Tag: John Boehner

Vichy Republicans Expand Obamacare. Time to “Let Them Go Their Way”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

boehnercryingI’m confused.

If my wife was looking over my shoulder as I am writing this, she would say,

What else is new?

I realize that the old saying is there’s nothing new under the sun, However, by now you would think that politicians would somehow think up new tricks to pull on their  constituency.

You have no doubt heard that the Republican Party, in a vote which would be called covert only in polite circles, have passed their own additions to the unwanted law known as Obamacare.

According to the Speaker of the House, Republican “Cryin'” John Boehner, the legislation weakens  Obamacare. According to the Democrats, what the Republican Establishment added to Obamacare strengthens the law.

Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t the Republicans supposed to be the opposition party?

And isn’t the purpose of an opposition party to provide solutions to horrible laws passed by their opponents?

Just like this slavish mainstream media believe that President Barack Hussein Obama walks upon the water, House Speaker John Boehner and the rest of the Vichy Republicans, must idolize or at least respect the Democratic Party because they seem Hell-bent on copying them in their actions, words, and deeds.

Just look at their proclamations lately. They have embraced amnesty, they are in the process of embracing gay marriage, and now, these idiots have actually strengthened  Obamacare.

It seems to me that I remember John Boehner and the rest of them promising at election time to get rid of Obamacare or at least the parts of it that they didn’t like.

And then, they pull this mess, like a bunch of Democrats, and expect us to remember them in  November during the Midterm Elections?

Oh, we will remember them all right. But not in the way they want us to. We will not remember them as leaders. Oh, no. Rather, Americans conservatives will remember them with all of the fondness that the French Resistance remembered the Nazi collaborators, or Vichy French, after World War II.

What slays me is the fact that the Establishment Republicans seem to be quite content, in their moderately left-leaning stupor, to be totally oblivious and tone deaf of their Conservative Base, average hard working middle-class Americans like you and me.

You know, the people who actually put them into office.

They keep on making bad choices.

They have pushed and misty because they erroneously believe that these new citizens will vote for them instead of the Democratic Party, who are ready to be their own personal Santa Claus and by their votes with free admission to the welfare state.

Moderate Republicans have been a barrier to Republican victory for as long as I can remember. Like Quakers, Establishment Republicans seem to believe that passive resistance and reaching out to their sworn enemies friends, is the way to defeat those who oppose you.

It has been especially bad in this election cycle, as the House and Senate Republican Leadership apparently cherish their friendship with the Democrats more than they do the wishes of the folks back home. Yes, they talk a good game, but so did Jon Lovitz in those “Liar Sketches” during the old days of Saturday Night Live, back when they were actually funny.

Yeah,  my wife Morgan Fairchild. Yeah, that’s it. That’s the ticket!

In 1975, Ronald Wilson Reagan gave a speech which sums up our present situation and how we need to handle the Republican Party leadership, quite well.

Americans are hungry to feel once again a sense of mission and greatness.

I don ‘t know about you, but I am impatient with those Republicans who after the last election rushed into print saying, “We must broaden the base of our party” — when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the differences between ourselves and our opponents.

It was a feeling that there was not a sufficient difference now between the parties that kept a majority of the voters away from the polls. When have we ever advocated a closed-door policy? Who has ever been barred from participating?

Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?

Let us show that we stand for fiscal integrity and sound money and above all for an end to deficit spending, with ultimate retirement of the national debt.

Let us also include a permanent limit on the percentage of the people’s earnings government can take without their consent.

Let our banner proclaim a genuine tax reform that will begin by simplifying the income tax so that workers can compute their obligation without having to employ legal help.

And let it provide indexing — adjusting the brackets to the cost of living — so that an increase in salary merely to keep pace with inflation does not move the taxpayer into a surtax bracket. Failure to provide this means an increase in government’s share and would make the worker worse off than he was before he got the raise.

Let our banner proclaim our belief in a free market as the greatest provider for the people. Let us also call for an end to the nit-picking, the harassment and over-regulation of business and industry which restricts expansion and our ability to compete in world markets.

Let us explore ways to ward off socialism, not by increasing government’s coercive power, but by increasing participation by the people in the ownership of our industrial machine.

Our banner must recognize the responsibility of government to protect the law-abiding, holding those who commit misdeeds personally accountable.

And we must make it plain to international adventurers that our love of peace stops short of “peace at any price.”

We will maintain whatever level of strength is necessary to preserve our free way of life.

A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.

I do not believe I have proposed anything that is contrary to what has been considered Republican principle. It is at the same time the very basis of conservatism. It is time to reassert that principle and raise it to full view. And if there are those who cannot subscribe to these principles, then let them go their way.

I believe that the Republican Party is stuck in a cycle in which their desire to protect their own hindquarters and cushy “jobs” have lead to a self-imposed isolation from the very American Citizens who were responsible for their having those cushy “jobs” in the first place.

I believe that average Americans, like you and me, have the power to relieve them of the burden of such a stressful job, and send others to Washington, who will listen to their “bosses”.

Just as Ronaldus Magnus said those 39 years ago, it is time to “let them go their way”.

Until He Comes, 

KJ

 

From Reagan to Rubio: The Wussification of the Republican Party

On By kingsjesterIn Politics19 Comments

Cartoon-Cruz-Vs-Establishment-600I started this Blog back in April of 2010 as a way of venting my frustration with what I saw happening in the greatest country on God’s Green Earth.

I could not believe what was going on around me. The American People had elected an incompetent, pompous, didactic, divisive, self-involved, Marxist idiot to the most important position in the world: the Presidency of the United States.

The Federal Government, under the leadership of Barack Hussein Obama, and his partners in crime, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, was headed down the road to full-blown socialism, faster than Rosie O’Donnell heading to Golden Corral.

Gradually, from seemingly out of nowhere, a movement began. It wasn’t a Liberal “Astroturf” movement…it was a groundswell, started by average Americans, who were fed up with being over-taxed and under-represented by the people whom they had elected and sent to Washington to SERVE THEM.

As the movement began to take place, it was clear that this was a CONSERVATIVE movement…and a PATRIOTIC one…as they took the name “TEA Party” which stood for “Taxed Enough Already”. Just as the Colonials, who revolted against the King of England, these Americans were, and still are, fighting against “TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION”.

I remain proud of these Americans. As a fellow Conservative and TEA Party Supporter, they remind me of the Republican Party of my young adulthood, when, in November of 1980, at the age of 21 and 11 months, I cast my very first vote for the greatest President of my generation, Ronald Wilson Reagan. The TEA Party reminds me of the way Republicans, led by Ronaldus Magnus, were back then: plain-spoken, good-humored, honest-to-a-fault, servants of the people, whom you were just as likely to find at St. Peter’s Orphanage’s Annual Picnic in Memphis, TN, as you were at the New York Metropolitan Opera.

In fact, I and my fiancee sent a wedding invitation to President and Mrs. Reagan, and got back and official congratulations card, signed by them, from the Office of Protocol.

The Obamas think “class” is something they skipped to go “choom”.

But, I digress…

The blemish on Reagan’s record that Liberals from both sides of the aisle, are bring up right now, is his passage of a law granting Amnesty to illegal aliens.

Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986 because he strongly believed that it was time to gain control of U.S. borders and to enforce legal hiring at workplaces.

The amnesty of 3 million illegal immigrants that came with it was relatively small, and never would have resulted in 11 million new immigrants in the decades that followed had the rest of the law’s requirements been fulfilled by Congress.

Of course, they weren’t.

According to Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese, amnesty was in fact Reagan’s biggest regret, per a story in the Heritage Times, because he, like the people who supported him, believed in the rule of law.

As the halcyon days of the Reagan Administration passed by, and time moved on, the Republican Party slowly, but surely, began to distance themselves from us rubes living out here in America’s Heartland, otherwise known as “Flyover Country”.

And, as they became more isolated from the people they were supposed to be serving, they started losing elections. Sure, Dubya was elected for two terms (Thank God.), but, can you imagine either Al Gore or John Kerry as President? Without throwing up, that is?

With the election of Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), and with the Democrats controlling both the House and Senate,this nation was taken on a madcap plunge toward socialism faster than Elvis going down the last hill on the Zippin Pippin at the old Mid-South Fairgrounds.

And then, Americans stood up on their hind legs and started the TEA Party Movement.

Obama and the Democrats, and the Status Quo-loving Establishment Republicans, could not believe their eyes. “What was this mess? How dare these sheep break away from the flock!”

While Obama and the Democrats attacked us every which-way they could think us, accusing us of RAAACIIISM, carrying guns to rallies, etc., the “Moderate” Republicans, played it very cagey. They used the TEA Party during the months leading up to the 2010 Mid-terms, to get themselves elected, and win back the House of Representatives, on the promise that they would govern “Conservatively”.

Allow me to pause for a moment and say this: I am not speaking about actual Reagan Conservatives and TEA Party Members like Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and sometimes, Rand Paul. I am speaking of those Vichy Republicans, like John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, and Marco Rubio, who should just switch parties, and get it over with.

In the two years since the TEA Party propelled them to victory in the Mid-terms, the Establishment Republicans, who rode our coat tails back to the Halls of Power, have increasingly treated us badly, at first, shunning Conservatives like we were red-headed step-children, and now, insulting and degrading us like we are lepers…or their enemy.

And now, with Obama failing miserably, tanking in every single Popularity Poll, making about as much sense as a punch-drunk boxer, the Republicans appear ready to commit mass seppuku (hari kari), as I wrote yesterday, “snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory”  by pushing for Amnesty for illegal aliens, in order to supply their Big Money Donors, in the US Chamber of Commerce, with cheap labor.

In fact, that’s not the only issue that the Vichy Republicans are wussing out on…and it has Senator Ted Cruz worried, as he told Breitbart.com:

Cruz questioned how establishment Republicans unilaterally caving to Democrats on everything from the farm bill to the budget to the debt ceiling and more could think amnesty is a good idea at this time.

“Right now, Republican leadership in both chambers is aggressively urging members to stand down on virtually every front: on the continuing resolution, on the budget, on the farm bill, on the debt ceiling,” Cruz said in a statement provided exclusively to Breitbart News on Thursday.

He continued:

They may or may not be right, but their argument is that we should focus exclusively on Obamacare and on jobs. In that context, why on earth would the House dive into immigration right now? It makes no sense, unless you’re Harry Reid. Republicans are poised for an historic election this fall–a conservative tidal wave much like 2010. The biggest thing we could do to mess that up would be if the House passed an amnesty bill–or any bill perceived as an amnesty bill–that demoralized voters going into November. Rather than responding to the big-money lobbying on K Street, we need to make sure working-class Americans show up by the millions to reject Obamacare and vote out the Democrats. Amnesty will ensure they stay home.

Cruz added that granting amnesty now–while wrong in his opinion at any time–would ensure Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid remains in his position in after the 2014 elections.

“Amnesty is wrong in any circumstance, and if we are going to fix our broken immigration system–and we should–it makes much more sense to do so next year, so that we are negotiating a responsible solution with a Republican Senate majority rather than with Chuck Schumer,” Cruz said. “Anyone pushing an amnesty bill right now should go ahead and put a ‘Harry Reid for Majority Leader’ bumper sticker on their car, because that will be the likely effect if Republicans refuse to listen to the American people and foolishly change the subject from Obamacare to amnesty.”

I wish we had a Senate full of Ted Cruzs and Mike Lees.

Ronald Reagan once quipped,

The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.

Evidently, that applies to Vichy Republicans, as well.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The Washington Meltdown: Dems Call for “Compromise”. Vichy Republicans Want to Surrender.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

Cartoon-Cruz-Vs-Establishment-600The apparent 2016 Democrat Presidential Candidate, Former First Lady and personal friend of the late Vince Foster, Hillary Rodham Clinton, related the following story the other day…

We were in another one of these dramas in Washington — would we or would we not default on our debt? And all the business leaders wanted to talk to me about was, ‘was the United States going to default on its debt?’ And I kept saying, ‘Oh, of course not. We would never do that.’ And just hoping and praying that I was right. 

What I saw, in that incident, was bewilderment. Like, how could the United States do that to itself? Especially countries that believe in our model, really cherish our values, want to be moving more toward our example.

Fast forward, this last time — as I talked to people around the world — there was a sense like, ‘if you guys can’t get your act together, we need to de-Americanize the world.’ Which was a phrase used by a high-ranking Chinese official. That is not good news for us. That is a very unfortunate conclusion. 

So we have to pull ourselves together. We have to stand up, solve our problems. Everybody is not going to get everything they want. We have to get back to good old fashioned compromise and we have to make those decisions that reassure America’s leadership at home and abroad.

“De-Americanize the World”? That is absolutely hilarious, coming from the Chinese, who have, over the past decade, been turning themselves into a Communist Model of a Capitalist Country.

But, I digress…

Is it just me, or have y’all noticed the renewed cry for “Compromise” in the Halls of Power in Washington, DC?

And, the funny thing is, this renewed cry of “Can’t we all just get along” is coming when the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), has dropped to a very low 37% Job Approval Rate in National Polls, which are always composed to be weighted with more Democrat participants than Republicans.

Hence, the Former “First Mama’s” “Call for Compromise”, even while her Democrat brethren and sisters in the Senate dropped the Nuclear Option, taking away the right to filibuster in the Senate, as I reported yesterday.

If the Hildebeast was a physician, I would tell her to “heal thyself”. But, since she isn’t, she needs to just “heal”.  

I find it quite funny and revealing that the Democrats are calling for “compromise”.

Heck, they always do when they realize that the things they want to do, are the exact opposite of the will of the majority of the American People….and those same citizens, who can fire their sorry rear-ends every 2 years, are beginning to rise up on their hind legs, like a lion about to drop a zebra on the Serengeti.

Look at the facts: As I just mentioned, you have a president whose Signature Legislation, quite frankly, Marxist in nature, is now opposed by 93% of the American People, and whose job approval rating is going down like the Titanic into the icy depths of oblivion.

The Democrats are calling for Compromise in an act of desperation, feverishly attempting to hold on to whatever power and, **cough** credibility they have left.

Now, as any average American with common sense, out here in the Heartland will tell you, when your opponent in a fight is about to land face-first on the ground after a knockout punch, you don’t hold him up and hit yourself in the face at the same time.

However, that is exactly what Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and the rest of the Vichy Republicans are doing.

Lacking any sense of self-preservation, these spineless Professional Politicians, while giving lip service to those who elected them in the Mid-Term Massacre of 2010, are still reaching across the aisle to their political opponents, offering them support and succor as one would a family member in their time of need.

At the same time, Mitch McConnell came out the other day, and called The Tea Party Movement, who gave the Republicans the House of Representatives in 2010, “a bunch of bullies”.

To quote the late , great Slim Pickens in “Blazing Saddles”,

What is the Wide, Wide World of Sports is a’goin’ on here?

And to pile on in the Vichy Republican Race to Extinction, House Speaker John Boehner, has proclaimed that they are “not through with Immigration Reform, yet”.

What is the matter with you guys? As we say down here in Dixie,

Are y’all just ate up with “The Stupid”?

I can’t hear the high-pitched whines of the young and dumb, and old and didactic Liberals out there, right now,

But, your President, Reagan, compromised, all the time!!! 1!1! Eleventy!!!

Why, yes, he did. But, 99.99% of the time,,,he got what HE wanted, in the first place…and usually, what the American People wanted. He did his job as the President.

Please compare and contrast to the no-compromise Petulant President who meanders his way into the Oval Office, Monday through Friday, around 10:00 a.m., and puts his feet on the Resolute desk.

If you believe that President Reagan would have allowed the Nuclear Option to have been dropped in the Senate during his lifetime, you probably still live in your Mom’s basement.

In the Real World,you negotiate from a position of strength, in order to achieve the goals you have set. You are prepared to give the perception of compromise, all the while, moving your opponent in the direction you want them to go, all the while keeping something in your hip pocket, to be used to your advantage.

Unfortunately, both the Democrats and the Vichy Republicans have construed the definition of “Compromise” to mean a surrender of Conservative ideals and Poltical Ideology, and an acceptance all Liberal Political Stances.

If this blatant, oblivious, self-serving stupidity of the part of both Political Parties continues, both Congress’ and Obama’s numbers are going to continue to tank.

And, the Mid-Term Election of 2010 will pale in comparison to 2014.

And, that will be a good thing.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

 

 

 

The Shutdown: Will the Republicans Snatch Defeat Out of the Jaws of Victory?

On By kingsjesterIn Politics11 Comments

boehnercrying

There is an old political adage which states,

If your opponent is digging a hole for himself, get out of the way. If you can, lend a hand.

Republicans do not seem to realize that they’ve got a good thing going. The American public has had it up to here with the antics of their Petulant President, and the political pendulum is beginning to swing to the right again. The problem is, the Republican Establishment’s Vichy inclinations are handicapping them from taking advantage of the egregious behavior of the Manchurian President.

According to the great American Economist, Dr. Thomas Sowell,

If the continued existence of mathematics depended on the ability of the Republicans to defend the proposition that two plus two equals four, that would probably mean the end of mathematics and of all the things that require mathematics.

Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, epitomized what has been wrong with the Republicans for decades when he emerged from a White House meeting last Wednesday, went over to the assembled microphones, briefly expressed his disgust with the Democrats’ intransigence and walked on away.

We are in the midst of a national crisis, immediately affecting millions of Americans and potentially affecting the kind of country this will become if ObamaCare goes into effect — and yet, with multiple television network cameras focused on Speaker Boehner as he emerged from the White House, he couldn’t be bothered to prepare a statement that would help clarify a confused situation, full of fallacies and lies.

Boehner was not unique in having a blind spot when it comes to recognizing the importance of articulation and the need to put some serious time and effort into presenting your case in a way that people outside the Beltway would understand. On the contrary, he has been all too typical of Republican leaders in recent decades.

When the government was shut down during the Clinton administration, Republican leaders who went on television to tell their side of the story talked about “OMB numbers” versus “CBO numbers” — as if most people beyond the Beltway knew what these abbreviations meant or why the statistics in question were relevant to the shutdown. Why talk to them in Beltway-speak?

When Speaker Boehner today goes around talking about the “CR,” that is just more of the same thinking — or lack of thinking. Policy wonks inside the Beltway know that he is talking about the “continuing resolution” that authorizes the existing level of government spending to continue, pending a new budget agreement.

But, believe it or not, there are lots of citizens and voters outside the Beltway. And what is believed by those people whom too many Republicans are talking past can decide not only the outcome of this crisis but the fate of the nation for generations to come.

You might think that the stakes are high enough for Republicans to put in some serious time trying to clarify their message.

As the great economist Alfred Marshall once said, facts do not speak for themselves. If we are waiting for the Republicans to do the speaking, the country is in big trouble.

What the heck does Boehner want? He’s got an out-of-control narcissist, punitively picking and choose which National Parks and Monuments to close down, while rolling out the Red Carpet for protesters, who are here illegally, to demonstrate, in front of God and everybody, on the National Mall.

On top of that, he’s got a Speaker of the Senate, from the Opposition Party, asking why Congress should be worried about saving a Pediatric Cancer Patient’s life!

Obama’s and the Democrats’ bungling of the whole Government Shutdown, has left a gaping maw of a Public Relations Hole big enough for The Speaker of the House to drive a semi-truck through.

However, Cryin’ John and his Republican Elite cronies, for all of their public protestations, seem to be stuck in their typical “reach across the aisle” mode.

Boehner needs to hold a scorcher of a press conference every day, hammering Obama and his minions on their refusal to negotiate. He needs to point out how many “mini-funding” bills they’ve passed in the House to attempt to keep parts of the government funded during the President’s Temper Tantrum.

In fact, today, he needs to hold a press conference about passing a bill yesterday to fund survivors’ benefits for the families of our Best and Brightest who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.

Right now, the Republicans actually seem to be united in their opposition to the Petulant President and his punitive punishment of American Citizens.

It would be an absolutely politically ignorant move to fall back on their Vichy Republican ways and capitulate to the Presidents’ wishes to spend our nation into oblivion.

Put a muzzle on John McCain and a leash on his pet dog, Lindsey Graham, and tell that out-of touch Mitch McConnell to sit down, Boehner, you’ve got this.

Now is not the time for surrender.

Now is the opportunity to stand up on your hind legs, Republicans, and actually do what you were sent to Capitol Hill to do: represent your constituency.

Now is not the time to be timid and inarticulate, Republicans.

 It is time to fight for the American people, like your jobs depended on it

Because, they do.

Until He comes,

KJ

Obamacare: A Game of Chicken on Capitol Hill. Dems Impersonate Dr. Peter Venkman.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

chickenlittleThe game of “Chicken” continues up on Capitol HIll. …Or, perhaps, it’s a game of “Dare”.

Thehill.com reports that

House Republicans approved a stopgap spending bill that delays ObamaCare in an early-morning Sunday vote that increases the chances of a government shutdown.

The high-stakes GOP move intensifies a game of chicken with Senate Democrats with just 48 hours to go before the lights could go out on the federal government.

The White House threatened to veto the measure, while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) proclaimed it dead in the upper chamber.

…Republicans characterized the bill as a safety net in the event Congress can’t reach a deal. Democrats countered with charges that the proposal is evidence that the GOP’s CR strategy is designed to shutter the government.

The CR package was designed to cater to conservative Republicans, who have insisted that any spending package must scale back ObamaCare. Those conservatives had revolted earlier in the month when Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) tried to move a funding bill without that direct link.

The resistance forced GOP leaders to approve a CR last week that would have defunded the healthcare law – language that was stripped by Senate Democrats Friday, putting the ball back in Boehner’s court.

At a closely watched meeting of the GOP conference Saturday afternoon in the Capitol basement, Boehner outlined his hard-line strategy, leading to cheers from a conference that’s often been wary of his conservative credentials.

“This is exactly what we hoped for so we’re all getting behind leadership,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a Tea Party favorite. “We’re excited [and] we’re united.”

The bill now moves back to the Senate, where Reid is expected to scrap the two healthcare amendments with a single vote on Monday, when the Senate returns, and return the “clean” CR, yet again, to Boehner and House Republicans.

“To be absolutely clear, the Senate will reject both the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of the medical device tax,” Reid said in a statement. “After weeks of futile political games from Republicans, we are still at square one: Republicans must decide whether to pass the Senate’s clean CR, or force a Republican government shutdown.”

That move could potentially come just hours before the Tuesday shutdown.

“ObamaCare is based on limitless government, bureaucratic arrogance, and a disregard of the will of the people,” said Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.).

If you listen to the Democrats, a “Government Shutdown” is equal to a sighting of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

GhostbustersTheir over-the-top reaction to the possibility of aGovernment Shutdown that would delay their grandiose socialist scheme, Obamacare, from be implemented, and taking away our freedom, reminds me of the following scene from the classic movie “Ghostbusters”.

Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
Mayor: All right, all right! I get the point!

However, in reality…

During Ronald Reagan’s presidency from 1981 to 1989, shutdowns were a fairly regular occurrence and the government faced a funding shortfall on eight occasions. However, none of those lasted more than three days and many of them occurred over a weekend. Because stocks don’t trade over the weekend and the shutdowns were brief, investors had little reaction back then.

When shutdowns are prolonged and federal employees are out of work for weeks, the effect on the market is usually more negative. Under the Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter administrations, when the government was shut down for 10 days or more, the average decline for the stock market was more than 3 percent during closures.

But in the last major pair of shutdowns, from November 1995 to January 1996, the stock market actually rose.

President Bill Clinton and the Republican House leader Newt Gingrich failed to agree on a plan to reduce the nation’s budget deficit as well as cuts to Medicare premiums. As a result, the government shut twice in three months. First, it closed for five days between Nov. 13, 1995 and Nov. 19, 1995. Then a second shutdown lasted 21 days, from Dec. 15, 1995 to Jan. 6, 1996.

The S&P 500 rose 4 percent between Nov. 13 and Jan. 6, suggesting that investors were focused elsewhere. The stock market had just started its five-year, technology-fueled bull run, during which the S&P 500 more than doubled.

Even if the government shuts again, investors should take a long view because Europe and the U.S. are more stable than two years ago, says Dan Veru, chief investment officer of Palisade Capital Management.

“If things get really tricky, maybe there will be a three to five percent pullback,” in stocks, Veru says.

On October 27, 1964, the Great Communicator, Ronald Wilson Reagan, spoke the following words, in his classic speech, “A Time for Choosing”:

…Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, “We don’t know how lucky we are.” And the Cuban stopped and said, “How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to.” And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there’s no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.

And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man.

This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down—[up] man’s old—old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.

In this vote-harvesting time, they use terms like the “Great Society,” or as we were told a few days ago by the President, we must accept a greater government activity in the affairs of the people. But they’ve been a little more explicit in the past and among themselves; and all of the things I now will quote have appeared in print. These are not Republican accusations. For example, they have voices that say, “The cold war will end through our acceptance of a not undemocratic socialism.” Another voice says, “The profit motive has become outmoded. It must be replaced by the incentives of the welfare state.” Or, “Our traditional system of individual freedom is incapable of solving the complex problems of the 20th century.” Senator Fullbright has said at Stanford University that the Constitution is outmoded. He referred to the President as “our moral teacher and our leader,” and he says he is “hobbled in his task by the restrictions of power imposed on him by this antiquated document.” He must “be freed,” so that he “can do for us” what he knows “is best.” And Senator Clark of Pennsylvania, another articulate spokesman, defines liberalism as “meeting the material needs of the masses through the full power of centralized government.”

Well, I, for one, resent it when a representative of the people refers to you and me, the free men and women of this country, as “the masses.” This is a term we haven’t applied to ourselves in America. But beyond that, “the full power of centralized government”—this was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize. They knew that governments don’t control things. A government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. They also knew, those Founding Fathers, that outside of its legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy.

Back in the day, when I was in school, and we pledged allegiance to the Flag, and not the president,, we were taught How Marxism, in both its forms, socialism and communism, took away the individual rights of the people, and made them a single, faceless entity, subservient to the will of the all-powerful Central Government.

That, boys and girls, is exactly what Obamacare is designed to do.

And, that is why Obama and his Progressive Minions, on both sides of the aisle, are so anxious to see it implemented.

Obamacare was not passed for YOUR benefit, Pookie. They did it for THEIR’s.

Boehner Cries, “Stop! …Or I’ll Say Stop Again!

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

boehnercryingSpeaker of the House, Cryin’ John Boehner, held a Conference Call with the rank and file, yesterday.

During the call, he told his fellow Republicans that the upcoming continuing resolution will not be a do-or-die fight over Obamacare spending.

According to one person on the call, Boehner said,

Our intent is to move quickly on a short-term continuing resolution [CR] that keeps the government running and maintains current sequester spending levels.

Even though Boehner did not come right out and say that he was not going to use the CR for a Obamacare fight, other sources on the call said it was not going to make a definitive, final stand against it, either.

He didn’t rule it out, but indicated to members that defund through CR is not the best strategy. You see, after the Continuing Resolution lies a vote on a debt-ceiling increase that the president and the Dems are salivating over.

This vote comes around November or December, and Boehner envisions using it as leverage against Obamacare.

Here is what Boehner said during the Conference Call,

On the sequester:

The president is desperate to get rid of the sequester . . . so desperate that he says he’ll shut down the government if Congress follows the law and funds the government at the levels his sequester mandates. The president’s threat to shut down the government if we implement his sequester is not a defensible position. The American people won’t stand for it, and we’re not going to be swayed by it. When we return, our intent is to move quickly on a short-term continuing resolution [CR] that keeps the government running and maintains current sequester spending levels. Our message will remain clear: Until the president agrees to better cuts and reforms that help grow the economy and put us on path to a balanced budget, his sequester — the sequester he himself proposed, insisted on, and signed into law — stays in place.

On Obamacare strategy:

We will also continue to implement the plan to stop Obamacare that I outlined last month. The delays the administration has been forced to implement in the health-care law have given us a golden opportunity to talk about fairness: “If big business gets relief from the president’s health-care law, families and small businesses should, too.” This message strikes a chord with Americans. When people hear it, it resonates. The president has already signed seven bills delaying or repealing parts of his health-care law. We’re going to keep the pressure on the president and Senate to act on the delay bills that passed the House in July with significant bipartisan support. You may have seen Shelly Moore Capito do this in Saturday’s GOP weekly address. We’re going to keep holding votes that chip away at the legislative coalition the president is using to force Obamacare on the nation.

There are some problems with Cryin’ John’s strategy.

Quite frankly, this Conservative wouldn’t mind government shutting down for a few days. That would be a reprieve from Obama’s Marxist stupidity and irrational spending of OUR MONEY.

If Boehner thinks that, at this point, that Obama is scared of him, or anything that he might do, he overestimates himself. Obama has the overwhelming majority of the Main Stream Media puckered up to kiss his hindquarters, like a mule trying to eat crab apples through a chain link fence.

This wimpy, incremental, “hail fellow, well met”, reach-across-the-aisle garbage worked years ago, but not now. The “gentlemanly art” of politics has been replaced by daily steel cage matches on the House and Senate Floors. No holds barred.

Americans are looking for strong, Conservative Leadership. We have had it up-to-here with appeasement and acquiescence. The circular firing squad known as the Republican Congressional Leadership has proven ineffective in stopping Obama from doing whatever he darn well wants to.

Boehner keeps saying that he and his cronies want to stop Obamacare, but at the same time, he remains noncommittal and nonspecific about how to defund it.

Yesterday, America’s Anchorman, Rush Limbaugh, said the following during his radio program,

…My point is, because there is no opposition party that is opposing what’s happening and representing a majority of the American people, people are losing faith in their country, not in Obama. If Obama policies are so popular, if I’m wrong about this, why is there no robust happiness out there among the American people? Even Obama supporters are part of the forever angry crowd. There isn’t anybody robustly happy out there. Everybody’s on edge. Everybody’s unhappy. They’re broke. They can’t get a job. The only thing is they’re not blaming Obama. They’re losing faith in the country.

Again, it seems to me an ideal opportunity for a genuine alternative opposition movement or party, to make a connection with millions of Americans who happen to, by virtue of majorities, disagree with the status quo, meaning the Obama and Democrat Party establishment. The American people have spoken and are speaking, and they’re looking for representation in Washington. They’re looking for push-back. The American people, who oppose the Obama agenda, can’t find anybody or any representation in Washington that speaks for ’em. It’s not for a lack of looking. And, meanwhile, while all this is going on, the Republican Party is sending out fundraising notes and requests and this kind of thing, but people say, “For what?”

I don’t mean this as a typical rant against the Republican Party. I’m just giving you the lay of the land here. I find it amazing that the president still has to sell Obamacare. Most Americans don’t want it. I don’t know why there isn’t a political movement or party willing to connect to that opposition and go to town with it. Same thing on global warming. Same thing on amnesty. Most amazing. Now, of course we know the reason, it’s Washington, it’s not Republicans and Democrats, it’s Washington versus the rest of the country, ruling class, country class. I’m just giving you another illustration and way of thinking about it. But it is very frustrating.

As usual, Rush is right. Boehner and his “Brain Trust”, and I use that term loosely, have forgotten that THEY are supposed to be the Opposition Party, not a doppelgänger of the Democrat Party.

The ambiance of Capital Hill is a heady brew of perks, parties, privilege, and power. Once Freshmen Congresscritters experience the overwhelming intoxication of it, It seeps into their very soul, and the majority of them seem to forget that THEY are supposed to be OUR servants.

If the Republican Leadership does not sober up immediately, they will find themselves being forced to sober up in November of 2014, by the harsh reality of being voted out of office.

As I have quipped before,

I hope they have a trade to fall back on.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama Gives Money to Syrian Rebels, Threatens to Cut OUR Veterans’ Services

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

veteranflagand wheelchairIt has been a long, hot summer. Especially for those Americans, who have been punished by our Petulant President’s “Sequester”.

According to the White House Office of Management and Budget, om a memorandum they sent to House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner in February, Obama’s Sequester will cut $55 billion from defense in 2013 and $27 billion from the non-defense discretionary budget.

  • Defense 
  • * A reduction in readiness of many non-deployed units
  • * Delays in investments in new equipment and facilities
  • * Cutbacks in equipment repairs
  • * Declines in military research and development efforts
  • * Reductions in base services for military families
  • Non-Defense
  • * Education grants to states and local school districts supporting smaller classes, after-school programs, and children with disabilities would suffer.
  • * Number of FBI agents, Customs and Border Patrol agents, correctional officers, and federal prosecutors would be slashed.
  • * FAA’s ability to oversee and manage the nation’s airspace and air traffic control would be reduced.
  • * Department of Agriculture’s efforts to inspect food processing plants would be curtailed.
  • * Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect the water we drink and the air we breathe would be degraded.
  • * National Institutes of Health would have to halt or curtail scientific research, including needed research into cancer and childhood diseases
  • * Housing programs and food assistance for low-income families would be cut

Those threats and disruptions are still not enough for our Petulant Present. Now, he has to try to intimidate our Brightest and Best, in hopes that they will put pressure on their Republican Representatives, to allow Obama cart blanche to spend OUR money as he darn well pleases.

Fox News reports that

President Obama took his case for ending the sequester to hundreds of disabled veterans Saturday, saying he protected their benefits from the “reckless” cuts to the federal budget but suggesting next year might be different.

“It’s hurting our military. I made it clear that your veteran’s benefits are exempt from this year’s sequester,” the president said to the applause of hundreds at the Disabled American Veterans’ convention in Orlando, Fla. “But I want to tell you going forward the best way to protect the VA care you have earned is to get rid of this sequester altogether.”

The president but the blame squarely on Congress, which returns in about four weeks to work on a new federal budget and increasing the federal debt limit.

“We’ve got these reckless, across-the-board budget cuts called the sequester that are hitting a lot of folks hard,” Obama said. “Congress needs to come together and agree on a responsible plan that reduces our deficit and keeps our promises to our veterans and keeps our promises to future generations.”

The cuts went into effect in March after Congress and the White House failed to agree on a more balanced plan to cut government spending.

Some Republicans have meanwhile said the president shares in the responsibility, considering he signed the 2011 Budget Control Act that raised the debt ceiling and led to sequester.

The president also told the veterans the government is making progress in reducing the backlog of disability claims but acknowledged the slow pace.

“It hasn’t gone as fast as I’ve wanted,” he said.

The staggering backlog of disability claims for compensation for illness and injury caused by military service has been a main concern for veterans.

The number of claims waiting to be processed ballooned under Obama, largely because the administration made it easier for Vietnam veterans who were exposed to the Agent Orange defoliant to get benefits.

However, Obama always seems to find some of OUR money to give his friends….

Israel National News reports…

U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday [of last week] that the United States would increase the humanitarian aid it provides to civil war torn Syria.

In a statement on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan, Obama announced more than $195 million in additional humanitarian assistance to provide life-saving food, medical care, and relief supplies for people affected by the ongoing conflict in Syria.

The new contribution brings U.S. humanitarian aid to over $1 billion dollars since the Syrian crisis began, noted the statement.

“The United States remains the single-largest contributor of humanitarian assistance for the people of Syria. The United States is providing humanitarian aid to help 3.5 million people across all 14 governorates in Syria and continues to work through all possible channels to deliver aid to those in need in Syria, including through the United Nations, international and non-governmental organizations, and local Syrian organizations,” said the statement.

The new U.S. humanitarian assistance includes over $155 million to increase food assistance, expand life-saving emergency medical capacity, and provide additional hygiene kits, clothing, and household supplies in Syria.

U.S. assistance will also increase gender-based violence response services and referral through women’s health centers, mobile clinics, and outreach teams providing health and psychosocial services in Syria, including home-based support to vulnerable women and children.

“This new funding also includes nearly $41 million to provide food vouchers, in-kind food distributions, and ready-to-eat meals for approximately 245,000 refugees in camps and host communities in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt,” said the statement.

“The United States supports and appreciates the countries hosting the nearly 1.9 million refugees who have fled the brutal conflict in Syria and commends host-nation efforts to provide protection, assistance, and hospitality to all those fleeing violence. The United States recognizes the significant strains on host communities and the economic impact of providing refuge to such a large number of people. We call on all host governments to keep their borders open to all those still fleeing violence in Syria.”

Several months ago, Obama announced an extra $155 million dollars to aid refugees fleeing what he said was “barbarism” propagated by the Assad government against Syrians.

Meanwhile it remains unclear whether the U.S. is providing military assistance to the rebels fighting President Bashar Al-Assad.

Uh Huh. Oh…it seems pretty clear to me, my friends.

It all has to do where President Barack Hussein Obama’s Priorities and Allegiances lie.

Until He Comes,

KJ.

American Conservatives/Chick-Fil-A…GOP Elite/Bread and Circuses

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

While Conservatives and “Independents” have been out fighting the good fight against Fascist Liberals by standing or sitting in their car, in massive lines at their local Chick-Fil-A, they have all been wondering:

Where’s the Republican Establishment?

Like the Main Stream Media, they’ve been ignoring the situation.

There is some good news ,though:

It appears that the apparent Republican Nominee for President has taken a stand after all.

On the Chick-Fil-A situation, KJ? Nope.

In his own defense.

FoxNews.com has the story:

Mitt Romney lashed back at Harry Reid on Thursday in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, saying the Senate majority leader needs to “put up or shut up” after airing allegations about Romney’s taxes.

Reid, a Nevada Democrat, first raised eyebrows Tuesday by saying in a news interview that someone had told him Romney went 10 years without paying taxes. He would only identify his source as an investor in Romney’s former venture capital firm, Bain Capital, and he acknowledged, “I’m not certain” it’s true.

That didn’t stop Reid from taking to the Senate floor Thursday to accuse the Republican presidential candidate again of paying no taxes, part of a broader Democratic attack on Romney for declining to release more than two years of tax documents.

“The word’s out that he hasn’t paid any taxes for 10 years,” Reid said. “Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t.”

But Romney forcefully denied Reid’s allegations on Hannity’s radio show Thursday.

“Harry’s going to have to describe who it is he spoke with, because, of course, that is totally and completely wrong,” Romney said. “It’s untrue, dishonest and inaccurate. It’s wrong.

“So, I’m looking forward to have Harry reveal his sources, and we will probably find out it’s the White House.”

Romney’s campaign earlier rejected the majority leader’s statement as “shameful.”

Reid also raised eyebrows for invoking Romney’s late father, himself a one-time presidential candidate.

“His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son,” Reid told the Huffington Post.

George Romney, a Michigan governor, released 12 years of tax returns during his unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968. His son has released only his 2010 tax return and an estimate for 2011, years when he was preparing for his own presidential bid or already running.

Reid doubled down on the claim late Thursday, firing back at Romney in a written statement.

“People who make as much money as Mitt Romney have many tricks at their disposal to avoid paying taxes,” Reid said in a written statement. “When it comes to answering the legitimate questions the American people have about whether he avoided paying his fair share in taxes or why he opened a Swiss bank account, Romney has shut up. But as a presidential candidate, it’s his obligation to put up, and release several years’ worth of tax returns just like nominees of both parties have done for decades.

“It’s clear Romney is hiding something, and the American people deserve to know what it is.”

Reid’s comments come in the middle of a scathing critique of the former Massachusetts governor’s tax plan. The Tax Policy Center, which Romney has called “an objective third party” in the past, noted that his proposal would give benefits to high-income earners while giving a tax increase to middle-class Americans. Romney’s camp has disputed that analysis.

Meanwhile, another well-known Moderate seems to have found his…err…backbone also. 

Thehill.com reports:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) lashed out at President Obama during an interview Tuesday, saying the president has “never even had a real job, for God’s sake.”

Boehner was discussing the presidential election, and accusing President Obama’s campaign team of using “over-the-top” rhetoric to distract from his economic record.

“Sometimes I have to catch my breath and slow down because the rhetoric in this campaign is just so over-the-top,” Bohener said during an appearance on “Kilmeade and Friends.” “And that’s because the president’s policies have failed. Listen — 93 percent of Americans believe they’re a part of the middle class. That’s why you hear the president talk about the middle class every day, because he’s talking to 93 percent of the American people.”

Then the Ohio lawmaker lit into the president’s qualifications to discuss job creation.

“But the president has never created a job. He’s never even had a real job, for God’s sake,” Boehner said. “And I can tell you from my dealings with him, he has no idea how the real world, that we actually live in, works.”

In the same interview, Boehner blasted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for his suggestion on the Senate floor Thursday that Mitt Romney paid no federal income taxes for a decade.

“I don’t know how you go out there and make a statement like that without any facts,” Boehner said. “It’s one of the problems that occurs here in Washington, people run out there without any facts and just make noise. The American people are too smart for this, they’ll get to the bottom of this, it clearly is not a fact, and I would think that the Senate majority leader would be smart enough to know that.”

While Americans have been taking a stand this week against the tyranny of the Minority, what have the leaders of the Republican Party (which we will be dragging across the goal line) been giving us?

Bread and circuses.