TCUnation
social network for conservatives
Boehner Condemns Attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords
I am horrified by the senseless attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and members of her staff. An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve. Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society. Our prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords, her staff, all who were injured, and their families. This is a sad day for our country
Read more at Speaker.gov
House Speaker John Boehner is a class-act.
No matter how much vitriol we feel for those who vote against our values, violence is never the answer.
.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by American Man on -
I agree with you Mike. The government is in dire need of being shrinked. And you are right, "A rising tide does float all boats -- even Obama the so.... has just started to figure that out. And I think that we will be moving in that direction. Thank God!
-
Permalink Reply by Mike Mott on -
We shall see. There is a simple metric -- is government spending increasing or decreasing? Right now it is still increasing.
-
Permalink Reply by American Man on
-
Well.. The handwriting is definately on the wall. I hope that I am correct in anticipating that the general concensus in congress is exactly that this is something that will require immediate attention. In the meantime America needs to soothe old wounds. We are a very resilient country...
-
Permalink Reply by Mike Mott on
-
I thought I posted a blog about the recovery, but it seems not. It is going to be extremely difficult to pull us out of this (table below). Cut Defense to zero and take all earnings from the super-rich and it just about covers the deficit.
It does not cover the growth in entitlement spending. Even with best case scenarios (we all know it will be worse) entitlements will take $1 of every $3 earned by workers as the Baby Boomers retire over the next few years. Let me say that again, 1/3 of the productive economy will be spent supporting people who produce nothing, but to whom much is promised. This is a ticking financial time bomb of the first order on top of the deficit problems government has created.
Unless the economy starts creating jobs, which it is not going to do until the government burden is lifted, then either middle class tax cuts or cuts to entitlements will be required to get us out of this mess. Both of these have been declared off of the table, which means we can't be serious about the problem. That was the conclusion of the Debt Commission.
The next hurdle is that we better hope the QE doesn't fire up inflation too quickly -- it will cause inflation I don't care what the idiot Bernanke says. If inflation gets started it is going to be Carteresque in nature. That it hasn't yet started speaks to how poorly the economy is doing still. The cure for inflation is to raise the interest rates and they went above 20% to stop Carter's fiasco. Because of the size of the deficit this isn't really an option as it would then take 1/3-1/2 of the revenues to the government just to service the interest on our debt. This frankly scare me to death.
We can talk about resilience all we like, but the numbers say we better have some effective economic leadership or we are doomed. Not listed in the following chart is the cost of the regulatory burden, which is $1.75 trillion, and rising quickly, on the economy. This strikes me as the first place to cut. If I were king there would be a whole bunch of departments, along with their regulators, axed. Education, energy, most of HHS, transportation, and most of Treasury for starters. This would provide a profound and lasting stimulus to the economy.
Once the economy begins to create jobs the next two pieces of stimulus we can throw at it are a Flat Tax and a serious reduction in business taxes. For business taxes I'm talking about reducing the top rate from somewhere around 40% to something like 10%. That will make us competitive globally. Some of this can be paid for when we eliminate the IRS. The government estimates that it costs the economy somewhere between $350 and $900 billion dollars to pay our taxes, which is totally unproductive labor. We need to get rid of the IRS and all of its regulations.
So with these structural changes in place we can take a little bit more in taxes from the economy as we've given some back in stimulus. This must be used to reduce the debt.
Then we also need, which I hope we get during the debt ceiling increase discussions, some rule changes in the budgeting process so that we limit the growth of government. We need to scale back the federal government until it is somewhere around 15% of GDP, tops.
I think the path to get through this without a SEVERE economic crisis is going to be an escape that would make Houdini proud. I think it is going to require a president who does not believe that the answer to any problem someone has involves government.
-
Permalink Reply by DJGauvreau on -
AM, sounds good....but ya might want to pass that thought on to the Big-Guns (or the upper crust) of the Demo party. Saw Mr.Leahy on C-SPAN this morning. Funny, he still just don't get-it! And still, so smug..so old and so full of....spite. He's living proof that only the good die young and evil lives forever. Here's a prediction or prophecy for ya...Rep.G.Giffords will leave the Demo party soon after her return to the House! After being used by her own party to advance an agenda & raise funds for the elite. Only to find she is a strong voice...a charged voice that will speak for America as a whole. And i feel that their are several "Debts" that must be paid down first before old wounds can heal! Nothing good ever comes from bad blood....NOTHING!
-
Permalink Reply by Roger R. on -
We could use the model of gang-warfare between the Crips and the Bloods that nothing good ever comes from bad blood.
In fact, "debts being paid down" is the reason why gang-warfare continues - it's called "payback" and it is an never ending cycle that lasts generations.
Ironically, the Dems and the Repubs even use the same "gang colors": Red and Blue
.
-
Permalink Reply by DJGauvreau on
-
RR, ya...the life circle on the planet earth! Revenge or Avenge...your choice! The only thing for sure is change, not good or thought thru and by no means for all. Always with targets...targets or segments of the Country, to control things "They" don't like, understand or just want phassed out. Not for the hearts & minds of the people or right & wrong, but always hidden from sight based on "Their" facts, "Their" truth or just plain lies! And like any gang or turf war who pays the price? "We the People" not the Reds or Blues! I,ve read the paper since i was 15 yrs old (not just the Sports page) and can say this...some things never change...only how many rights we have left at the end of the day.
-
Permalink Reply by Clint Manuel on -
I can answer that!
As to the Bush reference. That seems to be a standard defensive move of left when faced with 'Founders' logic - bring up an unpopular POLITICIAN. A modern politician in hardly representative an the American ideal of integrity, regardless of party affiliations. One cannot separate the Laws of Nature through political semantics and legislation no more than one can draw dividing lines in the sky and name them. It's a theoretical excercise evidencing desperation. And of course I am discounting the facts that, worldwide, Paraguay is currently one of the best international investments in terms of EXTREMLY cheap real estate, ZERO restrictions on foreign ownership and without limits on foreign owners on commerce and industry (almost unheard of anwhere today). ENDING "Bush is evil" ploy of the left.
Now! I am NOT my brothers keeper, as you suggested in the earlier post. I am not responsible for the actions of Bush, for you or for my best friend's cousin Joe. I am responsible for how I react to whatever situation circumstance and God throw my way. Just because most home accidents occur in the bathroom does NOT mean there should be government mandates on safety rails purchases of all homes by 0.00000000193 % of society's most economically-unproductive, tax-spending, priveleged elitists in DC that have been distanced from mainstream life.
The 'reasons' for the growing dissention in our culture is due to the blatantly Liberal-Progressive-Socialist attitudes of FORCED behavior through the 'Separate-But-Equal' philosophies of affirmative action, redistribution and a socially racist tax system based on 'Political Correctness', lies and a warped sense of 'justice'. This completely unrealistic view of the world that my classmate 'Robert' who dropped out of Distributive Education working on small engines is somehow as equally deserving of 'equitable charity' via government as our valedictorian, who worked to pay what his multiple scholarships didn't and become a CPA for Price Waterhouse. I liked 'Robert' and was his friend, but I don't believe EITHER of us are qualified or capable enough to work as a CPA with our valedictorian, much less run a fortune 500 company.
This is why the WHOLE PHILOSOPHY of todays Democratic 'Progressive' in no only eroneous and doomed to fail (history shows a 100% failure rate of democracy). This is why it is against everything that America stands for. This is the reason America is considered the most enlightened creation of the nations of man ever to exist.
"The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind."
--Thomas Paine
-
Permalink Reply by Mike Mott on
-
"One cannot separate the Laws of Nature through political semantics and legislation no more than one can draw dividing lines in the sky and name them." Well said, Clint.
That is EXACTLY the problem with liberals on any subject. For Global Warming (Climate Change or whatever) they wish to set aside the laws of physics and the scientific process. To "fix the economy" they decide to set aside the laws of economics. To justify their redistribution schemes they set aside the Laws of Nature. Then the scatter brains are completely unfazed when these things unravel. For example, Obamas economic plans are working, he just needs a little more time. Fat chance, unless he can repeal the laws of economics.
I'm going to repurpose (conservatives are efficient) my letter to the editor that was recently published as it is relevant, somewhat, to this discussion.
----- letter follows
There is no free lunch. My buddy Todd recently bought me lunch, and although it cost me nothing it wasn’t free. If the restaurant had kindly bought us both lunch, it would still not be free.
To provide us that lunch thousands of miners, engineers, and factory workers made the machines and provided the fuel that farmers used to till the fields and harvest the crops. The crops were taken to processing factories where people and machines packaged and distributed them to consumers everywhere. Truck drivers delivered the food products to the restaurant where people took our order, cooked our food and cleaned up after our meal. Clearly, someone pays for the lunch.
Yet politicians tell voters they can provide free lunches in exchange for their vote. In reality politicians take money from people who work hard and pay taxes to buy the free lunches.
A little of it is no big deal; a lot of it is a problem. Yet politicians, as they will, give more and more free lunches. Why not, it isn’t their money. Because lunch is on the politicians everyone wants one. To continue providing free lunches, politicians tax the present until it is broke and then they consume the future with their borrowing. How could it be otherwise when they promise free lunches for everyone?
Congress is now debating an increase in the debt ceiling, which in essence ups the credit card limit for the nation. Congress needs more credit to buy more free lunches. Unless Americans stop Washington from borrowing and spending, the nation’s fate will be that of Greece or Spain. This is unthinkable for a nation where parents make sure that their children have it better than they did.
That we have this massive deficit is evidence of structural defects in the budgeting and spending processes. When Congress, as they sadly will, raises the nation’s credit card limit again voters must insist that the act is accompanied by new budgeting rules to curb spending, limit borrowing and ensure this problem never happens again.
-
Permalink Reply by Clint Manuel on
-
Thanks Mike! That's reminescent <sp> of the "I Pencil" post I believe you posted some time back?
In any event, this does a great job at pointing out the facts that so many statists and redistribution proponents seem to miss completely! NOTHING is for free and we will ALL pay the piper in due time.
“Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous conscientiousness of honor. It is not the produce of riches only, but of the hard earnings of labor and poverty. It is drawn even from the bitterness of want and misery. Not a beggar passes, or perishes in the streets, whose mite is not in that mass.”
-Thomas Paine
-
Permalink Reply by Mike Mott on
-
The limit for letters in our paper is 350 words, and so I took Leonard Read's idea and smashed it down to two paragraphs to make the argument. You have a good eye for plagiarism, and I'm thankful you weren't an instructor of mine in school.
Thomas Paine put powerful words together, did he not? "These are the times that try men's souls." Those are 7 very powerful, yet simple, words. I like the quote you provided, especially the fact that the money politicians spend is the result of "hard earnings of labor and poverty."
As long as I'm confessing to stealing ideas, the thought about consuming the future from their borrowing is taken from Bastiat's missive That Which is Seen and That Which is not Seen, (http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss4.html#4.57) which demolishes the concepts of socialism. In talking about socialism he writes
"Under this system, capital cannot be formed. It will be rare, dear, and concentrated in a few hands. This means that wages will be reduced, and that inequality will open up a continually widening gulf between the social classes.
4.57It will not be long before the public finances reach a state of complete disorder. How could it be otherwise when the state is responsible for furnishing everything to everybody? The people will be crushed under the burden of taxes; loan after loan will be floated; after having drained the present, the state will devour the future."
Sounds familiar doesn't it?
-
Permalink Reply by Clint Manuel on
-
Not at all Mike! None of my ideas are original. I depend on those far more enlightened than me to read and RE-read in my attempt to explain my own muddled thoughts, lol.
I don't want to leave anybody out, but you and ALL the rest keep posting things I can borrow to get the point across to those who DON'T understand.
God Bless and have a great weekend!
© 2013 Created by Earl B.
