Saturday, December 31, 2011

Republicans Are Big Spenders Too!

All spending bills must start in the House of Representatives.
In December 2011, a “megabus” spending bill for $915Billion
for FY2012 was passed by the House by a vote of 296-121. The
vote in the Senate was 67-32. There was no fanfare as with
previous spending bills (CRs and raising the debt ceiling)
during 2011. The Republican leadership in the House has caved
at every opportunity to control spending. They must accept
the labels RINO and big government profligate spenders.
In 1995 Republicans passed welfare reform and controlled
spending. President Clinton vetoed the spending bills twice –
thereby shutting down the Federal government. He signed the
bills the third time, and he has taken credit for the resulting
surpluses in FYs 1998 through 2001. Few note that deficits in
1993 and 1994 with a Democrat-controlled Congress were large
enough to give Clinton a net deficit for 8 years in office.
The Democrats have blamed President Bush while they have
maintained many of his policies – on steroids! Obama has
publicly showed sympathy with the “Occupy” crowd while taking
tens of Million$ from Wall Street supporters the OWS are
protesting. The Feds have turned a business cycle into the
Great Recession by following the same policies of Hoover and
FDR – trade isolation and maintaining high wages. Three
years passed before trade agreements negotiated under Bush
were finally implemented. “Minimum wage” laws created
unemployment over 25% for 18-25 year-olds and over 40% for
minorities of the same age. Unemployment was above 17% for
the 1930s, and above 9% for most of Obama's three years.
Unemployment seems to be easing despite anti-business
policies and the adoption of European socialism.
Social Security and its Medicare and Drug children are
bankrupt. It is criminal to reduce FICA payroll taxes to buy
votes. What about those “tax loopholes” that Democrats wanted
to close in the “Super Committee” shell game to reduce spending?
No spending was cut and the second round of “commissions” was
lost. Since the tax loopholds were acknowledged, delete them!
Mike Huckabee (Fair Tax), Herman Cain (Fair Tax and 999) and
Ron Paul have offered specific tax reform plans. The debate on
tax reform has abated. Ron Paul's budget would balance the
budget by his fourth year. Many do not think the cuts are
necessary. They have their head in the sand! If nine zeroes
are removed from the numbers, then it is easier to understand
the crisis: Income: $26,000 Spending: $36,600 Oustanding
Debt: $120,000. Each year $10,600 will be added to the
outstanding debt.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

The Constitution sets the maximum number of members of
Congress at “one for every thirty thousand.” Assuming a
population of 310,000,000 that sets a cap of about
10,333 members. There currently are 435 members of
Congress.
Current technology makes it possible to have a far
greater number of representatives than the present
situation. According to the Census there are about 230M
who are 18 years old or older. Of these, about 137M are
registered voters. Using 100,000 registered voters
instead of 30,000 persons, that would allow 1370 members
of Congress. This would be a much better representation
for the citizens than the average of about 315,000 per
member. Since the number of signatures to get on a ballot
is a percent of the number to be represented, a smaller
number will encourage more participation in government.
By more than tripling the number of members,
representation should be better and corrupting power is
diluted.
Members of the House have reacted - not by diluting their
power - but by expanding their staffs. More members with
smaller staffs would be more responsive to us (the voters).

My Congressman's (#1 in House at 97%) Answer:

In 1929, The 71st United States Congress passed the
Reapportionment Act to determine apportionment of Members
of Congress in the United States.  This legislation capped
the number of Members in the House of Representatives to
435 and established a method of equal apportionment across
the states.  This legislation also delegated to the states
the power to draw the Congressional Districts.

That sounds like "It's the way we have always done it, and
no one intends to change it!" After 82 years and 41
Congresses, it is time to address the idea!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Repeating the Mistakes of FDR

The BHO administration says it hasn’t spent enough. But
Obama doesn’t seem to learn from history. Henry Morgenthau
Jr., the Secretary of Treasury for FDR testified before
the House Ways and Means Committee on May 9, 1939 saying
“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than
we have ever spent before and it does not work… We have
never made good on our promises…after eight years of this
administration we have just as much unemployment as when
we started…and an enormous debt to boot!”

If we don't learn from history, then we condemn ourselves
to repeat the mistakes!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Fuzzy Math on Unemployment

The government announced that unemployment is now 8.6%

Only 120,000 jobs were created. Is that enough to decrease
the rate by .5%? What was ignored is that the labor
participation rate decreased from 64.2% from 64%. This
means that 315,000 gave up looking for work.

There are 3 types of lies: lies, half-lies and statistics.
Let the buyer beware. This was not "solid proof that the
Obama program is working!"

Friday, December 9, 2011

Taxpayers Subsidizing Illegals' College Tuition

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility
Act of 1996 prohibits state colleges and universities from
providing in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens “on the
basis of residence within the State” unless the same
in-state rates are offered to all citizens of the United
States - and it is the Justice Department’s responsibility
to enforce this law.

But while the DOJ is going after states like Arizona and
Alabama for trying to enforce federal immigration law, the
U.S. government refuses to sue these twelve states,
including California and Texas, that are brazenly breaking
the law.

The President and the Attorney General have an obligation
to enforce federal immigration regulations, Von Spakovsky
and Stimson argue. In a new report, they highlight how
these states are encouraging illegal immigration by forcing
taxpayers to bear the costs of educating illegal aliens
while unfairly punishing out-of-state students who are
citizens with higher tuition rates.

Source: Heritage Foundation

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Better Representation in the House

The Constitution sets the maximum number of members of
Congress at “one for every thirty thousand.” Assuming
a population of 310,000,000 that sets a cap of about
10,333 members. There currently are 435 members of Congress.

Current technology makes it possible to have a far greater
number of representatives than the present situation.
According to the Census there are about 230M who are 18 years
old or older. Of these, about 137M are registered. Using
100,000 registered voters instead of 30,000 persons, that would
allow 1370 members of Congress. This would be a much better
representation for the citizens than the current average of
about 315,000 per member.

By more than tripling the number of members, representation
should be better and corrupting power is diluted.