The Foundation

“We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.” –Thomas Jefferson

For the Record

The White House released its 2012 budget proposal Monday morning and the damage is staggering: $3.73 trillion. The budget deficit will be $1.65 trillion for fiscal 2011, up from $1.29 trillion in fiscal 2010. The deficit will represent 10.9 percent of gross domestic product, a post-World War II record. “My budget makes investments that can help America win this competition and transform our economy, and it does so fully aware of the very difficult fiscal situation we face,” Obama said. In other words, eat, drink and be merry because our children and grandchildren will pay the bill.

Political Futures

“At Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station on Tuesday, lifelong government rail promoter Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a $53 billion high-speed train initiative and half-joked: ‘I’m like the ombudsman for Amtrak.’ As with most gaffetastic Biden-isms, the remark should prompt more heartburn than hilarity. Just who exactly is looking out for taxpayers when it comes to federal rail spending? Vigorous independent oversight of public infrastructure binges is especially critical given the nation’s long history of mass transit slush funds, cost overruns and union-monopolized construction projects to nowhere. … When Biden talks about ‘seizing the future,’ he’s talking about seizing your wallets for his party’s electoral security. … [T]he Obama administration’s political abuse of the Amtrak inspector general’s office, still under congressional investigation, is a recipe for yet more porkulus-style waste.” –columnist Michelle Malkin

Government

“House Republicans have promised major spending reforms, but GOP leaders are tongue-tied when they are asked which specific programs they want to cut. The GOP wants to cut domestic spending to 2008 levels, but that’s just an accounting goal. The GOP needs a larger vision to guide their reforms. Republicans need to communicate to the public how a smaller government would benefit America and what federal agencies and activities are damaging and counterproductive. A key part of this strategy should be to revive a central theme of the 1981 and 1995 budget-cutting drives – getting the federal government out of what are properly state and local activities. Constitutional federalism has taken a beating as federal aid to the states has doubled over the last decade to $646 billion this year. … The federal-aid system does not deliver high-quality and cost-efficient services to citizens. It delivers bureaucracy, overspending, and regulatory micromanagement from Washington. In addition to helping balance the budget, Republicans can start a national debate about the proper role of the federal government by pushing to terminate the vast array of costly state aid programs.” –Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards

Reader Comments

“I was surprised to hear Mark Alexander call Sen. Bob Corker a friend. He has disappointed me, as a conservative, at most turns. I am not alone in this opinion. ‘Bailout Bob’ is on every Tea Party list I’ve seen as a one term senator. Perhaps you are simply golfing buddies and do not discuss the Fed or the importance of paring down this government while on the links.” –Cathy

Editor’s Reply: First, I do not play golf. Second, while Bob and I do not agree on everything, that does not mean we can’t agree on anything. The “all or nothing” litmus test is a losing formula for any party, particularly the Tea Party. What I can tell you is that Bob is a self-made individual of very high character and faith, a very smart Patriot who is not a typical Beltway egomaniacal politico.

“Regarding Mark Alexander’s essay, The Debt Bomb Showdown, it’s too bad you litter an otherwise fine piece … claiming to know something that you cannot know – the truth of what goes on in Obama’s mind and his motives. This used to be called lying and bearing false witness. Divining something by dint of your gigantic intellect or unparalleled mastery of grand strategic skullduggery does not qualify as knowing something in any actual sense. Again, it was a good piece otherwise.” –Joe

Editor’s Reply: I “divine” nothing when asserting Obama is an ideological Socialist who would, if unabated by wiser minds, reduce the USA to the USSA. I draw my conclusions from his words and deeds prior to being elected to the Senate, and since. I have read his books and studied the records of his associations with Leftist mentors such as Jeremiah Wright, Michael Pfleger, William Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Khalid al-Mansour, Rashid Khalidi, Bob Creamer and others. He is a disciple of uber-Leftist Saul Alinsky, whose “Rules for Radicals” is the “bible” of “community organizers.” His short record as part time Senator yielded the most radical Left voting record of any Senate member. His record as president has done much the same. Oh, but maybe Obama is now reformed? “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” –John Adams

“In Friday’s ‘Obama’s Instruction Manual for Business’ it illustrates how Obama is now trying to cozy up with the Chamber of Commerce and get business to jump ‘back in the game.’ Does he forget the first eight months of his term when he constantly harangued that the sky was falling and there was nothing but doom and gloom until the economy was in shambles? He painted such a nightmarish picture so he could ram thru his emergency measures. Then he expected the world to turn on a dime because HE said it was OK. The world, the economy and the public do not respond well to such bipolar behavior in the White House. The steady positive faithful outlook Ronald Wilson Reagan served us well during very trying times. Oh that we had such a man in public service today.” –Greg

“It really bothers me that The Patriot Post used Mr. Rogers’ photo as you did Friday. He is one of my heroes and IMHO to see Obama’s head photoshopped in is in poor taste and insulting to the memory of a great man. This is the first time I have ever felt that you went over the line.” –Joy

Editor’s Reply: King Friday said he thought it was funny…

Liberty

“[B]ack in 1942, the Supreme Court said that because the federal government has the right to regulate interstate commerce, the Department of Agriculture could tell a farmer how much wheat he could grow, even if the wheat never left his farm and was consumed there by his family and their farm animals. That case was a landmark, whose implications reached far beyond farming. … ObamaCare is another piece of Congressional legislation for which there is no federal authority in the Constitution. But when someone asked Nancy Pelosi where in the Constitution there was any authority for passing such a law, her reply was ‘Are you kidding?’ Two federal courts have now said that they are not kidding. The ultimate question is whether the Supreme Court of the United States will back them up. That may depend on how soon the case reaches the Supreme court. If the issue wends its way slowly up through the Circuit Courts of Appeal, by the time it reaches the Supreme Court, Obama may have put more of his appointees there – and, if so, they will probably rubberstamp anything he does. He would therefore have done a complete end-run around the Constitution and be well on his way to becoming the Hugo Chavez of North America.” –economist Thomas Sowell

Opinion in Brief

“Here’s a chunk of the problem with the proposed reconciliation of business and the Obama administration. ‘We’re trying,’ the president said, in addressing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce [last] week, ‘to run the government like you run your businesses – with better technology and faster services.’ … What the president left out was imagination. And creativity. And a spirit of to-hell-with-it-let’s-see-if-this-thing-works. … The president used one word familiar to patrons of the marketplace – ‘invest.’ That’s what he wants business to do – ‘invest in America’ for the sake of jobs, etc. He used the same word in the State of the Union message with a different spin. The idea there was Spend Taxpayer Money on Green Energy and the Like. The difference? Business … pours money into a project with a clear, distinct idea of profits to come. A government ‘investment’? You equate that kind of money transfer with bridges to nowhere and ethanol subsidies: things government does inasmuch as from those things government expects voter gratitude. The Chamber of Commerce and the president don’t talk the same language. To them the same words mean different things.” –columnist William Murchison

The Gipper

“We do have a rendezvous with destiny. Either we will preside over the great nightfall for all mankind, or we will accept the leadership that has been thrust upon us. I believe that is the obligation and responsibility of the Republican party today.” –Ronald Reagan

Faith & Family

“It is difficult to explain to a culture rapidly forgetting its foundation why that foundation matters. While churches and schools have left instruction in Western Civilization behind, the recipients of its strong underpinnings float aimlessly trying to redefine the definite and ignore the irrefutable. And here it is: Western Civilization in general and America in particular was built on Judeo-Christian values. Those values shaped every area of life from government to finance to family. They brought order to all three. Government was no longer top-down, but of the people. People were free to ‘pursue happiness’ in part by choosing their own work. Judeo-Christian teaching taught them to work hard, make and keep contracts, treat employees fairly, pay an honest day’s wage, and keep their word. Prosperity followed from those foundational principles.” –President of Culture Campaign Sandy Rios

Culture

“One of liberalism’s many problems is that once an idea or program is proved wrong and unworkable, liberals rarely acknowledge their mistake and examine the root cause of their error so they don’t repeat it. Take multiculturalism… In a speech to a security conference in Munich, British Prime Minister David Cameron declared state multiculturalism a failure. For good measure, Cameron said Britain also must get tougher on Islamic extremists. Predictably, this has angered Islamic extremists. A genuinely liberal country, he said, ‘believes in certain values and actively promotes them. … Freedom of speech. Freedom of worship. Democracy. The rule of law, equal rights, regardless of race, sex or sexuality.’ … It may be too late for Britain, as it may be too late for France and Germany. It isn’t too late for the United States, though it is getting close. Too many American leaders suffer from the same weak-kneed syndrome that has gripped Britain. Who will tell immigrants to America that the days of multiculturalism are over and if they want to come to America, they must do so legally and expect to become Americans with no hyphens, no allegiance to another country, and no agenda other than the improvement of the United States?” –columnist Cal Thomas

The Last Word

“A lot of people in America are elated by the sight of mobs gathering in the streets of Egypt. They view it as an oppressed people longing for liberty. They rejoice at the prospect of a dictator being dumped in favor of democracy. That is because a lot of people who are forever quoting Santayana’s quip, ‘Those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it,’ have apparently remembered precious little themselves. It would seem that the extent of their historical knowledge begins and ends with the final score of the recent Super Bowl. The thing to keep in mind is that Cairo and Alexandria are not to be confused with Concord and Lexington, and nobody in the streets lobbing rocks and burning bottles is named Washington, Adams, Madison or Jefferson. Then there are those simpletons whose eyes begin to twinkle at the mere mention of the word ‘revolution.’ But comparing most revolutions to our own is sheer insanity. The French Revolution led to Robespierre and the Reign of Terror. The Russian Revolution led to Stalin and the gulags. China’s Revolution brought us Mao and the slaughter of millions, Cuba’s Revolution brought us Castro and the Iranian Revolution brought forth the Ayatollah Khomeini. … Those good-hearted chumps who insist that democracy is the end-all and be-all are sadly misguided. Hitler won a popular election, as did Hamas in Gaza, as did Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, in America. Just because folks are allowed to vote is no guarantee that they can always be trusted to do the right thing.” –columnist Burt Prelutsky