In a push to make Americans more dependent on the government and less responsible for their own actions — not to mention expedite the bankruptcy of our country — Hillary Clinton made an absurd proposal:
“Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that every child born in the United States should get a $5,000 ‘baby bond’ from the government to help pay for future costs of college or buying a home.”
She’s insane! She has no concept of economics. How utterly ridiculous and irresponsible to even say something like that to people. As though she could just pluck money off a magic tree and give it to anyone she wants. Why not make it $50,000?
The goal was originally set at reaching $500,000 in the final week of the quarter, but it was met in under four days, so they doubled it. It looks like that goal will be met as well.
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul recently introduced a bill (H.R. 3664), proposing an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code which would exempt tips from taxation. This was his statement before the house:
“Madam Speaker, I rise to help millions of working Americans by introducing the Tax Free Tips Act. As the title suggests, this legislation makes tips exempt from federal income and payroll taxes. Tips often compose a substantial portion of the earnings of waiters, waitresses, and other service-sector employees. However, unlike regular wages, a service-sector employee usually has no guarantee of, or legal right to, a tip. Instead, the amount of a tip usually depends on how well an employee satisfies a client. Since the amount of taxes one pays increases along with the size of tip, taxing tips punishes workers for doing a superior job!
“Many service-sector employers are young people trying to make money to pay for their education, or single parents struggling to provide for their children. Oftentimes, these workers work two jobs in hopes of making a better life for themselves and their families. The Tax Free Tips Act gives these hard-working Americans an immediate pay raise. People may use this pay raise to devote more resources to their children’s, or their own, education, or to save for a home, retirement, or to start their own businesses.
“Helping Americans improve themselves by reducing their taxes will make our country stronger. I, therefore, hope all my colleagues will join me in cosponsoring the Tax Free Tips Act.”
Lew Rockwell writes: “Strikes are not mass resignations, which are the workers’ right. Strikes are an attempt to punish employers and customers by temporary mass leavings, combined with violence or the threat of violence directed at “scabs,” people who would like to be workers at the prevailing wage. Thus the strike is entirely illegitimate. Of course, union coercion is backed by state coercion.
“So now the UAW, one of the most-rotten of US unions, is striking against GM, complete with typical pro-union press coverage. It all reminds me of the ancient fable of the turtle giving a ride across the river to the scorpion, who then stings the turtle to death, so the scorpion dies as well.”
That fable is very fitting as we have already seen many automotive jobs disappear from Michigan. Congratulation UAW! you’ve succeeded in boosting the salaries and job security of those within your organization, all at the expense of those who aren’t in your corrupt union, the manufacturers you extort money from, and ultimately the people who depend on strong industries to fuel the local economy. But let’s be fair; the UAW could not have done this without the help of the government.
Last Friday, Dr. Alveda C. King, niece of civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., spoke at the annual Monroe County Right to Life fundraising dinner. According to an article published in the Monroe Evening News, King spoke passionately about her feelings on the issue of abortion. She told the audience about the two abortions she had earlier in her life which left her emotionally scarred.
Dr. King called for an end to the “lies of planned parenthood,” an organization founded by Margaret Sanger, a eugenicist and white supremacist, determined to reduce, if not eliminate the black population:
“We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,” she said, “if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”
It should come as no surprise that a black civil rights activist would call into question an organization founded by someone like Sanger, especially since they still give out awards bearing her name.
A Detroit police officer was caught on tape beating beating a man who they claim was resisting arrest. It’s clear to me, after watching the video, that the officer was using excessive force and should be brought to justice himself.
Apparently John McCain identifies himself as a Baptist when campaigning in predominately Baptist states; though he most often identifies himself as Episcopalian. How convenient. That kind of religious adaptability is just what we need in a commander in chief. Maybe he can be Muslim while calling for more bombing of the middle east.
The sales tax hike voted on by the House yesterday, was unsuccessful. We are now 18 days away from the deadline to resolve Michigan’s budget crisis ($1.8 billion deficit). If it is not resolved before then, the likely result will be a government shutdown.
I like the sound of that. I only worry about the trouble bureaucrats might get into with all that spare time. It’s difficult to plunder without the guise of the state, but I’m sure it’s a hard habit to break.
Democrat and Republican lawmakers in Michigan are working together to devise a plan for taking more of our money. They just can’t seem to agree on how they’ll do it. But rest assured they will get the additional funds they need for important things like providing every public school student with an iPod.
Fox News held a Republican presidential debate last night in New Hampshire. These are some thoughts I had following the debate:
This would not have been a debate if Ron Paul wasn’t present. He is the only one making it worth while to watch. And he won the post-debate poll easily with 33% of the text vote.
I think Romney is having trouble coming up with fruit cake answers to questions. He struggled last night, looking less like a fake and more like a fool.
Fox News was blatant in their attempt to belittle and discredit Ron Paul. Here are a few of the obvious techniques:
They didn’t ask him a question until almost 30 minutes into the debate.
Every question they asked was loaded.
They kept the other candidates’ microphones on only while he answered. Almost every question asked to him was accompanied by inappropriate and rude laughter.
they left him out of questions where he clearly stands far above the rest to a conservative audience: pro-life, family values, immigration, etc.
This was one of the most despicable events hosted by Fox News. They have lost all credibility in my book. It was downright disrespectful; and I would say the same thing if they did this to any of the candidates.
Brownback is extremely awkward…and wrong.
McCain actually impressed me a little bit — though still far from the likes of Ron Paul. I was particularly impressed with his eloquent denouncement of torture. I can’t say the same thing for Tancredo who has complete disregard for human rights protections.
Huckabee continues to tell bizarre stories with strange analogies that don’t really make sense. And people still buy into that kind of wacky grandstanding when he throws in a few rhetorical quips. What was disturbing though was his defense of the war which amounted to little more than “we should stand our ground…because we are one nation under God.” What he is saying is that we should blindly follow our government into any war in order to remain united. This goes against the very principles this nation was founded on. As Ron Paul correctly retorted, it is the responsibility of the people to correct the actions of their government; not to blindly follow it into every crazy venture they choose. It is quite appropriate that he used a line from the pledge of allegiance to make his disturbing point. The pledge was written, after-all, by a self-proclaimed national socialist. They tend to put empires far above the individual (see Nazi Germany). That’s too bad. I expected more out of Huckabee.
I really enjoyed the post-debate interview of Ron Paul, where Sean Hannity let his ignorance shine for all to see:
Hannity also tried to explain away Ron Paul’s winning the post-debate poll by claiming it was spamming. First of all you can’t spam these polls. It was a text message poll, and only once vote is counted. His lies are getting worse. Secondly, the spamming conspiracy theory, touted by Fox News was debunked a while ago, when thousands of people started to flock to Ron Paul in his support, wherever he went. Not to mention his outstanding results in straw polls across the country. Wake up people! These people are bogus!
It should come as no surprise that Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the country. Our minimum wage is ranked thirteenth among all fifty states, and our economy has relied heavily on automotive and other industrial companies that have been ravaged by unions and labor legislation.
Jennifer Granholm has just launched a program she calls “no worker left behind;” a name frighteningly similar to the unconstitutional failure known as “no child left behind.”
Her plan calls for two years of free training or community college for displaced workers. So all those people who chose to go to college or receive training for a particular field, not only had to pay for their own college or training; they now have to foot the bill for those who chose not to. Besides that, it will be a failure. To think that you can eliminate unemployment by using federal and state tax dollars to train people for these magic vacancies is absurd.
How long before our government takes complete control of matching employees with employers and training them for the positions?
According to this article from the Detroit News, Granholm also plans to “recommend releasing some older and ‘medically fragile’ inmates deemed not to be a safety threat to the community — and possibly nonviolent drug offenders.” Though I don’t feel that nonviolent drug offenders belong in prison in the first place, and I agree this will save the state a lot of money, how does she plan on finding jobs for all the released inmates. And we can’t forget about the health care for the “medically fragile.”
This will likely end up another never-ending bureaucracy that helps a handful at the expense of many.