Chairman's Note
by Michael Huneke
michael@bartowgop.com
Economy
The state legislature is in full swing and currently taking a two week recess to have committee meetings on the budget. Governor Perdue and some others are showing that they are not true conservatives by proposing tax increases. Governor Perdue is suggesting a hospital bed tax and others are suggesting a $1 a pack cigarette tax. A true conservative and one who believes in lowering taxes like Ronald Regan did knows that now is not the time to raise taxes. Now is the time to lower taxes. In fact, now would be a great time to simplify the state tax system and give our economy the jump start that it needs. When the people who spend the money actually have money, the economy will start to take off again.
I don't know about you, but I have recently finished my taxes and it is amazing how my income has gone down but yet my taxes have gone up along with other services that I purchase. Since I am not the Federal Government, I can't just run my family budget in the red, so I must make some tough choices and make some cuts, rethinking how I go about my purchases. Since our politicians can't get that concept, people like me will continue to stop spending our money and if or rather when our taxes go up even more, I will start to spend even less. However, if our politicians would lower my taxes and let me keep some of my own money, I would start spending more and help build back our economy.
Abortion
Recently, two good friends of mine introduced HB 1155, the "Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act". Rep. Barry Loudermilk and Ed Setzler along with Melvin Everson, Willie Talton, and Democrats Toney Collins and Earnest Smith have introduced legislation and have already had a committee hearing, but it has yet to pass out of the committee. This particular piece of legislation would make it illegal to conduct selective human abortions based on the sex, race or color of a child. It applies the same standards of non-discrimination that is in current law regarding employment, education, government and housing to the practice of human abortion. It also gives the mother the right to seek civil damages against any abortion doctor or clinic who conducts an illegal abortion in the state of Georgia.
This would be a huge step towards helping save babies who aren't born yet, but yet with a Republican controlled House and committee and with bipartisan support, it is having a little trouble getting to the floor of the House for a vote. It is time to put the pressure on these committee members to vote yes and send it to the House floor for a vote.
Committee Members: Chairman Rich Golick, Vice-Chairman Mark Hatfield, Secretary Kevin Levitas, Roberta Abdul-Salaam, Stacey Abrams, Stephanie Benfield, Charlice Byrd, Jim Cole, Doug Collins, Sharon Cooper, Melvin Everson, Bobby Franklin, Tom Knox, John Lunsford, Randal Mangham, Matt Ramsey, Nikki Randall, Ed Setzler, Lee Thompson, and Wendell Willard |
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When:
Saturday, January 23, 2010 @ 9:00 AM
Where: Slope's BBQ, 1131 North Tennessee St., Cartersville, GA 30120
Speakers:
Attorney General Candidate Sam Olens
and
Gubernatorial Candidate, Ray McBerry
Commissioner for Insurance Candidate, Gerry Purcell
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Gubernatorial Candidate, Eric Johnson
Commissioner for Insurance Candidate, Maria Sheffield
and
Agricultural Commissioner Candidate, Gary Black |
Our 2010 Sponsors
John and Terry Bangert
Rep. Paul and Marijon Battles
Steve & Wanda Cagle-Gray
Ted and Gail Henry
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Douglas and Joan Jones
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Bruce Poore
Become A 2010 Sponsor TODAY! |
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State & Local
In a bit of welcome news, Senator Majority Leader Chip Rogers has introduced a property tax reform bill with more than 40 changes which seeks to make the process more fair, efficient and transparent.
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The AJC reports that a "CRCT Scandal stuns the state", but I was not stunned or even surprised. Such is the state of education in Georgia's public school system. The 191 schools statewide under investigation for administrators/teachers erasing and remarking wrong answers include 69% of Atlanta's elementary and middle schools. Every person that can be proved to be involved in this mess should be fired and lose their taxpayer-funded pension.
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Looking for great, wholesome, family entertainment that will also help a good cause? On Monday, March 1st, starting at 6PM at the Cartersville High School Gym, the Harlem Ambassadors will put on a display of dazzling ball-handling tricks, slam dunks and comedy. Advance tickets are $8, or $10 at the door. All proceeds benefit New Frontier of Bartow County, and Advocates for Bartow's Children. For more information, contact Brian Canty @ 770-655-0927 or Michael Dean @ 770-547-5003.
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We have local grassroots groups here in Bartow that share our desire to see conservative government regain power. Please support the efforts of the Bartow Patriots as often as possible. Their next meeting will be at the Cartersville Civic Center on March 11th from 7-9PM. Guest speaker will be gubernatorial candidate John Oxendine. For more information visit the Bartow Patriots website, and don't forget to check out upcoming events for the Georgia TEA Party on their website.
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For those wondering how in the world our government has become so large, unwieldy and unresponsive to our needs, a failure to understand the power of the 10th Amendment has much to do with it. If you want to educate yourself on the 10th Amendment (which explains states' rights and has nothing to do with racism), take the opportunity to be a part of the 10th Amendment Summit will take place at the Atlanta Airport Hilton on February 25th & 26th.
The summit will be hosted by Republican gubernatorial candidate Ray McBerry, and will feature Alabama Judge Roy Moore (of Ten Commandments fights fame), Judge Andrew Napolitano and dozens of political candidates from across the country running on the 10th Amendment platform. For more information visit the site at www.GeorgiaFirst.org. |
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Greetings!
A little over fifteen months ago I took the day off of work so that I could drive around the district and pick up the yard signs for our Republican candidates for office. As I did so I had a lot of time to think, maybe too much time, because I had to fight back a creeping feeling of dispair.
While many Americans had chosen to overlook Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama's questionable past, and instead buy into the feel-good but mindless mantra of "hope and change", I had done heavy reseach on his past as a "community organizer" with ties to domestic terrorists William Ayers and Bernadine Dorn, his two decade association with radical black nationalist pastor Jeremiah Wright, his questionable method of getting elected to the Illinois state Senate (where he voted against a bill that would require doctors to give life-saving medical aid to a newborn that had survived an abortion), his calls for wealth redistribution and government-run health care, and the myriad other red flags that were not just blowing in the wind but standing out straight with a hurricane force gale.
The more I thought about what was to come with Obama as president and with enlarged majorities in the House and Senate, the more I feared for my children's future. I was right to fear. In just one year in office Obama has managed to take over two of the largest private corporations in America (GM & Chrysler), pass a massive $787 billion "stimulus" package which was nothing more than a goody-bag of rewards for Democrat voters and labor unions, go on a worldwide appeasement tour in which he apologized for America's supposed imperialism and arrogance, saddle us with more debt than all previous presidents combined, weaken our military and intelligence services, attempt to take over the health care and energy sectors, and in fact he did take over a large chunk of the financial sector. With each passing day my hope for America's future waned a little bit more.
In the last few months God has reminded us that there is always hope. The push for a takeover of the energy sector under the guise of combatting global warming has been dealt a heavy blow by both record cold temperatures and snowfall across the U.S., and with a hacker's release of e-mails from prominent IPCC scientists which revealed that they had been falsifying data in order to get it to comport with their political agenda.
In addition, despite the largest legislative majorities in over half a century, which could have passed any legislation it desired without a single Republican vote, Obama and the Democrats have been unable to pass their signature legislative items of health care "reform", the cap-and-tax bill, and the Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act (a.k.a. "card check"), which would have taken away the secret ballot in union elections.
On top of all that, the mood of the American people has shifted away from Obama and the Democrats. It started with angry town hall meetings and the TEA Parties, then Republican wins in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and very liberal New Jersey, and the unfathomable loss of the "Kennedy" seat. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is polling so low in his home state that his son Rory, running for governor, is not even using his last name on his campaign materials. Senior Democrat legislators Chris "Countrywide" Dodd, Kent Conrad, Evan Bayh, and Byron Dorgan have also announced their retirements and each of their seats is either leaning Republican or at the very least in play (including the seat of the retiring Roland Burris of Illinois, which was a placeholder for the seat Obama vacated). The Senate seat that Joe Biden left when he became vice president was supposed to be handed over to his son, state attorney general Beau Biden, but Beau recently said he would not run for the seat because he needs to focus on a case he is working on. Parker Griffith, House rep from Alabama, switched his party allegience to the Republicans just over a month ago, and everywhere you look Democrats are running scared.
This is all very exciting news. Yet here is where I will temper that excitement with a dose of reality. The decline in popularity of the Democrat Party does not equate with a corresponding increase in the popularity for the Republican Party. And why is that? Because the Republican Party has lost the confidence of the American people as the party of lower taxes, smaller government and strong conservative values. I say we "lost" that confidence, but the truth is that we threw it away. When Republicans had control of the legislative branch when Bush was president, the size of government grew more than it did under Clinton (this has less to do with Clinton being a moderate than it does with Gingrich doing a masterful job of keeping him in check).
Republicans are geared to make huge gains in 2010, and there is even talk about the remote possibility of regaining majorities in the House and Senate. If we do get those majorities, we won't long keep them if we have not learned the lessons from 2006 and 2008. If we continue to have a Senate Minority Leader like Mitch McConnell, who narrowly won re-election in Kentucky, whose campaign was based on how much pork he brought back home, we're going to have problems. If we have a national leadership that backs RINO's over conservatives (i.e., Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey, Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio, Dede Scozzafava over Doug Hoffman), then our trust among conservatives, independents and the TEA Party grassroots will continue to erode. We must have, now more than ever, true conservatives that will help us reverse the ocean of federal red ink, facilitate the conditions that will create jobs, and help us return to the values that once created strong families and communities. |
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I could go on a rant about leaked e-mails, corruption and fraud among U.N. IPCC/East Anglia University CRU scientists, but really, what is the point? If you can't watch the news and see the record cold temperatures and snowfall across the country and the world and figure out that global warming is a hoax, then the only thing left to do with you is put you in a padded room where you can't hurt yourself, or get you a leadership position with the Democrat Party.
If you are still not convinced, here are a few articles for you to peruse:
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Health care "reform", at least the version envisioned by Democrats, was dealt a severe blow with the win by Republican Scott Brown in the race for the "Kennedy" seat. However, that is not to be construed with dead and buried. Nancy Pelosi, commenting on the assertion that the health care bill was dead, stated bluntly that she was not giving up. She replied "You go through the gate. If the gate's closed, you go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we'll pole vault in. If that doesn't work, we'll parachute in. But we're going to get health care reform passed for the American people."
President Obama has called yet another "summit", allegedly to discuss how to reach a bipartisan consensus on health care reform. You can be sure though that it is another thinly disguised attempt to appear bipartisan without making any actual effort to BE bipartisan. You can bet that there will be no tort reform, purchasing across state lines, or any other market-based mechanism to make health care more efficient and affordable. The goal of Democrats' health care reform is and has always been to give government control over 1/6 of the U.S. economy and over the bodies of American citizens. Hopefully the Republicans will not fall into this P.R. trap. |
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The Economy, Taxes and Deficits
It is no surprise that the economy continues to struggle. We have an administration and a Democrat-controlled Congress that sees government as the wise and benevolent administrator of the economy, and the private sector as an enemy to be contained. Despite the more than two decade economic boom following Ronald Reagan's cutting of tax rates by huge margins, leading to a more than doubling of revenues into the U.S. Treasury, Obama and the Democrats insist on trying to "stimulate" the economy by unleashing a flood of red ink, with payoffs to labor unions and Democrat constituencies. While that may buy some temporary votes, it will not improve the economy.
In his State of the Union address Obama gave conservatives brief but wary hope for the beginning of some fiscal common sense when he talked of a 3-year spending freeze by the federal government starting in 2011 (conveniently right after the midterm elections). Alas, it was yet another display of smoke and mirrors. Starting from the baseline of a budget that grew 25% in the last two years (including stimulus spending), the budget would actually freeze in place spending increases during those years. The larger problem is that the "freeze" would apply to less than 20% of the overall federal budget, with projected "savings" of around $250 billion over ten years for a budget that was projecting trillion dollar annual deficits for at least a decade. This is the equivalent of going to McDonald's and ordering three triple cheeseburgers, a couple of supersized fries, an apple pie, a large milk shake...and a small diet Coke.
The spending "freeze" exempted the following:
- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the monstrous entitlement programs that devour approximately 2/3 of the total federal budget,
- any spending designated as "stimulus", whether past OR future!
- foreign aid, tax credit expansions, "green" jobs spending and the federal government's pet education programs,
- any funds marked for the trillion dollar plus health care "reform" bill, should it manage to pass.
The projected $15-25 billion in "savings" would amount to less than 3% of the budget deficit over this time frame...not the budget...the budget deficit. During the 2008 campaign Obama was deeply critical of McCain's call for an across-the-board spending freeze, what Obama called the "hatchet" approach, saying that instead, as president he would use a scalpel to careful remove waste and inefficiency. A scalpel?!! This supposed freeze amounts to cutting a kitchen-table-sized block of ice with a plastic butterknife! Or as conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer dryly noted, this isn't a budget cut, this is a rounding error.
By 2019, the interest payment on the national debt will approach $900 billion. To put this in perspective, this is more than the combined expenditures for infrastructure spending (roads and bridges), education, and all other non-defense discretionary spending. There is a reason why foreign nations are reducing the amount of U.S. debt instruments they are buying. As the Chinese have bluntly warned, they do not trust that we will be able to repay this debt.
This fiscal irresponsibility makes laughable Obama's statement that "In order to meet this challenge, I welcome any idea, from Democrats and Republicans...It's time to hold Washington to the same standards families and businesses hold themselves. It's time to save what we can, spend what we must, and live within our means again". I guess we really need to get him to define "must".
This disconnect has become more apparent with the recent release of the new $3.4 trillion budget. How will all of this red ink be paid for? The only way a socialist Democrat knows how...with tax increases. Of course, the tax increases will only be on the rich, but look out, rich ain't what it used to be. Actually, I take that back. The Democrats have proposed two budget cuts. Nancy Pelosi wants to cut spending on defense, and Obama already cut the budget for the federal agency in charge of overseeing that unions comply with fiscal transparency under labor laws.
By the way, the Democrats just voted, and Obama signed, another $1.9 trillion expansion of the federal debt ceiling, which was the second one this year. God help our poor children. |
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National Security and Defense
A few weeks ago Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hinted of news that would shock the world. Then Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated that by saying "The Iranian nation, with its unity and god's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned." And what revelation were they referring to? The claim that Iran is now a nuclear state.
There is no way to tell at this point exactly what Iran's intentions or capabilities are. Iran is a closed country with a military dictatorship/mullahocracy that deals harshly with internal dissent, so little information is available to the Western world. What we do know is that they are a major sponsor of terrorism, that they have threatened the destruction of Israel and America, and that they seek total dominion over the Middle East.
We also know that our intelligence is mediocre at best. In 2007 Bush was derided as a warmonger for his position on Iran because of a National Intelligtence Estimate in which it was concluded that Iran had discontinued its nuclear program (this conclusion was the assessment of 16 U.S. Intelligence agencies). Iran's peaceful position was also confirmed by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear lapdog...um, I meant to say "watchdog), which also correctly assessed the advanced nature of the North Korean nuclear program. Actually, they got that one wrong too. They also got's Iraq's nuclear capability wrong. In fact, it would seem that the only purpose that the IAEA serves is to delay action by Western powers until homicidal maniacs in Islamic countries and megalomaniacal military dictatorships have had plenty of time to develop them.
Don't say anything to the Obama administration though, or you might hurt their feelings. Stung by criticism of the administration's handling of the Khalid Sheik Mohammed trial, the Fort Hood massacre and the Christmas Day pantybomber, Obama's boys have lashed out. John Brennan, Assistant to the President and the Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism angrily denounced any negative assessment as "politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering [which] only serve the goals of Al Qaeda."
This is, of course, confusing to Republicans and conservatives who remember being told ad nauseum during the Bush years that criticism and dissent are patriotic. I guess that is only true when the president is a Republican and the critics are liberal Democrats. You remember that, don't you? Harry Reid proclaiming that the "war is lost", John Murtha claiming that our Marines at Haditha were psychotic murderers, John Kerry claiming that our men and women in the armed services were terrorizing women and children in the dead of night. Where was the call for unity when The San Francisco Chronicle was running headlines like "Is It OK To Hate Bush"? There were many more instances, but you get the point. |
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Informational Miscellany
Obama has talked a big game when it comes to his committment to education. The reality is not so flattering. Once again, Obama has eliminated the budget for an extremely successful charter school in Washington, D.C. after getting pressure from teachers unions.
The DC Opportunity Scholarship Fund, which was cut last year and then restored after the embarrassing revelation and the protests of parents and child advocates, was restored again, but with a 30% budget cut and the stipulation that the program would be eliminated after this year. What makes this even worse is that the program serves 1700 students which are almost exclusively poor, minority students, and the students have excelled compared to their public school peers, and at an overall cost of less than half that of the nationally-worst ranked D.C. public schools.
Maybe our education programs in this country would improved if we spent a quarter of the time worrying about what is best for the students as we do worrying about appeasing the politicians, administrators and teachers unions. | |
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Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs...Jobs
After getting shellacked in his attempt to pass a government takeover of health care, President Obama has turned his sights on job creation. I'm not sure why, because after the stimulus bill passed unemployment never went above 8% and more than 3.5 million jobs have been created or saved. What? It did go above...huh, they weren't created? Ummm, never mind.
After being mocked by anyone with and IQ over room temperature for his jobs created "or saved" tactic, and in light of rising and sustained unemployment, the White House quietly did away with the whole "jobs created or saved" nonsense. It has now changed to jobs "funded by stimulus money". Of course, in keeping with true journalistic integrity, the Washington Post ran the story where it was sure to be seen...on page A15.
Meanwhile, Obama and his people can't even get their stories straight on exactly how many jobs have been created or saved. Making the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows at the end of last month, the total job count varied widely. On CNN's "State of the Union" show, Senior Advisor David Axelrod claimed that "The Recovery Act the president passed has created...or saved more than 2 million jobs". That's not too bad, right? But wait. Then White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs claimed it was 1.5 million jobs. Finally, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett reported what is likely the truth when she said that "The Recovery Act saved thousands and thousands of jobs". Of course, they were virtually all in government and all came at the expense of jobs in the private sector.
There is a bright spot though...come November we'll be adding dozens of Democrats in Congress to the ranks of the unemployed. President Obama also recently stated that "I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president". Well, there is not much help with the mediocre, but I think that the American people will be more than happy to help him serve only one term. |
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The Culture of Corruption...it's the Democrats Turn!
Nancy Pelosi has suggested we decrease the budget deficit by reducing the budget for the Department of Defense. Presumably she has exempted the $2.1 million she has spent for personal travel for her and her family aboard Air Force passenger jets, as well as the $101,000 spent on alcohol and food during those flights.
Good work if you can get it...according to USA Today, the number of federal employees earning over $100,000 has exploded during the recession, jumping from 14% to 19% of federal employees. The number of employees in the federal DOT making over $170,000 has jumped from one to 1690!
Remember Obama's vilification of evil, greedy CEO's and their fat bonuses? I guess not all are bad. Obama nows says that he doesn't begrudge multi-million dollar bonuses for senior Wall Street executives Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase, $17 million bonus) and Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs, $9 million bonus). I am sure it is pure coincidence that both are major donors to Obama and the Democrats. Of course, that pales in comparison to the $210 million in bonuses handed out to execs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which lost over $100 billion last year and took another $110 billion in taxpayer-funded bailouts (by the way, just before the cut-off date, the Treasury Department quietly eliminated the limits on how much the taxpayers would be on the hook for in long-term bailouts). |
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A Little Good News and Comic Relief
Obama has given us a lot to criticize, but when he does something right we should give him credit for it. Romanian President Trian Basescu announced recently that he had reached an agreement with the Obama administration to install missile defense sites in his country. These would be used to counter Iranian development of nuclear warhead and missile technology. Russia has expressed its extreme disapproval, but this is a good development in U.S. efforts in dealing with Iran. This will supplement the Patriot missile batteries now positioned in Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain. While the first option should be to encourage and aid Iranian dissidents protesting the military mullahocracy, it's good to have Plan B in place.
In more good news (although not for Obama), yet another Obama appointee has gone down in flames. Craig Becker, nominee to serve on the National Labor Relations Board, was defeated by a vote of 52-33, with eight Democrats voting against him. Mr. Becker had made clear his intent to implement rules favorable to labor unions by fiat that could not be done through the legislative process. This has really ticked off the labor unions, who are already angry over the failure of Democrats to pass the Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act, which would have eliminated secret ballots in the vote to consider unionization.
We've just heard that the Obama Administration will be honoring the 43rd President of the United States by naming the gap between the tectonic plates beneath Haiti after him.The area will now officially be referred to as "Bush's Fault." (hat tip: Patriot Post)
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Reading for Extra Credit
Keeping Up With the World of Politics, Government, and the Social Issues of the Day
A must read! This excellent column by John Stossel discusses why an ever expanding government damages not only our economy, but the very spirit of independence, individualism and entrepreneuership that made America great.
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May God Bless You,
Louis DeBroux, Vice Chair of Communications
Bartow County Republican Party
Michael W. Huneke II, Chairman
Bartow County Republican Party |
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