GOP: A Party Searching For A Strategy

President Obama's approval ratings are sagging.  Most Americans believe the economy stinks. Consumer confidence is flagging.  The stock of Republicans should be rising, right?  Instead the GOP brand has lost some of its sheen because of a void of ideas and leadership.

The party's lowpoint may have been the Republican National Committee's chief squawking about plans by two networks to air fawning series on presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Who cares about a Hillary tube love fest?  Further proof the party has lost its way. 

The most critical issue facing Republicans is a leadership vacuum. House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are mealy-mouthed, boring and bereft of bold ideas. While colleagues may hold them in high esteem, the duo has been the perfect antidote for voters' insomnia.

A few well-meaning Republicans have tiptoed into the chasm, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.  But they speak for themselves, not for the entire party.  And that has been the problem because voters are getting mixed signals from a chorus of Republican voices.

During the current Congressional recess, Republicans need to reassess their strategy, create a cogent message and reshape their agenda to address a few key issues that resonate with voters. They must silence the cacophony of competing messages and unify behind themes that ignite voter enthusiasm. Right now the GOP is chasing issues like a Kardashian panting after a wealthy bachelor.

Based on past performance, a new direction may be too much to expect of this crop of Republicans. The blame lies entirely with Boehner and McConnell. Republicans must start by designating someone else in the House and Senate to speak for the party. Egos will be shattered, but victory often demands sacrifices.

Once the titular leaders are in place, the party must reclaim the higher ground by focusing its message and actions on three issues:

• OBAMA CARE:   The new health law is overwhelmingly unpopular with voters.  Rasmussen pollsters found 54 percent of likely voters view the healthcare reform unfavorably. However, defunding Obama Care is a dumb idea because Democrats hold the advantage by virture of their control of the Senate and of the White House. Instead, the GOP should force Democrats to defend a law that has been poorly implemented, ineffectively communicated and grossly more expensive than original estimates. The more voters experience the law, the more they will dislike the quality of care.  The GOP needs to hammer Democrats on healthcare while offering an alternative plan that is simple, cost-effective and patient-friendly to replace the flawed reform.  Voters want answers not just objections to current law.
• ECONOMY:  A stunning 54 percent of Americans believe the U.S. economy remains in a recession, according to a Marist Poll.  Only 29 percent think they will be better off next year. Yet Republicans have quit talking about the economy, although it remains the top issue with voters according to the Gallup Poll. The GOP needs to develop an economic plan that creates incentives for businesses to invest and rewards small firms that create jobs.  Nothing more complicated.  
• NATIONAL DEBT: Congressional battles over government funding leave most Americans confused and angry.  However, there is universal sentiment that the country's debt has grown too big at $16.9 trillion and mounting.  That's why the deficit matters.  Talk of a government shutdown only strengthens Obama's hand because the president has the opportunity to cherry pick the programs slated for the budget axe.  What's needed is a coherent plan to reduce the deficit. Fortunately, one already exists.  It is called the One Percent Spending Reduction Act, a bill to shave one penny out of every dollar of federal government expenditures.  It can be easily explained and understood by voters.

If Republicans slither back into the cesspool of Washington politics with the same disjointed messages, the same worn-out ideas and the same tired leadership faces, then the party deserves to be soundly rejected by voters. Without change, they will fumble a golden opportunity to recapture the upper hand now enjoyed by President Obama. 

Brash ideas not parsed language are needed.  Dynamic leadership not weak-kneed posturing is required.  Unity not mutiny is necessary. Wake up Republicans before the dinosaur replaces the elephant as the party symbol.  Time to be relevant again.  

Obamacare: Why AARP $old Out Seniors

The American Association for Retired Persons (AARP), an organization that represents seniors, owes its members an explanation of why it lobbied for healthcare reform that will strip billions of dollars from Medicare, threatening the solvency of the entitlement program.

Under Obamacare, the federal government will siphon an estimated $575 billion from Medicare to fund other parts of the healthcare law. The shearing will weaken Medicare, already burdened with an unfunded liability of $38 trillion.

AARP, with a membership of 35 million, used its financial and political muscle to help shove through Obamacare in 2010.  At the time, independent polling showed a majority of seniors did not support government takeover of the healthcare industry.

In exchange for its backing, the interest group obtained a sweetheart financial deal in the new healthcare law.  Under Obamacare, AARP will have a competitive advantage in peddling what's called Medigap insurance, which covers services and treatments Medicare doesn't.

That's no small matter because one-fourth of all seniors are currently covered by Medicare Advantage plans offered by private insurers. These firms are AARP's largest competitors in the field of Medigap insurance.  Changes inserted into Obamacare gifted AARP with a financial windfall.

But the Obama Administration's political favors didn't end there.  The Health and Human Services Department has granted AARP a waiver, exempting the group from government oversight of the price it charges seniors for Medigap coverage.  Private insurers have no such arrangement.

If there appears to be a disconnect, that's because AARP leads a schizophrenic existence.  On one hand, it professes to be a non-profit, supposedly non-partisan, organization.  But it also has a marketing arm that sells for-profit services, including insurance, investments and retirement planning.

Although AARP rakes in millions of dollars from its members, the organization feeds at the government trough.  Last year, taxpayers forked over $585 million to AARP in federal grants and Medicare payments.  Without taxpayer assistance, AARP would scramble to break-even.

With a hand-picked Obama donor in charge at AARP,  the group scooped up an $18 million grant as part of the economic stimulus package in 2009.   It needed the money because the organization spends lavishly, including frittering away $80 million annually for lobbying activities.

Most AARP members are clueless about the organization's advocacy campaigns.  Membership mostly views AARP as a source for discounts at hotels, restaurants, pharmacies and other firms. They are in for a rude awakening once they discover the impact Obamacare will have on their health care.

As a result of Medicare reductions and new requirements imposed on physicians, seniors' access to health care services will be effected. Many physicians are already posting signs in their waiting rooms warning they will no longer accept new Medicare patients.

To make matters worse, Obamacare will trim the reimbursements physicians receive for treatment and services.  Medicare currently pays less than private insurers for the same treatment and services.  Obamacare will exacerbate the difference, forcing doctors to shun Medicare patients.

There are countless other adverse changes, including rationing of cancer treatment based on a patient's age.  Another revision puts new restrictions on emergency room admissions paid for by Medicare. Unless a patient's primary physician orders emergency care, the government will not pay.

As a result, seniors best days for health care are behind them.  Beginning in 2014, they will bear the burden of President Obama's costly $2 trillion experiment in government health care.  Seniors have suffered a cold calculated betrayal at the hands of profit-hungry AARP and the president.

Al and Jesse: Fixated On Race Not Solutions

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.  They preened before television cameras after the high-profile trial of George Zimmerman, acquitted of murder charges in the shooting death of a 17-year old black teenager.  But the self-anointed civil rights leaders are invisible in the battle to save black communities.

The two race agitators have failed the many African-Americans they profess to represent by turning a blind eye to the problems obstructing progress within the black community.  They have remained silent as black crime soared, children grew up fatherless and school graduation rates slumped.

Instead the faux leaders have moralized that African-Americans are victims of inherent racism that exists throughout society.  They have sermonized about the need for more government intervention and assistance to lift their people out of the depths of poverty and dependence.

Their grandstanding has done nothing to improve black communities.

Statistics offer a graphic but grim snapshot of what really plagues the black community.  These numbers were culled from published reports by the NAACP, Bureau of Justice, Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Health.

To put the figures in perspective, African-Americans make up 14 percent of the U.S. population, according to the latest census.     

• More than 72 percent of births to black women are out of wedlock.  Poverty rates for unmarried women are 70.8 percent compared to 29.2 percent for married households.
• A full 67 percent of black children under the age of 18 live in a household with a single parent, compared to 25 percent for whites. Black women are more often head of these households.
• Of all the women living with HIV in the country, approximately 66 percent are African-American women.  Most of the women (87 percent) contracted HIV by having unprotected sex.
• Only 61 percent of black students graduate from high school, compared to 82 percent for white and 91 percent of Asians. Education has the strongest influence on income and hiring.
• About 35 percent of black youths in grades seven through twelve are suspended or expelled at some point in their school career.  That compares to 16 percent for all other students.  
• One in 15 black men are imprisoned at some time in their lives, compared to one in every 106 white males.  The racial composition of U.S. prisons and jails is 60.2 percent African-American. 
• Forty-three percent of all murder victims are African-American.  An overwhelming number (93.1 percent) were killed by blacks.  

With issues like these in the African-American community, it is not surprising that unemployment in July among blacks was 12.6 percent, compared to 7.4 percent overall.  Twenty-eight percent of all African-Americans live in poverty, an increase since 2005.

But Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are not the only ones who have been derelict.  The nation's first African-American president hasn't done much to raise the standard of living for blacks.  President Obama can only claim to have expanded food stamp benefits to more Americans than ever.

But handouts are not the catalyst needed to snap the cycle of poverty, crime and joblessness in the black community.  Fearless leadership is required to address the issues facing African-Americans, instead of allowing cowardly apostles of race to preach the gospel of victimhood.

In the meantime, don't look to Al, Jesse or Obama for forthright leadership.     

Obama's Secret War To Turn Texas Blue

Attorney General Eric Holder recently lobbed a political grenade into Texas as the Obama Administration stepped up his battle to break the Republican stranglehold on the Lone Star State. The vengeful Holder wants Texas to seek Justice Department approval for any changes in election laws.

Holder claims to be upset over Texas' voter ID law, despite a Supreme Court decision upholding the right of states to protect the integrity of elections through such means.  But Holder's maneuver is nothing more than a smokescreen for the administration's covert effort to turn Texas blue (Democrat).

The attorney general is angling to stick his nose into the state's redistricting plans so his department can manipulate the drawing of House districts to favor Democrats.  His legal posturing leaves no doubt this is about partisan politics, not the protection of voting rights.

What rankles Holder and his boss is this:  Republicans control both Texas Senate seats and have a lopsided majority in the House, claiming 24 of the 36 slots.  To make matters worse, some of the most vocal criticism of Obama's liberal agenda has been aired by Texas senators and representatives.
 
Obama and Holder are eyeing the 2014 mid-term elections, when they hope to reclaim the House of Representatives.  Republicans hold a 234-200 advantage in House seats.  With half of the House seats up for grabs next year, a Democrat victory would erase all opposition to Obama's radical agenda.

Obama political operatives have created a front organization, called "Battleground Texas," to raise funds, recruit volunteers and register voters in Texas.  Massive amounts of data have been collected by the group to zero in on Hispanics and women, traditional Democrat leaning groups.

Heading the organization are Jeane Brown and Jeremy Bird, the Obama campaign's former national field director.  Major fundraising efforts are already underway, including a March event held in Washington, D.C. headlined by San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, a Democrat frequently mentioned as a future gubernatorial candidate.

The effort obviously has the president's support.  Obama made ten trips to Texas, not including fundraisers, from 2009 to the end of last year, according to White House records.  He has already parachuted into the state twice this year to preach the Democrat campaign message.

What makes Obama and Democrats salivate is the decline of the white population in Texas and the growth of the Hispanic demographic.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics now comprise 38.1 percent of the Texas population, an increase from 32 percent in the 2000 census.

A Democrat demographer has forecast Hispanics will become a plurality in Texas as soon 2025. The prediction, based on census data and birth rate statistics, puts the Hispanic share of the population at 44 percent in 12 years.  Whites are estimated to be 38 percent.

However, Hispanic voter turnout in Texas has been traditionally low. In the last presidential election, only 38 percent of Hispanics turned up at the polls.  That compares to 48 percent of Hispanics nationwide.

That explains why Democrats are targeting Hispanics.  The Obama brigade wants to increase registration and voter turnout among this key demographic.    

Republicans are advised not to underestimate the Obama offensive.  The president's agents used the same tactic in Colorado to turn the former red state into a deep blue pocket of liberalism.  In 2007, Democrats took control of the state for the first time in more than 40 years.

The usual suspects have shown up to back the Democrat blitzkrieg in Texas.  Planned Parenthood officials have attended fundraisers. Clinton adviser Paul Begala was a featured speaker at one event. Hispanic community activists are also prominent in the camouflaged operation.

However, whispers of the Democrat cloak-and-dagger operation have reached Texas Republicans.

A  conservative organization, FreedomWorks, has announced plans to lead the fight to mobilize volunteers and activists to counter the Democrat chicanery.  Conservatives had better rally to defeat the president's political machine if they hope to keep taxes low, government small and freedom flourishing in Texas.

If Obama's surrogates succeed, there will be a lot of blue Texans.