida Primary” HERE)

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Paul Ryan Just Made a Completely Unexpected Announcement About GOP Nomination

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House Speaker Paul Ryan decided not to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, but he declined to rule out accepting it if a deadlocked party convention turns to him this summer.

“You know, I haven’t given any thought to this stuff,” Ryan said Tuesday night in an exclusive interview at the Capitol. “People say, ‘What about the contested convention?’ I say, well, there are a lot of people running for president. We’ll see. Who knows.”

Ryan, who ran in 2012 as Mitt Romney’s vice presidential nominee, has taken no public actions to encourage the idea that he could become a candidate. To the contrary, a political committee set up to draft him into the 2016 race recently shut down at the urging of the speaker’s aides . . .

Yet Donald Trump, even as he has established himself as the clear front-runner in the Republican race, still faces a challenge in rounding up the 1,237 delegates he needs to be nominated on the first ballot at the Republican convention in Cleveland. Trump’s challenge was steepened by Gov. John Kasich’s victory in Tuesday’s winner-take-all Ohio primary — which keeps Kasich in a three-way nomination fight with Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. (Read more from “Paul Ryan Just Made a Completely Unexpected Announcement About GOP Nomination” HERE)

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The U.S. Is Heading Toward a Dangerous Showdown With China

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The Obama administration is moving toward what could be a dangerous showdown with China over the South China Sea.

The confrontation has been building for the past three years, as China has constructed artificial islands off its southern coast and installed missiles and radar in disputed waters, despite U.S. warnings. It could come to a head this spring, when an arbitration panel in The Hague is expected to rule that China is making “excessive” claims about its maritime sovereignty.

What makes this dispute so explosive is that it pits an American president who needs to affirm his credibility as a strong leader against a risk-taking Chinese president who has shown disregard for U.S. military power and who faces potent political enemies at home.

“This isn’t Pearl Harbor, but if people on all sides aren’t careful, it could be ‘The Guns of August,’” says Kurt Campbell, former assistant secretary of state for Asia, referring to the chain of miscalculations that led to World War I. The administration, he says, is facing “another red line moment where it has to figure out how to carry through on past warnings.” (Read more from “The U.S. Is Heading Toward a Dangerous Showdown With China” HERE)

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Ted Cruz Just Got an Unfortunate Message From an NRA Instructor [+video]

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Jan Morgan, “nationally recognized 2nd Amendment speaker,” journalist, and certified NRA instructor has officially withdrawn her endorsement for GOP candidate Ted Cruz today, making the announcement via Twitter:

The Tweet contains a link to a piece Morgan appears to have written explaining calling Cruz an “opportunist” who used the chaos in Chicago last night to smear Donald Trump- by blaming Trump for it:

“This is quite stunning even for a politician as low as Ted Cruz. Senator Cruz has a prime opportunity to highlight the intolerance of the left. Instead he chooses to attack Donald Trump.”

(Read more from “Ted Cruz Just Got an Unfortunate Message From an NRA Instructor” HERE)

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Republicans Are Addicted to Increasing Federal Spending

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Three out of every four Americans say Congress should not increase spending. That’s not 73 percent of the Tea Party, or 73 percent of the Republican Party. That’s 73 percent of all Americans who say Congress should not increase federal spending.

Republicans seem to have missed that message.

Since 2013, the GOP has consistently proposed budgets that increase spending, and not by just a little. Consider that the Republican budget for the 2014 fiscal year, offered by then-Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., proposed $966 billion in base spending. This year, Speaker Ryan is pushing a budget that proposes $1.07 trillion.

That means in four years, Republicans have increased their proposal by $104 billion.

Of course, these issues are never really black and white, and there are lots of arguments that can (and will) be made about how the sequester, the filibuster, and the Democrats are to blame for this increase in federal spending.

But what is most troubling about the increased level of spending—it’s that these higher spending numbers are supported exclusively by Republicans, the party of fiscal discipline.

Consider that the president does not have to sign the budget resolution, and the filibuster does not apply to its consideration. Budget resolutions are strictly partisan affairs with almost no procedural constraints. The massive increases, therefore, cannot be blamed on anyone but the GOP.

This, by all accounts, is a shocking reality. Ryan, after all, has a prominent record of fiscal conservatism. So sterling is his reputation that 57 percent of the American people told pollsters they do not “expect House Speaker Paul Ryan and Congress to increase spending.”

Why, then, are the House Republicans pushing so hard to pass a budget at $1.07 trillion? For years, they have promised to be the party that reins in the federal debt and deficit, and yet they are proposing a $50 billion year-to-year increase in their own budget.

House Republicans have lost the forest for the trees.

Frustrated by Democrats and intimidated by a complicit media, the Republican leadership is looking for a way out of the conflict that invariably comes when one tries to exert fiscal discipline. Each budgeting document is seen as an exit ramp away from a public squabble with the Democrats rather than a path forward to responsible budgeting.

Around every budgeting corner, Republican leaders see a false choice between the Democrats’ shutdown narrative and an increase in spending. Instead of acting as visionary leaders, Republicans have reduced themselves to the party that incessantly searches for a clever solution to each Democratic trap. The cost is steep; the party of fiscal discipline is now producing budgets full of runaway federal spending.

As my colleague Paul Winfree and Heritage President Jim DeMint wrote recently, the budget is an opportunity for Republicans to present a vision to the country—one that is responsible, compassionate, and prudent in its priorities and spending. A budget that increases spending by $50 billion in one year is not that vision.

As conservatives, we must demand better. (For more from the author of “Republicans Are Addicted to Increasing Federal Spending” please click HERE)

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