Got your attention!  Here’s an interesting memo I obtained over at the Atlantic.

freedom-works-internal-memo

This memo, which hasn’t been validated, but is being reported on by Fox News, purports to provide a “Target List” of candidates for the Tea Party to presumably unseat in 2010.  Listing them under the heading of “Enemy of Liberty” or “Potential Enemy of Liberty,” one quickly, with even the most cursory attempt at fairness, concludes that this is not a Tea Party Target List, but instead a republican target list of democrats under the guise of the Tea Party.  How do I conclude this?  Well, assuming the list is accurate, and I see no reason not to, there are 45 names on the list.  Of those 45 names, 42 are democrats (really it’s 44 because 2 of the names are primary challenges).  So, am I to conclude from this that there are no republicans who might be enemies of freedom?

I believe in fair play.  So, I compiled my own list that the real Tea Party might want to take a look at as well.  And please, don’t accuse me of being a democrat plant just trying to counter the republican Freedom Works…I used to work for two republican Members of Congress (though I’m now registered unaffiliated).

Republicans who Voted FOR Medicare Part D	Enemies of our Children’s Future (Republicans still in Congress and should be targeted by the Tea Party because they voted for Medicare Part D)
Alexander (R-TN), Yea	Alexander
Allard (R-CO), Yea
Allen (R-VA), Yea
Bennett (R-UT), Yea	Bennett
Bond (R-MO), Yea	Bond
Brownback (R-KS), Yea	Brownback
Bunning (R-KY), Yea	Bunning
Burns (R-MT), Yea
Campbell (R-CO), Yea
Chafee (R-RI), Yea
Chambliss (R-GA), Yea	Chambliss
Cochran (R-MS), Yea	Cochran
Coleman (R-MN), Yea
Collins (R-ME), Yea	Collins
Cornyn (R-TX), Yea	Cornyn
Craig (R-ID), Yea
Crapo (R-ID), Yea	Crapo
DeWine (R-OH), Yea
Dole (R-NC), Yea
Domenici (R-NM), Yea
Ensign (R-NV), Yea	Ensign
Enzi (R-WY), Yea	Enzi
Fitzgerald (R-IL), Yea
Frist (R-TN), Yea
Graham (R-SC), Yea	Graham
Grassley (R-IA), Yea	Grassley
Gregg (R-NH), Yea	Gregg
Hatch (R-UT), Yea	Hatch
Hutchison (R-TX), Yea
Inhofe (R-OK), Yea	Inhofe
Jeffords (I-VT), Yea
Kyl (R-AZ), Yea	Kyl
Lott (R-MS), Yea
Lugar (R-IN), Yea	Lugar
McConnell (R-KY), Yea	McConnell
Murkowski (R-AK), Yea	Murkowski
Nickles (R-OK), Yea
Roberts (R-KS), Yea	Roberts
Santorum (R-PA), Yea
Sessions (R-AL), Yea	Sessions
Shelby (R-AL), Yea	Shelby
Smith (R-OR), Yea
Snowe (R-ME), Yea	Snowe
Specter (R-PA), Yea
Stevens (R-AK), Yea
Sununu (R-NH), Yea
Talent (R-MO), Yea
Thomas (R-WY), Yea
Voinovich (R-OH), Yea	Voinovich
Warner (R-VA), Yea

 

Here’s the House Members that voted FOR Medicare Part D: republican-house-members-who-voted-for-medicare-part-d2;

So, why did I highlight Medicare Part D.  Well, according to most analysts, this legislation will far exceed the costs spouted about when this new giveaway of your tax dollars was voted upon in 2003.  And yes, this along with every other entitlement Congress has foisted upon us in its never-ending thirst for power will be paid for by our children.  In this regard, here’s a great quote from an article Bruce Bartlett wrote just last year over at Forbes:

“Just to be clear, the Medicare drug benefit was a pure giveaway with a gross cost greater than either the House or Senate health reform bills how being considered. Together the new bills would cost roughly $900 billion over the next 10 years, while Medicare Part D will cost $1 trillion.”

Befitting the title, each of these Members of Congress have been labeled “Enemies of our Children’s Future” and thus should be on any Tea Party target list.

So, I would caution any group such as Freedom Works from suggesting they might have a “target list” for the Tea Party.  If they had called it a Freedom Works “Target List” this would never have become an issue.  Suggesting we Tea Partiers support this…well, makes us all either hypocrites or worse, makes us wonder if you might think we’re all novices at this.  Hmmm, I wonder which it is?  Perhaps both?

Misc

 

We’ll, I hate to take the glow off all those who lifted their hands towards heaven at the election of Scott Brown, but the truth is, his election was typical of what I’d expect in pragmatic two-party politics.  The democrats win and now it’s the republicans turn to win all the while the debt clock keeps ticking…$105 TRILLION…$106 TRILLION…$107 TRILLION.  So, is Scott Brown the savior of the Republic?

Let’s begin with a little clip from the now rising star the day after his election:

Did you hear that; “I…I think…I think that, first off all, just so we’re past campaign mode, I think it’s important for everyone to get some form of healthcare, so to offer a basic plan for everybody is important.” 

How exactly is that different from what the Olympia Snowe’s of the R’s and Harry Reid’s of the D’s are saying?  And more importantly, where exactly does Senator-elect Scott Brown find authority in the U.S. Constitution to even vote on making sure “everyone” has some form of basic health care?

Brown really pulled a fast one on the Tea Party and glomed onto it, yet is he really one of us?  Or, is the TEA party really just a wing of the republican party?  If his election is any indication, the Tea Party had better do some very quick reflection on this or very suddenly find itself co-opted (if not already) by the two-party system.

I will state this; as a Tea Party organizer in Maryland, invited on Fox News 3 times as a representative, interviewed by CNN Anderson Cooper and a very recent radio talk show host, I didn’t sign up for this.  For every Tea Party member reading this who supported Brown, please take a look at why you supported Brown with your money and emotion…was he really the kind of guy that will go to Washington DC and vote to restore the Constitution to its rightful place as the authority in our country?  If his first press conference is any indication, I suspect we’ll see buyers remorse very soon.  In fact, as reported by Dick Morris at Newsmax.com, the democrats are quite possibly going to find a way around him anyway.  I suspect the republicans would do the exact same thing if it was a polic they we’re hellbent on forcing upon us.  Remember this gem, the new entitlement program we’re forcing our children and grandchildren to pay for, Medicare Part D which was passed under a republican administration and supported by many republicans like Jim Gerlach from Pennsylvania?

So, Tea Partier’s, remember the passion you felt as you confronted your local representatives at town hall meetings in August and September.  Remember how empowered you felt as you read your Constitution and Madison and the other Founders felt so alive to you.  Remember when you read the Declaration of Independence and realized that we’re facing tyranny again, this time in the form of our own federal government.  Finally, remember the clarity you felt about the principles of liberty and freedom so eloquently penned in 1776 with these words that still bring great emotion to me even as I type them;

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Fellow Tea Partier’s, don’t settle for a win for the sake of a win…I beg you.  We cannot morally pass to our future generations that which we have created today.  We cannot act on pragmatism, we must act and stand on principle.  And while I worked on Capitol Hill during the Reagan administration, I can no longer accept his; “somebody who agrees with you 80% of the time is an 80% friend not a 20% enemy.”   While this sounds so enlightened in theory, in practice, the very 20% can lead to hundreds of billions of dollars of extra-constitutional activities and spending.  

Thus, if the Tea Party is to evolve into a true political force that will draw from many different political ideologies and effect the change necessary for our children’s future, it must stand on principle and not pragmatism.  For far too long, compromise (mostly the Constitution being compromised) has been the supposed highest value a politician can pretend to embrace.  And this very lauded term has now led us to the brink of utter econimic disaster.  I suggest it’s time for principle to reign; allow me to proffer a few:

• The federal government MUST be forced back into Article 1. Section 8, as originally written, of the U.S. Constitution via the 10th Amendment.
• The States MUST assert their Constitutional prerogativesand nullify legislation that is not in keeping with the 10th Amendment.
• The citizenry, acting through their state representatives MUST take whatever lawful action necessary to compel their representatives to force the federal government to obey the Constitution via the 10th Amendment.
• The citizenry MUST communicate to their state representative’s their willingness to suffer the pain of withdrawing from federal bribes using taxpayer funds from other states to persuade compliance with federal mandates.

 

Keeping our eye on the ball is critical at this juncture of our movement.  We must not let the goal of the Tea Party become “taking over Washington DC” or putting republicans back in power.  We must stay focused on the FACT that every large centralized government throughout history (which is exactly what we have right now in Washington, DC) has always ended in some form of tyranny where people lose their liberties and in worst case scenarios, their very lives.  We MUST understand that our battle is not to make sure a certain party obtains power, rather, we must properly identify and stay focused on the real enemy…the large, bloated, all-powerful centralized government seated in Washington, DC.  In 1776, we threw off tyranny from England.  In 2010, we must throw off tyranny located in Washington DC using the very tools the Founders left us…the 10th Amendment.

Finally, resist party politics.  Only support candidates that will commit publicly to force the federal government back into the box of Article 1. Section 8 of the Constitution.  Above all, don’t support candidates that one day after their election stammer out of the gate with; “I…I think…I think that, first off all, just so we’re past campaign mode, I think it’s important for everyone to get some form of healthcare, so to offer a basic plan for everybody is important.”  

My conclusion…Scott Brown is not the next political savior who will make all things right…rather, it’s up to us, working within our states to win this battle.

Health Care, Misc, Must Read, Political Parties, TEA Party

 

First off, we wouldn’t be in the mess of tax-withholding and all the filing complexities if it wasn’t for the Current Tax Payment Act of 1943.  This little gem has successfully hidden the real tax burden from the average American by getting us to look at our paychecks as “gross and net.” income.  Gross being that which we’ve earned and net equals what we get to keep after the federal, state and local governments legally plunder what it wants via payroll deduction.

Ok,  the point of this article.  I’ve begun hearing over and over again how necessary it is to buy TurboTax or some other software to make sure you get the biggest refund you deserve.  WHAT!  Biggest refund you deserve!?  You gotta be kidding me.

Frog In The Kettle to all readers…when you get a “refund” from the federal or state government, that means you paid in more to them than you should have; essentially, you’ve given the legal plunderers an INTEREST FREE LOAN!!  Is this REALLY what you want to do?

Let’s say you get a refund of $1,000 from the federal government.  Instead of earning $50.00 in interest had you invested that same $1,000 at 5%, no, you gave it to the federal government to use as they see fit with no interest paid by them.  Or, even if you decided not to invest it, it was still in your pocket to do with as you want.

Folks, in 2010, please do a better job tax planning…don’t give our legal plunderers FREE money…if they need more, they’ll borrow, legally plunder, or print more.  You’ve worked hard for your property…keep every penny you can.

Misc, Real Change, The Economy

 

Adam Smith coined the “Invisible Hand” metaphor over 200 years ago and how applicable it is during these trying times.  The “Hand” is at work and there’s nothing we can do to stop it; a reckoning is coming, one that even the vaunted federal government cannot stop, though it will try.

 

The Mother Of All Bubbles (MOAB) is upon us and ignoring or tinkering with it will only prolong, not solve this mess.

 

With over 12 TRILLION in current debt, another 7.5 TRILLION coming in 2009-2010 from bailout after bailout and 60 TRILLION in unfunded mandate obligations (Social Security and Medicare), the die is cast.  Now we just wait and see how this drama unfolds and how big a mess we’ll be in.  There is no blueprint and we’re in unchartered waters.

 

We American’s are an odd bunch with the uncanny ability to bury our heads in the sand and rely on some sort of cognitive dissonance to navigate difficult times.  On the one hand, we see the problems in the country and complain.  Oddly, at the same time, we act as though the problems aren’t real and go our merry way, spending and charging.  Rather than deal with the likelihood of a decreased standard of living, severe joblessness, and staggering financial loss, 63 million of us bought into “change” rhetoric.  Sadly, these naïve ones believe that the federal government will ride in on a horse and save the day…how sad.

 

Here’s the cold hard truth, the MOAB is unstoppable and its name is insidious – DEBT.  We’re a country that’s full of it.

 

Facts:

 

1.      Current National Debt – In excess of $12,000,000,000,000.00 (Yes, that’s 14 digits)

2.      Projected bailouts – In excess of $7,500,000,000,000.00

3.      Unfunded debt obligations (Social Security & Medicare) - $60,000,000,000,000.00

4.      Consumer Debt – 97% of GDP or roughly $14,000,000,000,000.00

 

MOAB (Mother Of All Bubbles)

 

What does all this mean?  In layman’s terms, GDP essentially equals how much is produced by our country each year.  In 2009, it will generally equal $14 TRILLION.  So, if the entire country didn’t spend a single penny all year (that means no mortgage payments, no food, electric, car payments, etc), we would still fall $79 TRILLION short of the debt we owe.  Of course, we cannot use all of our GDP to retire debt and really, we’re $93.5 TRILLION in debt.

 

Thus, the Mother Of All Bubbles is upon us and we cannot hide.  It’s a simple reality that we face and we’d better come to terms with it.  For starters, we’d better realize the government isn’t the solution.

The Economy