Conservative Party: Fiscal Cliff or Not, Higher Taxes Do Not Reduce Debt or Deficits

Dear Conservative Party Members/Supporters:

The Conservative Party understands that America is facing long-term and crippling debt problems that need common sense solutions based on sound economic/budgetary principles. Policies based on emotional political rhetoric and a failed leftist ideology, however, will only add to our growing $16 Trillion national debt, continue running annual deficits and hamper economic recovery.

Raising taxes on the productive elements of American society is counter-productive. That policy actually decreases tax revenues, stifles innovation and increases unemployment. That's because most people earning $250K/year (or more) are small business owners who are the key economic drivers. Even if we doubled income tax rates on those productive people, it would only generate enough revenue to run the government for 90 days.  

Enacting meaningful and sustained spending cuts across the board is the ONLY way to reduce debt and deficits. Base-Line Budgeting and Earmarks must be eliminated. All government programs must be reviewed and reformed, including Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. Except for Defense and Homeland Security, all departments and agencies must cut spending by at least 5%/year for the next 10 years. Defense and DHS must freeze spending at 2011 levels for the next 10 years. Of course ObamaCare must be repealed or defunded. See CP-USA's Budget Roadmap for more details.

Americans should remember that all tax and spending Bills originate in the House. Not the President. Not the Senate. Since they control the House, Republicans have the power of the purse to defund any program or kill any tax hike. They just don't have the political courage to exercise that power. 

Raising taxes uses an emotional political tool ("fairness") to solve a fiscal problem (deficits). It's like using a rope to push a truck uphill. Meaningful spending cuts, however, are sound fiscal solutions that solve tough fiscal problems. 

Bottom Line: Retain current tax rates; close loopholes and cut spending.  It's better to fall off a $16T cliff now than a $20T cliff later.

---------------------------------

H. Michael Hervey

Chairman

Source: CP-USA

Radiation and Strip Searches

Dear Liberty Activist,

In the past, I've written of abuses by the TSA, including its belief that you check your 4th Amendment rights the moment you purchase a plane ticket.

The TSA's invasive screening tactics shame passengers into their potentially harmful porno scanners with the horrific thought of being groped by an agent if you refuse.

As it turns out, while conducting tests on the radiation levels of these scanners, a number of them were coming back with higher levels than expected. "It would appear that the emissions are 10 times higher. We understand it as a calculation error," TSA spokesman Sarah Horowitz told Wired.

A "calculation error."  And yet, these are the people we are told are "keeping us safe?"

Nevertheless, without hesitation, the government continues to install these scanners in airports across the country.

If you thought virtual strip searches were a violation of your privacy, just wait until you hear the latest claim from the Department of Homeland Security.

During oral arguments in a lawsuit filed by EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center), the DHS counsel claimed they have authority to "strip search every air traveler. The agency also stated that it believed a mandatory strip search rule could be instituted without any public comment or rulemaking."

Have we given up enough of our liberties yet?

Just when you thought flying couldn't possibly get worse, union bosses are now trying to force union representation on TSA employees with a "vote" that is clearly stacked in the bosses' favor.

In other words, that creepy TSA agent that almost seemed to enjoy feeling up you and your child will now be virtually impossible to fire for inappropriate behavior. 

From now on, security and passenger rights will play a secondary role to the union bosses' demands for "screener's rights."

Remember when House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica claimed the solution to TSA abuses was for airports to "opt-out" of the TSA?  Well, his "solution" turns out to be nothing more than a distraction to appease angry constituents.  In reality, it rings hollower than Jimmy Hoffa's coffin. 

The "private screeners" are required by law to follow the same screening procedures as the TSA; in other words, even if the airports opt-out, nothing will change except the names and faces.

The only viable solution here is to abolish the TSA.  Since 9/11, blue-shirted, rubber-gloved government agents have not thwarted the major terrorist attempts on our airlines.  In the real world, only alert passengers and flight crews stopped these attacks.

It's time to bring a halt to our government's security theater.  When the government claims to have a monopoly on keeping us safe, the chances of average people slipping into apathy are higher. 

Airlines have a responsibility to keep passengers protected and their planes safe and in the sky.  After the TSA is abolished, we must return the responsibility for security to where it belongs - the private sector.

Please consider chipping in $10 to help Campaign for Liberty continue to spread the message about the abuse of the American people's civil liberties by the TSA.

Before the TSA becomes a protected, public-sector union unlikely to ever be downsized or replaced, the American people must demand swift action to reign in the unaccountable, rogue agency.

In Liberty,

John Tate

President

P.S. C4L must expand its efforts if you and I are to stop the TSA and its assault on civil liberties. If you're able, please chip in just $10 to help my staff and me recruit even more Americans to this fight.

Celebrating America's 235th Birthday by Welcoming More Than 24,000 New Citizens

This week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) celebrated America’s 235th birthday by welcoming more than 24,000 new citizens  in nearly 350 naturalization ceremonies around the globe.

Watch a special video from USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas commemorating this important week for America and its newest citizens:

At a ceremony in Cincinnati last week, Director Mayorkas spoke about the spirit of independence: “This spirit, along with our founding ideals of freedom and democracy, has allowed us to achieve great success as a nation of immigrants. Immigrants come to America in search of opportunity, and by taking the Oath of Allegiance, they embrace the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship.”

Aboard the USS Midway in San Diego, 200 members of the U.S. armed forces took the Oath of Allegiance in front of a crowd of 2,000 people in a ceremony honoring Gulf War veterans.

Keeping with USCIS’s commitment to bring immigration services to the troops wherever they serve, members of the U.S. armed forces took the Oath of Allegiance to become citizens at military-only ceremonies in Baghdad, Kabul, and Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.

USCIS also held special ceremonies at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where both the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States were debated and adopted; the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta; the National World War II Museum in New Orleans; the USS Constitution in Charlestown, Mass.; George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens in Mount Vernon, Va.; and SeaWorld in Orlando, Fla.

Our newest Americans hail from all corners of the globe; some came to the United States to join family members, others sought professional or educational opportunities, and some in search of refuge from conflicts or hardships in their homelands. Each chose to make the United States their adopted home, and together, this week they all took the meaningful step of becoming U.S. citizens.

Inside the Situation Room

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Seated, from left, are: Brigadier General Marshall B. “Brad” Webb, Assistant Commanding General, Joint Special Operations Command; Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Standing, from left, are: Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Bill Daley; Tony Binken, National Security Advisor to the Vice President; Audrey Tomason Director for Counterterrorism; John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Please note: a classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

LP Monday Message: What do you want from Santa Claus?

December 20, 2010

Dear Friend of Liberty,

Our world faces serious issues, and we'll get back to those shortly.

On a lighter note, we've put a new poll on our website:

What do YOU want from Santa Claus this year?

-Tickets to Janet Napolitano's Nude Security Theater (in 3-D!)

-U.N. brand WikiPlugs for the Internet, FCC neutralized

-A year's supply of foreign bogeymen

-A Ponzi-style retirement plan like our own Social Security plan

-Worldwide violence and ill-will towards men

-$14 trillion in credit card debt

-535 congressional fruitcakes

-My front door smashed in by 8 SWAT reindeer at the wrong house

-An Obamacare Bear

-A veto pen

Sincerely,

Wes Benedict

Executive Director

Libertarian National Committee

P.S. If you have not already done so, please join the Libertarian Party. We are the only political party dedicated to free markets, civil liberties, and peace. You can also renew your membership. Or, you can make a contribution separate from membership.

Source: Libertarian Party

How the DREAM Act Would Bolster Our Homeland Security

By Janet Napolitano

Ed. Note: This is the fourth in a series of posts from top Administration Officials on the importance of the DREAM Act.

Over the past several weeks, the President and my fellow Cabinet members have talked about a number of important reasons to support the DREAM Act. Today, I’d like to speak to the important role the DREAM Act would have in promoting public safety though smart and effective immigration enforcement.

By providing a firm, but fair, means for individuals who were brought to the United States as children to adjust their status, the DREAM Act would bolster the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to focus our limited enforcement resources on detaining and removing criminal aliens and those who pose a threat to our national security and public safety.

Under this Administration, the Department of Homeland Security has deported a record number of illegal aliens convicted of criminal offenses, including 195,000 in fiscal year 2010 – a 70 percent increase in criminal removals compared to 2008. Passage of the DREAM Act would further enhance these efforts.

To be clear, no one who poses a threat to public safety will be able to adjust their status under the DREAM Act. The bill ensures applicants will undergo a rigorous background check, and individuals who committed offenses that are grounds for removal will be barred from relief. It is a narrowly-tailored, bipartisan bill that would allow a select group of immigrant students with great potential to contribute more fully to America. 

Our priority of removing criminal illegal aliens – which the DREAM Act would further enhance – is only one part of this Administration’s broader strategy to secure the border and enforce our nation’s immigration laws. We have more personnel, technology, and infrastructure at the border than ever before, including record numbers of Border Patrol agents and 1,200 National Guard personnel whom the President has authorized to assist at the border. As of this year, we have drone flights covering the southwest border from El Centro, CA to Brownsville, TX, and have more border fencing than at any previous point in history.

The DREAM Act is not a substitute for comprehensive immigration reform.  While the broader immigration debate continues, however, I urge the Congress to pass the DREAM Act and allow those who arrived in this country as children and who want to go to college or serve in our military to adjust their immigration status.  By passing the DREAM Act, Congress can help DHS continue to enhance our immigration enforcement efforts in the way that makes the most sense for our public safety and national security. The U.S. House of Representatives has already acted in a bipartisan manner on this legislation, voting last week to pass the DREAM Act. And soon, the Senate will have the same opportunity to enact the measure. I urge the Senate to do what’s good for our nation’s security, pass the DREAM Act.

Janet Napolitano is Secretary of Homeland Security