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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, April 28, 2017
Trump Administration Steps Up to the Plate with Tax Reform Plan
The U.S. Chamber’s tax expert welcomed it, calling it, “the start of the conversation.”
Releasing the plan shows the administration is “stepping up to the plate and engaging and working towards pro-growth tax reform,” Caroline Harris, chief tax council and vice president for tax policy, told Bloomberg.
Harris brought up three principles of tax reform: Permanence; moving to a territorial system; and appropriate transition rules.
“Businesses want certainty; they want permanence,” Harris said. Knowing what to expect will help companies determine how to best deploy investments and hire workers.
“We need to shift to a territorial system, which is something we heard from the Trump White House talk about,” Harris explained. “If you have a territorial system you’re not subjecting cash to that extra layer of tax when you bring it back to the United States, and it frees that capital up going forward.”
“Businesses also need time to change how they operate to respond to changes in the tax code,” said Harris. Reform should avoid causing unnecessary business disruptions.
[Here is the U.S. Chamber’s list of principles for pro-growth tax reform.]
To keep the momentum going, Harris said President Trump is “going to have to start having conversations with Chairman Brady in the House, Hatch in the Senate, with leadership—with Speaker Ryan—with Leader McConnell and parse out what they want to do and how we can have the most pro-growth tax code.”
Also, all sides need to be involved in the conversation. Republicans, Democrats, the White House, Congress, and the business community have to work together. “Everyone has to come to the table. This has to be a group effort,” she emphasized.
--------------- Sean Hackbarth is a policy advocate and Senior Editor, Digital Content, at U.S Chamber of Commerce. He twitters at @seanhackbarth and is a contributing author at the ARRA News Service. Tags:President Trump Administration, Tax Reform Plan, taxes, Sean Hackbarth, Chamber of CommerceTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
FBI Court Filing Reveals Grand Jury Targeted Hillary Clinton
Judicial Watch: Just when you think we’ve learned most of what there is to learn about Hillary Clinton’s emails a new mole pops up out of the hole.
This week Judicial Watch released State Department documents including a declaration from FBI Special Agent E.W. Priestap, the supervisor of the agency’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email activities, stating that the former secretary of state was the subject of a grand jury investigation related to her BlackBerry email accounts.
The declaration was produced in response to Judicial Watch’s lawsuit seeking to force Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to take steps to “recover emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton” and other U.S. Department of State employees (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Rex Tillerson (No. 1:15-cv-00785)). We originally filed the lawsuit against then-Secretary of State John Kerry. The Trump State Department filing includes details of the agency’s continuing and shameful refusal to refer the Clinton email issue to the Justice Department, as the law requires.
In the filing, Priestap declares under penalty of perjury that the FBI “obtained Grand Jury subpoenas related to the Blackberry e-mail accounts, which produced no responsive materials, as the requested data was outside the retention time utilized by those providers.”
On April 30, 2015, Judicial Watch sued Kerry after the State Department failed to take action on a letter sent to Kerry “notifying him of the unlawful removal of the Clinton emails and requesting that he initiate enforcement action pursuant to the [Federal Records Act],” including working through the Attorney General to recover the emails.
After initially being dismissed by the district court, Judicial Watch’s lawsuit was revived on appeal by a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on December 27, 2016.
While at the State Department, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conducted official government business using an unsecured email server and email accounts. Her top aides and advisors also used non-“state.gov” email accounts to conduct official business. Clinton left office February 1, 2013.
The FBI convened a grand jury to investigate Hillary Clinton in 2016. Why is this information being released only now?
It is disturbing that the State Department, Justice Department, and FBI are still trying to protect Hillary Clinton. President Trump needs to clean house at all these agencies.
--------------------- Judicial Watch, Inc., a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law. Tags:Judicial Watch, FBI, court files, grand Jury, targeted, 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!
Pass Tax Reform Now, Obama Loves Washington, Clinton In Trouble, Standing For Life
by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Pass Tax Reform Now - The economy is stalling. According to the Commerce Department's report, first quarter economic growth fell to just 0.7%. It should be noted that economic growth has been slowing since the 3rd quarter of 2016. These numbers make one thing very clear: We need tax reform now!
We've had seven years of sluggish economic activity. As I noted yesterday, Obama never had 3% economic growth in any year during his two terms in office. The economy struggled for the past eight years, so it's not surprising that it continues to struggle now. We need to stimulate the economy and President Trump's Kennedy/Reagan-style tax reform will jumpstart the economy.
More money in the hands of consumers will boost spending. More money in the hands of job creators will boost hiring.
If the left doesn't like President Trump's plan, what is their plan? What is it that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are suggesting we do to grow the economy? They flooded the markets with cheap money for the past eight years. That hasn't worked. Meanwhile, seniors are getting slammed because they are getting next to nothing on their savings.
Republicans in Congress, who appear to be getting weak knees, need to understand that President Trump's policies are much better than what we had for the past eight years and would have had under President Hillary Clinton. They need to step up and prove to small business owners and struggling families that they can deliver.
Obama Loves George Washington - Barack Obama didn't say much about the Founding Fathers when he was president. He did little to ensure that our children learned what incredible leaders they were, how much they risked and sacrificed to create a nation dedicated to freedom and liberty -- something unique in human history.
But he does seem to have a new-found appreciation for George Washington. In fact, Obama requested 400,000 portraits of our first president in the form of $400,000 for a speech to a Wall Street investment firm. I'm kidding, of course. I'm sure the former president took his fee in the form of a check or wire transfer. But you get the point.
As a reminder, this is the same guy who told CBS News in 2009, "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street." This is the same guy who embraced the radicals of Occupy Wall Street.
Elizabeth Warren says she is troubled by Obama's cashing in. This is the same woman who railed against the real estate and banking industries after making big bucks herself flipping houses. Maybe she should scold Bernie Sanders for his three houses.
Speaking of Bernie, he's troubled by Obama's coziness with Wall Street too.
It's amazing how Obama, Warren and Sanders believe in socialism for you, but they love capitalism for themselves!
Speaking Of Troubled. . . The former president is really having a rough time right now. He seems to be upsetting one left-wing special interest group after another.
According to a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Garrow, Barack Obama allegedly "considered gayness" in his early adult years. But in a letter to his "first intimate girlfriend," Obama eventually decided "that a same-sex relationship would be less challenging and demanding than developing one with the opposite sex."
After being told over and over again that people are "born that way," I suspect some on the left will be offended by Obama's "choice."
Clinton In Trouble Too?The Daily Caller reports that Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, has referred Treve Suazo, CEO of Platte River Networks, to the Justice Department for prosecution. You may recall that Platte River Networks is the company that managed Hillary Clinton's private email server.
According to Rep. Smith, Suazo has refused to comply with two subpoenas from the committee and should be charged with obstruction of justice and making false statements. What exactly is Mr. Suazo trying to hide at this point?
"With a new administration in place, I am hopeful that the Department of Justice will appropriately respond to the referral. We cannot allow companies with valuable information to stonewall us in our oversight efforts," Chairman Smith said.
Standing For Life - Tonight I have the honor of speaking at the 44th annual Celebration of Life Banquet, hosted by my friends at Right to Life of Louisville in my home state of Kentucky.
Restoring the right to life continues to be the premier moral issue confronting the country. It will be hard to make America great again as long as we are destroying nearly one million innocent babies a year. To end abortion on demand, we need a few more Supreme Court appointments, and President Trump may well get that chance!
We also need to make firm decisions regarding taxpayer funding of abortion. This Congress and this president have taken some good first steps, beginning with reinstating Ronald Reagan's policy against funding abortions overseas and overturning Barack Obama's order mandating state funding of Planned Parenthood.
So long as God gives me breath, I will continue speaking out in defense of the most innocent and voiceless victims in our society today -- our unborn children.
------------------- 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, Pass Tax Reform Now, Obama Loves Washington, Clinton In Trouble, Standing For LifeTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Newt Gingrich: When Neil Gorsuch won long-overdue confirmation this month to serve on the United States Supreme Court, Republicans in turn won control of all three branches of the federal government – at least the three envisioned by our Founding Fathers – for the first time in a decade.
As a consequence, Democrats have pinned their hopes to stifle President Donald Trump’s pro-growth agenda on the unprecedented insurrection of an unchecked, de facto branch of government: the bureaucratic state.
Now that Alexander Acosta is confirmed as secretary of labor, President Trump has a better ability to reign in the bureaucracy.
Through executive orders, President Trump immediately began cutting needless red tape draped across the federal government by his predecessor. This led deliberately resistant entrenched civil servants to wage a campaign to subvert the administration’s clear intention of deregulation.
Consider this: In February, the president ordered the Department of Labor – previously run by Tom Perez, who is now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee – to review and re-evaluate the implementation of the so-called fiduciary rule, a controversial Obama-era rule that would deny middle-class Americans access to sound investment advice.
The order’s intention was clear-as-day. It aimed to indefinitely delay or outright kill this bad rule before it could hurt middle class American investors. Instead, Perez’s faithful holdovers at the Department of Labor effectively expedited the rule with minimal changes. This was exactly the opposite of President Trump’s instructions.
Now, the department will make the rule effective on June 9, before completing the president’s review, and argued that “the Fiduciary rule and Impartial Conduct Standards … are among the least controversial aspects of the rulemaking process.”
Nothing about this rule is uncontroversial. It would be the single largest government expansion over individual savings in four decades and the second-most expensive regulatory regime crafted in the last 12 years that doesn’t deal with environmental issues.
The rule changes the law to give the Department of Labor direct authority over individual retirement accounts, which are already regulated by the Securities and Exchange Committee, the federal agency responsible for protecting investors. For the first time, IRAs would be pulled into a complex Labor Department system created 43 years ago to regulate employee pension and health plans. Seizing control over IRAs by the Labor Department leads to bigger government, less competition, fewer jobs, and diminished savings for the American worker.
Disingenuously marketed as a way to raise the standards of advice provided to retirement investors, the rule would result in the “orphaning” of most ordinary American savers, left to seek advice on saving for their golden years from an online computer program using algorithms no investor would know about or understand.
The rule has received extensive criticism from those who’ve historically regulated the securities market. Acting SEC Chair Michal Piwowar called the rule a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad rule,” adding that it was a “highly political” move that was “never about investor protection.” President Trump and the Congress want the rule gone. Business wants the rule gone. Ordinary Americans want the rule gone.
But none of that matters to the bureaucratic state. They’ve lost the battle over the Supreme Court and the president’s cabinet. More than anything, the swamp wants to win this battle. That’s why it’s so important that President Trump and Secretary Acosta implement the president’s instructions in a timely way.
President Trump’s first order wasn’t enough to reign in Tom Perez’s faithful deputies, and only now did Senate Democrats stop obstructing Acosta’s confirmation. So, the president and the secretary must work quickly to delay indefinitely or completely rescind the fiduciary rule under the secretary’s statutory authority. More than that, the president needs to fully drain the swamp – especially by getting rid of the mutineers at the Department of Labor.
---------------------- 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, Democrats, Turn to Bureaucrats, to Stop TrumpTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
U.S. Oil Rig Count Increases For 15th Straight Week
by Julianne Geiger: The number of active oil and gas rigs in the United States rose by 13 on Friday, according to oilfield services provider Baker Hughes. The total oil and gas rig count in the US now stands at 870 rigs, or 450 above the count a year ago.
Oil rigs increased by 9, while gas rigs bumped up 4.
This week marks the fifteenth straight build for oil rigs (+175 or +33.5% since January 13). While gas rigs haven’t enjoyed the same persistently ascending trajectory week to week, they have climbed 10 of the last fifteen weeks, for a total gain of 35 (+25.7%).
Rig Factoid: The largest three-week gain in the number of active oil rigs in the US over the last decade was April 1, 2011. The rig count spiked 26 that week, for a total of 76 rigs gained over a three consecutive-week period. WTI spot price that day was $107.55. Total number of active oil rigs that week: 877.
So far this year, traders have watched, mostly likely in horror, at the tug of war between OPEC’s efforts to “rebalance” the market, and U.S. shale’s efforts to take full advantage of that rebalancing effort. For every depressing API or EIA report about the lackluster results of the global inventory drawdown efforts, and for every rig count report that shows U.S. Shale keeps picking up steam, OPEC’s obedient compliance to the cuts and talks of an extension appeases at least enough of the masses to generally keep oil above $50.
Rig Factoid: The largest three-week loss to the number of active oil rigs in the US over the last decade was for the three-week period ending February 13, 2015. The rig count dipped 84 that week alone, bringing the total three-week loss to 310. WTI spot price that day was $52.66. Total number of active oil rigs that week: 1,056.
Many have cautioned U.S. Shale drillers that bringing too much on too quickly could keep prices depressed, or depress them to a greater degree. The chart below, looking at the weekly price (Fridays) of WTI and the rig count over the last decade does show a pretty tight correlation to price (lower correlation is seen when price swings are sharp and dramatic), but also shows that the price of WTI pulls along the rig count, and not the other way around—at least not long term.
What’s more, the response time for rigs in reaction to WTI appears to be about six months (some would suggest a lag of a quarter), which is shown here, when we kick out the price of WTI six months.
And for whatever forecasting is worth, carrying out the line for the last six months of price data, for which it is logical to assume that on a broad scale rigs will follow, the number of rigs are likely to hold fairly steady over the next six months. While OPEC’s efforts to undertake an extension is sure to have an effect, it may be on a significantly delayed time table.
As for individual basin activity, the Permian added two rigs this week, and has enjoyed gains every week in 2017 save a single week where it lost one in mid-March. In 2017 alone, the Permian has put into play 75 additional rigs, for a gain of 28%. This trend is largely expected to hold, the Texas Railroad Commission issuing 1,310 new oil and gas drilling permits to shale producers in the month of March—up from 511 in March 2016. This is in contrast to well completions, which declined 60% in March over the year. The data suggests that while March completed fewer wells, a staggering number of permits have been issued, signaling an increase in drilling activity is on the horizon.
The next largest play in the U.S., Eagle Ford, has 36 more active oil rigs since the beginning of the year. While the actual number of rigs is fewer, the percentage-wise increase of 90% this year is more significant than the beloved Permian.
At 1:00pm before data release, WTI was trading at $49.19 +.45% with Brent trading at $52.03, up .41%. Both benchmarks started to dip within 15 minutes of the data release.
----------------- Julianne Geiger authored this article contributed by James Stafford the editor of OilPrice.com, the leading online energy news site, to the ARRA News Service. Tags:Julianne Geiger, James Stafford, Oilprice.com, U.S. Oil, Rig Count Increases, 15th Straight WeekTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Protecting Miners & Their Families … A Top Priority
Funding Bill Will ‘Ensure That Thousands Of Retired Coal Miners And Their Families … Will Not Lose Their Health Care Benefits’
SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “…this one-week extension will also ensure that thousands of retired coal miners and their families — including many in my home state of Kentucky — will not lose their health care benefits. Protecting these miners and their families from losing their health care has been a top priority of mine. Last year, I fought for a long-term extension of health benefits, and earlier this year, I introduced my own bill to provide a permanent fix for miner’s health care. I will continue to fight on their behalf to secure a permanent solution on this issue in the larger funding bill.” (Sen. McConnell, Floor Remarks, 4/28/17)
‘Sen. Mitch McConnell… Backs A Permanent Health Care Fix For Miners’
“Lawmakers are working on an agreement to extend the [health] benefits [for retired coal miners] in the spending bill that's currently being debated in Congress …Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is one of them. ‘It's my hope that that will be included in the final package,’ McConnell told reporters Tuesday.”(CNN, 4/27/2017)
“Coal miners and supporters in Congress rallied in front of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday morning to help nudge legislation to save retired miners' health care over the finish line. Rep. David McKinley, who arranged the press conference sponsored by the United Mine Workers of America…. McKinley said he spoke with President Trump on Tuesday, and Trump is on board, as is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who sponsored a bill paralleling McKinley's to save the healthcare benefits.”(“Miners Rally For Benefits Breakthrough,” The [Morgantown, WV] Dominion Post, 4/27/2017)
FLASHBACK In January, Sen. McConnell Introduced A ‘Long-Term Health Care Solution For These Retired Miners,’ Asked President Trump To Work With Lawmakers
SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “Last year, I was proud to be able to secure an extension of these benefits past their year-end expiration date. ... I made a commitment at that time to work with my colleagues on a long-term health care solution for these retired miners. Today, I plan to introduce legislation to protect and permanently extend those benefits for thousands of coal miner retirees and dependents.”Sen. McConnell, Press Release, 1/17/2017)
S.176 – HELP for Coal Miners Health Care Act of 2017 to provide a permanent fix for miners’ health benefits was introduced in January.
Last December, Sen. McConnell Insisted On Extending Coal Miners’ Health Benefits
SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY):“I’ve spoken with the Speaker [of the House] on a number of occasions about an issue facing coal miner retirees like those I represent in Kentucky, and have insisted that the CR include a provision to address that issue so these retirees don’t lose their health benefits at the end of the year.” (Sen. McConnell, Floor Remarks, 12/6/16)
CECIL ROBERTS, International President Of The United Mine Workers Of America: “In December, Congress voted to extend life-saving health-care benefits for some 16,300 retired coal miners, their dependents and widows until the end of April. That includes some 3,000 in Kentucky. These senior citizens were facing a Dec. 31 cutoff of the benefits they had been promised and have earned. The four-month reprieve they received was welcome news to them and their families. I want to thank those who were responsible for this, including Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader. I noted his comments at the time in support of these retirees and I commend him for wanting to do more than just this four-month extension.” (Cecil Roberts, Op-Ed, “Keep The Promise To Retired Miners, Widows,” Herald Leader, 12/20/2016) Tags:Obama's War on Coal. Over, Protecting Miners & Families, top priority, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
UN Interference With Efforts To Repeal & Replace Obamacare
. . . UN Special Rapporteur outrageously cites possible violation of international law if Obamacare is changed.
by Joseph Klein: The United Nations is once again sticking its nose into the domestic affairs of the United States in violation of its own charter (Article 2, para. 7). The Washington Post has uncovered a transmittal letter dated February 2, 2017 from the UN Office of High Commissioner of Human Rights, forwarding to the then acting U.S. Secretary of State, Thomas Shannon, Jr., a complaint from one of the UN’s Special Rapporteurs about plans to repeal and replace Obamacare. This Special Rapporteur “on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,” Dainius Puras, believes it is within his mandate to intervene in the internal debate going on within the U.S. Congress and the executive branch as to what to do about Obamacare.
In his letter, Puras expressed his “serious concern” over how proposed legislative changes to Medicaid, tax subsidies, and the Obamacare individual and employer mandates could deprive the American people of the rights contained in his long title. And then he waved the banner of international law. He cited broad clauses on health care in a number of treaties to which the U.S. is a party and the opinions of unaccountable members of the "UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights" interpreting the treaty clauses. The Committee noted, he said, that “there is a strong presumption that retrogressive measures taken in relation to the right to health are not permissible and if any deliberately retrogressive measures are taken, the State party has the burden of providing that they have been introduced after the most care consideration of all alternatives…”
Finally, as some sort of grand inquisitor, Puras set forth a number of requests for information, including “details on the health policy, programmatic and financial measures that will be put in place to substitute the Affordable Care Act” if repealed, and steps "to ensure the realization of everyone’s right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health in a non-discriminatory, accessible and affordable manner.”
If investigations prove that revisions to Obamacare violate international law, as he and the UN Committee define it, Puras said there needs to be measures in place “to guarantee the accountability of any person responsible of (sic) the alleged violations.”
How about asking first for accountability of the persons in UN Peacekeeping responsible for the spread of cholera in Haiti, resulting in thousands of deaths, before lecturing the United States about what to do with its health care system?
The U.S. Constitution vests no authority whatsoever in a UN Special Rapporteur with a mouthful of a title. Nor does it vest any legitimacy on the pronouncements of unaccountable UN committee members putting their own gloss on vaguely worded treaty language that they say the member states must follow in order to be in compliance with their notion of "international law." These dunderheads apparently think they can tell Congress what laws it should and should not pass in order to meet their progressive standard for defining "universal" human rights — completely interfering with the cardinal principle of national sovereignty and the United States’ constitutional processes of self-government.
Perhaps sensing the sensitivity of the UN being perceived as interfering with U.S. domestic matters, the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary General tried to distance the UN organization from the Special Rapporteur’s letter. He described the Special Rapporteur as an independent person expressing his own views, not necessarily those of the UN itself. The problem with this answer is two-fold. First, the Special Rapporteur receives his mandate from an official body of the UN, the Human Rights Council, and submits his report to that body, which he intends to do in this case. Second, the Special Rapporteur’s letter went out under a cover letter from the chief of the Special Procedures branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, with the subject line in all caps: “URGENT APPEAL FROM SPECIAL PROCEDURES.” The chief made a special point of asking the U.S. Deputy Permanent representative in the Geneva office to send the Special Rapporteur’s letter directly to the acting Secretary of State “at your earliest convenience.” Clearly, the UN was placing its institutional imprimatur on the letter.
by Printus LeBlanc: The biggest problems facing American families is the omnipotent presence of government in every facet of life. Federal, state, and local governments are ruling citizens and not governing. In modern life, it is impossible for a family to live without interacting with a level of government.
The average American commits three felonies a day per the 2009 book by Harvey Silverglate. That doesn’t include the state and local laws being broken. Recently a woman freed a bald eagle from a trap while on a nature hike in Juneau, Alaska. The woman was proud of what she did, and she had every right to be. It is illegal to harm bald eagles. Upon learning about what the woman did, Alaska Wildlife Troopers arrested her in 2014. Law enforcement, said the woman tampered with someone else’s traps, despite the fact the trap illegally trapped a bald eagle. The case was eventually dismissed, but the woman had to go through an ordeal to get it dismissed. If the government cannot even tell the American people how many laws are on the books, there are too many laws.
American families see the government getting away with crimes against citizens while the families are penalized and harassed for too many leaves in the yard. The Department of Veterans Affairs is a perfect example of double standards in government. Veterans were put on secret waiting list for care for VA employees collecting bonuses. VA employees lied on federal documents to collect bonus money. If you include the multiple people in a VA hospital that knew of the fraud, but became complicit for the purpose of collecting a bonus themselves, you now have a conspiracy to commit fraud. Yet, as of this writing, no charges have been filed against any VA employees. Perhaps it is because the DOJ and VA are both run by government unions.
Hypothetically, let’s say a young American family wishes to start a business. What the family did not realize, was the amount of paperwork, mandated training, fees, and government interference required to start a business. The first idea was to start a gun shop with a range. They quickly find out banks do not want to do business with them. The government threatens banks that do business with businesses it disagrees with. The business is doing nothing illegal, the government just doesn’t like it. The family then tries to start a barbershop and salon. Once again, more regulations, fees, and training. Some state governments, even require up to 300 hours of training on hair washing. By that standard the hundreds of millions of Americans that wash their hair everyday are not doing it correctly.
When members of a family have a job, they must hope the government doesn’t shut them down. This was the sad reality facing thousands of workers in the energy industry. No administration was as anti-energy as the Obama administration. Coal miners were having their livelihood ripped away from them. Government officials harassed oil field workers daily. The government forced these families out of work, then forced them to take government assistance to live. They want nothing from the government, but to be left alone.
These are but a few examples of government interfering with American family lives, and getting away with crimes the public would never get away with. The greatest impediment facing the American family is government. Congress has an opportunity to relieve pressure the federal government is applying to American families. Congress must roll back regulations and laws that interfere with American families.
---------------- Printus LeBlanc is a contributing reporter at Americans for Limited Government. Tags:Biggest Threat, To American Families, Is Government, regulations, politics, Americans for Limited Government, Printus LeBlancTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Michael Barone: Capital vs. countryside -- that's the new political divide, visible in multiple surprise election results over the past 11 months. It cuts across old partisan lines and replaces traditional divisions -- labor vs. management, north vs. south, Catholic vs. Protestant -- among voters.
This was apparent last June in Britain's referendum on whether to leave the European Union. London voted 60 percent to remain, while the rest of England, whether Labour or Conservative, voted 57 percent to leave. It was plain in Colombia's October referendum on a peace settlement with the FARC guerrillas. Bogota voted 56 percent "si," the heartland cordillera provinces 58 percent "no."
In both countries, the ethnic and geographic fringe -- Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Caribbean provinces -- voted with the capital. But in each case, the historic heartland, with the majority of voters, produced a surprise defeat for the capital establishment.
It was a similar story here in November. Coastal America -- the Northeast minus Pennsylvania, the Pacific states minus Alaska -- favored Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by a 58-35 percent margin. But the geographic heartland, casting 69 percent of the nation's votes, favored Trump by a 51-43 percent margin.
The contrast is even starker if you separate out the establishment metro areas -- New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco -- that produce most Democratic big-dollar funding. They voted 65-29 percent for Clinton; the rest of the country they feel entitled to rule voted 49-45 percent for Trump.
And on April 23, France voted in a presidential race that scrambled the usual party divisions. Marine Le Pen, shunned by the Paris establishment as a neofascist, finished fourth, with 11 percent of the vote, in metro Paris and third, with 15 percent, in 13 other prosperous cities. But she ran first in la France profonde, with 24 percent. She'll almost certainly lose the May 7 runoff, but she has already topped her National Front's previous high of 17 percent.
Is there any precedent for this? The Economist's Bagehot columnist, Adrian Wooldridge, spots one in the 17th century. He quotes historian Hugh Trevor-Roper's description of the "general crisis" of 1620-60 -- a "revolt of the provinces not only against the growing, parasitic Stuart Court, but also against the growing 'dropsical' City of London; against the centralised Church ... and against the expensive monopoly of higher education by the two great universities."
The capital vs. the countryside, in other words, much like today. The countryside party, Trevor-Roper writes, vied to "pare down the parasitic fringe" of central government and sought to "protect industry," "rationalize finance" and "reduce the hatcheries which turned out the superfluous bureaucrats."
Similar impulses are apparent in Britain, France and America today. In different ways, Brexit, Le Pen and Trump seek to counter the university-trained bureaucratic, financial and cultural elites in London, Paris and NY/DC/LA/SF. They resent overlarge and undercompetent bureaucracies and public employee unions, the paymasters of the Labour and Democratic parties. With blunt, often ill-advised rhetoric, they challenge the pieties of the universities as 17th-century countryside parliamentarians challenged the established church and universities.
Consider the debate over what has become, for many, the religion of global warming. Those with doubts that predicted harm will occur are labeled "deniers," heretics who must be punished. The science is settled, the elites insist. That's exactly what the church told Galileo.
Or consider the "speech codes" promulgated by most colleges and universities. We see violent disruption of speakers on campus go unpunished, excused and even praised. We see The New York Times publish an article by a New York University dean arguing for restricting free speech.
We see the deadweight cost of public employee union pensions and unpoliced murders destroying one of the great creations of civilization, Chicago. No wonder the countryside resists; this is how these arrogant bullies govern the precincts of society they control.
In this struggle, the capital has certain advantages -- huge supermajorities in its strongholds, inhabited largely by elites and ethnic, racial and religious minorities. It monopolizes most established media. Its claims that opponents are bigots are taken as gospel.
The countryside has serious grievances and majority numbers but doesn't always find steady leadership. Le Pen's insalubrious pedigree suggests she'll lose May 7, though Theresa May's icy steeliness has British Conservatives headed to a landslide win June 8. Donald Trump instinctively (calculatedly?) reckoned that the countryside was the key to victory; now he has to deliver. The battles of capital vs. countryside will go on.
-------------- Michael Barone is a Senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner and a Resident Fellow at theAmerican Enterprise Institute, a Fox News Channel andTownhall contributor and co-author of The Almanac of American Politics. Tags:Michael Barone, New/Old Politics, Capital vs. Countryside, capital, countrysideTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Patrick Buchanan: Has President Donald Trump outsourced foreign policy to the generals?
So it would seem. Candidate Trump held out his hand to Vladimir Putin. He rejected further U.S. intervention in Syria other than to smash ISIS.
He spoke of getting out and staying out of the misbegotten Middle East wars into which Presidents Bush II and Obama had plunged the country.
President Trump’s seeming renunciation of an anti-interventionist foreign policy is the great surprise of the first 100 days, and the most ominous. For any new war could vitiate the Trump mandate and consume his presidency.
Trump no longer calls NATO “obsolete,” but moves U.S. troops toward Russia in the Baltic and eastern Balkans. Rex Tillerson, holder of Russia’s Order of Friendship, now warns that the U.S. will not lift sanctions on Russia until she gets out of Ukraine.
If Tillerson is not bluffing, that would rule out any rapprochement in the Trump presidency. For neither Putin, nor any successor, could surrender Crimea and survive.
What happened to the Trump of 2016?
When did Kiev’s claim to Crimea become more crucial to us than a cooperative relationship with a nuclear-armed Russia? In 1991, Bush I and Secretary of State James Baker thought the very idea of Ukraine’s independence was the product of a “suicidal nationalism.”
Where do we think this demonization of Putin and ostracism of Russia is going to lead?
To get Xi Jinping to help with our Pyongyang problem, Trump has dropped all talk of befriending Taiwan, backed off Tillerson’s warning to Beijing to vacate its fortified reefs in the South China Sea, and held out promises of major concessions to Beijing in future trade deals.
“I like (Xi Jinping) and I believe he likes me a lot,” Trump said this week. One recalls FDR admonishing Churchill, “I think I can personally handle Stalin better than … your Foreign Office … Stalin hates the guts of all your people. He thinks he likes me better.”
FDR did not live to see what a fool Stalin had made of him.
Among the achievements celebrated in Trump’s first 100 days are the 59 cruise missiles launched at the Syrian airfield from which the gas attack on civilians allegedly came, and the dropping of the 22,000-pound MOAB bomb in Afghanistan.
But what did these bombings accomplish?
The War Party seems again ascendant. John McCain and Lindsey Graham are happy campers. In Afghanistan, the U.S. commander is calling for thousands more U.S. troops to assist the 8,500 still there, to stabilize an Afghan regime and army that is steadily losing ground to the Taliban.
Iran is back on the front burner. While Tillerson concedes that Tehran is in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, Trump says it is violating “the spirit of the agreement.”
How so? Says Tillerson, Iran is “destabilizing” the region, and threatening U.S. interests in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon.
But Iran is an ally of Syria and was invited in to help the U.N.-recognized government put down an insurrection that contains elements of al-Qaida and ISIS. It is we, the Turks, Saudis and Gulf Arabs who have been backing the rebels seeking to overthrow the regime.
In Yemen, Houthi rebels overthrew and expelled a Saudi satrap. The bombing, blockading and intervention with troops is being done by Saudi and Sunni Arabs, assisted by the U.S. Navy and Air Force.
It is we and the Saudis who are talking of closing the Yemeni port of Hodeida, which could bring on widespread starvation.
It was not Iran, but the U.S. that invaded Iraq, overthrew the Baghdad regime and occupied the country. It was not Iran that overthrew Col. Gadhafi and created the current disaster in Libya.
Monday, the USS Mahan fired a flare to warn off an Iranian patrol boat, 1,000 meters away. Supposedly, this was a provocation. But Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif had a point when he tweeted:
“Breaking: Our Navy operates in — yes, correct — the Persian Gulf, not the Gulf of Mexico. Question is what US Navy doing 7,500 miles from home.”
Who is behind the seeming conversion of Trump to hawk?
The generals, Bibi Netanyahu and the neocons, Congressional hawks with Cold War mindsets, the Saudi royal family and the Gulf Arabs — they are winning the battle for the president’s mind.
And their agenda for America?
We are to recognize that our true enemy in the Mideast is not al-Qaida or ISIS, but Shiite Iran and Hezbollah, Assad’s Syria and his patron, Putin. And until Hezbollah is eviscerated, Assad is gone, and Iran is smashed the way we did Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen, the flowering of Middle East democracy that we all seek cannot truly begin.
But before President Trump proceeds along the path laid out for him by his generals, brave and patriotic men that they are, he should discover if any of them opposed any of the idiotic wars of the last 15 years, beginning with that greatest of strategic blunders — George Bush’s invasion of Iraq.
-------------------- Patrick Buchanan is currently a conservative columnist, political analyst, chairman of The American Cause foundation and an editor of The American Conservative. He has been a senior advisor to three Presidents, a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and was the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000. He blogs at the Patrick J. Buchanan. Tags:Patrick Buchanan, conservative, commentary, Rise of the GeneralsTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Tags:Editorial Cartoon, AF Branco, Ameriphobia, Anti-Americans, Antifa leftist, hate the flag, don’t mind the benefits, EPT Card, Foos Stamps, etc.To 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: It’s a sure thing — that most folks will like President Trump’s tax cuts. Though we don’t yet know all the details.
When it comes to taxes, less is more.
That is, if you’re paying taxes. It is no great mystery that people like it when their own taxes are reduced.
But what about reducing other people’s taxes?
“The core economic case for tax cuts is that they reduce the obstacles to creative and productive activities,” economist Don Boudreaux explained yesterday at the Café Hayek blog.
Cutting the corporate tax rate — which even former President Bill Clinton supported during last year’s campaign — won’t immediately appear in people’s paychecks, but can stimulate economic growth helping everyone. Recent experiences in both Britain and Canada bear this out.
Cutting taxes, of which “the rich” pay more, can also spur growth.
Yet, these ideas do not dominate popular discussions of tax cuts. Boudreaux lamented media reporting that treats any tax reduction as simply a “‘gift’ to high-income earners,” dubbing the coverage: “Biased. Benighted. Blind.”
“Suppose that freedom of the press were reported in the same way as . . . a ‘giveaway to the press’?” he asked. “Most people, of course, do not own newspapers or other media outlets.”
Boudreaux concluded, “When the press is free, the chief beneficiaries are the general public.”
Freedom — of both the press and to keep more of the fruits of our labors — helps the common man. As well as the uncommon man. A tax cut for me helps me directly, and you indirectly. And vice versa. Just as a free press is great for those in journalism as well as those of us not in journalism.
That is not blind, but eyes open; not benighted, but enlightened; not biased, but . . .
. . . 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, death, yaxes To 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: The new book by David Green has the arresting title, Giving It All Away. He is the founder of Hobby Lobby and tells the story of his success and calls for Christians to give generously to churches and other ministries. He was on my radio program last week, and we talked about Hobby Lobby, the Museum of the Bible, and their court case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Green family has been at the center of all of this and much more.
Most people know that Hobby Lobby is closed on Sunday. They may not also realize that their stores close earlier (8 PM) than other stores. That means that they are only open 66 hours a week and compete with stores open many more hours. David Green did this so that his employees can spend more time with their families.
Hobby Lobby also pays its full-time employees well. Back in 2009, they raised the base pay to $10/hour. The next year they tacked on another dollar. They next year they did it again and then again. This is another way that the Green family values their employees.
I asked David Green if he ever imagined that he would have to sue the federal government. The thought never crossed his mind, but they did so when the HHS mandate would have required them to provide abortifacients for their employees. The fines alone would have cost him $1.3 million per day.
Much of his book focuses on giving and challenges Christians to engage in the adventure of tithing. He has three principles they use and encourages all of us to implement them as well. First, set your criteria. What are you going to fund? What are your priorities? Second, set your giving amount. Give the first fruits, not what is left over. And finally, set fire for the future. He also has written about how to make generosity generational.
His book is certain to spark your interest and encourage you in giving.
----------- 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:Giving It All Away, Kerby Anderson, Viewpoints, Point of View, David GreenTo 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 Tax Proposal is a Strong Starting Point for Reform
President Donald Trump's tax reform proposal, introduced by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, would dramatically cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent. (Photo: Shawn Thew/Epa/Newscom via The Daily Signal)
by Adam Michel: President Donald Trump’s tax plan announced on Wednesday shows that he is serious about his campaign promise to cut America’s taxes.
For too long, the American economy has been held back by an outdated tax system. Trump’s promise to lower tax rates and update the tax code will benefit all Americans.
Chief among the proposed reforms is lowering tax rates for businesses and individuals. Lowering the business income tax rate to 15 percent has rightly received the most attention.
Currently, Americans pay a federal corporate income tax rate of 35 percent—one of the highest in the world. Because businesses are made up of people, it is those Americans who work for and invest in American companies who actually pay the tax.
In fact, most of the recent economic research shows that workers actually bear a majority of the tax in the form of lower wages.
High business taxes make it harder for businesses to invest in new equipment, factories, and research and development. Slower investment caused by high and distortionary taxes has limited job creation and wage growth.
A 15 percent business tax rate would reverse some of these negative effects, helping to re-energize economic growth. The U.S. would be a more attractive place to do business. At 15 percent, the U.S. could have a tax rate well below the average of our major trading partners.
Lowering tax rates is necessary if America wants to compete for global business. Allowing for the immediate deduction of the full cost of capital purchases would make the United States one of the most attractive places in the world to do business.
Full expensing, currently not included in the president’s proposal as presented to the public, would simplify the currently complex and economically harmful system of depreciation and would encourage additional investment, job creation, and economic growth by treating all business costs equally.
The president has also proposed reducing tax rates and consolidating brackets for individual wage income. These reforms, along with repealing the death and the alternative minimum taxes, will rightly allow Americans to spend more of their own money and send less of it to Washington.
The lower rates for businesses and individuals should be applied consistently by eliminating targeted deductions, exclusions, and credits.
Tax reform should not expand or create new tax subsidies. While many special tax breaks are on the chopping block, the proposal adds a new tax subsidy for child and dependent care.
This addition should be reconsidered as it will provide benefits to some taxpayers at the expense of others, while introducing additional and unnecessary complexity.
Responsibly updating the tax code could, however, present a challenge for the federal government’s budget. Absent cuts to Washington’s profligate spending, large tax cuts could balloon the national debt.
But the impact on the deficit may not be as significant as some critics will likely assert.
Indeed, reforms to business taxes could over time make up for a large share of the lost revenue. That’s because tax reform will allow for economic growth, which will in turn generate additional tax revenue.
Further, a low rate and the proposed territorial system will reverse the tide of businesses leaving the U.S., which ensures a more stable tax base and translates into additional revenue.
If the plan includes full expensing, America could become a leader in global business tax environments—allowing businesses to shift income, production, and the resulting tax revenue back into the U.S. Eliminating targeted tax breaks will also help pay for lower rates.
Nonetheless, the changes proposed by the president will have significant negative effects on the U.S. deficit unless they are coupled with near-term spending reforms.
The fact is that budget deficits are the result of uncontrolled spending, not insufficient taxation. The IRS actually took in almost $3.3 trillion last year, more than the historical average, yet the government still ran a deficit well over $500 billion.
The largest drivers of the U.S. debt—health entitlements and Social Security—ultimately constrain long-term sustainable tax reform.
Holistic tax reform should be done by taking into account both revenue and spending.
Opponents of tax reform will criticize reform as not “revenue neutral.” This constructs a false choice between otherwise pro-growth tax reform tied to additional revenue raisers, and no reform at all.
Entitlement and discretionary spending reforms are the only way to make tax reform sustainable in the long run. Even absent tax reform, without spending-based reforms deficits will continue to grow, requiring still higher taxes in the future.
True reform should apply the most efficient and least economically destructive forms of taxation, have low rates on a broad base that eliminates the double taxation of investment, and be transparent, predictable, and simple.
If Congress and the president take hold of this significant opportunity, their efforts could result in one of the greatest tax reductions in American history—allowing American families to keep more of the money they earn, instead of sending it to Washington, and creating far-reaching benefits for all Americans by growing the economy.
------------------- Adam Michel (@adamnmichel) focuses on tax policy and the federal budget as a policy analyst in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Tags:President Trump, Tax Proposal, Strong Starting Point, Reform, Adam Michel, The Heritage Foundation, The Daily SignalTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
by Ann Coulter: Fake News' question of the week: Will Trump risk a government shutdown over the wall?
The media flip back and forth on who's to blame for a government shutdown depending on which branch is controlled by Republicans. But the "shutdown" hypothetical in this case is a trick question.
A failure to build the wall IS a government shutdown.
Of course it would be unfortunate if schoolchildren couldn't visit national parks and welfare checks didn't get mailed on time. But arranging White House tours isn't the primary function of the government.
The government's No. 1 job is to protect the nation.
This has always been true, but it's especially important at this moment in history, when we have drugs, gang members, diseases and terrorists pouring across our border. The failure of the government to close our border is the definition of a government shutdown.
This isn't like other shutdowns. Democrats can't wail about Republicans cutting Social Security or school lunches. They are willing to shut the government down because they don't want borders.
Take that to the country!
As commander in chief, Trump doesn't need Congress to build a wall. The Constitution charges him with defending the nation. Contrary to what you may have heard from various warmongers on TV and in Trump's Cabinet, that means defending our borders -- not Ukraine's borders.
Building a wall is not only Trump's constitutional duty, but it's also massively popular.
Although Trump doesn't need congressional approval for a wall, it was smart for him to demand a vote. Let the Democrats run for re-election on opposing the wall.
Let Sen. Claire McCaskill explain to the parents of kids killed by illegals that she thought a wall was inhumane.
Let Sen. Angus King say to the people of Maine that instead of a wall that would block heroin from pouring into our country, he thought a better plan was to sponsor a bunch of treatment centers for after your kid is already addicted.
Let Sen. Chuck Schumer tell us why it's OK for Israel to have a wall, but not us.
Let open borders Republicans like Sen. Marco Rubio tell African-Americans that it's more important to help illegal aliens than to help black American teenagers, currently suffering a crippling unemployment rate.
Republicans are both corrupt and stupid, so it's hard to tell which one animates their opposition to the wall. But the Democrats are bluffing. They're trying to get the GOP to fold before they show us their pair of threes.
Now that Trump has capitulated on even asking for funding for a wall, the Democrats are on their knees saying, "Thank you, God! Thank you, God!"
No politician wants to have to explain a vote against the wall. What the Democrats want is for Trump to be stuck explaining why he didn't build the wall.
Then it will be a bloodbath. Not only Trump, but also the entire GOP, is dead if he doesn't build a wall. Republicans will be wiped out in the midterms, Democrats will have a 300-seat House majority, and Trump will have to come up with an excuse for why he's not running for re-election.
The New York Times and MSNBC are not going to say, "We are so impressed with his growth in office, we're going to drop all that nonsense about Russia and endorse the Republican ticket!"
No, at that point, Trump will be the worst of everything.
No one voted for Trump because of the "Access Hollywood" tape. They voted for him because of his issues; most prominently, his promise to build "a big beautiful wall." And who's going to pay for it? MEXICO!
You can't say that at every campaign rally for 18 months and then not build a wall.
Do not imagine that a Trump double-cross on the wall will not destroy the Republican Party. Oh, we'll get them back. No, you won't. Trump wasn't a distraction: He was the last chance to save the GOP.
Millions of Americans who hadn't voted in 30 years came out in 2016 to vote for Trump. If he betrays them, they'll say, "You see? I told you. They're all crooks."
No excuses will work. No fiery denunciations of the courts, the Democrats or La Raza will win them back, even if Trump comes up with demeaning Twitter names for them.
It would be an epic betrayal -- worse than Bush betraying voters on "no new taxes." Worse than LBJ escalating the Vietnam War. There would be nothing like it in the history of politics.
He's the commander in chief! He said he'd build a wall. If he can't do that, Trump is finished, the Republican Party is finished, and the country is finished.
----------------- Ann Coulter is a conservative author of ten New York Times bestsellers, writes numerous columns and is a frequent guest on numerous radio and TV shows. Her web site is AnnCoulter.com. She is the author of Adios America which she signed and gave to the ARRA News Service editor at the 2015 Eagle Council. Tags:Ann Coulter, Not Building the Wall, Government ShutdownTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Democrats Worried Now, Israel Victory Caucus, Fascism In Portland
Gary Bauer
by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Democrats Worried Now? It was very difficult watching the evening news last night. Left-wing reporters and big spending politicians were having nervous breakdowns over the impact of President Trump's tax reform plan on the budget deficit.
It's one thing coming from deficit hawks in the GOP. At least they are consistent in fighting against excessive spending. But to hear those like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren expressing shock over growing deficits was too much.
Progressive politicians spent the past eight years helping Barack Obama pile up more debt than any president in history. They have no credibility to complain about the deficit now.
And what about those on the right concerned about the deficit? While I am far more sympathetic to their arguments, the deficit hawks in the GOP should wake up to the fact that big media and the big spenders are simply trying to blowup tax reform. Period. That is their sole objective and they will use any argument they can.
If they succeed, the deficit hawks in the GOP will likely find themselves in the minority in the next Congress with the big spenders in control. If the Republican Congress fails to enact tax reform or pass significant tax cuts AFTER floundering on Obamacare, conservative voters may take a pass on the 2018 elections.
The huge deficits that were run up in the Obama years happened at the same time we were gutting national defense. They were deficits that pushed the progressive agenda -- transferring wealth from people who create it to people who vote for the left. Not surprisingly, Obama earned the dubious distinction of being the first two-term president without a single year of 3% economic growth.
The fact is you can't cut or tax your way out of these deficits. Certainly there are things that can be cut and our system could be more efficient. But the best way to solve the deficit problem is to get our economy growing again. President Trump's proposal has a decent chance of making that happen.
Absurd Criticism - An immediate and oft-repeated criticism of Trump's tax reform plan was that it lacked details. That is absurd.
Several times during his briefing yesterday, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin stressed that they were outlining "core principles." The White House is not responsible for writing legislation. Congress writes legislation and that's where the details will be hammered out.
Some have suggested that Trump's plan to lower corporate taxes to 15% tax is a non-starter, so why bother? They should understand that the president sets the tone of the debate. He is telling his party in Congress and the American people what it is he wants to sign. What he is ultimately able to get passed may well be different.
It's the art of the deal. Yesterday's presentation of core principles was the opening bid in the negotiating process. And if the left really doesn't like it, let's see their plan.
Israel Victory Caucus- I had the pleasure this morning of speaking on Capitol Hill to the inaugural meeting of the Congressional Israel Victory Caucus (CIVC). The meeting was sponsored by Dr. Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum, who played a significant role in encouraging the formation of the caucus.
CIVC was started by Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH) and it is based on a simple concept: Decades of diplomacy based on moral equivalency have failed. As Rep. DeSantis put it, "American policy must ensure that Israel emerges victorious against those who deny or threaten her existence."
The reality is that one side of this dispute is never going to be satisfied with any concession because it refuses to concede that the other side has a right to exist. Rep. DeSantis and Rep. Johnson understand that building activity in East Jerusalem or so-called "settlements" in Judea and Samaria can't possibly be the impediment to peace because the Palestinians see all of Israel as an illegitimate settlement. That is the impediment to peace.
CIVC is built on the truism that if you see a conflict between barbarism and civilization, you should do everything you can to ensure that civilization wins. That means you should support Israel and hope for its victory instead of lecturing Israel on what it must give up.
Alas, the progressive ladies of Code Pink showed up today taking the side of the barbarians. Thankfully, they were quickly removed by the professional officers of the Capitol Hill Police Department.
Fascism Prevails In Portland - An annual parade in Portland, Oregon, has been cancelled after progressives threatened to physically attack some of the marchers, specifically members of the Multnomah County Republican Party.
After receiving an email which read, "You have seen how much power we have downtown and that the police cannot stop us. . . so please consider your decision wisely," parade organizers felt they had no choice but to cancel the parade.
Once again the progressive fascists have prevailed in denying innocent Americans their First Amendment rights.
THIS MUST STOP!
I hope Portland police and the FBI are investigating this threat. Those responsible should be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible. It is time the government brought the RICO statutes to bear against this violent left-wing mob.
Isn't it striking just how much today's progressives are like the racist Democrats of the past? They wear masks like the KKK.
They are the descendants of Orval Faubus, who stood in the schoolhouse door blocking young black children. Today's progressives stand in the university door blocking conservative speakers.
The old segregationists wouldn't let a preacher like Martin Luther King, Jr., go into schools. Today's progressives don't want preachers in the schools or the public square.
It's no wonder the left is so obsessed with fundamentally transforming America. It has no clue what America is.
------------------- Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families Tags:Democrats Worried Now, Israel Victory Caucus, Fascism In Portland, Patriotism Gap, Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working FamiliesTo 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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