No Earmarks! Never Going Back There Again!

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 1

“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

You 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!

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

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Tom Balek 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

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 . . .

Nancy Pelosi – Alzheimers Victim?

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 1

pelosi There she was, across from Chris Wallace. Her taught facial lines belied her 73 years, her posture was perfect, and her bright eyes and smile registered a ten on the energy scale.

It was when she opened her mouth that things went awry.

Early in the interview, she called Chris Wallace “Bill”. (It was removed from the Fox transcript to prevent embarrassment to Wallace – see this YouTube video and skip to the 4:00 mark.)

(Update – Fox transcript now says “Here’s the thing though . . .” On Sunday two of us thought we heard “Here’s the thing, Bill” independently — it appears we were both wrong. – Tom)

Wallace asked her why she can’t cut $85 billion (2%) out of the government’s $3.5 trillion budget. Her response: “Well, we have cut in terms of agriculture subsidies, there are tens of billions of dollars in cuts there and that should be balanced with eliminating subsidy for big oil. Why should we do — why should we lower Pell Grants instead of eliminating the subsidies for big oil?”

Huh?

Wallace pressed her again: “Why not just cut spending? Eighty-five billion dollars in a $3.5 trillion government.”

Her response: “The fact is that a lot of the spending increases came during the Bush administration. Two unpaid for wars we got ourselves engaged in. A prescription drug plan that added enormous amounts to our spending, and the tax cuts at the high end that did not create jobs and create revenue coming.”

What?

Why didn’t you move to end funding for the wars, repeal the prescription drug benefit plan, and reverse the tax cuts when you were Speaker of the House and your party also held the presidency and the Senate? And what does a former president, after four years of retirement, have to with the current federal budget (or lack thereof)?

When Wallace pointed out that the top 5% pay 59% of all federal taxes, Pelosi said she doesn’t want to raise taxes again on the wealthy. Then she blurted, “We also have the Buffett Rule which says all of the high income people would pay a minimum of — they would have to pay — ”

Wallace: “So, you’re raising tax on the wealthy.”

Pelosi: “No, you are saying they should pay their fair share, which is 30 percent, which is even lower than 39.6, which is the rate — the bracket they are in.”

Nancy was becoming more flustered and incoherent by the minute.

Then Wallace asked for her position on gun control. Her answer was beyond bizarre:

“No further sales of the increased capacity, 30 rounds in a gun. We are talking about background checks which is very popular, even among gun owners, and, hunters. We avow the First Amendment, we stand with that, and say that people have a right to have a gun to protect themselves in their homes and their jobs, whatever. And that they — and their workplace — and that they, for recreation and hunting and the rest.”

Is it possible she doesn’t know that the right to bear arms is granted in the Second Amendment? Or have all those years of “inside the Beltway” cocktail parties just made her “comfortably numb?”

I don’t wish to make light of senility. Alzheimer’s is a serious problem.

Maybe it should also be a disqualifier for a seat in Congress.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Bill! I love you so, I always will . . .

I was on your side Bill when you were losin’,
I’ll never scheme or lie Bill, there’s been no foolin’!

Wedding Bell Blues – Marilyn McCoo
the Fifth Dimension
written by Laura Nyro

It’s Not a Game – Politicians Can Hurt People

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Tom Balek Standard 1

The debates and the surrounding hoopla have the flavor of a football game. After the battle, the winning side cheers and the losing side retreats, licking its wounds and vowing to “get ’em next time”. Monday-morning quarterbacks natter about body language, game plans, and alpha males.

It’s so much more serious than that. Politicians can, and do, hurt people.

I have a friend who lives in the Central Valley of California. He has been sending me heart-wrenching letters over the last two years about the devastation that politics has wrought on the Valley and its residents.

In January of 2010 Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA) made an impassioned plea to the US House of Representatives for relief from the man-made drought brought on by the Obama administration, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA). In a shameless appeasement to their environmental extremist lobbyists, this group of all-stars diverted 200 billion gallons of water away from Central Valley farms into the Pacific Ocean, leaving only 5% of the water the farmers were entitled to. All for the benefit of the Delta Smelt, a tiny, useless fish – listed as “endangered” by the EPA, but not even indigenous to California.

The loss of irrigation water destroyed 500,000 acres of what was once considered the richest and most productive farmland in the nation, and put 37,000 families out of work, leaving proud fathers standing in bread lines to feed their families.

California Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) could not hold back his frustration as he called out the Democrats in Congress for bankrupting thousands of families and businesses tor a fish. And the situation is not getting any better.

Today I talked with Brian Whelan (R-CA), California candidate for US House of Representatives. “Our valley is now called the Appalachia of the West”, Whelan said. “We’re still getting only a small percentage of the water we are entitled to. Having half the allotment of water that a grove of pistachio trees needs to stay alive is as bad as no water at all. Fields have been left fallow. Meanwhile my opponent, Jim Costa (D-CA), hands out carrots grown in China to destitute families at a food bank.”

There are real families suffering here at the hands of politicians. My California friend laments that, like thousands of others, his daughter’s Central Valley family has been pretty much destroyed.

“She had a daycare and her husband had a good job. They had a very nice home two blocks from a nice school in a beautiful neighborhood. It didn’t happen all at once, but her husband had less and less work. They lost their home, then their rental home. Because his employer was broke too, her husband was only receiving his earned pay intermittently. Finally he “snapped” from the stress and the family broke up. Sick kids. Power and water shut off. It’s like a bad dream.” The daughter and children have moved back in with her father.

Look back at the names of the politicians in this article. Notice the “R” after the guys who are trying to help. Notice the “D” following the names of those who caused the problem and won’t back off. Am I a partisan? Damn right. I’m calling you out, too, Democrats. You talk big about caring for the “middle class” and the less fortunate. But yet you can do this kind of damage to real families and brush it off on the way to your next DC cocktail party.

As a nation, we voters had better get it right this time around.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

My Chevrolet just made steam,
Your crop is laying foul,
My grass skirt’s lost its green,
I’m alive but I don’t know how.
I need water, good good water,
They need water.

Water – the Who