What does “repeal and replace” mean to you?

Religion

What does “repeal and replace” mean to you?  We heard the phrase used over and over again by our Washington Republicans since the Obamacare shackles were clamped on us in 2010.  The phrase certainly embodied the great hope of most Americans coming into our last national election.

Remember that to rid us of Obamacare, Republicans implored us to give them a majority in the House of Representatives.  This gave rise to the conservative Tea Party through whose efforts, Republicans were given the House majority they stated they needed to effect a “repeal and replace”.  However, having the House proved to not be enough and Obamacare continued to grow and metastasize.

Then the Republicans told us that to really “repeal and replace” Obamacare they had to have a majority in the Senate as well as the House.  So we voted in a Republican majority in the Senate while maintaining the House majority, but again Obamacare lived on because the Republicans then told us the namesake for the disaster still occupied the White House.

So last year we voters “replaced” the “organizer-in-chief” with an outsider, a successful businessman, one who would drain the Washington swamp and finally rid us of our healthcare disaster.  He proclaimed while campaigning:

“Obamacare is a disaster. It will be repealed and replaced as sure as you’re sitting there. Repealed and replaced. Thank you. And we will have alternatives that will be so good, that’s so much less expensive. So much better. You will actually be able to keep your doctor and to have your plan.” 

Now my understanding of what “repeal and replace” means is simple and straightforward as it probably is for you.  The most common definition of the verb “repeal” is to revoke or annul.  That’s the way I understand it.

Most of us would define the verb “replace” as to put something new in place of an existing thing.  Nothing confusing or ambiguous here, right?

Unless you have been off-planet this week, you know that the House passed the long awaited “repeal and replace” legislation which turns out now to be more “tweak and spin” than “repeal and replace” as our Republican elite assured us.  Some window dressing has changed, new language introduced but only maybe 10% of the original Obamacare provisions and mandates have changed.

In our new leader’s quote cited above, he makes a point of saying this new bill will be much less expensive for us.  Have you heard any of the pundits spinning the bill delineate how much less individuals will be paying in premiums and deductibles under the new provisions?  No.  Not a word because premiums and deductibles will not be coming down. But look, the administration got its win and that’s what really counts, right?

So, though we the voters have voted over and over again for a return to a freer, more capitalistic society things just keep moving left.  Just look at how the latest budget kabuki dance turned out.  With Republicans controlling the White House and Congress, we fully funded Planned Parenthood, the EPA budget, border security for several Middle Eastern countries but not the United States, and sanctuary cities.  There was only a very moderate increase for defense.  The bill was so bad that every Democrat in the Senate voted for it!

Look, I’m really not trying to trash our new administration.  In the area of national security and law enforcement, so far I give it an A grade.  However, I’m making a larger point here that the federal government is far too big, far too tyrannical and will never, never reform itself.  It is moving hard left.  Republicans won’t stop this since there is really only one party in Washington.  The Republicans love big government and its crushing of the individual as much as Democrats.  Electing more Republicans is not going to change this dynamic.  Whoever new we send will just be corrupted.

Therefore, we need to dramatically change Washington before it’s too late.  There is only one way to put the federal government back into the box the Framers intended it to be limited to – amending the Constitution through a convention of states process as provided for in Article V of the Constitution.

Thirty-four states can convene a convention for proposing amendments to the Constitution.  Agreed on amendments would then be submitted to the state legislatures for a vote.  Thirty-eight of the state legislatures would have to vote to ratify the proposed amendments and officially amend the Constitution.  The feds in Washington have no ability to oppose the new changes.  They would be bound by the adopted amendments.

Therefore the states have the power to impose term limits on Congress (and maybe judges), to require a balanced budget, and to change the Senate back to being elected by the individual state legislatures all without the Washington technocrats having a say in the matter.  Many other amendment possibilities are being proposed but you get the idea.

Just this week, Texas became the eleventh state to commit to a convention.  Marxists are starting to get nervous because they know the power the states have to rein in their tyranny.  I hear George Soros is starting to write checks to thwart the Article V effort.  Do not believe any hysterical hyperventilating about a runaway convention.  This is absolute fear mongering nonsense.

Our Framers provided this mechanism for just what we are seeing today – a tyrannical federal government careening out of control.  The Article V provision is the only mechanism we have left for peacefully changing our government.  If your state hasn’t yet committed, urge your representatives to get on board.  Our Republic depends on it.

 

Virgilance or Reticense

Opinion

Opinion by John Tutten:

Are you as sick and tired of this presidential campaign as I am?  It has descended to a level more typical of a student council election than one to choose the leader of the greatest country in the history of our planet.

Every day it’s some new drama that has little to do with the monumental challenges we face as a nation.  We are presented scenarios that are designed to feed insatiable egos and generate hollow ratings for media outlets that proclaim they are “looking out for us”.  It makes me wonder if Vince McMahon has moved on to politics.

Look at how the current leader in the Republican polls differentiates himself from his nearest rival – “nyah nyah, nyah nyah nyah, nobody likes you!”  This is grade school stuff.  And then we have the media purveyors of punditry validate such drivel as substantive and pander and pontificate endlessly about the critical effect it will have on this campaign or that campaign.  This is nonsense, patriots.  We deserve better.

Tragically, the country has left its moorings of objective values and critical thinking.  We no longer think.  We react.  We have been conditioned not to think through, or analyze, or weigh arguments.  Instead, we are programmed to jump to the conclusion the stimuli intended without any neurons firing.  I’m amazed at how many “thoughtful” conservatives and evangelicals have succumbed.

Everything we see and hear from the political world and the remora-like media is focus grouped and rehearsed and designed to elicit the desired response.  We the people are no longer respected as sovereign, thinking individuals.  Instead, we are a mass that needs to be manipulated, maneuvered, and molded into compliancy.

Therefore, we are not offered reasoned, thoughtful arguments about the serious issues we face.  Instead we get a rumble of personalities worthy of the WWE.  I guess the strategy is – “the less people know about the real issues, the less we really have to do something and we can just be in charge”.  This can only go on for so long and I believe the severity of our challenges will soon demand real action.  Obama appears to have timed his exit very well.

Take for example the poor state of the economy.  No longer can the coming slow down be papered over with the typical platitudes of “hitting a rough spot” or “it’s just a mild downturn”.  We have a deficit freight train coming at us and it’s barely mentioned in the media.  It’s not just the $19 trillion operating deficit.  We also have over $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities that we have no way of supporting.

We have the lowest rate of worker participation in the last several decades and yet our president gave a glowing report on the economy during his State of the Union speech.  Social Security is in real trouble just based on demographics and yet the media “trumpet” one candidate’s decision not to attend a debate as what we really need to know.

The threat of Islamic terrorism is channeled into a narrow story line that bloodthirsty radicalized killers are bent on our destruction.  Through political correctness, the establishment censures any substantive discussion about the true nature of the Islamic threat.  We can only focus on the near term danger and destroying ISIS, while proclaiming that Islam is a religion of peace.

The fact is that today’s ISIS terrorists are following Allah’s dictates as recorded in the Qur’an correctly.  Killing the infidels and securing the world for Islam IS what the Qur’an implores the followers of Islam to do.  We can utterly destroy ISIS as many candidates promise to do, but that does not defeat the ideology.  Destroy ISIS and another group will just pop up elsewhere in pursuit of Islamic conquest.  We have to have a strategy to defeat the IDEOLOGY of Islam.  Have you heard anything like this in the mainstream media?  No, our establishment class allows no discussion of it.

As the world grows more dangerous, our ability to contend with the danger diminishes.  While we scale back every part of our military capability, the Russian Bear becomes more ferocious.  Putin has out-maneuvered us in Ukraine.  We have allowed him a Middle East foothold through incompetence and fecklessness.  And while we have had substantial reporting on these events other critical developments have been ignored.  Are you aware that Russia is building a class of submarine with massive nuclear tipped torpedoes that could wipe out much of our military capability?  Do you know Russia is rapidly spreading into the Arctic and is claiming its vast resources?  Why don’t you?  Maybe because the establishment media is too busy focusing on how many senators don’t like Ted Cruz.

The freedom, liberty, and prosperity we enjoy in this country come at a price.  The price is vigilance.  We can no longer continue to sit back and settle for what our establishment class wants to feed us.  We must get engaged, informed, and involved.  We can no longer slumber through our responsibilities as Americans and just react to stimuli like some lab animal.  We must demand better from our politicians and those charged with being their watchdog.  We can lose this thing if we don’t.

As far as who to vote for in the coming elections, I like to consider whom the Founding Fathers would vote for if they were here today.  I believe I know who it would be.

 

Principle vs. Expediency

Opinion

The 2016 election offers our best opportunity since 1980 to put a real conservative back in the White House. Given the direction of our economy, the mess the present administration has made of our foreign policy, and the laughable slate of “Demarxist” candidates in the race, there’s no way a Democrat will be elected this year.

I am a Ted Cruz supporter but I intend to wholeheartedly support whomever the Republicans nominate. The stakes are too high to sit home and sulk on election day if my candidate isn’t the Republican nominee. That strategy got us Obama’s second term.

The way the race is unfolding, the choice boils down to either Cruz or Donald Trump. The rest of the Republican field is rapidly losing the interest of the electorate, so the nominee is going to be either of these two men.

Both Trump and Cruz would stop our slide into socialist mediocrity and get us back on a path to prosperity and strength. However, there are significant differences between them and these differences will have a big impact on how much progress we make in getting back our representative republic.

The next president will most likely have Republican majorities in both houses of Congress and the opportunity for real progress is great. Therefore, we don’t want to elect just a very good candidate. We want to elect the very best candidate, the one that can best restore our faith in government.

Many of my fellow Tea Party conservatives are fiercely behind Trump and I absolutely understand and appreciate his appeal. Nobody personifies better giving the Washington establishment and our enemies abroad the figurative “middle finger”. There is an anticipative satisfaction about getting back at those that “done us wrong” that is very seductive. However, is that what we would really be getting with “The Donald”?

As of late, I have been very disappointed and concerned with what I’m seeing out of the Trump campaign and it makes me question just what kind of president he would be. The attacks on Senator Cruz are pure Washington establishment in their technique and mean spirited in their intent. The accusations have become personal, harsh, and meant to distract the less informed voter. Taking issue with policy positions is fine but Trump has allowed himself to wade into the mire of personal innuendo. He boasts about his big national lead in the polls but his latest fusillade at Cruz indicates fear and doubt.

Trump has totally overplayed the attack on Cruz’ eligibility based on his Canadian birth. This will never be successfully challenged in court yet Trump keeps pounding the drum. For Cruz not to be eligible would mean that any child born to those in military service overseas would not be eligible. An employee of a large multi-national corporation working an ex-pat job in Malaysia could not have a child that would be eligible for president.

So what if there are challenges mounted in court against Cruz’ eligibility? Obama had many lawsuits challenging his citizenship and they went nowhere.

Trump attacks Cruz as being unlikeable. He states everybody hates Cruz, that he’s a bad guy. Well, just who is it that hates Cruz? Many in the Senate certainly. Here comes a freshman senator who staunchly honors the commitments he made to the people of Texas who put him in office, who challenges the cronyism that permeates Washington, and who stands on principle and the Constitution. Of course most of the Washington cartel hates him. That’s a great attribute!

What about Trump though. Is he so likeable? The line of people in Manhattan that hate Trump would wrap around the island three times. Ask that poor sound technician at a recent Trump rally if he likes the candidate. When the mike malfunctioned, Trump was bellowing for him to be fired. Think that guy finds Trump likeable?

Trump likes to pontificate about how fierce a leader he is and how he will bring Washington under control. Yet out of the other side of his mouth, he describes his leadership as bringing people together, cajoling them, and doing a deal. We’ve had nothing but deals out of the Republican led Congress and conservatives always get screwed.

My Tea Party brothers and sisters, this is not what we want. Cruz has shown himself to be a man of rock solid principle, willing to stand and fight alone if necessary for conservatism. Is that not what the Tea Party is about?

Why is the Washington establishment now gravitating to Trump? Why do they prefer Trump to Cruz? Could it be because Trump is much more like them? Maybe Trump is more likely to keep the deal making and cronyism alive and well in Washington. Why else would they coalesce around him?

Clearly, Trump is not man of conservative principles but of popular expediency. He is a man of New York and the media. His attempt to refute Cruz’ argument about his New York values with 9/11 did nothing to diminish the very point Cruz was making.

We Tea partiers are ideologues. We are purists like the establishment labels us. We see things in the bold colors Reagan spoke of not the pastels of Washington deal making. Trump would make a good president but we have the best conservative candidate in decades in Ted Cruz. He IS a product of the Tea Party. Let’s get behind him.

We Will Have a New President in 2017

Opinion

Opinion by John Tutten:

The start of a new year always brings hope and optimism for better times ahead.  And conservatives should be especially excited for better things unfolding this year.  While we get a chance to make a fresh start on many aspects of our personal lives, this year we will elect a new president and Obama will not be on the ballot.  He just gave his last State of the Marxist Union speech.  The euphoria overwhelms me!

Not only is Obama slated to be gone by this time next year, the possibility of electing a real conservative to the White House has never been greater since 1980.  Don’t let the mainstream media and the incessant, slanted poling temper your enthusiasm for conservative chances in November.  The electorate is more engaged than it has been in decades and is hungry for an outsider to drain the swamp in Washington.  The Rove bunch will not be able to sleaze their way into a nomination this year.

And the Democrats are so bad that I swear I hear the “Benny Hill” theme music playing at their debates.  I can’t keep a straight face looking at what’s up on stage.  That Debbie Wasserman Shultz sure is a genius!  Come on conservatives, do you really think we can lose this time?

The fact that Hillary’s lead over the paleozoic Bernie Sanders is evaporating is astounding.  She is rapidly losing ground to a candidate that openly declares his allegiance to socialism.  And what is Hillary’s strategy?  She decides to go more left!  Talk about tone deaf.  Even her rapidly fossilizing husband is not going to be able to help her.  Times have changed and much of today’s electorate finds Bill Clinton tawdry and gross.

If Hillary is able to hold on and get on a path to secure the nomination, she will certainly be indicted for her self-enriching shenanigans while Secretary of State.  There’s no way Obama is going to allow his legacy to be left in the Clinton hands and the evidence of multiple felonies will easily justify her indictment.  The Democrats will then be in disarray going into the convention and who knows at that point what happens.

Even if the Democrats had a credible candidate, look at the world landscape today that they own.  Our foreign policy is in shambles.  The Middle East has descended into a seething caldron with nuclear weapons soon to be part of the mix.  We’ve abandoned long term allies and have encouraged and aided bloodthirsty jihadis who have now become uncontrollable.

We have allowed Russia to gain dangerous new footholds in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.  At every turn, we have backed away and chosen to “lead from behind” since we are the bad guys in the world.  Yeah, we may be bad guys but we are the best bad guys.

Take a look at our economy.  We are closing in on nineteen trillion dollars in debt.  What do we have to show for it?  The real unemployment rate is in excess of ten percent not the five percent our deceiver-in-chief crowed about Tuesday night.  We have fifteen million more people on food stamps than when this administration started.  Median income is significantly below the level it was at in 2009.   The only jobs being created are part time, minimum wage jobs.  High paying professional job growth is nowhere.

On top of this, throw in gay marriage, open borders, Obamacare and you see what the independents are looking at.  The Democrats have totally overplayed their hand the last eight years and the independents are going to make them pay for it.

Obama knows this.  He knows the Democrats have no chance and his precious legacy is going to fall to a conservative who will unravel everything it rests on.  Given his malignant narcissism, he may decide to take unprecedented action.  What action might that be?  In Obama’s mind, who would be best to carry on his legacy?  Barack Obama, of course.

Think this can’t happen?  On March 16, 2012, Obama signed “The National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order”.  In times of national emergency, this order gives the president practically unlimited power over we the people and our property.  And the president essentially decides what constitutes a national emergency.

The White House stated that the purpose of the executive order is to delegate authority and address national defense resource policies and programs under the Defense Production Act of 1950.  Sounds reasonable enough, but there are very astute analysts that believe this gives the president unilateral authority to declare a national emergency, suspend elections, and seize control of every aspect of our society.

A national emergency today is not that hard to envision.  Some sort of massive, multi-site terrorist attack or a deadly virus released from a defense lab by “accident” could justify it.  A massive “natural disaster” could provide the premise for the president taking such action.

Don’t you wonder why so many federal agencies have armed up under this administration?  Why did the EPA, the FDA, and the National Weather Service spend millions of our dollars on ammo and body armor?  I see no justification for agencies like these to have law enforcement capabilities.

Understand that I’m not saying this is going to happen but you can’t argue that it isn’t possible.  That in and of itself tempers my optimism for a house cleaning in Washington.

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