Barry K Moritz

To all those who have observed the lack of postings in the last months:  I (regretfully) deferred to what appeared a rising awareness of the tyrannical activities of Congress (defined for now as the trashing of the Constitution of the United States in favor of political power and personal opportunities).   I witnessed the rise of the Tea Parties (hopefully soon to become one integrated and proactive organization to remove elected representatives who do not listen to their constituents).  And I happily viewed the increasing public awareness and viewing of programs such as that by Glenn Beck, who has, perhaps, done more than most to educate the American public about the realities of out-of-control spending and the attempt by the progressives to turn our nation into a socialist republic.

Recent news – such as Senator Chris Dodd’s recent announcement about removing himself from future candidacy, the poor poll performance of Harry Reid, and the election results in Virginia and New Jersey – further encouraged me to remain quiet as the American system of representative government hopefully began to repair itself.

Yet the Democrats in both the House and the Senate remain more loyal supporters of their party than patriots who value and protect our nation.  They are using OUR money to bribe Senators to vote against the wishes of their constituents – a clear violation of the equal treatment of all states by the Federal government not to mention a violation of other laws.  They have claimed their intent is to bend down the cost curve of medical care, yet their actions accomplish just the opposite – and they refuse to acknowledge that truth.  They have attempted to legislate natural law (i.e., the laws of physics and chemistry) in their pursuit of complete political control through so-called “cap and trade” energy legislation, which ensures an even steeper decline in our nation’s ability to compete internationally and which ignores the reality of currently affordable technology.  On this subject they are therefore showing themselves to be immune to logic, truth, economics, and science.

Future postings will also explore the inanities and politicization of environmental science the Democrats claim as unequivocal truth – as well as the lies and misrepresentations of the health care legislation.  Add to this idiocy less-publicized attempts to capture votes from people with questionable voting credentials (i.e., the bowing to the very labor unions who not only count ‘undocumented workers’  among their membership and therefore steal jobs from US citizens,  but who have been instrumental in forcing manufacturing jobs overseas),  the inability to distinguish war from civil criminality, subversion of the First Amendment via FCC regulation,  and the executive branch power grab involving the declaration of carbon dioxide – an atmospheric gas produced every time we exhale and one required for life on this planet – as a ‘pollutant.’

The Republicans, although not as active in their actions to destroy our economy and the nation still remain “The party of NO” without clear or insightful programs that offer an ALTERNATIVE to the historically unsuccessful attempts by the Democrats to install larger and more tyrannical government.  For that reason alone, they are also guilty of inexcusably poor performance in their jobs.  At the VERY least they should be exercising the skills of their attorneys (if they have any, because the trial lawyers have been supporting the Democrats in refusing to consider tort reform related to medical care-giving) and bringing cases to the Supreme Court citing violations of the Tenth Amendment as well as other Constitutional limitations on government power.

As elections are less than eleven months away, it is now time to once again take fingers to keys and add postings to this blog.  I shall be doing so in the near future.  I can only hope that all thinking Americans will NOT do as I have done (i.e., sit back and watch) but will re-energize their attempts to shrink our government to its proper size, bring spending under control, and institute plans to bring more manufacturing and truly wealth producing jobs back into our nation.

The first step is to ensure that all incumbents (no matter whether they are actively destroying this nation or simply going along because it benefits them personally) be removed from office.

Let’s roll.

The Congress of the United States of America has proven many times over that it is incapable of running the affairs of this nation as laid out by its Constitution.

You think this is hyperbole? The following four examples may be old news, but they are perfect reasons why you would be wrong to think that the premise is invalid:

1. The Constitution of the United States specifically precludes a voting representative from the District of Columbia in the House of Delegates. That didn’t stop the House from drafting a bill that created two new seats: one for Utah (presumably Republican) and one for the District of Columbia (most decidedly Democratic).
2. Article 1, Paragraph 3 of Section 9 of the Constitution (Powers forbidden to Congress) SPECIFICALLY forbids the passing of any “bill of attainder” or “ex post facto law.”   Article 1, Section 10 Paragraph 1 forbids the states similarly, making it patently clear that no government at the federal or state level is allowed to pass either a bill of attainder or an ex post facto law.   Yet, On March 19, 2009, the Senate passed a bill which specifically violated both prohibitions. First it addressed bonuses paid to AIG employees BEFORE March 19, 2009. That would make the law retroactive and prohibited under the ex post facto law. Secondly, it specifically punishes companies by assessing huge tax increases on bonuses over a specified amount paid by companies who have received “TARP” funds. Punishment without a trial is the definition of a ‘bill of attainder.’
3. Congress passed a $700+ BILLION dollar “Stimulus Bill” without reading its content. Even worse than that, the bill was ENTIRELY written by Nancy Pelosi and her minions in the Democratic Party without incorporating a single word from the Republican members of the House or Senate. Among the other things those Democrats made into law was a paragraph, explicitly introduced by Senator Chris Dodd, that SPECIFICALLY made AIG’s payment of its bonuses legal! Congress showed yet again that it was illogical, irresponsible, and illegal, not to mention clinically ‘insane’ on March 19^th. Speaking of March madnes!
4. Congress spent untold hundreds or thousands of person hours addressing the AIG bonus which amounted to about $160 Million. By the time the bill passes through the House and the Courts, the Congress will probably spend more for its idiotic knee-jerk behavior than they would collect by any increased revenues from the new taxes (should they somehow prove Constitutional despite the obvious climate in which the bill was created). Maybe even more than the total amount of bonuses paid. And would somebody please explain why more than $3 BILLION in bonuses paid to executives in Merrill Lynch just before they were purchased by Bank of America receive no similar attention? The money is more than an order of magnitude larger than that in the AIG debacle, and the terms of the Senate bill ignore it. Yet the Bank of America is one of the LARGEST RECEIVERS of TARP money. And why has nobody questioned why the Bank of America paid an approximately 40% PREMIUM for the purchase of Merrill Lynch over its market-priced value? Speaking of a funnel down which Congress allowed taxpayer’s money to drain….

Despite a reputation for notoriously short memories, any American over the age of thirty (and probably many who are younger) knows these three words so well that they can complete the statement that began with them: “Read my lips! No new taxes!” The political statement ranks right up there with nuggets like “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” “Ich bin ein Berliner,” “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” and “I didn’t inhale.”

It is interesting that those six words of George H.W. Bush live on, despite the fact that they became a lie a few months after they were spoken. Perhaps they are particularly interesting right now because, during the last election, We the People heard very similar words from candidate Obama: “I can make a firm pledge,” he said many times. “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.”

Yet the largest increase in tobacco taxes – 62 cents on a pack of cigarettes (an increase of 151%) – took effect this year. Other tobacco products saw similar or even higher increases in the Federal tax.  As noted by Calvin Woodward of the Associated Press, “This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.” A moderate smoker, who consumes about a half pack a day, would pay an additional $115 in Federal taxes per year.

Obama’s broken promises do not stop there. Not too long after his inauguration, Lawrence Summers, the President’s chief economic adviser, reminded us of his boss’ pledge: “Let’s be very clear,” he exclaimed. “There are no, no tax increases next year.” As those words were spoken on March 31, 2009, it is assumed that they apply to the year 2010.

It is difficult to believe that Mr. Summers was unaware of  footnote 1 on page 127 of President Obama’s budget, which reads: “The estate tax is maintained at its 2009 parameters.” According to the Wall Street Journal, this means that the ‘death tax’ will not fall to zero next year as scheduled under current law. Estates in excess of $3.5 million will instead be taxed at up to 45 percent. No tax increases next year?  There is a bridge in Brooklyn I wish to sell….

Both of the above quoted statements that involve pledges not to increase taxes have become lies in the ignominious tradition of American politics. Either American’s memories are truly extraordinarily short (which might be occasionally questionable, as they do remember George H.W. Bush’s broken promise), or we are among the most gullible people to ever walk the face of the earth.

Hasn’t anybody considered the full consequences of these tax increases?  In the case of tobacco, it discourages US farmers from growing it.  This, in turn, lowers the amount of tobacco we are able to export, which is, in turn, detrimental to our international balance of trade.   The huge deficits in international trade we continue to rack up have changed us from a creditor nation to a debtor nation.  Our wealth is not just leaking overseas; the flow is massive.  Higher taxes on our products and businesses (which are already taxed at the second highest rate in the world, and which the President intends to further increase)  can do nothing except exacerbate the problem.

It is time to stop the spin, the broken promises, the misdirections, payoffs, kickbacks, and similar immoral activities by the politicians in office from the local level to the top of the Federal government. It is time to vote honest, intelligent, and educated people who know how to listen AFTER they get into office.  Furthermore, send the message that We the People will not tolerate dishonorable elected officials and their appointees who know in advance that they intend to break their word to us. To show those officials how serious we really are:

LET NO INCUMBENT RETURN!

Background:

It is a matter of record that the United States Congress, in 1980, decreed a moratorium on offshore drilling for oil and gas. As this prohibition was also mandated by a separate presidential directive issued by George H.W. Bush, the politicians were isolating the United States from potential sources of energy despite the fact that they were spending billions of dollars on the US Department of Energy every year – an agency with the mandate, at the time of its creation, to free the United States from dependence on foreign oil. This seemingly illogical behavior arose from an attempt to avoid more incidents of severe environmental damage from drilling operations – in particular the as-much-as 3 million gallon Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969.

Of course the technology to safely drill had already improved immensely, but a techno-illiterate Congress was more driven by fear than by fact. Over the 40 years since that incident, only 850 barrels of oil have been released into the marine environment from offshore drilling and pumping. As of today, natural (i.e., unrelated to human activity) seepage from the earth introduces more oil into the marine environment than human drilling and oil extraction.

As speculators sent the price of oil from the $40 per barrel range to more than $140 per barrel in 2008, and as the United States was importing 70% of the oil it used despite the documented mandate of the Department of Energy, the USA was sending up to $700 Billion a year to nations such as Saudi Arabia, which supports the terrorist organization Al Quaida; Venezuela, which supports FARQ terrorists in Columbia; and other ‘unfriendly nations’ such as Iran, which dirties its hands by sponsoring anti-Israel terrorist organizations such as Hamas . The price of gasoline quickly exceeded $4 per gallon, which immediately affected citizens’ disposable incomes and increased the cost of doing business. To add insult to injury, the President asked the oil-supplying nations (OPEC) to help ease the cost of oil by increasing production. They not only told us to pound salt, but they reduced their production! This combination promised a reduction of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and inflation at the same time.

Recognizing both the problem and the environmentally safe state of the art in drilling technology forty years after Santa Barbara, President George W. Bush decided he knew more than the eco-terrorists, and he bravely, at great political risk, rescinded his father’s presidential order. The price of crude oil immediately dropped by $10 per barrel, so the president then requested the democratic Congress to take similar action. A drilling bill, if passed by Congress, would likely have another benefit: the further reduction in the price of oil simply by introducing the element of risk to the out-of-control oil speculators.

Senselessness

Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi  allowed her ideology and hatred of George W. Bush to rule over rationality.  She forcefully rejected the President’s request – even as Barack Obama (ahead in the polls, but not yet officially president) said he might be open to some drilling.

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