Saddled with an increasingly unpopular president, a pedestrian economy and a loathsome health care law, Democrats are desperate to find an issue to avoid the carnage of another mid-term election. Unless they are successful, Republicans will tighten their grip on the House and claim the Senate.
Faced with dire electoral prospects, strategists in the Democrat Party have hatched a plan to trot out a tried-and-true false accusation: "Republicans have declared war on women." The evil GOP wants to control a woman's reproductive organs, dictate their sexual behavior and steal their free contraceptives.
It is easy to dismiss this Democrat obsession with a woman's libido as nothing more than political skulduggery. However, Republicans cannot shrink from rebutting the charges. In 2012, the presidential election tilted to Obama on the basis of the female vote.
According to Gallup polling, Republican Mitt Romney won 44 percent of the women's vote while Obama racked up 56 percent. Romney took the male vote 54 to 46 percent. The 20-point gender gap represented the largest ever recorded since Gallup began compiling the vote by subgroups in 1952.
Hoping to capitalize on that success, Democrat operatives will fan out across the country arming their candidates with attack ads that portray their GOP opponents as Neanderthals who want to enslave women. As preposterous as the charge sounds, many women are inclined to believe the rhetoric.
Unfortunately, Republicans have only themselves to blame. Too many candidates carrying the GOP banner have waded into the abortion quicksand and been swallowed up by their own stupidity. Ill advised comments about rape, sexual promiscuity and female reproduction have soured women voters.
Republicans have often taken the abortion bait dangled by Democrats. GOP candidates should make it their mantra to refer to the Supreme Court decision on abortion. Nothing more needs to be or should be said. It seems imbecilic to focus a campaign on abortion when the world is imploding.
If Democrats want to debate abortion, then Republicans can turn the issue back on their opponents. In overwhelming numbers, females are against late term abortions. Witness last year's grisly trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell. No abortion-rights advocate leaped to his defense.
Only the Democrat far left believes crushing a baby's skull in mid-delivery is justified. The rest of the nation, including most women, are horrified by the prospect.
Abortion is just one issue Democrats will employ to flummox Republicans. Expect the party of donkeys to bray about the gender pay gap and tie it to the minimum wage hike opposed by Republicans. Although the two are separate issues, that won't stop Democrats from linking them.
A Pew Research analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics found that minimum wage earners are predominantly women: 62% versus 38% who are men. However, they represent less than three percent of all workers. Already, 21 states have adopted higher minimum wage laws than the federal level.
Each state should have the right to decide the minimum wage in their locality based on living costs, economic conditions and prevailing pay scales. The federal government has no business telling a Texas cafe owner the appropriate wage for a waitress. Republicans should support each state's right to decide.
On the larger issue, equal pay is federal law. Every Republican should support the same pay for women and men. Companies that allow a disparity in pay should be prosecuted with the full force of the law. The gap persists because the government has sat on its hands instead of enforcing the law.
Ironically, some of the biggest offenders are the same Hollywood crowd that opens its wallets to Democrats. The Women's Media Center recently issued its third annual report on the Status of Women in the U.S. Media. The results were eyeopening.
The report found women represented just 28.8 percent of the roles in the top grossing films , held just 16 percent of the movie executive jobs and the top 16 paid actors were all men. In other media, such as talk radio and television, women are lower paid and less visible than their male counterparts.
Of course, the biggest hypocrite is President Obama. Data released by the White House in July shows men on Team Obama are paid an average of 13 percent more than women. This gap has not shrunk one iota since Obama strutted into the White House in 2009.
Republicans have an opportunity in the mid-term elections to bury the myth of the party's war on women by supporting the things most females care about. More jobs. Equal pay. Advancement opportunities. Family security.
Let the Democrats prattle about a woman's anatomy. They view women as nothing more than helpless victims whose only goals in life are free abortions and contraceptives. If Republicans offer an alternative message, intelligent women will support their candidates.
Monday, July 28, 2014
Monday, July 21, 2014
Border Crisis: Blame Mexico and Obama
They are smuggled by the thousands across the United States' southern border with Mexico. They arrive malnourished with not much more than the clothes on their backs. Most are from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. They are fleeing violence, poverty and drug gangs in their home countries.
Their plight has aroused national sympathy. Americans are horrified by the pictures and reports of children huddled in crowded facilities in the U.S. Churches, aid organizations and ordinary Americans have pitched in to help ease the humanitarian crisis created by the influx of unaccompanied children.
But even for a nation with a big heart, the situation has ignited a growing backlash against what many Americans view as a failure of the Obama Administration's effort to secure the border. A Washington Post/ABC News poll found 58% disapproved of the president's handling of the catastrophe.
Only 28% of those surveyed supported the president's response, one of the lowest ratings on any issues since Obama assumed the nation's highest office. Americans clearly understand that Obama's laissez- faire policies on illegal border crossing have exacerbated the current dilemma.
The president issued a policy directive in 2012 known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allowed some illegal immigrant children to defer deportation. Earlier this month, the administration extended the program, empowering illegal aliens to apply for a two-year extension.
Those executive actions created an incentive for Central American parents to ship their children across the U.S. border. If you doubt this, consider Texas Republican Representative Kay Granger's assessment after she recently visited Central America.
"There is no doubt the message went out: Go across the border, the United States won't do anything about it," she told reporters after meetings with officials and parents in Central America.
Given the green light by Obama, desperate parents dispatched thousands of children into harm's way to seek asylum in the United States by way of Mexico. The Mexican government for its part turned a blind eye to the torrent of youngsters slipping through the country's porous 600-mile border with Guatemala.
These children clambered aboard the tops of railroad cars for the treacherous trek across Mexico. No Mexican official stopped them. Many of the children were robbed, raped and some were sold into slavery. The Mexican police looked the other way. This would never happen in a civilized country.
Then once the children reached the border, Mexican smugglers operating with impunity demanded thousands of dollars to sneak the bedraggled youngsters into America. The routes are well known to Mexican officials, but no one stepped in to prevent the human trafficking.
Now it is the United States' problem. Like Pontius Pilate, Mexico washed its hands of the humanitarian disaster it could have prevented. For his part, President Obama has done little more that offer to throw $3.7 billion in taxpayer money at a problem he helped create.
Under the president's proposal, most of the dollars would be earmarked for emergency housing, more immigration judges, defense lawyers and overtime pay for border patrol workers. It is obvious Obama is focused on resettlement of the illegals rather than on deportation.
Even after Texas Governor Rick Perry offered to usher the president to the Texas border for a firsthand view of the crisis, Obama ducked the invitation and instead attended fundraisers in Austin. It was his way of raising a one-fingered salute at southern states forced to cope with the issue.
No one, especially Obama, can claim there was no advance warning. This crisis has been brewing for months. According to Customs and Border Protection, more than 52,000 unaccompanied alien children have been apprehended from October of last year through June 15.
There should be little doubt why the president has dithered. Now that the waves of illegals have reached epic proportions, he will use this imbroglio to further his agenda of extending amnesty to every illegal foreigner in the country. He will prey on Americans' good-hearted nature toward abandoned children to achieve his goal.
Americans must resist this politically calculated appeal. The U.S. opens wide its arms to welcome legal immigrants from ever nation, but America must send the signal that it is no longer acceptable for people to ignore our sovereign borders.
Their plight has aroused national sympathy. Americans are horrified by the pictures and reports of children huddled in crowded facilities in the U.S. Churches, aid organizations and ordinary Americans have pitched in to help ease the humanitarian crisis created by the influx of unaccompanied children.
But even for a nation with a big heart, the situation has ignited a growing backlash against what many Americans view as a failure of the Obama Administration's effort to secure the border. A Washington Post/ABC News poll found 58% disapproved of the president's handling of the catastrophe.
Only 28% of those surveyed supported the president's response, one of the lowest ratings on any issues since Obama assumed the nation's highest office. Americans clearly understand that Obama's laissez- faire policies on illegal border crossing have exacerbated the current dilemma.
The president issued a policy directive in 2012 known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allowed some illegal immigrant children to defer deportation. Earlier this month, the administration extended the program, empowering illegal aliens to apply for a two-year extension.
Those executive actions created an incentive for Central American parents to ship their children across the U.S. border. If you doubt this, consider Texas Republican Representative Kay Granger's assessment after she recently visited Central America.
"There is no doubt the message went out: Go across the border, the United States won't do anything about it," she told reporters after meetings with officials and parents in Central America.
Given the green light by Obama, desperate parents dispatched thousands of children into harm's way to seek asylum in the United States by way of Mexico. The Mexican government for its part turned a blind eye to the torrent of youngsters slipping through the country's porous 600-mile border with Guatemala.
These children clambered aboard the tops of railroad cars for the treacherous trek across Mexico. No Mexican official stopped them. Many of the children were robbed, raped and some were sold into slavery. The Mexican police looked the other way. This would never happen in a civilized country.
Then once the children reached the border, Mexican smugglers operating with impunity demanded thousands of dollars to sneak the bedraggled youngsters into America. The routes are well known to Mexican officials, but no one stepped in to prevent the human trafficking.
Now it is the United States' problem. Like Pontius Pilate, Mexico washed its hands of the humanitarian disaster it could have prevented. For his part, President Obama has done little more that offer to throw $3.7 billion in taxpayer money at a problem he helped create.
Under the president's proposal, most of the dollars would be earmarked for emergency housing, more immigration judges, defense lawyers and overtime pay for border patrol workers. It is obvious Obama is focused on resettlement of the illegals rather than on deportation.
Even after Texas Governor Rick Perry offered to usher the president to the Texas border for a firsthand view of the crisis, Obama ducked the invitation and instead attended fundraisers in Austin. It was his way of raising a one-fingered salute at southern states forced to cope with the issue.
No one, especially Obama, can claim there was no advance warning. This crisis has been brewing for months. According to Customs and Border Protection, more than 52,000 unaccompanied alien children have been apprehended from October of last year through June 15.
There should be little doubt why the president has dithered. Now that the waves of illegals have reached epic proportions, he will use this imbroglio to further his agenda of extending amnesty to every illegal foreigner in the country. He will prey on Americans' good-hearted nature toward abandoned children to achieve his goal.
Americans must resist this politically calculated appeal. The U.S. opens wide its arms to welcome legal immigrants from ever nation, but America must send the signal that it is no longer acceptable for people to ignore our sovereign borders.
Monday, July 14, 2014
Five Sure Ways To Reduce The Federal Budget
The media and the few Americans paying attention yawned earlier this year when President Obama dumped his 2015 federal budget on the legislative branch's doorstep. The $3.9 trillion fiscal blueprint was officially unveiled during a visit to an elementary school, where kids still believe in fairy tales.
The budget is little more than a child's fantasy. Obama knows there is zero chance it will be passed by Congress ahead of the mid-term elections. His purpose became clear when he repeated his hackneyed talking points on GOP fiscal policies that squeeze the middle class.
In his faux proposal, the president claimed his budget would reduce the federal deficit to $564 billion, a notch below the $649 deficit projected for 2014. However, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office forecasted deficits would rise to $1.1 trillion annually by 2024 based on the proposed budget.
It is meaningless to discuss the budget in further detail. After the mid-term elections, the real budget battle will be waged. Until then, the bulky document will languish unread in the nether land that is the Senate and House. Budgets only make news when Democrats and Republicans squabble over cuts.
Meanwhile, American taxpayers will have to continue funding excessive government waste embedded in the budget. It's a growing problem that politicians and bureaucrats duck to avoid exposing a system that never holds anyone accountable for incompetence, abuse and pork barrel spending.
The non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its annual report last month on opportunities to eliminate or better manage overlap, duplication and fragmentation in the federal bureaucracy. Not a single news organization covered the document in any detail.
In its report, the GAO found 64 opportunities to improve government efficiency across 26 areas that span a broad range of federal operations. Tens of billions of dollars could be saved if Congress, the executive branch and the government implemented the recommendations in the report.
Yet Democrats and their allies in the media continue to complain about any attempt to shave federal spending. They want Americans to believe that babies will go hungry, indigent families will be left homeless and schools will be shuttered if a single dime is snipped from the trillions in planned spending.
The non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its annual report last month on opportunities to eliminate or better manage overlap, duplication and fragmentation in the federal bureaucracy. Not a single news organization covered the document in any detail.
In its report, the GAO found 64 opportunities to improve government efficiency across 26 areas that span a broad range of federal operations. Tens of billions of dollars could be saved if Congress, the executive branch and the government implemented the recommendations in the report.
Yet Democrats and their allies in the media continue to complain about any attempt to shave federal spending. They want Americans to believe that babies will go hungry, indigent families will be left homeless and schools will be shuttered if a single dime is snipped from the trillions in planned spending.
Here are five ways to slice billions of dollars from the federal budget without harming any Americans:
- End crop subsidies paid to wealthy farmers. The government paid $17.5 billion in taxpayers dollars to farmers last year. Eighty percent of that amount went to the wealthiest 15-20 percent of farmers. The payout was about $14 billion to well-heeled farmers.
- Weed out Medicare fraud. The Department of Health and Human Services estimated that in fiscal 2011 the Medicare system handed out more than $64 billion in improper payments. The fraud ranged from overcharges for drugs to bogus insurance claims.
- Halt the Social Security benefit leakage. Social Security administrators like to brag that overpayments at the agency are less than half a percent of its budget. But it's still not chump change. The Social Security's own inspector general found overpayments were $6.5 billion in a single year. Every year as the budget grows, that number keeps climbing.
- Stop sending food vouchers to people who do not qualify. Outright fraud accounts for about $1 billion in food stamp program waste. However, so-called improper payments are more than $3 billion annually. Those benefits go to ineligible households. That's a total of $4 billion in waste and fraud.
- Reduce improper payments to individuals who claim the Earned Income Tax Credit. The treasury lost an estimated $13.3 to $14.6 billion because of errors caused by incorrect information submitted by individuals filing returns. An investigation revealed the improper error rate for payments was about 22 to 26 percent. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration uncovered the mistakes, yet the Internal Revenue Service has done nothing to stop the bleeding.
Those five ideas, worth more than $100 billion, are just a start. Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating fraud, abuse and mismanagement, has published 557 recommendations to save taxpayers $580.6 billion in just a single year. Over five years, the changes would chop $1.8 trillion from the federal budget.
Federal government tax revenues topped $1.7 trillion at the end of April, setting a record for the first seven months of fiscal 2014. Yet each federal budget contains higher spending levels that force more borrowing, thus fueling unending deficits. Tax revenue isn't the problem in Washington.
Americans must demand more accountability from government and elected officials. Spending is out of control. More action and less talking is required to reform an fiscally obese government addicted to fattening its budget each year.
Federal government tax revenues topped $1.7 trillion at the end of April, setting a record for the first seven months of fiscal 2014. Yet each federal budget contains higher spending levels that force more borrowing, thus fueling unending deficits. Tax revenue isn't the problem in Washington.
Americans must demand more accountability from government and elected officials. Spending is out of control. More action and less talking is required to reform an fiscally obese government addicted to fattening its budget each year.
Monday, July 7, 2014
Taxing the IRS Out of Existence
As scandal engulfs the Internal Revenue Service, there is a growing chorus of Americans calling for the abolition of the oppressive tax agency. However, trying to rid the country of the entrenched IRS bureaucracy will be harder than finding one enlightened Democrat willing to support the idea.
There is one sure way to loosen the choke-hold the IRS has on Americans. Pass a law instituting a flat tax that simplifies the tax code, dissolves payroll taxes, erases loopholes and levies taxes more fairly. By streamlining tax law, the IRS will effectively be neutered.
No longer will there be contentious IRS audits over arcane deductions. There won't be any. IRS agents won't quibble with taxpayers over progressive tax rates. There will be a single rate. The IRS won't spend all its time investigating loopholes. Tax gimmicks won't exist.
Under a flat tax, the IRS would be reduced to a simple collection agency. Their power to bully, harass and coerce will vanish because their jobs will be administrative in nature. Gone will be their broad sweeping regulatory authority to act as brown-shirted snoopers.
It's an issue that has enjoyed broad public support, even before the latest IRS brouhaha. In 2011, Pew Research found that 6 in 10 Americans (59%) believe the current tax system is so flawed that Congress should completely change it. Most Americans (51%) hold a negative view of the IRS, Pew reported last year. Imagine if the survey were done today.
A flat tax which renders the IRS impotent is a winning issue that Republicans should shift to the top of their mid-term agenda. A flat tax plan has received some support in both the House and Senate. But the nascent attempts have often been only slightly less complex than the current tax code.
To gain wide public support, the flat tax proposal should be straightforward. The plan should exempt the first $20,000 of earned income to insure the very poor will pay no taxes. There would be no tax brackets. Every tax payer would pay an equal percentage on their earnings.
Tax breaks or deductions would be ended. At the same time, the tax policy would eliminate all double taxation, including the dissolution of the death tax, capital gains tax and taxes on dividends. There would be no levy on savings, since individuals would have already paid the tax when it was earned.
There have been a myriad of ideas about a flat tax percentage. Some, including Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, have suggested 17 percent. Other tax policy organizations have recommended rates in the 20-25 percent range. Arguments over the percentage shouldn't derail the drive for tax reform.
The only serious opposition would spring from the 47 percent of individuals who pay no federal income tax and the Democrats who want to enlarge that number. These scalawags prefer to let the rest of their fellow Americans carry the tax burden while they contribute zero to running their government.
The benefits of a flat tax far outweigh the downside. The plan would offer Americans a transparent tax policy they can understand. It would generate economic growth, boost the economy and encourage investment. These are all tangible benefits that could be measured.
Republicans have a window of opportunity to make a heroic effort to institute a flat tax. The disgraced IRS is widely unpopular and tax reform has enthusiastic support. This is an winning issue that Republicans need to seize before its too late.
There is one sure way to loosen the choke-hold the IRS has on Americans. Pass a law instituting a flat tax that simplifies the tax code, dissolves payroll taxes, erases loopholes and levies taxes more fairly. By streamlining tax law, the IRS will effectively be neutered.
No longer will there be contentious IRS audits over arcane deductions. There won't be any. IRS agents won't quibble with taxpayers over progressive tax rates. There will be a single rate. The IRS won't spend all its time investigating loopholes. Tax gimmicks won't exist.
Under a flat tax, the IRS would be reduced to a simple collection agency. Their power to bully, harass and coerce will vanish because their jobs will be administrative in nature. Gone will be their broad sweeping regulatory authority to act as brown-shirted snoopers.
It's an issue that has enjoyed broad public support, even before the latest IRS brouhaha. In 2011, Pew Research found that 6 in 10 Americans (59%) believe the current tax system is so flawed that Congress should completely change it. Most Americans (51%) hold a negative view of the IRS, Pew reported last year. Imagine if the survey were done today.
A flat tax which renders the IRS impotent is a winning issue that Republicans should shift to the top of their mid-term agenda. A flat tax plan has received some support in both the House and Senate. But the nascent attempts have often been only slightly less complex than the current tax code.
To gain wide public support, the flat tax proposal should be straightforward. The plan should exempt the first $20,000 of earned income to insure the very poor will pay no taxes. There would be no tax brackets. Every tax payer would pay an equal percentage on their earnings.
Tax breaks or deductions would be ended. At the same time, the tax policy would eliminate all double taxation, including the dissolution of the death tax, capital gains tax and taxes on dividends. There would be no levy on savings, since individuals would have already paid the tax when it was earned.
There have been a myriad of ideas about a flat tax percentage. Some, including Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, have suggested 17 percent. Other tax policy organizations have recommended rates in the 20-25 percent range. Arguments over the percentage shouldn't derail the drive for tax reform.
The only serious opposition would spring from the 47 percent of individuals who pay no federal income tax and the Democrats who want to enlarge that number. These scalawags prefer to let the rest of their fellow Americans carry the tax burden while they contribute zero to running their government.
The benefits of a flat tax far outweigh the downside. The plan would offer Americans a transparent tax policy they can understand. It would generate economic growth, boost the economy and encourage investment. These are all tangible benefits that could be measured.
Republicans have a window of opportunity to make a heroic effort to institute a flat tax. The disgraced IRS is widely unpopular and tax reform has enthusiastic support. This is an winning issue that Republicans need to seize before its too late.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Declaration of Independence: Bold, Courageous, Godly
The Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, stands as a testament to stinging audacity, selfless courage and fierce devotion to God. The 56 signatories to the document embodied those traits which became uniquely American characteristics.
Today youngsters in American schools still study the 1,337-word document, but often educators gloss over the ethos that influenced the representatives of the 13 fledgling colonies to declare their freedom from British rule. Their bold rejection of the yoke of King George III was without precedent.
Great Britain was the world's super power. The Royal Navy had 117 ships, dwarfing the armada of any nation on earth. The British empire stretched from Europe to Canada, India, Africa, Singapore and beyond. The island nation had three times the population of the colonies: 6.5 million versus 2.5 million.
Yet these upstart Americans had the audacity to challenge British rule. In unambiguous and often defiant language, the authors of the Declaration of Independence denounced their oppressors, referring to the British king as a "tyrant" unfit to be "the ruler of free people."
During the summer of 1776, some colonists celebrated the birth of independence by holding mock funerals for King George III. It was as if David was shaking his tiny fist at Goliath.
Unflinching courage was required of the 56 men who inked their names at the bottom of the Declaration of Independence. They were exposing themselves, their personal wealth and their families to great peril. The English had a standing army in the colonies dedicated to preserving the status quo.
Charles Carroll, one of the signers, was a wealthy Maryland landowner who was an early supporter of revolution against the British. He declared himself "most willing" to sign the document. After affixing his name, John Hancock questioned Carroll's dedication to the cause.
Hancock, who boldly stroked his name in large letters, suggested that Charles Carroll was a common name, which meant the latter might claim mistaken identity if he were arrested by the British. Without argument, Carroll jotted the name of his hometown "of Carrollton" next to his signature.
A member of the signing committee was said to have whispered, "there goes another million." The reference was to the vast fortune Carroll stood to lose by scribbling his name on the document. Each signer made his mark out of unselfish devotion to the budding nation and its hallowed principles.
When the Declaration of Independence was approved 238 years ago, the inhabitants of what would become the United States were a faith-filled bunch. Many journeyed to the colonies to escape religious persecution and for the opportunity to practice their faith without government interference.
There are no fewer than four references to God in the Declaration of Independence. The authors famously asserted that all men are "created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
It was an acknowledgement that God, not kings, governments nor armies, gifted humanity with essential freedoms. Those rights have stood the test of time, but sadly, the courts, legislatures and atheists have frantically attempted to scrub all references to God from the fabric of the nation.
Today we should all thank God for the guile, courage and religious fervor of those brave individuals who created and signed the document that allowed a fledgling country to become Earth's first shining beacon of freedom.
Today youngsters in American schools still study the 1,337-word document, but often educators gloss over the ethos that influenced the representatives of the 13 fledgling colonies to declare their freedom from British rule. Their bold rejection of the yoke of King George III was without precedent.
Great Britain was the world's super power. The Royal Navy had 117 ships, dwarfing the armada of any nation on earth. The British empire stretched from Europe to Canada, India, Africa, Singapore and beyond. The island nation had three times the population of the colonies: 6.5 million versus 2.5 million.
Yet these upstart Americans had the audacity to challenge British rule. In unambiguous and often defiant language, the authors of the Declaration of Independence denounced their oppressors, referring to the British king as a "tyrant" unfit to be "the ruler of free people."
During the summer of 1776, some colonists celebrated the birth of independence by holding mock funerals for King George III. It was as if David was shaking his tiny fist at Goliath.
Unflinching courage was required of the 56 men who inked their names at the bottom of the Declaration of Independence. They were exposing themselves, their personal wealth and their families to great peril. The English had a standing army in the colonies dedicated to preserving the status quo.
Charles Carroll, one of the signers, was a wealthy Maryland landowner who was an early supporter of revolution against the British. He declared himself "most willing" to sign the document. After affixing his name, John Hancock questioned Carroll's dedication to the cause.
Hancock, who boldly stroked his name in large letters, suggested that Charles Carroll was a common name, which meant the latter might claim mistaken identity if he were arrested by the British. Without argument, Carroll jotted the name of his hometown "of Carrollton" next to his signature.
A member of the signing committee was said to have whispered, "there goes another million." The reference was to the vast fortune Carroll stood to lose by scribbling his name on the document. Each signer made his mark out of unselfish devotion to the budding nation and its hallowed principles.
When the Declaration of Independence was approved 238 years ago, the inhabitants of what would become the United States were a faith-filled bunch. Many journeyed to the colonies to escape religious persecution and for the opportunity to practice their faith without government interference.
There are no fewer than four references to God in the Declaration of Independence. The authors famously asserted that all men are "created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
It was an acknowledgement that God, not kings, governments nor armies, gifted humanity with essential freedoms. Those rights have stood the test of time, but sadly, the courts, legislatures and atheists have frantically attempted to scrub all references to God from the fabric of the nation.
Today we should all thank God for the guile, courage and religious fervor of those brave individuals who created and signed the document that allowed a fledgling country to become Earth's first shining beacon of freedom.
Monday, June 23, 2014
What's Really Wrong With America?
Media and political pundits have pontificated for years on what ails America. The maladies usually end up sounding like a litany of liberal rants: income inequality, climate change, federal budget cuts, gun violence, tax fairness and immigration reform.
But those are sound-bite issues gift-wrapped for political gain. The real problem in America is a an unhealthy sense of entitlement. Too many Americans expect the government to solve all their problems instead of accepting any personal responsibility for their own life decisions.
The best illustration of this affliction appeared on the opinion page of a recent issue of the USA Today newspaper. The author's words are a poignant illustration of the attitudes and values of Americans who believe tax payers should pick up the tab for their bad choices. Here's the letter:
"I am a single mother who just graduated from veterinary school. I have $396,000 in loans. Veterinary doctors do no make what human doctors do, although we have similar debt burdens and years of education. I have student loans from before 2007 and therefore do not qualify for the pay-as-you-earn plan.
"President Obama's proposal simply extends this existing plan to all of us with high student loan debt relative to our income. It is a welcome relief for someone who is just trying to realize her dream of saving animals' lives while putting food on the table for my family."
The writer's reference to the president's student loan program came on the heels of Obama's proposal to make repayment of debts easier. His recent announcement included a scheme to eventually forgive student debt balances. It was a partisan political stunt hailed by those addicted to government alms.
For the record, student loan debt in America now stands at $1.2 trillion. That is more than the combined credit card debt of every American. The frightening pace of the debt should concern tax payers who are already on the hook for the 5.4 million borrowers who have defaulted on their loans.
Obviously, none of that seems to bother a single mother who racked up nearly $400,000 in debt. Did she not experience second thoughts about borrowing that much money? Did she ever consider what a veterinarian earns and do some simple math? Apparently, it never crossed her mind.
Now President Obama, America's savior-in-chief, has come galloping to her rescue. Does this single mom understand tax paying Americans will subsidize her loan relief? She speaks of her dreams for her family. What about the dreams of hard-working Americans who will bear the burden for her excesses?
This is the America we live in today. My dreams are more important than yours. I can't be held accountable for my decisions. It isn't my fault a college degree costs so much. My government has plenty of money and owes it to me to pay for what I want and cannot afford.
What kind of cockamamie country have we become? Americans once relished rugged individualism. We worked hard, earned everything we received and expected no help for some bureaucrat in Washington. Today self-reliance has been vanquished, replaced by self-pity, envy and dependence.
That is not the America most of us have known. Yet new generations are growing up that have never experienced anything but government handouts for everything from heating to housing to food. There is a insidious expectation that government's role is to make their lives easier, more comfortable, less stressful.
The result is America is changing before our eyes. Some people carp about the lost of independence. But far more Americans are willing to trade their freedoms for a nanny government that takes care of them. That is another step closer to socialism. Once taken, democracy becomes but a lost dream.
But those are sound-bite issues gift-wrapped for political gain. The real problem in America is a an unhealthy sense of entitlement. Too many Americans expect the government to solve all their problems instead of accepting any personal responsibility for their own life decisions.
The best illustration of this affliction appeared on the opinion page of a recent issue of the USA Today newspaper. The author's words are a poignant illustration of the attitudes and values of Americans who believe tax payers should pick up the tab for their bad choices. Here's the letter:
"I am a single mother who just graduated from veterinary school. I have $396,000 in loans. Veterinary doctors do no make what human doctors do, although we have similar debt burdens and years of education. I have student loans from before 2007 and therefore do not qualify for the pay-as-you-earn plan.
"President Obama's proposal simply extends this existing plan to all of us with high student loan debt relative to our income. It is a welcome relief for someone who is just trying to realize her dream of saving animals' lives while putting food on the table for my family."
The writer's reference to the president's student loan program came on the heels of Obama's proposal to make repayment of debts easier. His recent announcement included a scheme to eventually forgive student debt balances. It was a partisan political stunt hailed by those addicted to government alms.
For the record, student loan debt in America now stands at $1.2 trillion. That is more than the combined credit card debt of every American. The frightening pace of the debt should concern tax payers who are already on the hook for the 5.4 million borrowers who have defaulted on their loans.
Obviously, none of that seems to bother a single mother who racked up nearly $400,000 in debt. Did she not experience second thoughts about borrowing that much money? Did she ever consider what a veterinarian earns and do some simple math? Apparently, it never crossed her mind.
Now President Obama, America's savior-in-chief, has come galloping to her rescue. Does this single mom understand tax paying Americans will subsidize her loan relief? She speaks of her dreams for her family. What about the dreams of hard-working Americans who will bear the burden for her excesses?
This is the America we live in today. My dreams are more important than yours. I can't be held accountable for my decisions. It isn't my fault a college degree costs so much. My government has plenty of money and owes it to me to pay for what I want and cannot afford.
What kind of cockamamie country have we become? Americans once relished rugged individualism. We worked hard, earned everything we received and expected no help for some bureaucrat in Washington. Today self-reliance has been vanquished, replaced by self-pity, envy and dependence.
That is not the America most of us have known. Yet new generations are growing up that have never experienced anything but government handouts for everything from heating to housing to food. There is a insidious expectation that government's role is to make their lives easier, more comfortable, less stressful.
The result is America is changing before our eyes. Some people carp about the lost of independence. But far more Americans are willing to trade their freedoms for a nanny government that takes care of them. That is another step closer to socialism. Once taken, democracy becomes but a lost dream.
Monday, June 16, 2014
America: Land of the Uninterested and Uniformed
For better or for worse, the fate of democracy rests on the shoulders of an informed and engaged citizenry. The founders of these United States entrusted ordinary people with the responsibility to elect those who would govern their country. It was a noble but novel concept.
Until the American revolution, most nations were ruled by kings, queens and royalty. The aristocracy turned up their noses at the huddled masses as too ignorant and too ill informed to be involved in decisions of government. America was to be the first experiment in an enlightened democracy.
Today that founding principle is crumbling, undermined by an uninterested and uniformed populace. Far too many Americans are uninvolved in the political process. Even worse, most do not care about what happens in the nation's capitol. They are content to be politically ignorant.
Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, was rightly worried about investing the right to vote in illiterate commoners. "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be," he famously said in 1816.
Jefferson would be horrified by a survey that found only one in five Americans could name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. However, nearly one-fourth of Americans could correctly identify all five characters of the cartoon series "The Simpsons."
Assistant Professor Ilya Somin of George Mason's School of Law has done extensive research on political participation in U.S. elections. After years of study, he concludes there is "overwhelming evidence that the electorate fails to meet even minimal criteria for adequate voter knowledge."
A recent Pew Research poll found only 14 percent of those surveyed could answer rudimentary questions about political parties, taxes, unemployment and heads of state. This shouldn't be surprising in light of the study's discovery that the number of people who rely on social media for their news has doubled since 2010.
America has become a nation that spends more time combing You Tube, Twitter, Facebook and Goggle for information, where pop culture figures like Kim Kardashian dominate what passes as news. It doesn't help that Americans' distrust of mainstream media is at an all time high.
This dumbing down of America is at least partly responsible for low voter turnout in recent decades.
The 1860 presidential election reached an apogee in voter participation. Fully 81 percent of Americans cast ballots that year. Until 1904, presidential contests attracted no less than 73 percent of the voting age public. Recent presidential elections have been testimonials to American apathy.
In 2008, a total of 57 percent of the voting age population showed up on election day. In 2012, the percentage held steady at 57 percent, but voting in other federal and state elections has been a vast wasteland of indifference.
A telling statistic from the most recent presidential election: 64 percent of those with less than a high school education voted for Barrack Obama, while challenger Mitt Romney won 49 to 48 percent among those who had at least some college background.
Those does not bode well for the future of America. The country's political course has been usurped by the uneducated and unenlightened. Centuries ago, Jefferson foresaw this problem as an obstacle to the continuation of the world's foremost democracy.
In 1789, Jefferson wrote that "whenever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government." Under Jefferson's apriorism, most Americans are ill equipped to be handed the keys to democracy.
The unsophisticated and the misinformed are determining America's destiny. If this trend continues, then the country will no longer be recognizable to its founders. The nation will stumble and fall into the abyss of philistine rule.
Until the American revolution, most nations were ruled by kings, queens and royalty. The aristocracy turned up their noses at the huddled masses as too ignorant and too ill informed to be involved in decisions of government. America was to be the first experiment in an enlightened democracy.
Today that founding principle is crumbling, undermined by an uninterested and uniformed populace. Far too many Americans are uninvolved in the political process. Even worse, most do not care about what happens in the nation's capitol. They are content to be politically ignorant.
Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, was rightly worried about investing the right to vote in illiterate commoners. "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be," he famously said in 1816.
Jefferson would be horrified by a survey that found only one in five Americans could name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. However, nearly one-fourth of Americans could correctly identify all five characters of the cartoon series "The Simpsons."
Assistant Professor Ilya Somin of George Mason's School of Law has done extensive research on political participation in U.S. elections. After years of study, he concludes there is "overwhelming evidence that the electorate fails to meet even minimal criteria for adequate voter knowledge."
A recent Pew Research poll found only 14 percent of those surveyed could answer rudimentary questions about political parties, taxes, unemployment and heads of state. This shouldn't be surprising in light of the study's discovery that the number of people who rely on social media for their news has doubled since 2010.
America has become a nation that spends more time combing You Tube, Twitter, Facebook and Goggle for information, where pop culture figures like Kim Kardashian dominate what passes as news. It doesn't help that Americans' distrust of mainstream media is at an all time high.
This dumbing down of America is at least partly responsible for low voter turnout in recent decades.
The 1860 presidential election reached an apogee in voter participation. Fully 81 percent of Americans cast ballots that year. Until 1904, presidential contests attracted no less than 73 percent of the voting age public. Recent presidential elections have been testimonials to American apathy.
In 2008, a total of 57 percent of the voting age population showed up on election day. In 2012, the percentage held steady at 57 percent, but voting in other federal and state elections has been a vast wasteland of indifference.
A telling statistic from the most recent presidential election: 64 percent of those with less than a high school education voted for Barrack Obama, while challenger Mitt Romney won 49 to 48 percent among those who had at least some college background.
Those does not bode well for the future of America. The country's political course has been usurped by the uneducated and unenlightened. Centuries ago, Jefferson foresaw this problem as an obstacle to the continuation of the world's foremost democracy.
In 1789, Jefferson wrote that "whenever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government." Under Jefferson's apriorism, most Americans are ill equipped to be handed the keys to democracy.
The unsophisticated and the misinformed are determining America's destiny. If this trend continues, then the country will no longer be recognizable to its founders. The nation will stumble and fall into the abyss of philistine rule.
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