Tag Archives: politics

by Barry Kelly | July 3, 2014 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 123

CUT OFF THE CASH

What is Speaker Boehner thinking? Suing President Obama is a sham. Our founders gave the speaker enough power to defend the Congress, only he is afraid to use it. Instead he decided to whine to the courts. “The President stole my toys.” Come on, grow up here.

The House of Representatives appropriates all federal government expenditures. As the Speaker of the House, he controls the appropriation process. The president has no access to funds unless the House of Representatives appropriates them. So what’s the problem?

The problem is that the speaker is afraid he and the Republicans will be blamed for shutting down the government. Nonsense. Essential functions can be funded and it is the president who shuts down the government because he wants it all.

Look at the last fiasco, because the House wanted the president to delay the implementation of a piece of the Affordable Care Act, the president decided deliberately to shut down parts of the government that hurt the people rather than negotiate or comprise. As usual, the teleprompter won the war of words.

The Republican establishment let Obama define the issue. As a result, people blamed the Republicans for shutting down parts of the government. Senator Ted Cruz had to go to the House to persuade the Representatives to use their funding power. The House leadership is not being responsible to their constitutional grant of power nor to the people they go to Washington to serve. The speaker would have us believe he is leading the charge to protect the constitution and curb Obama’s imperial presidency. It is all smoke and mirrors.

If the speaker and the Republicans in the House don’t use their constitutional powers to appropriate or not appropriate funds for the government to protect our freedom, provide a strong, well-equipped military, and grow our economy, they are not worthy of our support or trust. There is not much of that left.

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Tagged as boehner, cash, government, Obama, politics, representatives, speaker of the house

by Barry Kelly | July 3, 2014 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 135

KING OF CHAOS

Were you listening when candidate and president-elect Barack Obama read from his teleprompter? He didn’t say he was going to lead America to new heights and work to fix the nation’s problems. No! He said he was going to transform America.

That was a new word for most of us. We are accustomed to the soaring rhetoric of politicians. They speak in sound bites and “transform America” did not sound ominous. But it was. We just weren’t listening.

We expected needed fixes to our health care, more spending, attention to welfare programs and a less aggressive foreign policy approach, but most of us did not expect the onslaught on America’s holy grail of individual freedoms, constitutional lines of the separation of powers, and our economic and military power. The usual Democratic Party’s fixation on the distribution of wealth by government degree rather than on the more for everyone by expanding our economy was also understood.

After nearly six years, even the most apology-prone elements of American politics recognize the Obama game plan is new and different. The dumbest members of our society seem to be located in Congress and refer to themselves as Republicans. They, as usual, are out of step with their constituents. The speaker, the only Republican who holds real power, doesn’t understand the rules of the game have changed. For some reason, he is afraid of using his real power, the constitutional power of the House to control the allocation of tax dollars to challenge the president’s expansion of executive power, the inordinate increase of the size and scoop of government, the political corruption of the civil service, the deliberate weakening of our armed forces, and the over regulation of our economy, especially the energy sector.

Instead, the House Republicans, under the Speaker’s leadership, are actively tilting at each issue Obama selects. They just don’t understand this president is not about working problems or fixing issues for the good of the nation. President Obama doesn’t care a smidgeon about solving problems, domestic or foreign.

He is focused on transforming America.

All issues are used to destroy the opposition by making them appear to be on the wrong side of all issues. Obama is willing to change his position on any issue at any time, if the change will help him destroy the opposition and get on with the real stuff of destroying individual freedoms, institutions, constitutional limits, traditional foreign alliances, our capitalist economy, and military power. You see, to transform, you must first destroy. In President Obama’s playbook chaos is good. It makes change easier.

He doesn’t care if you sue him. The law is on his side. It is called Holder Law.

Read “INSIGHTS: Transforming America — Is this what we fought for?”

http://www.factsandfictions.com

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS — 119

HEY GOP, LISTEN UP (AGAIN)

(In light of Eric Cantor losing his seat in the primaries this week, I thought it prudent to republish this former blog. It’s important.)

Conservatives are tired of Republicans who turn to big government and unlimited spending to solve the nation’s problems. The Republican politicians who are too frightened to stand up for their principles and instead play the “go along to get along” game got their share of criticism. The message I hear from the conservative people is simple: control spending, limit the size and scope of government to what is necessary, maintain the strength of our armed forces, regain the lost respect for American power on the international front, and most of all protect our Constitutional rights.

A clear message. But I doubt the Republican establishment hears the message and those who hear it don’t understand it. The people who make this country work and finance the government are fed up. They aren’t demanding much, just the chance to have and keep a job, raise their kids in a safe environment, send them to a school that gives them the opportunity to get a good education, be able to find and pay for good medical care, live in a nation that honors and takes care of its veterans, have leaders they respect to maintain American excellence and military power, and, where possible, encourage the growth of individual freedom everywhere. That’s what they want and expect to get. Save “change America and transformation” for the make-believe world where it comes from.

There is strong support for term limits for Congress that would encourage citizen politicians to serve their nation for four terms in the House and two terms in the Senate. Our professional politicians get so wrapped up in the quest to get elected and stay elected, they lose sight of why they are there. They are not there to serve themselves, but to serve the people who sent them to Washington or their state capitals. There are a few who are trying to save the nation from an alien transformation but they are often criticized and ridiculed by their own party leaders who are truly professionals whose main task is to get elected for yet another term.

These same Republican leaders think that the transformation of America will fall of its own weight and are taking a terrible chance with our way of life. Instead of keeping their powder dry they need to get in the fray, protect their Constitutional right to make laws, and give the nation another vision of the shining city on a hilltop. Tell us your plans for health care, military force levels, foreign policy, tax reform, protection of social security, employment growth, and the reduction of the size and scope of a government that has outgrown its required role.

We don’t need or want class warfare, redistribution of wealth or any of the other parts of progressivism/socialism. We just need a common sense government that takes care of those who are too young, or too old, or too sick to work. We can work together. Government isn’t hard. Just listen to the people. Their voices can be heard.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels, a retired CIA agent and former adviser to President Reagan. You are encouraged to share this blog and leave comments.

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Filed under class warfare, Conservative views, political solutions, Politics

Tagged as Conservatives, eric cantor, GOP, politics, Republicans

by Barry Kelly | May 6, 2014 · 6:06 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 112

WHAT IS THE SCORE?

The president’s polls are dropping. He long ago slipped under the fifty percent favorability rating. The majority of the population believes he lies and doesn’t pay any heed to the transparency issue. For example:

His delaying tactics on the ‘Fast and Furious’ gun-running episode
IRS scandal of discriminating against conservative political groups
the facts of the deaths of four Americans in the Benghazi terrorist attack
the anti-Muslim video talking points by Susan Rice
the monitoring of journalists phones, and the infamous,”If you like your health care, you can keep your health care, period” lie

This is a terrible record of over-the-line actions that is matched by Obama’s failure to solve a single problem in either domestic or foreign policy. Syria, Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, Iran, and Israel highlight his foreign policy. Obamacare, energy, job creation, thousands of government regulations that slow or kill economic progress, class warfare, and his fixation on income redistribution showcase a failed domestic policy.

Judged by those traditional issues that presidents have always been rated by, his is a failed presidency. But what if a successful presidency by our terms is not his agenda? What if he is the first American president not to care one bit about solving problems? In that case, he would be judged by progressive insiders to be very successful.

He may not be a leader or an experienced manager, but he is not dumb or stupid. How then can he be doing so poorly in the eyes of the opposition who think all they have to do is wait for the 2016 election? The answer cannot be found in the traditional leadership of the Republican Party, which has failed to understand Obama is not playing the traditional game of a president struggling with a non-supporting Congress.

A progressive jury would give Obama high marks. He has set in motion a universal health care system that will nearly destroy the America traditional medical care system. The health care in America will soon be in such chaos that the progressives will be able to bring in their long-wanted ‘single payer’ system, which is really just socialized medicine. One seventh of the economy will then be under government control.

Obama’s energy policy is preventing America from becoming self-sufficient in the production, refinement, and marketing of natural gas, coal, and oil. This policy of the EPA fossil fuel haters prevents economic growth and maintains a high unemployment and under employment rate. Welfare systems have expanded beyond any rational hope of sustainability. The national debt will cripple a stagnant economy.

Obama has successfully sown all the seeds of destroying what he inherited so he can proceed with transforming America. He has made no secret of his plan to destroy America’s military and economic power and move toward socialism and one world government. If only the real Democrats, independents, and Republicans would get their heads out of the sand and recognize Obama is winning by his rules. His opponents don’t even have a rule book.

Spread the word. Save the nation.

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Tagged as Obama, politics, Progressives, rating, socialism

by Barry Kelly | April 10, 2014 · 6:06 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 109

BACK TO AMERICA

Let’s pretend it’s November 10th, 2016. Hopefully the American people elected Republican president. We do not want to hear any “them and us” rhetoric nor anything about “saving the middle class.” We want the government to get out of the way of the middle class so those people can help themselves, as they are fully capable of doing. We do not want to hear any speeches with a class warfare message. No “fair shots” or “leveling the playing field” or “income equality” or excuses for American excellence or military power. Nothing should be delegated to internationalism and no more whining about global warming nor cap and trade.

Here’s what needs and should be on his or her agenda for the first year of his or her presidency to get America back on the right track (or at least off the wrong track that Obama put us on for the past eight years):

— Focus on the economy, and part of that is dealing with Obamacare. Most of it has to be destroyed. The next president should want to make sure all Americans have access to medical care that offers things like no cancellations for pre-existing conditions and allows sons and daughters to remain on their parent’s policies until age 26. People should own their health insurance polices, so they can take them from job to job. The IRS should be removed from the health insurance field and so should HHS. Insurance companies will be allowed to trade across state lines. Tort reform will be part of the plan. States will have most of the responsibilities. Beyond a few necessary functions the national government will have no health insurance management responsibilities. The new health legislation will be series of bills passed and implemented on a step-by-step basis.

–Immigration will be dealt with in the same way. There are enough bipartisan votes to deal with immigration one piece at a time. First the border is fixed so thousands of people crossing the border illegally is stopped without being killed. Better leadership at the top level of border enforcement is a must and a new justice department is part of the fix. We will not deport millions of people who have been here for years nor are we going to break up families. However, those who break our laws, commit crimes, or belong to a violent gang are out of here.

–A new bipartisan tax structure should be ongoing in the first hundred days. The speaker and the majority leader should select a bipartisan committee of senators and representatives who are not from the no-compromise ideologue wings of either party. Spending needs to be put under control and a growth-friendly tax policy is a way to start. The tax policy will include everyone. It is not a healthy economy that has less than half of its citizens paying all the federal income tax load. Cutting out loopholes, phasing out subsidies, allowing U.S. companies to bring wealth home without penalty, abolishing death taxes, and a tax code the average citizen can understand must all be part of tax reform.

–The energy policy will get rid of the regulatory baggage that is killing the energy industry. Some oversight is required, but minimal. At the end of the president’s first term, America can be a significant energy exporter and thousands of well-paying jobs can be created.

–A bill should be introduced that prohibits bailouts of private industries. There is a process for that already and it is called bankruptcy. The Federal Reserve is one area that may need more regulation. It is essentially a system of private banks that function without sufficient oversight.

–Social welfare programs gradually need to be brought into a solid financial status. A number of incremental small changes will have enough bipartisan support to pass without a inter-party battle.

–The education system is broken but it is not the job of the federal government to manage education. That function is left to the states and localities. Charter schools or vouchers to parents will be encouraged.

–The military force needs emergency funding to build up the force level, provide new weaponry, take better care of veterans, and improve the ability now to move and support military power. Strength and peace are linked.The G.I. Bill that provides college tuition linked to years served should be reinstated. Many nations, like Putin’s Russia, respect only strength. No more wimpy rhetoric coming off teleprompters. There is a real war with terrorism going on, so we should call it that.

–Foreign policy should be a function of the people assigned to the Cabinet. It should support democracy everywhere and resist totalitarian governments of all kinds, including those run by extremist clerics. It should be clear that unless Muslim nations accept Israel as a nation, they can not count America as an ally.

–Environmental policies should be based on strong scientific evidence, not on the ideology of bureaucrats.

–A bipartisan group of politicians, industry people, and academics should be called upon to validate or cancel current regulations.

–Judges should be nominated to our national courts who have demonstrated they adhere to Constitutional and existing laws when making decisions.

What do you think?