1,350 days of a “do nothing” Senate

Byron York of the Washington Examiner says it clearly (emphasis added by me):

Tuesday marks the 1,350th day since the Senate passed a budget. The law requires Congress to pass a budget every year, on the grounds that Americans deserve to know how the government plans to spend the trillions of taxpayer dollars it collects, along with dollars it borrows at the taxpayers’ expense. But Majority Leader Harry Reid, who last allowed a budget through the Senate in April 2009, has ignored the law since then.

There’s no mystery why. The budget passed by large Democratic majorities in the first months of the Obama administration had hugely elevated levels of spending in it. By not passing a new spending plan since, Reid has in effect made those levels the new budgetary baseline. Congress has kept the government going with continuing resolutions based on the last budget signed into law.

While Reid has forbidden action, the House has passed budgets as required. Senate Democrats have been highly critical of those budgets, designed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. But under Reid’s leadership, Democrats have steadfastly refused to come up with a plan of their own.

Yet some how the lunatic left will still blame Republicans for this.

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This is a first, I agree with Paul Krugman.

There has been a very small amount of talk from some Keynsians that Paul Krugman should be Sec Treasury. In response Mr Krugman replied:

“Yes, I’ve heard about the notion that I should be nominated as Treasury Secretary. I’m flattered, but it really is a bad idea,” writes Krugman.

Now this statement is made in light of the fact that our current Sec Treasury was found to have not paid his taxes and has gone on to see the largest increase in national debt in any 4 year period of time. I would rather see Berny Madoff as Sec Treasury than see what damage Krugman would do.

Thank you President Obama for not making this mistake.

Quote of the Day: Ted Cruz (R-Tx)

Let me be clear, I do not support default on the debt and we should never default on the debt and the only players who are threatening to default are President Obama and Harry Reid. This is an issue, and earlier in the show you played the President threatening default. In any given month tax revenue are 200 billion and interest is 30 or 40 billion. There is it plenty of revenue to service the debt and any responsible President would’ve stood at that podium and said ‘whatever happens with the debt ceiling, we will always pay our debt. We’ll never default on the debt’ and the reason the President isn’t doing that is he’s trying to scare people and raise the specter of financial apocalypse.” – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Fox News Sunday 1/6/12

It’s good to hear some common sense coming from a politician.

Consequences of a “kick the can down the road” administration.

Ever since Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid took control of the US Congress there has been a “kick the can down the road” mind set to dealing with problems. I know that both of them, and the majority of congress, are too old to care about paying the bills for the votes they are buying today, but this style of governing is going to destroy our country.

There was hope that when the GOP took the majority in the House that Mr Boehner would stating making real decisions, that has proven wrong. Once Harry Reid made the decision to not vote on any budget passed by the house, or vote on any budget cut bills, we have been stuck with the status quo created during the DNC majority in congress.

(side note: It is amazing how the media has trained Americans to think of the GOP as the do nothing party when it is the DNC that has done nothing since 2009-2010, when they had control of both houses of congress and the White House)

Now I would like any one that voted for Barack Obama in November to look at their next paycheck. Notice something? That’s right, your taking home less. In order to try and buy votes he got congress to cut employees contribution to Social Security from 6.2% to 4.2%, so we paid less to Social Security for the last two years. As of Jan 1st 2013 our contribution now goes back to 6.2%.

If the President really cared about the middle class that 2% reduction would have been a permanent change,not a 2 year “kick the can” plan.

So for all those that voted for Barack Obama, thank you for the reduction in pay.

Oh, and a little advice, don’t get used to what you make as it will continue to decrease as long as he is President and Harry Reid refuses to bring House bills up for a vote. Once they tax away the wealthy they will come for the middle class and those taxes will increase before long.

Good bye 2012, hello 2013.

I am a glass half full kind of guy. Sometimes my wife even gets annoyed with how positive I can be in most situations. I tell you this because you will not believe that statement after reading my last post of 2012.

Humans like to use numerical events as moments to either make change or mark progress, new years being one of the most popular to do both. Between the reminiscent of the year ending or the resolutions for the year beginning, we find out what is important to us.

Let me start by saying that I am thankful to God for all he has done for me in my life. I was born in the United States of America, the freest nation in the world. I grew up with two parents that loved each other and their children very much, even though we where not rich monetarily they provided a safe and happy living my whole life. I was giving the opportunity to serve my country in the US Army, and in return I was taught that I was able to accomplish more than I could image as long as I was willing to work for it. I was then blessed with a beautiful wife and two wonderful children, none of which do I deserve. I think God for all he has given me and pray I am able to do with it all as he wishes me to.

2012 was a year that I started with great optimism. America was getting by despite a recession and we where entering a Presidential election cycle. The more I studied and educated myself on economics and history showed me that Americans always found the solution to their problems when that solution was most needed. I talked to many people from all around the world and I got a sense that they knew what needed to be done and where willing to make the right choices to start another age of growth.

Then November 2012 came and I lost a lot of the hope I had for a better tomorrow. Nearly half of the eligible voters in America let apathy steal their vote. About 29% of eligible voters re-elected the President that has done nothing in four years to help our economy grow. Almost three quarter of Americans want the status quo to carry us through another 2-4 years, there is no desire for change in the majority of Americans any longer.

When I watch the election results come in, and when I spoke with people the next several days after, I learned that Americans don’t want to work for a better future and that they just want someone else to make it better for now.

So I have no hope for 2013. It pains me to say that. An optimist like me who loves his country should never feel this way. I have lost all faith in the American people to make a better world for my family to exist in, in fact… I feel like they are making harder for me to leave my children with an opportunity to succeed when they get older.

I do have hope in one thing, Jesus Christ still reigns. In 2013 I will spend more time growing closer to Jesus. I owe God everything I have and I will show Him how much I appreciate what He has done by giving Him my time.

If America needs me, I will do what I can to help. I will not search out solutions to offer to a country not looking for real solutions. I only pray that Jesus will protect my family as darkness makes a home in my country.

God bless America, God protect your people and I pray that all will turn to God in the coming year because we are not promised tomorrow.

Why SOPA is so dangerous

Everyone remembers that internet blackout to protest SOPA and PIPA. Congress proposed restrictions on the internet and the voice of the people showed them that it was not acceptable.

Then a UN conference in Dubai suggested that the UN should be in-charge or regulating the internet. Once exposed by the internet the conference backed down.

Now stores are surfacing of China cracking down on the use of the internet in their country out of fear that the internet could facilitate opposition.

So, why should you care?

With the November elections completed and Americans have given Democrats control of the Senate and the White House. This is important because Senate majority Harry Reid (D-NV) has said he wants to pass SOPA once the election was over.

So here we are, Americans gave Harry Reid another Democrat majority in the Senate and a Democrat in the White House to pass what ever bills he wants. Once the Democrats get the GOP to fold on the fiscal cliff they will strong arm them to regulate the internet. Well done American voters that gave your vote to President Obama and any Senate Democrats, it is your votes that will kill the internet.

re: DaPoet comment

Recently on another post of mine a commentor named DaPoet left a comment that had so many incorrect statements that I felt it better to provide an inline response in order to give the best response that I could.

I can understand why you and other conservatives would avoid discussing theology since the Bible and the teaching’s of Christ condemn the very basic tenants of conservative economic theory.

Actually, I love discussing Christian theology, just not with non-believers and I based this mainly on Prov 1:7.

First off there is no such thing as a free market since the marketplace is either regulated by a government entity that prevents the corporate and financial classes;

We almost agreed here. There is currently no true capitalist free market economy because the government is too involved in picking winners and losers, weather through selective taxation or subsidies. Then DaPoet’s communist leanings show themselves when he creates the “evil capitalist” strawman”

from stealing from their customers through excessively high prices and enslaving the working classes by paying wages that won’t allow them to support themselves and their families.

If prices for goods are too high, don’t buy them. If your not being paid what you feel you are worth, get a different job. That is the basis of freedom and liberty. It is only under a communist or socialist system that workers are forced to work for set wages or forced to get goods at a set priced. In a free market system the individual has the power to work for a wage they agree to work for or buy goods a price they feel is reasonable. Of course some will try and get you to work for as little as possible, but then you have the responsibility to make the decision to seek work somewhere else.

Of course if someone if willing to do your job for less than you are is that the fault of the employer? or are you too selfish?

Of course a business is going to try and sell their goods for as much as possible, so they can afford selfish employee salaries, but if someone is willing to pay the high prices is it the fault of the seller? Maybe you want more than you can afford and you should lower your wants.

Or it is controlled by Robber Barons who seek to create conditions within the marketplace to prevent fair competition such as the robber barons of Teddy Roosevelt’s day whom he was forced to break up.

Damn those robber barons that built the American infrastructure and created millions of jobs. We would be so much better off if some other country lead the industrial revolution.

But seriously, there where some monopolies that needed to be broken up and we now have laws to prevent that from happening again, when they are enforced. This has nothing to do with the failure of capitalism, it is a failure of the human race that happens in every social system.

On the other hand there are no surviving “Pure Democracies either” since the only Democracy established in Athens Greece was destroyed by a superior military power. The United States, Britain, France, Japan etc. etc. all have a form of democracy but are not themselves “Pure Democracies”.

Thank God for that. A pure democracy would never survive, that is why our founders developed a representative republic.

A better set of questions is: What Prevented Americans From Embracing Socialism and Communism during the Great Depression bought about by the immoral and corrupt excesses of capitalism and the actions of the financial sector, corporate, banking and conservative political classes – namely the republicans?

You really should study the great depression, your information is way off. In fact, start with the depression of 1920 and see how we got out of it in 1 year. You may also want to study how we have has more recessions and depressions since the founding of the Federal Reserve System and how the more government intervention we have the more recessions we have had.

It could also be argued that Americans did embrace socialism under FDR. Read “New Deal or Raw Deal” by Burton Folsom for a detailed look at the programs of FDR and how they started us down the road to the Democratic Socialism we have today.

What caused the financial sector and the banking, corporate and political class {republicans} to compromise with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Progressive Democratic Party?

Crony capitalism. FDR picked which organisations to support with subsides and tax breaks and which ones to sink in regulations and penalties.

By enacting the very reforms he championed and which they opposed {Namely the safety regulations that sought to put an end to the callous disregard of human life by the industrialists, the minimum wage laws, social security and unemployment insurance as well as the laws that muzzled the banking, financial and corporate sector that put an end to the boom and bust cycle.}

How has that worked out for us? Has the boom/bust cycle been ended? Has the progressive uptopia been brought about? The facts ay we have had more booms and busts since the progressive agenda started in 1912 than we did in the 200 years prior.

That is until Nixon’s and Carter’s – both of whom were fiscal conservatives

Ha, ha, ha… that was funny. Nixon ends the gold standard and you think he was fiscally conservative? Don’t even get me started with Carter. Thanks for the laugh.

– polices of allowing the federal reserve free reign to combat inflation that resulted in the stagflation of the 1970′s. That led to the election of Reagan and his policies of tax cuts and outright refusal to enforce the Glass-Stengal act along with his stealing the money being raised by social security to fund the retirement of the baby boomers. On the advice of Allen Greenspan to hide his growing deficits allowed the resumption of the boom and bust cycle of stock market excess.

Actually, it was Clinton that used social security money to hide deficits, it was Clinton that repealed Glass-Steagall and it was under Clinton that Alan Greenspan help create the housing bubble. It was the Reagan tax cuts that helped our federal government take in more revenue than ever before.

It was the rise of Socialism and Communism in Russia and the rebellion of the common people; who allowed the communists to put the Ruling and Merchant classes to death and seize private property and the means of production.

And how did that work out for those Russian people? or any of the other eastern block countries that where invaded and forced into communist rule and then left to die.

In order to prevent the common man in America from embracing socialism and communism and to prevent their own overthrow and deaths at the hands of a mob. The financial sector, the banking, corporate and political classes – republicans – compromised with FDR and allowed his reforms that blunted the excesses of both capitalism and conservative economic theory to become law.

Again, his communism shows through here. You can almost hear the hatred in his words. I would even say he sounds more like Linen than Marx, which is even sadder.

Of course the eventual fall of socialism and communism led to a resurgence and empowering of conservative economic theory; that ultimately led to the meltdown of the economy in 2008 and the election of Obama. Since then the extremism of the Tea Party and the Obstruction of the Republican party led directly to Obama’s reelection in 2012.

Fiscal conservative policies had nothing to do with the economic collapse, if we actually practiced fiscal conservatism in America we never would have has the collapse. It was the progressives in the Republican party under Bush that perpetuated the boom cycle started under Clinton that lead to the bust we have under Obama. It is the continuation of the same failed policies from Bush that is leading to the Obama depression. Remember, we suffered 16 years of depression under FDR, thank God Obama can only be office for 8 years.

The reason that Conservatives are far more dangerous then liberals is that it will be the social and religious conservatives who impose a National Sunday Law on the rest of the nation.

Not sure what he is talking about here. I guess it is a sad attempt at building a religious theocratic strawman to attack. Better luck next time.

Just as another republican senator – Henry William Blair – attempted to do on behalf of the Woman’s Temperance Coalition in 1888. Thus fulfilling the prophecy in the book of Revelation that depicts the lamb like beast that speaks like a dragon – the US of A – who will make an image to the beast and make all – both small and great to worship it.

If your implying that the Untied States will be on the side of the anti-Christ during end times, I would agree with you. I would say the majority of Americans would agree with you that they do not want a Christ centered country any longer. But this also goes back to one of the reasons I don’t discuss theology with unbelievers, we would not be on the same page when discussing the meaning of what is written.

 

So I will conclude by saying that I welcome all honest debate on my blog, I only ask that you refrain from profanity and excessive name calling. I would also appreciate it if you had some idea of what you are talking about. And lastly, be honest. If you are a Leninist communist, then admit it. If you are an atheist, admit it. Then we can have an honest discussion. I would also say that you should know the difference between a conservative and a Republican, there are big differences and I suspect that they will be getting bigger after this last election.

Thank you for your time, and God bless.

The new conservative must be an optimist.

There are two things I learned from the 2012 elections, well more like 100 but I want to look at just two of them today.

First, the JFK mind set of “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” is dead. The majority of voters in America only ask what they can get from their country and have no desire to help.

But more importantly I have learned that people love an optimist. As a conservative I have spent a lot of time pointing out the flaws in Keynesian theory or the progressive plans for the economy, with no real objections from others. Yes, I get bumper sticker slogans from some, but none offer real arguments that can prove the rationale behind the Keynesian model. Then I learned that most people do not care about what is wrong with the current government plans. I also pointed out the flaws of the policies of the Democrats in Washington and how they will lead to bigger problems down the road, and again I learned know one cares about what the Democrats are doing wrong.

What I learned was people want to hear positive ideas. They want people to say “this is how we can fix the problem”. So I propose that conservatives need to put forth detailed plans to fix the economy and fix the police state and then let others try and stop us.

I am calling out to any conservative representatives in Washington, no matter what party you are in, step forward with a real plan to fix a problem. Tell people how they will benefit from your solution, and how they will benefit immediately. We are in a “taker” civilization with a “microwave” patience threshold, we need to give them solutions and we need to tell them how they will benefit immediately.

Conservatives need to learn that the majority of Americans do not care about long term solutions that call for them to sacrifice today to create a solid foundation for tomorrow. They want to reap the benefits of a harvest before the crops are planted. We need to find a way to make them feel like we are harvesting when in reality we are planting the seeds needed to save out country.

Now we know what needs to be done, get to work.

Why so inflexible?

Recently the press Secretary for the President said:

“There can be no deal without rates on top earners going up,” said Carney, who reiterated that the president will not sign legislation that extends the Bush-era tax rates for the wealthy.

The President has drawn his line in the sand and refuses to negotiate unless he gets what he wants… which is not the definition of negotiation. Of course this is the type of negotiation the Democrats have done for the last 4 years and they are thankful for an obedient media that will continue to blame the Republicans for the stand still.

But lets forget the lack of understand what negotiations are for a moment and take a look at the one point the Democrats continue to not budge on, tax increases for the top take rate.

Facts:

1. Top tax rate is on any earned income over $250k/year.
2. This tax rate is currently 35%.
3. This tax rate under President Clinton was 39.6%.
4. By raising this tax rate, as the President has lobbied for, the federal government would receive an estimated $82 billion in 2013.

Now let me point out for a moment that I could not find any information on the President’s website about the specifics of his proposal, only campaign slogans and speeches. So I am going to take him at his word and only look at the increase of taxes on the top tax rate as he has asked for repeatedly.

Our federal government spent an estimated budget deficit of $1.1 trillion, or $1,100 billion (keep in  mind that the Senate has not passed a budget in over 3 years). Raising the top tax rate would only bring the deficit down to $1,018 billion, if nothing changes next year. Does this sound like a solution to our budget issues? Keep in mind that raising the tax rate would be removing $82 billion from the economy, which results in less sales taxes to states and less employment for the working class.

If you where spending 133% of your income each year, putting 33% on a credit card, how long would you be able to do this before you where bankrupt? Wouldn’t you think it smart to cut some spending and fund just the essentially? Why can’t the President understand this simple concept?

I understand the President wants to “stick it to the rich” to continue his class warfare game, but it makes no sense. If the President was at all serious about fixing the problem he would stop being so inflexible and he would offer up $1.2 trillion in budget cuts for 2013 (not ten years… one year). Once we get spending under control we can look at where we can increase our income if it is still needed.

I would also say, let negotiate. Offer up $900 billion in spending cuts for 2013 and we can close loop holes in the tax system to raise the other $300 billion (over 3 times the amount of revenue he is asking for). That is how real adults negotiate, I’ll give a little if you give a little, then we both win.

2013 Crystal Ball

As we get ready to face a new year with politics as usual in Washington I want to strap on my best schwammy outfit and dust off my crystal ball. Here are my predicts for 2013.

1. Benghazi: The American people will not learn what really happened, nor will they care. The media will move on to another story and there will be no one held liable for what happened in Benghazi on 9/11/12.

2. Fast & Furious: This prediction is tied to the first one. Because of Benghazi almost no one is talking about Fast & Furious. My prediction is that Brian Terry will be forgotten by most Americans, if not already. Again no one will be held liable for what happened and everyone will keep their jobs as long as they want to.

3. Debt Limit: In a recent interview Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner suggested getting rid of the debt ceiling that congress uses to restrict the power of the Federal Reserve to barrow, and I predict the Obama administration will continue to push this idea through 2013. If the GOP looses the house in 2014 I predict the debt ceiling will be removed in 2015, but the argument will be furtherd in 2013 as we continue to hit our heads against that ceiling several times over the next year.

4. Econ Bubbles: I predict that we will see an economic boom during the summer of 2013. Of course this will be a bubble and it will be short lived. I predict the bubble will either pop during the winter of 2013 or the spring of 2014. As part of the prediction I will say that I predict the Fed will increase the money supply to inflate the bubble. The DNC will hope to use that bubble to take back the house in 2013.

5. Gold: This one is easy so I will push it further. Gold will be over $1,800 before 2013 starts, I predict we will see $2,000+ gold early in 2013 and I will push the prediction further and say we will see $2,300/once gold prices.

 

Sadly none of the predictions I have made will result in a better America. Because of that I hope that I am wrong.