Politics and Insights from History

Why did we elect Barack Obama to be president? Be honest with yourself if you did vote for him. What was the real reason? Though there may be some that thought he could effectively the country, the real reason is because he was black. Before you start accusing me of racism, think about it. Up until the 2008 election, we never had a black man run for president. Along comes Obama and not only is he dark skinned, but he was cool and hip, and had a way of inspiring people. Also, all the media could concentrate on was how historical it would be if he won. People bought into that. And there were many who were eager to prove that America had finally moved beyond race, assuming we were ever hung up on it to begin with. When Obama won, the only thing the media talked about was how historical a moment that was and they never stopped talking about it.

Not once did the pundits of ABC, NBC, or CBS investigate Obama’s background so the people would know what sort of man he is. They never talked about his time in the Illinois state senate, or his time in the U.S. Senate. They talked about his childhood, or bothered with his college years and his time as a professor. And they never bothered to dig into the books he wrote. The media tore McCain to shreds, but left Obama alone. The only we really knew about him is how historical it would be if he won and that he was cool. Obama really did win because he is black, and no one knew much about the guy.

Now we are fast approaching 2012, another election year. Undoubtedly, Obama will run for re-election. But unlike 2008, this time around Obama has a public record of his performance on the job. And this is what we have thus far, under Obama’s leadership, or lack thereof.

Firstly, unemployment is still above 9% and has been for a solid three years. Of course if you were to take into account the newly unemployed, those on unemployment, and then those that have been unemployed for so long that they have given up looking for work, the actual rate is probably closer to 20%. Government data collectors do not count everybody and are known for skewing the numbers. Regardless, when Obama was inaugurated unemployment was 7.8%. It rose under him, despite his attempts to bring jobs to Americans and shows no sign of decreasing. His disastrous stimulus bill did nothing to stimulate the economy. Instead is made it worse. With added regulations and expenditures, business continue to downsize and move overseas to more business friendly countries. A lot of highly skilled people have lost their jobs and many college graduates can’t even find one.

We’ve recently had the debt ceiling raised so that the Democrats can continue their spending spree. Obama has managed to add $4 trillion to the deficit. That is money that he alone has spent. Compare this to the cost of the Iraq war under 8 years of Bush. The first stimulus bill was rammed through Congress within Obama’s first week and we had to borrow the $787 billion from China to pay for it. And yet the Democrats wonder why the dollar is losing value and why the U.S.’s credit rating has fallen.

Obama has promised money to Brazil to help them expand their offshore drilling and build new refineries. Yet he refuses to allow America to expand its drilling or build new refineries. In fact, Obama is allowing the EPA to exert tighter control when it comes to oil usage and carbon regulation. Obama pushes for “clean energy” alternatives that has only resulted in rising gas and oil prices and an increase in the cost of living. And no return on all this investment that the government has poured into this “clean energy”.

We have a president who gives plenty of speeches, but does not deliver on leadership. When it comes to making an executive decision, he dithers. He routinely chastises business for not hiring, yet passes legislation that imposes new taxes and regulations on those same companies. He talks about fiscal responsibility but refuses to pull Congress’ credit card. We are also going on a second year with no budget. We had budget for 2011 and the new fiscal year begins in October. The House has passed a budget, but the Senate refuses to let it come up for a vote. Obama has vowed to veto anything passed by Republicans. Then he turns around and demands that the Republicans come up with real solutions. Of course, Obama refuses to propose any of his own, except the push to raise taxes.

We have a monstrosity of a health care bill that is full of new taxes and regulations. The bill itself is also vaguely written, leaving much of the rule making for un-elected bureaucracies to do. The same thing also happened with the Financial Reform Bill.

When Obama doesn’t get what he wants he uses bureaucratic entities to push his agenda. For instance, he used the FCC to get Net Neutrality through even though bother the Supreme Court and Congress said such a thing was unconstitutional. He uses the EPA to push regulation on carbon emissions without approval from Congress. Obama has at least 39 czars that are appointed by him and answer only to him. All of this ignores the process of constitutional law.

Our president routinely ignores holidays that are special to Americans. Since his inauguration he has ignored Memorial Day, July 4, and Veteran’s Day. On these days it is customary for the president to deliver a speech and take part in some sort of ceremony. Obama has delegated these tasks to Biden with only a few exceptions. He manages to pay tribute to Ramadan, but ignores Christmas while he runs off to Hawaii. We are Americans, Mr. President. Ramadan has no meaning here.

Don’t forge the apology tours. Soon after being elected, Obama toured the world giving one apology after another for America’s supposed arrogance. In Cairo he told people that America had a predominately Muslim population. Sorry, Mr. President, but America is more Christian than any other religion. Muslims only make up about 1%-2% of the population. He pals around with dictators like Chavez. When Honduras upheld their constitution and ousted José Manuel for trying to take over the presidency even after being voted out, Obama criticized the Honduran people.

We are involved in at least three wars. We have not completely pulled out of Iraq and are still in Afghanistan. Now, we are in Libya. Obama has no clear objective for these wars and cannot give us one. Strangely, the major media is silent about the Middle East under Obama’s presidency.

To top it off, Obama always seems to be vacationing. And though no one will deny the president a little R&R once in awhile, Obama takes it to a new level. He plays golf weekly, and sometimes daily. Routinely shoots hoops with NBA players. Gives weekly concerts at the White House with big name celebrities. Routinely goes to Martha’s Vineyard. In fact, soon after the debt deal was reached that is where he went. Guess that was the real reason for the Aug. 2 deadline. Toured Asia during Veteran’s Day in 2010. Supposedly it was to promote American business, but where was the promotion while he was busy attending state dinners and dancing with kids. He went to Brazil with the family earlier this year attending all of the tourist sites. Then he tries to pass it off as presidential business. He goes to Hawaii every Christmas. None of Obama’s trips are cheap. And this does not count the ones his wife takes without him.

This is leadership under Barack Obama. In 2012, we should fire him. He has proven to be little more than a two bit dictator that throws a fit when he doesn’t get what he wants. The American economy is tanking despite his glossy speeches. The world laughs at us and is counting down the days until our demise. America can ill afford 4 more years of Obama’s madness. We need a president who stands up for America and American values. We need a president who will cut back on taxes and regulations and allow individual businesses and people decide their own fate. And most importantly we need a president who will follow the Constitution and force Congress and the courts to do the same. And for those of you who think otherwise, you are either bona fid idiots, or have rocks for brains.

With all this talk about the looming deadline for a debt ceiling deal, you’d think the world was going to end on August 2. The truth is, even if the debt ceiling is not raised, there will be no dire economic consequences. the only real consequence will be the Obama and the Democrats might have to think twice before spending trillions of dollars we do not have. Think about it. Say you have a credit card and it’s maxed out. You ask you creditor to up the limit on it, but the refuse. Do you declare bankruptcy just because your credit limit was not increased? No. As long as you maintain payments you’re fine. The same principle applies here with the debt ceiling. All the Democrats want is an increase in their credit limit, and for once the Republicans are standing firm with a resounding “no”. (I hope it continues.) As long as our government continues make payments on its loans we’ll be fine. If they can’t maintain payments, raising the debt ceiling will solve the problem. In fact, the continued raising of it in years past is part of the problem. It’s like taking out another credit card to pay off one that is maxed out. You’re still in debt.

Besides, what is the point of having a debt ceiling if we keep raising it? We’d be better off giving Congress unlimited credit. Congress can raise the debt ceiling now, but they will blow through that credit in a matter of months and in two years time we will be back with the same debate.

The tragedy of this entire debate is that the Democrats and liberals are calling Tea Partiers all sorts of names; like they always do when anyone stands up to them. I don’t know what happened to their call of civility, but now they are linking Tea Partiers to terrorists groups like Hezbollah. Why? Because the Tea Party movement is against raising the debt ceiling and against raising taxes or imposing new ones. The Tea Party insists that Democrats for once cut spending. And not defense spending, which seems to be the only place they are willing to cut, and has been cut the past two years under Obama. We need to cut entitlement spending. Not a few billion here or there, but trillions, since we are now spending trillions. Half of our population is on some form of welfare and does not pay taxes. We need to get rid of farm subsidies and corporate welfare. And federal funding for individual members of Congress’ pet projects must stop. Privatizing Social Security and Medicare, giving individual people more control over it, would save the government billions upon billions.

Instead we get a barrage of outrageous claims from the left which spouted everyday on the major networks. Comparing Tea Party members to terrorists is ludicrous. Since when has anyone from the Tea Party attempted to blow up a shopping mall of hijack an airplane? Claiming that Republicans want to force people into homelessness or force them to eat dog food is equally insane. Yet, nobody calls the left on these outlandish accusations.

The Democrats’ only solution to this mess is to raise taxes to bring in more revenue. Bringing in more revenue is fine, but raising taxes won’t do it. The big thing is, what is the point of generating more revenue for the government, if Congress continues to spend more than they bring in? If our government continues to spend more than they bring in income, we will remain in this debt crisei indefinitely. There is more than enough tax revenue generated to pay for all of the vital functions of government. It’s just big government kooks think they need to spend more than that. If we operated our individual budgets they way Congress operates theirs, we would be in serious trouble and possibly facing jail time. Well, the Democrats’, and the Rhinos’, spending spree has landed the country in serious peril. And Obama’s insistence, as well as Reid’s, that we continue down the same path is sheer stupidity.

Here’s the deal. You all need to ask yourself some questions:

Would you be happy if the Republicans just give into the Democrats like they have done routinely in the past?

Do you really want the debt ceiling raised? If so, then should we even bother with one?

Is increasing the amount of debt we take really to help the U.S. economy, considering that our burdening debt is what is crushing us?

Raising the debt ceiling will not solve the problem, it just postpones the inevitable. Most importantly, it will give Obama the chance to push the problem on the next president’s shoulders assuming he loses in 2012. Not raising the debt ceiling will barely impact the normal functions of government. Social Security checks will still go out as well as other forms of welfare. In actuality, what we need in not an increase in the debt ceiling, but a 2012 budget that we can actually afford and based on common sense.

Back in the 1930s during the Great Depression we were introduced to the forgotten man. The poor guy that lost everything or had opportunity taken from him. F.D.R. initiated a series of government run programs to help these forgotten men during this time of turmoil. Since then the government has grown adding to these programs to help all those who are disadvantaged. The are probably more government subsidies than stars in the sky. We have programs to help feed children, welfare for the poor, food stamps, housing subsidies, disability checks, Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security to provide for retirement, grants, federal financial aid to go to college, tuition subsidies even for illegal immigrants, unemployment benefits, worker’s compensation; you name it and there is probable a government program for it.

With all of these programs you would think that America has finally figured out haw to care for the forgotten man. Not so according to Obama and members of the Democrat party. They insist that we still need more school lunch programs for the children and a government run health care system to ensure that the poor are taken care of and not forgotten. For 70 years America has been adding to the list of government programs to make certain that no one is forgotten when times are tough. The problem is in all that time we still have not remembered the forgotten man. The forgotten man is not the poor guy down the street that happens to be down on his luck. It’s not the single mom that is working hard to provide for her children. Nor is it the aspiring college student that wishes to continue his education. The real forgotten man is the honest taxpayer and small businessman (or woman).

All the money that government spends to ensure that the poor or disadvantage are able to survive comes from the taxpayer. It is the taxpayer that spends his life working hard and saving what he can to provide for his family. Most times he works more than one job or decides to take that leap and start a business. Working diligently he manages to make it successful. Before he knows it his work has paid off and he is able to hire some employees and has a college fund for his children and a nest egg for him and his wife. But then the government decides that a new federal program is needed so the taxpayer’s taxes go up. He is taxed on his business, for the number of employees, on his income, even on his savings. Eventually the taxpayer is forced to let some employees go as the higher taxes cut into his business. Then, he is forced to shut the doors to his business as the government insists that he pay more in taxes because he is what they deem as too rich. Now unemployed, the taxpayer is forced to tap the money he saved for his kids’ college fund and retirement just to get by until he can find a job. Except now he is one among many that need work and everything he worked for is gone simply because the government decided to be compassionate and even the playing field for those minorities that never seem to have enough opportunity despite all of the federal programs out there.

The problem is, you will never hear about the real forgotten man. No politician truly cares about the taxpayer that is always stuck with the bill for the government’s acts of good will. If you pay your taxes, own a business, and work hard every day to meet your obligations, support your family, and save what little you can for later in life, then you are that forgotten man.

Once again Obama delivered another speech. That seems to be about the only thing he knows how to do, besides taking credit for things that he had little to nothing to do with. In short, his latest speech was just another campaign piece for 2012. Once again he blamed Bush and the Republicans for a bad economy and reiterated that he inherited a mess. Though things were going downhill when Obama took office, he is not the first president to inherit a mess from the previous administration and to keep bringing this up shows that he is incapable of moving on.

From the start, Obama takes credit for keeping the government open. Can this guy’s ego get any bigger? He had nothing to do with keeping the government open. That was Congress. And since Congress has not voted on and finalized the deal they made last week, the government may still shut down meaning that all the stuff done before was meaningless.

Ironically Obama speaks about how we started as a nation of rugged individualism and free markets, but his entire speech promotes big government and socialism. Immediately afterwards he talks about how America is also connected and needs to help her citizens. Threads of Marxism seep through in Obama’s speech, and that is not and never has been America, nor is it the American dream. America was never based on the idea that government is needed to help the less fortunate. That is a purely socialist idea.

According to Obama, the only things that are important in this country are infrastructure, education, clean energy (he is really pushing Cap and Trade here), Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. All of which can be done at the local and state level and should be done at those levels. Individual states can take care of their own infrastructure and education. It is not the federal government’s job. Medicaid is a national program already funded and run by the states. It should be reformed to where the federal government is no longer involved and it is completely run by the individual states according to their individual needs. The same with Medicare. Obama denounces Paul Ryan’s suggestion of a voucher program for Medicare which would give Seniors more choice over their medical needs. Obama claims that insurance companies will dictate everything. This is completely untrue. Also, right now, the government dictates everything when it comes to Medicare. Is that really any better? Medicare is a huge drain on the economy wasting billions of dollars with its bloated bureaucracy.

Of course, he mentions reducing healthcare costs to lower Medicare costs. All this means is that he will promote price controls, which is in Obamacare. Price controls do not lower costs. The government dictates how much a business can charge for a service, but it does not lower the actual cost. The difference has to be made somewhere and is usually done indirectly on the backs of taxpayers.

Once again Obama promotes the lie that he created jobs and saved the economy. Well, where are the jobs and why is unemployment still above 9%? If the economy is recovering then why are prices on consumer goods rising as gas becomes unaffordable? Why are businesses closing? The economy has gotten worse under Obama as jobs continue to disappear. We wasted over a trillion dollars to not save the economy.

Obama does not promote any real spending cuts, except in the case of national defense.. He wants to cut the defense budget, yet we are currently fighting three wars. We have not pulled out of Iraq or Afghanistan, and Obama has recently sent us into Libya. If he cuts the defense budget, how will we pay for these wars? We’re not likely to pull out anytime soon. Also, what people fail to realize is that in a time of war, defense spending naturally increases. And defense spending is something that the Constitution mandates, since one of the jobs of the federal government is to protect us from both foreign and domestic threats.

Obama’s proposal to cut the deficit is to raise taxes. He believes that the wealthy do not need another tax cut. Don’t be fooled here. Obama has no intention of paying his own tax increases. Also, who is he to decide that people are too rich and should pay more? As though they are not already paying enough.

Obama blames the Bush tax cuts for the bad economy saying that we can’t afford another unpaid tax cut. There is no such thing as an unpaid tax cut. When the tax rate is lowered, the government does not send you money. They only lower the percentage that they take from you every payday. The term “unpaid tax cut” is just a sound bite and euphemism for “it’s the government’s money and we only let you keep some”. Obama and people like him do not believe that the money you earn is yours. He believes it belongs to government and only through his good graces are you allowed to keep any at all.

The wealthy in this country already pay about 70% of taxes, not the middle class, and certainly not the poor. Most of your poor make below the cutoff and are exempt from paying most taxes. They are also on welfare. Obama’s tax hikes on the wealthy will harm the middle class and the poor more than the rich. There are very few truly wealthy people in this country. Also, they are the ones that provide jobs. You’ll never get hired by a poor man. If taxes go up, the wealthy will leave. They have the means to do so and will flee to a country that allows them to keep their money. The middle class will then get stuck paying the bill. They can’t leave and are mostly just getting by. Also, when you raise taxes on wealthy businesses, those costs get passed down to the consumer, the middles class and poor. Raising taxes never produces more revenue in the long term. And since there will be no real spending cuts, high taxes will do little to solve the budget crisis.

The tax the rich mantra is just class warfare. Socialists, in all their forms, thrive on class warfare. It’s a way of creating animosity and chaos. Obama wants you to hate the rich. He wants you to envy and loathe any who make more money that you. Then he can use that anger to his advantage by promising to make the rich pay their fair share. Well, if 70% isn’t fair enough, I don’t know what is. The thing is almost half of the America population is on welfare and exempt from paying income taxes, and most other taxes. That leaves the other 50% to pay all the taxes that fund government entitlement programs. Only maybe 5% of the population is truly wealthy. It may be even less than that. The rest are what you can call middle class divided into two categories: upper and lower. Soaking the rich means the costs actually get passed on to the middle class, which has been shrinking for some time. Eventually, those in the upper middle class sink to the lower middle class level, and the people there pass down to the poor category as they watch their income get smaller and smaller.

Another problem here is Obama’s math does not add up. He appears to just be throwing figures around. He claims that by raising taxes his budget will cut 4 trillion in spending. But the specifics he provides are just nickel and dime figures when compared to how much the U.S. owes and does not add up to 4 trillion in actual cuts or savings. Also, his budget claims there will be no visible results until 2014. This will be halfway through his second term if he’s reelected. Interestingly enough, Obama says we should hold him to task if his budget doesn’t do what he claims. How can we do that when there won’t be any results until after he is securely in his second term, should we be unlucky to have him reelected?

Obama is basically pulling an F.D.R. He implies that education, health care, retirement, transportation, and clean energy are rights protected by the federal government. They are not rights. They are commodities that you pay for if you want it. And they most definitely should not be guaranteed or paid for by government. It is not the government’s job, nor is it constitutionally mandated. (And, yes, the constitution does matter.) This government provided entitlement thinking is what got us into this mess.

Obama claims that his 2012 budget saves $1 trillion. How is that possible when it totals $3.7 trillion in spending? That is more than any president has ever proposed in the past. Obama is the first president to routinely spend trillions of dollars. Even Bush, with two wars, never spent that much; and he spent a fair amount of money in his eight years.

Obama is basically an oxymoron. He talks about reducing the deficit, but at the same time spends trillions of dollars and asks to borrow more money. He says he wants to help promote economic growth, but then proposes raising taxes and increases spending. He routinely blames Bush and Republicans for his problems, but most of our modern ills rest on Obama’s shoulders and what he has done in just over two years.

Obama could have turned a bad economy around if he had reigned in his own party, severely cut spending instead of pushing one massive spending bill after another through Congress, didn’t borrow money from China, and severely cut taxes across the board for all individuals and businesses instead of playing class warfare. But he did none of that. He allowed his party to run rampant when they had complete control over both houses of Congress. Obama pushed more and more spending with no regard to what the American people were saying. And he continues to borrow money and give out money to help other countries get their economy on track. (Brazil anyone?)

In short, Obama’s latest speech is nothing but a fluff piece to kick off his 2012 campaign. He continues to blame Bush and Republicans for things that are now his doing. It was also typical Obama: spend a lot of time saying nothing. These are really the only specifics of the budget he proposed, which could have been done in three paragraphs:

· price controls on health care.

· raise taxes on the wealthy (which resorts in everyone paying the price)

· don’t change Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security, but pretend that you are bringing real reform

· keep people dependant on government entitlement programs

· pass cap and trade (a program that will severely damage the American economy and ship more jobs overseas.)

· when the economy tanks even more, blame the Republicans.

Remember back when Bush was president and we constantly heard reports about the war in Iraq and the death toll? And in Afghanistan?

Remember the constant news reports back in 2008 when gas prices reached $4 a gallon and it was all Bush’s fault because he was enabling his friends in big oil to make obscene profits? (Though there is no evidence to support such an outrageous claim. But that didn’t stop the media from making it.)

Remember when we used to constantly hear about Al Qaeda and Afghanistan?

Remember back in 2008 when the housing market collapsed and the U.S. was flung into a recession and the constant news reports about how it was all Bush’s fault because he *gasp* cut taxes during his first administration?

Well, now that Obama has been president for a little over two years, where are all these same news reports? We are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, but you wouldn’t know it if you depend on the media to inform you of such things. Obama has sent us into Libya, yet where are the constant news reports about the loss of American lives, or the charges from them that this is an illegal war? Which in this case Obama’s choice to go to Libya is illegal because he never once asked Congress for approval. No president can declare war without Congressional approval. Bush had that for Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama never bothered with it for his war in Libya.

Gas is at $4 a gallon once again as oil prices rise. This of course makes the price of groceries and all consumer goods and services go up. But where are the constant news reports about how Obama allowed gas prices to soar? Where are the stories abour how he destroyed the economy for his own personal gain?

The housing market and the economy are still in shambles despite all of the spending by Obama and the Democrats in Congress to prop them up. But the only thing you’ll hear on the news is that the Tea Party is full of extremists and reports about the royal wedding in England., or the latest on Dancing With the Stars. Nowhere, except maybe on Fox News and talk radio, will you hear about Obama’s excessive spending and how in two years he has increased the deficit by four trillion dollars and proposes more spending which ranges in the trillions of dollars.

We no longer hear about Al Qaeda or Muslim terrorists killing innocent Americans abroad. (Though according to the White House we aren’t supposed to call them terrorists anymore.) You’d think they disappeared off the face of the Earth. Ever since Barack Obama became president suddenly the planet was healed and everyone was living a joyous and robust life with not a care in the world, at least according to the major news media. They only report doom and gloom when they can blame Republicans and now the Tea Party. All of the negative news reports under Bush dried up when Obama was inaugurated. We are worse off now under Obama than we ever were under Bush. But not according to the Obama lovers in the media.

In 2008 riots broke out in Greece when the its government proposed budget cuts to prevent an economic collapse. The same has happened in other European nations: France, England, Ireland to name a few.

Though not considered a riot, the protest in Madison, Wisconsin is a precursor of what is to come. Wisconsin is in deep financial trouble, like most of the country. Gov. Walker is fulfilling his campaign promise of cutting the state budget and closing a deficit gap. After a proposed bill which will affect many union employees and public sector workers, protesters took over the state capital building and congregated outside to protest. And their protest is turning into an unruly mob. For two straight week the state capital building in Wisconsin has been in the hands of the protestors. They eat there. They sleep there. They never left. On March 2, 2011, angry, pro-union protesters chased a republican state senator. Sen. Glenn Grothmann was chased around the capital building as he tried to walk through the crowd of protestors. Democrat Rep. Brett Hulsey had to save Grothman and remind the protesters that they were to be peaceful and respectful. Many in the crowd proceeded to yell at him. This is no civil protest.

So why the protest? Wisconsin is not a right to work state, meaning that most people have to belong to a union in order to get a job, especially if you work in the public sector. The proposed bill would eliminate collective bargaining rights for public sector unions except on the issue of wages, up to the point of inflation. This could be a good thing since the state of Wisconsin is going broke because of the unions using their collective bargaining to garner money from the state for their causes and to further their political clout. Unions routinely only bargain for themselves, not the lowly worker whom they claim to represent. The bill would also stop the automatic docking of union fees from people’s paychecks. This allows the individual worker to have more control over their money. The unions are against this measure because it would cut the flow of money into their coffers. Instead they might have to relay of people actually writing them a check.

Another part of the bill would require public employees contribute to their own pension and healthcare fund, which right now are covered by taxpayers, including private sector employees who receive nothing from these funds. Public employees in Wisconsin aren’t being asked for much. They are only being asked to be more responsible for themselves and to pay for what it is they want. However, many of them are union members and fear individual responsibility so they protest anything that requires them to grow up.

Scott Walker has said that the proposed piece of legislation would help decrease the financial debt while ensuring that the benefits for public sector employees remain without any major cuts and without laying people off. But one thing is certain, if Wisconsin doesn’t get their spending under control, many public employees will lose their jobs because the state cannot afford to pay them.

On top of the protests, led mostly by unions, at least 14 state senate Democrats fled Wisconsin. This act is their childish way of objecting to a bill they do not like. The problem is these democrats were not elected to throw a fit when something happened that they don’t like. They were elected to represent their districts, which they can’t do if they aren’t in the state to vote on legislation and do their job. The protesters should be angry at the Democrats that fled the state and are using state funds to pay for their antics. How are the democrats representing the protesters if they aren’t even in the state?

Wisconsin is not the only place where things are heating up. In Virginia there have been sympathy protests. Many people gathered to show support for the Wisconsin protest in Richmond. Thus far, they have been peaceful.

Indiana and Ohio are debating similar legislation as Wisconsin which would end collective bargaining rights for unions and require many public sector employees to contribute more money to their pension and healthcare funds. Protests have broken out in those states as well. Though not as big as the one in Wisconsin, they are just as virulent. The state capital building in Ohio locked its doors to keep the protesters out and prevent them from setting up permanent residence like they did in Wisconsin. Democrats in Indiana have also gone AWOL in their effort to dispute the anti-union bill.

There is a disturbing trend happening here. In just two weeks pro-union protests have taken hold in at least four states. These four states are in real financial trouble and have to make cuts, which will affect public employees. Most of the 50 states are in the same mess that Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia are. They too are going to have to make budget cuts and if the pattern continues they will also have protests from union employees who do not wish to debate an issue, or accept that concessions must be made on their part for their own economic survival.

One might ask why the state governments are in trouble. The answer is simple: the Unions with their progressive, big government policies and a bunch or “well-meaning” politicians who believe in social justice are responsible. And so are the citizens that continue to support such measures. Big government policies have accumulated unsustainable debt for many states, even on a national level in this country. For at least twenty or thirty years we have ignored the problem to the point where it can be ignored no longer. Something must be done and individual people are going to pay the price for irresponsible government. For decades the private sector has been squeezed to pay for government programs and subsidies to big government organizations to the point where it has nothing left to give since it has shrunk considerably.

Government bureaucracies on the local, state, and national levels have grown continually for decades, most notably in the last two. For the first time in a long time public employees, especially union employees, are being asked to make the same sacrifice that private sector workers have always made. But people never like making sacrifices. Especially when they are accustomed to getting what they want.

Will there be rioting in the Unite States like there has been around the world? There is that possibility. While most of us hope that it never happens, keep in mind that many other states are going to have to make cuts in their budgets. Eventually the federal government will also have to make severe budget cuts. These cuts will affect public employees. Most government employees are unionized and the unions stand to lose a lot if these cuts go through. They will not give up their political power easily.

It appears that the bill which would extend the current tax code, has become another ominous spending bill. Last week the Republicans caved in to Obama’s demand that unemployment benefits be extended for 13 months in exchange for a two-year extension of the current tax code, which includes what we call the Bush Tax Cuts. Now, let’s get something straight. Many on the left have purported the same lie that only the wealthy are getting a tax cut and not the middle class. There is no tax cut! No one is getting a tax cut! All the Republicans proposed was that the current tax code, which expires January 1, 2011, be extended. If it is extended then your tax rates will stay the same. If it is not, then your taxes will go up.
The Democrats in Congress, especially in the Senate, are fighting to ensure that tax rates go up in January. Remember, the current tax code expires in January, meaning that tax rates will increase. Now ask yourself this, why are the Democrats so opposed to keeping the current tax code? Why are they insistent that the Bush Tax Cuts should expire, which will increase taxes on everyone, rich and poor?
The Senate, led by Harry Reid, is porking up the bill. They have added a bunch of provisions: more federal subsidies for ethanol, bio-diesel fuel, energy efficient homes and appliances, rum production, mining production, and federal handouts to the film and TV industry. None of these industries deserve federal money. They should be left to the private sector. But the bigger question is: why are these industries receiving federal money?
This bill, which started out as a simple extension of the tax code and unemployment, has gone from costing $55 billion to a whopping $855 billion thanks to all of the additions made by the Senate. That is just over a 15% increase in the amount of money being spent. This bill has become a place for every Senator to get their pet project through that couldn’t get passed otherwise. And most of the provisions in the bill for alternative energy credits were in the currently halted Cap and Trade bill. Harry Reid put them in this bill to get them passed.
This bill is no longer about extending the current tax code. It has become another spending bill for the Obama administration. Obama will sign in into law because if passed he ultimately wins. This bill allows him to acquire what he failed to get passed in the last two years. If the economy suffers another downturn, which it will if this passes, Obama and the Democrats will blame Republicans and their insistence on extending the Bush Tax Cuts.
But know this: if the economy suffers another downturn it will be the fault of the Democrats in Congress and President Obama. The only thing that the Republicans are getting out of this is a two-year extension of the current tax code. The Democrats are getting at least $800 billion worth of their pet projects. Remember who added all the pork.
One can only hope that this bill fails to make it out of Congress. But if it does pass, the American people will suffer greatly.

Something has been lost in this country: a sense of identity and being. People are reluctant to be proud of their country. In fact, it is fashionable to be ashamed of being an American. We seem more likely to be proud of being Indian (American Indian), black, Hispanic or from any descent other than American. We are never proud to be just Americans.

There was a dream that was America. But it has been lost. Many will tell you that the American dream is owning a house with a white picket fence, having two cars, and being rich. But that is not and never was the American dream. It is much more. It started during Colonial times as settlers from Europe fled political repression looking for a better life. The Declaration of Independence sums it up stating that people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

To understand the true American dream, you must first understand her foundation for the dream is written within it. The principles that make up America’s foundation are faith, liberty, justice, and a thirst for independence.

First there is a faith, a belief not only in the Christian God but that our rights and liberties come from Him and Him alone. The Founding Fathers and Mothers acknowledged that not only did God exist, but that He guided the destiny of a nation if that nation allowed him to. They believed that He participated in the affairs of men, especially if asked. Incorporated with this belief is the notion that our rights come from God. If a people believe their rights come from other men or the government, they do not flinch when those rights disappear. But if a people believe that they are born with certain rights and that those rights come from an authority higher than man, then they are apt to fight for them.

There are those that claim that the Founders were deists. Read their writings and you will learn that these men were anything but deists. Within the last century rose the theory of Evolution and the widespread notion that there is no God and that everything is a matter of chance. This belief has permeated us as a nation to the point that Americans no longer look to God for any guidance, much less acknowledge his existence publicly. But consider this: how is it the Founders all lived in the same era so that they could come together to create a nation? Is it really coincidence that the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the participants of the Constitutional Convention, our first few presidents and ambassadors lived in the latter half the 18^th century and in the same region? Is it chance that they were all committed to freedom? Coincidence and chance only explain so much. It’s almost as if something gave this country exactly what it needed to be born.

As a people we have lost this foundation of faith. We are no longer taught Christian morality in school. The Bible has been practically banned from schools. Public prayers are virtually outlawed. Nativity scenes around Christmas time are becoming increasing rare. Atheists have managed to make the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance a crime. And we now have a president that insists we are a Muslim nation and scoffs at anyone who thinks we should return to our Judeo-Christian heritage. The American people have allowed a minority group of malcontents to dictate when and where Christians may display their faith and to strip away the Christian foundation of this country. No other religion in this country has been under such attack.

The next pillar is liberty, especially individual liberty. People are free to live their lives as they see fit, to govern themselves, and to determine their own future. A government cannot oppress a people that maintain their individual freedom. With liberty comes responsibility. Individuals must guard their freedom taking charge of their own lives. They cannot depend on any one person of governing body to provide for them.

With the growth of the welfare state, Americans are losing their individual freedom. The government continues to grow in size and liberty’s foundation erodes. People have forsaken personal responsibility and liberty for the chains of a government safety net.

There has also been this rise in the notion that the Founding Fathers did not believe in equal rights because some of them owned slaves and they did not grant rights to women. To tarnish their achievements with our pettiness insults them. To think less of them because they did not solve all of the ills of their times is wrong. They were men, human beings doing their best to achieve the unattainable. We think little of them because they did not achieve equal rights for women of blacks, but they gave us much more. They gave us a foundation of principles to allow us as a nation to achieve the rest. They gave us independence. Without it what difference would the rest make?

Another part of America’s foundation is justice. Equality before the law has always been a part of The United States’ justice system. The Founding Fathers believed that no one was above the law. It does not matter if a person is a convenient store clerk or a head of state, the law deals with them equally. The law is supposed to be blind to social stature, race, and gender.

Unfortunately this is not always the case. People being what they are sometimes cater to their own prejudices instead of justice. Charlie Rangel’s punishment for ethics violations—granting official favors (bribery), not reporting income from his villa in the Dominican Republic, etc.—is a good example of how the foundation of justice is disappearing. The only punishment Rangel received for the 11 ethics violations he was found guilty of was a censure within Congress. Now compare this to James Traficant who was also found guilty of ethics violations—taking bribes and not filing income on his taxes—within the House of Representatives. Traficant went to prison for his crimes. Both are guilty of the same transgression, yet suffer different punishments. Why?

The fourth cornerstone of America is independence. The Founders wanted American independence where the United States determined her own destiny free from foreign influence and oppression of global powers. They wanted the American people to be free from tyrants both at home and abroad. As colonists, Americans governed themselves before England decided to pay attention to her colonies. The Founding Fathers felt that America should maintain that right to self government.

American independence has been rapidly disappearing. The United Nations has actively sought the destruction of America since its inception. Each year the U.N. grows in influence resembling a global governing body instead of a mediating ground for countries to work out their disputes. President Obama is willing to sign any agreement with the U.N. sending America’s wealth abroad, shrinking our influence in the world just so he can have an excellent global image. Obama seeks to sign a treaty (G-20 summit) with other members of the U.N. that would shrink American industry and the economy while sending what little money we do have to countries that are less developed industrially. China has bought up most of our debt. One could say that since China owns our debt, it owns America. We cannot claim to be a free and independent nation while we are indebted to China, or any foreign power. All these measures threaten American sovereignty and security.

How does all of this tie in with the American dream, you might ask. The American dream harbors the same principles as her foundation. Simply put, the American dream is the provision of a place where all men and women can live free from government tyranny and oppression, to keep what they work hard to earn, worship according to conscience, and to have the opportunity to improve their lives and be more than they are. That is the American dream.

Why is it this is not taught to children in schools? Why do people not know this? The answer is simple. In the early 20^th century a group of people known as progressives rose up wanting to change America into what they think it should be. To do this, they had to chip away at America’s identity. First they wiped out America’s Christian Heritage and our belief that our liberties come from God. Then, they made us ashamed of being Americans by reminding us constantly of our more negative history, such as slavery. (The Civil War never ended the slavery issue; it is alive and well even today.) They incorporated the notion that all cultures are equal and that we should be tolerant of everyone. However, anyone that is openly proud of being an American is call bigoted, racist, and humiliated publicly. All of this has whittled away at our American identity to the point that many Americans do not know who they are.

We must imprint the American dream, and her foundation, in our hearts and our minds. Teach it to your children. This dream is a fleeting one. If we do not grab hold of it, cherish it, live it, and pass it on to future generations it will be lost to the ages.

Remember, if we do not know who we are as a nation, how can we know what our dream is? How can we know where we are headed? And what is to stop a bunch of tyrants from robbing us of our freedom and turning us into slaves?

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Now that the election is over it is clear that the Republicans are being given a second chance to prove themselves as the party that is for the Republic.  This is also their last chance.  People are fed up with the Democrats and the nonsense they have participated in for the past two years.  The bailouts, Obamacare, the Financial takeover, and continuing to rack up more and more debt has angered many Americans and woke them up to reality.  But the behavior of the Democrats is hardly surprising.  They have always been for more government and more spending.  But we expect better from Republicans.  They always run on the platform of less taxes, less government, and less spending.  This is their chance to prove they are worthy of our trust.

This is what Republicans should do after being sworn in.  I hope they are listening.

1. Institute permanent tax cuts across the board for everyone who pays taxes.

2. Repeal Obamacare.  Don’t just change a few bits and pieces of it.  Repeal the entire thing.  And do not allow anything resembling it to take its place.

3.  Pass a budget and put a permanent cap on federal spending.

4. Repeal the financial reform bill.

5. Repeal the stimulus package of January 2009 and give GM back to private ownership.

6.  Tell the unions to take a hike, along with all lobbyists.

7. Get rid of the EPA.  The EPA is an unconstitutional organization that has an extraordinary amount of power over businesses and people’s lives.

8. Get rid of the Department of Education.  It is another unconstitutional organization with way too much power over our school system.

9. Eliminate the Capital gains tax and cut taxes on corporations and business.

10.  Close the borders and deport all illegal immigrants

11.  Address the Muslim threat within our own borders as well as without.  We as a nation cannot allow Sharia law to take any hold in this country. Muslims that want to emigrate here must swear allegiance to the U.S. Constitution and adhere to Constitutional law.  They must abandon Islamic law.  This also means rooting out terrorist organizations within America and getting rid of them.

12. Privatize social security

13.  Privatize Medicare and Medicaid.

14.  Eliminate all other welfare programs and get rid of the welfare state.

15.  Repeal the current tax code and institute a flat tax of 10%.  Make sure this is a permanent rate that cannot be changed by future Congresses for a period of 200 years (2 generations).

16.  Reign in the Federal Reserve

17.  Get rid of the Country Club Republicans and all Rhinos.  The Republican party needs to return tho its conservative roost and stick by them.

18.  Institute Term limits.  It is time to get rid of career politicians.

19.  Do not, under any circumstance, compromise with Obama and the Democrats.

Now I realize they may not be able to get everything done.  But the Republicans in Congress should push for these statutes and keep pushing for them.   Don’t give up and do not Compromise.  Do not do anything in the name of bipartisanship.

And for all American voters: keep your elected officials in line.  If they fail to deliver on their promises and if they turn into the Washington establishment, get rid of them on the next election.  It is our job as free citizens to keep our elected representatives honest and replace them from time to time.
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Last week President Obama delivered a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Like most of his speeches it was full of rhetorical BS and added up to little more than pandering to a group of people for votes. The following is my breakdown of the speech. I left out the first two paragraphs because they are the typical pleasantries of thanking those present. The Speech itself can be found in its entirety at the White House website.

“I also want to acknowledge and thank all of the outstanding Latino leaders serving across my administration because I am proud that the number of Latinos I’ve nominated to Senate-confirmed positions at this point far exceeds any administration in history.  And I’m especially proud that a whole bunch of them are Latinas.  And as I’ve said before, one of my proudest moments of my presidency was the day Justice Sonia Sotomayor swore an oath and ascended to our nation’s highest court, and sparked new dreams for countless young girls all across America.”

First off, who cares if he has appointed the most Hispanics to federal office than any other president? That doesn’t mean a thing. The real issue is: are these people qualified? Take Sonya Sotomayor. She is the first Latina to be Supreme Court judge, but she is not qualified. This is a woman who is a far left ideologue, much like Obama himself. She believes that it is up to judges to legislate from the bench, or to create policy. She does not believe in individual rights or in upholding the Constitution. In her career, Sotomayor has demonstrated that she is incapable of remaining objective. To be a competent judge, you must be impartial and cannot push your own agenda.

So he has appointed the most Latinos to federal offices. How many of them are Marxists like him? How many of them are loyal to America and her Constitution?

“Now, some of you may remember I first joined you here two years ago, as a candidate for this office.  And we spoke then about how, after years of failed policies here in Washington, after decades of putting off the toughest challenges, we had finally reached a tipping point — a point where the fundamental promise of America was at risk.

We talked about how these challenges impacted the Latino community, but also about how they’re bigger than any one community.  I said then that if a young child is stuck in an overcrowded and underperforming school, it doesn’t matter if she is black or white or Latino, she is our child, and we have a responsibility to her.”

If President Obama, and other liberals, really cared about improving our schools and the quality of education, they would support the school voucher programs. Instead, Obama and his ilk have worked with the school unions to destroy the school voucher programs touting them as unfair. They continue to pour more money into a failed system. To reform the education system this is what needs to be done:

1. Get the federal Government out. Return control of schools to the state and local levels.

2. Eliminate the Department of Education and all federal funding for schools including all elementary, middle schools, high schools, and universities.

3. Eliminate the School Unions. Unions insist on keeping the substandard quality of education in this country. They are responsible for the amount of teachers that do not do their job, and some of these teachers are child molesters.

4. Repeal the measure in the Health Care law that allows the Federal Government to take control of the student loan program.

“That if millions of Latinos end up in the emergency room because they don’t have health care, it’s not just a problem for one community, it’s a problem for all of America.”

Here the President is blatantly lying. People who go to the emergency room do not do so because they have no health care. There are a couple reasons why emergency rooms are used: the person has a medical problem that only the emergency room can handle, or he is unaware that even without insurance he can go to the clinic. Also emergency rooms are popular among illegal immigrants because they can get the care they need and then walk out before they are asked for billing information or have immigration services called on them.

“When millions of immigrants toil in the shadows of our society, that’s not just a Latino problem, that is a American problem.  We’ve got to solve it.”

Why do we have immigrants “toiling in the shadows of society”? Simple. Many of these people are illegal immigrants and were smuggled into this country by people who deal in human trafficking. If we were to close the borders, crack down on illegal immigration, and punish those who smuggle people into this country we could save those who are in “the shadows of society” and eliminate most of the gang activity in the southwest. Another thing that needs to be done is destroying the drug cartels that use desperate people to smuggle their drugs into this country.

“As Dr. King told Cesar Chavez all those years ago:  Our separate struggles are really one.  And that truth became painfully clear when, less than a week after I had appeared before the CHC, some of the biggest Wall Street firms collapsed and the bottom fell out of our economy.  Millions of families across America were plunged into the deepest recession of our lifetimes.  And a Latino community that had been hard-hit before the recession was hit even harder.

So when I took office, I insisted that we could only rebuild our economy if we started growing the economy for all of our people, not just some of our people — (applause) — if we provided economic security for all of our working families all across America.  We had to renew the fundamental idea that everybody in America — everybody in America — has a chance to make it if they try no matter who they are, no matter what they look like, no matter where they come from or where they were born.”

This is mostly useless rhetoric to make Obama sound good. He is purposefully misleading people. The reason why the economy has slumped is because of democrat policies from the 1980s and 1990s. The economy continues to limp along because of Obama’s policies. When Jimmy Carter passed the Community Reivestment Act, it set the stage for Chris Dodd and Barney Frank to write legislation that forced banks to lend money to those who could not afford a mortgage. They also helped to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac alive despite the corruption within these two institutions and the evidence that they were bankrupt. We were plunged into a recession because of the very policies that Obama is pushing.

President Obama talks about security, but what security is there in a government that pushes for more control over individuals, increases spending and the debt, and washes its hands of all responsibility?

“That’s the idea that drives us:  the chance to make of our lives what we will.  And I know that many of you are thinking tonight about a task that is central to that idea — and that’s our fight to pass comprehensive immigration reform.”

The only immigration reform he wants is amnesty so that he can get more votes come 2012. The United States does not need immigration reform. What we need is to close our borders and enforce our current immigration laws. This means tracking down any who have stayed beyond their visa and deporting them, and punishing businesses who hire illegal immigrants. If the Federal immigration laws we currently have were enforced from the beginning, we would not have an illegal immigration problem. Besides, if we actually enforced our immigration laws, the illegal aliens would deport themselves. That is what happened in Arizona when they passed their immigration law.

“Now, I know that many of you campaigned hard for me, and understandably you’re frustrated that we have not been able to move this over the finish line yet.  I am too.  But let me be clear:  I will not walk away from this fight.  My commitment is getting this done as soon as we can.  We can’t keep kicking this challenge down the road.

There’s no doubt the debate over how to fix all this has been a fractured and sometimes painful one in this country.  And let’s face it, there are some who seek political advantage in distorting the facts and in dividing our people.  We’ve seen it before.  Some take advantage of the economic anxiety that people are feeling to stoke fear of those who look or think or worship differently — to inflame passions between “us” and “them.””

The only person infusing fear into the hearts and minds of Americans is the President himself. Obama used the fear of economic collapse to pass his stimulus bill. He used the fear of not be able to get health care to pass his health care bill. He used fear and anger to pass the financial overhaul bill. Now he is using the fear of racial division to pass another amnesty bill.

“I have news for those people:  It won’t work.  There is no “us” and “them.”  In this country, there is only “us.”  (Applause.)  There is no Latino America or black America or white America or Asian America.  There is only the United States of America — all of us.  (Applause.)  All of us joined together.  Indivisible.”

This is just Obama’s feeble attempt to appear strong.

“If we appeal to the American people’s hopes over their fears, we’ll get this done.  We already know what this reform looks like.  Just a few years ago, when I was a senator, we built a bipartisan coalition around a basic framework under the leadership of Senator Kennedy and Senator McCain and President Bush.  We rallied with leaders from the business community and the labor communities and the religious communities.  Many of you were there.  And the bill we forged wasn’t perfect.  It wasn’t what any one person might think was optimal.

But because folks were willing to compromise, we came up with a commonsense, comprehensive reform that was so far from the false debates, the notion that somehow on the one hand there’s mass amnesty or on the other hand there’s some unworkable mass deportation.  That wasn’t what we were talking about.  And the American people, I think, were ready to embrace a commonsense solution.  And we passed that bill through the United States Senate”

The bill he is referring to is the immigration bill that Ted Kennedy and John McCain worked on under Bush’s second term. This bill was nothing more than an amnesty bill. It granted amnesty to 2.7 million illegal immigrants while failing to enforce immigration laws.[i]

“But since that effort fall apart — fell apart, we have seen how broken and bitter and divisive our politics has become.  Today, the folks who yell the loudest about the federal government’s long failure to fix this problem are some of the same folks standing in the way of good faith efforts to fix it.   And under the pressures of partisanship and election year politics, most of the 11 Republican senators who voted for that reform just four years ago have backed far away from that vote today.

That’s why states like Arizona have taken matters into their own hands.  And my administration has challenged that state’s law — not just because it risks the harassment of citizens and legal immigrants, but it is the wrong way to deal with this issue.  It interferes with federal immigration enforcement.  It makes it more difficult for law — local law enforcement to do its job.  It strains state and local budgets.  And if other states follow suit, we’ll have an unproductive and unworkable patchwork of laws across the country.

We need an immigration policy that works — a policy that meets the needs of families and businesses while honoring our tradition as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.  We need it for the sake of our economy, we need it for our security, and we need it for our future.

And I understand it may not be the easy thing to do politically.  It’s easier to grandstand.  But I didn’t run for President to do what’s easy.  I ran to do what’s hard.  I ran to do what’s right.  And when I think something is the right thing to do, even my critics have to admit I’m pretty persistent.  I won’t let it go.  They can call me a lot of things, but they know I don’t give up.”

The reason Arizona passed their own immigration law is because for over 20 years the Federal Government has refused to enforce its own immigration laws and has refused to deal with the problem of illegal immigration. Also. Arizona’s law was a carbon copy of the federal immigration laws. All Arizona did was pass a state law stating that they will enforce the current federal immigration laws. They did what needed to be done.

The fact that the White House filed a lawsuit against Arizona proves that they cannot stand it when people do not follow them. It also proves that we have an out of control, oppressive government that needs to be reined in. The federal government has no right to file a lawsuit against individual states. This violates the tenth amendment and is an erosion of the rights of individual states.

The only one grandstanding here is President Obama himself. He hopes that by bashing Arizona he will garner support from the Latino community. He is also setting himself upon some pedestal of moral superiority.

“Now, the Senate is going to have a chance to do the right thing over the next few weeks when Senator Reid brings the DREAM Act to the floor.  Keep in mind, in the past, this was a bill that was supported by a majority of Democrats and Republicans.  There’s no reason why it shouldn’t receive that same kind of bipartisan support today.  I’ve been a supporter since I was in the Senate, and I will do whatever it takes to support the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ efforts to pass this bill so that I can sign it into law on behalf of students seeking a college education and those who wish to serve in our country’s uniform.  It’s the right thing to do.  We should get it done.”

Here is the payment Obama promises for any Latino that votes for him. The Dream Act was originally proposed under Bush’s tenure by Republican Senator Hatch from Illinois. He now opposes the measure, but that is of little consequence. It is most likely a political move on his part. Now the measure is a rider on the Defense Authorization Bill due to Senator Harry Reid.

The Dream Act would grant conditional citizenship to illegal immigrants up to the age of 35 who claim that they were brought into the United States while under 16. To be granted citizenship they would have to agree to join the military or enroll in a university. That is the Dream Act in a nutshell. It is nothing more than an amnesty bill.

Like every piece of legislation from this Congress, the bill is full of loopholes. Currently most states ban in state tuition to illegal aliens. The Dream Act would put an end to that. Those granted citizenship will be allowed to sponsor others for citizenship, even those who would otherwise not be granted it. Another problem is that there is anywhere between 50,000 to 70,000 illegal immigrants who graduate high school every year.[ii] All of them stand to be given U.S. citizenship. And since most of those granted citizenship by the Dream Act are considered minorities, they will have Affirmative Action helping them. This means that many of those who will benefit from this bill will be given preference in college admissions and preference in the job market; preference over American citizens who happen to be white.

There a many reasons for not passing the Dream Act.

1. It is being put as a rider on the Defense Bill because it was unable to pass through Congress on its own. Immigration is a separate issue and any bill concerning it must pass through both houses of Congress on its own; not as a rider on another piece of legislation.

2. There are enough Immigration laws on the books. We do not need more. Congress should go through the current immigration policies and repeal what is not working and enforce what does. Adding more laws upon thousands of pages of existing laws just complicates matters more and does little to solve the problem.

3. This is nothing more than an amnesty bill. Yes, there are conditions put on it and it seems reasonable, but that is the problem. Do you really expect a government that refuses to enforce the rules concerning those who have overstayed their visas to make certain that those granted citizenship under this bill hold up their end of the bargain? No. They will be given citizenship and let loose.

4. Amnesty never was, and never will be the answer. These people that will be granted amnesty are adults. They know that they are not U.S. citizens and have refused to go through the process of becoming one. Now they a rallying for the passage of the Dream Act so that they will be allowed to achieve their dreams. The Chicago Tribune wrote a sob story about an illegal immigrant who is 19, but was brought to this country while under 16 and how this bill would improve his life.[iii] This kid is 19. On the day he turned 18 he could have applied for U.S. citizenship and started the process. But he chose not to. Apparently, citizenship was of little importance to him.

The people who will benefit from the Dream Act are of voting age. This bill is a way for desperate Democrats to buy the Latino vote in this November and later in 2012. Unfortunately, these people are stupid enough to sell it to them. Since most of them are illegal they have no right vote in American elections anyway.

“Now, I want to be straight with you.  To make real progress on these or any issues, we’ve got to break the Republican leadership’s blockade.  Let’s be clear about this.  Without the kind of bipartisan effort we had just a few short years ago, we can’t get these reforms across the finish line.  Their leadership has made reaching 60 votes the norm for nearly everything the Senate has to do.  The American people’s business is on hold because, simply put, the other party’s platform has been “no.”

For example, consider the public servants I’ve nominated to carry out the people’s business.  Most of them had been supported widely and approved unanimously by Senate committees.  But they’ve been held up for months by the Republican leadership.  We can’t even get an up-or-down vote on their confirmation.  I nominated a man that you all know well.

Now, Raul has been waiting for 10 months to be the Ambassador to the Dominican Republic.  Right now, there are 21 judges who’ve been held up for months while their courts have sat empty.  Three of them are outstanding Latinos, like Judge Albert Diaz, who I nominated to the Fourth Circuit Court.  He’s been waiting for 10 months.  This is a widely respected state court judge, military judge, and Marine Corps attorney.  He was approved unanimously by the Judiciary Committee.  But just last month, the Senate Republican leader objected to a vote on his confirmation yet again.  And when he was asked why, he basically admitted it was simply partisan payback.  Partisan payback.

We can’t afford that kind of game-playing right now.  We need serious leaders for serious times.  That’s the kind of leadership this moment demands.  That is what we need right now.  Because when I get out of this town and I’m meeting with people, talking to folks, nobody is asking me, “Hey, Barack, which party is scoring more points?”  Nobody is saying, “Oh, don’t worry about us, I just want you to do what’s best for November.””

Once again Obama is blaming Republicans for his problems. The Republicans are unable to block anything in Congress right now. They are the minority in both houses. The Democrats hold the majority in both the House and the Senate. They also control the White House. If Obama is unable to get his agenda pushed through Congress, then he has a problem within his own party.

He is also pushing the same rhetoric of Republicans being the “party of no”. This is a favorite Democrat tactic. The reason for many Republicans saying no to Obama, is because they finally got the backbone to say no to big government. I hope they keep it up.

“What they’re interested in is how they’re going to find a job when they’ve only known one trade their whole life; how are they going to put their kids through school; how are they going to pay the bills if they get sick; how are they going to retire when their savings have plunged after this financial crisis.  They’re the folks we’re here for.  They’re the folks we’re fighting for.

That’s why we passed Wall Street reform — for every hard-working family who’s tired of taken — getting taken advantage of every time they opened their credit card bill, or mortgage payment, or tried to send a remittance — send a payment to help their parents or families abroad.

That’s why we’re reforming America’s schools so that all our children have a chance to learn the skills they need for today’s economy.  We eliminated tens of billions of dollars in wasteful subsidies to big banks that provide student loans, and we’re taking that money to make college affordable for millions of students, including more than a hundred thousand Latino students.  That’s what the CHC did.  That’s what this administration did.

That’s why we passed health insurance reform for Americans who are sick of being gouged by insurance companies that jack up rates and deny coverage because you’ve got a preexisting condition.  Now, millions of Americans with insurance can get free preventive care.  Now, 9 million Latinos and tens of millions of Americans will be able to afford quality health care for the first time.”

The only reason why Obama pushed these so called reforms was to get his Marxist agenda through Congress while he had a chance. President Obama promised to “fundamentally change America” and that is exactly what he is doing. He is changing the United States from a Republic into a Socialist state. This is something the American people have resisted since the rise of the Progressive era.

“That’s why we cut taxes for small business owners and 95 percent of working Americans.”

Tax cuts? What tax Cuts? There have been no tax cuts since Obama took office. He gave some tax credits, but those are due to expire the end of this year. Also, tax credits are not tax cuts. Tax credits are very similar to the credits you may see on your credit card statement if they overcharged you for something. A tax cut is an actual reduction in the tax rate. This, we have not had. In fact, beginning in January of 2011 your taxes will increase because Obama is allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire at the end of this year. He has not urged Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts. Obama is lying and he knows it. He also is well aware that he will never be called on it.

“Instead of giving tax breaks to corporations to create jobs overseas, we’re cutting taxes for companies that put our people to work here at home.  Instead of tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans who don’t need them and weren’t even asking for them, we’re fighting to cut taxes for you, middle-class folks all across the country.  That’s what we’re about.  That’s what we’re fighting for.”

More lies. Taxes on corporations will increase in 2011 thanks to the health care and financial reform bills. If the president manages to get an energy/climate bill, there will be tax increases within it for both businesses and individuals. If he really intended to encourage corporations to manufacture products within the U.S., Obama would eliminate the EPA and all of their useless regulations and he would slash all corporate taxes by about 75% and even eliminate some. This would encourage businesses to come to the U.S. and recover the economy.

Take note Obama’s use of class warfare here. Earlier in his speech he talks about how we are all Americans and should not divide ourselves. Then he speaks about how the wealthy do not deserve tax cuts. This is a typical tactic of socialists. They claim they want unity, but then they divide people based on economic circumstances.

“And when it comes to just about everything we’ve tried to do, almost every Republican in Congress has folded their arms and said no.  Even where we usually agree, they say no.  They’re thinking about the next election instead of the next generation, trying to score political points instead of solving problems.  They said no to help for small businesses.  No to middle-class tax cuts.  No to making college affordable.  No to comprehensive immigration reform.  Their platform, apparently, is “no se puede.”  Is that a bumper sticker you want on your car?”

Blaming Republicans once again. It is not Republicans getting in Obama’s way. It is the American People. The majority of Americans have demonstrated, through the Tea Party Movement, that they do not want Obama’s reforms. Because of this, many Democrats have distanced themselves from Obama. But Obama cannot admit this. If he does it shows that not only do the people not trust him, but that there is distrust and division within his party. This would weaken him even further. So he continues to spread the lie that it is the Republicans fault hoping that enough people will believe it in the November elections.

“In fact, the chairman of their campaign committee said that if they take over, they’d go back to “the exact same agenda” — that’s a quote — “the exact same agenda” they had when they were in power.   They’re saying they’ll repeal Wall Street reform.  They’ll try to repeal health insurance reform.  They’ll give the special interests a pen and let them write the rules again.”

More lies. Obama is trying, desperately, to convince people that Republicans are responsible for the economic meltdown; that Republicans are responsible for the lack of recovery. He wants to connect them to special interests because the Democrats are deeply connected to special interests groups like the Unions (SEIU, ACORN), the American Medical Association, and AARP, to name a few. Now, that does not mean that there are not some Republicans that are tied to special interest groups. But Obama is purposefully trying to mislead you because he is deeply connected to groups like SEIU and ACORN. He has allowed them to influence what was written in many of his “reform” bills.

“And right now, because of that Republican blockade, those special interests — even foreign corporations — can spend tens of millions of dollars on campaign ads without even having to disclose who they are.  You’ve seen some of these ads.  You know, they call themselves “Americans for Apple Pie” or “Moms for Motherhood.”

And then they use their voice to drown out yours.  To let Wall Street write rules that take advantage of Main Street.  To let insurance companies write rules that let them cover or drop folks whenever and however they please.  To go back to that “exact same agenda.””

Remember, Republicans cannot block anything right now. They do not have enough votes. And, frankly, you want Obama’s agenda to be stopped. What he wants is not what America wants. What he wants is the destruction of America. Look at everything he has said and done for the past 21 months. He and key Democrats in Congress have actively pursued a course that violates the U.S. Constitution and violates our individual rights.

The Republican party appears to be undergoing a transformation right now in which they are returning to their conservative roots. This is what we need. We need to return to common sense values and solutions and return to Reagan conservatism. Reagan had it right. Cut government and return power back to the hands of the people, where it belongs. This was one of the fundamental beliefs that surrounded the founding of America.

“Well, tell me you something.  That agenda didn’t work out so well for the Latino community.  It didn’t work out for anybody here in America.  It is not going to solve the challenges we face.  We can’t go backwards.  We’ve got to go forwards.

So let me say this, not just to the folks who are in this room, but to the Latino community across this country.  You have every right to keep the heat on me and keep the heat on the Democrats, and I hope you do.  That’s how our political process works.

But don’t forget who is standing with you, and who is standing against you. Don’t ever believe that this election coming up doesn’t matter.  Don’t forget who secured health care for 4 million children, including the children of legal immigrants.  Don’t forget who won new Pell Grants for more than 100,000 Latino students.  Don’t forget who fought for credit card reform, a new agency to protect consumers from predatory lending, and protections for folks who send remittances back home.  Don’t forget who cut taxes for working families.  Don’t forget who your friends are.  No se olviden.  Don’t forget.

We can’t go back now.  Not when there is so much work to be done.  We’ve got to move forward.  We’ve got to move forward on jobs, and on the economy, and on immigration reform, and all the unfinished business of our time.  These are serious times.  They require serious leaders and serious citizens, and your voice matters.  Your voice can make the difference.”

This is mostly more rhetoric. Obama is pandering to the Latino Community, since they are whom he is speaking to here. He is also stating that any who do not agree with his agenda are backwards people that do not understand Americans or the people’s wants and needs. By making his opponents seem inferior and primitive, he is hoping to discredit them.

“So let me close by saying this.  Long before America was even an idea, this land of plenty was home to many peoples.  To British and French, to Dutch and Spanish, to Mexican to countless Indian tribes.  We all shared the same land.  We didn’t always get along.  But over the centuries, what eventually bound us together — what made us all Americans — was not a matter of blood, it wasn’t a matter of birth.”

This is all BS. Obama is attempting to play down the uniqueness of America. He is purposefully distorting our past. The American Colonies were British colonies subject to the crown from the day they were formed. However, for most of our colonial history Britain ignored the colonies forcing those who settled here to form their own governments and govern themselves. This is where American self-government began. There may have been some of Dutch or French origin who settled here, but that is of little importance. Those who settled in the Colonies gave up what life and allegiances they had in Europe to begin a completely new life in America. And though many Colonists thought of themselves as Englishmen, since the Colonies were still British colonies, they also referred to themselves as Americans. At the time of the Revolution it became apparent that those in England had no respect for the Colonists and viewed them as second class citizens. And that was how they were treated. So, a group of men decided to make the separation from England official since they were already separated in custom and principle.

It does not matter how many people of different origins were living in the New World before America was formed. The fact remains that the ideas that formed the United States, the ideas that propelled the Founding Fathers, are uniquely American. These principles did come from the Indians, Spain, France, or Mexico. (Mexico did not declare independence until 1810 and did not win it until 1821.) The ideas that made America came from America; they originated in America.

“It was faith and fidelity to the shared values that we all hold so dear.  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights:  life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

This should disturb every American. The president of the United States purposefully misquoted the Declaration of Independence, one of our key, founding documents. There is no excuse for any American misquoting the Declaration, especially if he is the President of the United States.

Already, people are making excuses for Obama. But presidential speeches are written far in advance of their delivery date so the President can practice it and make certain that the facts are correct. Also, Obama has never delivered a speech without a teleprompter. Since this was a 24 minute speech, I highly doubt that he left his teleprompter at home and delivered it by memory. The words were in front of him. All he had to do was read them.

Obama is a trained speaker, so nervousness in front of a crowd should be beyond him. When most people misspeak their mistake is fluid and they usually correct themselves immediately afterwards. But Obama’s pause was very deliberate and unnatural. He did not convey the classic signs of a person trying to remember what came next. There is no logical explanation for this mishap.

Watch the video on YouTube. (embedded below)I have watched it many times. Each time I am left with the same conclusion. He deliberately left out “the Creator”. As Obama says the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” he pauses for several seconds. Watch his face while he stands there. It scrunches up in an angry scowl. Obama knows the words. You can tell he knows the words, but is debating whether to say them or not. He chose not to.

The complete quote is: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator [emphasis added] with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Why would the President of the United States leave out the part about our rights being from God? The Founding Fathers knew where our rights came from. They not only believed in God; they never questioned that our rights come from Him. That is why it was written down. So that future Americans would never forget that our liberties come from Divine Providence and this country was established with this understanding.

The fact is, Obama does not believe in God. And he certainly does not believe that our liberties come from Him. Obama, like all statists, believe that a person’s rights come from the government. That is why they always speak about entitlements. In actuality, Obama and those like him do not believe in individual rights. They believe in collective rights. Obama has spoken about the “collective” in other speeches. By grouping your individual liberties with that of a group, and by claiming they do not come from any Creator, Marxists can diminish your rights and take them away. This is what Obama has been doing from the start of his term. That is what he achieved here.

“That’s what makes us unique.  That’s what makes us strong.  The ability to recognize our common humanity; to remember that in this country, equality and opportunity are not just words on a piece of paper, they’re not just words in the mouths of politicians — they are promises to be kept.

And that is our calling now — to keep those promises for the next generation.  No matter which way the political winds shift, I will stand with you for that better future.  And if you stand with me, and if we remember that fundamental truth — that divided we fall, but united we are strong, and out of many, we are one — then you and I will finish what we have started.  We will make sure that America forever remains an idea and a place that’s big enough and bold enough and brave enough to accommodate the dreams of all our children and all our people for years to come.  Si, se puede.

Thank you.  God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.  Thank you.”

What makes America unique is the understanding that people establish governments so as to protect their God given rights, but we must never forget where those rights come from. What makes us strong is our ability to unite under God for the protection of our rights and the sovereignty or our nation.

Obama talks about the dreams and future of Americans while at the same moment he is destroying everything that is uniquely American and stealing what little hope for the future we have left. His method of accommodating “the dreams of our children” is by putting them on a permanent government welfare program and controlling their lives.

It is ironic that Obama would ask God to bless the United Sates moments after failing to admit that our individual rights come from Him. Though the ending of the speech is standard for any president, the irony remains and cannot be ignored.