West Wing Week: "Jedi Mind-Meld"

This week, the President urged Congress to resolve harmful budget cuts and reduce the deficit in a way that helps grow the economy and strengthen the middle class -- invoking both Star Wars and Star Trek while he did it. President Obama also held his first Cabinet meeting of the second term, announced three key Cabinet nominations, and signed the Violence Against Women Act.

Watch this week's West Wing Week.

Attack of the Robosquirrels

Dear friend of liberty,

This week, the House of Representatives will vote on a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government through September.

Reports indicate the House is already looking for funding tricks so they can cheat on their sequester diet less than a week in.

And, of course, the CR still doesn't cut a penny of actual spending.

It's vital you sign C4L's "Real Cuts, Right Now" fax petition, but first allow me to explain why.

While the Republicans maintain a numerical majority in the House, voting in the 113th Congress shows that a minority of squishy, Big Government Republicans have proven themselves willing to vote with the majority of Democrats to pass unconstitutional legislation.

For years, the GOP leadership adhered to a rule that they would only bring a bill to the floor if it had the support of "a majority of the majority."

This rule worked fine for them when the majority of the GOP caucus were establishment Republicans or fiscal conservatives willing to betray their principles to "go along to get along."

But now, thanks to the hard work of Campaign for Liberty members like you, the GOP establishment can no longer count on lockstep support when they try to pass big spending bills, so they are working with liberal Democrats to pass their statist legislation.

They have already done this three times this year!

First it was the fiscal cliff, then the pork-laden Sandy "relief" bill, and most recently, reauthorization of the Violence against Women Act.

On all three bills, the majority of the GOP was against the legislation for fiscal or constitutional reasons, and in all three cases, a minority of establishment Republicans teamed up with Democrats to pass these bills over their objections, while using scare tactics to get their way.

Zachary, if this continues, I'm afraid it's going to be a long two years of coalition rule by the statists in both parties.

You and I both know there are plenty of cuts to be made in the federal budget.

But since Washington can't seem to figure things out, here are some suggestions:

**** First, the House GOP should not cave in to support ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank (which deepened the government's involvement in the financial system).

This CR funds implementation of both ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank, and a vote for it is as bad as a vote for these bills themselves!

**** Second, every year, Senator Tom Coburn publishes a "Wastebook" - a thorough study of government waste at the federal level.

Last year's "Wastebook" identified $18 BILLION in savings just by eliminating wasteful and duplicative government spending!

One example is a research grant to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for $325,000 to create a robotic squirrel named "Robosquirrel." Apparently, version 2.0 will give us a "weaponized" varmint capable of pelting rattlesnakes with stones.

This highlights an important issue often ignored in Washington: the federal government has no constitutional authority to fund science and technological research!

It's not popular to say things like the NSF are unconstitutional and shouldn't exist, but when Washington, D.C. is running trillion-dollar deficits annually, we need to reexamine government's priorities.

As Coburn's report concluded, "paying $325,000 for a robot squirrel seems a bit squirrelly."

**** Third, Senator Paul's past budgets and legislative proposals show plenty of fat on the federal budget that could be trimmed.

In fact, the first bill Senator Paul introduced last Congress would have cut $500 BILLION in one year!

You should have seen the faces on the political elite in Washington when he brought that up...

Even though cutting $500 BILLION would have only taken care of 1/3rd of the federal deficit!

I can't think of a better example to highlight the disconnect that exists between Washington, D.C. and Main Street, U.S.A.

From the establishment's perspective, every dollar spent by Washington is sacred.

Outside of Washington, however, the reality of the damage out-of-control government has created is settling in more every day.

So please click here to sign your Real Cuts, Right Now petition now and help turn the American people's desire for reform into action.

And if you can, please consider going further by chipping in $10 or more to help Campaign for Liberty reach even more people with the Real Cuts, Right Now message.



You and I sure do have our work cut out for us.

A large minority of House Republicans has shown they are eager to support the status quo on spending.

Even worse, they've proven a willingness to team up with Democrats to continue spending us into oblivion.

You and I must show them doing so will be quite costly.

That's why it's vital you sign your Real Cuts, Right Now petition to urge your representative and senators to find real savings in the budget.

And if you can, please consider chipping in with a donation of $10 or more after signing the petition to help Campaign for Liberty promote Real Cuts, Right Now.

Not next year, not ten years from now - RIGHT NOW!

Allowing the increased spending reductions from sequestration to take effect is just a head nod toward fiscal responsibility.

But it's also a smokescreen for reformers to hide behind and say, "See, we tried!"

Our legislators must be reminded that the $85 billion drop-in-the-bucket cuts are not a stopping point.

It's time for Congress to wake up and end the status quo cycle of tax-and-spend.

The first step is getting the House of Representatives to adopt amendments to the CR that enact REAL Cuts, Right NOW!

In Liberty,

John Tate
President

SEN. RAND PAUL CUTS $500K FROM HIS OFFICE BUDGET, RETURNS IT TO TREASURY

Image courtesy of WFPL News

By Becket Adams

When freshman Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) was elected in 2010, he promised to cut federal spending.

It looks like he’s making good on his promise.

“The Kentucky Republican and tea-party favorite said Thursday he’s returning $500,000 to the U.S. Treasury – money from his operating budget that his office never spent,” writes Scott Wong of Politico, and “he contends no senator has returned as much to taxpayers.”

How does he do it? Some would say frugality.

“We look at all of our office expenses. We look at the coffee pot to the computers bought and we try to buy things as if it were our money we were spending, or your money that we were spending, and our goal is not to spend all of it, our goal is to save some of it,” Paul said.

If Congress offered incentives for lawmakers and staff to cut budgets, the U.S. could save $130 million annually, Paul added.

“I ran to stop the reckless spending. And I ran to end the damaging process of elected officials acting as errand boys, competing to see who could bring back the biggest check and the most amount of pork,” Paul said at a news conference in Louisville, where he presented taxpayers with a massive mock check for $500,000…

Read more.

Source: The Blaze

The 25th Annual No Pants Senate

By John Ransom

The news media was agog on Sunday because the sacred holyday, the 12th Annual “No Pants on the Subway” event, took place around the world.

Yes, people on subways crossing metro areas everywhere dropped “trou” and showed the world what ought to be kept between a person’s significant other and their proctologist.

The internet today is full of colorful and creative- and mostly chaste- pictures of public transportation riders in their skivvies, yucking it up for cameras.    

And why?

Probably because while 25 percent of Americans chose to spend Sunday worshipping God and football, in capitals around the world- especially in DC- politicians have been going pantless for going on two decades.

Flunky see flunky do.

It’s not just that our emperors have no pants, it’s that they don’t want pants and it never occurs to them to wear any. Pants just make raping hotel maids- and the taxpayers- a tad more difficult as we lie back and think of England.

Twenty five years into the non-stop…

Read more.

Source: Town Hall

The Right Way to Cut Defense Spending

By Byron York

Republicans, and many Democrats, are upset by the prospect of so-called sequestration cuts to the nation's defense budget. Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is so alarmed that the day before the Senate took up what became the "fiscal cliff" agreement, he called a key Republican lawmaker, Sen. Lindsey Graham, to express deep concern that the cuts might go into effect. As it turned out, Congress put them off for two months.

Sequestration would force the government to reduce discretionary spending by about $1.2 trillion over the next decade. Roughly half of that, or $600 billion, would come from defense -- a hugely disproportionate amount to take from the Pentagon. And the cuts would be the worst possible sort: everything slashed, across the board, good programs and bad.

That's no accident. Sequestration was designed to be so awful that Congress would find a better way to cut spending. So far, that hasn't happened.

But just because the sequestration cuts are bad doesn't mean…

Read more.

Source: Town Hall

Fat Cats: Bloated College Administrations Hike Tuition Costs

By Jennifer Karbany

College tuitions were never cheap, but they used to be much more affordable, particularly at mainstream state-funded institutions. But as tuition costs nationwide have soared, student loan debt has ballooned, and the Great Recession’s end is nowhere in sight, a new critical eye on the country’s broken higher education system has revealed plenty of room for improvement.

A recent series of articles in The Wall Street Journal highlighted many problems university systems across America grapple with, among them – bloated administration costs that jack up tuition prices.

Scott Thurm’s Dec. 14 article “Who Can Still Afford State U?” notes that “administrative costs have soared nationwide, and many administrators have secured big pay increases.”

“Teaching loads have declined for tenured faculty at many schools, adding to costs,” Thurm continues. “Between 2001 and 2011, the Department of Education says, the number of managers at … universities grew 50 percent faster than the number of instructors. What’s more, schools have spent liberally on fancier dorms, dining halls and gyms to compete for students.

Meanwhile, times couldn’t be worse for adding new administration costs.

“Now, cash-strapped states across the country are cutting…

Read more.

Source: The College Fix

Fiscal Cliffhanger: A Study in Government Fear Mongering

The Libertarian Party Says: Cut Federal Spending Now

 

An open letter to American voters from Geoffrey J. Neale, Chair, Libertarian National Committee

 

 

Dear Voter,

 

You’re being scammed. Conned. Deceived.

 

Big Government politicians are trying to whip you into a frenzy of fear over what they like to call the “fiscal cliff.”

 

But it’s just their latest episode of a cliffhanger drama. They’re using it to continue their reckless government overspending and stampede you into paying higher taxes.

 

Why are they combining massive tax increases with “reductions” in federal government spending — and giving it a scary name?

 

Tax increases and government spending reductions are polar opposites when it comes to their impact.

 

Tax hikes hurt you. They diminish your family’s wealth and hurt the economy.

 

Government spending cuts are good for your family. They transfer money out of the reckless, irresponsible, wasteful government sector that consumes wealth and into the productive, private sector that creates wealth.

 

By blending tax hikes with (alleged) government spending cuts, they try to convince you that they’re all part of one scary package. That both things are bad.

 

To add injury to insult, their phony “fiscal cliff” doesn’t include a dime of actual government spending cuts. Just pretend reductions in future spending.

 

Big Government politicians are using embezzlers’ accounting tricks to avoid removing waste and truly discretionary spending from today’s federal budget. They refuse to balance the budget now — the way you have to every month with your family budget.

 

They threaten us with insanely inflated tax increases — while demanding praise for any taxes that they don’t raise.

 

It’s as if a thief breaks into your house and threatens to take your new flat-screen TV, your car, all your precious jewelry, and your kids’ favorite electronic games — and then takes just the car and a few rings. He makes you feel relieved that you still have your TV, the kids’ games, and the rest of your jewelry.

 

On New Year’s Day, what did Big Government politicians actually vote for?

 

They voted to rip you off an average of $800 a year MORE — a 2 percent increase in your Social Security payroll tax. While they bragged that they were doing you a favor.

 

They raised a pile of other taxes as well, including taxes on estates, higher incomes, investment income, health care, and businesses.

 

These Democratic and Republican tax hikes will allow them to rake in a total of $514 billion in new revenue and will destroy millions of private sector jobs. While we have 8 percent unemployment.

 

While raising taxes, they refused to cut a dime from this year’s government spending. They didn’t even allow their phony future spending cuts to stand.

 

But they did slip into the deal loads of new federal spending, adding even more to this year’s $1.3 TRILLION deficit.

 

More government debt = higher taxes for you. Government debt devalues the dollars you earn and save. This hidden tax will gouge you just as surely as a direct tax would. Instead of taking it out of your paycheck, it will cost you in the form of higher prices you will pay for groceries, utilities and virtually everything you buy.

 

This is what you get when you vote for either Democrats or Republicans. Higher taxes. Higher government spending. More government debt. Higher prices. More unemployment.

 

It doesn’t matter which of the two you vote for. For all the posturing and gamesmanship, both Democrats and Republicans are peas of a pod. Birds of a feather. They are both addicted to Big Government.

 

Libertarians have the solution, and it’s simple. To immediately revive the American economy, we must dramatically cut total government spending now.

 

Every dollar transferred out of government coffers and back into the private sector creates business investment and jobs.

 

Libertarian candidates who ran for federal office in 2012 called for big spending cuts and balancing the budget now, including Gov. Gary Johnson for president. He proposed to immediately slash spending by at least $1.3 trillion in 2013 to balance the budget his first year in office.

 

American voters: Help us help you. Join the Libertarian Party today. Help us run bold Libertarian candidates who will eliminate wasteful and bloated Big Government programs now, dramatically reduce government spending now, stabilize the dollar, and cut your taxes.

 

If you want less government, lower government spending, and much lower taxes, please join the Libertarian Party today.

 

Yours in liberty,

 

Geoffrey J. Neale
Chair
Libertarian National Committee

 

###

P.S. If you have not already done so, please join the Libertarian Party. We are the only political party with a mission to give voters a choice to downsize Big Government, to do so in the most humane way possible, to greatly reduce taxes, and to slash high government spending. You can also renew your membership. Or, you can simply make a contribution.

PSL: From one 'cliff' to the next

Anti-worker deal on taxes sets stage for anti-worker deal on spending

By Walter Smolarek

Poor and working people know what crises are. Being evicted, losing your job, or being sick and uninsured is a crisis. Crises have definite causes and consequences that require immediate action.

But for Wall Street’s loyal servants in Washington, crises are not all that bad. They present an opportunity to carry out on a grand scale the permanent bipartisan agenda of Congress to protect the rich and their ability to make money. Fiscal cliffs, debt ceilings and other creatively named points of no return induce so much fear that workers often find themselves paralyzed and unable to present any real resistance to the austerity schemes that are hatched in the halls of power.

These types of crises are so convenient for the politicians that they manufacture them all the time. First came the 2011 “debt ceiling” negotiations. Since 1917, Congress has periodically increased the amount of money the federal government is allowed to borrow in a relatively drama-free affair that prevented the country from going bankrupt. However, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives decided that they would refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless major cuts to vital social programs were made. Months of fear-mongering and negotiations in Washington produced the Budget Control Act of 2011.

With wide bipartisan support…

Read more.

Source: Party for Socialism and Liberation