Trump’s Airport Reform Could Lead to Lower Ticket Prices

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President Donald Trump has announced plans to privatize the United State’s air traffic control system, which he said could lead to lower ticket prices.

“We are taking the first important step to clearing the runway for more jobs, lower prices, and much, much, much better transportation,” Trump said last week.

Air traffic control, which monitors and guides aircraft activity, falls under the Federal Aviation Administration’s authority, and is directed by Federal Aviation Administrator Michael Huerta.

Huerta is expected to serve out his full term through January 2018.

There has been no announcement as to who will replace Huerta, according to Michael Sargent, a policy analyst for transportation and infrastructure at The Heritage Foundation.

Trump’s plan to privatize air traffic control would include a board of directors, Sargent said, with “people representing the airlines, the pilots, the airports [and] general aviation.”

The board of directors would also include a CEO and representatives from the government.

Trump said his initiative will help America reclaim its influence in travel.

“America is the nation that pioneered air travel, and with these reforms, we can once again lead the way far into the future. Our nation will move faster, fly higher, and soar proudly toward the next great chapter of American aviation.”

In a statement outlining his plans, the Trump administration highlighted that privatizing air traffic control will prioritize safety, national security, and access for consumers.

Trump also said that privatization will improve service.

“We’re proposing reduced wait times, increased route efficiency, and far fewer delays,” Trump said. “Our plan will get you where you need to go more quickly, more reliably, more affordably and, yes — for the first time in a long time — on time. We will launch this air travel revolution by modernizing the outdated system of air traffic control. It’s about time.”

Previous transportation secretaries voiced support for Trump’s announcement.

“I applaud President Trump for his leadership in putting forth a bold plan and vision for moving [Air Traffic Control] out of [Federal Aviation Administration] and creating a more efficient and effective Air Traffic Control,” Ray LaHood, who served as transportation secretary from 2009-2013, said in a statement.

James H. Burnley IV, who served as transportation secretary from 1987-1989 under President George H.W. Bush, also praised the announcement.

“Air traffic control is a complex 24 hour a day business,” Burnley said in a statement, adding:

While it is very safe, government red tape increasingly impedes the installation of new technologies. As a result, the U.S. is falling ever further behind other countries, such as Canada, that have separated their systems from government constraints. President Trump’s proposal is the right solution for the 21st century.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also was supportive.

“I think it’s a big deal that the president came out … and is leading on this issue,” Cruz said in a statement, adding:

There are over 130,000 jobs in Texas that depend on the airline and aerospace industries and by modernizing Air Traffic Control we will see an increase in safety, a decrease in waiting times, decreased costs, and improve the environment by having far less emissions. It should be a no-brainer.

Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Minn., voiced concerns about the announcement.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is also skeptical. “Why give away billions of dollars in government assets to an entity that will be governed in large part by the airlines,” Nelson said, according to Reuters.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also disapproves.

Sargent said the announcement shows promise.

“It moves a vital transportation service out of the government, unshackling it from extensive bureaucracy inertia and establishes it as an independent, nongovernmental, non-profit corporation in charge of providing a service,” Sargent said. (For more from the author of “Trump’s Airport Reform Could Lead to Lower Ticket Prices” please click HERE)

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Trump Will Reverse the Damage Done by Obama’s Cuba Policy

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If “America First” means anything, it must mean preventing a virulently anti-American criminal enterprise from perpetuating its existence next door and reproducing itself throughout the hemisphere.

And since this is precisely what President Barack Obama’s opening to the Castros accomplished, President Donald Trump is duty-bound to reverse this mistake.

In fact, if The New York Times is to be believed—and on this we should, as coddling the Castros is one thing the Gray Lady has been consistent on for 60 years—the administration is about to announce it is reinstating the limits on travel and trade that Obama lifted.

This isn’t full reversion, but I’ll take it. I don’t say this very often, but let’s hope The New York Times is right.

Obama always said he was helping Cubans with his opening, and in a technical way that is true.

Alejandro Castro Espin, the ideologically unbending Leninist son of military ruler Raul Castro, is a Cuban. So is Gen. Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez Calleja, the economic czar in charge of the lucrative tourist trade.

Oh, Lopez Calleja is also Castro’s son-in-law and Alejandro’s brother-in-law.

U.S. recognition and sanction of the Castros helped these two Cubans enormously in their endeavor to inherit political and economic control when Castro, a spry 85-year-old man, effected a transition from one communist Castro to another in a short nine months.

Cuba’s 11 million other citizens were not helped so much.

They would have had a much better hope of a real transition to a post-communist, post-Castro, free Cuba had Obama not promised that, in exchange for nothing, the Castro dictatorship would benefit from selling their products in the United States and receiving credits to boot.

With Cuba’s international benefactor, Venezuela’s own despotic government, teetering on the brink of collapse, the Obama lifeline to the Castro family looms even larger.

People with zero understanding of Cuba have always parroted the Godfather stereotypes, so let’s put things in a language they’ll understand.

Raul is Don Corleone in this version, while Alejandro is Michael Corleone, and Lopez Calleja is Tom Hagen.

Sonny and Fredo are played by any number of Miami Cuban-Americans with business interests tied to this division of the spoils, the freedom of their former compatriots be damned.

Alejandro is widely expected to pull the strings of power when and if the nominal heir apparent, Miguel Diaz-Canel, first vice president since 2013, takes the title of president from Raul in February 2018.

There are precedents for this in the revolution and earlier Cuban history.

Cuba’s president from 1959 to 1976 wasn’t Fidel Castro, but a wealthy lawyer by the name of Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado, a nonentity who committed suicide in 1983.

From 1936 to 1940, the republic’s official head of state was Federico Laredo Bru, another wealthy lawyer whose strings were pulled by Fulgencio Batista.

Both Dorticos and Laredo Bru associated with communists and let them take part in government (yes, little-known fact: Batista was such a communist sympathizer that even Stalin’s Chilean hagiographer, Pablo Neruda, once wrote a poem to him).

But before reading these lines, had you ever heard of either of Dorticos or Laredo Bru?

This window-dressing fate awaits Diaz-Canel. Journalists are now besoiling themselves by claiming all sorts of things about him.

Six months ago, Reuters said he “has already established press and internet freedom as signature concerns.” It is often written that he’s a Beatles fan (the way Andropov liked jazz).

Probably better to listen to what Alejandro Castro says and watch what he does. This is admittedly onerous, as he’s a humorless Marxist ideologue who would apply a dialectical analysis to a doughnut.

But if you’re interested in what’s ahead for Cuba, there is, alas, no alternative.

“Cuba will never return to capitalism,” the reclusive Alejandro, officially an army colonel and the head of military intelligence, told Peruvian-Greek journalist Lasonas Pipinis Velasco in a sweeping 2015 interview.

In it, he applied “the logic of history” to everything from the serfs of the Middle Ages to John Locke, Bretton Woods and the distinction between “participative democracy” and “bourgeois representative democracy.”

(He says Cuba practices the former because it constantly holds “popular consultations.”)

A bit earlier, it was Alejandro, not Diaz-Canal, who conducted the secret negotiations on the opening with Obama’s outmatched deputy Ben Rhodes in 2014. It was also Alejandro who received the Cuban spies charged with the murder of Americans whom Obama obligingly sent to Havana in 2015.

More recently, it was Alejandro who sat next to Obama at the table when the 44th president visited Havana. And it was also him who accompanied Raul for the 2015 meeting with Pope Francis.

And again just recently, it was Alejandro again who popped up in Moscow negotiating, of all things, an agreement on cybersecurity cooperation with the head of the Russian Security Council, Nicolai Patrushev.

Known in hushed tones in Havana as “One Eye” (El Tuerto) after losing most of his sight in one eye in Angola, Alejandro has also left his feelings for the United States known in the book he wrote about America’s rise, “The Empire of Terror.”

According to The New York Times, the Trump administration is reportedly considering measures proposed by Florida Republicans Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart that would block deals between American companies and the Cuban military—measures that would hit the Castro family where it hurts.

Let’s hope it’s true. (For more from the author of “Trump Will Reverse the Damage Done by Obama’s Cuba Policy” please click HERE)

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Why the Near-GOP Massacre? Look at Bernie Volunteer’s Facebook Postings, History of Democratic Party

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Yesterday, a left-wing Democrat decided to take the Left’s vicious narrative to the next level, opening fire at a group of Republican representatives and senators practicing for a charity baseball game they hold annually with Capitol Hill Democrats. Four congressmen, staff, and security personnel were injured in the shootout at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria, Virginia, across the river from Washington, D.C.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), the third-highest ranking member of the leadership in the House of Representatives, was shot, but fortunately he had two U.S. Capitol Police officers accompanying him – the only armed presence in the ballpark. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who was at the baseball practice, said that if Scalise’s security detail hadn’t been there, “it would have been a massacre.”

As of 5 p.m. Eastern time, Scalise was listed in critical condition at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. The lawmaker underwent surgery. According to updated reports, the bullet caused extensive internal damage and more surgeries will be necessary. Lobbyist Matthew Mika, who was participating in the practice, was listed in critical condition at George Washington University Hospital.

During a presser a half hour later, FBI agent Tim Slater acknowledged five people were shot, including the alleged shooter. A congressman and a Capitol Police officer suffered “secondary injuries” and were transferred to local hospitals and treated, he added.

The shooter, now identified as James T. Hodgkinson, of Belleville, Illinois, died of injuries sustained during his shootout with police. He was an ardent Democrat and Bernie Sanders supporter, who championed socialism. He volunteered on the Sanders presidential campaign last year.

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) told reporters he encountered the man who turned out to be the shooter when he attended the practice. Hodgkinson asked him if the team there was Republicans or Democrats, Duncan said. The lawmaker says he told him they were Republicans and the man thanked him. Duncan then drove away and did not witness the shooting incident.

His wife says he had moved to Alexandria two months ago, but she did not explain why. Hodgkinson had apparently been living out of his car and reconnoitering the field since his arrival in the Virginia city. When his photo was published after the attack, Alexandria resident Stephen Brennwald recognized him as someone who regularly appeared mornings at the YMCA adjacent to the field where the attack occurred. Brennwald became suspicious of Hodgkinson, saying: “He never worked out. He never talked to anybody. He never did anything. He’d just sit there and stare at his laptop.” Brennwald said, adding that he often stared out the window, with “this kind of faraway stare.”

Shortly prior to moving, Hodgkinson’s Illinois neighbors also report that he had practiced shooting on his property but was told to stop by local police after the neighbors complained. Media reports state that Hodgkinson had been living in his personal vehicle in Alexandria.

A Facebook page in Hodgkinson’s name contained multiple posts demonizing President Donald Trump. The pages have now been removed from Facebook, but I was able to get numerous screen shots before that happened. Following is a sampling:

Earlier posts show his adamant support for Bernie Sanders and his hatred of the GOP generally and Donald Trump in particular. His most recent Facebook posts, from two days ago, suggest his mindset:

Hodgkinson’s twitter account is apparently @JTHInspections. Another one, @jimhodgkinson, may be a fake as the background photo has changed. Earlier it featured a picture of a younger Trump with Vladimir Putin photoshopped in next to him. Now it simply says “Trump is a pig.”

Are we really surprised by this attack? We shouldn’t be. The Democrats have been agitating relentlessly for just such a thing. There has been a constant, relentless drum roll of hatred toward the GOP, Trump family members, Trump cabinet members, and Trump supporters. Consider a tiny sampling of the outrageous remarks and behavior:

· Shakespeare in the Park: Donald Trump as Julius Caesar knifed in the back

· Kathy Griffin gaining notoriety with a fake beheaded Donald Trump

· Antifa communists physically attacking Trump supporters in the streets

· Leftist radicals torching UC Berkeley campus to protest Breitbart speaker, Milo Yiannopoulos

· Virginia GOP Rep. Tom Garrett and his family received repeated death threats · Arizona GOP Rep. Martha McSally, who was told “Your days are numbered,” by 58-year-old Democrat Steve Martan. “Martha, our sights are set on you”, he said, “Right between your f****** eyes.”

Former Secret Service agent and GOP candidate Dan Bongino says, “The Left has gone mad with rage… If it’s normalizing violence against him, if it’s using outrageous, outlandish language, if it’s making up false crimes against him like the Trump/Russia fairy tale, the conspiracy theory; they don’t care. They’ve lost any moral bedrock.”

Hodgkinson’s Facebook page contains one photo of himself. Interestingly, the one comment the photo received was from Lindy Lee, a former candidate for Congress, who gave the photo a thumbs-up.

Lee’s Facebook pages display a who’s who of the Democratic Party:

While there is no indication that Lee had any inkling of Hodgkinson’s intentions, and none is implied here, there is nothing new about mainstream Democrats aligning themselves with violent extremists. Indeed, as James O’Keefe proved in a series of undercover videos last year, violence and subversion is part and parcel of the Democrats’ game plan. Jamie Glazov of the Glazov Gang has produced a documentary about this propensity for violence entitled, ” United in Hate: The Left’s Romance With Tyranny and Terror.”

The most notorious case involves Jim Jones, an avowed communist and cult leader in the jungles of Guyana who in 1978 murdered his 909 followers (including 303 children), a U.S. congressman and four others before committing suicide himself. Prior to taking his “People’s Temple” into the jungle, he was endorsed by Democrat heavyweights. This included first lady Rosalynn Carter, Vice President Walter Mondale, HEW Secretary Joseph Califano, California Gov. Jerry Brown and his lieutenant governor Mervyn Dymally, five members of the U.S. Senate, 11 members of the House of Representatives, the mayor of San Francisco and one of the city’s former mayors, and the mayor of Gary, Indiana.

The fake news was at it even then, describing Jones as a religious extremist. In an article titled “When Religious Beliefs Become Evil: 4 Signs,” CNN characterized Jones as “a gifted speaker who built an interracial church in San Francisco that did much good in the community.” CNN never mentioned his avowed communism, atheism, and his close connection to the Democratic Party. Until his behavior became politically inconvenient, however, Jones was a leftist hero.

Forget introspection. True to form, the Democrats wasted no time in turning today’s shooting into a political issue. Terry McAuliffe, the serially corrupt governor of Virginia, offered a pitch for gun control, throwing in some massively dumb whoppers along the way. A mere two hours after the shooting CNN recorded him saying:

“There are too many guns on the street…”

and, are you ready for this?

“We lose 93 million Americans a day to gun violence…”

93 million!

Then he goes on to mention the need for “background checks” [Editor: we already have them], “shutting down gun show loopholes” [Editor: there is no such thing]… And he repeats the 93 million people a day claim again before ending. A reporter helps him by suggesting 93 million is a big number. McAuliffe corrects himself, saying it’s actually 93 a day.

If we want an explanation for today’s violence, look no further than the Democratic Party and its leftist agitators, attempting as we speak, to, in their own words, “make America ungovernable.” Their constant provocations and vilification create a justification in the minds of the many unstable among them who are already inclined to take matters into their own hands.

While Democrats have rapidly disassociated themselves from today’s events, their daily barrage of hatred virtually guarantees this kind of thing will happen again. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which specializes in fomenting hatred for conservatives, acknowledged today that the shooter “liked” their Facebook page. SPLC hyped a fake news story about Scalise and the KKK. This recalls Floyd Corkins, the homosexual activist that used SPLC “hate” rhetoric against the Family Research Council as an excuse for his attempted shooting rampage. FRC is still on SPLC’s Hatewatch list and SPLC has not apologized for its smear of Scalise. So much for Democrat contrition.

(The above article is exclusive to Restoring Liberty but a version of this report first appeared at Bombthrowers.com)

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HuffPo Pulls Article Calling for ‘Ultimate Punishment’ of Trump

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The Huffington Post pulled a piece calling for the “execution” of President Donald Trump published Saturday by contributor Jason Fuller.

Fuller’s piece contained rhetoric and imagery that seems tasteless, particularly after Wednesday’s events. Fuller boldly declares in the title that “Trump must be prosecuted — if convicted in a court of law — executed.” Fuller doesn’t stop there, however, as he insists that “impeachment isn’t enough” to “drain the swamp,” and to do so means doling out the “ultimate punishment [execution]” in order to fully restore the moral compass of the U.S.

Fuller’s “ultimate punishment” is not only reserved for the president, but also for “everyone assisting in his agenda,” including Republican Reps. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and White House strategist Steve Bannon. Fuller claims that “all must face justice” by being tried, convicted and ultimately executed for treason. (Read more from “HuffPo Pulls Article Calling for ‘Ultimate Punishment’ of Trump” HERE)

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REALLY MSM!? Special Edition: Scalise DESERVED It?

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RUSH TO LINK SCALISE TO “WHITE SUPREMACY” …

After Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., was shot this morning by a man who reportedly loved Bernie and hated the GOP, many in the media wasted little time in trying to link Scalise to white supremacists like David Duke. Ashley Rae Goldenberg noticed the disturbing trend and pegged the number of stories at “almost 1,000 recent results” on .

Here are some of the stories:

NY Post: Steve Scalise once defended himself against links to David Duke

Esquire: Some Background on Steve Scalise, the Republican Congressman Who Was Shot This Morning (Bonus points for calling Scalise a “hard-line conservative.”)

CNN: Who is Steve Scalise?

Washington Post: Who is Steve Scalise, the congressman shot at a baseball practice?

That’s just a small, but disturbing sample.

As Scalise remains in critical condition, news organizations see fit to highlight something Scalise apologized for doing, as if it had anything to do with why he was shot.

How about we take a step back – and not try to push a narrative – when someone is in the hospital?

MORE FROM THE MEDIA IN REACTION …

On the whole, media reaction to this shooting has been surprisingly mild in its overall tone. But, of course, there have been some absurd moments.

It’s the AR-15’s fault ­­… The U.K. Telegraph is quickly focused on a gun, not the person using the gun. They offered an explainer on the AR-15’s “long and bloody history in America.” Here’s more coverage from CR on the Left focusing on the gun.

Humanizing the alleged shooter … Much like after a terrorist attack, the media rushed to humanize the attacker. Multiple cable networks used this bizarre statement from an acquaintance of the shooter to do so.

WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN?

Let me know if you’ve seen something outrageous in the coverage by emailing me at [email protected].

(For more from the author of “REALLY MSM!? Special Edition: Scalise DESERVED It?” please click HERE)

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Michigan Vietnam Vet Is Trump’s 1st Medal of Honor Recipient

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Members of Army medic James McCloughan’s unit in Vietnam called him “Doc.”

Now, those soldiers, several of whom McCloughan saved during the ferocious, dayslong Battle of Nui Yon Hill in 1969, will have a new name for him: Medal of Honor recipient.

Army spokeswoman Valerie L. Mongello said Tuesday that the 71-year-old from South Haven, Michigan, will become the first person to be awarded the nation’s highest military honor by President Donald Trump. (Read more from “Michigan Vietnam Vet Is Trump’s 1st Medal of Honor Recipient” HERE)

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Manhunt Sparked by Slaying of Prison Guards, Inmates’ Escape

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Two Georgia inmates serving long prison sentences and “dangerous beyond description” overpowered and killed two guards on a prison bus before fleeing in a stolen car, authorities said.

The deadly escape happened about 6:45 a.m. Tuesday as the guards drove 33 inmates between prisons, and it set off a massive manhunt involving local, state and federal officers, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said . . .

Donnie Russell Rowe, serving life without parole, and Ricky Dubose, who has prominent tattoos on his face and neck, overpowered, disarmed and killed Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue and then carjacked a driver who happened to pull up behind the bus on a rural highway, Sills said. (Read more from “Manhunt Sparked by Slaying of Prison Guards, Inmates’ Escape” HERE)

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Trump, Ryan Emphasize Importance of Unity After Shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise

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President Donald Trump called for unity after House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., was shot and wounded Wednesday morning when a man opened fire at Republican lawmakers and staff during a practice for a congressional baseball game.

“Congressman Scalise is a friend, and a very good friend. He’s a patriot and he’s a fighter,” Trump said, adding:

He will recover from this assault. And, Steve, I want you to know that you have the prayers not only of the entire city behind you, but of an entire nation and, frankly, the entire world. America is praying for you and America is praying for all of the victims of this terrible shooting.

Later, House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi both made statements of common cause as Americans on the floor of the House.

At least four others, including two Capitol Police officers, were wounded in the shooting that began about 7:10 a.m. at the ball field in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington.

The members of Congress were preparing for the annual congressional baseball game between Republicans and Democrats, scheduled for Thursday at Nationals Park in Washington.

In his remarks, Trump did not speculate or comment on the motive of the shooter, first reported by The Washington Post to be James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois.

Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., said the shooter’s action was deliberate.

Trump, who delivered his remarks in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, said the incident reinforces the unity of the nation’s political parties, despite differences.

“We may have our differences, but we do well, in times like these, to remember that everyone who serves in our nation’s capital is here because, above all, they love our country,” Trump said.

Ryan, R-Wis., encouraged members to pursue unity and thanked his Democrat colleagues for their support.

“My colleagues, there are so many memories from this day that we will want to forget and there are so many images that we will not want to see again,” Ryan said. “But there is one image in particular that this House should keep. And that is a photo I saw this morning of our Democratic colleagues gathered in prayer this morning after hearing the news.”

The shooting, Ryan said, is a reminder for members to focus on what is important, despite differences.

“You know, every day we come here to test and challenge each other,” Ryan said.

Ryan challenged fellow lawmakers to remember the reason they serve.

We feel so deeply about the things that we fight for and the things that we believe in. At times, our emotions can clearly get the best of us. We are all imperfect. But we do not shed our humanity when we enter this chamber. For all the noise and all the fury, we are one family.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., issued a statement after news outlets reported that the shooter had volunteered for Sanders’ presidential campaign.

Pelosi, D-Calif., voiced concern for her colleagues caught in the incident and thanked Capitol Police for their response.

Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, called for increased gun control at a press conference in response to the shooting.

“Let me say this, I think we need to do more to protect all of our citizens,” McAuliffe said. “I have long advocated—this is not what today is about, but there are too many guns on the street. We lose 93 million Americans a day to gun violence.”

After a reporter questioned McAuliffe’s statistic, the Virginia governor corrected it.

“Ninety-three individuals a day,” McAuliffe said.

Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., who was present at the shooting, said it hadn’t altered his view on the Second Amendment.

“The Second Amendment right to bear arms is to ensure that we always have a republic,” Brooks said, according to the Washington Examiner.

“And as with any other constitutional provision in the Bill of Rights, there are adverse aspects to each of those rights that we enjoy as people,” he said. “And what we just saw here is one of the bad side effects of someone not exercising those rights properly.”

In his remarks, Trump asked Americans to work together.

“We can all agree that we are blessed to be Americans, that our children deserve to grow up in a nation of safety and peace, and that we are strongest when we are unified and when we work together for the common good,” the president said. (For more from the author of “Trump, Ryan Emphasize Importance of Unity After Shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise” please click HERE)

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Mattis Is Punting the Military Buildup to 2019

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Secretary of Defense James Mattis has news for Congress and for the nation: The military buildup will have to wait until next year.

Mattis delivered that message in a back-to-back series of appearances before Congress, one of them taking place in a rare prime-time hearing on Monday night.

During both testimonies—which were delivered before the House and Senate armed services committees, respectively—Mattis told the Congress that the military buildup promised by President Donald Trump will have to wait until next year. He stressed that while rebuilding the size and capabilities of the military is important, the 2018 defense budget request will focus primarily on addressing near-term readiness problems.

Mattis’ message to both the House and Senate contained two themes: that the 2018 budget is simply intended to fill holes in readiness, and that the promised rebuilding of the military will not take place until 2019.

Responding to multiple questions from lawmakers, Mattis stated that the proposed budget for 2018 will start to “fill the holes and achieve program balance before beginning to significantly grow capacity in future years.”

Testifying alongside Mattis, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford explained that there are severe readiness shortfalls in every single branch of the military.

Due to limited resources in recent years’ defense budgets, the services have been forced to prioritize short-term readiness while decreasing the long-term preparedness and modernization of America’s armed forces.

Dunford pointed out, for instance, that the Marine Corps has delayed planned investments in multiple elements, from infrastructure to aircrafts, all to preserve the immediate proficiency of that service’s currently deployed forces.

Mattis pointed out that the readiness crisis is a result of high operational tempo—over 16 years of war—but also of consistent failure by Congress to support the military. That failure is reflected in nine years of continuing resolutions and four years of funding under the budget caps adopted in the Budget Control Act of 2011.

In a dramatic moment in one of the hearings, Mattis stated, “We did not get into this situation in one year, and we won’t get out of it in a year either.”

It will take many years of sustained budgetary growth to rebuild the military—an assessment that is shared by The Heritage Foundation.

Mattis stated multiple times that the next five budgets will have to show considerable increases—he mentioned growth rates of at least 5 percent—in order to rebuild the military to the degree Trump has said is necessary.

Mattis, speaking of the future budget request, made a clear projection:

The fiscal year 2019 budget, informed by the National Defense Strategy, will grow the all-volunteer force. The department will work with President Trump, Congress, and this committee to ensure the budget request we present for fiscal years 2019-2023 is sustainable and that it provides the commander-in-chief with viable military options in support of America’s security.

Mattis indicated he expects the defense budget to grow by 3 to 5 percent over the next five years in order to accommodate necessary increases in personnel and procurement.

Nonetheless, these projections for 2019 and beyond were not part of the president’s budget request for this coming year. In fact, the five-year projection typically included in defense budget requests, referred to as the “Future Years Defense Plan,” was absent.

Instead, Department of Defense officials have stated that future projections included in the 2018 request are not representative of their planning, but rather are just projected growth in light of inflation.

>>> Defense Leaders Agree: US Military Readiness Is at a Dangerous Low

The Heritage Foundation has outlined in multiple documents that there is a need to start rebuilding our military immediately. Heritage’s Index of U.S. Military Strength has highlighted for three years the need for Congress to make the defense budget a priority.

Congress should heed the warnings being issued by both Mattis and Dunford to prioritize our national defense.

Now that the president’s budget request is public, it is Congress’ responsibility to address how to increase defense spending. There is widespread agreement that the military needs resources to rebuild both immediate readiness and the long-term health and capacity of the military.

Mattis starkly highlighted the legislative branch’s role in funding the military, stating, “Congress as a whole has met the present challenge with lassitude, not leadership.”

Congress now has a chance to show the leadership that the secretary called for and that the country needs. It can do so by increasing spending for defense this year and into the future.

The lists of unfunded requirements that the military services by law were required to submit are excellent places to start. (For more from the author of “Mattis Is Punting the Military Buildup to 2019” please click HERE)

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2 Cases Threaten to Shut Down Public Prayer. Why the Supreme Court May Need to Act.

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Two federal appeals courts are considering whether elected leaders throughout the Midwest and mid-Atlantic regions must abandon the 200-year-old practice of opening local meetings with an invocation.

Both cases could end up before the Supreme Court by Christmas time.

In one case, a self-described pagan sued the board of commissioners of Jackson County, Michigan, arguing that its tradition of beginning monthly board meetings with an invocation violates the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, the First Amendment provision disallowing government from establishing an official religion.

In 1983, the Supreme Court in Marsh v. Chambers examined Nebraska’s practice of employing a salaried Christian chaplain who offered the Legislature’s invocations for 16 years, and held that “legislative prayers” at policymaking-body meetings are constitutional.

The court noted that the first Congress wrote the Establishment Clause in the same week it passed laws to create a House chaplain and Senate chaplain, whose public duties included offering invocations every day that Congress is in session.

Over the next three decades, some lower courts and academics speculated that Marsh might be a one-off exception to normal Establishment Clause rules. Some argued that invocations must be generic, and therefore mentioning Jesus Christ or making other sectarian references would be unconstitutional.

In 2014, the Supreme Court addressed this confusion by taking another case concerning a New York town where the invocations are offered by local volunteer clergy—all of whom were Christian.

In Town of Greece v. Galloway, the court held that these invocations, too, are constitutional, even if all the prayer-givers happen to be Christian and include sectarian content from a single faith.

But litigation persisted, now focusing on the identity of the prayer-givers.

Plaintiffs argued that invocations given by government officials are unconstitutionally coercive because they might imply that lawmakers will use their official powers against those who refuse to participate in the invocations.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit rejected that argument when a three-judge panel ruled 2-1 for the government in Lund v. Rowan County, North Carolina.

However, the Richmond-based appeals court reheard the case in March in a rare en banc proceeding in which all 15 judges participated. It is very possible the en banc court will invalidate Rowan County’s invocations in the next few weeks.

The opposite situation is currently unfolding in Michigan in the case of Bormuth v. County of Jackson.

There, a Clinton-appointed district judge upheld the county’s practice of allowing each of its nine commissioners to rotate having an opportunity to deliver an invocation, each according to his or her personal faith.

Because all nine commissioners are Christian, the plaintiff argues that the resulting Christian invocations violate the Establishment Clause.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit reversed the lower court’s ruling in a divided 2-1 decision, ruling that such practices are unconstitutional.

But on June 14, attorneys with First Liberty Institute will present arguments as all 15 judges of the Cincinnati-based appeals court rehear that case en banc.

It is very possible that by late this year, a “circuit split” situation could occur between en banc appeals courts.

If that happens, one or both of these cases will become prime candidates for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear in 2018 as a major religious liberty case.

Legislator-led invocations fall within a broad historical tradition going back to the founding of the republic. The Town of Greece decision made clear that the Establishment Clause must be interpreted consistently with what the framers of the Constitution understood to be establishing religion.

Because these invocations do not establish an official religion, as “establishment” has been historically understood, and because the invocations do not require or coerce anyone to participate, they are perfectly constitutional.

If the Supreme Court means to enforce its decision in Town of Greece that centuries-old prayer traditions do not violate the Establishment Clause, then these cases may be at the forefront of a fundamental restoration of religious liberty in America. (For more from the author of “2 Cases Threaten to Shut Down Public Prayer. Why the Supreme Court May Need to Act.” please click HERE)

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