Category Archives: Our Economic Mess

No Earmarks! Never Going Back There Again!

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“As long as I’m the Speaker, there will be no earmarks.” – Speaker of the House John Boehner – July 2014

Boehner is still Speaker, having been re-elected to the post for the third time by his members last week.

Believe it or not, many members of Congress, including Republicans, have been pushing for some time to end the ban on earmarks which was put in place in March of 2010.  Senator Harry Reid pressed for reinstatement of the earmark privilege last summer, saying, ” I am proud of all the earmarks I have gotten for the state of Nevada. They’ll come back — it’s only a question of time because that’s our constitutional obligation.”

An amendment to roll back the moratorium on earmarks, led by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), was brought to a House vote last Friday, and failed by a 2.5 to 1 margin.

Good.  Apparently they get it.

Earmarks represent everything that is ugly about DC politics.  “Bringing Home the Bacon” is largely responsible for our $17 trillion debt.  Control over earmark awards has been a weapon used by house leadership in the past to bludgeon members into line.  One of the more infamous recent earmarks was the $223 million “Bridge to Nowhere,” which cost Alaska congressman Ted Stevens his political career.  “Material Girl” Nancy Pelosi steered hundreds of millions of dollars to her home district via earmarks.

Senator Tom Coburn has been a long-time opponent of pork-barrel spending and especially the use of earmarks, calling it the “gateway drug to Washington’s spending addiction.”

The “wave” election of 2014 places a heavy responsibility on Republicans to restore fiscal sanity to our federal government.  That even a few Republicans considered eliminating the ban on earmark spending is disappointing.  Let’s not go there again.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right SideYou don’t know what it means to win
Come down and see me again
Been down one time
Been down two times
I’m never going back again

Never Going Back Again – Lyndsey Buckingham

Cool live version of a Fleetwood Mac classic!

 

Marketplace Fairness Act – Just Another New Tax

Posted on by Standard 2
tax key on keyboard

image by ConservativeActionAlerts.com

Internet-based companies are always looking for a new revenue stream on the web.  Unfortunately, so are federal and state governments.

One way the government could profit from internet traffic would be to charge a tax for internet access.  A moratorium currently prevents taxation of internet access, but that will expire on December 11 if it isn’t extended.

Another way would be to collect more sales taxes on internet sales.  Currently only businesses who have a physical presence in a state are required to charge sales taxes for orders from customers in that state.

A bill called the “Marketplace Fairness Act” passed the Senate last spring.  It would enable a state to collect sales taxes on all internet purchases shipped to its citizens and companies from other states.  Fortunately, the House chose to ignore the Senate bill, but the Senate hasn’t given up yet.

Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) wrote a bill that would implement the Internet Sales Tax, and in exchange would outlaw internet access taxes for ten years.  (See why I was so excited that Liz Cheney was going to run against Enzi?)  The Senate hopes to pass the bill during the upcoming “lame duck” session.  If the bill doesn’t pass, internet users well might find new tax charges on their monthly web access and smart phone invoices.  It’s the perfect crime – if you don’t let us raise this tax, we will raise the other tax!

A true free market is eminently fair, where anyone can compete on an even playing field.  Some say it is unfair that brick-and-mortar businesses have to collect sales tax from their customers while internet sellers can ship the same products to the same customers tax-free.  It would clearly be unfair to require one business in a state to charge sales tax and exempt another business in the same state.  But is it fair to impose one state’s tax laws on people and businesses in a different state?

I owned and operated a small retail business in Montana for ten years when the web was really taking off, and I heard a lot of whining by store owners about competition from internet dealers.  “Not fair,” they howled.  “We can’t compete with the internet companies.  They don’t have to provide advice or service to the customers so their prices are lower.  They can run a business out of a basement in their pajamas.”  Sales tax didn’t enter into the conversation in my state, because Montana has no sales tax, but I’m sure it was a whining point in other states.

I heard the complaints, but it all seemed perfectly fair to me.  The internet dealer offers customers an alternative to the traditional brick-and-mortar store.  The web seller has lower prices, broader selection, and unlimited shopping hours.  But the store down the street offers immediate availability, personal service and advice, and you get to see and touch the merchandise before you buy it.  Plus your local store is a citizen of the community who supports charities and schools and pays local taxes.

Some weaker small businesses just folded up.  The smarter ones built their own web presences, found new revenue opportunities online, and trumpeted the advantages their stores offered over web competitors.  It’s a tough game, but fair.

This issue is being played as if it were about fairness and leveling the playing field.  Horse hockey.  It’s about raising taxes.

Instead of laying awake nights trying to figure out how to raise more taxes, why don’t you guys inside the beltway think about reducing the size of government and cutting back on all the crazy spending?

Note to self:  call my representatives and senators, and strongly suggest that they support permanently extending the internet access tax moratorium and KILLING the internet sales tax.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

I feel so good come payday
I think of all the things I’m gonna buy when I pick up my pay

Don’t you know, but then they hand me
That little brown envelope
I peep inside, Lord I lose all hope

‘Cause from those total wages earned
Down to that net amount that’s due
I feel the painful sense of loss between the two

Johnny Cash – After Taxes

Conservatives – We Got To Keep On Truckin’

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Keep-On-Trucking-LogoI talk politics with friends, acquaintances, family, and even strangers, all the time.  You probably do too.  Many of these people have a growing sense that something is wrong, but they have not been engaged in politics or receiving real news and honest information about what’s going on.

They find their financial security under stress due to stagnant or declining wages and hours, difficulty finding suitable jobs or promotions, more work for less pay, relentless price inflation for most consumer items, and no place to invest their savings (if they have any) that offers reasonable safety and any kind of return.

On top of that, the people I talk to don’t understand why their biggest concerns are not aggressively confronted by our government, while much attention is given to relatively small-scale issues, like gay marriage, or who should pay for birth control pills.

These ordinary folks are concerned about national security, education, health care, deteriorating race relations, privacy, property and water rights, and a host of other things, and they don’t find comfort in the words and actions of anybody in Washington, DC – Democrat or Republican.  Trust level is at an all-time low, but the guy on the street doesn’t quite know what to do because he is not getting enough facts.

After I gave an interested but under-informed friend a mini-seminar on the many threats posed to us and our children by our over-reaching government’s accelerating failure rate, he asked, “Where do you get all this information?”

Conservatives, this is our challenge.  We can’t let up.  Not now.  People know something is wrong, and they are beginning to seek the truth.   It’s up to us to keep putting that truth out there.

I lamented to Bill Whittle, renowned conservative blogger and writer, that it seems we conservatives mostly “preach to the choir” and seldom actually win a convert to the “right” side.  Bill’s reply: “There’s nothing wrong with preaching to the choir.  When the troops are in the trenches, worn out and outnumbered, somebody has to walk down the line, hand out some more clips of ammunition, and tell them to keep their heads down.”

Keep your heads down, my friends.  Keep on Truckin’.  And keep Rockin’ On the Right Side!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Ain’t nothin’ holdin’ me back . . .  nothin’!
I’ll keep right on, right on truckin’.
Ain’t nothin’ holdin’ me back . . .  nothin’!
I’ll keep right on, right on truckin’.

Keep On Truckin’ – David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks

 

Made in the USA – By Mexicans

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mexican concrete crewMy wife and I are building a new home.  We are doing some of the work ourselves but the majority of the work is done by subcontractors, mostly hired through our general contractor.  Working on a major project like this brings many current political and economic issues from the big-picture level down to the up-close and personal level.

Today, as our driveway was being installed, I had quite a discussion with the owner/operator of our concrete finishing company.  Alex (not actual name) is a legal Mexican immigrant and has been doing business in the US for almost twenty years.  He went through channels, got a green card, and studied English for two years.  Alex pursued the American dream, and got it.  He has handled several segments of our construction project, and does top quality work at a fair price.  Working in the same space every day we got to know each other and today we spent some time discussing business and politics.

Alex’s business is doing well.  In fact, there is much more demand for his work than he can fulfill.  He would like to hire more employees and expand his business, but he can’t see a way to do it and still maintain quality.  As a retired corporate manager and business owner, I offered some growth strategies and personnel practices that have worked for me.  But his circumstances are quite different than mine were.  You see, all of his employees are (probably) illegal Mexican immigrants.

In fact, almost all of the residential construction work in the Carolinas is being performed by illegal Mexican immigrants.

Why?  Have Mexican immigrants taken all of the construction jobs because they will work for lower wages than American tradesmen?  Are American men now too lazy or pampered to take on the difficult, physical work required in the construction trades?  Have our schools convinced every American student that anyone who doesn’t pursue a college degree and a desk job is a failure?  Did our government over-regulate our traditional construction businesses into extinction, so that only “under-the-radar” groups of illegal immigrants can function at a feasible cost?

Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

But there’s more to it than that.  I talked with another general contractor today who was interested in hiring Alex and his crew for some of his projects, only to learn they are over-booked.  “It’s a shame,” he said.  “Most of the (American) subcontractors went broke during the housing bust five years ago, and they aren’t coming back.”

Alex and many entrepreneurial Mexicans like him are able to seize the market opportunities because they are connected to the available army of illegal Mexican immigrant workers.  Alex can find them, hire them, manage them, communicate with them, and help them with the considerable personal challenges they face working in the shadows of American life.   Still, his business growth is limited because he employs these men.  “My business can’t grow,” he said.  “None of my workers can advance to be managers because they don’t even try to learn to speak English.”  He would employ English-speaking American construction workers, but there just aren’t any.  It’s a very complex business model.

I had heard that Latinos are being barraged with liberal propaganda, painting conservatives, Republicans and especially Tea Party guys as hateful monsters to be avoided and feared.  So I made it a point to tell my new Mexican friend Alex that I am a conservative.  Tea Party, even.

Alex winced.  “I’m not a monster,” I said.  “I’m not a racist and a hater.  You know me.  You can’t believe the stuff you hear in the media.”

“Well, the conservatives don’t want to allow any immigration,” he said.

“Not true,” I countered.  “We want LEGAL immigration for people who can bring value to our country.  What we don’t want is  dangerous, uncontrolled borders, or slackers coming here to take advantage of taxpayer-funded benefits.   And we DO want our legal immigrants to assimilate – to become patriotic, law-abiding, productive Americans, not Mexicans who just happen to live in the US.”

Like you, Alex.  Without you, and men like you, there would be no new homes under construction in my neighborhood right now.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Save me from this prison, Lord, help me get away
‘Cause only You can save me now from this misery
‘Cause I’ve been lost in my own place
And I’m getting’ weary, how far is Heaven?
And I know I need to change my ways of livin’
How far is Heaven?
How Far Is Heaven – Los Lonely Boys
My favorite Mexican band – Los Lonely Boys! (this song is also on my set list)

Workin’ in the USA – the ‘Saudi Way’

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The United States is looking more like Saudi Arabia every day.  Check out this week’s headlines:

Labor Participation Rate Drops To Lowest Since 1978

 

Natives accounted for most of the growth in population,
but all employment growth went to immigrants

So what, you say, does this have to do with Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia was a poor country until the 1930s when the world developed a thirst for oil and discovered that this desolate desert nation, barely more than a collection of loosely-related tribes, had a lot of it.  In the years since, the demand for oil increased exponentially, and so did the wealth of the ruling families who controlled the land from which it is extracted.

It wasn’t long before these wealthy Saudis no longer needed to perform any physical work.  There was so much money flowing into the country that the ruling families shared it liberally – first with anyone who could claim to be a blood relative, no matter how distant, and later (in smaller increments) to anyone who had family roots there.  Eventually most native Saudis could choose whether or not they wished to work.  Many didn’t, and those who did were far removed from anything that resembled physical labor.

photo by Vocativ.comThere is, of course, physical labor to be done.  For that the Saudis have imported legions of hungry, foreign workers from Africa and East Asia.  An estimated 6.5 million foreign laborers toiled in Saudi Arabia a year ago, before rioting against inhumane treatment brought a government crackdown on illegal immigration and a slight reduction in their numbers.  The few and vague immigration laws, however, are still not well-enforced.

In Saudi Arabia, the second-class immigrants do the work, enduring slave-wages, appalling conditions and all forms of abuse, while the native-born and well-connected enjoy a leisurely lifestyle.  Children and women get the worst of it.  But Saudi Arabia’s gravy-train won’t last forever.  Their oil reserves are depleting, and other nations are learning to develop their own energy sources.  Saudi Arabia will soon face some major challenges and changes – the current path is not tenable.

Does this sound familiar?

Go to any residential construction site in the United States.  You will see few, if any, native-born Americans in the craft or labor jobs.  Here In the Carolinas, most are illegal immigrants from Mexico.  They are working hard, and some do high quality work (many don’t).  They earn substantially less than American-born construction workers did ten years ago.  Twenty years ago.  Thirty years ago.

You see, native-born Americans, like the Saudis, can now choose whether or not they wish to work.  Many don’t, and those that do are usually far removed from anything that resembles physical labor.  Where the Saudis’ wealth comes exclusively from oil, our American wealth was built up by the sweat and skill of our parents and grandparents, and is further being borrowed from our children.  We are racking up debt and printing fiat currency so that right now half of us no longer have to work.  Like the Saudis, we are bringing in legions of hungry, foreign workers to do our labor.

At some point they, too, will tire of slave-wages and bad treatment, and will rebel.  The United States, like the Saudis, will soon face major challenges and changes – the current path is not tenable.  But fortunately, we have options the Saudis do not.  We still have rich, untapped energy resources.  And we have many other opportunities to create wealth, if our liberal government will allow it.

Our liberal friends, including our president, would love to erase the borders and bring in hordes of cheap immigrant laborers (and, they hope, future government-dependent Democrat voters).  I hope they will look at Saudi Arabia’s predicament and get a grip on the immigrant labor situation before we completely forget how to work.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

 

Some days won’t ever end,
And some days pass on by
All be workin’ here forever
At least until I die

Workin’ For A Livin’ – Huey Lewis

 

A favorite from my very own set list – rockin’ live version by my man Huey!

“Talking Heads” – Think Before You Talk

Posted on by Standard 1

photo courtesy of yourblackworld.netI don’t know about you, but sometimes when I watch the news I wonder what planet these talking head “experts” are from.

Michael Eric Dyson is regarded as an expert on race relations.  He is an author and professor at Georgetown University, and a devout liberal Democrat.  He was the “go to” talking head on Face the Nation this morning.

The topic was the riots in Ferguson, Missouri that resulted when a white policeman shot and killed an unarmed young black man who had allegedly just robbed a local store.  The details of the shooting have not been released by the police department.  Last night one person was shot and seven arrested in the rioting.

Here are Dyson’s talking points about the community, the shooting, and the riots – all wrapped up in a neat, little political package.  Moderator Bob Schieffer dimly grinned and nodded throughout Dyson’s soliloquy as though his hearing-aid battery had just gone stone cold.  Following Dyson’s points are the questions Schieffer should have asked:

  • “You’ve got white flight – this formerly predominantly white suburb is now 65% black . . . ”  (Um, okay.  Are you saying that having more pigment in one’s skin causes one to smash store windows and steal stuff?)
  • “You’ve got 22% poverty . . .”  (Is that because liberal government officials made fatherhood obsolete by paying single women to stay home and make babies?  Or because liberal government officials won’t allow parents to remove their children from failing government schools?  Or maybe because the policies of our liberal government over the last six years have driven the economy into the dumpster?)
  • “You’ve got the over-policing of an entire community, who feel racially harassed by the police . . . [only 3 African-American officers on a staff of 60]”    (How many applicants for the police academy were black?  Have any African-American applicants have been rejected?  Most police departments will do almost anything to train and hire minority applicants.  Are there any?)
  • “Every 28 hours across America a black person is killed by a security guard, police officer or some other executive of the state or police force . . . ”   (Did you know every 58 hours a policeman is killed in the line of duty.  Aren’t there a lot more bad guys than there are policemen?)
  • “The militarization of the police force . . . ”  (Yes, they say all that armament given to police departments since Obama started disassembling our national military forces is “surplus” military equipment.  Do you suppose the administration is worried about a revolution here at home?)
  • This president knows better than most what happens in poor communities that have been antagonized by the hostile relationship between black people and the police department . . .  (How would he know that?  He was a pampered rich kid who got a free ride to Harvard.  His wife spends more on designer purses than you make in a year.)
  • There is no functional equivalence between police who are armed to the teeth with military-grade weaponry trained at vulnerable black communities who are inflamed now as a result of decades of negligence.   (Why do blacks keep voting for the same guys who neglected them for decades?)
  • This is one of the key points that we expected from (Obama) as an African-American male.  (You voted for him only because he’s black?  That explains it.  He certainly had no experience or knowledge.)  He could inform American society why people might be hurt and angry.   You can deploy political strategies and public policies at the same time.  (Obama makes his decisions based on politics instead of good policy?  Shocking!) He’s an oratorical genius!  (With or without his teleprompter and speech writers?)   Deploy that to . . . white people whose white privilege obscures from them what it means that their children can walk home every day and be safe.  They are not fearful that somebody will kill their child who goes to get some iced tea and candy from a store.  (Is that because they left the neighborhood when the gangstas took over?) 

Expert talking head Michael Eric Dyson may not know it, but he finds fault with all the policies of Obama and the liberal Democrats.  And still, I will bet you a dollar to a surplus militarized police department donut that Mr. Dyson will vote straight Democrat in the next election.   Go figure.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side
And you may ask yourself
Am I right?…Am I wrong?
And you may say to yourself
My God!…What have I done?

THE TALKING HEADS – Once In A Lifetime

 

Can’t have an article about talking heads without a song by THE TALKING HEADS . . .

Is Federal Waste and Fraud Inevitable?

Posted on by Standard 1

graphic courtesy of ProofDirectory.orgMy congressman, Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), frequently holds town hall meetings in his home district.  Each meeting includes a half-hour presentation of current, relevant information and a one-hour question and answer period.  Mulvaney tells his constituents what is on his mind, and then really listens to them.   His responses are honest and direct, no evasion or weasel-words. He is knowledegable, articulate, engaged, and pragmatic.

Mulvaney sets the bar high for transparency and communication from a US Congressman.  A while back I attended a meeting by a Republican congressman from North Carolina and the contrast is striking – from the outset he was defensive, unprepared, and seemed to consider the attendees to be combatants rather than constituents.  He cemented his position as a Washington insider, solidly aligned with Boehner and the good-old boys, was not up-to-speed on facts and details, and had no intention of listening to any conservative point of view from his audience.

So I’m tickled to have Mulvaney representing me in Washington, DC.  Still, I always leave his meetings totally bummed.  Here’s why:

Congressman Mulvaney sees the waste, fraud, and over-spending in government first-hand and with clarity.  He is loaded with anecdotes and examples of Washington’s out-of-control checkbook and frequently quotes from Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) “Waste Book”.  Mulvaney knows how bad the corruption and ineptitude is, and hates it as much as we taxpayers do.

But then, after exploding our heads with his tales of fiscal terror, Mulvaney pulls the chain.  “There’s not really much we can do about it,” he says.  “The federal budget is so huge that it is impossible to find and correct problems in large enough increments to make a difference.”

Mulvaney points out that only 29% of our $3.5 trillion annual federal spending is discretionary – the rest is mandatory.  If 5% of that $1 trillion in discretionary spending is wasted, we would need 50,000 fiscal repairs of one million bucks each to fix it.

So nobody even tries to stop corruption and waste.

Does that sound horrific?  It’s actually worse.  I would bet the percentage of waste and fraud in the discretionary part of the budget is much larger than 5%.   Further, I submit that the waste and fraud in the mandatory part of the budget is just as bad or worse!

Our legislators have oversight responsibility, but do not have the time or resources to even begin to supervise federal programs and departments.  And do you think for a minute the government bureaucrats give a damn about 5% of somebody else’s money being wasted or stolen?  Quite the opposite – the more money their respective departments spend, the greater their power, prestige, and salaries.  They know nobody is watching, and they know nobody ever gets fired.

So is our federal fiscal viability as hopeless as Congressman Mulvaney fears?  It shouldn’t be.  And I hate that we, as a nation, have given up.

Here are some suggestions from a retired CFO (me) who has run businesses by the numbers and knows that waste and fraud are not inevitable:

  • Eliminate government employee unions – it is impossible to manage people who can’t be fired, and it is immoral that the campaigns of elected officials are funded by the very employees they are supposed to manage
  • Prosecute any officials who are caught stealing or wasting federal funds
  • Pass a balanced budget amendment, with restrictions on raising taxes – in other words, set and adhere to a real budget
  • Audit and/or eliminate the Federal Reserve – the cancerous growth of our federal government will continue until we stop printing fiat money
  • Return most government functions and authority to the states – restrict the federal government to only those functions specified in the Constitution
  • Require detailed public online reporting of all federal spending – sunshine is the best disinfectant

And that’s just a start.

Could federal government waste and corruption be brought back under control?  You bet!  But, like Mulvaney, I fear that it won’t.  Because as of now not enough Americans give a damn.  Too many of us are under-informed, disengaged, overwhelmed, or mired in self-interest.  Just the way the Washington insiders like it.

It will take a big bang – something really strong – to get our attention.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

I’ve been feeling so much older
Frame me and hang me on the wall
I’ve seen you fall into the same trap
This thing is happening to us all, yeah

Something so strong could carry us away
Something so strong could carry us today, yeah

Something So Strong – Crowded House

The lights went out but the sound system was working – so the band kept playing!  Crowded House playing in the dark in 2007.

No One Ever Is To Blame

Posted on by Standard 1

U.S. Capitol, Senate Office BuildingsIt must be great to work for the federal government.

The pay is outstanding – the CBO says wages and benefits for almost all federal workers are much higher than for the same jobs in the private sector.  Federal employees  get extra paid days off, like extra holidays, personal leave time, snow days, sick days, etc.  They get full pay for not working whenever the President chooses to shut the government down rather than live within a budget.  They can take early retirement from their federal jobs after 20 years if they are 50 years old.

Heck, while private sector managers work 45 – 55 hours per week, the upper-half of the federal food chain works only about half-time.  I have offered a standing challenge for many years (and done the exercise myself many times):  pick any manager-level federal employee, at random, from the government phone directory and call his or her office after 2:00 pm on Monday through Thursday, or after 12:00 pm on any Friday.  You will never, never, never reach that person.  Never.  Try it!

But the best thing of all about working for the federal government is: nobody ever gets fired.  Once you land a federal job, you will get your full paycheck, pay raises, ever-growing benefits, and bonuses for the rest of your life, no matter how poorly you perform.  Turnover is virtually non-existent.  Even the guy who was written up for farting at employees 61 times in 17 days was not reprimanded.

Jeff Neely, the GSA executive who helped put together the million-dollar conference in Las Vegas for his 300 hard-working office jockeys, is a rare exception – he actually got fired.  But he was reinstated eleven months later with full back pay.

My Congressman, Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), at one of his outstanding recent town hall meetings, told us, “The Veteran’s Administration has 330,000 employees and only about 500 have been fired in the last ten years.”  Meanwhile executives in the VA received bonuses based on fictitious reports about their pristine performance while soldiers died waiting for health care.  Director Eric Shinseki was powerless to fire anybody, and committed political hara-kiri by resigning.

Congressman Mulvaney told another stunning story about a meeting he had with an upper-level HUD executive.  He was grilling her about some problem in her agency, and she was having none of it.  “Don’t give me a hard time,” she said.  “I don’t make that much money and it doesn’t matter whether I do a good job or not.”   She had absolutely no fear of discipline from a United States Congressman.  Is that job security, or what?

And it’s not just the mid-level federal employees who are totally unaccountable.  When pressed for evidence that she knew would implicate her in a world-class corruption scandal, IRS director Lois Lerner made up a story about seven simultaneous hard-drive failures that ate her e-mails.  The odds of that happening are one in 79 billion.  Nobody has been held accountable.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is made of Teflon, too.  She never has recanted the lame excuse that terrorists murdered our Libyan ambassador and his brave defenders because they were upset about a Hollywood video.  One of the terrorists admitted planning and executing the Benghazi attack, but knew nothing about any video, and the CIA was listening in on terrorist phone activity during the attack, which never mentioned any video.   She still deflects questions about her failure to provide adequate protection after it was requested, saying “what does it matter?”   And nobody has even asked yet why the ambassador was in Benghazi in the first place.  Not only is she not accountable for the fiasco, Clinton is the current leader in the 2016 presidential race.

President Obama carries a long list of excuses for the many failures of his administration.  Most of them blame his predecessor.  The latest failure is the border crisis that resulted from his open invitation to illegal immigrant children to enter our country and enjoy the amenities.  When he finally did go to Texas to meet with Governor Perry, who is trying to deal with the situation, he spent most of his time shifting the blame.

I seldom agree with John Boehner any more, but I jumped up and cheered when, in utter exasperation with the Obama administration, he cried, “He’s been president for five and a half years.  When is he going to take responsibility for SOMETHING!”

But hey, it’s the government.  No one ever is to blame.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Doctor says you’re cured but you still feel the pain
Aspirations in the clouds but your hopes go down the drain
No one ever is to blame.

Howard Jones – No One Is to Blame

 

 

I want to thank all the many great songwriters and performers who inspire and enrich my blog topics.  This is one of the best “fits” – music to message – yet, I think!  Here’s a great live performance by Howard Jones, very much enjoyed by his audience. 

 

Hooray! Liberal Democrats Might End Their “War on Children”

Posted on by Standard 2
illegal-immigrant-children-packed-like-sardines

Photo courtesy Breitbart News

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson (D-Texas) handed out lollipops to the hordes of illegal immigrant children squished into detention centers in Texas this week.  Is this an omen?

Could it be that LIBERAL DEMOCRATS ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT CHILDREN?

5-star liberal Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said, “If you believe as we do that every child, every person has a spark of divinity in them, and is therefore worthy of respect — what we saw in those rooms was [a] dazzling, sparkling, array of God’s children, worthy of respect.”

What’s that, Nancy?  Year after year, liberal Democrats have waged a WAR ON CHILDREN.

Millions of babies (babies are children, aren’t they?) died as Nancy and the liberal Democrats promoted abortions and fought tooth-and-nail every attempt to save unborn and about-to-be-born American babies.  1,350,000 per year.  One killed every 24 seconds.  War on children.

Graduation rates continued to nosedive as schools failed yet another generation of children by wasting their valuable time on social nonsense and political propaganda pumped into the curriculum by liberal Democrats.  The world-competitive, productive, job-ready curricula of physics, advanced math, history, and grammar has been crowded out of our childrens’ class schedules by gay rights, global warming, and diversity/victimhood.  War on children.

And what could be more damaging to a child than knowing that his mother is not willing to provide him with food?  Liberal Democrats believe schools must provide breakfast, lunch, and in some cases weekend and summer meals to children because otherwise they would go hungry in spite of $400+ per month food stamp subsidies.  Failure to feed one’s child is egregious, criminal negligence.  Liberal Democrats not only tolerate this abuse, they encourage and subsidize it.  War on children.

Our children face a bleak future, because our liberal Democrat leadership does not think our economy matters.  We could be the energy leaders of the world, with full employment, low costs of production and consumer prices and a growing economy.  But the liberal Democrats are willing to forego the prosperity of future generations to preserve their political power.  War on children.

But now, NOW!  Suddenly liberal Democrats love children.  Their immigration / border policies have resulted in a “humanitarian crisis”.   Now we must care for the children.   My God, man, have you no heart!?  They are just children!  You can’t turn them (and their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, drug dealers, gang bangers, terrorists, and lepers) away from our border!  They need our government support!  They depend on us!  And they will VOTE for us!

Isn’t it reassuring that finally, after all these years of WAR ON CHILDREN, the liberal Democrats have had a change of heart?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Some day, yeah
We’ll get it together and we’ll get it all done
Some day, when your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day, when the world is much brighter

 Ooh Child (Things Are Gonna Get Easier) – The Five Stairsteps

 

Thanks to “Soul Train” and Don Cornelius for presenting so many great musical groups!  I have not had cable or satellite for a couple of years and I catch Soul Train on the Bounce channel every once in a while . . .

 

 

Illegal Immigration – Problem Solved!

Posted on by Standard 1

We conservatives are repeatedly blasted in the press for being too rigid in our positions.  They say we impede progress because we refuse to negotiate with our political opponents.  Today I am going to reach across the aisle.  I’m now willing to compromise with the liberal Democrats and the spineless, shivering Republican leadership in Washington, DC.  (I’ll probably skip Eric Cantor, no time for lame ducks.)

Today I agree with the liberals: let’s continue Obama’s open-border policy.  All the hordes of undocumented Central American and Mexican aliens walking across our southern border?  Let ’em in, I say.  The 60,000 helpless illegal immigrant kids expected to enter our social welfare system this year?  No problem. illegal-immigrant-children

“Well,” you ask, “what are we going to do with all of these uneducated, destitute adults and wave after wave of homeless, hungry children?”

I have the answer! Let’s send them all to Washington!

We recently visited Washington, DC and saw hundreds of very large. solid federal buildings with plenty of space, good heat and air-conditioning, modern bathrooms and food facilities.  Surely our liberal friends in Washington would have no problem inviting the people they so cherish to share their space, their food, and their bathrooms.

The Capitol building, for instance, has many large open areas.  Since President Obama is pulling our armed forces out of the Middle East anyway, he could move all the unused beds and equipment from the barracks right into the Capitol complex, so the immigrants could share space with the congressmen and senators.  Harry Reid would love having the kids running around and playing in the offices and chambers.  Heck, Nancy Pelosi would probably volunteer to do some diaper duty in the nursery!

And on our visit we also saw many thousands of federal employees, almost all of whom vote for and support the liberal Democrats.  I’ll bet they support open borders and unrestricted immigration, too.  They wouldn’t mind giving up their jobs pushing elevator buttons, sweeping the halls, and queuing up lines of tourists to these poor, needy Central Americans, would they?  Our federal government workers are so highly skilled and motivated that they could easily get jobs in the private sector.

Federal officials, you can stop busing load after load of illegal kids from Texas to Arizona.  Just send them to Washington, DC where they will be wanted and loved.

And what a great example those compassionate DC people will set!  Why, I’ll bet the Hollywood liberals will follow suit and open their homes and workplaces up to the incoming hordes of homeless immigrants, too.  The new hombres y mujeres would be welcomed to take over all the jobs on the sound stages and studios, and the Democrats who currently work there could go milk cows in Wisconsin or something.  I’ll bet some of the immigrants would make great actors and actresses, too.  Who needs George Clooney and Tom Hanks?  We can all read subtitles.

You know, I think I like this “compromise” stuff.  The DC bunch can get what they want: lots and lots of illiterate future Democrats, right there in Washington, DC where they can be cared for and controlled.  Meanwhile, out here in the states we can have jobs for our taxpaying citizens and balanced budgets in our governments.

Problem solved!  Send all the illegal immigrants to Washington, DC where they can live together with their superheroes.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Tell me why, tell me why, tell me why
Why can’t we live together?
Everybody wants to live together!
Why can’t we live together?