Solutions for America

For those of you who don't receive the Heritage Foundation's Morning Bell in your inbox: 1) Sign up now. 2) Read the Heritage Foundation's Solutions for America, which "identifies the nature and scope of our most pressing problems in 23 policy areas and recommends 128 specific policy solutions to guide the new Congress."


If you're too lazy to read the entire pfd linked above, then 1) Check out its broad strokes below 2) Get serious about restoring your country and read the damn thing!


The Broad Strokes:

• Cap Federal Spending: President Obama’s proposed budget would increase the national debt from $13 trillion now to $20 trillion by 2020. This is an unsustainable trajectory. We propose a “binding cap” that forces lawmakers back to fiscal sanity.
• Put Entitlement Programs Under the Budget: We propose putting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid into the congressional budget process rather than continue to allow them to grow on auto-pilot without oversight. Lawmakers would establish a five-year budget for these programs and include triggers to keep spending with approved limits.
• Reform Social Security: We should raise the Social Security retirement age and encourage people to work longer by eliminating payroll taxes for those over the retirement age. This would lessen the burden on employers to keep people employed and lessen the burden on Medicare and other entitlements.
• Revive Federalism: We must reverse the current trend in which the federal government more and more usurps the traditional state role in areas such as transportation, education, health, homeland security and law enforcement.
• Loan Welfare Money to Able Bodied Recipients: Our plan advises treating welfare assistance to able-bodied adults as a loan to be repaid, rather than a free gift from taxpayers. This will reduce dependency while providing temporary help to those who need it.
• Keep Taxes Low: First, no tax increases, including the planned Obama Tax Hikes as well as the reintroduction of the Death Tax. Instead, cut taxes to spur economic growth.
• Implement a Pro-Growth, Pro-Jobs Strategy: We must reduce the top tax rate on corporate earnings, which is currently the second highest among ALL industrial nations, and let businesses immediately deduct investments in new plants and equipment.
• Peace Through Strength: Defense spending is near historical lows. We must refurbish our armed forces, especially our depleted Navy fleet and vital missile defenses.

Simple enough right? Now if we could just get some leaders on the Hill to push subscribe to this brand of common sense we'd be in business. November never looked so good..

Stand Tall Patriots,


SP

MSM Neesd CPR: What Chrisite O'Donell means for USA

 How long will it take for the MSM to get it straight? 

The Tea Party is not some flash in the pan group of rag-tag, redneck rabble. The American people are done sitting idly by as their government defaults on their future andThe Tea Party Primary victories are neither the beginning nor the end of what is a mass movement to throw the bums out and honor our constitutional rights to speech, assembly, and most important, the FRANCHISE. 

Yes WE CAN vote, WE HAVE voted, and WE WILL continue vote and to sweep the floor clean of the dusty do-nothings that "govern" us.  

But the Main Stream Media doesn't get it.

 

Take Christie O'Donnell's win last night in Delaware over Congressional incumbent Mike Castle. "How did that happen?" That's what the MSM wants to know. You already understand why. It's for the same reasons that the same Tea Party story is playing out in New Hampshire, Colorado, Nevada,  Florida : because government is about the people and not about a party or an indefinitely ruling elite. 

But look at today's headlines: CBS - Christine O'Donnell Wins, and the GOP Loses | Dem Pundit: ‘Tea Party is Flesh Eating Bacteria For GOP’| O'Donnell win dims prospects for a GOP-controlled Senate

This is not the story that the MSM should be covering. It's not about the GOP. It's about the American people and what they want their government to look like - not what it looked like in the past. 

Now, I'm not saying that we should all jump on the bandwagon for any candidate that slaps a Don't Tread On Me sticker onto their bumper. It's necessary that we vet our candidates and do it well before we exercised our most sacred privilege and THROW THE BUMS OUT!

Stand Tall Patriots,


SP

Do These Look Like Racists to You?

The Uni-Tea Rally held in Philadelphia on Saturday, July 31st was a spectacular event.  Tea Partiers from all over the northeast gathered in the birthplace of our nation's freedom to celebrate diversity within the ranks of our beautiful grassroots movement. Nine of the slated speakers were black or Hispanic, and some of the most well received orators were card carrying democrats, NAACP members, and self proclaimed social progressives. Contrary to uneducated assumptions, the rally had not been staged in response to the recent allegations of Tea Party racism by the NAACP and main stream media. The idea to promote a "Tea Party for all communities" had been conceived by Jeffrey Weingarten in February, but definitely served as a powerful rebuttal to the Party's accusers. There was not one hate filled remark, effigy of obama, or assinine sign. There had been unity. Unity over god, small government, liberty, and fiscal responsibility. There had been camaraderie and tolerance. There had been humanity.

The distinguished and diverse panel of speakers certainly touched upon issues of racial inequality, and undressed the affirmative action/welfare state solutions of the Left as nakedly oppressive and destructive to the black community. Project 21 Fellow and FOX News contributor, Deneen Borelli, rightly stated that the Left "expects us all to sit on the government plantation." Leette Eaton White characterized welfare as a "pacifier for the uppity negro".

However, the message of the day was a post-racial unity around reigning in our out-of-control-government. Inner city school counselor Vanessa Jean Louis had the crowd in stitches when she said, "I'm not some out of touch rich person. Heck, I'm broke! In fact, I tried to deficit spend the other day at the ATM, and you know what it said? insufficient funds." It was a very common sense analogy that exposed the ludicrous, intellectually underdeveloped fiscal policies of the left. David Webb, co-founder of New York's Tea Party 365, and emcee of the event, astutely observed that, "There's no such thing as government spending. There is only government borrowing!"

As a black participant of the event I can attest to the tolerance and open mindedness of the crowd at large. There were even two gay patriots at the rally who were embraced by all. Charles Payne of FOX  Business made a magnificent point as the last speaker when he said, "America is not the greatest country on the face of the Earth because it is perfect. It is because it wants to be perfect!" I would never say that there isn't a flawed member of the Tea Party or that everyone who attends our rallies are supremely enlightened-- that would be an absurd statement. But what I can say is that, as I held the hands of my white counterparts in prayer, and we all raised our voice together in a rousing round of 'God Bless America", that we were all trying to understand one another and connect on a level that transcends melanin.

Chew on that liberals. How dare you accuse these people of racism? Try coming to a rally with an intent other than sabotage and then honestly report what you actually observe.

Stand Tall Patriots,

SP

History Is A Broken Record

A friend of mine sent this to me and I had to post it immediately. See what parallels to the current day you find in this 1934 Chicago Tribune political cartoon:

The Race Riot Sideshow: Destructive Distraction

 

I've reserved commentary on the race related uproar of the past few weeks  but feel that it is time to weigh in. Each event of the past few weeks: the NAACP allegation that the Tea Party is wholly racist, the deplorable Mark Williams rant, the Black Panther voter intimidation scandal, and the Shirley Sherrod fiasco, can all be categorized under one heading: Polarizing Distraction.

Whether it be Big Government's Andrew Breitbart, or the NAACP's Ben Jealous, both the left and the right are shamefully guilty of playing the race card, in a game when the stakes are far too high. The spectacle of the last weeks has eclipsed more important stories such as the continued cleanup of the gulf, the passage of the financial reform and unemployment legislation, the looming spectre of the un-American DISCLOSE Act, and the fact that there is neither a solution on the horizon for our astronomical budget deficit, nor is there a viable candidate to take the helm in 2012 and make sure that our ship doesn't run aground.

Do not be distracted. Do not lose focus. If you are reading this blog, then you, like me, uphold most supremely the ideals that our nation was founded upon, and are willing to tirelessly toil for their restoration. 

Does a childish he said she said about melanin do anything to control government spending and bloated bureacracy? No.

Do disingenuous video edits advance our national discussion about how to maintain our federalist tradition of individual liberty and states' rights? No.

Do we need to refocus our lens away from inflammatory wedge issues and onto topics like fighting ObamaCare. Of course we do.

Yes, the knee-jerk reaction of the Obama Administration in using Tom Vilsack as a scapegoat to fire Shirley Sherrod without as much as a cursory examination of the evidence against her, is evidence that Black people do not have a faithful protector in the White House as many liberals falsely believe. However, that is actually just an indicator that we need to find and elect a capable Commander in Chief, who won't use a "human shield" tactic when backed into a corner by some random website administrator.

Who is that person? That is the question of the hour, and that is what we need to recruit our collective energies for. Let us not stray to watch the next cable news broadcasted kindergarten quibble at the expense of our goal to take back America for the Free.

Stand Tall Patriots,

SP

Financial Reform: Fiscal Fiasco

 It's clear that financial reform needs to  be done in this country. But not like this.

Our US Senators have voted  to kill debate on the most extreme  manipulation of financial rules since the Great Depression: The Financial Reform Bill. This sets up a final vote which will happen later tonight.

Obama says that the bill is "a sensible framework of rules and regulations, adequate to hold financial institutions accountable." In reality its just a document that legitimizes more government control and bailouts that the American people are sick of!

Conservatives and liberals alike should be furious because this bill does NOT put enough financial "skin in the game" for mortgage lenders, and makes ridiculous patronizing concessions that will have zero positive impact on saving our economy, such as nominally giving shareholders more "decision making rights". In reality nothing is changing at all. To add salt  to the wound, these fools are adding another federal bureacracy to burn money. The Federal Insurance Office (FIO), to be contained within the Treasury Department, is intended to monitor the insurance industry and make "recommendations" about which companies should be treated as systemically important. It's just a bunch of big words for more government bloating.

Why would we trust this Administration to get anything fiscally responsible done in the first place? We shouldn't. Just think about the abject failure of the stimulus package juxtaposed with the administration's recent touting of it as a great success.

The White House's claim that Obama's $826,000,000,000 stimulus has already "saved or created" 3 million jobs is patently false. In actuality he failed to deliver on his stimulus promises by 7.4 million jobs. The American people aren't stupid. Just look at the CBS poll to the left. 74 percent of Americans believe the Obama stimulus either damaged the economy or had no effect.

The White House ruse is risible. 

Surprise, surprise, the Great Tea Party hope Scott Brown was one of three republicans to side with Obama on this one. 

We need an answer, and it's coming in November. If the American people know that the stimulus is a sham, and if the American people know that the Financial Reform Bill is nothing but more of the same spending that threatens to destroy our way of life, then why can't Congress figure it out? Frankly, I don't care why. We just need a new one. I don't want my kids being forced to speak Mandarin if they aren't living in China.

Biden to Small Biz: "Bite Me"

Saw this on Gateway Pundit this morning.



Yesterday, VP and bionic gaffe machine Joe Biden went campaigning in Wisconsin to support left-fielder Russ Feingold (D-WI). After ordering a sweet treat at Kopp's, a local custard stand, for a no-press photo-op Biden asked its owner how much he owed him. The owner's response: “Nothing, just lower our taxes.”

Biden, fuming, snubbed the man and turned away, a mouth full of custard, and face full of egg. Then, according to Breitbart TV, Biden snarled at the man, “Say something nice instead of being a smartass all the time.”

For a guy who's built his career on being the "everyman" and riding Amtrak to work, his behavior was surprisingly snobbish, befitting the out-of-touch politician that he is. If I were Obama, I'd drop this court jester and pick up Hillary for 2012. Especially so we can beat both of them and kill her chances for the big show later on..

Stand Tall Patriots,

SP

Obama Pays Off His Voters 50 Billion

 Look Familiar?

It's not rocket science folks. We need to stop spending like some 18 year old kid who hopes his credit card will score him some action with the head cheerleader. Unfortunately, the reasons behind our spending aren't so benign.


Obama is paying off his voting base-- with $50 billion of your cash.


Instead of putting the pressure on elected politicians to balance their budgets with their own tax revenues, Obama sees an opportunity to curry favor with the Dem base by calling for a $50 billion dollar bailout of state and city politicians to hand off cash to their government employees. But the truth is: these people aren't in danger of losing their jobs, and are far better off than the average American worker. Wrote Pat Buchanan in an article for realclearpolitics:

Government workers enjoy far greater job security than private-sector workers. At the state and local level, their average pay and benefits, about $40 an hour, far exceed the $27 per hour in the private sector. The federal worker has it even better, receiving $30,000 a year more in pay and benefits than the average worker in the private sector.


Obama's proposal is thus about taking care of his own and the Democratic Party's political base.

Consider. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the American Federation of Teachers, the Transport Workers Union of America and other government unions in the AFL-CIO are all powerhouses of the Democratic Party.


Obama is calling for a taxpayer rescue of the political class to which he belongs, to spare it the painful duty tens of thousands of business executives have had to perform. Private employees -- 25 million of whom are out of work, underemployed or have given up looking for jobs -- may be expendable, but government workers are not.

Whatever happened to making local politicians responsible for their own and supporting the private sector? I'll tell you what: the liberal agenda to grow government. Why? Because Democrats = Big Government. The bigger government is, the larger the Democrat base becomes. And currently, government comprises nearly 40% of the American economy.


Many opponents of the Obamanation have worn t-shirts or carried signs depicting him as the Joker from the Dark Knight. Although humorous, I never got the connection. However, in thinking about this payoff, he does remind me of Jack Nicholson's Joker in the 1989 version during a scene in which he parades through the streets on a huge, ostentatious float, tossing out free money to gain popularity with the citizens of Gotham city. Of course,  he soon after poisons them all! Embedding is disabled for the video but check it out here. 

Stand Tall Patriots,

SP

Republican Voter Caveat Emptor: CINO No-No

According to the latest GALLUP poll, Republican voter enthusiasm is at an all-time high:

An average of 59% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have said they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting this year compared with past elections, the highest average Gallup has found in a midterm election year for either party since the question was first asked in 1994.

 

That is all well and good, but don't expect that to mean conservatives can relax and rest assured that a return to fiscal responsibility is the inevitable outcome of a midterm congressional change of the guard. Au contraire, my freedom frying friend. Do you recall the massive midterm massacre that republicans served up to the democrat controlled congress in 1994? Of course you do. You must also remember that the revolution's architect, Newt Gingrich, had promised many conservative reforms on day one in his "Contract With America" (e.g., slashing over-sized budgets, moratoriums on regulation, and new congressional term limits). But these reforms were largely unrealized. For example, 95% of the biggest programs that the Contract had vowed to cut entirely had a combined budget increased of 13% by the year 2000!

The anti-majority/incumbent fervor is cyclical, and although major, the backlash that we are seeing now is nothing particularly novel. What would be new would be for the professed conservatives who are elected to office to actually enact what they run their campaigns on once in their seats. Before you hit the polls in November, vet the candidates, and vet them well. Republican, Democrat or independent, I don't care what party the prospect is from, as long as they have a record of sound fiscal policy. We can't afford to repeat 1994 and elect a congress of CINOs (conservatives in name only). As you know, America is Greece on steroids and its time to get off the pill before it's too late to get out of the hole.

Stand Tall Patriots,

SP

America: Greece on Steroids

Socrates, Plato, the Parthenon-- all examples of what has made Greece a historical paragon of philosophy, art, and culture. Who wouldn't want to emulate their legacy, right? Not so fast. Let's fast forward about oh, say 2 and a half millennia later..

                               
                                Greek riot officer engulfed in flames. A metaphor for the American Obama economy.


No matter what is said in your high school history textbook Greece is not country to copy. Today their economy and society have been destroyed. Years of lunatic spending, cheap lending and failure to implement common sense financial reforms (sound familiar?) left Greece naked and flailing when the worldwide economic downturn hit. In February, the Greek government, on the verge of bankruptcy, announced  "austerity measures" to combat its sky-high debt. Its people, broke and angry, didn't take kindly to its government taking away their rights when it was rampant government corruption and irresponsibility (ring a bell?) that flushed their economy down the drain in the first place. Surprise, surprise, three months later, completely bankrupted, Greece erupted into a conflagration of chaos and murder in the streets. About 100,000 pissed off pythagoreans struck nationwide, and they weren't throwing the discus, or hurling olives-- these folks were armed to the teeth, launching molotov cocktails at banks, riot officers, and any target they could see through the eye-holes in their gas masks.

                                  
                                  Goodbye Aristotle. Hello anarchy.

How the hell did this happen? It was the Double D: Deficit and Debt. And, alarmingly, America is hurtling down the same path!! Today the Foundry broke it down:

In April 2010, Greece’s FY 2009 deficit was estimated at 13.6% of the GDP.  The United States FY 2009 deficit reached a record high of $1.4 trillion, or 9.9% of the GDP.  If we continue to follow the President’s proposed budget, over the next ten years our average deficit will surpass the number that brought Greece to its knees.
Then there is the lingering issue of the debt.  Greece’s debt reached 115% of the GDP and could reach 150% of the GDP before too long.  Interestingly enough, the CBO reports that the US debt will jump dramatically from 53% to 63% between FY 2009 and FY 2010. And, just yesterday the Treasury Department estimated that by 2015 the ratio of US debt to GDP would rise 102% to nearly $20 trillion.

I don't know about you, but if you're like me and 79% of other Americans polled, this is an absolute economic Armageddon of horrific proportions. Why then are we American taxpayers, against our will funding yet another $6,800,000,000 dollar bailout of Greece through the IMF? The only thing Americans should consider paying that much money for is to build a time machine to bring James Madison back to bitch slap Big Government back into its rightful place!

Our out of control spending has to stop now. This Administration's ridiculous Keynesian reductionist policy that assumes every dollar it spends will stimulate the economy is bullshit, and we know it. Do we want to get to the point that there are government imposed, socialist policies, shackling Americans and small businesses? Do we want murderous, riotous mobs in our boulevards? No. It's simply time to tighten the purse strings, reign in teenage-with-a-credit-card government spending, stop inflating entitlement programs, stuffing the pork barrel, and passing on a  fourteen figure debt to our kids.

                                                    

Why don't we try tattooing this solution offered by the economists at American-election.com on Obama's forehead:

*Freeze government hiring for the next 3 years.

*Eliminate bonuses and raises for the foreseeable future.

*Institute layoffs and across the board wage cuts. Why should government employees enjoy “privileged status” that no employee in the private sector enjoys?

*Change pensions from ‘defined benefit’ to ‘defined contribution’ pension plans, meaning retirees receive only what has been built up in their 401K type retirement accounts.

*Raise the retirement age. In Greece it is going from age 53 to 67. Gold-plated pension plans are the single biggest factor that bankrupted Greece. The same problem bankrupted U.S. automakers GM and Chrysler.

*Require government employees to pay more of their healthcare (through co-pays and deductibles).

*Change the way pensions are calculated by eliminating overtime and raises in the last years of employment to “game the system”. 

Sounds pretty damn reasonable to me. Especially since we are Greece on steroids.
Its times like these that we need to heed the wise words of our Founders. James Madison said:

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

Arm yourself. Hit the streets and take the polls. Take back your money. Take back America.

Stand Tall Patriots,

SP

Taking Back America

Hello, my name is Super Patriot and I am deeply concerned by, and outraged at the trajectory that our country is traveling. Huge, monstrous government is dictating our lives and squandering our money, while trampling our rights, denigrating the constitution, and undermining America's God-given mandate to lead the world. When I was a child I was promised a better America, and I won't rest until that promise is restored.

I live in New York City, where so many people are oblivious to the ills of our nation and it makes me livid. That's why I am joining the Tea Party movement and doing something about the destruction of our beloved land. It is up to us, the PEOPLE, to do what our forebears did: RISE UP, and take back our country.

Here is a link to the Contract from America, the common sense petition that supports limited government, individual liberty, and economic freedom-- the very foundation of our nation!

It was the great patriot Thomas Paine who said: "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

Stay tuned for news, opinion and wisdom of our forefathers..

Stand tall America,

SP