GOP Candidates: Here’s Why Trump Is Eating Your Lunch

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

photo from sogoodblog.com Conservative voters (still the majority of American-born citizens) are focused on a single overriding issue in their quest for a 2016 presidential nominee, and this explains Donald Trump’s seemingly invincible lead in the primary race.

Other candidates can’t understand why Trump continues to dominate the campaign. He is not consistently conservative, having supported single-payer health care, tax hikes, and earlier Clinton campaigns. He is not opposed to big government, having admitted that in the past he frequently bought off politicians to get favored government treatment. His people skills are awful. He doesn’t have an cogent economic plan, a realistic foreign policy, or a very deep understanding of . . . well, much of anything.

So what separates Donald Trump from every other wannabe President? One thing only. He understands the dangers we face from rapidly increasing immigration (legal and illegal) and refugee resettlement from third-world countries, and he vows to stop it.

And that is enough to put him at the top of the pack of contenders for the most important leadership post in the world.

Thinking Americans instinctively know that we must seal our borders and ports and stop the tsunami of unskilled, needy foreigners. Most immigrants today don’t intend to learn our language, won’t assimilate to our common culture and values, and will not identify themselves as Americans. And even if some do, now is not the time to dilute the resources and spirit that made our country and economy great. Maybe later, if we can get things back under control! But right now our schools, our employers, our workers, our social services and our frazzled nerves need a break.

Think about any problem facing America right now (and there are plenty.) Unemployment, falling wages, national debt, rising crime rates and overcrowded prisons, rising health care cost and declining availability of services, election fraud, failing schools, abuse of women and children, income inequality, national security and threats of terrorism, deteriorating family values. List them in any order of priority you want. Now look back at each item on the list and ask yourself, “which of these situations would be improved for American-born citizens if the flood of immigrants and refugees stopped today?”

Or let’s take the other approach. Which of these problems for American-born citizens would be solved by having more immigration and refugee resettlement?

We need only look to Europe for a preview. Canada is next. If we have such humanitarian concern for downtrodden foreigners, why aren’t we helping them improve their lives in their own homelands? It would cost so much less than moving them here and caring for them. Instead of taking in millions of strong young men from the Middle East, why isn’t Europe arming them to defeat their oppressors? The politically correct position dangerously defies logic.

Donald Trump may not know what end of a toothpaste tube to open. But his many supporters don’t care. Because he, alone among all of the candidates, can state in plain language and in one sentence a way to improve most of the problems facing our nation. Stop the wholesale import of problems from the third-world.

There are many candidates who have skills and experience that Trump can’t begin to compete with. Most of them talk about building a southern fence. Some of them dance around immigration “reform”. Here’s a message for all of them: you’d better get a clue that Americans want immigration and refugee resettlement stopped immediately if you want to have any chance of beating Donald Trump to the White House.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Just eat it! Eat it!
Don’t you make me repeat it!
Have a banana, have a whole bunch
It doesn’t matter what you had for lunch
Just eat it! Eat it!

Eat It – Weird Al Yankovic

Speaking of eating your lunch, and competition and all, here’s Weird Al vs. Michael Jackson. I would have to say Weird Al eats Michael’s lunch . . .

Liberal Party Win In Canada Was A Bad Day for USA

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard 1

canadian border Yesterday the voters of Canada elected Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party to a sweeping majority control of the government. I am saddened for the Canadian people, who will now face the inevitable decline in their economy and quality of life that we battle every day.

Trudeau has promised to focus on global warming, with regulations and obstructions that will stifle the Canadian economy even after the price of oil stabilizes. The size, reach, and cost of government will accelerate while personal freedoms will be peeled away. And there will be an explosive increase in immigration and refugees.

That last item has implications for us, because we know that most of the immigrants and refugees will be Muslims — Trudeau says he wants to take 25,000 Syrians before December. How many of these immigrants will head across the entirely unprotected northern border to our United States, where the free benefit programs are much richer, no effort is made to find and reject illegals, and no assimilation is required or expected?

Yesterday was a very bad day for Canada. And a bad day for us too.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Cause you had a bad day
You’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don’t know
You tell me don’t lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day – You had a bad day.

Bad Day – Daniel Powter

Canada Has Elections Too, Eh?

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

canadian election day Most American citizens are acutely aware that we will be voting for a new president 13 months from now. Our ubiquitous news/entertainment complex won’t let us escape Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal or Donald Trump’s latest insult for even a moment. Many say 2016 will be the most important American election in a generation. Some say the biggest ever.

But almost nobody in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave knows that Canada’s election took place today, and the stakes are every bit as high for them as ours will be next year.

Our neighbors to the north elected Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party in 2006, and rewarded them with re-election twice. But this election is predicted to be perhaps the closest ever, and voter turnout will be high. The latest polls showed Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau as a slim favorite.

Harper’s Canada enjoyed relative calm and prosperity during the oil boom years, but with the oil price dropping to $29 Canadian per barrel, economic worries are mounting. This time around, Harper’s administration is relying on its conservative positions on national security and curbs on immigration to win votes. Canadian liberals are all-in subscribers to the global warming hoax.

President Obama played a role in the Canadian election, sending his campaign operatives to assist the Canadian Liberal Party. Obama’s disdain for Harper and the conservatives is transparent, largely due to Harper’s ongoing support for Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu, who also found himself fending off Obama apparatchiks and funding in his own recent election. Should Harper fall in today’s election, Israel may have lost its last loyal friend in world politics.

We don’t get much news about our northern neighbors, and that’s a shame. A strong and prosperous Canada is certainly in the USA’s best interests, and we naturally wish them success and prosperity. Plus, the Canadian election may be a leading indicator of the political winds that could shape our own campaign season next year.

Here’s hoping Harper and the Canadian Conservative Party pull through.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

No, his mind is not for rent
To any God or government
Always hopeful yet discontent
He knows changes aren’t permanent

Tom Sawyer – Rush

Rush – Canada’s Best! And for the critics – tell me again that a three-piece band is just not “full” enough . . .

Hurry! Free Lunch! Right Over Here! It’s Free!

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard 2

free lunch Free! It’s all free! Vote for me, and I’ll give you a free college education, free health care, open borders with free everything for every poor person who walks in! Step right up, it’s free, free, free!

Last night’s Democrat presidential primary was my first good look at the Bernie Sanders Show, and it did not disappoint. I knew that Sanders is a socialist – a magna cum laude graduate of Robin Hood University. Still, I just couldn’t picture in my mind a grown man trying to convince people that there IS such a thing as a free lunch. With a straight face.

The throng of helpless college girls (plus Debbie Wasserman Schultz) screaming lustily for this tired old draft-dodger was bizarrely reminiscent of a Beatles gig at Shea Stadium. These poor kids apparently had no parents, or at least no adults, to guide them through adolescence.

When I was their age, my hard-working, truck-driving dad drilled his one-line lessons into me enough times that they stuck. “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” he would say. “If it looks too good to be true, it’s not true.” “Nothing that’s free is worth having.” “If somebody gives you something for free, they want something from you.”

And my everyday experiences have repeatedly proved him right. My dad made me work all summer to pay for the motorbike I wanted. I treasured that little Honda and never allowed so much as a speck of dust to tarnish a chrome spoke. When I outgrew the bike, my Dad bought it from me and gave it to my little brother, who destroyed it within a few weeks. It was free, so it just didn’t have much value to him.

Have you ever accepted a free weekend at a time-share? Or a free dinner from a financial planner? Or a free campaign contribution from General Electric? All come with “strings attached”.

For decades our public schools and liberal universities have taught us to never question an academic authority. Or a Democrat. Free stuff? Why not, you deserve it. If you are poor, you are a hero, and even more deserving! Don’t ask where all the free stuff will come from! Don’t look behind the curtain at the wizard making all the promises, or question his motives!

I expected it, but the Sanders Show still saddened me deeply. The $20 trillion national debt (over $100 trillion of unfunded liabilities) was never mentioned. Nobody wondered whether the rich would remain in the USA when faced with having their wealth stolen. Sanders didn’t even flinch when Hillary pointed out that producing goods and services actually does matter. Sanders apparently really believes that government handouts grow on trees, and the Freebie Forest will never run out of fruit.

That any adult American can swallow Sanders’ unfiltered Jonestown KoolAid is a terrifying indictment of our failure as parents, educators, and elected officials.

Please grab your kid. And his teacher. And make them repeat after you, “There is no such thing as a free lunch . . . There is no such thing as a free lunch . . . There is no such thing as a free lunch . . .”

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Yeah there was ham and there was turkey,
There was caviar
And long tall glasses, with wine up to “hyar”!
Then somebody grabbed me, threw me outta my chair
Said before you can eat,
You gotta dance like Fred Astaire!

Long Tall Glasses – Leo Sayer

Leo Sayer is still having fun after all these years. And he says there is no such thing as a free lunch!

My Baby Wrote Me A (Mulvaney) Letter

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard 2

A few months ago, Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) wrote a letter. He had seen the horrendous videos of Planned Parenthood officials negotiating the price for the body parts they harvest from unborn babies. His letter to his counterparts in Congress said:

“The recent reports that Planned Parenthood has sold the tissue of unborn babies for profit is deeply disturbing. This is simply unacceptable. I vehemently urge House Republican leadership to use every available tool to strip this organization of any and all taxpayer funds and take measures to prevent the group from receiving taxpayer dollars in the future. Furthermore, we will not support any funding measure that provides taxpayer dollars for this organization.”

He asked his fellow members to join him, and at least 36 did.

With all the excitement going on (not chaos, according to Mick!) over the need for a new Speaker of the House, I asked the Congressman if the “Mulvaney Letter” is still operative, and if other members of the House should still be signing on to it. By signing “The Letter” a member of Congress commits to vote against any appropriations bill (Continuing Resolution) that includes full funding for Planned Parenthood.

His response was, “Nope. We will revisit ‘The Letter” in December.” And he observed the “fireworks” going on all around him over the speakership.

Funding for Planned Parenthood remained unscathed, at least for a few months. And I know that most of their funding is allocated by an agency, and not budgeted directly by Congress.

Still, we – the Conservative Constituents of the United States of America – want to make it clear that we do not, under any circumstances, condone our tax dollars being used by Planned Parenthood for (1) late term abortions, (2) trafficking in baby body parts and 3) campaign contributions for Democrats who support (1) and (2).

So if any of you other Congressmen and Congresswomen feel inclined to sign on to the Mulvaney Letter (whether or not Mick still feels it is “operative”), please DO!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Give me a ticket for an aeroplane
I ain’t got time to take no fast train
Oh the lonely days are gone I’m coming home
My baby she wrote me a letter

The Letter – Joe Cocker

Dude has got soul. Please take a minute from your busy day and enjoy some Joe Cocker.

We Need A Strong, Articulate Conservative Speaker – Big Time!

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard 1

Message to our Congressmen and Women:

When House Speaker John Boehner stepped down, it was a big day for us conservative citizens. We thought Washington finally got our message – that we are tired of our Republican political leaders caving in to the liberal ideology that is responsible for the decline in our economy and our weakening morality.

We salivated at the opportunity to replace Boehner with a true conservative Speaker of the House. But who was put up as our new leader? Boehner’s right hand man, Kevin McCarthy. Ugh. Fortunately, McCarthy quickly shot himself in the foot and pulled his hat back out of the ring.

Then we were left with a choice between Daniel Webster, who wants to be a manager who will get bills through the House early and then go home for dinner, and Jason Chaffetz, who fired Congressman Mark Meadows when he stood up to Boehner last summer. Double Ugh.

As he exited, stage left, McCarthy pressed fellow insider Paul Ryan to take the job. UGGH!

When will the GOP understand that conservatives can’t take a chance on another middle-of-the-road squishy let’s-not-hurt-any-feelings Speaker? We can’t accept someone who will merely manage the House bills and then turn the show over to the Senate and the President, to let the results fall where they may. We demand a Speaker of the House with vision, leadership, and most of all, the courage to stand on principle.

More importantly, we need a Speaker of the House who can look confidently into a television camera and articulate the conservative principles that made this country great.

I know there are strong conservative congressmen and women who can present our case convincingly and win back the trust of the American people. I see you and your work in Washington every day.

Yes, the Speaker’s job is a big challenge. Nobody ever said going to battle is fun. But leadership is a calling, and it’s time for some of you real conservatives to put your big boy and big girl pants on. We need you – big time.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I’m on my way, I’m making it
I’ve got to make it show, yeah
So much larger than life
I’m going to watch it growing

Big Time – Peter Gabriel

Corruption – Time To Raise A Little Hell

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

75% of Americans think our government is corrupt. No kidding?

Everybody knows the game:

Taxpayers give money to government.

Corrupt politicians give some of that money (or favors) to organizations

Organizations kick back some of the money to the corrupt politicians as campaign contributions.

The politicians use the dirty money to get re-elected.

Return to number 1.

The corruption game is nothing new. Call it payola, quid pro quo, scratch my back – it has gone on ever since the first government came into being, and still occurs all over the world. In Mexico and similar “banana republics” nothing gets done by government without illegal payoffs.

No, the corruption game isn’t new, but the playbook has changed. Until recently, corrupt deals were made between public officials and private businesses. That arrangement was problematic – when the public found out about massive corruption (back then we had real journalism) the citizens would raise hell until the corruption was at least somewhat beat down. They didn’t like their tax dollars going to fat cat big business operators. But corrupt politicians didn’t appreciate these temporary interruptions in the game. So instead of using corporate cronies to fatten their wallets, they learned to cycle the dirty money through government employee unions, quasi-government organizations and NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) instead of private businesses.

This week’s scandal du jour is the uproar over Planned Parenthood’s use of taxpayer money for purposes that most citizens find repugnant. The dollars aren’t huge – only a half a billion or so – but what they do with the money sure has a lot of taxpayers’ underwear in a knot. Moreover, Planned Parenthood uses a good chunk of the money for campaign contributions and lobbying. They claim the government funds they get are applied only to honorable pursuits. But we all know that money is “fungible”.

Remember Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? These behemoth quasi-government organizations almost buried our economy in 2008 when the real-estate bubble of their creation popped and the government bailed out the big banks. Even President Obama, a master of quid pro quo, called the Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac business model “heads we win, tails you lose.” We really still haven’t recovered. But the Fannie and Freddy corruption machine keeps chugging along, making big contributions to campaigns, paying monster salaries to its officials, and playing fast and loose with taxpayer money with almost no oversight.

Government employee unions are now the largest group of contributors to political campaigns. What a concept: the unions contribute taxpayer money to the very politicians who promise to protect their jobs and raise their wages. Jefferson would have loved that one.

Another cool quasi-government corruption setup is the Export/Import Bank, which uses taxpayer money to make risk-free loans that benefit crony corporations like Boeing, General Electric, and Caterpillar, to foreign governments and companies, some of whom actually compete with other domestic companies. There are all kinds of opportunities for bank employees to profit personally from shady arrangements. Some honest legislators, prodded by conservative constituents, may have finally put an end to this game, although General Electric and their political partners in crime are trying hard to keep it going.

And it’s not just about dirty politicians seeking campaign funds any more; federal agencies are in on the act. They now extort funds from US companies by threatening huge fines for trumped-up regulatory violations. Agencies like the EPA, FCC, NLRB and others routinely set up schemes that trade a “consent decree” (an agreement to not destroy a business with a long, expensive legal action) for cash. The feds also use consent decrees to take control over local government operations, such as police departments and local utilities.

Some federal corruption is simple and creative. Conservatives in Congress were furious to learn that VA Administration bigshots received big bonuses by faking the real performance records of their agency while patients died waiting for care. When the congressmen found out these guys could not be fired (this belongs in Ripley’s Believe It or Not!) they passed a law that making it possible to fire VA officials. So how many were fired? You guessed it. Zero.

The exploding corruption culture in Washington, DC is not a partisan issue – both Democrats and Republicans say they oppose corruption, but only a few true Conservatives are making any effort to do something about it. Leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump admitted paying off politicians. One can only assume the practice would continue under his watch.

One thing hasn’t changed. The only way to kill corruption, or at least slow it down, is for citizens to raise hell about it.

Ask your public officials and candidates what they plan to do about corruption. Give them specific examples. Most of them don’t mention the issue and haven’t even thought about it. Let’s raise a little hell.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

If you want to see an angel
You got to find it where it fell
If you want to get to heaven
You got to raise a little hell

If You Want To Get To Heaven –
Ozark Mountain Daredevils

Another great seventies band, still on the road, gray hair and all, bangin’ on guitars!

Americans Agree More Than You Think

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

we agree If you listen to the network news, you probably think that most Americans favor abortion. You would be wrong. According to recent Gallup polling data, 70% of Americans think abortion should be always illegal or only allowed under certain circumstances, such as rape, incest, and life of the mother.

If you listen to the talking heads, you would think almost everybody opposes voter ID requirements to prevent election fraud. False. Rasmussen polls show 78 percent of voters are in favor of requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship.

You hear daily that you are out of the mainstream if you think illegal immigration is a big problem in this country. But that’s not true either – Rasmussen says 80% of voters consider it a very serious problem.

When it comes right down to it, Americans still share basic conservative values, despite the rapidly changing demographics. We pretty much all think it is wrong to harvest baby parts for profit. We support our policemen, firemen, and servicemen and women. We want to have a strong military, affordable health care, and safe roads and streets. We don’t like it when race-hustlers try to gin up conflicts among us. We want to raise our families and run our businesses without the government taking huge chunks of our paychecks and then trying to control every detail of our lives. We hate it when we find out the government is in bed with big business. We don’t want our country flooded with unvetted third-world foreigners who have no intention of becoming Americans. And we sure don’t think non-citizens are entitled to benefits at our expense.

These are not partisan issues. The vast majority of us agree.

So why won’t our elected officials do what we – the majority of Americans – elected them to do? And why won’t the media tell the truth about our shared American values?

Fortunately, it is not yet completely out of our control. We can make our elected officials represent us, and we can make them clean up the cesspool that our federal government has become. Elections have consequences, but so does good old-fashioned communication. If you want your congressman to know what your expectations are, you should be in frequent enough contact that he or she knows your name. If you are tired of manipulative media organizations, you can let them know your disapproval or turn them off. And if your neighbor, your father-in-law, your preacher or your teacher disagrees with the majority of us, you can persuade and invite them to join us in celebrating our shared American values.

For over a year I have been attending political and presidential campaign events. Whenever Speaker Boehner’s and Leader McConnell’s names are mentioned, there is a unanimous and resounding boo from the audience. The GOP candidates routinely advocate dumping the congressional leadership for a guaranteed ovation. Today’s news that Speaker Boehner will step down proves that Americans agree it is time for change, in such numbers that he had no choice.

Yes, these are dangerous times. Yes, there is corruption all around us. But please don’t believe that you are the one who is out of step. Americans agree much more than the idealogues want us to know. If we stand firm by our common values, our grandchildren still might have a nation worth living in.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Right, you’re bloody well right
You know you got a right to say
Right, you’re bloody well right
You know you got a right to say

Bloody Well Right – Supertramp

There’s no mistaking Supertramp’s Fender Rhodes signature electric piano sound. They are still rockin’, and here’s a great live take on one of their super hits.

Don’t Feel Guilty If You Are Worried About Immigrants and Refugees

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

guilty-dogs-supercut-compilation I know you are concerned about the exploding levels of legal and illegal immigration and refugee resettlement in the USA. You are worried about the high crime rates among these foreigners, the declining number of employed Americans and falling wage rates, and the destruction of our uniquely successful American economy and culture. But you probably keep your feelings to yourself because the leftists and the media (sorry, that’s redundant) call you selfish, cruel, racist, and hater. They want you to feel guilty.

Don’t feel guilty.

We have been fed a steady diet of lies about immigrants and refugees by our government and the media for decades. This is not a new phenomena – the immigration myths and atrocious government policies date back to Ronald Reagan and Ted Kennedy. But the problem accelerates as Democrats exploit their political advantage with left-leaning third-world invitees, and the world’s poor learn how easy it is to work the system here in the States.

Lies? Here are just a few, from Ann Coulter’s brilliant immigration exposé “¡Adios, America!”:

• In 1986 Congress passed a special agricultural amnesty bill that granted temporary legal status to any illegal alien who claimed to have performed seasonal farm work for 90 days in the previous year. In the first three years 888,637 agricultural amnesty applications were identified as fraudulent, but of those, only 60,020 were actually denied. One can only guess how many millions of applications were rubber-stamped with no scrutiny at all. One of the fraudulent “farm workers” granted amnesty was “Mahmud the Red”, the murderous Muslim who helped the “Blind Sheik” bomb the World Trade Center in 1993.

• Tech magnates Bill Gates of Microsoft, Craig Barrett of Intel, and others convinced Congress that the H1-B visa program was necessary to obtain brainpower from India that they just couldn’t find among America’s college grads. It turns out millions of H1-B immigrants are little more than indentured servants to their American employers, working for substandard wages in fear of losing their legal status, and displacing American workers who are often forced to train them in exchange for severance pay. There is no shortage of qualified American tech workers.

• We are told that most immigrants are here to “do the jobs that Americans won’t do.” But once here, most immigrants and refugees latch on to public benefits and are either unable or unwilling to find jobs, largely because they lack employable skills and make no attempt to assimilate to our customs and language.

There are so many more lies. Most Syrian refugees are not from Syria. Most asylum-seekers are not threatened in their home countries. The majority of “relatives” of immigrants allowed into the USA to reunify families are not related to them. Immigrants do not elevate our economy by paying more dollars in taxes than they consume in government services – not even close! Immigrants are not more likely than native-born Americans to be peaceful, law-abiding citizens.

Many third-world immigrants come from cultures with values that are appalling to Americans, including abuse of women and children. The legal age of marital consent in most of Mexico is 12. Hmong culture considers the rape and prostitution of young girls ordinary, and most of it goes unreported. Muslims practice female genital mutilation, and accept the stoning and murder of women for perceived misbehavior. Illegal border-crossers trash national parks and deface native American antiquities, and continue their littering habits in their new home cities. And while it is human nature for poor people to want the good life that others worked and died for, that does not mean it must be relinquished to them.

Are all immigrants awful people? Of course not. But many are, at least by traditional American standards. The tsunami of legal and illegal immigrants and refugees must stop until we have the ability to keep the awful ones out and invite only those who bring something to the party.

If you have a hinky feeling that the United States is in trouble, don’t feel guilty. You’re right.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

And we got nothing to be guilty of
Our love will climb any mountain,
Near or far , we are
And we never let it end

Guilty – the Bee Gees

“Most Govt. Spending Is Mandatory – That’s BS

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

Federal officials and elite media pundits ridicule conservatives who demand lower government spending levels. They say only 24% of the budget is discretionary, and most of that is military spending, so there is nothing anybody can do about increased spending and debt without taking a hatchet to social security benefits.

Horse Hockey. There is a heck of a lot of discretion in that “mandatory” spending.

The Heritage Foundation points out that in 1965 only 27% of federal spending was mandatory. By last year mandatory spending had grown to 63% of the total, and it’s not just a function of our aging population. Over time our government has pushed a ton of new spending into the mandatory category.

Our government has made the discretionary decision to give millions of legal and illegal immigrants and refugees social security benefits, medicaid, disability, earned income credits, and a host of other “mandatory” federal benefits and subsidies. The majority of foreign-born in our country are on one or more welfare programs. And this does not even begin to address the cost of education, health care, fraudulent tax returns, cost of police and prisons and other infrastructure that cost billions. Our government has made the discretionary decision to not enforce the borders, to not follow up on visa violations, and to not keep illegal alien criminals out of the country. There is nothing mandatory about inviting foreigners to dip into the American taxpayers’ soup.

Our government has also made the discretionary decision to not crack down on waste and fraud in the mandatory spending programs. A study by Senator Tom Coburn’s office indicated as many as 45% of disability claims were questionable. Social security and food stamp fraud is rampant.

When it comes to spending, our government doesn’t have a reputation for using good discretion. It has dropped billions of public dollars on corrupt and hopelessly inefficient green energy programs and other corporate cronies. It has stifled economic development with disingenuous environmental and social programs. By its fed policy to eliminate interest, it has destroyed the US currency and transferred much of the wealth saved by a generation of middle class families to the big banks and their benefactors.

Our government has made discretionary payroll decisions that have resulted in government workers earning far greater compensation than private sector workers do, and many of them are frightfully ineffective and inefficient. Five of the six wealthiest counties in the United States are Washington, DC suburbs. Much of the cost of these discretionary payroll decisions are embedded in mandatory spending.

Worst of all, our government has made the discretionary decision to pass on an insolvent nation to our future generations by refusing for decades to even write, much less balance, an honest zero-based budget. They didn’t have to do it, they chose to, pandering for the votes that bring them personal power and wealth.

I, for one, am tired of hearing that there is nothing anybody can do to reduce government spending because it is “mostly mandatory”. Elections have consequences, so we had better elect people who won’t use lame excuses to defend this unsustainable spending and debt.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

You made me love you,
I didn’t want to do it!
I didn’t want to do it!
You made me want you,
And all the time you knew it!
I guess you always knew it!

You Made Me Love You (I Didn’t Want To Do It) – Judy Garland