Higher Oil Prices Are On The Way

by Dan Dicker, Oil & Energy Insider: For the last week, I had viewed the relative complacency of the oil markets to the latest struggles for control of Iraq as the correct response. But now, I’m starting to doubt it. I believe this rally has only begun and we will see much higher prices soon.

Several factors have changed my view. First, I was less than impressed with the quick progress that ISIS had made in capturing several cities in the Northern areas of Iraq. After all, these were naturally Sunni majority areas and most of the inhabitants of those cities were at least inclined to let the ISIS forces come in, having been marginalized by the new, Shia-led Al-Maliki government in Baghdad. Indeed, I believed that the quick progress and lack of resistance from Iraqi security forces were a combination of failed training and utter surprise at the raids’ speed. It was distressing, I thought, to see the US-trained Iraqi army drop their weapons and run, but I did not expect these radical forces to continue to control these cities after the shock had worn off and a counter-attack could be organized.

Plus, it was clear that these Sunni areas did not approach any of the most vital oil producing centers that had been exporting upwards of 3.5 million barrels a day. Even in the North, the one superfield in Kirkuk was strongly in Kurdish hands and very unlikely to fall to the Sunni militants. These facts had allowed oil to rally almost lackadaisically, to $106.

Smart markets? I’m no longer so sure.

The second week of fighting is telling me a different, more dire long-term story. While it is true that ISIS forces have only made progress in Sunni majority territory, no counter attack has come from the Iraqi government. Indeed, the Al-Maliki government has been begging for US support logistics and bombers (after kicking US forces out of the country in 2012) while nervously constructing defenses at the border to Baghdad.

These ISIS forces are not looking like a small, ragtag group and short-lived problem. They are now very well funded, both by the central bank that they captured in Mosul with its estimated $400m in reserves, by their control of Syrian oil production and by various Saudi sources. They have arms, and US arms, courtesy of an abandoning Iraqi army. And they have conviction, which comes from zealous Islamic adherence to their goal of creating a new, Sharia-law caliphate throughout the region. Their brutality was proven with their self-publicized slaughter of an estimated 1500 Iraqi soldiers. With money, arms and viciousness, this does not look like a group that is going away anytime soon.

It is a wider geopolitical reality that the results of the Arab Spring are giving way to stronger Islamic radical groups; not just in Iraq and Syria, but in Libya and Tunisia and Egypt. Where governments have fallen, moderate Islamists have been overrun by radicals, in almost all cases. This is a worrying trend, to say the least, but also portends serious stability problems to come in many of the oil-producing nations of the Middle East, not just Iraq.

And that means that oil is headed higher. As these radical elements gain influence and territory, they embolden other radical groups in other nations to also destabilize where and when they can. It is no wonder that every established government, including Iran and Saudi Arabia and even Hezbollah and Hamas, are fearful of these terrorists.

They have money, guns and conviction. And with ISIS, they are starting to build momentum.

This looks to be a very long fight ahead indeed.
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This article is via Oil & Energy Insider,  a report provided by the editor of  OilPrice.com to the ARRA News Service. Dan Dicker is a 25 year veteran of the New York Mercantile Exchange where he traded crude oil, natural gas, unleaded gasoline and heating oil futures contracts.

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Tags: ISIS, Northern Iraq, war, oil production, hgher prices, Dan Dicker, OilPrice.com To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Walking the Talk - Formulas For Economic Success

Editorial Cartoonby AF "Tony" Branco

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Questions for Our Government - 'A Government of Wolves'

by Kerby Anderson, Point of View: John Whitehead believes our government is becoming a police state and makes a convincing case in his book, A Government of Wolves. In a recent column he asks a series of questions. These are questions I think we should ask our elected officials and other candidates during this election year.

Why has there been a buildup of SWAT teams with non-security related federal agencies such as the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Office of Personnel Management?

Why have government agencies been stockpiling hollow point bullets? For example, why does the Department of Agriculture need .40 caliber semiautomatic machine guns and 320,000 rounds of hollow point bullets?

Why does the Postal Service need "assorted small arms ammunition"? Why did the Department of Homeland Security purchase 1.6 billion rounds of hollow-point ammunition, along with 7,000 fully-automatic NATO personal defense weapons plus a stash of 30-round high-capacity magazines"?

Why has the federal government been distributing many of these resources to police departments around the country? The Department of Homeland Security acquired more than 2,500 Mine-Resistant Armored Protection vehicles and then distributed them to local police departments. Thousands of military weapons, such as M-16 rifles and grenade launchers, are now in the hands of local police.

Why is FEMA stockpiling massive quantities of emergency supplies? This year FEMA made a statement enlisting the service of contractors who could "supply medical biohazard disposal capabilities." There were other requests for massive amounts of supplies ranging from 31 million flu vaccinations to 100,000 each of winter shirts and pants and the same for summer.

It is reasonable to ask what is all of this equipment for? What is the government preparing for? These are good questions to ask during this election season.
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Kirby Anderson is an author, lecturer, visiting professor and radio host and contributor on nationally syndicated "Point of View" and the "Probe" radio programs.

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Does McCarthy As House Majority Leader Spell The End Of Ex-Im Bank?

Hopefully the Export Import Bank, aka Bank of Boeing, will cease to exist and stop wasting taxpayers money.

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 by Robert Romano: How much is being House Majority Leader worth?

How about $27.3 billion?

That is how much in loans the U.S. Export-Import Bank doled out in 2013 to supposedly “facilitate exports of goods and services,” according to the bank’s charter.

Yet, ahead of the June 18 House leadership elections necessitated by the crushing defeat of House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) by economic professor Dave Brat in the Republican primary in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, House Majority Whip Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promised members not to move the bank’s reauthorization due up in September.

Instead, he is deferring to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) — at one point a favorite of conservatives to replace Cantor before he took himself out of consideration — on what to do with the bank. Hensarling, whose committee is holding a hearing to discuss the merits of reauthorization on June 25, opposes the bank calling it “crony capitalism.”

Was the Ex-Im Bank the price of McCarthy’s election to be House Majority Leader? We’ll likely never know for certain, but McCarthy’s pre-election assurances not to move the bank’s reauthorization over Hensarling’s head have certainly lowered expectations on Capitol Hill that it will get done this year.

Which is bad news for mega-companies like Boeing, whose customers received $7.9 billion of loans to purchase planes and other equipment. That constitutes nearly a third of the bank’s total authorizations, earning it the moniker, the Bank of Boeing.

Since Cantor’s defeat, Boeing’s publicly traded stock has dropped by about 5 points, temporarily costing the company more than $3 billion of market cap. Not that it matters that much. For what it’s worth, the company was trading far lower in February long before Cantor’s defeat.

And not that Boeing, a company valued at $97 billion, really needs the loans to be provided by the Ex-Im Bank. If Congress really does pull the plug on the bank, either the company would set up its own financing or it might just work with a financial institution to provide credit on favorable terms to Boeing customers.

And it is not as if the bank itself is even needed to “facilitate exports of goods and services.”

In 2013, the U.S. economy exported $2.271 trillion of goods and services, a $60.8 billion or 2.7 percent growth from 2012. In 2012, exports totaled $2.21 trillion, a $97.76 billion or 4.6 percent growth from 2011.

Yet, almost none of the increases were apparently because of the Ex-Im Bank loans, which only grew $3.1 billion in 2012 and actually decreased by $8.5 billion in 2013 to $27.3 billion.

If even when the Ex-Im loans decrease, U.S. exports increase, there is no discernible impact on the growth of exports by the bank, and its reauthorization cannot be justified on the merits.

And now, with Cantor’s defeat and McCarthy’s ascent plus his assurances not to move the reauthorization, Hensarling finally has the opportunity to do the thing he has wanted to do for years, which is just let the bank’s charter lapse.

Sorry, Boeing.

That said, it is now up to McCarthy to keep his word and let the committee process work. If that means the end of the bank, then so be it.
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Robert Romano is the Senior Editor of Americans for Limited Government. His article was first shared on the ALG's NetRight Daily blog.

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Tags: Ex-Im Bank, Export Import Bank, Reauthoriztion, Bank of Boeing, Stop Ex-IM, House Majority leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Robert Romano, Americans for Limited Government To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

House Republicans Elect New Leadership | Obamacare Trainwreck Continues with Reports fro Iowa, Michigan, D.C.

Today in Washington, D.C. - June 20, 2014:
The Senate is not in session today and will reconvene on Monday at 2 PM. On Monday at 5:30, the Senate will vote on cloture on the nominations of four district judges: three for Florida, and one for Vermont.

Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pulled an appropriations bill from the Senate floor after Reid and Democrats once again refused to allow an open and free amendment process.

Also yesterday the Senate voted 54-38 to confirm Gustavo Aguilar to be an Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In addition, Brian A. Nichols and Christine E. Wormuth were confirmed to be, respectively, Ambassador to Peru and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy by voice vote.

The House reconvened today at 9 AM. The House will continue its debate and amendment process on H.R. 4870 — "Making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015, and for other purposes." In stark contract to the leadership of Sen. Harry Reid in the U.S. Senate, House Speaker Boehner allows debates and votes on bills considered in the House of Representatives. At 12:32 Pm the House passed 340-73 HR 4870.

The House adjourned at 1:14 PM. The House is scheduled to reconvene at 12:00 PM on Monday June 23, 2014.

Yesterday, House Republicans elected new leadership.  The Washington Times reports, "House Republicans chose Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California to be their new majority leader Thursday and elected Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana to succeed him as majority whip, giving conservatives a staunch advocate on the GOP leadership team. Both men were elected handily, with each winning on the first ballot ..." Scalise has been the chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee and his election to Majority Whip easily defeating two other Republicans Rep. Peter J. Roskam (IL), a chief deputy whip, and Rep. Marlin A. Stutzman (IN) signaled conservative Republicans that their voices are making a difference.

Though there are many important issues dominating the news this week, the failures of Obamacare roll on under the radar.

The Des Moines Register reports today, “The state's largest provider of health insurance wants to raise premium rates for about 250,000 policyholders in Iowa and 82,000 in South Dakota. Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield told the Register today that it is seeking to raise rates next year in Iowa by less than 5.9 percent for a vast majority of its individual and small business insurance policies. Of the 253,000 Iowans affected, 92 percent would see a rate increase of less than 5.9 percent, according to numbers provided by Wellmark. . . . For the remaining 7.5 percent – those who have post-Affordable Care Act plans for individuals under 65 – Wellmark is asking for a rate increase between 11 percent and 14.5 percent. . . . Post-ACA means consumers purchased the policies after the health care law went into effect, meaning they are not grandfathered in and must abide by the ACA's new regulations. . . . Wellmark also said today that it will not join the government's health care exchange, marking the second year in a row it has declined to go on the exchange. The insurer said it decided not to go on the exchange in 2015 due in part to challenges the system has faced, such as its rocky rollout that started in October.”

The DMR notes, Wellmark’s “request to raise rates in 2015 comes less than a week after two other providers -- CoOportunity Health and Coventry Health Care – said they are also seeking rate increases. CoOportunity is seeking to raise premiums by 14.3 percent and Coventry is seeking an average rate increase of 8.7 percent across the carriers' various plans.” The paper pointed out earlier this week that those two companies “are the two main Iowa carriers selling insurance on the government's new online marketplace, which is a key part of the Affordable Care Act.”

Meanwhile, WXMI in Grand Rapids, Michigan, reports Hospice of Holland has announced that it is no longer accepting patients and will shortly be forced to shut down, thanks in part to Obamacare. An anchor summarizes, “The executive director says that decision was made to offset the financial losses partly because of the Affordable Care Act.” The executive director explained to reporter Jessica McMaster, “The biggest issue under the Affordable Care Act is…that we’re going to see cuts in reimbursement- it’s going to be at least 12 percent. We projected out what those cuts are going to do to the organization long term and we realized that in a short period of time, we’re going to be pulling money from our savings in order to keep the house open.” “With this information before them, the board of directors voted to shut down Hospice House,” McMaster adds.

And even in Washington, DC, according to The Washington Post, “Consumers who signed up for private health insurance through the District’s new insurance marketplace are experiencing lengthy delays in getting coverage, in some cases two to three months long, because of problems processing their applications, according to residents and enrollment personnel. In some cases, delays are forcing people without insurance to postpone doctor and dental visits. . . . Mark Andersen, his wife, Tulin Ozdeger, and their two children enrolled in a CareFirst medical plan and another company’s dental plan in mid-March, well before the April 30 deadline. They expected to receive notice of coverage from CareFirst and an invoice for the first month’s premium. Instead, the family received clearly erroneous communications by mail and e-mail from D.C. Health Link, the District’s health insurance exchange. One said the 9-month-old daughter was not eligible for health coverage because she was incarcerated. Another asked that they provide documents to prove their Native American heritage, even though no such claims were made in their application. For weeks, D.C. Health Link told Andersen and Ozdeger that the application had been sent to CareFirst. CareFirst said it didn’t have it. They turned to their council member’s office for help. Finally, on May 29, they received word that their application had made it to the insurer. . . . Ozdeger said she and her husband never found out what caused the delays. ‘I can’t imagine what it must be like for other people’ who are also waiting for coverage, she said. ‘How in the world are they ever going to get their insurance?’ The family is still without dental coverage. But Ozdeger, 41, said she can’t postpone a trip to the dentist any longer because she needs to have a filling replaced.”

The Post writes, “Insurers suggest the problems are occurring at the exchange. . . . The enrollment records generated by online health insurance exchanges have been a major concern to insurers since last year. . . . In the District, information does not seem to be reaching the insurer in some instances, or it is being transmitted with flawed data. Robert Laszewski, a health industry consultant, said he doesn’t know what the specific problems are in the District. But applications that take longer than three weeks for insurers to process indicate that something is wrong. When more than one insurer is experiencing delays, ‘that suggests the problem is with the exchange’s ability to get enrollment data to the insurers.’”

Obamacare is a mess. It needs to be repealed so this country can start over with some real reforms to health care instead of the boondoggle of Washington regulations and broken promises that is Democrats’ unpopular law.

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Tags: House Republican, new leadership, Obmacare, trainwreck, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

March For Marriage

 Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Today Americans who support traditional marriage gathered in Washington, D.C., for the second annual March for Marriage. I am proud to say that my educational public policy organization, American Values, co-sponsored today's march.

The men and women who came from all over the country today stood for the values of faith, family and freedom in spite of a coordinated effort in the media and the popular culture to demoralize everyone who believes marriage is between a man and a woman. Polling on this issue is being used as propaganda. Don't buy the left's spin.

Here's something that may surprise you. Homosexual rights groups have abandoned plans to put same-sex marriage on the ballot in Ohio this year. After going through the signature collection process to repeal Ohio's marriage protection amendment, which passed in 2004 with 62%, they decided that they don't want the people to vote after all.

How could that be? The reason is clear: they are not at all confident they could win. As my friend Phil Burress of Ohio's Citizens for Community Values said, "I don't see where 10 years has changed anything. …But if they do [put it on the ballot], we'll beat them again."

While many reporters breathlessly note the sea change of public opinion on this issue, the biggest thing that has changed is that unelected judges are forcing the left's morality on the rest of society.

It used to be a hallmark of conservatism to forcefully criticize judicial activism -- unelected judges forcing radical change on the country. Now there is barely a peep from many Republican leaders whenever a voter-approved marriage amendment is struck down. Regardless of whether they support the radical redefinition of marriage, I thought Republicans at least respected the will of the people and the proper, limited role of the judiciary.

Some GOP consultants argue that Republicans should stop defending normal marriage because young people support same-sex marriage. I would be careful about arguing that just because young people are more liberal, the whole party should adapt to their whims. For one thing, people change -- especially as they mature, get jobs and start having families of their own.

And if we intend to allow people from the ages of 18 to 24 to decide the GOP platform, it is going to be an odd party because many youth also support legalizing drugs and cutting defense spending. Here's an idea: Why don't we devote more time to making the case of our values to young people, rather than allowing them to dictate our values?

If only Republicans were just as passionate about preserving marriage and religious liberty as they are about preserving the current minimum wage or tax breaks for billionaires.

My friends, I'm not trying to discourage you. I'm trying to motivate you. We must fight for our values just as hard as, if not harder than, the left is fighting to undermine our values.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the  Campaign for Working Families

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IRS Scandal Just Got Much Worse --Time For A Special Prosecutor

by Newt Gingrich: : We are watching the most significant crisis of constitutional order since Watergate, the last time an administration broke the law deliberately and repeatedly. And none of the current cases look more Nixonian than what has been happening at the IRS.

Thirteen months ago, President Obama stood before the American people, acknowledged that the IRS had “improperly screened conservative groups,” and promised to get to the bottom of the matter and to “hold the responsible parties accountable.”

“It’s inexcusable,” he said, “and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it. I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but especially in the IRS, given the power that it has and the reach that it has into all of our lives...[T]he IRS has to operate with absolute integrity. The government generally has to conduct itself in a way that is true to the public trust. That’s especially true for the IRS.”

Americans might be forgiven for thinking their president actually meant to get to the bottom of the matter and hold the responsible parties accountable. But the administration’s conduct over the last year has proved that promise was just another lie.

By February, the president was already telling a very different story, saying on FOX News that there was “not even a smidgen of corruption” behind the IRS screenings. He held to the line even after Bill O'Reilly gave him an out by suggesting that the corruption might have been contained to the Cincinnati office. Not even there, Obama said. Not a smidgen.

“What happened here,” the president now claimed, “is you have a 501(c)(4) law that people think is confusing. The folks did not know how to implement it.” The only reason “these kinds of things keep on surfacing,” he told O’Reilly, is “because you and your TV station will promote them.”

Is he even talking about the same events? Just months before, he’d fired the commissioner over the scandal. He’d labeled as “inexcusable” the conduct described in the Inspector General's report--the report that first revealed the targeting of conservative groups.

In other words, despite the president’s promises, the White House handled the corruption at the IRS the same way it has handled every other question about the administration: express outrage if required, pledge an investigation, stonewall until coverage fades, and then dismiss any allegations as baseless, politically motivated attacks by a right-wing fringe.

The dishonesty is galling. That the news media falls for it boggles the mind. As Peggy Noonan points out in a recent column, it’s hard to find a reporter who believes there is an IRS scandal at all.

But even the media must have a hard time swallowing the explosive claim the IRS buried deep in a letter to Congress on Friday. The agency says it has lost two years’ worth of email for seven key people allegedly involved in targeting conservative groups, including Lois Lerner, who ran the division overseeing tax-exempt organizations during the period in question.

The IRS is asking Congress and the American people to believe that the seven individuals’ computer hard drives all crashed during this critical period, that their emails were also lost from the server where they were stored, that all the backups of the seven computers and the servers have been destroyed, and that forensic techniques for recovering data from hard drives failed on all seven and the server.

Just as bad, Congress asked for “all” of Lerner’s communications more than a year ago, as the Wall Street Journal notes today. It wasn’t until House investigators discovered, through other means, the emails Lerner sent to the Justice Department that they realized the IRS had not, in fact, turned over “all” of the emails. “Only after Congress demanded the IRS explain why it hadn't provided this Lerner-Justice correspondence,” the Journal points out, “did the IRS suddenly confess in its Friday letter that it had been picking and choosing emails.”

The data-loss story is almost impossible to believe, and the IRS’s admission of missing emails only when caught elevates its already suspicious claims to Watergate levels of alarm--comparable, as others have pointed out, to the missing 18-and-a-half minutes on the Nixon tapes.

Where is the president who promised Americans more than a year ago “to hold the responsible parties accountable,” to “follow up on the IG report,” to “make sure we understand all the facts”? Who promised that he would “not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but especially in the IRS”?

President Obama owes Americans an explanation as to why he looked the other way while the IRS continued its evasion and dishonesty. And he owes us something else, too. The administration has had its chance to cooperate with the investigation in good faith. It’s time for a special prosecutor.
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Newt Gingrich is a former Georgia Congressman and Speaker of the U.S. House. He co-authored and was the chief architect of the "Contract with America" and a major leader in the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional elections. He is noted speaker and writer. The above commentary was shared via his  Gingrich Productions.

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Tags: IRS Scandal, Lois Learner, targeting groups, emails, lost emails, data-loss story, evasion, dishonesty, much worse, special prosecutor, Newt Gingrich, Gingrich Productions To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

The 1st Rule Of Foreign Policy

 Everyone might consider sharing this image with their U.S. Senators and Congressmen… Some seem to have forgotten this or choose to simply ignore it.  ~ TexasFred

H/T Texas Fred

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"Delay Of Game" Via New "PC Rule"

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

If the Redskins have to change their name, the Senate should rename the Russell Senate Office Building - Should a U.S. Senate office building in Washington, D.C. be named after someone who filibustered civil rights legislation, actively supported segregation, and even co-authored the Southern Manifesto against the Supreme Court's landmark ruling, Brown v. Board of Education?

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Tags: Washington Redskins, Trademark Board, PC Rule, delay of game, editorial cartoon, AF Branco, Remaining Russell Office Building, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

The EPA is America's Other Enemy

 by Alan Caruba, Contributing Author: While our attention is focused on events in the Middle East, a domestic enemy of the nation is doing everything in its power to kill the provision of electricity to the nation and, at the same time, to control every drop of water in the United States, an attack on its agricultural sector. That enemy is the Environmental Protection Agency.

Like the rest of the Obama administration, it has no regard for real science and continues to reinterpret the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. It has an agenda that threatens every aspect of life in the nation.

As Craig Rucker, the Executive Director of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) recently warned, “True to her word,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, “is busily grabbing powers for EPA that Congress specifically chose not to grant, and that the Supreme Court has denied on multiple occasions.”

“The federal bureaucracy under the Obama presidency has a voracious appetite for more power. It despises individual liberty and drags down the economy every change it gets,” Rucker warns.

In addition to implementing President Obama’s “war on coal” that is depriving the nation of coal-fired plants that provide electricity, the EPA has announced a proposed rule titled “Definition of ‘Waters of the United States’ Under the Clean Water Act”, redefining, as Ron Arnold of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise reported in the Washington Examiner “nearly everything wet as ‘waters of the United States or WOTUS—and potentially subject us all to permits and fines.”

The President has made it clear that the rule of law has no importance to him and his administration and this is manifestly demonstrated by the actions of the EPA. “This abomination,” says Arnold, “is equivalent to invasion by hostile troops out to seize the jurisdictions of all 50 states. WOTUS gives untrustworthy federal bureaucrats custody of every watershed, creates crushing new power to coerce all who keep America going and offers no benefit to the victimized and demoralized tax-paying public.”

In response to the EPA’s new power grab, more than 200 House members called on the Obama administration in May to drop its plans to expanded the EPA’s jurisdiction over smaller bodies of water around the nation. A letter was sent to EPA Administrator McCarthy and Department of Army Secretary John M. McHugh (re: Army Corps of Engineers) asking that the proposal be withdrawn.

“Under this plan, there’d be no body of water in America—including mud puddles and canals—that wouldn’t be at risk from job-destroying federal regulation,” said Rep, Doc Hastings (R-Wash), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. “This dramatic expansion of federal government control will directly impact the livelihoods and viability of farmers and small businesses in rural America.”

Nearly thirty major trade associations have joined together to create the Waters Advocacy Coalition. They represent the nation’s construction, manufacturing, housing, real estate, mining, agricultural and energy sectors. The coalition supports S. 2245, “Preserve the Waters of the U.S. Act” which would prevent the EPA and Corps of Engineers from issuing their “Final Guidance on Identifying Waters Protected by the Clean Water Act.”

What has this nation come to if the Senate has to try to pass an act intended to prevent the EPA from extending control over the nation’s waters beyond the Clean Waters Act that identifies such control as limited to “navigable waters”? You can’t navigate a water ditch or a puddle!

There are acts that limit agencies such as the EPA from going beyond their designated powers. They are the Regulatory Flexibility Act and the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act. The coalition says that the EPA and Corps “should not be allowed to use guidance to implement the largest expansion of Clean Water Act authority since it was enacted. Only Congress has the authority to make such a sweeping change.”

In two Supreme Court decisions, one in 2001 and another in 2006, rejected regulation of “isolated waters” by the EPA.

It does not matter to the EPA or the Obama administration what the Supreme Court has ruled Congress has enacted in the Clean Water Act, nor the Clean Air Act.

We are witnessing an EPA that is acting as a criminal enterprise and it must be stopped before it imposes so much damage on the nation that it destroys it.
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Alan Caruba is a writer by profession; has authored several books, and writes a daily column, "Warning Signs" disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites and blogs. He is a contributing author at ARRA News Service.

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Democrats Block Effort To Protect Families, Jobs From EPA Overreach

   When McConnell’s Coal ‘Amendment Appeared On Track To Prevail,’ Democrat Leaders Canceled The Vote

‘Democrats Ducking Vote On “War On Coal” Amendment’

“Senate Democrats canceled a scheduled Thursday Appropriations Committee markup that could have opened the door to an amendment to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) latest climate rules. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was planning to introduce an amendment to the funding bill for the Energy Department and water programs...” (“Senate Dems Cancel Spending Bill Vote Amid GOP Threat On EPA Rules,” The Hill, 6/19/14)

• ‘McConnell's amendment appeared on track to prevail’ “Apparently fearing that the top Senate Republican might score a political win, Democrats for the second time in a week cancelled a preliminary vote on a major spending bill. At issue was an amendment by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell that would have allowed the Kentucky Republican and Appropriations panel member to successfully go to bat for his state's coal industry as the spending panel was to consider on Thursday a measure funding the Energy Department and other agencies. ... McConnell's amendment appeared on track to prevail. It is aimed at blocking any new government rules on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.” (“Senate Democrats Scuttle A Vote On Spending Bill,” AP, 6/18/14)
• McConnell amendment ‘had a real chance to prevail’ “Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., crafted an amendment on the subject that he intended to offer to the Energy-Water appropriations bill. As noted previously, the breakdown of Democratic caucus members on the committee is such that he would have had a real chance to prevail.” (“Democrats Ducking Vote On ‘War On Coal’ Amendment — For Now,” Roll Call, 6/18/14)

EPA Rules Are Crushing Coal Country “Here in coal country, the reaction... has been swift and close to apocalyptic.” (“Though Not Quietly, Kentucky Moves To Cut Reliance On Coal,” The New York Times, 6/7/14)

• “‘It’s going to be devastating if the power plant goes down,’ said Dionna Sizemore of Burgin, a mother of two, ages 11 and 16, who moved from Harlan County, the heart of Appalachian coal country, to escape dead-end prospects there. ‘We know the impact it’s having on friends and family back home: people having to move off.’” (“Though Not Quietly, Kentucky Moves To Cut Reliance On Coal,” The New York Times, 6/7/14)

KY Miner Looking For Work: “...it looks as if I may never find a job that would benefit me and my family. It's hard to find a job that will even pay for your gas to get to work and back. This isn't just a plea for help from me it is a plea for help from every mine new and old and to the kids that was like me growing up dreaming of mining coal for a living and the people of Kentucky... We need help please do not bow down to the Obama administration and the unelected goons with the EPA.” (Sen. McConnell, Constituent Mail)

WV Coal Miner: “Coal has been my livelihood, it’s been good. I put two kids through college with it and put my wife through school. … We will be in my mind the hardest hit of any state. It will be as crippling of an effect that has ever been given to us yet.” (WOWK-WV, 6/2/14)

KY Man: “Bill Rawlins, 67, a retired Republican who works part time as a driver for an auto parts company… ‘My gas bill this past winter tripled,’ he said, blaming regulations on coal. ‘I say it’s forcing the coal industry out. It’s going to trickle down and get worse. Your E.P.A. right now, it’s costing the people so much.’” (“Democrats In Coal Country Run From E.P.A.,” The New York Times, 6/2/14)

KY Railroad Worker: “‘Why keep chopping the legs out of your own economy to try to fight a world problem? You are going to destroy your country trying to set an example,’ Gary Whitt said while eating lunch at Giovanni's in downtown Prestonsburg. The 29-year-old railroad worker said his job depends on transporting coal. He said at least 50 of his co-workers have been laid off, and he's worried he could be next.” (“Ky. Coalfield Residents Worry About Regulations,” AP, 6/3/14)

KY Man: “Dave Bailey, 59, a Democrat with a ‘Friends of Coal’ sticker in his auto repair shop… ‘It’s one of those things,’ he said. ‘They introduced all these regulations, and the trickle-down effect will hurt all of us.’” (“Democrats In Coal Country Run From E.P.A.,” The New York Times, 6/2/14)

KY Coal Miner: “Randall Parham, who earns about $19 an hour working at the Paradise No. 9 mine, said new restrictions set forth by the White House on Monday could endanger the livelihood of many in Kentucky. The state is required to cut its carbon emissions by 18 percent by 2030. ‘Coal is all that's here, that's the jobs,’ he said. ‘If you're not a doctor or a lawyer, coal miner is next.’” (“Kentucky Plant Emblematic Of Move >From Coal To Gas,” AP, 6/4/14)

KY Man: “Thirty-one-year-old Johnny Spears was a heavy equipment operator for Kentucky Fuels for 10 years when he lost his job last year. He's now working as a county animal control officer but with a much smaller salary. ‘It's killing the economy in our area,’ he said. ‘There's no money circulating. Businesses are hurt. Everybody's out of work.’” (“Ky. Coalfield Residents Worry About Regulations,” AP, 6/3/14)

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Tags: EPA, EPA overreach, war on coal,  higher prices, lost jobs, democrats block Republican amendment, West Virginia, Kentucky,   To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Dems 'Doing The Bidding Of The Administration, Instead Of Listening To Constituents'

Editorial Cartoon by Gary Varvel

Today in Washington, D.C. - June 19, 2014:
The Senate reconvened at 9:30 AM today. Following an hour of morning business, the Senate resumed post-cloture consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 4660, the combined Commerce-Justice-Science, Transportation-HUD, and Agriculture appropriations bill for fiscal year 2015.

Votes on nominations for ambassador to Peru, and in the HUD and Defense departments are possible today.

The House reconvened at 10 AM and will continue votes and debates today on H.R. 4870 — "Making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015, and for other purposes."
They may proceed today on H.R. 4413 - "To reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to better protect futures customers, to provide end users with market certainty, to make basic reforms to ensure transparency and accountability at the Commission, to help farmers, ranchers, and end users manage risks to help keep consumer costs low, and for other purposes."

Later today, the House Republicans will be voting on a new Majority Leader and Republican Whip.

Yesterday without any final vote, the House continued debate and action H.R. 4870 — "Making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015, and for other purposes."

Regarding the latest news of all those IRS "lost" "Recycled" emails files" to and from Lois Learner, Nathan Mehrens, President of Americans for Limited Government, issued the following statement urging House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-IN) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI.) to subpoena every federal department, agency, and office that former IRS Exempt Organizations head Lois Lerner might have sent an email to or received one from:"The IRS is claiming it recycled the backup tapes on its server and that it threw Lerner's hard drive away after it supposedly crashed, making it impossible for the agency to retrieve email communications from January 2009 to April 2011 that were not internal. That means the search must now branch outside the IRS. The House should subpoena every single federal department, agency, and office Lerner might have emailed or received an email from, including the White House.

"The IRS may not have followed the requirements of the Federal Records Act, but it is unimaginable that every federal entity would be so negligent, or corrupt, as the case may be. Any emails to or from her should still be on those servers. What is clear is that to get to the truth, the House of Representatives will have to expand its investigation beyond the agency itself and focus on those who Lerner may have been collaborating with in the targeting of the tea party and other 501(c)(4) organizations."The AP reported last night, “Apparently fearing that the top Senate Republican might score a political win, Democrats for the second time in a week cancelled a preliminary vote on a major spending bill. At issue was an amendment by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell that would have allowed the Kentucky Republican and Appropriations panel member to successfully go to bat for his state's coal industry as the spending panel was to consider on Thursday a measure funding the Energy Department and other agencies. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., officially made the call Wednesday night . . . .”

Roll Call noted, “The war over the ‘war on coal’ has been postponed after Democrats pushed off a second fiscal 2015 spending bill in the Senate. Late Wednesday, the Appropriations Committee decided not to move forward as scheduled with Thursday’s markup of the bill that funds the Energy Department, as well as water development projects. The move avoids a potentially problematic vote for Senate Democrats and the Obama administration that could have stopped the Environmental Protection Agency’s bid to regulate carbon emissions from existing power plants — regulations that have the affect of targeting pollution from coal. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., crafted an amendment on the subject that he intended to offer to the Energy-Water appropriations bill. As noted previously, the breakdown of Democratic caucus members on the committee is such that he would have had a real chance to prevail.”

And the AP pointed out, “The Appropriations panel is stocked with Democratic red state supporters of the energy industry like Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Begich of Alaska, both of whom face difficult elections this fall. McConnell's amendment appeared on track to prevail. It is aimed at blocking any new government rules on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. . . . Mikulski's decision to call off the vote on the underlying energy and water appropriations measure came a week after she cancelled debate on a huge measure that would also have forced endangered Democrats to vote on politically poisonous amendments regarding the implementation of President Barack Obama's health care law.”

Following up today, Roll Call writes, “Top senators signaled the White House threatened to veto a Senate spending bill over a possible amendment from Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to block EPA power plant regulations. The amendment, billed by the Kentucky Republican as a fight against the Environmental Protection Agency’s ‘war on coal’ was cited by the chairwomen of the full Appropriations Committee and the Energy-Water Subcommittee as the key factor in removing that fiscal 2015 bill from Thursday morning’s markup agenda. ‘The amendment was a bill-killer. If it didn’t lead to defeat on the Senate floor, it would have resulted in a White House veto, as the chairman has said,’ said subcommittee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein. The California Democrat said the White House confirmed a veto threat over the amendment on Wednesday.”

According to Roll Call, Feinstein said, “As the chairman said, I asked her last night to delay the bill after learning that an amendment would be offered to halt progress on the recently proposed EPA rule on greenhouse gas pollution.” She also reportedly said “she was ‘happy to have this fight.’”

But if that’s the case, why would Sen. Feinstein and other Democrats on the subcommittee not vote on the amendment? Are Democrats happy to defend these job-killing regulations or not? They don’t seem to actually want to debate or vote on them.

Speaking on the floor this morning, Leader McConnell said, “Last night, the Senate Democrat leadership pulled the energy and water bill from consideration – for one reason: to protect the Administration’s new job-killing coal regulations. So once again, Senate Democrats are preventing my commonsense, pro-coal measure from moving forward. They’re doing the bidding of the Administration, instead of listening to constituents back home. Kentucky families, especially our coal families, continue to struggle under the Obama Economy. And the Senate Democrat leadership’s latest action is yet another example of the lengths they’ll go to defend Obama Administration’s regulatory agenda – an agenda Washington Democrats seem willing to protect at all costs, even when supposedly pro-energy Senate Democrats try to make us think otherwise.”

Democrats clearly aren’t spending much time considering the real people these regulations are going to hurt. Kentuckians have told reporters that “It's killing the economy in our area. There's no money circulating. Businesses are hurt. Everybody's out of work.” Another said, “It's going to trickle down and get worse. Your E.P.A. right now, it's costing the people so much.” One asked the AP, “Why keep chopping the legs out of your own economy to try to fight a world problem? You are going to destroy your country trying to set an example.”

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Tags: US Senate, US House, War on Coal, Lois Learner, emails  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Bad News For Obama & Hillary

 Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: There was a time when women swooned in Obama's presence, when journalists got thrills up their legs over his every word. Now? Not so much. The public and even some in the media have become so skeptical that announcements of good news are shrugged off or lead to questions about ulterior motives. Add to that mix, the IRS, VA, EPA and Benhazi failures no wonder that there is "Bad News for PrResident Obama and Former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton.

Bad News For Obama
Two new polls -- Gallup and NBC News/Wall Street Journal -- find Barack Obama's approval rating at a dismal 41%. Obama's approval rating is terrifying news for congressional Democrats. When a president falls below 50%, his party loses an average of about 40 House seats.

Here's more from this devastating NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll:

• Just 37% of Americans approve of Obama's handling of foreign policy, a new low. Fifty-seven percent of Americans disapprove. In an op-ed today, Vice President Dick Cheney, commenting on Obama's failed foreign policy, writes, "Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many."
• Asked whether the Obama Administration was competent in managing the federal government, Americans split 50/50. That finding is lower than George W. Bush's 54% post-Katrina competence rating. (Apparently half the country has a strange idea of what competence is.)
• Only 42% said Obama was an effective leader who could get things done, while 54% said he was not an effective leader.
• Only 30% support Obama's ill-conceived decision to trade five Taliban leaders for Bowe Bergdahl.
• Just 26% support Obama's efforts to close the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
• 25% of Americans said the country is headed in the right direction.

NBC's chief political reporter, Chuck Todd, said this morning, "This poll is a disaster for the president. … Essentially, the public is saying, 'Your presidency is over.'"

Todd may be right about the public's perception, but it would be a mistake to conclude that Obama believes he is "over." Obama has demonstrated over and over again that he will simply ignore the law and Congress, and do whatever he wants.

Every day I get emails from frustrated readers asking, "How can he get away with this? Why isn't Congress doing anything?"

Well, Congress can't do much because Congress itself is divided. Obama's allies control half of Congress -- the Senate. And as long as Harry Reid is running interference for Obama, blocking every good thing House Republicans do, Obama will continue to get away with his outrageous behavior.

That's why it is so important that we win the November elections and take back the Senate!

Bad News For Hillary
The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll had bad news for Hillary Clinton too. While 55% of registered voters said Hillary had the knowledge and experience to be president, they find her to be out-of-touch, aloof and dishonest. As Mitt Romney learned the hard way, these kinds of perceptions are often just as important as experience and other qualifications in determining how voters cast their ballots.

Only 38% said Hillary shared their positions on the issues, and 40% said she was "easygoing and likeable." Moreover, only 38% said Clinton was "honest and straightforward."

Folks, get it out of your mind that Hillary is inevitable and that 2016 is already lost. That's spin from the left-wing media and pessimists in our own ranks.

By the way, Hillary may have trouble with that whole "war on women" theme. Clinton once successfully defended a child rapist. Her client served only one year, instead of 30 years.

Clinton was assigned the case by an Arkansas court, and did her best to defend her client. But one Washington Post columnist takes issue with the aggressive manner in which Hillary attacked the "12-year old victim's character" -- much like the way she and her husband would later deal with women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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Tags: Bad News, Polling surveys, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Vet Dreaming: Illegal Veteran

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Tags: Vet Dreaming, healtcare, illegal veteran, VA, medical services, editorial cartoon, AF Branco To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Obama's Legacy Threatens America's Future

 by Alan Caruba, Contributing Author: Americans are feeling the same fear for the future that preceded the Civil War when the incompetent James Buchanan left the mess that Abraham Lincoln had to address. I don’t think we have ever had a President with less knowledge of history than Barack Obama and less ability to solve domestic economic problems and address threatening foreign ones.

“Rarely has a U.S. President been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many,” said former Vice President Dick Cheney, along with his daughter Liz, in a June 18 opinion published by the Wall Street Journal. Liz has been a deputy assistant secretary of state for eastern affairs.

My fear now is that the President is not, as I originally assumed, driven just by ideology, but that he keeps demonstrating the illegal use of powers that he does not have under the Constitution, coupled with a disdain for the other branch of government, the Congress.

If Obama is eminently impeachable, but Congress is so divided that this is not an option.

Despite what his Justice Department told him, Obama disobeyed a law requiring him to give Congress a 30-day notice for the exchange of terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay. His use of executive orders may meet some legal standard, but they are often his way of getting around legal limitations such as his wish to open America’s borders to the flood of illegal immigrants we are seeing.

There is some comfort in being someone who warned against electing him both times, but there is no comfort in reviewing the harm he has done to date. Only a major Republican victory in the November midterm elections will offer any protection against him until he leaves office.

Let’s just do a quick review:

He traded five members of the Taliban’s highest ranked detainees from Guantanamo for an alleged prisoner of war who deserted his unit in Afghanistan, negotiating with the Islamic criminal group, the Haqqani, known for extracting high ransoms but no mention of money has been made.

Having initiated negotiations with Iran in a futile attempt to get them to cease seeking their own nuclear arsenal, there is conjecture the U.S. will enlist Iran’s help in addressing the jihadist attack on Iraq, but Iran has been the declared enemy of the United States since it seized our diplomats in 1979 and held them hostage until President Reagan was sworn into office. Iran is the world’s greatest supporter of terror. It was behind the truck bomb that destroyed our embassy in Beirut in 1984 and a few months later killed U.S. Marines in an attack on their barracks there. It provided weapons to our enemies during the Iraq war.

He has driven the nation’s debt up so high that, for the first time in its history, its credit rating was reduced. That debt continues to grow and is pegged at $17 trillion. The price of food is beginning to soar.

Unemployment now affects the lives of those unable to find work—literally millions—and those who have ceased to look. Raising the minimum wage will only serve to further reduce job creation and opportunities. Millions are on food stamps while millions are receiving disability benefits. There is likely no way to know who legitimately deserves assistance and who does not. Increasing the rolls is seen as ensuring the Democrat Party gets their vote.

He reduced the funding of our military, reducing its fighting capacity to pre-World War Two levels in manpower and the arsenal of weapons it requires. He advocated the participation of homosexuals, a policy the military has long opposed for issues of unit cohesion and morale. He advocated more female participation in the military. Pastors and other chaplains serving the military were pressured to alter their message to the troops.

Obama is on record saying that “climate change” is the greatest enemy the U.S. military will face. Climate change has been occurring for billions of years and is entirely natural. It has nothing to do with waging war except for the circumstances on a specific battlefield and that is called the “weather”, not climate change.

Having done nothing to stem illegal immigration, the nation is now besieged by thousands of “refugees”, often very young, being bussed here from nations like Nicaragua and Guatemala. They in turn are being “dumped” in Arizona and other locations because the Texas immigration detention facilities are full. This situation is being attributed to Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that was initiated in 2012 to allow illegal immigrants who can to the U.S. as minors to escape deportation for two years. In early June an additional two years was tacked onto the program.

By pushing Obamacare—the Affordable Patient Care Act—through Congress, Obama has effectively destroyed the finest medical health system in the world, raising the cost of health insurance, interfering with the doctor-patient relationship, and causing several million Americans who already had health insurance to lose it. He lied to achieve this and the Democrats knew it. No Republican in Congress voted for it. By 2017 an estimated seven million workers will lose employer provided coverage.

Just as Obama’s indifference to fix the management problems of the Veterans Administration has resulted in needless deaths, Obamacare’s death toll will make that seem small when even policy holders are forced to wait for care because hospitals have closed or there are fewer private practice physicians.

Obama’s declared “war on coal” has already caused more than a hundred coal-fired plants producing electricity to close, reducing the production of electricity at a time the population is growing and the economy requires it for growth. The emissions from such plants had already been reduced by 90% at a significant cost. The EPA’s new regulations have no basis whatever in scientific fact. The cost of electricity is already rising for many Americans and U.S. coal is being shipped to China and India for their plants.

The nation’s moral standards have been harmed by the implementation of same-sex marriages which the President endorsed after reversing an earlier campaign position. His view that legalizing marijuana is okay will have serious implications that are already manifesting themselves at this point.

This is just a thumbnail review of what has been happening to the nation and to all Americans. We have survived incompetent presidents in the past, but Obama is unique, not just for his ignorance and incompetence, but for his reliance on lies to achieve his goal of reducing America as the one world power that has been relied upon to resist the forces of evil that threaten mankind.

Having begun with a quote by the Cheney’s, I will conclude with their view that “President Obama is on track to securing his legacy as the man who betrayed our past and squandered our freedom.”
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Alan Caruba is a writer by profession; has authored several books, and writes a daily column, " Warning Signs" disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites and blogs. He is a contributing author at ARRA News Service.

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Tags: Barack Obama, legacy, threatens, America's Future, Alan Caruba, warning signs To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Amnesty Lost Big in Cantor's Defeat

Brat Wins - Amnesty Lost

by Phyllis Schlafly: Elections have consequences, and the stunning defeat of the heir apparent for leadership of the Republican Party, Eric Cantor, continues to reverberate throughout the political world. Completely caught off guard by this spectacular upset, the liberal media are scrambling to try to spin the story as something other than what it obviously was.

The message of the voters to Eric Cantor and the entire Nation was this: “no amnesty.” This was a slap in the face of the Chamber of Commerce that has been demanding so-called “immigration reform” as a way for big business to get cheap labor from illegal aliens, while able-bodied Americans are left on unemployment and while the rest of us have to deal with the crime and other costs caused by rampant illegal immigration.

Eric Cantor did not merely lose a tight election, but lost by a landslide of 11 percentage points to a virtually unknown challenger in a race that no one thought the Majority Leader could lose. Cantor became the first Majority Leader to lose in his own primary in U.S. history.

The media did not think the race was even worth covering, and they did not bother sending anyone to do exit polls of voters. But they need look no further than what Dave Brat says on his website, what he said while campaigning, and what he has said in the few interviews that he gave after his extraordinary victory.

“Dave believes that we need to secure the border before addressing immigration reform. Dave is opposed to amnesty,” his website boldly declares, while sharply contrasting his position with that of Eric Cantor, who favored amnesty for most illegal aliens up to age 30.

The support of amnesty for kids by Cantor, which Dave Brat sharply criticized shortly before the election, has apparently been heard loud and clear south of the border. Tens of thousands of children from Central America have recently swarmed over our border, giving Homeland Security a colossal problem.

In the past, the number of children crossing our southern border have totaled about 7,000 to 8,000 annually. But that quantity increased to 13,000 in 2012, then to more than 24,000 in 2013, and government estimates for this year of the number of illegal crossings by children was 60,000 before the recent surges indicate it could be even more, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

More, indeed, as the number of illegal crossings by Central American children into our country reached 47,000 by last month, making it likely it will exceed 100,000 in this year alone.

This pathetic tragedy has resulted in placing many children in harm’s way. Even the Obama Administration is obviously unable to fully protect all these children, and lacks proper facilities for housing them.

With all the investigative reporters standing by to try to find some dirt on Republicans like Dave Brat, hovering outside his family home all day to pounce on him whenever he emerges, why hasn’t anyone determined how so many children have made it to our border? They obviously didn’t walk across Mexico alone.

No one seems to know how they got here, or those who do know are not telling us. But it is clear why tens of thousands of children have suddenly shown up at our doorstep: their families want the amnesty and citizenship that Eric Cantor and big business donors were quietly promising them.

One thousand of these of these poor children are being housed in a facility in Nogales, Texas, but there are far too many additional children who are crossing the border into Texas even for that large state to accommodate. The Obama Administration is transferring many of these children to Arizona, but officials there are furious at being burdened with this immense responsibility.

Why are we surprised by this avoidable tragedy? If a border fence had been built as promised, then this dangerous wandering by children across our southern border would not be occurring.

Dave Brat, fresh from the biggest political upset in a generation, explained again to the public how wrongheaded amnesty is. “If you really want to help the rest of the world, what you’ve got to do is encourage free markets, private property rights and the strong rule of law and get rid of the dictators in a lot of these countries” that are sending children to us.

Liberals do not like that approach because they expect illegal aliens to become Democratic Party voters. The Chamber of Commerce does not like Brat’s approach because big business expects illegal aliens to become cheap, controllable labor for the companies.

But American voters accept the obvious truth against amnesty that Dave Brat articulates. Every Republican should heed the clear message sent by the voters in retiring the Majority Leader of the House.
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Phyllis Schlafly has been a national leader of the conservative movement since 1964. She founded and is president of Eagle Forum. She has testified before more than 50 Congressional and State Legislative committees on constitutional, national defense, and family issues.

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Tags: amnesty, illegals, lost,, Eric Cantor, loss, Dave Brat, win, Virginia, 2014 Election, Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Grandparents Can Change The Nation

Herman Cain, Mrs Cain & Grandchildren

by Herman Cain: Make sure there is a future for them to look forward to.

Grandparents have the clout to turn this nation around in one election cycle if they are all informed, involved and registered voters. Grandparents represent about 50 percent of all voters!

The problem is that too many, just like voters in general, do not get informed, involved or vote.

Maybe grandparents need to be reminded that they are already investing in their grandchildren's future in many ways. They provide that special love, that special attention, that special understanding when needed, and just that special connection that makes most grandchildren feel special. They are!

Tragic or misfortunate circumstances sometimes leave the responsibility of raising their children's children to the grandparents. Sometimes it's just a single grandparent. That takes even more special commitment, but that's what love does.

In today's tough economic environment, some grandparents are having to help supplement their grandchildren financially, directly and indirectly, where possible. It's not always possible because many grandparents are living on tight budgets themselves, but most will assist their children with the needs of the grandchildren, especially when it comes to their education.

Each generation wants to give the next generation a little bit better start in life than they had. What they do with it is up to them. I experienced that firsthand with my parents, and now with our own children. A good education, some common sense and a good dose of moral values are a good start to a happy and rewarding life.

But preparing our grandchildren for a future that may not be there would be a travesty. Since World War II, we have seen decades of continuous growth and opportunity for people to succeed. Some people made choices to survive, and others chose to invest the sweat equity in life necessary to thrive.

That continuous growth and opportunity is gradually slipping away due to the burdensome impact of big government, and people being trapped in government dependency programs. Median household income has actually gone down in the last six years by about $2,000 per household, while the cost of everything has gone up!

That trend will continue unless we elect people who believe in real pro-growth policies instead of pro-government policies, and people who will truly embrace the urgency of curtailing our federal out-of-control spending.

Grandchildren prepared for a future that won't be there would be a disappointment for all of us. That's like getting kids ready for school when there's no bus, and no gas in the car to get them there. That's why it is urgent that we change the current trend line for future opportunities.

You don't have to be a grandparent to care about the future of this country. Any patriot cares just as much, because love's got everything to do with it.

I know many grandparents have worked and planned for many years to "retire". Unfortunately, in many cases we cannot retire but we must refocus some of our energy and attention to making sure there is a future for those grandchildren we are helping to prepare for the future.

I don't know if I would be as vocal and involved in helping to get this nation back on the right track if my wife and I did not have four grandchildren. Without them it would be a lot easier to sit in that hypothetical rocking chair and watch the world go by.

But for now, we can't sit back and watch the nation go under.

So stay informed, stay involved and stay inspired that there will be a future in this great nation for our grandchildren when they get there!

Grandparents have the power to change the future of our nation.

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Tags: Hermain Cain, grandparents, can change the nation, voters, granschildren To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!