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Today is the 38th legislative day out of 40. This year will definitely go down as the year of the budget, but the question really becomes what has our legislature accomplished to help the state of Georgia for the long run? There have been some accomplishments, but everything will be overshadowed by their latest actions in raising our taxes and not holding to true principles of conservatism. They have not followed the lead of President Ronald Reagan in lowering taxes rather than raising them...oh, I forgot, they aren't taxes, they're fees... or at least that is what leadership is telling us. The tax that is getting most of the attention is the hospital bed tax/fee, although there are others too. Very few in the House and the Senate voted no, and yet most of the ones who voted yes will try to pass themselves off as conservatives and/or Reagan Republicans this election cycle. The leadership, Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers in particular, is telling us that there are tax cuts in the bill too. What he doesn't tell you is that those tax cuts won't go into effect until the economy turns around, so don't expect those tax cuts anytime soon. It is time to send our state legislators a message. Two of our representatives here in Bartow County, Rep. Barry Loudermilk and Sen. Preston Smith, stood up for their constituents and voted against the tax increases. They have been punished by leadership for doing so, Sen. Smith by losing his position as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Loudermilk by having no legislation allowed to come to the floor for a vote. They both remain committed to the principles of lower taxes and less government. Any legislator that votes for these tax increases to receive final passage needs a primary opponent. So if we want true change here in Georgia, April 26th is when it begins. Qualifying for office begins at 9:00 AM on April 26th and closes on April 30th at 12:00 noon sharp. The three school board seats that are up for the Bartow County School System will qualify at the Bartow County Republican Party Headquarters and all other seats will qualify at the State Capitol. If you are tired of the same old same old of our elected officials, next week is the week to stand up, say enough is enough and run for office. After 12:00 noon on April 30th, we will only be able to choose from those who have placed their name on the ballot.
For more information on qualifying for candidacy, please click here. |
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When:
Saturday, April 24, 2010 @ 9:00 AM
ATTN: NEW LOCATION!
Where: Bartow County Republican Party HQ, 162 W. Main Street, Suite 106, Cartersville, GA 30120
Speakers:
Candidate for Insurance Commissioner, Maria Sheffield
and
State Senator Preston Smith
Future
Meetings:
May 22, 2010
State School Superintendent Candidate, Richard Woods
and
Gubernatorial Candidate, Jeff Chapman
June 26, 2010
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Our 2010 Sponsors
John and Terry Bangert
Rep. Paul and Marijon Battles
Steve & Wanda Cagle-Gray
Ted and Gail Henry
John and Kerry Howard
Douglas and Joan Jones
Angie and Willy Klajbor
Rep. Barry and Desiree Loudermilk
Bruce Poore and Joan Stewart
$75
James Gilreath and Dr. Linda Denham-Gilreath
Fred & Lynn Kittle
Become A 2010 Sponsor TODAY! |
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State & Local
A strong pro-life bill sponsored by our own Barry Loudermilk (HB 1155) has passed the Senate (thanks in part to efforts by Sen. Chip Pearson. The bill would make it illegal to perform an abortion on a woman who is being coerced against her will to abort a child. It also prohibits abortion based on gender, sex, or the race of the unborn child. Barry should be commended for taking a strong pro-life stance and doing more than just paying lip-service to the belief that all life is sacred.
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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. 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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Become a Bartow GOP Member
¶Individual Membership ($25)
($40 for Two Calendar Year Membership)
~ Email Updates
¶ Household Membership ($35)
($60 for Two Calendar Year Membership)
~ Email Updates
¶ Household Membership - Sponsor ($75)
($125 for Two Calendar Year Membership)
~ Email Updates
~ "Sponsor" Status in newsletter and on website
¶ Household Membership - Silver Sponsor ($150)
($250 for Two Calendar Year Membership)
~ Email Updates
~ "Silver Sponsor" Status in newsletter and website
~ Invitations to special events
~ Thank you gift of a Bartow GOP Mug
¶ Household Membership - Gold Sponsor ($300+)
($500 for Two Calendar Year Membership)
~ Email Updates
~ "Gold Sponsor" Status in newsletter and website
~ Link to your website at BartowGOP.com
please email michael@bartowgop.com with your web site address
~ Invitations to special events
~ Thank you gift of a Bartow GOP Mug ~ Thank you gift of a Bartow GOP Hat
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Greetings!
In the year that I have served in my current capacity as Vice Chair of Communications for the Bartow County Republican Party, one of the central themes in every newsletter, and every article I've written for the Bartow Tribune, is that the Republican Party must regain the trust of the people by recommitting to the principles of conservative governance. While Republicans are poised to make significant gains in the coming mid-term elections, it will mean little if those elected do not learn the lessons of 2006 and 2008; namely, that given the choice between Democrat and Democrat-lite, people will always choose the real thing. The Republican Party MUST differentiate itself from the Democrats not only on policy issues, but in our integrity and in transparency in our governing methods.
A recent development at the Georgia capitol leads me to wonder if Republicans have really learned their lessons. At issue is HB307, a bill which attempted to balance the budget in part by dealing with health care costs. Georgia has been hit hard during this recession, and our unemployment rate remains above 10%. The legislature has already cut billions from the budget over the last two sessions, and yet it was still not enough, and they were being called on to make deeper cuts.
The options on the table (which is to say, the options being discussed...not necessarily the only options available) were either to cut money from the Medicare program in the state, or to impose a 1.5% bed tax on hospitals. Neither was particularly palatable, but the state Constitution requires that we balance the budget. In the end, the hospitals accepted the bed tax. The press coverage portrayed this as a negotiated agreement between the legislature and the hospitals, with the hospitals asking the legislature to take the bed tax route. However, according to one legislator I discussed the matter with, this is like asking the hospitals whether they want to be hanged or shot to death, them choosing the firing squad, and then announcing that they ASKED to be shot. In reality, neither was palatable to the hospitals, but the bed tax was the least bad.
As bad as raising taxes in this economy is, the fallout from this vote was even worse. The bill was passed by Republicans on a party line vote, with three Republicans joining the Democrats in the Nay vote. Those that voted against the bill were punished by being stripped of committee chairmanships. I outlined the details of the bill, and the fallout from the vote, in an e-mail sent yesterday. Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers is getting the brunt of the blame for what happened to those that voted against the bill, all of which had strong conservative voting records. Those I've spoken to at the capitol familiar with what happened indicated that the pressure was on Chip Rogers from Lt. Governor Casey Cagle.
I won't rehash all of that here, but I will say this; Republican leadership needs to understand that there is deep-running anger at government in general, and not just the Democrats in office. The current anger at Democrats does not translate into goodwill for Republicans. If Republicans are to recapture the goodwill and trust of Georgians and the American people, it will have to be by showing true allegience to constitutional principles at all times, not just when it is expedient or when your party is in the minority. I pray that what happened at the capitol surrounding HB307 will be resolved quickly and amicably, and that it will not happen again. We must, as responsible citizens, continue to let our voices ber heard by our elected officials, we must hold them accountable for their votes and for their loyalty to the Constitution. |
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The Economy, Taxes and Deficits
The economy continues to be on shaky ground, with unemployment remaining near 10%, the weak value of the dollar and unsustainable debt loads on working Americans. Despite Democrat claims to the contrary, the health care bill will not only NOT reduce the deficit, but it will drastically increase it. As former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin points out, after stripping away the false assumptions and accounting gimmicks, the actual implementation of the law will lead to an additional $562 billion in deficits over the first ten years, and even higher deficits after that. Now the truth about health care "savings" is starting to trickle out.
Now that we have actual legislation to refer to, what are the results? So far a number of major corporations have announced that they will be taking charges against earnings to offset the cost to them of implementing ObamaCare. Those companies include DuPont ($5 Billion), Boeing ($150M), John Deere ($150M), Caterpillar ($100M), Verizon ($970M) and AT&T ($1 Billion), 3M ($90M), Exelon ($65M), PPG ($85M), Prudential ($100M), Illinois Tool ($22M), Lockheed-Martin ($96M), Goodrich ($10M), Eaton Corp. ($25M) and Valero Energy ($20M). This has also led to decreased earnings-per-share projections, and announced cuts to employee salary/benefits. The ObamaCare bill eliminated a tax credit for companies that provided certain benefits for employees, so now you will see an exodus of companies from those programs as companies try to deal with the financial hit and more and more people will be added to the government health care rolls.
How many people will lose jobs or received reduced salaries and benefits because of this legislative monstrosity? No one yet knows for sure but it does not look good. This is the start of the backdoor process leading to a government-run, universal health care system. Now that is change you can believe in.
In other news relating to the economy: The CBO chief recently reported that (shocker!) the current deficit is unsustainable and that it "cannot be solved through minor tinkering". He also warned that there will be dire economic consequences if the problem is not dealt with soon.
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National Security and Defense
It is the primary job of the president, as Commander-in-Chief of U.S. armed forces, to oversee the defense of the citizens of this nation. In Barack Obama we have a president that is abdicating his duties in this regard. How can you defeat an enemy that you will not acknowledge exists?
Over the last three decades virtually every act of terrorism against the United States and U.S. interests has been at the hands of radical adherents to the religion of Islam. While that is not to say that every Muslim is a terrorist (with over a billion practitioners of Islam that is obviously not the case), it is generally true that every terrorist is Muslim. President Obama and the leadership in his administration has done all they can do to publicly avoid acknowledging this reality.
With a recent adjustment to policy, Obama cemented this philosophy in American government. The terms "Islam", "Islamic extremism" and "jihad" have been removed from the National Security Strategy, the central document outlining America's security policies. In a more recent development, the White House quietly acknowledged that they will also replace the term "rogue states" with "outliers" and "Islamic radicalism" with "violent extremism". This is another part of Obama's outreach towards Muslims, presumably because American efforts to free tens of millions of Muslims from brutal oppression in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Kuwait (in which hundreds of billions of dollars and the lives of thousands of America's finest men and women were sacrificed) were not enough to prove we are not anti-Muslim.
America has gone out of its way to make sure that it did not project an anti-Muslim image, and we have been punched in the mouth in return. Not a day goes by that we do not hear more calls by Muslims to see the extermination of America and Israel. The news is a constant litany of stories of Muslim men, women, children and dogs being strapped with bombs to be detonated near American or non-Muslim infidels, all for the glory of the "religion of peace".
My question to Obama and the Islamic world is this...when is the last time you heard of a Christian strapping on a bomb, or grabbing a gun, or using an SUV as a ram, for the purpose of killing Muslims? When is the last time you heard of a Christian stabbing someone to death, beheading someone, or even just rioting or protesting when they and their beliefs are mocked? Muslims rioted for weeks after the publication of a few innocuous cartoons, yet somehow Obama and Homeland Security are more worried about Christian extremists. I'll tell you what, Mr. President...let's wait until the body count from Christian extremists gets to be 1/100th of those from Muslim extremists before we start to wring our hands over Christians. |
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Informational Miscellany
Think twice about donating the next time someone comes around collecting for UNICEF. Your money is going to fund anti-Israel hate TV for Palestinian children.
Further proof that the message of the TEA Party movement is resonating the American people...opponents are planning to infiltrate rallies and shout racist and bigoted comments in order to make the movement appear extremist to the American people. The problem for opponents is that the movement is made up of average American people that just want their country back.
Democrats are well on their way to accomplishing a major goal; having a majority of Americans exempted from income taxes so that they will support any increase in taxes Democrats propose. And why not? Who cares if the rich get gouged as long as you are not considered rich? The only problem is that this is no long term solution. If you took every dollar earned by every member of the top 10% of income earners, you still would not have enough to fund the budget or pay off the deficit.
This is comforting...the Obama administration has warned state and local governments that, in the event of a nuclear detonation, they are on their own for at least 24-72 hours after the blast. |
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The Culture of Corruption...it's the Democrats Turn!
Despite Joe "gaffe-a-minute" Biden's cross-country cheerleading tour touting the "success" of the stimulus package, it was recently revealed that the White House has not been completely honest. In order to make their "jobs created or saved" numbers look better, they revised the original baseline projection by (7) million jobs. With that taken into account, now the jobs numbers look a lot more realistic. |
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Good News and Comic Relief
"Congress is now preparing to pass yet another jobs bill. You know how to create more jobs in this country? Fire the people that wrote the first jobs bill. That obviously didn't work." - Jay Leno (I agree completely)
Here is an astute observation of the differences between the iPad and the oBamaPad.
SEPARATED AT BIRTH?
...And now for insight on the 2nd Amendment...
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Reading for Extra Credit
Keeping Up With the World of Politics, Government, and the Social Issues of the Day .
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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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