News Blog for social, fiscal & national security conservatives who believe in God, family & the USA. Upholding the rights granted by God & guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, traditional family values, "republican" principles / ideals, transparent & limited "smaller" government, free markets, lower taxes, due process of law, liberty & individual freedom. Content approval rests with the ARRA News Service Editor. Opinions are those of the authors. While varied positions are reported, beliefs & principles remain fixed. No revenue is generated for or by this "Blog" - no paid ads - no payments for articles.Fair Use Doctrine is posted & used. Blogger/Editor/Founder: Bill Smith, Ph.D. [aka: OzarkGuru & 2010 AFP National Blogger of the Year] Contact: editor@arranewsservice.com (Pub. Since July, 2006)Home PageFollow @arra
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato
(429-347 BC)
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Open Letter to Congress Regarding the Stimulus Bill - #Pork #TCOT #Corruptlibs #Diggcon #Statebooks #FairTaxNation #LibHippos
Have you had enough of the stimulus scam. Below is asatirical open letter written by Laura Singleton. We wanted to help make sure her letter arrived. You can also help by sending Monopoly Money to DC, so that our "esteemed leaders" can fool around with it instead of OUR hard-earned money. She has asked if you'd send some too.
Here's what to do: send your elected officials monopoly money. How? Anyway possible: Email or Fax the image I've posted in my pics on this site. Put the image on your blogs. Mail Monopoly money overnight. Drop some off at their offices in your state or in DC. Blog about the waste, the pork, the delay & reference the Monopoly Money. Send out press releases, whatever. Flood their offices with the stuff. Maybe, just maybe, they'll get it then. Remember, the final vote is likely to happen Monday or Tuesday, so we don't have a lot of time. One voice is a dissenter. One million is a democracy.
Dear Esteemed Politicians,
I know many of you are new, and that the experience in our nation's capital can be both heady and confusing. Therefore, I'm writing to remind you that the Monopoly Money is the stuff that is pastel. Apparently, some (a "pared-down" $780,000,000,000.00 at last count) of the citizens' real money has slipped into your wild game. Normally I wouldn't be so rude to point out this slight and obviously unintentional mistake. However (dear me, I'm blushing), it seems that our children and grandchildren will be responsible for this debt so you can buy:
$99,600 worth of doorbells in Laurel, MS (net jobs produced: 2)
$6M to convert hybrids to electric cars in Boulder (net jobs produced: 0)
$650M more for Digital TV coupons (net jobs produced: 0)
$70M in smoking cessation programs (net jobs produced: ?)
$500K for a dog park in Chula Vista, CA (net jobs produced: 0)
$600M for the Heritage Trail in Natchez, MS (net jobs produced: 65)
$1.5M for a Prostitute Shelter in Dayton (net jobs produced: 0)
$500M for Solar Water Heaters in Puerto Rico ((net jobs produced: 14)
and--(this one deserves an award for "stupid positions have consequences" posterchild)--$400M for testing and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.
Now, I know that you know best, and I'm certain that this is all a misunderstanding. How could you know that the water company turned off service to somebody in our upper middle-class subdivision a couple of days ago? Or that there's a foreclosure sign a few houses away? My 70-year old parents came out of retirement to do substitute teaching after their life savings tanked. My brother's business deal fell through because of the economy & he's going to lose everything. But obviously no one told you that businesses here are going belly up and people are losing jobs. However, if it wouldn't interrupt your game too long, perhaps you could talk to any of these people--or me, for that matter--and find we'd actually rather have the money to get back on his feet than to pay to test someone who didn't abstain for an STD.
I know that Washington, DC is far, far away from here, but I would be more than willing to bring you additional Monopoly Money for you to play with in exchange for the real money, which real people could use for real needs.
Sincerely,
Laura Singleton
Tags:Congressional Pork, economic stimulus, economy, money, MonopolyTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
H/T to Tony Phyrillas, a leading conservative columnist and blogger based in Pennsylvania, for reporting on the plight of residents in Arkansas and Kentucky.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele's on Economic Stimulus
Transcript:
This is Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Democrats have controlled both branches of government for less than a month. And you have to wonder if all that power has gone to their heads.
For the last two weeks, theyve been trying to force a massive spending bill through Congress under the guise of economic relief. All of us Republicans and Democrats agree the government must act to kick-start the American economy. American families are doing their best to balance their own budgets and pay their mortgages.
The fastest way to help those families is by letting them keep more of the money they earn. Individual empowerment: thats how you stimulate the economy. But the Democrats have a different philosophy. Instead of leaving money in the family checkbook, they want to send it to Washington, run it through a slow and inefficient government, and hope that does some good.
When families keep the money, they spend it, save it, or invest it. And the private sector economy benefits when families and businesses buy consumer goods or invest it for the future. But when Washington spends the money, some of it may flow into the economy, but all too often, much gets wasted.
Democrats in Congress want a one-trillion dollar spending bill. Youve heard about the pork-barrel programs they want to fund 45 million dollars for ATV trails and removal of fish passage barriers is one that caught my eye. Exactly what is a fish passage barrier and why does it cost 45 million dollars to stimulate the economy with it?
Thats why Republicans in the House voted against uncontrolled spending. This is not a bragging point, but rather a statement that at least Republicans would stand with the American taxpayer.
But voting no is not enough and Republicans have offered innovative ideas to help struggling families and small businesses. Weve offered plans to spark job creation and investment through lower taxes, to stop the taxation of unemployment benefits, and to help Americans keep their jobs and their homes.
The comprehensive Republican plan would lower taxes for all working American families. If youre married, the first 16,750 dollars you make this year will be taxed at ten percent. Why dont we cut that rate in half to give instant buying power to every working American family?
Good ideas lots of them all left out of this plan by the Democrats in Congress. Republicans stand ready to work with reasonable Democrats to do what is right for America. But it will take more than bipartisan words from the President. It will require fair-minded action from Democrats in Congress. Thanks for listening. Michael Steele Tags:economic stimulus, Michael Steele, RNC, videoTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Former Vice President Dick Cheney is blasting the fledgling administration of Barack Obama, arguing that its policies dealing with terrorism and international foes are naïve and dangerous, making it all the more likely that terrorists will succeed in their next attempt at killing Americans. . . Simply by closing Guantanamo Bay’s detention camp for terrorists, Cheney said, Obama inadvertently will aid enemies eager to make another attack on the United States. Another major attack on this country — perhaps even using biological or nuclear materials — is very likely in the next few years, Cheney said. “I think there’s a high probability of such an attempt,”
Cheney said. “Whether or not they can pull it off depends whether or not we keep in place policies that have allowed us to defeat all further attempts, since 9/11, to launch mass-casualty attacks against the United States.” . . . “The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I’m not at all sure that that’s what the Obama administration believes,” he said. Cheney defended the hard-line tactics of the Bush administration as responsible for the safety of the country after 9/11.
“If it hadn’t been for what we did — with respect to the terrorist surveillance program, or enhanced interrogation techniques for high-value detainees, the Patriot Act, and so forth — then we would have been attacked again,” he said. “Those policies we put in place, in my opinion, were absolutely crucial to getting us through the last seven-plus years without a major-casualty attack on the U.S.” Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.” . . . [Read More] Tags:attacks, Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, terrorist threat, terroristsTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Harry Reid Claims Paying Income Tax in America is Voluntary
This video was posted almost a year ago. You will see and hear Harry Reid repeated claims that paying Income Tax in America is voluntary. And Reid is the Majority Leader of the Senate pushing the Stimulus bill. No wonder so many of his fellow Democrat friends did not pay their taxes and are now losing their chance of being appointed to a Cabinet post - they listened to Harry Reid. We need to audit Harry Reid!
As AlliDrac, the video poster, says: "When you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. Idiot Harry Reid maintains that paying income tax is voluntary in the U.S.. Harry Reid is the Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate. He's obviously not very bright. But then again... he is a politician. Interviewer Jan Helfeld does a great job of trying to nail him down but... well, you'll see."
Tags:Harry Reid, income tax, news, Politics, Senate Majority Leader, US Senate, videoTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Charles Krauthammer:"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe." - President Obama, Feb. 4. Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared "we have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.
And so much for the promise to banish the money changers and influence peddlers from the temple. An ostentatious executive order banning lobbyists was immediately followed by the nomination of at least a dozen current or former lobbyists to high position. Followed by a Treasury secretary who allegedly couldn't understand the payroll tax provisions in his 1040. Followed by Tom Daschle, who had to fall on his sword according to the new Washington rule that no Cabinet can have more than one tax delinquent.
The Daschle affair was more serious because his offense involved more than taxes. As Michael Kinsley once observed, in Washington the real scandal isn't what's illegal, but what's legal. Not paying taxes is one thing. But what made this case intolerable was the perfectly legal dealings that amassed Daschle $5.2 million in just two years.
He'd been getting $1 million per year from a law firm. But he's not a lawyer, nor a registered lobbyist. You don't get paid this kind of money to instruct partners on the Senate markup process. You get it for picking up the phone and peddling influence.
At least Tim Geithner, the tax-challenged Treasury secretary, had been working for years as a humble international civil servant earning non-stratospheric wages. Daschle, who had made another cool million a year (plus chauffeur and Caddy) for unspecified services to a pal's private equity firm, represented everything Obama said he'd come to Washington to upend.
And yet more damaging to Obama's image than all the hypocrisies in the appointment process is his signature bill: the stimulus package. He inexplicably delegated the writing to Nancy Pelosi and the barons of the House. The product, which inevitably carries Obama's name, was not just bad, not just flawed, but a legislative abomination.
It's not just pages and pages of special-interest tax breaks, giveaways and protections, one of which would set off a ruinous Smoot-Hawley trade war. It's not just the waste, such as the $88.6 million for new construction for Milwaukee Public Schools, which, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, have shrinking enrollment, 15 vacant schools and, quite logically, no plans for new construction.
It's the essential fraud of rushing through a bill in which the normal rules (committee hearings, finding revenue to pay for the programs) are suspended on the grounds that a national emergency requires an immediate job-creating stimulus -- and then throwing into it hundreds of billions that have nothing to do with stimulus, that Congress's own budget office says won't be spent until 2011 and beyond, and that are little more than the back-scratching, special-interest, lobby-driven parochialism that Obama came to Washington to abolish. He said.
Not just to abolish but to create something new -- a new politics where the moneyed pork-barreling and corrupt logrolling of the past would give way to a bottom-up, grass-roots participatory democracy. That is what made Obama so dazzling and new. Turns out the "fierce urgency of now" includes $150 million for livestock (and honeybee and farm-raised fish) insurance.
The Age of Obama begins with perhaps the greatest frenzy of old-politics influence peddling ever seen in Washington. By the time the stimulus bill reached the Senate, reports the Wall Street Journal, pharmaceutical and high-tech companies were lobbying furiously for a new plan to repatriate overseas profits that would yield major tax savings. California wine growers and Florida citrus producers were fighting to change a single phrase in one provision. Substituting "planted" for "ready to market" would mean a windfall garnered from a new "bonus depreciation" incentive.
After Obama's miraculous 2008 presidential campaign, it was clear that at some point the magical mystery tour would have to end. The nation would rub its eyes and begin to emerge from its reverie. The hallucinatory Obama would give way to the mere mortal. The great ethical transformations promised would be seen as a fairy tale that all presidents tell -- and that this president told better than anyone.
I thought the awakening would take six months. It took two and a half weeks. letters@charleskrauthammer.comHat Tip to National Black Republican Association for the heads up on this article. Tags:Barack Obama, Charles Krauthammer, pork, Tom DaschleTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
"Scare," a two-minute video highlighting the scare tactics of global-warming alarmists was produced and released by the Heartland Institute.
Tags:alarmism, global warming, Heartland Institute, videoTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
A Heritage Foundation release states that the travesty could be largely avoided if the Senate would adopt an amendment similar to one that passed the House requiring all recipients of stimulus money to use the E-Verify system.
While hundreds of thousands of American construction workers are unemployed, businesses across America continue to employ illegal aliens and will be allowed to use Stimulus money to hire hundreds of thousands more illegal aliens.
The Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are lobbying the Senate to ensure that businesses can use Stimulus money to hire illegal aliens.
Nearly every national Hispanic advocacy group is lobbying the Senate to ensure that illegal aliens have the same access to Stimulus jobs as unemployed Hispanic American citizens.
No. 1: If enacted, the Senate stimulus bill would fund over $100 billion in new government construction projects with the goal of providing additional jobs to unemployed Americans.
No. 2: Government estimates show that under current verification procedures, about one out of every seven persons hired to work in construction is an illegal alien.
No. 3: The Senate bill would provide roughly $104 billion in funding for a variety of construction projects. Normal government estimates indicate that each $1 billion spent on construction will create around 19,500 construction jobs, each lasting a year. Thus, $104 billion in funding in construction projects would ostensibly create construction-related jobs for about 2.04 million workers over several years.
No. 4: If the stimulus bill does not have additional requirements for verification, the normal ratio of illegal alien hiring will prevail. Applying the one in seven ratio to 2.04 million results in about 300,000 of those jobs going to illegal aliens.
The Heritage release states:
... if the current Senate bill were to become law without language requiring contractor use of E-Verify, the inevitable result would be billions in federal funds spent to employ illegal immigrants.
E-Verify is a very effective mechanism for determining the legal status of potential workers. E-Verify is inexpensive for employers to use, costing between $4 and $20 for each employee screened. E-Verify is in wide use; currently about one in 10 new hires in the U.S. economy are screened through the E-Verify system.
Tags:American jobs, jobs, e-verify, economic stimulus, Heritage Foundation, illegal aliens, illegal workers, NumbersUSATo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Today in Washington D. C. - Feb 6, 2009 - Insanity Reigns
The Senate reconvened at 10 AM today and resumed consideration of the economic stimulus legislation (H.R. 1). Votes on amendments will continue today with the possibility of a final vote sometime this evening. Yesterday, the Senate rejected three substitute amendments offered by Republicans. All included middle class tax cuts, cutting the tax rates for Americans in the lowest two tax brackets in half. Voted down were amendments from Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), which featured a corporate tax cut, infrastructure spending, and defense spending, Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), which featured 4% refinanced mortgages for homeowners, and Sen. John Thune (R-SD), which featured small business tax cuts and a tax credit for health insurance expenses. None of these amendments received a single Democrat vote.
For the third time this week, a poll has come out showing a steep decline in public support for the Democrats’ bloated stimulus package. Like the Gallup and Rasmussen polls, yesterday’s CBS poll showed a 12-point drop in support since early January. (The Gallup poll dropped 14 points since January, while the Rasmussen poll dropped eight points in two weeks). There are several interesting things in the CBS poll. Respondents who are following the bill “very closely” are more likely to oppose the bill than those who are only casually following the bill. In other words, “The more the American people learn about this bill, the less they like it.” Most respondents preferred tax relief to more government spending as the best way out of the current recession by a margin of 59-22. And only 13% said it was okay for the bill to be passed with only the backing of the Democratic majority while 81% wanted a bipartisan vote.
Sen. McConnell said on the floor earlier, “Americans realize that a bill which was meant to be timely, targeted, and temporary has instead become a Trojan horse for pet projects and expanded government.” Little wonder, then, that Democrats continue to show their apprehension about this bill. Politico writes today, “[A]s the Democratic proposal has continued to grow, the backroom talks reflect a nagging nervousness in the majority party about the high cost and the administration’s inability thus far to attract broader support.”
President Obama stepped into the fray yesterday with a campaign-like speech to House Democrats to argue for passage of the bill. “But,” Politico writes, “[Democrats] acknowledge, some publicly and others privately, that for all of Obama’s popularity and the wide public support for taking steps to boost the economy, getting to final passage has not been easy, clearing a bill with broad bipartisan support is out of the question and the process has not been a pretty one for the new president.” The Wall Street Journal explains, “The president’s tactical turnabout is a response to the Republicans’ remarkable success during the past two weeks both in influencing the congressional debate over the Democrats’ stimulus plan, and shaping a public image of the bill as pork-laden and ineffective.”
Sen. McConnell observed this morning, “From the very first moment of this debate, there’s been strong bipartisan agreement on one thing: the original version of this bill was too big, too unfocused to work. The President, Senate Democrats, and just about every Senate Republican agreed this bill needed a massive overhaul. . . . Virtually everyone agreed this bill lacked focus, didn’t create enough jobs, had too much permanent government expansion, and was just way too expensive with the national debt already reaching frightening new dimensions.”
The bottom line, he said, was “Republicans are ready to support a stimulus bill. But we will not support an aimless spending spree that masquerades as a stimulus.” If Democrats want to pass a bill, there need to significant changes, and so far Democrat congressional leaders have not shown a willingness to trim the fat or reexamine this stimulus plan.Tags:Congressional Pork, economic stimulus, US Congress, US Senate, Washington D.C.To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
With the Economic Stimulus approaching the $1 trillion mark, lets look at what $1,000,000,000,000.00 equates to…
$1,597,444 check for all of the 626,000 people that have filed unemployment claims this month.
$227,272 check for all 4.4 million people collecting unemployment benefits.
$333.33 check for every American man, woman, and child.
It would take a worker making $50,000 a year 20 million years to earn $1 trillion.
If ever ticket of every home Red Sox home game at Fenway Park for the 2009 season was sold for $308,642.00 each that would equal $1 trillion.
The GDP of Mexico is just over $1 trillion.
The GDP of India is also just over $1 trillion.
The combine GDP of the following countries is approximately $1 trillion…
Uruguay, Lebanon, Yemen, Uzbekistan, North Korea, Cyprus, Estonia, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Trinidad and Tobago, Ivory Coast, Panama, El Salvador, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Iceland, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macau, Jordan, Bolivia, Ghana, Brunei, Paraguay, Gabon, Zambia, Uganda, Senegal, Botswana, Honduras, Burma, Albania, Jamaica, Republic of the Congo, Georgia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Nepal, Armenia, Cambodia, Mozambique, Madagascar, Republic of Macedonia, Chad, Mali, Malta, Burkina Faso, Mauritius, Namibia, Haiti, Benin, The Bahamas, West Bank and Gaza, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Moldova, Niger, Laos, Jersey, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Aruba, Zimbabwe, Montenegro, Guinea, Malawi, Rwanda, French Polynesia, Fiji, Barbados, Mauritania, New Caledonia, Kosovo, Togo, Suriname, Swaziland, Guam, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Somalia, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Lesotho, Eritrea, Belize, Bhutan, Maldives, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Gibraltar, San Marino, Saint Lucia, Djibouti, Liberia, Burundi, British Virgin Islands, The Gambia, Seychelles, Grenada, Northern Mariana Islands, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Vanuatu, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Comoros, Samoa, East Timor, Solomon Islands, Guinea-Bissau, Dominica, American Samoa, Tonga, Micronesia, Cook Islands, Palau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Marshall Islands, Anguilla, Kiribati, Tuvalu
Neil Cavuto interviews a beekeeper about the $150 for honeybee insurance Democrats originally included in their nearly $1 trillion economic stimulus bill. Cavuto wonders how this is supposed supposed to create job.
The beekeeper says he really needs to make his beekeeping farm work on his own "without government handouts." He says he agrees that this provision probably shouldn't be in a stimulus bill. Asked about the stimulus package, the beekeeper says he's not sure if he supports it.
Tags:beekeeper, bees, economic stimulus, honeybee, Neil Cavuto, stimulus, US CongressTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Senate resumed consideration of the economic stimulus legislation (H.R. 1). Votes on amendments will continue throughout the day with the possibility of a final vote late in the evening.
Yesterday, senators worked their way through a number of amendments to the bill. Senators adopted by voice vote an amendment from Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) to create a $15,000 tax credit for homebuyers. Also adopted by voice vote was an amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) to modify the “Buy American” provision in the bill so that it be “applied in a manner consistent with United States obligations under international agreements.” The Senate Democrats rejected eight Republican amendments: an amendment by Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) to cut $47 billion in wasteful spending, an amendment by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) cut corporate and individual income taxes and repeal the AMT, an amendment by Sen. John Thune (R-SD) to require funding for all projects in the bill occur within one year, an amendment by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to require spending cuts and a move to a balanced budget once the economy recovers, an amendment by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) to cut $5.2 billion in pet projects and replace it with the same amount of defense spending, an amendment by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) to cut the tax rate for the lowest tax bracket in half, an amendment by Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) to repeal the 1993 Social Security tax increase, and another McCain amendment to strike the “Buy American” provision from the bill.None of these amendments attracted more than 4 Democrats’ votes, and 4 were opposed by every Democrat in the chamber.
CongressDaily reports: “President Obama and key advisers Wednesday pressed Senate Democrats to allow spending cuts to the economic stimulus bill to win Republican backing, senators said.” And several Democrat senators, including Ben Nelson, Claire McCaskill, Kent Conrad, and Evan Bayh, have said many of the pet projects that clearly will not create jobs should be trimmed. Bayh told Fox News yesterday, “We need to eliminate the wasteful spending and the silly stuff.”
While some Senate Democrats are critical of the bill, overall Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s caucus has not made any serious moves to “eliminate the wasteful spending and the silly stuff.” Aside from an amendment to eliminate an embarrassing tax break for Hollywood (which 43 Democrats voted against), no amendment to cut spending in the current bill has passed. Instead, the price tag of the bill has increased over the course of the week to over $920 billion.
President Obama has found himself defending the bill in a series of TV interviews and an op-ed in The Washington Post. Obama has been forced to use all of his political influence to attempt to drag this bill across the finish line in the Senate. Most telling are the series of meetings Obama has had to have with moderate senators, including Democrats like Ben Nelson, to sew up their support for the stimulus bill, as Politico reports today.
Tags:economic stimulus, US Congress, US Senate, Washington D.C.To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Bill Wilson, President of Americans for Limited Government, in a Special to the Review-Journal: Last September, Louisiana's David Vitter strode to the podium of the U.S. Senate to offer an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2009. What's so significant about that? Amazingly, it marks the last time that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid permitted a Republican amendment to be voted on -- a period of 125 days that can only be described as a diabolical, dictatorial suppression of democracy in what we still like to pretend is the world's greatest deliberative body.
If open, honest debate and a full, fair discussion of divergent ideas are prerequisites to representative democracy, then the unavoidable reality imposed upon us by "Dear Leader" Reid's heavy-handed tactics is this: the United States of America is no longer a representative democracy. Of course, as depressing a reality as this is -- are we really surprised?
After all, Reid and the vast majority of Washington politicians in both parties have been steadily eroding the democratic ideals this nation was founded on for years now. They've been telling hard-working Americans of all income levels that they must pay higher taxes and fees on everything under the sun -- crippling their ability to survive in a land of dried up opportunities, a land where political correctness trumps founding wisdom and individual liberties are granted or withheld almost exclusively at the whim of the state.
Most recently, these Washington "leaders" essentially gave up on our free market economic system to the tune of at least $8 trillion in socialist-style government interventionism -- all within the past four months. No wonder these hyenas are now circling in the Senate, hoping to finish off another one of our nation's founding ideals. And what's to stop them? After all, nobody's storming the capital in outrage despite the fact that the U.S. Congress currently has an unheard of 9% -- that's 9%! -- approval rating.
You see, the best way to silence the 91% of people who don't approve of what's going on in Washington right now is to simply silence any of their representatives who dare to dissent. Which is precisely what Reid is doing, while at the same time ramming through billions of dollars in wasteful spending, including the new "economic stimulus bill," featuring such "must-have" items as $2.4 billion for "carbon capture demonstrating technologies," $1.5 billion for "good jobs in biomedical research," and $600 million divvied up among government officials to help them buy brand spanking-new energy-efficient cars.
But such is Reid's governing philosophy -- which he is certainly entitled to. Except he's imposing that philosophy on the Senate by eliminating legitimate debate on issues -- and using behind-the-scenes procedural moves to do so. Make no mistake, if you think that the bad decisions this Congress has made in full public view over the past few months have had disastrous consequences for America, just wait till you see what they're capable of when the doors are closed to any real discussion.
Astoundingly, Republican "leaders" are not only sitting back and letting this happen, they're empowering Reid's dictatorship. Sadly, Sen. Mitch McConnell decided it was necessary to criticize one of the few U.S. senators who is actually doing his job and standing up for the taxpayers: Oklahoma's Tom Coburn.
While Coburn was attempting to amend a pork-laden land bill that included $3.5 million for a birthday party in St. Augustine, Fla., McConnell felt it was more important to demonstrate his misguided bipartisanship by helping Reid gather Republican votes to shoot down Coburn's efforts.
"This isn't the greatest deliberative body in the world, this is the greatest choke-hold body in the world," Coburn said on the Senate floor recently. He's right. But fortunately, Reid's tactics are finally beginning to rub some senators the wrong way.
"Coburn may not win this one, but I think there is an increasing unease that the traditions of the Senate are eroding, that bills are being railroaded through and no amendments are being allowed," said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Hopefully at some point enough senators will join Coburn in standing up for their republic, for a change, not kissing the ring of a dictatorial tyrant. Tags:Americans for Limited Government, Bill Wilson, dictator, Harry ReidTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
ICYMI: RNC Chairman Michael Steele's Acceptance Speech
ICYMI: Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's Acceptance Speech:
From the Past: GOPAC Chairman Michael Steele addresses the 2008 Republican National Convention:
Michael Steele speaks at 2006 Americans for Prosperity Foundation's Defending the American Dream Summit:
Tags:acceptance speech, Americans for Prosperity, Michael Steele, Republican National Convention, RNC ChairmanTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Ken Blackwell: Last week, Michael Steele made history as the first African-American elected chairman of the Republican Party. Although the GOP is currently the minority party in our two-party system, Chairman Steele takes the reins at a moment of tremendous opportunity. Mr. Steele’s publicly expressed commitment to conservative principles and the platform of the party, led me to urge the GOP leadership to elect him as chairman.
January 29 and 30 were rollercoaster days for all of us running to become the next chairman of the GOP. We appeared before the members of the Republican National Committee, making our case about how to inspire, rebuild and advance our party.
The Republican Party wins when it holds fast to its principles and articulates bold policy positions embodying those principles. The precepts of limited government, economic opportunity and personal responsibility resonate with Americans. The Reagan Coalition of economic conservatives, social conservatives and national-security conservatives wins elections when our candidates communicate a message of core values, personal and family security, self-sufficiency, and the rule of law.
For Republicans to be successful again, the party must both rebuild our base and expand our reach. The party’s base is dispirited. Economic conservatives are appalled at reckless spending and endless bailouts. Social conservatives are on defense because some advocate the GOP jettisoning issues such as life, marriage or the Second Amendment.
Abandoning those issues, expanding government and reducing personal liberty with higher taxes will not get voters to support Republicans. If Americans seek more government and higher taxes, they will go to the professionals, the Democrats.
The GOP needs a chairman who will build the party, by mobilizing the base around our issues and reaching new voters with those very same values.
History has proven conservative ideas win. Republican leaders must explain how conservative principles - expressed through bold policies - will improve people’s lives. Show voters how conservative ideas will help them enjoy more freedom, security and a brighter future, and they will vote Republican. The GOP needs a chairman with the ability to project that message.
The GOP also needs a chairman who can go one-on-one against the new DNC chairman. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is a lawyer with excellent speaking and debating skills. The RNC needed a chairman who could effectively lock horns with such a formidable opponent on TV and radio. Mr. Steele has the skills and strength of character to do that.
I served as a vice-chairman of the Platform Committee at the 2008 Republican convention in Minnesota. I fought to make sure that the conservative principles the GOP was built upon were strongly and clearly articulated in the platform. The party has never had a platform that more forcefully proclaims those enduring and defining principles as the one adopted in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Over breakfast on January 30, Mr. Steele and I discussed the 2008 platform. During that conversation he earnestly expressed his full support of the platform. This is a platform that is unabashedly pro-life, strongly grounded in Second Amendment freedoms, and fully embracing limited government and the rule of law. That conservation and my perception of Mr. Steele’s authentic embrace of those principles provided me with the basis upon which I could endorse him with a clear conscience and firm conviction once I determined it was time for me to exit the race.
The Republican Party has been in decline. Now as the economy contracts and foreign threats gather, there is a push for a radical government expansion where the national government would take over whole sectors of the American economy. At the same time, there is a push to remake our culture and society, even bedrock human institutions and basic individual and family rights.
Against this tide, Republicans must have all hands on deck. In addition to leaders in Congress and among the governors, the GOP needed a chairman who could make the case for Republican principles to the voters.
Americans voted for change. But they did not vote for a socialistic economy, weakened defenses or a never-before-seen social order. The Republican Party must draw a clear contrast for economic freedom, foreign policy predicated on strength, relentless war against international terrorism, and unwavering defense of the American family.
Principle must trump politics. I would rather endorse no one than endorse someone I feared might abandon the GOP’s values and priorities. I supported Mr. Steele because, by energetically advocating the principles and policies in the GOP platform, he can reunite and grow the GOP once again. Republicans face daunting challenges, but by being true to our principles Republicans can be the real agents of change. Tags:Ken Blackwell, Michael Steele, Republican Party, RNC ChairmanTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Secure Arkansas, a non-partisan Grassroots Organization: Act immediately - the Cigarette Tax, HB 1204 Passed Through House Committee DO NOT BE FOOLED - Governor Beebe speaks about this cigarette tax funding a Trauma Center, but this money will go directly in to the General Fund and is not designed for a Trauma Center. The governor has also spoken about funding 20 other "Health Related" programs . . . . and we already know that ILLEGALS have access to all health benefits.
Direct excerpt from the bill:
(d) The revenue derived from the additional tax imposed by this section shall be credited to the General Revenue Fund Account of the State Apportionment Fund, there to be distributed with the other gross general revenue collections for that month in accordance with the Revenue Stabilization Law, § 19-5-201 et seq. http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/R/Bills/HB1204.pdf
The Trauma Center is just an extension of Emergency Rooms which Illegal aliens now use for all their health care problems.
The 300 Million dollar surplus means we have been taxed too much. We are aware that Governor Beebe is trying to buy all legislators' votes with the promise of pork money for their districts - which is unethical. In addition to Beebe's tax proposal, there is another 61-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes from the federal government. A 100 million dollar tax will affect the money of everyday Arkansans, not to mention expand government. It does not matter if you approve of smoking or not, this is another assault on your personal liberty, will you be next?
ACTION NEEDED: Call your Arkansas State Representative and Senators, regardless of political party, and request them to oppose this sham bill which will obligate every taxpayer in the future to pay for unknown medical programs and maybe a couple trauma centers.
Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: On a darker note, I wish to thank Arkansas Rep. Dan Greenberg for identifying the reflective thoughts of one "very strange" individual who is influencing Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe and trying to influence legislators on the cigarette tax. In the "Arkansas Republican Newsletter," Rep. Greenberg provided excerpts of Dr. Dan Hawkins, the governor's newest appointee to the Arkansas Tobacco Prevention & Cessation Advisory Committee, letter to legislators in which in summary states that Smokers are Evil and Insane And Legislators Who Disagree are Stupid, Corrupt and Just Like Nazis. Excerpts follow:
"Seventy percent of cigarettes are smoked by mentally ill people. This is documented in the 2004 Archives of General Psychiatry. I hope to share more on this twist upon another occasion. But, for now, just let me say that 30% of smokers have an Axis II Personality Disorder, i.e., they not only have one or more serious psychiatric illness(es), but, may also be bad people.
Regardless of party affiliation, Arkansas legislators have historically caved in to constituents who own convenience stores that sell tobacco in counties with a border contiguous with other states, who protest that they may lose cigarette sales because of a proposed higher cigarette sales tax in Arkansas that might lead some of their customers to cross state lines to purchase their cigarettes in lower-taxed states.
Thus, these legislators would, perhaps unwittingly, 'let the inmates run the asylum.' Those who might resent some of my remarks, made here today, should perhaps instead fear that they resemble some of these remarks. I have been led to believe that it is usually that which people actually subconsciously may feel to be true about themselves which makes them angry, mad, upset, or afraid."
Hawkins amended his letter with another e-mail: "let me say that nearly half of all cigarettes are smoked by some 30% of smokers who also have one or more serious psychiatric illnesses, which can also include one or more serious Axis II Personality Disorders. Individuals with Axis II Personality Disorders not only have one or more serious psychiatric illness(es), but, some may not infrequently also, exhibit criminal behaviours." Dr. Hawkins, thanks for clarifying!
However, the most incisively awesome part of Hawkins' missive to us was his comparison of people who disagree with him to Nazis:
"Ironically, we lose more Americans, dead from smoking, each & every single year, as were killed by the Nazis throughout the entirety of World War II. The whole point of the post-War Nuremberg Trials of the Nazis was to disabuse our leaders of the notion that they can write, facilitate, implement, or ignore, substantially pro-death laws, and then immunize themselves as lawmakers against any legal accountability with a self-protective law, fiat, or decree, all entirely contrary to the public interest."
Tags:Arkansas, cigarette tax, Dan Greenberg, Dan Hawkins, illegal aliens, Mike Beebe, smokersTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Tags:Barack Obama, cabinet, nominations, political cartoon, William WarrenTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
U S Dollars In Circulation Skyrocketing - Must See Video
Glenn Beck Video: U S Dollars In Circulation Skyrocketing:
Tags:Glenn Beck, US Debt, US Dollars, videoTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Gun Owners of America: Anti-gun Eric Holder Sworn In As Attorney General-- See who stabbed you in the back! With Holder in office, you can expect to see renewed efforts to drive gun dealers and manufacturers out of business -- similar to the efforts he supported while in the Clinton administration.
Expect also to see attempts to classify more guns as "not suitable" for sporting purposes. And don't be surprised to see attempts to use the No Fly List to disqualify gun owners from exercising their Second Amendment rights. (Bureaucrats can add innocent Americans to the No Fly List -- and have done so -- without any due process of law being followed.) With Eric Holder at the helm, the list could easily become a No Gun List, as there are already discussions in Washington about doing this.
All the above horror scenarios are policies that could conceivably occur without ANY legislation being passed in Congress. That is what makes Holder's confirmation as Attorney General so dangerous. Through the use of Executive Orders or by prosecuting gun owners, Holder can inflict much damage upon the Second Amendment -- even apart from lending his support for legislation, such as renewing the semi-auto ban.
So what can we do now? Is the battle over Holder finished? No, not yet. There's one more action item that needs to be taken. There are 75 Senators who ignored your pleas to vote against Holder. They need to hear from you and know that you're upset. They need to be reminded again and again that voting for gun control is what cost Bill Clinton's party the control of Congress in 1994... and Al Gore his election in 2000... and John Kerry the presidency in 2004. And don't forget, there are the 21 Senators who voted right. They need to be thanked.
ACTION: Please use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Centerto send your Senators a pre-written e-mail message. You will be prompted to input your zip code, which will then bring up the correct letter for your Senators. The pre-written letter will differ according to whether your Senator voted in favor or against Eric Holder. (Three Senators missed the vote entirely. GOA is treating their absence as an anti-gun action.)
--------------------------------------------------------------- SENATORS WHO VOTED FOR ERIC HOLDER (AN ANTI-GUN VOTE):
SENATORS NOT VOTING Begich (D-AK), Kennedy (D-MA), Martinez (R-FL) Tags:action alert, Attorney General, Eric Holder, Gun Owners of AmericaTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Obama's Interior Secretary Cancels Leases on Federal Land in Utah
Remember the campaign to "drill here, drill now." Well today, Washington Post writer Juliet Eilperin reports that
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is cancelling oil and gas leases on 77 parcels of federal land in Utah . . . ending a fierce battle over whether to allow energy exploration in the environmentally-sensitive area.
The Bush administration conducted the lease sale in December, but environmental groups went to court to block the winning bids encompassing roughly 110,000 acres near pristine areas such as Nine Mile Canyon, Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument. Just before Bush left office last month, U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina issued a restraining order on the lease sales, postponing the final transactions until he could hear arguments on the merits of the case.
An Interior spokesman declined to comment on the matter, but several sources familiar with the decision said Salazar planned to announce it later today, adding that he can reject the winning bids without a penalty because the transactions had not become final and the department has the discretion to accept or reject lease
bids that prevail at a public auction.
Sharon Buccino, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council who helped challenge the lease sales in federal court, said the decision would send an important signal about the new administration's approach to energy and environmental issues. "What's significant here is you really do have Salazar taking a very critical first step toward restoring some sort of balance to the management of public lands," Buccino said. "We can have energy security without sacrificing the West's wild places." . . .
Tags:drill here, drill now, energy, leases, oil production, UtahTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Today in Washington D. C. - Feb 4, 2009 - Pork Loaded Stimulus Bill Debated
The Senate reconvened at 10:30 AM today and resumed consideration of the economic stimulus legislation (H.R. 1). Votes on amendments will continue today. Senate Democrats are on retreat today and are expected to return around 4:30 PM. Votes are scheduled for this evening.
Senators also approved an amendment from Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) to create a tax deduction for interest on car loans but rejected an amendment from Sens. John Ensign (R-NV) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to reduce the tax rate on corporate earnings repatriated from overseas over two years.
The first amendments to the Democrats’ massive economic stimulus bill were offered in the Senate yesterday, and an interesting pattern emerged. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell noted it in a speech on the Senate floor this morning:
“According to the news reports, President Obama called Congressional Democrats down to the White House the other night to talk about treating this bill more like a stimulus and less like a free for all. . . . [But t]he day after meeting with President Obama, Democrats offered several amendments — and every single one of them ADDED to the total cost of what is already nearly a trillion-dollar spending bill. . . . By the end of the first day of debate, Democrats had added more than $41 billion to a bill that just about everybody else in America thought was already too big.”
The headline in today’s New York Times tells the tale: “Additions by Senate Push Stimulus Near $1 Trillion.” Of course, that doesn’t take into account the hundreds of billions in interest payments taxpayers will face if this bill passes.
Yet the spending in the stimulus bill may grow even more.The Wall Street Journal reports today on a report from mayors across the country that is being used as a “wish list for funding from the stimulus bill moving through Congress.” Among the suggestions in the report is $2 million for neon signs in Las Vegas, $886,000 for a frisbee golf course in Austin, Texas, $500,000 for a dog park in Chula Vista, California, and $1.1 million for a skateboard ramp and “splash-park installations” in San Bernadino, California.
Hearing these ideas on top of the wasteful spending that’s actually in the bill, like $25 million for ATV trails and $20 million to remove fish barriers, it’s no wonder that Americans have become ever more skeptical of the stimulus package Democrats have put together. Rasmussen has a poll out today showing that support for the bill has dropped to 37% from 45% two weeks ago. Just yesterday a Gallup poll showed a majority of Americans want to see major changes in the bill or would like it rejected outright. The Los Angeles Times points to the Gallup poll as evidence that Obama has suffered “a significant reversal of fortune” in this debate and notes that “[a] surprisingly unified GOP has taken control of the debate -- and embarrassed Democrats -- by highlighting controversial expenditures in the $819-billion bill passed last week by the Democratic-led House . . . .” Politico agrees, writing today that Republicans have “won the war of words over the economic plan now being debated in the Senate — a victory that has significantly undercut the president’s chances of achieving bipartisan support for the bill he envisioned.”
Senate Republicans are working to use this momentum to oppose the wasteful spending in this bill. Republicans were successful yesterday in passing an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to strip a tax break for Hollywood movie producers that would have cost nearly $250 million over 11 years. Today, Republicans are backing an amendment by Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) to cut $47.6 billion in wasteful spending from the bill that is not focused on creating jobs.
Ever since 2000, Democrats in flyover-country have been very vocal in trying to get rid of the Electoral College in favor of the national popular vote because they know their friends on the coasts have more than enough votes to counter-balance their misguided constituents who might vote for the other guy.
In Arkansas (McCain +20, Bush ‘04 +10, Bush ‘00 +5), it would seen that a rural Democrat is among those who think his people obviously can’t be trusted and must therefore cede the sovereignty of their vote to the national mob.
An Arkansas lawmaker wants to do away with the Electoral College system.
Arkansas would join Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and Maryland in passing the National Popular Vote bill under House Bill 1339 by Rep. Monty Davenport of Yellville. The national movement would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The Constitution gives every state the power to allocate its electoral votes for president, as well as to change state law on how those votes are awarded. Arkansas is a winner-take-all state.
The National Popular Vote bill would take effect only after enough states possessing a majority of presidential electoral votes — that is to say 270 of 538 votes — enacted an identical form of the measure.
Arkansas has six electoral votes. The other states that have enacted the measure total 50 together.
Davenport is joined by an expected cast of Democratic allies, including Rep. Eddie Cooper (Melboourne), Rep. Linda Tyler (Conway), and Sen. Terry Smith (Hot Springs). Surprisingly, one Republican is lined up as a co-sponsor in the Arkansas House: Rep. Andrea Lee (Russellville).
This is troubling, as it appears that these members of the General Assembly - if they had their way - would have had no problem ignoring the people of Arkansas’s spectacular rejection of one Barack Hussein Obama and his liberal agenda.
Perhaps, these duly elected representatives of the people should get a refresher on how their constituents voted before this Senator and Representatives continue to move forward with the proposition of selling the people out.
Rep. Monty Davenport - D (unopposed in 2008)
Represents all of Marion County, parts of Baxter, Boone, Searcy and Stone counties.
For the whole state (population ca. 2.8 million), 638,017 Arkansans voted for John McCain, giving him our state’s six Electoral Votes.
To put this in perspective, in San Diego County, Calif. (population ca. 2.9 million), 632,207 voted for Barack Hussein Obama as part of the vote total which awarded him 55 Electoral Votes. As you can see, the sovereign votes of a entire state would have been nearly wiped out by the votes of a county if the national popular vote were the standard for electing presidents.
In Arkansas, the people rule, as per our motto. We need to remind our elected representatives of this, and contact Reps. Davenport, Cooper, Tyler and Lee, along with Sen. Smith, to tell them that we do not want to see our constitutionally guaranteed voice to elect a president suborned to a national popular vote where a county on the coast can negate our choice, our voice and our power as Arkansans. I urge you to avail yourself of this opportunity:
Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: Monty Davenport happens to be my State Representative but has failed to represent our district with respect to the traditional values of our local citizens be they Democrats or Republicans. Last legislative session he introduced this same bill to take away Arkansas voice. it passed the House but was stopped in the Senate. One wonders why he would be the lead in stripping away Arkansas' voice. It is obvious from the above statistics presented by Ryan James that Davenport is more liberal than the voters in our counties and wishes to silence their voice in presidential elections.
The proposed bill is part of an agenda advanced by a group trying to do away with the traditional role of the Electoral College. If this bill becomes law, Arkansas' votes and influence in Presidential elections would have no real effect on the selection of a President. A group of States with large populations would control the Presidential elections. Our country's forefathers created several protections in the constitution to protect the smaller populated states: each state would have 2 senators and the president would be chosen by the Electoral College process verses by a general popular vote.
If other states go along with the plan, it could have changed the way the nation elects presidents. Legislatures in North Dakota and Montana have rejected the plan. The Colorado Senate approved the measure last month. The California Legislature endorsed the agreement last year, but the governor vetoed it. The Electoral College has performed its function for over 200 years ... by ensuring that the President of the U.S. has both sufficient popular support to govern and that his popular support is sufficiently distributed throughout the country to enable him to govern effectively. ... Proposals to abolish the Electoral College, though frequently put forward, have failed largely because the alternatives to it appear more problematic than is the College itself. The fact that the Electoral College was originally designed to solve one set of problems but today serves to solve an entirely different set of problems is a tribute to the genius of the Founding Fathers." William C. Kimberling, Deputy Director, FEC National Clearinghouse on Election Administration.
Call to Action: Arkansas' electoral votes may be small but they are so important that presidential candidates and their campaigns must consider Arkansas voters. If this bill becomes law, presidential candidates will be able to ignore Arkansas entirely. It will not matter to them which way Arkansas votes as long as they win the larger populated areas in the U.S.. Why surrender our "minority" voice that was so wisely protected for us by our forefathers? Please contact your State Senator and ask them to protect the voice of Arkansas by voting NO on HB 1339. See Also:U.S. Electoral CollegeandThe Pro's and Con's of the Electoral College SystemNote: Prior post. Tags:Arkansas, ARRA, Bill Smith, Electoral College, Monty DavenportTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Roy Beck, Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA: Senators are being pounded from seemingly every direction to keep E-Verify out of their Stimulus bill next week (after the House this week put strong E-Verify requirements in their bill to make sure illegal aliens don't get jobs created by the Stimulus). The anti-E-Verify folks are relying on enough Senators believing arguments that are demonstrable lies. You need to be armed to destroy these lies when you write letters to the editor, send faxes, call in to talk radio shows, visit with your friends or phone your Senators' offices this coming week.
AND THE 2 BIGGEST LIES ARE: LIE NO. 1: AMERICANS WILL LOSE THEIR JOBS DUE TO FAULTY DATABASE
The most outlandish claim by the anti-E-Verify forces has been that using E-Verify will actually lead to more unemployment among Americans. NumbersUSA's claim, of course, is that the universal use of E-Verify would result in employing millions MORE Americans because that many otherwise employed illegal aliens would not be able to get a job, opening the way for American workers. Which is it?
The anti-E-Verify forces claim that Americans will lose their jobs if companies are required to use E-Verify because the databases supposedly are full of so many errors. Typical is this quote:
Sonia Ramirez, legislative representative for the AFL-CIO, said the program misclassified many U.S. citizens and legal workers. The program, which is used on a limited basis, is not "ready for prime time," Ramirez said. -- Los Angeles Times, 31 Jan 09
Rosemary Jenks, the lawyer who heads up NumbersUSA's Capitol Hill Team, has repeatedly and publicly issued a challenge to the media and open-borders advocates to produce even one example of an American losing a job because the E-Verify systemwrongly ordered it.
If it turned out that of millions of transactions a year, there were 10 or 20 mistakes, we would be concerned but also find that to be an understandably tiny problem. But, to date, opponents have NOT BEEN ABLE TO FIND an example of even ONE AMERICAN who lost a job due to problems with E-Verify.
A government investigation of E-Verify in 2007 found:
93% of employees queried through the system were verified within 5 seconds!
another 1.2% were verified within 24 hours with no additional action required of either the employee or the employer
Most of the 5.8% who received a tentative non-confirmation requiring more time turned out to be illegal aliens
only 0.5% were U.S. citizens or authorized foreign workers who had to contact the Social Security Administration because of errors in the database
And let's be clear about that 0.5%. Many of the errors were ones that the workers themselves had made, such as a woman not notifying SSA of a change in last name after a marriage. And even if the error was the government's fault, going through E-Verify was a positive experience for most because they needed to know the error existed so they could clean it up before it caused problems down the line.
The 2007 study found that the accuracy rate of E-Verify was 99.5%. Can any government program anywhere claim such a record? And what the critics miss is that the system is set up so that when there is an error, nobody loses a job or is temporarily suspended from a job. The rules require that an employee who gets a tentative non-confirmation will continue to be employed until clearing up the discrepancy. (The illegal aliens, however, typically just don't show up for work after getting the first non-confirmation.)
An independent study between April and June of 2008 by Westat found:
96% of employees were verified instantly
0.4% had to contact the government to resolve record errors
3.5% received final non-confirmations, meaning they were illegal aliens not having the legal right to work
Nearly every reporter in the mainstream media allows open-borders leaders to be quoted saying the E-Verify databases are full of errors that lead to all kinds of mishandling of employees, but the reporters don't allow the statistics above to show up in their stories. The claims about errors are lies, pure and simple.
LIE NO. 2: MANDATING E-VERIFY WILL DELAY STIMULUS MONEY CREATING JOBS
Requiring businesses to enroll in E-Verify could only slow the influx of money and jobs into the economy, said Tyler Moran of the National Immigration Law Center. "It is going to delay the stimulus," she said. "It doesn't belong here." -- Los Angeles Times, 31 Jan 09
How many lies are in that lie? Let me count the ways:
>1. Even if a company happens to hire one of the around 5% of people who don't get an immediate confirmation, they not only are allowed to keep that person on the job, they are required to do so until E-Verify gives a final decision several days later. The flow of Stimulus money into the pockets of a worker is not slowed.
2. The main argument seems to be that companies and governments getting Stimulus money won't have time to get enrolled in E-Verify and will delay taking the Stimulus money because of that. But they don't have to wait until this bill passes. They can get on-line right now and get the enrollment finished long before any money will be flowing.
3. Furthermore, the enrollment process at most takes one staff person a couple of hours to complete. That is only once per company.
4. If a company or organization just feels hamstrung by the simple enrollment, they can pay a third-party company to handle the E-Verify process for them on all of their hires.
5. The Department of Homeland Security last year stated that it would have no trouble handling a doubling or tripling of enrollees and activity over a short time.
6. DHS had no trouble handling the growth from 3.27 million verification queries in FY2007 to 6.6 million in FY2008 and more than 2 million queries just through the first quarter of FY2009.
7. Throughout this rapid expansion, E-Verify has become more accurate, more user-friendly and faster.
Friends, a sign of the power of special interests to still dominate in Washington is that the two big lies about E-Verify continue to be the most common thing you see about the system in the nation's newspapers and from the mouths of the leaders of business, labor, religious and ethnic-identity organizations. Only through the willingness of hundreds of thousands of you to carry the truth to the U.S. Senate this coming week will American workers have a chance to move ahead of illegal aliens to get any jobs that might be created if the Stimulus bill passes. Tags:defense of jobs, e-verify, lies, employment, Roy Beck, stimulus, NumbersUSA, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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