Jet-Set Congress

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By Joe Miller.  An interesting story last week in the Washington Post details Senator Harry Reid’s extravagant trip to China this past April.  The trip, which included some Republicans, cost the government at least $66,000 worth of per diem and “miscellaneous” expenses.  Family members and staff also traveled on the taxpayer’s dime.

It’s no small wonder Congress has single digit approval ratings —  Harry Reid can’t seem to find the time to pass a budget, but he has no problem organizing sight-seeing trips to foreign nations.

Not tabulated in the official expense report are the costs of transportation, specifically, the costs of a military jet flying over and back.  The Pentagon bills around $10,000 an hour for such planes.

So figure a round-trip to China is about 30 hours in the air and the bill for the plane — paid out of a special slush-fund for these things — would be about $300,000.   And that doesn’t include the various flights within China once the trip started.

Then there are the substantial indirect costs of countless embassy staff preparing for and serving the large delegation on the ground.

Maybe through the lens of our national $15 trillion debt this does not seem too costly.  After all, our ruling class senators are accustomed to passing trillion dollar spending bills at the drop of a hat.  So what’s a few hundred thousand dollars here and there to see the sights — especially when you don’t have any intention of paying the bill?

And to be clear, this is not just a Democratic Party issue.  Both Republicans and Democrats seem to thoroughly enjoy extravagant trips at the taxpayer’s expense.  They poll at 9%, can’t pass a solvent budget, but as Harry Reid pointed out to a Chinese government official, “having spent two days in Hong Kong and Macau eating as we did, we are all heavyweights.”

Ah, the life of the privileged beltway elite.  They certainly have earned it …

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Decision time for the GOP

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By Joe Miller.  The congressional super-committee, according to a story in the Washington Post, is creating an “identity crisis” within the Republican Party.  During the 2010 elections, Republicans promised to come to Washington D.C. and fight the proponents of big government, crony capitalism, and socialism.  Although some have stuck to their guns, most notably the courageous few who voted against the debt ceiling increase, Republicans have pretty much failed to deliver.

Instead, the GOP-controlled House – the body constitutionally authorized to raise and spend revenue –  increased the debt ceiling to the tune of $2.1 trillion.  This same Republican majority originally promised spending cuts, but we’ve found that these promised cuts are off the “projected increases” in the budget and do not amount to any real reductions.  It is sad to observe just how easy it is to abandon principles in the name of political expediency.  One day, Republicans are rightfully bashing Energy Department loans attached to the stimulus program and the next they are writing letters asking for loans to their district.

The budget super-committee creates another decision point for the GOP, and it is already beginning to look like principles will be compromised yet again.  Leading Republican members of the super-committee have, as the Washington Post reports, “lobbied party colleagues behind the scenes to forgo their old allegiances and even break campaign promises by embracing hundreds of billions of dollars in tax hikes.”  This is extremely disappointing for us in the grassroots, to say the least.  I’m sure that along with these tax increases, these Republicans will also guarantee “significant spending reductions.”  However, if the past is a guide, such promises are likely hollow.

It is time to do what is right over doing what is easy.  It is time to stop “crossing the aisle” just for the sake of doing so.  It is time to practice conservative principles or allow somebody in your place who will.  The Republican Party establishment must come to the understanding that paying lip-service to the grassroots during campaign season and then rushing to Washington to compromise with the likes of John Kerry is over.

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Crony Capitalism and Government Protected Mortgage Giants

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By Joe Miller.  Yesterday, top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac defended exorbitant $16 million pay bonuses for themselves even though they presided over epoch failures of their agencies.

By way of background, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are ground zero of the current financial crisis because of their government insured positions as a “mortgage backstop.”  Long story short, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac performed the duty of garbage dump when the big banks decided that they could no longer hold onto worthless mortgage securities.  In the interest of the federal government’s desire to artificially increase American home ownership, these two GSE’s (government sponsored enterprises) were allowed to drown in billions of dollars of debt.

As a result, the American taxpayer – already the de facto owners of Fannie and Freddie – coughed up at least $170 billion in order to bail out the two firms since 2008.  Knowing how accounting is done in Washington, the actual taxpayer bail-out will likely be several times this.   In essence, as with many other bailed out institutions, Fannie and Freddie are on life-support, similar to the zombie banks of Japan in the mid-90s.

Those who track the daily activities of Washington D.C. aren’t surprised to see millions of dollars being paid out to those at the top of these zombie firms.   Nearly $13 million will be paid out to just ten Fannie and Freddie executives this year.  These exorbitant bonuses can’t be based on exceptional performance as Fannie and Freddie are presently almost entirely dependent on taxpayer funds for their mere survival.

In the private sector, entities go out of business if they cannot come to terms with their debt and obligations, and that’s the way it should be.  But in the DC climate, the rules of economics are often corrupted in order to benefit the politically connected.  Some call this “crony capitalism.”

Obviously, this is not the first time that millions of dollars have found their way into the pockets of those with the right friends in high places.  A quick look at the stories concerning former Fannie and Freddie executives Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick reveal that running a business into the ground with the federal government’s blessing is often a real positive for the personal balance sheet.  Gorelick took in nearly $24,000,000 during her federal tenure while Raines raked in a cool $90,000,000.

Raines has even been accused by an oversight agency of aiding in accounting errors and hiding losses in order to recoup large bonuses.   Both Gorelick and Raines were high ranking officials in the Clinton administration, and to this day nothing has come of their unbelievable conduct while at Fannie and Freddie.  But that’s the way it works for some in America.

In order to truly end the corruption in Washington D.C. that has caused the taxpayer billions of dollars and has unraveled the fabric of our republic, there must be widespread replacement of those in power.  The entrenched political class, who protect their friends with power and influence, simply has to go.  This is why we need candidates and office holders who are willing to fight the tough fight and who refuse to “go along to get along.”  Calling all Andrew Jacksons …

Follow Joe Miller at Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Alaska: Poster state for crony capitalism

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Crony capitalism thrives in Alaska, center stage held by the Alaska Native Corporations (ANC).

From the pending shakedown of taxpayers through a wholesale land grab (S.730 and H.R.1408) to recent arrests of four people in one of the “most brazen federal contracting scandals in our nation’s history,” there seems to be no end to the scams, a consequence of an ANC system run amok.

It’s not enough that over $29 billion of taxpayer money has been transferred to the ANCs under the 8(a) minority no-bid federal contracting scheme. The state’s seemingly permanent political class has recently orchestrated sister bills in each chamber of Congress (S.730 and H.R.1408) to extend the literal reach of a single, billion-dollar ANC – Sealaska. Anyone concerned with the rampant growth of corporate giveaways in D.C. should be outraged over this land-grab legislation.

Lisa Murkowski, beneficiary of millions from ANCs for her write-in campaign last fall, sponsored S.730 that was introduced barely four months after her improbable write-in victory was finalized. This bill has just one co-sponsor (besides Alaska’s junior senator), and the House version, voted out of committee in July, has just five voting co-sponsors.

Sealaska is one of 13 ANCs that were set up under the 1971 land claims settlement, originally conceived with a unique and noble idea: profit-making enterprises to create economic independence for the native populations. However, they have failed miserably to improve the lives of the vast majority of natives, while at the same time enriching the executives who then brazenly support the politicians who grease this cozy arrangement. It seems anyone who speaks out against the corruption is promptly silenced, whether it is a concerned native or a politician.

Most Americans should have major problems with these bills. For starters, the interests of a large cross section of the public are being subjugated to the interests of a single corporation. Small-business owners and other Alaskans engaged in tourism, hunting and fishing are directly and negatively impacted. Many of Sealaska’s proposed parcels of land will interfere with the historic commercial and recreational activities in the area and stunt private-sector economic activity and growth.

If Sealaska’s directors were choosing lands within the sections they told Congress they wanted in 1975, that would be one thing. That’s what everyone expected and relied on. However, in this unprecedented congressional move shepherded in large part by Sen. Murkowski, Sealaska is cherry-picking a patchwork quilt of parcels that lie, in some cases, well over 100 miles outside of Sealaska’s original boundaries. The bill even acknowledges that the land is “outside the areas for selection by ANCSA” (in typical legislative jargon).

Many small-business owners relied on the notion that a deal is a deal when they invested in recreational and business opportunities in Southeast Alaska. They were flabbergasted when their own congressional delegation chose to renege on the 1975 deal and put Sealaska in their front yard. Should this bill become law, hunters, fishermen and tourism operators will be locked out of prime areas they rely on for their business.

The proposed land-grab areas also contain high concentrations of some of the largest red cedar and spruce in the Tongass National Forest. Well over a dozen people, hand-to-hand, would not even encircle the enormous girth of these giants, some of which were alive during the Roman Empire. Obviously, this timber has exceptional profit potential, especially if it’s given away.

Moreover, the proposed giveaway includes tens of millions of dollars for hundreds of miles of public roads, bridges and other infrastructure. Not only does Sealaska want title to the land outside its original selection, it also feels entitled to the taxpayer-funded improvements to boot.

During the 2010 senate election in Alaska, I took positions that the ANCs perceived as threatening to their independence from shareholder oversight, sweetheart (unique federal 8a) contracts and special-interest legislation pending before Congress. The gravy train is poised to continue with this Sealaska bill, unless concerned parties intervene.

Last fall, Murkowski’s write-in advocates organized a “super PAC” (Alaskans Standing Together) and successfully raised in excess of $1.25 million dollars from contributions from the native corporations, convinced the corporations to expend millions for in-kind contributions for the write-in effort, mailed thousands of newsletters calling the vote a referendum on native civil rights and sent scores of workers to native villages to recruit write-in votes. Vote totals and now a land grab seem to go hand and hand.

I wrote about this unnamed crony capitalism during my Senate campaign last fall. Murkowski herself said that it wasn’t enough for those ANC “CEOs to stand up and give me your support. I would need to know that it goes out into every village.” And now the “return favor” is pending in both the Senate and the House.

The aggressive intervention of Sealaska in last year’s election no longer seems bizarre once the crony- capitalism connections come into focus. And if the Sealaska land-grab bill passes, the quid pro quo will be complete.

Constitution Day: Join the Revolution

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By Joe Miller:  On this day, 224 years ago, our Constitution was signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.  Just a few years after its ratification, the Founders’ vision of a limited central government composed of coequal branches came under a sustained attack from the judiciary, an attack that has dramatically increased in its intensity over the past century.

As the self-proclaimed final arbiters of the meaning of the Constitution, the judiciary has shamelessly expanded the scope of federal powers by making up new roles for the government.  The Commerce Clause is now interpreted in ways that were never intended by the Founders, giving rise to never-ending regulations and controls from DC.  And where no clause can be found to even remotely justify federal involvement, the judiciary has no problem with making one up.

That’s how the right to abortion was ginned up.  First in Griswold vs. Connecticut and later in Roe vs. Wade,  the Supreme Court employed an astronomical term, “penumbra,” to divine the hidden meanings in the Constitution that were not even apparent to the drafters themselves!

The Founders never intended the Constitution to be molded into whatever shape the judiciary of the day intended.  Rather, they drafted a document that even non-lawyers could understand.

The first three articles of the Constitution describe the three branches of government, delineating their respective powers.  In the Bill of Rights, language was adopted to guard against the expansion of these limited powers.  The 10th Amendment couldn’t be clearer:  “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

So, on this Constitution Day, take the time to read through your Constitution.  As you do so, I challenge you to find authorization for the federal Department of Education, Obamacare, or even EPA controls over wood smoke in my hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska.  If you find none, join a local tea party and help fan the flames of constitutional revival across America.

Follow Joe Miller at Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

In Wake of Debt Ceiling Crisis, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Wants to Scrap Constitution

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By Joe Miller.  Fareed Zakaria, the Indian-born CNN commentator, has suggested that because of the debt ceiling crisis, the U.S. Constitution should be scrapped in favor of a European-style of parliamentary governance.  In his August 17 column, “Does America Need a Prime Minister,” he writes:

“After the S&P downgrade of the United States, no country with a presidential system has a triple-A rating from all three major ratings agencies.  Only countries with parliamentary systems have that honor (with the possible exception of France, which has a parliament and prime minister as well as an empowered president).”

Zakaria goes on to complain that, in the American system of governance,

“you have the presidency and the legislature, both of which claim to speak for the people. As a result, you always have a contest over basic legitimacy. Who is actually speaking for and representing the people?”

He hits it on the head that this leads to a weakened form of government:

“In America today, we take this struggle to an extreme. We have one party in one house of the legislature claiming to speak for the people because theirs was the most recent electoral victory.  And you have the president who claims a broader mandate as the only person elected by all the people.  These irresolvable claims invite struggle.”

Zakaria begrudgingly admits that these “checks and balances have been very useful on occasion.”  But he insists that our world requires stronger central governments “that are able to respond decisively and quickly.  In a fast-moving world, paralysis is dangerous.”  He warns that our supposedly weak and indecisive government has caused other countries to “catch-up” and “over-take” the US.

This, of course, is ridiculous.  Our lack of competitiveness is a consequence of dependency and overregulation bred by the domestic growth of European-like socialism.  Our entitlement state has been built to its gargantuan size not by the weak federal government originally intended by our Founders but by the collusion of the establishment parties who don’t give a damn about the Constitution.

The fact that we have a debt crisis is a result of DC’s addiction to bigger and bigger government and away from the limits imposed by the Constitution.

American Exceptionalism is under broad attack from many quarters.  Zakaria’s championing of a system of government, similar to his native India’s parliament, reflects his fundamental misunderstanding of the origins of this nation, the Founders’ fear of central governments, and the deliberate design of the intracompetitive tripartite government established by the Constitution.  Not to mention his complete misapprehension of the cause of the debt ceiling crisis.

Mr. Zakaria, we need anything but a stronger federal government.  Americans want to be freed from their regulatory overlords to compete in and once again dominate the world markets.   They recognize that stronger, more cohesive government is not the answer; it’s the genesis of the current crisis and a certain catalyst to tyranny.

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Read the full commentary at WND HERE.

One last chance for Republicans

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The GOP has to get it right in 2012.  It will either return to its platform of small government, traditional values, and national sovereignty, or its conservative base will abandon it.

The stakes are far too high for conservatives to support the candidacy of another business-as-usual, ruling class member. Not only are we faced with unprecedented economic challenges, we are also suffering under a dramatic expansion of government, shepherded by both parties.

Typically, economic crisis brings opportunity to the party out of power. Elections are often won by pointing out the failed policies of the incumbent.  If the past is any guide, the upside possibilities for the GOP in 2012 far surpass any downside risks.

But what makes the present crisis particularly dangerous to the GOP is the growing awareness of grass roots activists that they’ve been hoodwinked almost continuously for the past two decades.  Although their party has controlled the White House or at least one house of Congress for all but four of the past twenty-four years, the central government has grown into a gargantuan, freedom-smothering entity over this same time frame.

We’ve been told endlessly by GOP politicians that we must return to a limited government, grounded in the Constitution, and how they will uphold the sanctity of life and the traditional family.  They start their campaigns with prayer meetings, issue proclamations in honor of God and country, and talk about revitalizing the American economy, but everything gets worse under their leadership: more regulations, more activist judges, and more big government programs.

How about illegal aliens? There’s hardly a Republican in Congress who hasn’t had strong words about illegal immigration.  But when push comes to shove, nothing happens.  Proposals for amnesty, code-named “immigration reform,” are championed by many in the GOP.  No reasonable effort is made to fund a fence.  Obama is not held accountable for failure to enforce immigration laws.

The Republicans’ fight against Obama in other areas also lacks vigor.  As we stand on the verge of the greatest federal takeover of our economy with Obamacare, no serious GOP effort has been undertaken to defund this program.  Obama has not been brought to accountability for his Project Gunrunner/Fast and Furious abominations or his failure to defend DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), which the Constitution obligates him to do as the head of the Executive Branch.

No GOP leader speaks about Obama’s lack of transparency in his administration or anywhere else.  Obama’s czars also get a pass, despite their circumvention of the confirmation requirements of the US Constitution.  No attempt is made to defund such offices. And the list of unchallenged Obama outrages goes on and on.

Then we have the budget process and the debt ceiling.  Conservatives were promised at least $100 billion in cuts this year.  Turns out that was lie:  the actual number may not even be $300 million.  The debt ceiling deal was even more of a betrayal.  No cuts at all right now, just continued exorbitant spending.  There’s a promise of future cuts in 2014 but we (and Standard and Poor’s) all know that’s just a pipe dream.

So when conservatives enter their voting booths convinced of both a collapsing Republic and a complicit party, there’s zero chance of compromise no matter who’s on the ballot.  The lesser of the two evils is no option in 2012.

That spells opportunity for any constitutional conservative running for the Republican nomination.  The GOP base is desperate for a candidate who truly loves this nation and will do whatever it takes to put us back on course.

But be forewarned:  the grassroots is also quite skeptical of all candidates, given the track record of the last two decades.  A candidate who starts a campaign in Bush-like fashion by appealing to the base with a prayer meeting or a vicious verbal attack on the establishment can’t expect an immediate outpouring of conservative support.  Quite simply, the base is sick and tired of being lied to.

Given this growing discernment, a candidate from outside the beltway who has a proven track record of holding the establishment to account for corruption and/or the growth of government can count on significant support.  The perfect storm of crisis and establishment disgust will spawn a candidate who, in 2012, either will resurrect the GOP and its platform or will walk away with its base in an independent bid.

Saving our great Republic requires courageous and selfless leaders.  There are very few in office today. God willing, at least one will rise to the occasion in the Presidential race, rescuing our country from the edge of the abyss, and back to its foundations.

Read original article at WND HERE.

Drug Test Congress

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This past June, Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill into law requiring welfare recipients to be tested for illicit substances. This popular legislation weeds Florida druggies out from the public dole. Given the idiocy demonstrated by the Ruling Class over the past several weeks, I’ve been thinking that Gov. Scott’s novel legislation could find good use in D.C. There’s obviously something being smoked in the halls of Congress.

For instance, you have to be high as a kite to think that any of the pending debt-ceiling proposals does anything to reduce our national debt – even in the long run. In fact, all of the conventional proposals increase our national debt by trillions of dollars over the next decade. No congressional plan actually cuts anything from our debt – it just slows the fatal increase.

In all fairness, some members of Congress pushing to extend the debt ceiling probably aren’t high; they know exactly what they’re doing: deceiving their constituents into thinking that reducing future years’ deficits means debt reduction. They try to hide that the fact that within a decade our national debt will increase to well over $20 trillion. Even that number is impossibly optimistic as it depends on interest rates remaining at historic lows.

Like many other Americans, I’m sick and tired of being lied to by the D.C. establishment that will do anything to keep big government in place. Conservatives were lied to when George W. Bush campaigned on a limited-government platform but then exploded the growth and reach of the central government during his two terms. And we were lied to just earlier this year when our federal budget was supposed to cut billions from the prior year’s wildly inflated expenditures. CBO projections later revealed this was all smoke and mirrors.

Leaders of both parties now claim that the debt ceiling must be increased to avoid default. But we’re being lied to again. If Congress fails to increase the debt ceiling, there are sufficient revenues to meet our debt obligations.

Each and every month over the next year, the central government can reasonably expect to receive over $200 billion in federal revenues. Debt servicing amounts to less than $30 billion per month. This still leaves more than $170 billion per month to cover Social Security (currently $60 billion per month), leaving $110 billion per month for the military and other essential functions of the federal government.

Yes, there would absolutely be disruption if the ceiling is not increased. Some worry that the nation’s triple-A credit rating would be lowered. Frankly, that credit rating is undeserved given our current debt structure, and the world’s rating agencies know it. The rating is at risk no matter what happens over the next week.

 

Read more at World Net Daily HERE.

Iranian nuke threat ignored because of debt crisis?

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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.