Is The Republican Congress Becoming Irrelevant?

GOP-controlled state legislatures and governors are tackling some of the nation's most politically charged issues while their Washington brethren craw fish on their promises. This has caused many voters to wonder if Congressional Republicans have thrown in the towel less than one year after gaining impressive electoral victories.

On critical social and fiscal issues the states have run circles around timid Capitol Republicans. No one except the politically naive expected Democrats to do anything but sheepishly follow the president's lead. But Republicans were seen as the genuine Hope and Change that Americans were longing to embrace.

Judging from action rather than words, the GOP is in danger of crushing the momentum for reform that was the clarion call of the mid-term elections. It begs the question: Is the Republican-dominated House no longer relevant? You could made a case that the cesspool that is Washington politics has claimed another victim.

Here are just three examples of where states have gotten the message of the mid-term elections, while the Republican House has frittered away opportunities to do anything of substance:

ABORTION: Every election, Republicans vow to tackle abortion, promising to undo the government sanctioned unspeakable horror unleashed by the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision. As soon as the Republicans are sworn in, the issue fades like the setting sun. However, more Republican lawmakers in the states are showing the courage of their convictions. Most recently, legislators in both Indiana and Florida passed sweeping abortion restrictions. In Indiana, lawmakers cut funding to Planned Parenthood. Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry is poised to sign new legislation putting conditions on abortions. For their part, Republicans in Washington are continuing their unbroken streak of broken promises.

OBAMA CARE: The President's health care boondoggle was front and center in the mid-term elections. Republicans and even a few Democrats rode into office on a wave of anti-Obama Care sentiment. Yet other than a mostly symbolic vote by the House to defund the monstrous government plan, new requirements of the law are being funded and implemented every day. States, tired of waiting on Washington, have launched a fusillade of legal challenges, legislation and political maneuvers designed to block the implementation of federal reform that will bankrupt the country while destroying a world-class health care system. Virginia and 26 other states have gone to court to stop implementation, while seven states are considering legislation to "nullify" the law.

BUDGET DEFICITS: The federal deficit continues to grow even as Republicans and the President talk about massive cuts. So far it has been mostly posturing, head fakes and finger-pointing, with no significant action. Meanwhile, many states are wielding budget axes, making unpopular slashes in spending to reduce deficits. In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie took on the teacher's union and won. Wisconsin governor Scott Walker faced down runaway Democrats and the powerful union bosses to salvage historic savings in public sector pension and health care costs. Many other states, mostly controlled by Republicans, are following suit.

If states can muster the political courage to do the right thing, why can't our elected officials in Washington, especially Republicans? The answers go to the heart of what's wrong in the nation's capitol.

In January, freshmen Republicans parachuted into Washington packing a mandate to address the issues. However, they quickly have succumbed to the seduction of inside the Beltway perks, prestige and power. They worship at the feet of Washington media, hoping to curry favorable coverage. Principles have been sacrificed on the altar of compromise, the holy grail of entrenched politicians.

Examples abound of Republican retreats. The recent battle over the 2011 budget ended with a compromise that left spending at historically high levels. This month GOP House leaders revealed they had pulled back an overhaul of Medicare, hinting it was too politically volatile. Next up is the vote on raising the debt ceiling, which will likely conclude with another lopsided agreement in the House that allows the government to borrow trillions of dollars, mortgaging the country's future.

It is time for Republicans in Washington to do some of the heavy lifting on issues. Democrats won't make it easy because they are determined to neuter the GOP by insisting on compromise as the best way to achieve the nation's goals. However, Republicans risk becoming irrelevant if they are unwilling to stand for principle over deal-making.

New Rules For Air Traffic Controllers

TO: ALL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS
FROM: Transportation Secretary Ray N.D. Hood

It has come to my attention that some of you are snoozing on the job, endangering lives of the flying public. In an effort to safeguard the nation's skies, I have instituted the following rules, effective immediately:

1. Controllers will no longer be allowed to direct air traffic from their Sleep Number beds.

2. Instead of sheep, try counting the hair plugs on the top of Joe Biden's head, which are fewer in number.

3. Hang signs around the necks of sleeping air traffic controllers so we can tell them from the ones who are comatose.

4. Do not listen to country music, especially the group "Asleep at the Wheel."

5. If you must sleep, snoring is encouraged because it could wake up a fellow air controller and advert a mid-air collision.

6. Do not read any of Senator Harry Reid's speeches aloud because it may cause severe drowsiness and impair your vision.

7. Candy in the break room will be replaced with Viagra tablets to keep workers stimulated. However, if you are awake for more than four hours, please report it immediately to your doctor.

8. If you find yourself dozing off, rouse your supervisor from his deep sleep and ask to borrow his pillow so you can be more comfortable.

9. Snooze buttons located on the underside of each controller's work station should be removed and replaced with cattle prods.

10. Your government health care will no longer pay for medication to treat insomnia; however, anyone with the disease is now eligible for immediate promotion.

Debt Bomb Poised To Destroy America

As the amount of debt barrels toward the government's legal ceiling, President Obama and the Democrats have launched a media-aided campaign of fear-mongering to spook Republicans into capitulating on raising the limit.

With the president leading the chorus, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other acolytes have stumped through the complicit media, warning of a financial collapse if the debt limit does not budge from the current $14.294 trillion level.

When President Obama was inaugurated, the nation's debt stood at $10.626 trillion. In January of this year, debt steamrolled past the $14 trillion mark for the first time in the nation's history. At the current level, the tab for the debt would be $128,687 for every taxpayer.

What few Americans know is that the "real" government indebtedness is much higher than $14 trillion. If you included the unfunded liabilities such as Medicare and Social Security, the true national debt is a whopping $119.5 trillion, according to the Cato Institute.

President Obama's failed economic rescue plan, which served up pork barrel projects for Democrats, fueled $3.9 trillion in debt in just two years. Without drastic measures, economists predict Obama's spending could add $5.9 trillion to the nation's debt in just his first term. In eight years, President Bush and the mostly Democratic Congress totaled $4.5 trillion in new debt.

Strings of zeroes after dollar signs soon just become mind-numbing statistics. But it is time more Americans began paying attention to to the numbers. For example, if you look closely you will find that the United States is fast becoming another Greece, the beleaguered poster-child for runaway deficits and bloated debt.

When Greece hit the skids in late 2009, its deficit was 12.7 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). That country's total debt was 110 percent of GDP. Greece stumbled into a financial wall that necessitated a bailout by the European Union.

If you think it could never happen to the U.S., consider this: Last year the nation's deficit was 8.9 percent of the GDP. It is approaching ten percent this fiscal year and will surely reach that level in 2012, unless dramatic cuts are made.

For perspective, the federal deficit has breached 10 percent only four times in the country's history: the Civil War, World War I, World War II and 2008. Even in the Great Depression, the deficit's high water mark was 5 percent of GDP.

The U.S. debt was 97.3 percent of the nation's GDP as of the end of last month. The only constraint on the march to 100 percent is the current debt ceiling. Without Congressional action to move the limit higher, the federal government cannot legally borrow any more money.

That brings us back to the current Congressional crisis, which has been marked by scare tactics unrivaled in recent political memory. All the media and Democrat Party pundits are telling us that failing to increase the debt level will lead to another epic financial meltdown. If it sounds familiar, it's the same recycled argument that was used in the recent budget debate.

Congress should stop and ask a simple question: Do we want to lift the debt ceiling and watch as the United States of America becomes the next Greece? The numbers suggest we are not that far away.

The U.S. debt is already at its highest level in the country's history. Increasing the ceiling will only encourage more spending, more borrowing and more debt. Republicans keep promising to stem the debt tide, but each deal with Democrats produces no meaningful reduction in spending.

Many Americans may be immune to the debt issue, but others are clearly worried. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned the U.S. earlier this year to get its financial house in order. This month the ratings agency, Standard & Poor's, put the government on notice that it risks losing its AAA credit rating.

It is time for taxpayers to take a stand on this issue. Tell your Congressman or woman to vote "no" on raising the debt limit. If the debt continues unabated, the United States faces a fiscal time bomb that will destroy the economy and wipe out any hope of a return to prosperity.

Tax Day: Half of Americans Get a Pass

Nearly half of your fellow citizens shrugged their shoulders at today's filing deadline for federal income taxes. Unlike the rest of us saps, these Americans pay no income taxes to Washington. No wonder so few people are upset over President Obama's calls to raise taxes to pay for a bloated government.

According to the Tax Policy Center, 47 percent of Americans contributed nothing to funding the federal government through income taxes for 2009. This does not mean they avoided taxes altogether. Most had their paychecks docked for Social Security and Medicare.

Incredibly, 14 percent of Americans paid no federal taxes or payroll taxes. This is possible because the threshold for filing keeps being raised to accommodate the poverty level. Although no data exists, it is safe to assume many of these same people receive benefits for food, rent and other services from the government.

More than half of the nation's federal tax revenue came from the top 10 percent of earners, the center estimates. Those evil millionaires who make up the top five percent contributed 44 percent of all the revenue the federal government collected through income taxes from individuals and corporations in 2009.

Even that comparison may be unfair to the wealthy. Considering only individual tax returns, the top five percent of taxpayers paid far more than the bottom 95 percent. These individuals earned 34.7 percent of the nation's adjusted income yet shelled out the lion's share of federal income taxes. If you have listened to the media and the president, you would swear the rich were carried by the middle class.

Meanwhile, 52 million households not only paid no taxes but actually got back every penny withheld from their paychecks, reports The Tax Foundation. These figures are for tax returns filed in 2008, the latest year for which the data is available.

How did that happen? This is the result of a tax code that contains credits, deductions and exemptions valued at about $1.1 trillion, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate, an dependent watchdog organization. One of the most lucrative refund producers is the Earned Income Tax Credit for all sorts of government boondoggles. It includes credits for purchases of weatherproofing, for example.

This is why it is so disingenuous for the president to call on the most successful individuals to fork over an even larger share of the tax burden while many people pay not a single dime. Even if the rates on the top five percent were doubled, it wouldn't matter. There still would not be enough money to reduce the federal deficit to zero.

What America needs is significant tax reform to restore fairness. Every citizen should be required to pay for his or her government, even if the amount is only a few dollars. When people don't have to worry about who's funding government, they become dependent drones who happily vote for anyone who promises more federal handouts.

Paying taxes should be viewed as one of the costs of citizenship. When a country allows one group to be taxed while others escape responsibility, it is a nation that invites class warfare that will one day lead to financial ruin and anarchy.

Bogus Budget Cuts Insult Taxpayers

Imagine taxpayers' chagrin when they learned this week that $38 billion isn't what it used to be. It could happen only in Washington, where the President and both parties have tried to hoodwink Americans with a bogus budget agreement that offers little hope the country's deficit problem will ever be addressed responsibly.

While the Beltway in-crowd jockeyed to claim credit for reducing the 2011 budget by "historic" levels, it was left to the Congressional Budget Office to expose the shabby charade. It turns out the spending cuts were not as advertised.

After examining the proposed budget deal, the CBO determined that the planned reductions will only trim federal outlays by $352 million below 2010 spending. The nonpartisan budget agency's findings sent Washington politicians scrambling for cover.

Try as they might, the Capitol spin machine could not explain how $38 billion overnight became $352 million. According to the CBO, the plan used accounting gimmicks, cuts to reserve funds and counted funding that was not going to be spent in the current budget.

Under the agreement, the actual reductions are one-hundredth of what Republicans and Democrats trumpeted publicly when the deal was reached. This sham was foisted on the American public by a media that rushed to laud the downsizing before checking the facts.

Now that the truth has surfaced entrenched Washington politicos are still trying to sell the idea that this is a good deal for taxpayers. Their collective arrogance is an insult to every American of all political stripes.

Meanwhile, the federal deficit continues to march skyward. In just the first six months of the current fiscal year, the budget deficit zoomed up 15.7 percent. That staggering increase added another $829 billion to government debt.

At the current spending pace, the federal budget will bleed $1.4 trillion in red ink for the year. As a consequence, government debt will soon bump up against the $14.2 trillion debt ceiling. Raising the debt limit will require Congressional approval.

The media is salivating over another high stakes political battle like the one that just resulted in the budget trimming fiasco. Mainstream news outlets snookered Americans with coverage of the impending doom of a government shutdown. It spooked Republicans who caved as the clock ticked down.

Now President Obama is already daring Republicans to play "chicken" with the debt ceiling. When Obama was a senator, he voted against raising the debt limit, scolding then President Bush for his lack of leadership on deficit reduction. By the president's own definition, apparently the nation still has a leadership problem.

The president and his legions of foot soliders are warning that refusal to increase the debt ceiling will lead to financial Armageddon. Watch as the media takes up the chant. For their part, Republicans are talking bravely, but their leadership will crumble when the media heat reaches the boiling point.

Where does that leave ordinary citizens? Unfortunately, the less than 50 percent of Americans who actually pay taxes in the country are on the hook to pick up the tab for Washington's refusal to enact meaningful budget reform.

It is a sorry state of affairs. The government will continue to grow. Budgets will get fatter. Washington will borrow more money. The country will sink deeper into debt and prospects for economic growth will dim.

Our political leaders should be ashamed. Instead they want us to believe they are now really getting serious about shaving the deficit. Based on the budget deal, nothing could be further from the truth.

Birth Tourism: Your Tax Dollars At Work

Most taxpayers have never heard of the thriving cottage industry of birth tourism. Thousands of foreigners are traveling to the United States under false pretenses each year for the sole purpose of giving birth to a child.

Often these pregnant women enter our country on temporary stays granted by the government. Some obtain student visas. Others arrive as guest workers. Those who can't get some kind of temporary status come as tourists.

Many, but not all, new arrivals receive free health care. But the real prize is something worth a lot more. Under the law, any child born in the United States automatically becomes a citizen. It matters not that the woman is a citizen of another country or that she may have arrived illegally.

No wonder birth tourism is booming. California officials recently shut down a makeshift maternity ward in San Gabriel that was catering to birth tourists from China. For a fee, Chinese women were given a chance to deliver their babies in the U.S. to guarantee citizenship.

When they raided the location, officials found 10 mothers and seven newborns living in three townhouses that had been converted into maternity wards. According to authorities, Southern California has become a hub for the nascent industry.

The Center for Immigration Studies recently released a report showing that nearly 200,000 children were born in the U.S. to temporary foreign visitors. In at least 20 percent of these cases, the women came to the country for the sole purpose of giving birth.

Those statistics only tell half the story. The study also found that another 300,000 children are born to daughters of illegal alien parents each year. The government automatically confers citizenship on those children.

You're excused if you have never heard about these issues. The mainstream media has deliberately suppressed the news because it does not fit with their immigration views. However, a group of congressmen has taken notice.

More than 70 House members have signed on as sponsors of the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 (HR 140), introduced by Republican representative Steve King of Iowa. The bill would require at least one parent to be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident for a newborn to receive automatic citizenship.

The proposal makes so much sense that its chances of becoming law are almost nil. Opponents will claim that bill flies in the face of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which grants citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States.

The amendment, ratified by the states in 1868, was originally aimed at providing citizenship to children born of African slaves. Supporters never imagined the law would be abused by foreigners bent on gaining citizenship for their babies.

Proponents of HR140 contend the amendment gives Congress the authority to define birthright citizenship. The United States is one of only two industrialized nations--the other is Canada--to grant birthright citizenship. By the way, Mexico has no such law. Yet Mexican officials support birthright citizenship in the U.S.

If the birthright bill ever becomes law, it likely will land in the laps of the Supreme Court justices. Democrats will no doubt challenge the law on the basis that the 14th Amendment cannot be altered in any way.

Meanwhile, taxpayers must pick up the tab for this foreign exploitation. They are on the hook for health care for the mother and newborn. Once the babies are U.S. citizens, they have the same rights as all Americans, including access to free government medical and welfare programs.

No question these are unintended consequences of the 14th Amendment. Now it is up to Congress to fix the mess. It will require political courage because the Democrats, Latinos and immigration activists will take umbrage.

Unfortunately, political courage is one commodity in short supply in Washington these days.

Fed Secretly Bails Out Big Foreign Banks

At the height of the economic crisis when consumers and businesses were starved for credit, the Federal Reserve tossed a lifeline to foreign banks. The agency made a mind-boggling $274.1 billion in loans to non-U.S. institutions and then deliberately concealed the information from the public.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the bearded banking bungler, orchestrated the lending and then battled for the past two years to keep the loans secret. The U.S. Supreme Court stepped in last week and ordered the information to be released to the public. As a result, Bernanke's already wounded credibility suffered a mortal blow.

In his defense, Bernanke protested weakly that allowing news of the loans to become public would have negatively affected the foreign banks. Perhaps, that could have been argued with some credibility at the time the loans were made. But two years after the fact? That's sheer nonsense.

Moments after the disclosures were made, Texas representative Ron Paul announced plans to hold public hearings on the Fed's decision to shovel out gargantuan loans to foreign banks. In a statement, Paul said he was "deeply disturbed" to learn of the "staggering" size of the loans. Like Paul, most Americans were outraged.

However, the always compliant news media dutifully buried the details. USA Today ran a one-inch brief on the front of its business page. Others in the print cheering section sheepishly followed. What should have been front page coverage became another excuse for the media to remind the public that the loans saved America from the brink of disaster.

The media's argument is hogwash. Branch offices of foreign-owned banks took advantage of the Fed's generous lending program to avoid pumping capital from Europe, Asia and China into their U.S. subsidiaries. In addition, the favorable loans provided the opportunity for foreign banks to double-dip because most received bailout money in their home countries, too.

Unfortunately, what the Fed did was not illegal. The Monetary Control Act of 1980 allows foreign banks with reserves at the Fed to take advantage of what is called a discount-window credit, a policy that allows institutions to borrow money from the central bank at below market rates.

The Fed was quick to point out that all the loans had been repaid with interest in an attempt to justify their actions. Bernanke and other Fed board members seemed perplexed at the idea their methods were being called into question.

However, the Fed's defense fails to address the larger question of how those billions might have otherwise been spent. For example, billions could have been used to bail out U.S. homeowners battling foreclosure. Millions could have been lent to credit-squeezed small businesses that could no longer get loans after the crisis hit. And what about those consumers who couldn't find lending for cars, refrigerators and other goods?

Instead of looking out for taxpayers, the government thumbed its nose at consumers and businesses by taking billions of dollars out of circulation and handing it over to foreign bankers.

Propping up foreign banks has done nothing to restore the American economy. Zero. Nada. Zilch. No amount of news coverage or economic mumbo jumbo will change that fact. That's why Ron Paul is right to demand an explanation from Bernanke on two counts: lending the money in the first place and then hiding the fact.

More Americans need to know what happened behind closed doors. Public airing of the Fed's sleazy behavior is the only way to ensure that Bernanke and the Fed are held accountable for the billions of dollars the central bank oversees.

Factoids That You Can Use

Using your cell phone to make payments for merchandise is the next technology wave poised to hit the wireless industry. Although its not a new idea, implementation has been slow in the U.S. compared to Asia, Europe and other countries. Now more software providers are knitting the capability into their operating systems for smartphones. Microsoft recently hinted it planned to make the software available soon. Google already has bolted on payment capability in its Android operating system for cell phones. Wireless observers expect Apple to soon upgrade its software to match Goggle. Retailers are also gearing up with transaction scanners that work with wireless handsets. Starbucks already has inserted the readers at cash registers in most of their stores. In 2010, mobile payments for goods and services topped the $30 billion mark globally. Gartner research expects the figure to mushroom to $245 billion by 2014. Handset manufacturers have taken notice. According to Gartner, cell phones shipped with the payment software will reach 35 million by the end of this year. That number is expected to double by next year. By 2014, Gartner projects that 340 million global wireless users will make payments for merchandise with a tap on the handset screen.