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I've watched our constitution evaporate and our politicians and leaders let greed take them. I've heard a past president say "Oh really, I didn't know gas was that expensive." Our leaders are not in touch with the reality that most of us live.
I've watched good family people lose their jobs and their businesses while our leaders live in the lap of luxury. Luxury that those same people are providing for them.
It's time that we at least become aware of what is taking place in this once great country.
This is not about blue or red. It is about the common people that made this country great and can do so again.
Why Aren't We Standing On The Principals That Made This Country Great?
What will be presented here has not been verified or proven. That is up to you to check it out to see if these things are really taking place in our country. They are being presented to make us all think.
- Jim Allen, Publisher Arizona Boating & Watersports / Western Outdoor Times
We receive many e-mails from our readers. These are some of them.
Is the End of the Internet as We Know it Finished?
A Letter To Senator Kyl
September 26, 2011
Dear Senator Kyl,
According to the organization Less Government, regardless of multiple lawsuits, a move by the House of Representatives and a D.C. Circuit Court unanimously ruling that the FCC had no authority to take control, the fed is still arrogantly pushing forward toward full implementation of their Net Neutrality regulation on November 20!
The FCC's Net Neutrality regulations would be job-killers -- likely stifling the $30 billion annually that investors pour into Internet development and advancement and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The only way to stop this runaway train is for grassroots Americans to appeal to the Senate to move quickly to pass a Congressional Review Act (CRA) Resolution that would effectively kill the illegal, job-killing Net Neutrality order.
I cannot imagine anything more unpopular with the young professionals and young adults in American than the illegal control of Web content by the outlaw FCC.
If the Democrats want to destroy their party for an entire generation, go before the public in every way possible and let them know what Obama’s fascist regulations are doing to their freedom and the jobs that many of these young people depend upon via the Internet.
This is no less totalitarian than Red China’s complete control over the Internet.
Can we count on you, Senator, to take a leadership roll in passing a Congressional Review Act Resolution to stop this outrageously illegal move by the FCC to destroy the Internet?
You are in my prayers.
Sincerely,
Roger Emery
Federal Budget Broken Down
The Federal Budget broken down to where we can understand it.
- U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
- Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
- New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
- National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
- Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000
Now, remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget.
- Annual family income: $21,700
- Money the family spent: $38,200
- New debt on the credit card: $16,500
- Outstanding balance on credit card: $142,710
- Total budget cuts: $385
Sorta brings the issue "home" doesn't it?
Bailout Bills
The most important part of the following is in the last two paragraphs.
Sen. Tom Coburn is an MD (general practitioner) and Senator from Oklahoma.
and recognized as 'the conscience' of the US Senate. He is well respected
on both 'sides of the aisle' & probably one of the few senators to
actually read these 'bail-out' bills. (Google him for his background.)
This takes a couple of minutes. It's from his speech in the Senate and it
should raise your blood pressure.
"We are going in exactly the wrong direction. We ought to be standing on
the principles that made this country great. There ought to be a review of
every program in the Federal Government that is not effective, that is not
efficient, that is wasteful or fraudulent, and we ought to get rid of it
right now. We ought to say, you're gone, to be able to pay for a real
stimulus plan that might, in fact, have some impact.
I would be remiss if I didn't remind everybody that next week we are going
to hear from the Obama administration wanting another $500 billion.
Outside of this, they are going to want another $500 billion to handle the
banking system. Still not fixing the real disease - the pneumonia - we are
going to treat the fever or treat the cough, but we are not going to treat
the real disease.
Until
we treat the real disease, this is pure waste. It is worse than pure
waste. It is morally reprehensible, because it steals the future of the
next two generations.
I am going to wind up here and finish, but I wanted to spend some time to
make sure the American people know what is in this bill. I think once they
know what is in this bill, they would reject it out of hand.
Let me read for my colleagues some of the things that are in this bill...
The biggest earmark in history is in this bill. There is $2 billion in
this bill to build a coal plant with zero emissions. That would be great,
maybe, if we had the technology, but the greatest brains in the world
sitting at MIT say we don't have the technology yet to do that. Why would
we build a $2 billion power plant we don't have the
technology for that we know will come back and ask for another $2 billion
and another $2 billion and another $2 billion when we could build a
demonstration project that might cost $150 million or $200 million? There
is nothing wrong with having coal-fired plants that don't produce
pollution; I am not against that. Even the Washington Post said the
technology isn't there. It is a boondoggle. Why would we do that?
Tonight, we eliminated a $246 million payback for the large movie studios
in Hollywood.
We are going to spend 88 Million to study whether we ought to buy a new
ice breaker for the Coast Guard. You know what. The Coast Guard needs a
new ice breaker. Why do we need to spend $88 million? They have two ice
breakers now that they could retrofit and fix and come up with equivalent
to what they needed to and not spend
the $1 billion they are going to come back and ask for, for another ice
breaker, so why would we spend $88 million studying that?
We are going to spend $448 million to build the Department of Homeland
Security a new building. We have $1.3 trillion worth of empty buildings
right now, and because it has been blocked in Congress we can't sell them,
we can't raze them, we can't do anything, but we are going to spend money
on a new building here in Washington .
We are going to spend another $248 million for new furniture for that
building; a quarter of a billion dollars for new furniture. What about the
furniture the Department of Homeland Security has now? These are tough
times. Should we be buying new furniture? How about
using what we have? That is what a family would do. They would use what
they have. They wouldn't go out and spend $248 million on furniture.
How about buying $600 million worth of hybrid vehicles? Do you know what I
would say? Right now times are tough; I would rather Americans have new
cars than Federal employees have new cars. What is wrong with the cars we
have? Dumping $600 million worth of used vehicles on the used vehicle
market right now is one of the worst things we could do. Instead, we are
going to spend $600 million buying new cars for Federal employees..
There is $400 million in here to prevent STDs .. I have a lot of
experience with that. I have delivered 4,000 babies. We don't need to
spend $400 million on STDs. What we need to do is properly educate about
the infection
rates and the effectiveness of methods of prevention. That doesn't take a
penny more. You can write that on one piece of paper and teach every kid
in this country, but we don't need to spend $400 million on it. It is not
a priority.
How about $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs? That might even
be somewhat stimulative. New sewers. That might create jobs.
How about $150 million for a Smithsonian museum? Tell me how that helps
get us out of a recession. Tell me how that is a priority. Would the
average American think that is a priority that we ought to be mortgaging
our kids' future to spend another $150 million at the Smithsonian?
How about $1 billion for the 2010 census? So everybody knows,
the census is so poorly managed that the census this year is going to
cost twice what it cost 10 years ago, and we wasted $800 million on a
contract because it was no-bid that didn't perform. Nobody got fired, no
competitive bidding, and we blew $800 million.
We have $75 million for smoking cessation activities, which probably is a
great idea, but we just passed a bill-the SCHIP bill - that we need to get
21 million more Americans smoking (and paying tobacco taxes) to be able to
pay for that bill. That doesn't make sense.
How about $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges?
Since when is a community college in my State a recipient of Federal
largesse? Is that our responsibility? I mean, did we talk with Dell and
Hewlett-Packard and say, How do we make you all do better? Is there not a
market force that could make that better?
Will we actually buy on a true competitive bid? No, because there is
nothing that requires competitive bidding in anything in this bill. There
is nothing that requires it. It is one of the things President Obama said
he was going to mandate the Federal Government, but there is no
competitive bidding in this bill at all.
We have $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas. Well, that will put
10 or 15 people to work. Is that a priority for us right now?
There is $6 billion to turn Federal buildings into green buildings. That
is a priority, versus somebody getting a job outside of Washington, a job
that actually produces something, that actually increases wealth?
How about $500 million for State and local fire stations? Where do you
find in the Constitution us paying for local fire stations within our (the
federal government’s) realm of prerogatives? None of it is competitively
bid - not a grant program.
Next is $1.2 billion for youth activities. Who does that employ? What does
that mean?
How about $88 million for renovating the public health service building?
You know, if we could sell half of the $1.3 trillion worth of
properties we have, we could take care of every Federal building
requirement and backlog we have.
Then there's $412 million for CDC buildings and property. We spent
billions on a new center and headquarters for CDC. Is that a priority?
Building another Government building instead of - if we are going to spend
$412 million on building buildings, let's build one that will produce
something, one that will give us something.
How about $850 million for that most "efficient'' Amtrak that hasn't made
any money since 1976 and continues to receive $2 billion or $3 billion a
year in subsidies?
Here is one of my favorites: $75 million to construct a new "security
training'' facility for State Department security
officers. We have four other facilities already available to train them.
But it is not theirs. They want theirs. By the way, it is going to be in
West Virginia ... I wonder how that got there? So we are going to build a
new training facility that duplicates four others that we already have
that could easily do what we need to do. But because we have a stimulus
package, we are going to add in oink pork.
How about $200 million in funding for a lease - not buying, but a lease of
alternative energy vehicles on military installations?
We are going to bail out the States on Medicaid. Total all of the health
programs in this, and we are going to transfer $150 billion out of the
private sector and we are going to move it to the Federal Government. You
talk about back
dooring national health care! Henry Waxman has to be smiling big today.
He wants a single-payer Government-run health care system. We are going
to move another $150 billion to the Federal Government from the private
sector.
We are going to eliminate fees on loans from the Small Business
Administration. You know what that does? That pushes productive capital to
unproductive projects. It is exactly the wrong thing to do.
Then there is $160 million to the Job Corps Program - But not for 20 jobs
and not to put more people in the Job Corps but to construct or repair
buildings.
We are going to spend $524 million for information technology upgrades
that the Appropriations Committee claims will
create 388 jobs. If you do the math on that, that is $1.5 million a job.
Don't you love the efficiency of Washington thinking?
We are going to create $79 billion in additional money for the States, a
"slush fund,'' to bail out States and provide millions of dollars for
education costs. How many of you think that will ever go away? Once the
State education programs get $79 billion over 2 years, do you think that
will ever go away? The cry and hue of taking our money away - even though
it was a stimulus and supposed to be limited, it will never go away. So we
will continue putting that forward until our kids have grandkids of their
own.
There is about $47 billion for a variety of energy programs that are
primarily focused on renewable energy. I am fine with spending that. But
we ought to get
something for it. There ought to be measurable results. There are none.
It is pie in the sky, saying we will throw some money at it.
Let me conclude by saying we are at a seminal moment in our country. We
will either start living within the confines of realism and responsibility
or we will blow it and we will create the downfall of the greatest Nation
that ever lived. This bill is the start of that downfall. To abandon a
market-oriented society and transfer it to a Soviet-style,
government-centered, bureaucratic-run and mandated program, that is the
thing that will put the stake in the heart of freedom in this country.
I hope the American people know what is in this bill. I am doing everything I can to make sure they know. But more important, I hope somebody is listening who will treat the pneumonia we are faced with today, which is the housing and mortgage markets. It doesn't matter how much money we spend in this bill. It is doomed to failure unless we fix that problem first. Failing that, we will go down in history as the Congress that undermined the future and vitality of this country. Let it not be so."
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