Tag Archives: Congress

by Barry Kelly | September 25, 2014 · 7:35 am

INSIGHTS 157 — WHO’S TO BLAME FOR OUR MESS? PART 1

beforeitsnews.com

Most Americans seem to realize the country is in a mess, both domestically and internationally. The evidence is clear to all but the fringe true believers who have totally closed their minds to new or conflicting information.

You don’t have to look far. We have fewer people in the workforce than anytime in the last eight years. Wages have not keep pace with inflation. More people are on food stamps and their numbers are growing faster than ever before. The dollar is losing strength. Only those who can afford to make investments in the stock market are doing better than okay. The president’s Qualitative Easing program has pumped varying amounts as high as 86 billion dollars a month into the economy for the last several years, creating an artificial stock market for the well-to-do, but widened the gap between the haves and have-nots. The progressives have created an ideal economy for their class warfare rhetoric.

Tax reform has been ignored. Social programs and debt servicing are eating deeply into the gross national product and getting worse each year. Obamacare has yet to find a niche where it is actually helping people. Regulations are killing business and driving American corporations overseas in search of friendly business locations. Government is growing at a rate far beyond what is necessary. Power is accruing to the executive branch. The separation of powers contained in the Constitution is being rapidly eroded. Congress, largely due to its timidness, is becoming irrelevant. At least the progressives in charge know where they are driving the country. The Republicans do not.

If anything good is happening domestically, it is hard to find. The president, the attorney general and profession racists raise the race flag at every opportunity. The once-prestigious New York Times and Washington Post have become ideological supporters of the progressive agenda. Selective omission and slanting of the news is an everyday affair.

Our universities are no longer bastions of free thinking and speech. They too are turning out left-wing ideologues, rather than graduates who have learned to question orthodoxy and think outside the box. Pride in America is hard to find in progressive ranks and the history of our country is, according to Obama’s progressives, something we must apologize for. The progressive party refers to our armed forces in Iraq as an occupying force. At a time of real dangers in the world, President Obama is cutting the armed forces back to pre-WWII levels.

Internationally, nothing done by the president’s direction has gone right. First, the do-nothing but travel everywhere secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the “never saw a situation he couldn’t make worse” John Kerry, have made a shambles out negations with Iran, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinians, Russia, China, Europe, and the Middle East. If there ever was gang in the White House that couldn’t shoot straight, this is it. Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Israel, and Benghazi come to mind. The foreign policy list of unbelievable gaffs could go on much longer.

Read my next blog to find out who is to blame for all this mess. Coming later this week.

Do you like and understand what you’re reading? Share it with your friends and leave me comments here or on Amazon. I read them! You can also visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter. This content and more is available in my latest book, “INSIGHTS: Transforming America.”

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Filed under Barry Kelly, class warfare, Conservative views, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, Obamacare, political solutions, Politics

Tagged as Benghazi, Bush, class warfare, Congress, Iran, iraq, Middle East, transformation, White House

by Barry Kelly | September 9, 2014 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 149

THE GOP NEEDS TRANSFORMING

Is America in trouble? I think so.

How did it happen?

Well, you cannot blame President Obama for everything that’s happened under his watch. The Republican Party insider group is also guilty. The House of Representatives has the total Constitutional power to appropriate money. Everything the progressives have done with Obama’s leadership had to be funded. The government runs on money, our money. The House is supposed to be the place funding requests begin.

Where has it been? Republicans did not provide a single vote to the passing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Yet they funded every bit of its implementation. Obamacare couldn’t have survived just on the funds that were appropriated when it was passed. The government had to pay for all the overruns, including the rollout. Instead of providing good stewardship of our money, the Republican leadership whined and complained about President Obama’s executive orders and the greatly increased scope and power of the HHS, EPA, IRS, DOJ, and Labor Department but was afraid to use its appropriation to bring Obama’s transforming of America to a near stop.

When they did try to bring Obama’s spending under control by refusing to raise the debt limit unless the president delayed a part of the ACA, the president refused to sign the appropriations legislation with the Republican amendment to raise the debt ceiling. He then began shutting down the parts of the government that would dramatically affect citizens, parts that could have been easily funded. Congress offered to help with authorization by allowing the president to shift funds to where they were needed. He refused and cleverly and successfully passed the blame onto the Republicans for shutting down the government. Not only did the American people accept the blatant blame shift, so did the Republican leadership. Now the speaker of the House and the Senate minority leader are afraid to use their Constitutional powers to defund certain parts of federal spending. With an opposition as timid and as inept as the current Republican leadership, we cannot look to them to act as a check on the growth of the federal government and spending.

The Republican Party leadership in and out of government is afraid to rock the boat. None of them would have signed the Declaration of Independence. (That is my yardstick for judging the courage of politicians.) In my state of South Carolina, several politicians and Republican leaders would have signed. Among them are Representative Joe Wilson, Senator DeMint, now the President of the Heritage Foundation, Governor Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott, and Representative Trey Gowdy. It is this kind of courage that is needed.

President Reagan believed that “Government isn’t the answer. Government is the problem.” Of all the threats we face today, big government is the biggest threat to our freedom and economic growth. The Republican insider group just doesn’t believe this. While the size of government has grown spectacularly under President Obama, conservatives must remember that the eight years of President Bush saw large increases in the size and scope of government. Term limits would fix a lot of problems with the Congress.

Written by the author of “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an ebook, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. If you think this message is important, please share it.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, centralization, Conservative views, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, Obamacare, political solutions, Presidential Debate

Tagged as Bush, Congress, government, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, president reagan, Progressive, Republicans

by Barry Kelly | July 20, 2014 · 7:50 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 131

TRANSFORMATION AND SENIORS

Writers know they should write about what they know. In thinking how to write about the impact of President Obama’s transforming of America on senior citizens, I realized this is right in my wheel-house because that includes me at age 83. So I started with my own reactions to transformation.

First of all, I must admit President Obama gave us full warning about his plans for change. I didn’t support him because of his lack of any kind of management or leadership experience and his very far left ideology. But I didn’t expect the media to be so incredibly locked in to his socialistic view of the world. Nor did I think the Republican leadership in Congress would be so timid.

After five-plus years of unconstitutional growth in the power of the executive branch at the expense of the legislative powers, the speaker brings a whining lawsuit against President Obama for taking his toys. Who does he think will enforce the courts ruling if he wins? Attorney General Eric Holder certainly won’t. If the speaker had any courage he would use his powers of the purse given to the House by the Constitution.

A few days ago I wrote about another disappointment. The civil service in many democracies is a check on an executive gone too far. I may have been too hard on the many loyal and capable civil servants but, as a senior citizen with years in the civil service, I am dismayed at the way the employees of the IRS, HSS, EPA, State, DHS, FBI, C!A, and the Joint Chiefs have fallen into lock step to support the president’s unlawful policies. In a free society, government workers cannot enforce what they know is an unlawful course of action. I remember some trials after WWII in Nuremberg, Germany, that settled that issue.

Senior citizens have seen how the massive printing of money (bonds) by the Federal Reserve called Qualitative Easing cheapens their dollars while their income has not kept up with real world inflation. Medicare will be destroyed by Obamacare, as will the best medical care in the world. Sure, far too many people had no insurance, but that could have been fixed without moving rapidly toward a single-payer system and socialized medicine. Social security, which most of us have grown to count on, is less sustainable now than it was five years ago. This program needs attention now.

The rule of law is all that stands between us and a chaotic system based on favoritism and punishment without due process. This administration, especially this attorney general, enforces the law selectively and only investigates when it is in the interests of his imperial president. Many senior citizens have fought in wars, including the Cold War, and know the necessity of keeping a strong, well-equipped, and cared for military. We are nervous about the drastic reduction of our forces, the VA scandal, and the loss of respect for our views throughout the world. We have seen enemies who were impervious to diplomacy and endless talk with the threat of ineffective sanctions. We know America needs a leader whose word is respected throughout the world.

We are also concerned about the re-distribution of wealth, the growth of the government, the shift away from our close relationship with Israel, the so-called re-set with Russia, the debacle in Iraq, the rush to the good war in Afghanistan, the timid negotiations with Iran over the development of nuclear weapons, the anti U.S. development of domestic energy attitude, including the Keystone Pipeline.

Enough is enough.

Read my new book, “INSIGHTS – Transforming America. Is This What We Fought for?”

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 110

IS THIS A GAME?

Yes it is, and the Republicans have not learned the rules yet. Time is running out and our team is behind. We have no offense and the defense is out coached. Coach Obama knows what he is doing but only his inner team has the playbook. To win the title for the next several generations he has to change capitalism into socialism, reduce America’s military power, give up our technology position in space exploration, give over control of much of our communications to a world body, abandon NATO, under fund the defense contractors, control energy production, expand the number of people dependent on government assistance, turn the civil service into a force to control opposition, abandon free market concepts and abolish political opposition. How is he doing?

We are dependent on the Russians to deliver people and supplies to the International Space Station. We no longer have the booster technology or the space vehicle to conduct space missions. We were once by far the world leader in space exploration. Now we are voluntarily taking a backseat to Russia and China. Space dominance and military power are closely coupled. Our space capability depended on skilled teams of civilians and military personnel. That capability would take several years to reconstitute. Obama can take a victory lap.

He is reducing our military manpower to below World War II levels. He knows his word on the world power stage is weak and he is okay with that. NATO nations no longer trust the United States nor do the NATO leaning nations of Eastern Europe. Power comes from capability and will, not speeches. How about armored divisions to prevent Russia from over running Europe. How? The U.S. Army does not have a single battle tank in Europe. Remember Benghazi? Our once vaunted military could not rescue or even try to rescue the embattled Americans in the Benghazi Consulate. Another victory lap for the president.

Control of energy. Without the hindering regulations from the Obama administration, we would now be a dominant energy exporter. Putin would have to develop another source of funds for his reconstruction of the Soviet Empire. Obama’s work to wreck the energy industry in America can be seen in the incredible failure to approve the Canadian pipeline, the heavy funding of alternative energy technologies that are decades away, and regulations preventing additional offshore drilling or more exploration and drilling on federal lands. Fortunately, he could not prevent the energy boom in the Dakotas. But he will try. A half victory lap here.

The economy. The recovery is very poor in job or gross national product terms. Real unemployment is above 12 percent. Money printing by the Keynesian Federal Reserve has kept the stock market sound but has increased the gap of wealth between those who can invest and those who need income from labor. Printing 75 billion or so each month does not help our workers. His first triumph, Obamacare, is not a failure. It is right on or ahead of schedule. It was never intended to improve health care in America, only to bring in socialized medicine. Obamacare is creating so much disruption in the health services that in a year or so, the single-payer system will come to the rescue. This has always been the plan. Another victory lap is awarded.

The civil service. I always thought that the civil service was an unheralded check on either the executive or the legislature grabbing too much power. Wrong. President Obama has taken less than six years to turn the IRS, HHS, DOJ, EPA, DHS, DOE, and parts of the intelligence and military staffs into active supporters. Nothing Obama does can be investigated by the government or the media. Congress doesn’t even understand what’s happening. Yes, Speaker Boehner, it is a game and you are losing badly. Learn the rules and do what your job calls for. The president earns another victory lap here.

If you can clear your head and look at what is happening and has happened, it should be clear that President Obama’s train did not wreck. He just needs to pass on his mantle to another progressive Alinksy-ite to build on what he has done. Could that be Hillary?

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Filed under Alinsky, Capitalism, class warfare, Eight Decades of Insights, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, Obamacare, Progressives

Tagged as Alinsky, Congress, Obamacare, Progressives

by Barry Kelly | June 17, 2013 · 8:19 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 57

OVERSIGHT?

Our Constitution, most state constitutions, judicial procedures and corporation bylaws, all contain checks and balances. All aspects of our republic purposely contain a system of checks and balances. The premise behind the need for such restraints is that people can be corrupt and power breeds corruption. Corruption in government and unchecked power can and will destroy individual liberty. It doesn’t matter which political party is in power, the motivation to use the full and unchecked power of government for ideological supremacy is always there. Our system of checks and balances relies on another principle for its effectiveness. The protector of viability of checks and balances is Congressional and Judicial oversight and an aggressive questioning press, which is the third, very important leg of oversight.

079 Capitol Hill United States Congress 1993 (Photo credit: David Holt London)

In our federal government structure, the Congress and the Courts provide the arms of oversight of the Executive. It is the Executive branch of our government whose management of the nation’s business contains the power to encroach on individual freedom in the name of security or in misguided attempts to destroy opposition to changing or transforming the American nation. Up until the last ten years the check and balance process has worked well with effective oversight.

In the 1980s and ’90s, the Executive often struggled to maintain its position of prominence in running the affairs of government. At times it seemed to those of us working in the Executive branch that Congress believed oversight meant management. Congressional staff members and reporters made their bones by ferreting out real and imagined overreaches and inefficiencies of the Executive. There was a constant stream of officers from various agencies marching up to testify in front of various committees. One Director of the CIA often commented, “That while CIA is an executive agency under the command of the President, CIA works equally for the Congress.” (This is not an exact quote but it is very close and was accurate at the time.)

The power and effectiveness of the oversight process has been steadily degraded. Four things are primarily responsible for the weakening of the oversight process.

First: The Executive Branch of Government has grown much larger, starting with President George W. Bush and continued by President Obama. The Congressional and Judicial Branches have not kept up.

Secondly: The media has become politically one-sided and ignores covering events that might be critical of President Obama. In doing so they have abrogated their historical position as a key element of the oversight process.

Thirdly: Only the Executive Branch has keep up with the technology necessary to improve the management and control of their branch of government.

Lastly: No one in the Legislative or Judicial Branches anticipated that a political party would so openly and ruthlessly use the power of the executive to destroy political opposition groups. There is scarcely a piece of the executive that has not stepped over traditional lines to seize and expand political power. A few examples of the most egregious are the IRS, EPA, the State Department, the Justice Department, ranking military officers, DEA, Immigrations, HHS, Department of Labor and others that will emerge if oversight regains its footing. How can we expect Congress to oversee the collection and use of information on U.S. Citizens if it cannot even provide oversight of the the IRS, one of the most bureaucratic and pervasive of all agencies? This is not over. Watch the Congressional hearing.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels. http://www.factsandfictions.com