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One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato
(429-347 BC)
Friday, July 29, 2016
Two Conventions, Two Realities
by Newt Gingrich: We have now finished two weeks of two conventions by two parties. For Americans who watched both presentations, the contrast was jarring. They weren't just offering two different political visions. In many ways, they were offering two radically different versions of reality.
In that sense, the gap between the two conventions was an accurate reflection of where we are as a country. There really are two very different visions of reality competing in the political campaigns underway this year--with their own value systems, sets of ideas, and interpretations of the facts.
The version of reality that many Republicans, Independents, and even some Democrats are experiencing was the basis for the Republican convention in Cleveland.
In the Republican understanding of reality, the country is on the wrong track, the government isn’t working, and the problems are getting worse.
Republicans see a country in which the threat from terrorism is increasing here at home and around the world.
They see a country in which crime is getting worse, murders are up 70 percent in Chicago, and police officers are being assassinated at the highest rate in decades.
They see a country in which the border is not secure and the political class has done nothing about it.
They see health care costs going up, with a new law that makes it more complicated and gives people less choice about what doctors they can see.
They see a country in which the economy has left ordinary middle class Americans behind and fewer people are working.
That’s the Cleveland version of reality.
The Philadelphia view is very different.
Democrats see a president who is relatively popular and who has achieved a great deal of his agenda. They see a first lady who is a good role model and who is even more popular than the President. In this version of reality, eight years of their administration have worked pretty well.
They and their highly educated friends have good jobs and more influence.
They see a historically high stock market and weak but still positive economic growth.
They see their health care law as a statistical success, even if it remains unpopular.
They see major victories on social issues--although they would like to push the boundaries even further.
They see terrorism as a persistent but manageable problem in which the intolerant and Islamophobic West occasionally provokes clinically insane people to violence.
They see crime as low by historic standards and not a major national priority, except for the special case of gun control.
They see police abuses and police killings of innocent people as widespread and the product of racism.
These are two very different versions of reality in America.
Both are based on real facts and feelings, assessed using very different value systems.
The election this November is certainly a contest between two candidates, but it is also a contest between these two versions of reality.
If you accept the Cleveland version of reality, you are far more likely to understand the appeal of Donald Trump, who wants to keep Americans safe and would drastically change the bureaucratic systems you see as failing.
On the other hand, if you accept the Philadelphia version of reality, you are comfortable with a candidate like Hillary Clinton who wants to make minor changes to the status quo.
The Bernie supporters are a special case. They are a little of each. This faction of the Democratic Party is not happy with the status quo, and it makes a critique that is surprisingly similar to that of Trump’s populist rebellion within the GOP: the system is rigged, the wealthy and the well connected are exploiting the rest of us, and our foreign policies have failed.
Where the Sanders wing of the Democrats departs from Trump’s populism is in their solutions.
They think more government and more bureaucratic systems can solve the problems. Trump’s populism, on the other hand, views government and bureaucratic systems as the problem.
These versions of reality in America are about to collide at the ballot box. When the American people vote in November, in part they will be deciding which version of reality is more real than the other.
---------------------- 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 Gingrich Productions. Tags:Newt Gingrich, commentary, Two Conventions, Two Realities, Republicans, Donald Trump, Democrats, Hillary ClintonTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
DOJ Knew of IRS Scandal 2 Years Before Congress But Did Nothing
by Philip Wegmann: Recently unearthed documents reveal that the FBI knew the IRS was unfairly targeting groups because of their conservative politics two years before Congress even heard about the agency’s misconduct.
The revelation has already added fodder to the conservative case to impeach the current IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
Almost 300 pages of documents released Thursday and obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act confirm that the IRS subjected conservative groups to increased scrutiny beginning in 2011.
Even though the FBI uncovered the scandal in 2011, the documents show, the Department of Justice chose not to act.
In interviews with FBI agents, IRS officials said that a Cincinnati branch of their agency targeted conservative groups.
“Cincinnati was categorizing cases based on name and ideology, not just activity,” Nancy Marks, a senior official at the IRS, told the FBI. That was in the summer of 2011. The public wouldn’t learn of the scandal until May 2013.
The scandal first erupted at an American Bar Association event when IRS official Lois Lerner answered a planted question about the tax agency’s handling of applications for nonprofit status. She apologized for the inappropriate scrutiny some groups experienced, adding that the conduct “was incorrect, insensitive, and inappropriate.”
The documents expose former IRS Acting Commissioner Steven Miller as the author who actually wrote Lerner’s response word for word.
After multiple congressional hearings, a vote to censure Lerner, and her eventual retirement, the Department of Justice announced the administration would not level criminal charges against the tax official.
“We found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on political, discriminatory, corrupt or other inappropriate motive,” the Justice Department wrote members of Congress in an October 2015 letter.
That the administration sat on the information for two years before deciding not to prosecute is “par for the course and, frankly, the stench is overwhelming” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan.
The documents underscore the need to impeach Koskinen, members of the House Freedom Caucus say, even though the tax chief wasn’t with the IRS at the time. The group argues that he impeded a subsequent congressional investigation into the scandal and they want a political pound of flesh.
“At the end of the day we have to be able to strike at least one blow on behalf of accountability,” Huelskamp told The Daily Signal.
The administration won’t deal with the situation, said House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. The episode, he told The Daily Signal, shows that “there are two sets of rules in this country—one for ‘we, the people’ and another for the politically connected.”
To can Koskinen, members of the Freedom Caucus have filed a parliamentary measure known as a privileged resolution to force a floor vote on impeachment.
Rep. John Fleming, R-La., who introduced the motion along with Huelskamp, says the new documents establish a more troubling problem.
“While this provides further confirmation that the IRS was acting to suppress the voices of certain conservative groups, it now raises questions about whether the FBI has been compromised or politicized,” Fleming told The Daily Signal.
That’s “simply outrageous,” says Heritage Foundation legal scholar Hans von Spakovsky, who has watched the scandal unfold since 2013. “No one at the IRS has been punished over this, no one has been prosecuted,” he notes. “Nothing has been done to ensure that this won’t happen again.”
The FBI and IRS did not respond to multiple requests for comment by phone and email from The Daily Signal.
----------------------- Philip Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) is the congressional correspondent for The Daily Signal. Tags:DOJ, knew , did nothing, IRS Scandal, targeted Conservatives, 2 years, before Congress knew, impeach KoskinenTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Tags:Hillary Clinton, Convention Speech 2016, mean spirited, about Trump, ignore her lies, she's a woman, editorial cartoon, AF BrancoTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Hillary Lied - There's an old joke I'm sure many of you have heard before: How do you know when a politician is lying? Answer: Their lips are moving.
I just couldn't get that joke out of my head last night as I watched Clinton deliver a speech full of distortions. It would take volumes to go through them all, but here's one of the most brazen lies she delivered during her acceptance speech last night: "I'm not here to repeal the Second Amendment. I'm not here to take away your guns. I just don't want you to be shot by someone who shouldn't have a gun in the first place."First of all, it is ludicrous to imply, as she did, that there is anyone in America who does want people to get shot by someone who shouldn't have a gun. But, more importantly, she WOULD repeal the Second Amendment!
This is a woman, who identified the NRA as an "enemy" she was most proud to fight against.
Every time there is a tragic shooting -- every time -- the knee jerk liberal reaction is to impose more laws that would not prevent the shootings. They would, however, make it more difficult for you, a law abiding American, to exercise your rights.
When Hillary talks about appointing Supreme Court justices, she talks about the kinds of progressives already on the high court who have voted against the Second Amendment.
She praised Obama's choice of Merrick Garland to replace Justice Antonin Scalia.
As you may know, it was Justice Scalia who authored the Heller decision in 2008 upholding the individual right under the Second Amendment to own a firearm for self-defense. That was a five-to-four decision.
Right now the Supreme Court is divided four-to-four on the plain meaning of the Second Amendment and many other critical issues. The next president will pick the justice who decides whether the Second Amendment survives or is effectively repealed. Those are the stakes.
And, for the record, Merrick Garland was on the wrong side of the Second Amendment in Heller case.
So last night an untrustworthy politician, who lied about Benghazi and who lied about her emails, stands on a national stage and lies to our face knowing that the media won't call her out. I just did!
Does She Deserve A Raise? - Throughout the primary campaign, Bernie Sanders made much of the fact that Clinton was paid outrageous speaking fees for private speeches to big banks. Her standard fee was as much as $225,000 per speech. I hope the banks got a better speech than the one she delivered last night.
Democrat Disrespect - Throughout the week, the left's disrespect for traditional American values has been on full display. Here are a few examples:
Now to be fair, the majority of delegates were not this disrespectful and intolerant. But I guarantee you that if anyone at the Republican convention had disrespected women or homosexuals, that is all you would hear about on the major networks. The only network that is reporting what happened at the Democrat convention this week is Fox.
Democrat Denial - In the last two weeks, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have, I believe, rightly emphasized that our country is facing big problems at home and abroad. The breakdown of law and order here, rising terrorist threats across the globe and a stagnant economy are just some of the big issues we must address. Yet they have been accused of being "dark and dangerous."
The American people know that things are not going well. Just 17% of Americans -- 17% -- say they are satisfied with the state of our union.
But Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine and their media allies have been in full-throated denial, telling us just how great things are and what a good job they are doing. In fact, Hillary even said last night that Barack and Joe aren't getting the credit they deserve. My friends, denial is dangerous!
While thinking about the Democrats' argument this morning, two breaking news stories showed how reality has a way of intruding: Two courageous police officers were shot in San Diego during a traffic stop. One has since died. The war on cops continues.
Then came a shocking report on economic activity in the second quarter of this year. Economists had predicted growth of 2.6%. They were off by 50%. The Commerce Department reported this morning that second quarter GDP amounted to a paltry 1.2%. Moreover, they downgraded first quarter growth from 1.1% to 0.8%. That is not a level of economic activity that can provide America's families with jobs and decent incomes.
We deserve better.
Hillary Clinton is the candidate of the status quo. She represents more scandal and more Obama. I think we have had enough of both. We need real change and real hope!
Mike Pence & Donald Trump praying.
A Picture Of Hope - Speaking of hope, I want to share a picture with you that was sent to us late yesterday afternoon.
By the way, Governor Pence was campaigning in Michigan yesterday. He told an audience there, "If we appoint strict constructionists to the Supreme Court as Donald Trump intends to do, I believe we will see Roe v. Wade consigned to the ash heap of history where it belongs." I couldn't agree more!
------------- Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families Tags:Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, Hillary Lied, Democrat Disrespect & Denial, Hopem prayerTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Tom Balek, Contributing Author: I studied and taught economics but I still could never quite figure out the Democrat's plan to improve our economy. But now I think I finally get it. I listened to Bernie and Hillary at the DNC convention, and it has all become clear to me. In fact, thanks to Hillary's lesson in Democrat economics, I think I can now even beat the Democrats' plan for creating jobs and improving the economy.
Hillary wants to at least double the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, right? She says $20 per hour would be even better. Well, I say if $15 is good, and $20 is better, why not $50? Heck, why not $100 an hour? Just think, if all the burger-flippers and lawn mowers and hotel maids made $100 an hour ($208k per year) they could buy so much stuff that there would be millions of new manufacturing jobs to make all the things they want to buy.
Plus everybody could eat their meals at fancy, expensive restaurants. So those restaurants would have to hire more waiters, and dishwashers and janitors. They would all make at least $208,000 a year, so they could buy more stuff too! You see how dollars circulate when a Democrat runs the economy? Everybody wins!
Wait, if everybody eats at fancy restaurants, the burger-flippers wouldn't have anything to do. Oh well, they could play Pokémon Go when business is slow. Or they could stay home and do tele-work like our federal government employees do when it gets hot outside. Problem solved. Maybe the federal workers are playing Pokémon Go, too.
Hillary also wants to open our borders and ports so there will be many more immigrants coming to our country. She says we need more immigrants to do the low-paid jobs that Americans don't want to do. She says immigrants are better at starting businesses than Americans are. She says immigrants add a lot more to the economy than they take from it. Well, then! If immigrants are so great for our economy, let's invite all of the people in Africa to move in with us! And Mexico, and Myanmar . . . there are a lot of potential immigrants all over the world. Just think how great our economy will be when they all live here!
Oh wait, if minimum wage is $100 an hour, there won't be any low-paid jobs for them to take. Hmm. But hey, there will be so many new jobs from everybody else buying stuff with their new higher wages, the immigrants can take those jobs. Hmm. But then where would the Americans work?
Shoot, this is getting kind of hard.
Well, Hillary says college education should be free for everybody, and student loans should just be written off. Probably a lot of Americans won't have to work, then, because they will be going to college full time with free room and board. So there will be jobs for the immigrants. That's how Greece does it. Oops, that didn't work out very well for Greece, did it? And I guess maybe the immigrants will all be in free college too . . .
Dang it, it seemed to make sense when Hillary explained it. So how are we going to create jobs and grow the economy?
Oh, I know. Let's just raise taxes on the rich!
--------------- Tom Balek is a fellow conservative activist, blogger, musician and contributes to the ARRA News Service. Tom resides in South Carolina and seeks to educate those too busy with their work and families to notice how close to the precipice our economy has come. He blogs at Rockin' On the Right Side Tags:My Economic Plan, Better Than Hillary’s, Hillary Clinton, Tom Balek, Rockin' On The Right SideTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: Franklin Graham in a recent commentary reminds us that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful, but that is small comfort when we see so many attacks around the world by violent Muslims. He takes the time to help us understand how many of this violent minority there might be in this country.
The Pew Research Center asked Muslims in the United States under what circumstances “suicide bombings and other forms of violence against civilians is justified to defend Islam.” First, let’s look at the good news. They found that 86 percent say that such behavior is “rarely or never” justified. What about the rest?
Seven percent of Muslims in America told Pew that violence against civilians is “sometimes” justified, and one percent even went so far as to say the violence is “often” justified. While those percentages don’t sound like much, all you need to do it run the numbers. Franklin Graham says: “This means there are more than 100,000 Muslim adults living in this country who could justify a suicide bombing in the name of their religion.”
Of course that doesn’t mean that most of these Muslims would actually commit such an act. But it does highlight the fallacy of merely saying that most Muslims are peaceful. Yes, they are, but there is a significant minority who are not. As you might imagine, a higher percentage of Muslims in the Middle East believe suicide bombings are justified.
It is also important to remember that this is how Muslims are self-identifying to the Pew researchers. That suggests to me that the percentages might be much higher since many Muslims might be reticent to admit their belief about violence to a stranger who calls them on the phone.
We should be grateful that a majority of Muslims in this country are not violent, but that should not blind us to the reality that as many as 100,000 Muslim adults believe that violence could be justified against their fellow Americans.
----------- Kerby Anderson is a radio talk show host heard on numerous stations via the Point of View Network endorsed by Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service Tags:Kerby Anderson, Viewpoints, Point of View, Violent Muslims, America To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
They ordered USA signs, and they trained attendees to chant USA when Bernie’s folks sought to disrupt.
They even made the backdrop behind Hillary Clinton look like a flag, rather than the drab steel grey resembling some futuristic Orwellian political stage that beset most of the Democratic Convention speakers. And yes, she even mentioned God, but I don’t remember Jesus making it past the speechwriters. She managed to talk about the Founding Fathers without the sneer that has become the norm from the left, and she re-cast them as supporters of collective liberty, rather than protectors of individual rights.
Hillary gave a speech reflecting the advantage of having the second convention, as she adjusted her remarks to answer her challenger. The main two problems facing the Democrats after the words have ended is that Hillary Clinton is delivering their message and they have had eight years in control of the White House where the problems festered or were created to explain away.
All in all, it was a well written speech that created a Swiss cheese history of Clinton’s life as well as the state of the nation over the past eight years. A speech and a candidate depending on the ignorance of voters who only tune into politics once every four years.
If an alien landed on this planet with no knowledge of Hillary Clinton’s history, that moon man might think that Hillary sure has some big ideas. Unfortunately for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton has a history. A historically corrupt politician, who put U.S. national security at risk with a private email server, who has been dogged by ethics problems since her days as the wife of Arkansas’ Attorney General and then Governor when she hit the jackpot in a rigged cattle futures scheme.
Hillary Clinton can talk about free college education for the middle class, but this is the same woman who raked in $2 million to deliver speeches on college campuses over the past few years — speeches that tuition and student activity fees underwrote. Now, she wants those who chose to go into debt to pay for college to believe that she feels their pain.
Clinton would love for people to listen to her words about having the judgment and character to be the Commander in Chief, yet it was that same Clinton who led a foreign policy which destabilized Libya, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and much of the Middle East. And yes, it was Hillary Clinton who failed to issue a timely State Department approval to allow U.S. forces to respond to the attack on our Benghazi Consulate costing four brave men their lives.
She has travelled the world as Secretary of State, but the world is a much more dangerous place for her trouble, as her accomplishments were few, and U.S. failures in the region created the space for the rise of ISIS — all associated with a sharp rise in Islamist terrorism both here and abroad. We’re in more danger than ever.
While President Obama famously discounted any concerns about Russia in a 2012 debate with GOP nominee Mitt Romney, Hillary’s Russian reset failed miserably. But she and her husband, President Bill Clinton did benefit as he netted a $500,000 payment for a one hour speech in Russia, and shortly thereafter, Hillary, as Secretary of State, signed off on a Russian takeover of one-fifth of all uranium production in the United States.
And the beat goes on. Hillary claimed concern about bad trade deals, even as one of her closest confidantes, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe publicly assured all of her Wall Street friends that once the election is over, Clinton will support the Trans-Pacific Partnership. After all, Wall Street has a huge investment in the Clintons with CNN reporting that, “Bill and Hillary reported at least $7.7 million for at least 39 speeches to big banks, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, with Hillary Clinton, the Democratic 2016 front-runner, collecting at least $1.8 million for at least eight speeches to big banks.”
The Democratic nominee talked about creating jobs and rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure with language eerily familiar to those who remember President Obama’s $800 billion failed economic stimulus plan that was supposed to provide “shovel-ready jobs” but instead was largely spent to keep public employee union members from getting the ax. Rather than needed reforms, state and local governments used the stimulus to keep unsustainable contracts and pension agreements which are bedeviling many today.
She talked about creating jobs while promising to increase the cost of doing business in the United States through higher corporate taxes, increased regulatory strangleholds and the resulting increased costs of the electricity needed to run manufacturing plants. There is a truism that you tax what you don’t want and you give breaks to what you want. Hillary’s promise to pay for all of her big ideas by significantly increasing business taxes will drive jobs overseas faster than any flawed trade agreement ever could, but she is hoping that no one will realize that inconvenient truth.
And then Hillary promised that she would tackle gun control, but never mentioned the words Islamic or jihad as being at the heart of most Americans angst about the uptick in violent crime. It is almost daily reports of beheadings, rapes and attacks by illegal aliens and Islamic jihadists which has America questioning whose side Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are on, yet those concerns were virtually dismissed as bigotry.
She spoke about unity, while the Administration she hopes to extend for another four years has been the most divisive in half a century with race riots in cities like Ferguson and Baltimore. Hillary wants to continue an Administration that has engaged in a wholesale assault on virtually every aspect of society from suing to force local school districts to allow biological males to shower in the girls high school locker room to rezoning neighborhoods based upon Washington, D.C. census maps. She wants to continue to force Christian bakers to participate in gay weddings, while moving to shut down free speech and rewriting the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Hillary Clinton’s speech wasn’t about unity, it was about consolidating and expanding usurped federal government power. And perhaps most ironically, she reminded everyone that one person as President has limited powers in chiding her opponent, while having remained silent as President Obama has used his pen and phone to run roughshod over any semblance of Congressional Constitutional prerogatives.
No matter how many pop artists they surround her with, Hillary Clinton is ultimately hoping that people will forget who she is and that she owns the wrong track they believe our nation is on, and elect her because she is a woman.
And with all the pomp that is what the Hillary Clinton campaign comes down to, elect me because no other woman has ever been elected before. A fine argument for a candidate for high school student body president, but a really dangerous one for someone who has proven herself unworthy of being trusted when four men are under fire in a far away land.
--------------- Rick Manning (@rmanning957) is President of Americans for Limited Government. This article was also shared on ALG Blog. Tags:Rick Manning, Americans for Limited Government, Hillary Clinton, Big Night, Can’t Overcome ,History Of Deception, AvariceTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: Marilyn Mosley is frustrated. This State’s Attorney in Baltimore, Maryland, angrily dropped charges against the remaining three police officers not already acquitted in the death of Freddie Gray, who died from injuries sustained while in police custody.
Clearly, Mosley lacked the evidence to convict these officers of murder, manslaughter, false arrest, etc. Were the charges politically motivated, as police allege? Or did police impede her investigation, as she charges?
Upon sighting police April 12th of last year, Gray ran but was apprehended. Police confiscated a knife, which was perfectly legal to carry. Then police called for a van, and video captured police dragging 25-year-old Freddie Gray, screaming in agony, to that van.
Police transported him on a very circuitous route “downtown” that ended up at the hospital, after police discovered during a stop that he wasn’t breathing. A week later Freddie died.
The cause of death was a spinal injury.
The video suggests impairment before the travel therapy administered by police, though the injury could have been worsened in transit. Gray wasn’t wearing a safety belt. In fact, the medical examiner ruled it a homicide based on his not being belted in.
Whether the spinal injury was a freak accident, caused by police misconduct or, as alleged, Gray was trying to injury himself to seek damages, the medical evidence shows no serious bruises or broken bones — just the spinal injury.
We don’t know what happened.
What we do know is that a man was taken into police custody without any legitimate charge, not treated or attended to as he should have been, and he’s dead.
There’s no victory or vindication here for police.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
------------------ Paul Jacobs is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacobs is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service. Tags:Paul Jacob, Common Sense, Freddie's DeadTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Obamabomb: A Dangerous and Growing National Security Threat
Center for Security Policy, Washington, D.C.: July 14, 2016 was the one-year anniversary of the nuclear agreement with Iran, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.
In his new book, Obamabomb: A Dangerous and Growing National Security Threat, Center for Security Policy Senior Vice President Fred Fleitz provides a detailed analysis of the dangers this agreement continues to pose to U.S. and international security, including:
Why the threat from Iran's nuclear weapons program is growing despite the JCPOA;
How the nuclear agreement gave Iran a pass on its nuclear weapons work and led the IAEA to dumb down its reports on the Iranian nuclear
program;
How the agreement has made Iran a greater regional and international threat;
The Obama administration's deceptive campaign to implement the agreement; and
How the Obama administration is trying to grant further concessions to Iran.
Fleitz speaks on the anniversary of the adoption of the agreement at the Heritage Foundation
Although Fleitz argues that the nuclear deal is so dangerous that the next president should tear it up and start over, Obamabomb also includes recommendations for new sanctions against Iran and these principles that should guide any effort by a future president to re-negotiate the nuclear pact:
Iran must cease all uranium enrichment and uranium enrichment research.
Iran not have a heavy-water reactor or a plant to produce heavy-water.
Robust verification, including allowing anytime, anywhere inspections by IAEA inspectors to all declared and suspect nuclear sites, including military facilities.
Iran must fully and truthfully answer all questions about its prior nuclear weapons-related work.
Iran must curtail and agree to limitations on its ballistic missile program.
Lift sanctions in stages in response to Iranian compliance.
Iran must agree to end its meddling in regional conflicts and sponsorship of terror.
Threats by Iran to ships in the Persian Gulf, U.S. naval vessels and American servicemen and servicewomen must cease.
Iran must cease its hostility toward Israel.
Iran must release all US prisoners.
Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney said about Obamabomb: "Fred Fleitz's new book Obamabomb: A Dangerous and Growing National Security Fraud could not be more timely. Fleitz's detailed analysis of this agreement not only proves the growing danger that the agreement poses to U.S. national security, he explains how the deal is making a U.S. enemy and leading actor in the Global Jihad Movement into a regional hegemon in the Middle East. Fleitz also discusses the dishonest Obama administration campaign to implement this agreement over bipartisan majorities in Congress and the dangerous precedent this set for future presidents."Fred Fleitz is Senior Vice President for Policy and Programs with the Center for Security Policy. He served in U.S. national security positions for 25 years with the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of State and the House Intelligence Committee staff. During the administration of President George W. Bush, Fleitz was chief of staff to John Bolton, then Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. In his five years with the House Intelligence Committee staff, Fleitz was a senior aide to Chairman Peter Hoekstra and the committee's expert on the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs. Tags:Fred Fleitz, Obamabomb, Dangerous, Growing National Security Threat, Center for Security Policy, President, Frank GaffneyTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
In around 100 days America will be witnessing a crucial election. In the meantime, much will be done on both sides of the national divide, and this year we may see more than the usual political maneuvering in the run-up to this election.
Regardless of the outcome, the next president will face the same unique national security challenges. The Middle East is in a greater crisis than ever before and according to various analysts, it is heading toward anarchy. The scenes of defenseless people getting killed in Syria have only grown more painful over the past year, even as they have become less prevalent on our TV screens. Islamic extremism and the resulting terrorism is now targeting Western Europe, America and the Middle East with unprecedented barbarity, and there is no easy response to it.
The issue of Islamic extremism brings to mind one of our main foreign policy challenges: Iran.
This is a country ruled by a theocracy that plays an active and destructive role in all major wars in the Middle East, from Syria to Iraq to Yemen. Tehran is known as the main state sponsor of terrorism across the globe, as well as being one of the originators of modern extremist Islam. And despite the nuclear agreement with the international community, Iran continues its provocative gestures toward the Western world, for instance by test-firing its ballistic missiles.
In considering future US policy toward such a totalitarian regime, it is imperative to consider whether there exists an alternative – a serious and credible opposition to the existing government. The answer, in the case of Iran, is clearly “yes.”
On July 9th in Paris the Iranian opposition coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), held a massive rally in which around 100,000 people from all over the globe took part. An unprecedented bipartisan American group of senior dignitaries and former military commanders attended the gathering, as did hundreds of European dignitaries. And perhaps the most significant part of this rally was the presence of Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, who stood before the Iranian opposition and endorsed its call for a regime change for the first time this year.
Turki’s speech conveyed a strong message of regional unity. The message of the rally as a whole was that this unity can help Iran to achieve freedom through regime change by the Iranian people and their organized resistance. Insofar as the rally demonstrated international consensus regarding the legitimacy of the NCRI’s cause, it also showed that there is indeed a domestically organized and globally recognized force for change within Iran.
The seriousness of this resistance movement was made more obvious by the Iranian regime’s hysterical response to the NCRI rally. Immediately after the “Free Iran” gathering, a large number of Iranian officials including the first vice president, foreign minister, judiciary chief and to the spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards lashed out at France for hosting the event, at Western politicians for supporting it, and at the Saudi government for apparently raising the banner of regime change.
In the past, the Iranian regime has attempted to dismiss the resistance movement as insignificant. But if Tehran has no concerns about its opposition and the opposition has no impact in Iran, then what has motivated Tehran’s aggressive response to a peaceful meeting held many thousands of kilometers away?
The truth is that this movement has roots deep inside Iran. About 120,000 members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), men and women, and all Muslims, were executed as they refused to succumb in the face of the Ayatollahs Islamic extremism, and as they persisted in defending human rights and democracy. Subsequently, the effort to destroy the opposition came to involve a campaign of demonization and the systematic spread of lies about the group.
The PMOI is the main constituent of the National Council of Resistance of Iran which is headed by Maryam Rajavi, a Muslim woman with deep anti-fundamentalist beliefs. Mrs. Rajavi is an effective leader in coordinating pro-democracy Iranians, especially the youth and women, in campaigns against the religious fascism ruling Iran.
Iranians demand change. And Tehran’s reaction to calls for such change demonstrates that the ayatollahs’ understand how near at hand it is. A democratic and non-extremist Iran is the guarantor of peace and stability in the entire region, promising good economic relations and the region’s achievement of its maximum potential. It will improve development, growth, and cooperation with the West. And once this has been achieved, we in the West can focus our regional efforts on investments and transactions, instead of the impossible task of trying to stabilize the region through short-sighted military interventions.
Let us hope our next president is willing to adopt a new approach to Iran and support an era of domestically-fostered stability. More than ever before, both Iran and America are eagerly awaiting a change in policy. And with adequate coordination between the next administration and the existing Iranian resistance, both nations can achieve what they desire.
------------------ Ken Blackwell (@kenblackwell) is a former ambassador to the to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Ohio Secretary of State and mayor of Cincinnati. He is also the senior fellow for Human Rights and Constitutional Governance at the Family Research Council, in Washington, D.C. and contributing author to the ARRA News Service. Tags:Ken Blackwell, U.S. Policy, Transform Iran, Promote Prosperous Trade, Maryam RajaviTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Theodore Dalrymple: “Men make their own history,” wrote Karl Marx, “but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.”
On this view the past imprisons but never educates or enlightens us (except, of course, in the case of Marx himself). It determines what we think, what we do, and what we are. There is no escape from the circumstances in which we find ourselves: the past not merely affects but also determines the future.
The diametric opposite of this view, that circumstance matters not at all, that we are utterly free to be anything we like without any constraint whatever, that each moment is in effect separate from the one that preceded it, that we are in effect limitless, is equally unrealistic. It arises from the desire to escape Marxian and other forms of determinism, but it is based upon a misconception of our freedom. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
In like fashion to the past, which is neither unimportant to what we are nor its complete determinant, our bodily constitution is neither unimportant to us nor constitutive of us. We cannot simply wish bodily differences away. For example, there are good physical reasons why I cannot break a record running a hundred yards. I am too old and was not made for it in any case. Osteoarthritis is, because of my age, beginning to weaken my manual grip, meaning that there are some things I now cannot do at all that I once could do with ease. But the whole catalog of the things that I cannot do, which is and has always been of infinite size, does not exhaust or diminish the infinitude of what I can do. Limits do not mean that I am unfree. Infinity minus one is still infinity.
Indeed, limits are not the opposite of freedom, but in some circumstances at least the precondition of its exercise. I did not choose the grammar, syntax, or vocabulary of my native language, for example, any more than I chose my native language itself, but that does not mean that I am either predetermined or limited in what I can say in it. A language without rules, if there could be such a thing, would be a language without the possibility of meaning. But meaning, thanks to rules, is itself infinite in its possibilities. We each of us make many unique utterances every day.
In normal circumstances, then, that is to say assuming a lack of brain disease or destructive outside interference with his brain, man in general, and each man in particular, has an ontological freedom to think what he likes, and this exists even under the most tyrannous of regimes, say that of North Korea, however much his thoughts have been molded by circumstances. Of course, political freedom is another thing entirely: the more tyrannous the regime, the more of life is lived under physical coercion, threat, and terror. Psychologically speaking, it is unrealistic to expect people to say “Down with the leader!” when they will be shot for doing so, but they are nevertheless still ontologically free to do so.
People often allege coercion by oppression or by circumstance when they wish to escape their own responsibility for their predicament (they wish to avoid their responsibility, of course, only when their predicament is unwanted or unenviable, never when it is just what they want). To evade our responsibility, we ascribe our undesired predicament to limits that never existed, and by so doing may well fashion what William Blake called “the mind-forg’d manacles” for the future.
On the other hand, the wise person accepts limits that genuinely have been imposed on him by circumstances beyond his control. Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? Nor can anyone become Mozart merely by trying—which is not to say, of course, that Mozart did not try extremely hard. If you cannot become Mozart by trying, neither did Mozart become Mozart by inadvertence, that is to say by what Edmund, in King Lear, called “an enforced obedience of planetary influence,” by the passive object of forces acting upon him to which his choices contributed nothing.
A large part of wisdom (and no doubt one of the secrets of a happy life also) is a knowledge and acceptance of the unavoidable limits of one’s existence, not least among which are one’s physical constitution and mortality. It requires judgment to distinguish between the true limits of existence and the false. A possible meaning, or an aspect of the meaning, of the gnomic injunction over the entry to the Temple of Delphi, namely to Know thyself, is that it is essential to know and accept one’s limits, the better to make the most of one’s freedom.
--------------- Theodore Dalrymple is the pen name for Anthony Daniels. He is the Dietrich Weismann Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal and and writes regularly for National Review. H/T Intercollegiate Review (IR) who shared this article with the editor. IR is published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) and is dedicated to advancing the principles that make America free, virtuous, and prosperous. Tags:Theodore Dalrymple, Anthony Daniels, Your Limits Are Your Freedom, Intercollegiate Review, Intercollegiate, Studies InstituteTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
'The Donald' Trumps The DNC, San Francsico Values, Obama's Anger
Nancy Pelosi on the
men voting GOP
because of 3 G's:guns, gays, God
by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: 'The Donald' Trumps The DNC - Donald Trump's flurry of campaign events and press conferences yesterday was brilliant counterprogramming. Trump had most of the media talking about him on the very day when President Barack Obama and vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine were slated to give major addresses at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
If you missed the controversy, Trump said: "Russia, if you are listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by the press."
As he explained this morning, Trump was being sarcastic. But as we know, the left and their media allies will twist anything to smear conservatives.
Clinton campaign spokesman Jake Sullivan accused Trump of encouraging "a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent," adding, "This has gone from being a matter of curiosity . . . to being a national security issue."
Why are they so upset? According to Hillary, there's nothing in those 30,000 deleted emails other than her thoughts on wedding plans and yoga routines.
Columnist Charles Krauthammer praised Trump's comment as "extremely clever," adding:
"These are the [emails] that were supposedly not work-related. . . So, if that's what really is in the 30,000 deleted emails, then there's no national security to be involved at all. So, the Clinton campaign ends up admitting that perhaps there really is work-related, if not classified stuff, on the emails which she deleted."
Some Democrats actually accused Donald Trump of. . . treason! Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) told MSNBC, "He is inviting an aggressive country that we are really worried about to invade us. This is ridiculous, and, frankly, it borders on treasonous."
Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) said, "Well, that borders on treason. . . It's one thing to be unfit for command, but today he's proved he's dangerously unfit for command."
Really? Whether it was her bungled reset with Russia, her lying about Benghazi or the "extremely careless" manner in which she handled national security secrets, Hillary Clinton has repeatedly demonstrated that she is unfit for command.
And for all the outrage about the Russians now, remember when Barack Obama was caught on an open mic whispering to a Putin confidant, "Tell Vladimir I'll have a lot more flexibility after the election."
Do Democrats really want to have a discussion about treason?
Perhaps Mr. Sullivan could fill us in on his secret talks with the Ayatollah about legitimizing the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
That terrible deal poses an existential threat to Israel, empowers the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and undermines America's national security. And Obama, Clinton, Kaine and the Democrats forced it through by circumventing the Constitution's treaty provisions!
San Francisco Values - Every once in a while, in unguarded moments, a left-wing politician accidentally speaks the truth. Yesterday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) dropped her mask when she was asked why Hillary was struggling with working class voters, and white men in particular.
Trying to explain Hillary's gender gap, Pelosi blamed it on the "three G's," saying they voted Republican "because of guns, because of gays, and because of God. . . God being the woman's right to choose."
Perhaps that sounds familiar. During a 2008 fundraiser in San Francisco, Barack Obama was asked why he was struggling with voters in rural Pennsylvania. He said these voters were "bitter" and they "cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment."
In other words, he dismissed them as a bunch of intolerant bigots.
These remarks by Pelosi and Obama prove the exact opposite -- it's left-wing elites who are intolerant bigots. They just can't comprehend why any American would think it is wrong to destroy unborn children or think marriage should be between a man and a woman. They just can't understand why anyone would believe the Second Amendment is an important right worth protecting.
It is incomprehensible to them that blue-collar workers would be upset that Obama and Hillary keep allowing millions of illegal immigrants into the country to compete for their jobs or force them to compete against the low wages of foreign workers.
The left claims to be for the little guy, but it must be talking about short professors or journalists because it is ignoring large numbers of Middle Americans.
But if Pelosi is admitting that most working class people believe in God, is she also admitting that the left is against God? Some of the delegates at the 2012 convention certainly seemed to be when they booed the inclusion of God in the party's platform. The Obama Administration has demonstrated its hostility to Christianity on multiple occasions.
Obama's Anger - Barack Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention last night. It was vintage Obama.
Once again, the man who talks so much about hope could not stop himself from demeaning his opponents and dividing the American people. Obama alternated his remarks from praising Hillary Clinton to ripping into Donald Trump.
At one point, he said this: " That's why anyone who threatens our values, whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end."
The reference to "homegrown demagogues" was a clear jab at Trump. But, as he has donetime and time again, Obama lumped his political opponents in with our enemies -- fascists, communists and jihadists.
I suppose I should be glad he actually uttered the word "jihadists," but he almost never displayed this kind of passion after jihadists killed Americans at Fort Hood, in San Bernardino or Orlando. Obama seems to reserve his vitriol not for ISIS, but for conservatives.
While mocking Trump, Obama also said: "Our power doesn't come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order. We don't look to be ruled." For a moment I thought he was talking about himself! It certainly is a perfect description of the man who promised to slow the rising seas and who resorted to extra-constitutional actions whenever he wanted to bypass Congress to get his way.
Obama and left-wing elites seemingly get up in the morning not thinking about how they can make America safe from radical Islam, but how they can make America safe from conservatives. I suspect blue-collar workers are finally beginning to get that.
------------- Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families Tags:Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, Trumps The DNC, San Francisco Values, Obama's AngerTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
. . . Hillary Clinton is very thankful for conservatives who stay home because of Trump or who vote a 3rd Party. Their actions could enable her being elected and to her shredding the U.S. Constitution!
Tags:Editorial Cartoon, AF Branco, useful non-voters, conservative voters, stay home, vote third party, enable, Hillary Clinton, to shred, U.S. ConstitutionTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
. . . & Why Does Hillary Clinton Think She’s Important Enough To Be Protected With Guns, But Your Life Isn’t?
by Bob Owens: The National Rifle Association is pulling no punches in a new video hammering Hillary Clinton’s hypocritical views on armed defense.
Mrs. Clinton will have Secret Service protection for the rest of her life (a “punishment detail” according to those law enforcement officers who had had to deal with Hillary’s cop hating attitude).
NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris Cox hammered that point home at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum sponsored by Townhall Media/Bearing Arms at the NRA Annual meeting in a clip that forms the core of “The Hillary Standard.”
Make no mistake: this election isn’t about the next four years. It’s about the next forty years, so voting for Hillary Clinton, or not voting, is simply not an option.
What’s so outrageous is that for the rest of her life, Hillary Clinton will never even think about dialing 9-1-1.
For thirty years, she hasn’t taken a walk, a nap or a bathroom break without a good guy with a gun there to protect her.
So it’s easy for her to dismiss a right she will never have to use. But for the rest of us, the choice to own a firearm is ours to make.
And in America, there cannot be one set of rules for the Clintons, and another set for us.Hillary Clinton is the first candidate in any major party to even run on a platform to explicitly gut the Constitution of the United States. She believes that she’s important enough to defend with armed guards of the rest of her life, but that you’re simply not as “worthy” of armed self-defense.
----------------- Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com. A long-time shooting enthusiast, he began blogging as a North Carolina native in New York. His personal blog i bob-owens.com, and he can be found on Twitter at @bob_owens. Tags:Bob Owens, The Hillary Standard, NRA, NRA-ILA, video, Hillary Clinton, The Hillary STo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Trump's Support Caps 25 Years Of TVC's Religious Freedom Agenda
Rev. Louis Sheldon
by Louis Sheldon: For over 25 years, I have been championing the Brightline Bill -- legislation that would repeal the unconstitutional and speech-muzzling Johnson Amendment.
So the big news that the Republican nominee for president Donald J. Trump not only announced support the Brightline Bill, but did so during his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination? That's huge news for Christians around the country!
The Johnson Amendment, for those who may not recall, is an amendment tucked in to the U.S. Tax Code that specifically prohibits churches and other tax exempt organizations from calling for the election or defeat of a political candidate.
The problem, of course, is that there is NOTHING in the U.S. Constitution that allows the state to regulate the church. The First Amendment is clear: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...
The Johnson Amendment is unconstitutional on its face. We have talked to leadership, and there is serious movement to get the Brightline Bill passed and repeal the Johnson Amendment for good. Churches have the freedom of religion and the freedom of speech; they simply cannot involve themselves in political activity with tax-deductible dollars (and we're fine with that).
But here is a list of things churches. church members can do -- right now!!
Preach from the pulpit.
Discuss doctrine as it applies to politics, legislative matters or candidate positions.
Conduct non-partisan voter registration drives.
Conduct non-partisan voter identification drives.
Conduct “get-out-the-vote” drives, encouraging members to vote.
Conduct petition drives regarding legislation or other issues.
Distribute non-partisan voter education materials, such as TVC Voter Guides and scorecards, Right to Life and Family Council Voter Guides.
Host candidate or issue forums where all viable candidates are invited and allowed to speak.
Allow candidates and elected officials to speak at church services.
Educate members about pending legislation.
Support or oppose political appointments (such as judges or cabinet officials).
Lobby for legislation and spend no more than an insubstantial amount of their budget (five percent is safe) on direct lobbying activities.
Participate fully in political committees that are independent of the church.
Lobby for legislation in their private capacity.
Make expenditures on behalf of referendums
Rent church member contact lists to favored lobbying groups.
Pastors may endorse candidates in their capacity as private citizens -- no pastor loses his right to free speech because he is an employee of a church (if title and church name are used, include a “title and affiliation for identification purposes only” disclaimer).
It was John Adams who reminds us: "[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
Restoring the voice of our churches, our ministries, our pastors, our priests, our religious, and the holy men and women of God is a moral imperative in times such as these!
Traditional Values Coalition has been a 25 year champion of the Brightline Bill and a total repeal of the unconstitutional Johnson Amendment, not just because it muzzles our pastors and churches, but because it is the right thing to do.
TVC may not always take the credit for that hard work... but as Ronald Reagan used to remind us, it's amazing what can get done when no one takes the credit -- right?
We will need your help to see it through. Members of Congress need to be reminded that regardless as to how the presidential elections go, we will restore our rights of religious liberty -- if not through the legislature, then certainly through the courts.
This won't be a short fight. It could be a multi-month fight with many steps along the way. That's why I wanted to make sure you were willing to put your name behind the Brightline Bill and a total repeal of the Johnson Amendment.
I hope this is helpful to you, because I wanted to make sure you knew two things: (1) that TVC is fighting for you -- always; and (2) that the fight to reclaim our religious freedom and restore America as a moral and religious people is on in a big way, which is why I need your support.
Trump's support for our 25 year fight to repeal the Johnson Amendment is one word -- YUGE.
----------------- Rev. Louis P. Sheldon is Chairman and Founder of the Traditional Values Coalition. Tags:Louis P. Sheldon, Traditional Values Coalition, Churches, pastors, church members, Brightline Bill, legislation, repeal, unconstitutional, speech-muzzling, Johnson AmendmentTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
"Where's the beef?" was a very popular and memorable advertising theme for Wendy's three decades ago. It highlighted the amount of beef in its burgers versus the competition.
As I struggled to listen to some of the speeches last night at the Democrat National Convention, I asked a similar question: Where's the substance?
There was none.
It was a night of aspirational and inspirational stories, peppered with a good dose of platitudes of how the nation and the world should be, rather than how it is.
The liberal media called the Republican National Convention "dark", because it talked about the nation and the world as it is, and what we need to do to begin the long journey of fixing stuff. The Democrats are still in La La Land.
The audience at the DNC was also looking for red meat inspiration, and they got it. They couldn’t care less about actual problems, solutions, deceptions, distractions and lies.
Yes, a convention is supposed to be inspirational, but the Republicans added a healthy dose of reality. The Democrats don't want reality to disrupt their inspirational narrative.
Hillary Clinton will be their highlight speaker Thursday night. We can expect more platitudes, and her attempt to be inspirational.
It will be another struggle to listen.
----------------- Herman Cain is a conservative radio host of CainTV, a 2012 GOP presidential primary candidate with over 40 years of experience in the private sector as an analyst for Coca-Cola, an executive at Pillsbury, a regional Vice President for Burger King, and CEO of Godfather's Pizza. Cain served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and a supervisory mathematician for the Dept. of the Navy. Tags:Herman Cain, conservative, radio host, CainTV, Where's The BeefTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: Now that the two political conventions are coming to an end, it is obvious that both major parties and both major candidates want to ignore the looming problem: the national debt. Four years ago, it looked like the Republican Party might get serious about dealing with our indebtedness. Representative Paul Ryan was the vice-presidential nominee who had been promoting a plan to overhaul the nation’s entitlements.
This year, House Speaker Paul Ryan was also the chair of the convention, and we heard almost nothing about a $20 trillion debt. Donald Trump occasionally mentions the national debt. Apparently his only solution for entitlement reform is to cut back on waste, fraud, and abuse. This is the typical line you get from politicians who aren’t very serious about entitlement reform.
You heard even less about the national debt and entitlement reform from the Democrat Party. The constant drumbeat for more government spending and expanding entitlement benefits crowds out any serious discussion about the debt we are putting on the backs of our children and grandchildren.
Let’s be honest. The voters of America allow this to happen. We know that each year we pile more debt upon the already huge debt obligations. The federal deficit each year adds to the growing national debt, and very few voters even try to hold their members of Congress accountable. To see the full extent of our debt click here.
In fact, it has been getting harder to make the case because record revenues make the federal deficits lower than in previous years. Nevertheless, even small annual deficits still grow the national debt. In less than two decades, the nation’s national debt will exceed the GDP of our country. Each year we become more like Greece, but you wouldn’t know that by listening to the political candidates of the major two parties.
Sadly our children and grandchildren face a difficult financial future because the candidates and the voters aren’t addressing a looming financial challenge.
----------- Kerby Anderson is a radio talk show host heard on numerous stations via the Point of View Network endorsed by Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service Tags:Ignoring the Deby, Kerby Anderson, Viewpoints, Point of View, editorial cartoon, Gary VarvelTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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