T-Minus 10 And Counting…And Who Is To Blame?

If you’re watching anything to do with the debt ceiling debate, you know as well as I do that the negotiations aren’t going very well. Of course, that depends on who you are listening to. But in case you’ve been busy getting ready for Memorial Day weekend coming up, there are 10 days left before the debt ceiling issue causes a default of the government.

And who is to blame?

Well, again, that is going to depend on where you get your information. The White House is still blaming the House Republicans for passing a debt ceiling increase that included going back to the 2022 budget, and cutting $4.5 trillion dollars from the overall spending over the next 10 years. It would raise the debt ceiling $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2023, whichever comes first. Democrats have poo-pooed that and said they want a “clean debt ceiling bill”, without any negotiations on cutting spending. That’s what Democrats do, after all.

So, as I sit here and look at this and figure out who’s to blame for this mess, there are three places to put the blame.

The first is squarely on Joe Biden. For a guy that said initially that he wouldn’t negotiate with Kevin McCarthy on anything that included a reduction in spending to go along with the debt ceiling increase, he once again, apparently has lied. Or changed his mind…or read the polls that said it would be his fault if we defaulted on the debt. Biden hasn’t come out publicly and said that he has negotiated anything, and neither necessarily has his team that’s meeting with the Republicans. We haven’t heard of him budging from his “clean bill” status. McCarthy has moved the needle some, saying that the GOP has come off of the 2022 budget and have increased spending somewhat more than that. He hasn’t said how much.

Most Americans blame the Democrats at this point because they don’t believe that Biden is negotiating in good faith. Usually, negotiations are a give and take. You aren’t going to get everything you want and neither is the other guy. And if Biden is sticking to his guns that there won’t be any spending reductions, he is at fault and there is no question there.

McCarthy is right that he isn’t going to be able to pass a clean bill through the House. And while most Americans will blame the Democrats on this one (until the media slams the GOP), you have to understand that the Republicans are also at fault here.

Yes, the debt ceiling and over-spending is traditionally a Democrat caused problem. After all, it was the Democrats that have increased the spending on the federal budget by 30% just through three programs, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That said, it was their programs that have put us in the position where all three of those programs are going to have to face draconian cuts up the road. But the Republicans have gone along with it. And if you look at who has raised the debt ceiling the most, it’s been the Republicans. Donald Trump raised it twice. George HW Bush raised it four times, George W. Bush raised it seven times for a total of 13 times. Bobo Obama raised it seven times, and Bill Clinton four for a total of 11 times.

The problem here isn’t which party raises it the most, or who wants the “clean bill” passed. It’s that neither party wants to do anything substantive about it. What they need to do is pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that would not allow Congress to spend a nickel more than they have taken in from taxes and fees. As it stands now, the American people don’t have a clue how much Congress is really spending. If they saw it in the form of tax increases every time Congress spent more than they took in (kind of like an assessment given to members of clubs at the end of the year), there would be all sorts of hell to pay. A balanced budget amendment is the only way to go. States must balance their budgets. So must cities and municipalities. Why can’t the federal government do the same thing?

And it’s both parties that have balked at this. Neither has issued a strong effort to pass a balanced budget, even though they controlled both Houses of Congress. It needs to be done, and the sooner the better!

T-Minus 10 and counting…

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

If I Were A Democrat…

If I were a Democrat, I’d be very worried about my party’s chances right about now. Oh, I know, we would have those tricks up our sleeves…those mail-in ballots that just seem to be dumped in a closet somewhere and not discovered until the election were really close and it looks like we might lose it. But when I sit back and try very hard with an unbiased eye to look at the state of affairs in our country today, I would be very worried if I were them.

And I don’t think it’s getting any better.

Just look at the polling, and that’s reason enough to be jittery. I know that polling today isn’t that credible because everyone lies to the pollsters. I mean, heck, I do. But when I look at the things America is telling one pollster who sends me their results all of the time, I’m wondering why in the world Democrats have any sort of hold on the country. Here’s just a sample:

Voters fear the US Government almost as much as they do foreign spies.

74% of us remain either very concerned or concerned about gasoline prices as we enter the summer driving season. I don’t know about where you are, but gas here in the desert is right at the $5 a gallon mark. And that 74% say that they support policies to increase US oil and gas production!

73% of us feel that Biden’s age is going to be a serious problem for Democrats in the 2024 election, including 49% that say it’s a “very serious problem”. Only 25% say it’s not a problem.

So, if I were a Democrat, I’d be worried that my party was on the wrong side of the bed with the rest of America. That doesn’t usually bode well for us to win elections.

Then I look at the presidential race. I see an 80-something old man that has no energy, no zip in his step, doesn’t hold news conferences, needs to have cheat sheets to tell him who to call on when he DOES talk to the press, and has, by accounts of major network and polling group surveys, the lowest presidential approval rating since they started taking the polls. And I worry that he’s not going to be able IF elected, to finish his second term, leaving us with a Vice President that is nothing more than a Chatty Cathy doll, with a very irritating laugh track.

I get worried when I see the storm brewing over Hunter Biden, and how it could pull the president into the mix. I wonder how we ever got to the point when the Democrats could be facing the worst scandal in US history, with a sitting president being accused of, and later proven to be involved in a bribery scandal. I wonder how Hunter Biden stays out of jail with over 80% of America feeling that he’s deserving of an orange jumpsuit.

I get worried when I sit and watch other Democrats worry about Biden’s abilities to govern, even today, and then do nothing about jumping in to save the party. I mean, yes, there’s Robert Kennedy Jr. He’s never held an elected office before. He’s an environmental attorney with an aversion to vaccines that failed the bar exam. He is a former heroin addict. He’s a terrible speaker, suffering from spasmodic dysphonia, a rare vocal box disease. And then we’ve got Marianne Williamson, one of the worst candidates next to K-baby Harris on the planet. Why hasn’t anyone else jumped in to save the party?

As a Democrat I worry about the left wing fringe of the party that seems to be taking it for a long ride down a very deep and dark rabbit hole. We’re doing things now that just don’t make any sense, and America knows it. Alvin Bragg indicting the former president for what? Sleeping with some porn star and then paying her off to keep quiet about it? What’s illegal about that? It seems to me that most of Washington would be guilty of that one. Wouldn’t Bragg be better serving his constituency if he cleaned up the rampant crime in New York City?

And those are just SOME of the things I would worry about…IF I were a Demcrat!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

The Differences Between GOP and Dems

Oh, there is a HUGE difference between the way Republicans see the 2024 election, and the way Democrats see the same thing. And it’s that difference that is going to determine the outcome of the election next November. First of all, you have to understand a couple of things. When we talk about the Democrats, they are looking at things from a totally different perspective than you and I probably are. Second, when we talk about Republicans, the Democrats are going to be scratching their heads wondering what the heck is going through our minds.

So, let’s start off with the easy one…the Republicans

The GOP is more interested in electing candidates to Congress, and the White House than anything else. They see what Joe Biden has done as having been a step toward destroying the fabric of the nation. They see the increase in crime. They see a border that has been in total chaos with absolutely no concern for solving it. They see an economy in free fall. And we are looking at poll numbers that show that 60% of the people in the Republican party don’t want Donald Trump to run again, but want someone with similar policies to him to enter the race. I’m not quite sure that person has actually entered the race yet.

The Democrats take on quite a different tone. They are overly thankful for the job Joe Biden has done. They think his policies and programs are just the thing the country has needed. They see the infrastructure bill and the inflation reduction bill as steps to achieving what they feel is important. They actually LIKE Joe Biden. So, why do 70% of Americans, and half of the Democrats don’t want to see him run again? It’s his age. And while the Republicans are most concerned about electing candidates, Democrats are fearful of what the Republicans would do if they got the presidency back. That’s why 81% of Democrats say that while they think Biden is too old and should step aside and let someone younger continue the fight, they will vote for him if he’s the candidate.

So the question becomes, which is a stronger motivator. Is the fact the GOP is afraid of what would happen if they failed to win back the White House a strong enough motivating factor to get people out to vote? Or, is the fact that the Democrats are afraid of Donald Trump, or someone like him that would tear down what they see as Biden’s accomplishments, much like Trump did to Obama?

At this point in time, I’m personally not sure which is a bigger motivator. Usually fear is one of the biggest motivating factors for people doing something (or not doing something). If you look at Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, once you have food and breathable air, fear is the next largest motivating factor. So, is the fear of another four years of Joe Biden (or someone else should he die before his term is up), or is the fear of having Republicans get back into the White House and run the government the bigger fear? That becomes the overriding issue next year.

And it doesn’t matter which side of the fence you are one. You feel basically the same way toward the other side. Democrats look at the Supreme Court decision on abortion, and see that the conservatives in power would do more to take away the gains liberals have made in a lot of social areas. If you’re conservative, you see the power grab the left has made to limit your freedoms, how they want to take away your guns, and print money until there’s no tomorrow. The left believes the hoax of climate change, and the fact they are ready, willing at yes, as of today, able to spend trillions of dollars thinking that they will change the planet by cutting back on the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. What they don’t realize is that there is only 0.4% of CO2 out there. If it drops to 0.2%, plants begin to die out. And plants are the largest generator of oxygen that we need to survive. If the plants die out, so do we.

Who will win the battle? Well, can I take 18 months to figure it out?

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Is Biden To Blame For Border Crisis?

I have railed for years against Joe Biden and his administration. I’ve said numerous times that Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security Secretary was incompetent at his job and should either be fired or quit before the border situation gets worse. I’ve continually screamed about people like Katie Hobbs, who’s not the Governor of Arizona, and Mark Kelly, the junior Senator from AZ for their faux border policies. But are they the ones that are really to blame?

No. They are not.

Yes, I can complain about the Biden administration’s decisions to allow millions of illegal aliens into our country by basically throwing the door wide open. As for the feeling that once allowed into the country, most of these illegals fade into the fabric of the country and are never heard from again until they commit some horrible crime? Well, I’ve read on a couple of different sources that’s just not true. Somewhere between 83 and 88% of illegals actually MAKE their court appearances. 96% of those that have not been detained for various reasons (criminal record, terrorist watch list, etc) make ALL of their hearings.

OK, so who is to blame for the crisis at the border? And yes, it IS a crisis!

I blame Congress. Congress could have done something about this eons ago. But, as it typically the case, this group of folks tends not to do anything unless and until they are forced to, and it’s usually because they are up against deadlines. Congress loves to kick the can down the road.

If Democrats want an easier path for anyone to get into this country, they could have done so. They have had several opportunities in the past fifteeen years while they held both the House and the Senate. And they had a friendly president in the White House, be it with Joe Biden, or Bobo Obama. If the Republicans had wanted to tighten control over who gets in, they had their chance only twice, but they’ve had it (when they controlled both the Senate and the House). The Democrats controlled both sides of congress twice with friendly presidents. The GOP, once.

The facts here are clear. Unless and until there is something out there that makes Congress either come together and negotiate a bill that updates and fixes the immigration policy of this country, it will never get done. And unless there is a president that is willing to negotiate on this issue, it’s going to have to be a one-party bill. If we wait until one party holds both the House, and has 60 seats in the Senate to cut off cloture, AND they have a friendly president in the White House that would sign such a bill, I think we’re going to see Jesus return before that happens.

Simply put, it’s time for Congress to stop kicking the can down the road. It’s time they tackle the problems that are facing America and do so in a bi-partisan way. That means that the Democrats are going to have to come off their high horse that they are going to eliminate Republicans so they can rule 100% of the government, 100% of the time. And it means that the GOP is going to have to compromise on their shutting down the border to all illegals, unless and until they go through immigration the “right way”. Right now, there is no right way. And, the GOP probably going to have to realize, as they did back in Ronald Reagan’s day, that the illegals that are in this country now, are going to have to at some point be allowed to stay. To round up eleven million people and shuttle them back where they came probably isn’t going to happen.

So, yes, I’m always upset at Biden and Mayorkas for them doing absolutely nothing when it comes to border security. And their treatment of the Border Patrol officers who risk their lives is cruel and unusual punishment. I don’t know why anyone in their right mind would want to go into that line of work. But thank God that they do. But the real criminals in all of this mess, are the 535 people that are sitting in that big white building at the end of the Mall with the big dome on top. They once again, need to stop the petty investigations, and get back to work solving America’s many and serious problems!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Will Biden REALLY Run?

That’s the real question as we are already into April. Of course, there is still plenty of time for Joe Biden to announce his candidacy, and to decide whether he’s going to hoist K-baby Harris onto his backside and try and drag her across the finish line one more time. But is he really going to run?

I have my doubts.

I know Biden WANTS to run. I know he SAYS he’s going to probably run. I heard what Jill Biden said. I know what K-baby has said. None of it means anything more than a warm bucket of spit. What matters is what Biden DOES. And as I write this, there is nothing he is doing to further his campaign for 2024.

There are several reasons to feel Biden may not run. First and foremost are the polls. They have consistently been upside down. I don’t think he has ever been above 50% in approval polls so far in the first two-plus years of his presidency. Maybe at the beginning, but it died pretty quickly. And when asked if they want him to run, people in his own party say no. They want someone different. Their only problem is, there IS no one different. Democrats have left themselves with a very short bench. If you’re telling me that the best they have to offer is either K-baby Harris or Pete Buttigieg, I’m thinking Biden almost HAS to run.

Second, you’ve got the whole Hunter Biden stuff going on. Republicans in the House are starting to scream about getting their investigations ramped up. And there are more than rumors that it will end up including Joe Biden getting money from less than legal sources as it concludes. That’s something you don’t want to hit as you’re in the final days of a run for the presidency. Joe is waiting in part to see what all the GOP in the House can uncover regarding Hunter. I don’t really think Biden himself is concerned about what happens to him in the investigation, but he is concerned as to what it will mean regarding his chances for reelection. Merrick Garland isn’t about to indict Joe Biden, period.

Then you’ve got the age and health issue. Running for president takes a lot of energy. It means you’re on the road for weeks at a time, giving several stump speeches in various parts of tons of states. And it means you need to be at your best, mentally and physically. He wasn’t at his best in 2020, but he can blame that on COVID. What excuse does he use this time when his audience is a dozen people?

Steve Forbes, himself a two-time presidential candidate doesn’t think Biden is going to be running. He said that neither Biden, nor Harris will be getting the nomination, because very few people in the Democrat party want that to happen. So, if the party doesn’t want it to happen, where do you turn? They really don’t have many people that are primed to step into the spotlight, and I can tell you, Marianne Williamson isn’t one of them.

Personally, I think that Biden has tasted the “good life” of being president. He likes the attention, and he likes having people come to him with all sorts of ideas. His handlers take care of all of the details in his life, so all he has to do is show up and pretend to shake someone’s hand that isn’t there. They tell him what time to be somewhere, what to say, where to go, and who it’s important to talk to. When he does a press conference, they tell him who to call on and who to avoid. Basically, they treat him like a five year old. But as people get older, isn’t that the way they are treated at his age? More and more it seems like it in his situation.

No, Joe Biden may want to run for president again. He may have to take K-baby Harris with him. But that doesn’t mean that is going to excite the party, and get people to rally around him. He’s in the same position for 2024 that Donald Trump was in during the 2016 campaign. What worked back then isn’t going to work again. Remember, he said he was a “transitional president”? Someone that would be a placeholder and get rid of Trump. Then he can leave and someone better can take over. Well, we’re waiting, Joe!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

It’s BAAACK!

It seems that I’ve said this time and time again, and I have to say it yet again. If the left and by definition most of these folks are in the Democrats’ camp, can’t win through fair and legal means, they will do whatever they need to do to secure a victory at the polls. And they are not above cheating, or changing the rules of the game in order to gain victory. We’ve seen that in the past.

And we’re seeing it again.

Yes, the fact that the elections have become so close that it takes weeks and weeks to determine winners in all of the races is something that does not make the uber-libs happy. They want to show America that they have a mandate! And if they can’t get the mandate through the ballot box, they need to do something that will show that to be the truth. And they are re-opening an old play from their playbook.

They want to do away with the Electoral College to the point that in it’s current form, it’s useless.

The left has opened up the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. This is kind of akin to what the right tried doing a few years back in getting a Convention of States so they could make abortion illegal. The left is hoping that they can get the majority of states, or at the very least, a majority of the Electoral College votes (270) to say that they want the federal election for president to be decided by a popular vote, not the Electoral College vote. And currently 15 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to make that happen. Those states represent some 195 Electoral College votes.

So, what happens if they reach the 270 mark? Well, as it currently stands, if the Compact takes over, let’s say Donald Trump is running for president against Joe Biden. And let’s say that for the sake of our discussion, Trump beats Biden in the popular vote nationally. All of those deep blue states like New York, California, Rhode Island, Washington, and Oregon would have to cast their Electoral College votes for Donald Trump. This is yet another case of “be careful what you wish for, it may end up biting you in the butt!”

Can you imagine a situation where these states have gotten together and decided that they are going to use their Electoral College votes based on the final national total, and Donald Trump wins that? How many of these states would quickly pull out of the “compact”. As it stands now, with the exception of Nebraska and Maine, the presidential candidate that wins that state’s popular vote, gets their Electoral College votes. This basically says it doesn’t matter who in the state votes for Trump, they can all vote for Biden. But if Trump ends up winning the popular vote over Biden, then that state that had zero popular votes for Trump would have to vote for him when the Electoral College meets.

Gee…I can’t see anything going haywire with that system, can you? Everything is going to go along fine until we reach the point where the pendulum swings to the right, and the GOP starts winning popular votes again. Don’t think it won’t happen, history has proven it to happen all the time. One party is more popular than the other, and then it changes for some reason. Same thing will happen here.

The overriding problem with this theory is that you aren’t going to find these states voting for someone they don’t want to win. Democrats don’t usually vote for Republicans, especially for president, unless their guy is a total loser (like Biden?) Then they quickly switch over to wanting to go back to the Electoral College system, and would instruct their representatives in that body to vote for their guy. It’s just the way the left works.

The Founding Fathers that came up with this idea did so for a reason. They didn’t want states like Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and Wyoming to be left out. If you’re dealing with a popular vote versus Electoral College vote, then only the top nine states would ever get visited. That gives the candidate 50% of the country. Forget about the other 41 states that don’t make that cut. You’d never see a presidential candidate in Maine, or Michigan, or North Carolina, or Arizona. There would be no need. If they could just get the deep blue states of New York, California, Illinois, and Georgia on their side, they are well on their way to winning the popular vote.

At least until the pendulum swings the other way!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

The Biden Budget

Joe Biden is set to roll out his 2024 Fiscal Year Budget on Wednesday. It’s going to be a mish-mash of tax increases, and over-spending, but that’s basically what we’ve come to expect from this guy. As it looks now, based on what’s leaked out, if you make more than $400,000 a year, you are going to hate it.

Biden’s budget however, stands zero chance of becoming the final budget. That’s because the House Republicans have already declared it “dead on arrival”. Basically, here’s what is and isn’t in it.

There is a push to lower the deficit a little bit. Not much, seeing how it’s at $31.5 trillion, and rising every minute of every day. But Biden says this budget will lower the deficit by $2 to $3 trillion over the next 10 years. He plans massive tax increases on anyone making over $400,000 a year, as well as corporations. This is met with cheers from the Dems, and hoots from the GOP. Everyone knows that when you raise taxes on corporations and businesses, they get passed along to the customers of those businesses, so in effect, it IS a tax on people making less than $400,000. The only way around that is to tell businesses that they can’t raise their prices in the coming year. That’s not going to happen.

Biden says he’s going to be able to save Medicare and Social Security, no small feat! He plans on raising taxes (again) on all sorts of wealthy folks and businesses in each account. In the Medicare realm, he hopes to extend the life of Medicare is set to go belly-up in 2026, a scant three years from now. Biden says he will be able to extend the life of the program 25 years through his tax increases. Also planned is to make it easier for beneficiaries to cut their costs when filing.

The president also plans to “strengthen” Social Security, though we haven’t seen how just yet. I’m sure it will include more taxes on those making the most money. As it is, anyone making over $160,200 this year will not have to pay tax on the amount over the $160,200 figure. Biden’s plan will greatly increase that number to include more people paying more money into the program. There are currently no plans from either party to actually cut Social Security, or Medicare, which makes up about 70% of the federal budget.

One thing that both sides are going to be looking hard at is the defense budget. Democrats want to cut spending in that arena to allow more social spending programs. Republicans are worried that if the defense budget isn’t increased greatly we face a major hurdle, especially with the funding continuing for the war in Ukraine, and the threat of China invading Taiwan. If those things continue on their present course, there is no way that the US can afford to spend the money necessary to fight a two-front war. That’s never something the Pentagon wants to do in the first place.

Overall, it looks like Biden’s budget is going to go the way of most presidential budgets, and that’s straight into the waste basket. The Republicans in the House have vowed to come up with their own budget, and they are committed to cutting spending in a lot of areas. You can bet defense isn’t going to be one of those areas. They’ve already said that cuts to Social Security and Medicare are off the table, so that doesn’t leave much room for any other growth as far as social programs go. I would think that we are going to see a major fight all summer long as to whether the GOP and the Dems can get together and actually pass a budget, or whether we’re going to be faced with more rounds of “budget reconciliation” like we had during the Obama administration.

Anyway you look at it, the US is in a world of hurt when it comes to spending money. What we really need is a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that stops the federal government from spending more money than it takes in. And ideally, it should only spend 85% of what it takes in, so we can send the other 15% to lowering that massive deficit!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Examining The Logic

Joe Biden decided that he was going to side with Republicans, much to the chagrin, and loud screaming of his Democrat allies in Congress. What was it which had the leftist socialists so up in arms? The fact that the District of Columbia’s city council decided to update a crime bill that included lowering the crime of car-jacking, and making it easy for perps to get out of jail once caught.

And Biden went along with it.

Now, as you probably know, Muriel Bowser, the mayor of DC, initially vetoed the bill, and it was passed nearly unanimously by the council to override her veto. Once that happened, Bowser, also a Democrat (do ANY Republicans live in DC?) decided that maybe the bill was okay, and went along with it. Now, in most constituencies in this country, if the city council overrode a mayoral veto, that would be that, right? But in DC, the federal government has the final say. And Republicans in the House of Representative said a resounding “NO” to the change in the crime bill.

There was no way that the Democrats could go along with it in the Senate because they didn’t have 60 votes, only 51. And it wasn’t clear what Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) were going to do. So, it went along the lines of the House of Representatives as well, denying the council’s change.

And then Joe Biden weighed in. He decided that he was in favor of not vetoing the Republican resolution of disapproval that would overturn that crime bill. And the howls started from the left.

I’m not surprised actually that Biden decided to get tough on crime in the District. He has a history of this sort of thing. First of all, wasn’t it Biden that wrote and supported a crime bill in the US Senate back in 1994? Wasn’t that the crime bill that sent hundreds if not thousands of blacks to jail for crimes they had committed? He was tough on crime then, why would Democrats think he had changed now?

Second, and probably more importantly, Biden needs to be seen as someone that can work with the other side. He consistently made that as part of his pitch back in 2020 when he was running. He said Trump couldn’t do that, but he had half a century of history showing he could. Well, he chose this particular bill in order to do that. And if he gets on a debate stage somewhere against a Republican candidate in the 2024 election and is questioned on his ability to work across the aisle, it’s another arrow that he has.

I think personally what upset the Democrats is that they voted to back the DC council’s action before Biden had come out and said he wasn’t going to veto the bill. That makes the Democrats look weak on crime, already a note the Republicans are crying loud and clear. And they can use the Democrats’ votes against them in their next election campaign. Crime is still a big issue in this country, and the fact that Democrats fell face first into this mess wasn’t Biden’s fault necessarily, it was the Democrats in Congress’ fault. Hell, even DC’s Mayor was against the bill coming out of council until it ultimately passed!

No, the Democrats have no one to blame but themselves on this one. Yes, they’re unhappy with Biden because it looks like he hung them out to dry on this one, and he probably did. But his reasoning is going to be that he hung them out to dry because they only assumed that he’d be vetoing it. He was protecting his own campaign ahead of protecting all of theirs. That may be viewed as a little self-centered, but hey, that’s politics in DC!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

It Keeps Coming Back To Bite Them

You’d think Democrats would learn their lesson. They love to push the boundaries. They love to test the limits of what’s acceptable. That’s what, in a word, makes them “progressive”. However, they usually find out that there are a lot of reasons why you don’t want to push the limits and they fail to learn those lessons…as varied, and many of those lessons have been shown to them.

And they are continuing to fail to learn their lessons.

You can go all the way back to FDR and the implementation of Social Security, and later, Lyndon Johnson with Medicare, and Medicaid. Anyone with half a brain could have told you that it was being set up wrong. And anyone with a quarter of brain could have told you that if you keep adding recipients to the mix, as in disabled folks, kids who lost a parent, and raiding the Social Security funds for other purposes, you’re going to run out of money. Did the Dems heed those warnings? Nope. Carry on! Surge ahead! Punt the ball down the road! And now you’re looking at about a 12 year period where Social Security will be bankrupt because of Democrat insistences that they help “everyone” in their big tent. It’s even worse in the case of Medicare. It’s slated to run out of money in just three years! And again, no one on the left wants to touch it. They’re afraid of losing votes.

Let’s take a look at something that happened in the Senate that really wasn’t monetary. Harry Reid (D-NV) when he was Majority Leader, decided that it needed to be easier for Bobo Obama to nominate liberal federal justices. So, he devised a plan to make sure that he could do it with only 51 votes. He got that passed with the assurances that it was only to be used for non-Supreme Court appointees, and could also be used for Executive branch appointees. That turned into allowing the Republicans to drop what was called the “nuclear option” and expand that to Supreme Court nominees back in 2017. They reminded the Democrats at the time that it was their doing with the “Reid Rule” that allowed just 51 votes to approve non-Supreme nominees in the first place.

Here’s another example. Democrat Robert Byrd came up with the “Byrd Rule”, which in turn led to the “Byrd Bath”. What that did was allow Democrats to pass budgetary items (there are six rules that have to be followed) in order to go to what’s known as “budget reconciliation”. It allowed Democrats to pass budgets that would avoid the US Government from being shut down, with just 51 votes. However, it wasn’t in place for normal bills, and for most of what the Senate does, the 60 vote filibuster rule still is in effect…though the Dems have tried to get non-budgetary items snuck through, they have been unsuccessful at this point.

And now, we come to the House. It wasn’t too long ago that Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA), and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) got into trouble because of things they said about various Democrats. Taylor-Greene came out and absolutely torched Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Gosar was guilty of passing along an anime showing Alexandria Ocasio Cortez getting killed. That upset the Dems, and so both Taylor-Greene and Gosar were removed from their committees because of their stunts. Fast forward to the January 6th Committee assignments. Kevin McCarthy had wanted Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jim Banks (R-IN) on the committee. But Nancy Pelosi had other ideas, and didn’t seat them. Instead, she put two of her own choices for Republicans on board. She went with Adam Kinzinger (R-CA), and Liz Cheyney (R-WY). Both Kinzinger and Cheyney are no longer in the House. So, now you come to McCarthy deciding to pull Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) off of the Intelligence Committee, and is in the process of removing Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from her committee assignments including the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

So, as you can see from the four examples given, each and every time that Democrats have cried about something not being done to their liking and that Republicans are playing games, it’s the Democrats that have actually started the whole thing. Republicans are doing nothing more than acting in-kind. Now, is it helpful or hurtful? Obviously, it’s not helpful. But fair is fair, and in politics, all seems to be fair. There is no out of bounds. It’s all a matter of who can scream the loudest.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Mayorkas To The Rescue?

I would never really consider someone like Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas to be some sort of super hero. I wouldn’t expect him to fly in and rescue some damsel in distress. In fact, I think he has a hard time putting his shoes on in the morning. So, how in the good Lord’s name could he ever race to the rescue?

When it’s Democrat “Sanctuary Cities” that are crying foul.

And this leads to a bunch of questions and hypocrisies of the left. First of all, let’s tackle the headline. Mayorkas was addressing the US Conference of Mayors’ Winter Meeting. He told the assembled crowd that FEMA was ready to help out when it comes to the illegal aliens being bussed to their cities by people like Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, and Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis. As he put it, “FEMA is providing Emergency Food and Shelter Program funds to help cities around the country recover or defray the costs of non-citizen arrivals. CBP and ICE are working closely with cities to share information and coordinate the disposition of non-citizens in immigration enforcement proceedings.”

So, let’s make sure we understand what’s happening here. People like New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, and Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, and Chicago Mayor, Lori Lightfoot are crying because they’ve declared themselves to be “sanctuary cities”, and then when people come seeking sanctuary in those cities, they cry because they don’t think they can afford to house and feed them. Is that about it? And since they’re all Democrats “trying to do the right thing”, Mayorkas is trying to help by allowing FEMA an EMERGENCY management organization, to come in and pay for the cost of housing and feeding these illegals. That means that you and I are stuck paying for sanctuary cities’ causes whether we like them or not.

Do you see why I may have a problem with this? Mayorkas, who can barely address Congress without lying to them, is telling hundreds of US Mayors, that the federal government is ready, willing, and able to come to their rescue and spend basically billions of dollars to help the millions of illegals that broke into our country, just because they were being bussed away from the borders that they illegally crossed. Do you find it interesting that over the last two years, Mayorkas hasn’t told the towns like El Paso, Nogales, Yuma, or Eagle Pass that they also should receive compensation for feeding and housing the millions of illegals that have crossed into their backyards? Nothing was said about that. But when it’s a big time city, with a big time Democrat mayor, it’s a different story. I think this just speeds up the process of the Republicans looking to impeach Mayorkas.

And the other problem I have is with the cities. These guys couldn’t rush fast enough to become the latest sanctuary city. They all thought they could turn their back on ICE and CBP, and ignore federal law. They could do whatever they wanted because they wanted to help the illegals. So, when the time comes to put your money where your mouth is, what do they do? They call DeSantis and Abbott “unAmerican” because of their actions. I think it’s rather unAmerican that these mayors would break federal law in the first place and not allow ICE to come in and arrest those people that are here illegally.

It’s a sad day in this country when one side of the aisle gets to pick and choose which laws already on the books they feel should be enforced and against whom. If I go down to the corner and car jack someone’s ride, and get caught, I’m going to jail. I’m probably not going to get bail, or if I do, it’s going to be high. But if someone from a much poorer neighborhood and say a different background then me does the same thing, the left is going to turn their heads and look the other way. Oh, they’ll come up with some sort of excuse that the other person has “suffered enough” in their life. Sorry. Laws don’t work that way. It’s time the left learns this, or we can expel all of them out of the country along side of the illegals.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!