Federal Watchdogs
Contact at wbigelow@embarqmail.com
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HIS
TEA PARTY OF PUNTA GORDA
FEDERAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
CHAIRMAN’S MONTHLY REPORT TO MEMBERS
FEBRUARY 2, 2012
We have been reporting monthly to membership since January 2011 on the activities of the Federal Government and last month’s report provided the membership a resume’ of the major stories of 2011. (Most of the detailed monthly reports are available for viewing on our website pgteaparty.org.)
Following is an overview of the Congressional and Obama Administration record over the last 3 years:
(1) The economy continues to languish at an estimated annual growth rate of 1.7% for 2011, with 1.94% of 2.8% projected 4th quarter GDP growth rate represented by increased inventory accumulation;
(2) Unemployment has exceeded 8% since February 2009, currently at 8.5% (with the underemployed percentage consistently being over 18% during the past year);
(3) The Federal Government is currently borrowing nearly $4B/day;
(4) Treasury debt is projected to reach nearly $16.4T by the time the next President is sworn into office compared to outstanding debt when Obama took office of $10.5T, or a 56% increase;
(5) Annual budget deficits over the past 3 years exceeding $1T ($1.4T-2011 and CBO projects a deficit of $1.1T for this fiscal year);
(6) The President has broken the law twice requiring him to submit a budget annually to Congress by the first Monday of February each year. He has submitted only one budget in his three years in office and that budget was defeated by the Democrat controlled Senate 99 to 0;
(7) The Senate has not passed a budget in nearly
1,000 days; and
(8) Federal Welfare Payments have averaged for the three years $466/annum since Obama has been in office, which compares to an annual average from 2005 through 2008 of $272.8B, a 68% increase.
There are two words to describe the performance of both parties over the past year in their job to seek remedial actions for the budget and the economic problems of the country and those two words are “Totally Dysfunctional”. It is little wonder, Real Clear Politics average of Congressional Opinion Polls shows an average disapproval rating of 82.4%.
JANUARY 2012, AN UNPRECIDENTED MONTH OF UNCONSTITUTIONAL ACTS AND LAW BREAKING BY THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS:
January represented a terrible month for the rule of law in this country and a big ratchet upward by the Congress and the President of the level of tyranny over American citizens, which movement has been steadily picking up steam for the past 15 years.
Below is a resume’ of this very dark month in the history of the Nation:
1. December 29, 2011: President Obama signed the National Defense Appropriation Act, which now defines the United States as a War Zone. Incorporated in the bill is the Congressional granting to a President of the absolute power to order the U.S. Military to arrest and detain indefinitely without formal charges, legal representation or peer trial on the legal merit of such charges, any U.S. citizen the President deems to be a “Terrorist” or a Belligerent” (defined as being suspected of threatening the security of the “homeland.”).
Rep. Ron Paul declared this “is an unprecedented, unconstitutional, and unchecked grant of dictatorial power to the President…”, a “slip into tyranny” and “The Bill of Rights has no exceptions for really bad people or terrorists or even non-citizens. It is a key check on government power against any person. That is not a weakness in our legal system; it is the very strength of our legal system. The NDAA attempts to justify abridging the Bill of Rights on the theory that rights are suspended in a time of war, and the entire United States is a battlefield on the war on terror (as articulated by Sen. Lindsay Graham R-SC on the Senate floor in support of the bill). This is a very dangerous development, indeed. Beware.”
Senators John McCain R-AZ and Carl Levin D-MI sponsored the bill. Only two Republicans Senators (Kirk and Paul) voted against the bill and one did not vote. The total Florida Republican Congressional group (including Senator Rubio) voted for the bill. Only six House Republicans voted against the bill and six abstained. This action represented a mass political effort to destroy the Bill of Rights under the U.S. Constitution.
The Supreme Court will never review or determine the constitutionality of the “detention” part of this bill for to file a lawsuit the plaintiff must have legal standing. If a citizen is incarcerated under this bill, such citizen will have no legal representation and no legal right to sue for wrongful detention.
2. On January 24, 2012, the President announced his submission of his FY 2013 budget would again not meet the law requirement submission date of the first Monday in February, but nobody in D.C. appears to be concerned about a President breaking laws when it comes to financial issues;
3. On January 4, 2012, the President announced the following “Recess Appointments: (1) Richard Cordray, a former attorney general of Ohio, selected to be the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Senate Republicans were totally against Cordray’s appointment before this appointment; (2) Sharon Block-D, a former NLRB and Senate committee attorney; Richard Griffin-D, General Counsel of International Union of Operating Engineers and AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee Board of Directors; and (3) Terrance Flynn-R, Chief Counsel to NLRB member Brian Hayes. After such appointments, the NLRB will still be controlled (3-2) by Democrats who are union activists. The NLRB law should be repealed and the board disbanded.
The Republicans and many Constitutional experts quickly declared all of these appointments to be “unconstitutional” and an affront to the Constitution’s “separation of powers.” They cited their concern for Obama’s history of activist appointments to key governmental positions, and therefore the Republicans had taken the legal precautions to keep the Senate in session during the time these appointments were made---so a Presidential recess appointment was not legally (or Constitutionally) permissive. Additionally, they cite the Dodd-Frank law, which formed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, specially stated the head of the Bureau must receive Senate confirmation; and a recess appointment does not comply with that requirement. The only legal defense that Obama received that the appointments were legal and constitutionally permitted was from the Eric Holder Justice Department.
Both Republicans in the House and in the Senate are threatening a “scorched earth” policy on future appointments by Obama unless he allows the approval of Cordary to be confirm or rejected via Senate rules. One Republican House Committee Chairman stated publicly he would refuse to interact with Cordary for he considers Cordary illegitimate.
4. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services and implementation leader of ObamaCare (a law that may be declared unconstitutional in this session of the Supreme Court), announced in January that the law would require “almost all employers” to provide healthcare policies to their employees by August 1, 2013, incorporating FREE Birth Control Coverage (including sterilization and abortifacients-- substances which induce abortion). The Sebelius rule states religious based affiliated institutions such as colleges, schools, hospitals and social service organizations must comply with her dictate but churches, synagogues and mosques will be exempt.
Led by Catholic bishops, the religious community declared they would move to block this “literally unconscionable” rule, which they say is a blatant attack by government on religious organizations’ First Amendment rights. A reading of the First Amendment totally supports the position of the bishops.
This week the Conference of Catholic Bishops declared war against the Administration via each Bishop sending a letter to their congregations and Catholic religious organizations in their respective areas. The letter stated “We cannot---we will not---comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens”. The bishops recommend all their members and organizations pray for a just solution and further recommended they contact their political representatives demanding they take action to have this rule become inoperable.
It appears there exists no group in the private sector that this President and his Administration will not attack and marginalize to further their political ideology and plan for “Change”.
PRESIDENT OBAMA DOUBLE DOWNS ON HIS GREEN ENERGY POLICY FIASCO:
Since Obama took office in 2009, his Administration has thrown nearly $36B of taxpayer money at companies in the wind, solar and electric automobile/electrical auto battery industries. To date there have been no announcements of any winning investments by the Administration, but there are many examples of failure, which they do not report. Solyndra, the solar panel company in which the U.S. taxpayer will lose $535M, is the poster child of Obama’s Green Energy failed policy. Analysts who closely follow the money trail to Green companies report a minimum of 12 additional companies (received an aggregate of $6.5B) are in financial trouble. Additionally, CBS News reports Nevada Geothermal ($98.5M), SunPower ($1.2B) and First Solar ($3B), and ‘Junk Rated” Beacon, Evergreen Solar, Spectra Watt and Eastern Energy are all heading for financial trouble. Further, IBD reports additional problems at Willard & Kelsey Solar Group ($15M of Toledo, OH investment money at risk), Green Vehicles (bankrupt CA company in which Salinas, CA taxpayers lost $500K), and the failed federal green building weatherization fiasco of the Obama Stimulus financing, which cost taxpayers $5B. Further, a well-financed company, Johnson Controls, received $300M for construction of a Green plant, but the operation created only 150 jobs. Finally, last week Ener1, a recipient of a $118M grant and a company like Solyndra the Administration has given great press and attention, filed for bankruptcy. It is readily apparent the Federal Government should not be in the lending business.
IBD further reports Germany has invested $129B in Green Energy and politicians are now saying the program has been nothing but a “massive money pit.” Spain, the leader of the Green Energy government investment binge, just announced the Spanish government has cancelled further grant/loan support for all Spanish Green Industries. Finally, analysis of Scotland’s Green Investments, reveal that for each Green Energy job created, four other Scottish jobs were displaced in the process. Why cannot the Wizards of Smart in the Federal Government recognize this energy policy will destroy the economy of our country. Could it be that payment to campaign donors get priority over safety of the country?
Given what Obama wrongfully believes are his Green program’s superior investment results, in his recent State of the Union address he shamelessly stated he is still committed to continue to move our country forward in a major transition from fossil fuel energy to Clean Green Energy. Obama inferred he would use the military/Pentagon to finance a big part of the massive transition cost (e.g. Obama recently dictated the Navy purchase biofuels from an Obama campaign donor’s company for $16/gal.) to make sure the transition happens.
Just before the State of the Union Address, Obama announced that he would not issue a license to construct the XL Pipeline from Calgary to Texas to transport to gulf oil refineries heavy Canadian oil and Bakken oil from the Dakotas and Montana. In this decision, Obama opted to back his big environmental campaign donors’ negative position on the pipeline rather than immediately provide the U.S. economy a minimum of 20,000 well compensated construction jobs (plus thousands more of indirect jobs) and millions of dollars of annual taxes paid to the states over which the pipeline would transverse. In retaliation, Canada announced last week it is proceeding with a rerouting of the pipeline over the Rockies to Canada’s Pacific coast for export of the oil to China.
A few days after Canada made their rerouting announcement, Brazil announced they have decided to sell all of their “excess” oil production (billions of barrels of oil are located in reserves found in areas offshore from Brazil) to China. Private Chinese oil companies have committed to purchase big financial stakes in two Brazilian oil companies and the Chinese government has announced $10B of investments to assist in funding Brazil’s oil development costs, with the hint that if necessary up to $10B more would be available. A few years ago, Obama went to Brazil and pledged the U.S. would become Brazil’s biggest oil purchaser, following that promise up with a commitment for Import Export Bank financing of $2B for Brazilian oil development. What we witnessed here was a country, which is not a U.S. ally, witnessing the snub Obama gave to our close ally and economic partner, Canada, deciding in the process the U.S. did not represent a reliable oil customer, especially given Obama’s maniacal obsession with Green Energy. These recent movements by two major countries against U.S. interests, vividly illustrates the bankruptcy of Obama’s influence and those countries negative assessment of the trustworthiness of the Obama Administration in negotiations with them.
OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE OBSERVATIONS ON CURRENT POLITICAL PERFORMANCE:
I was asked by President Schaff to provide an overview (of the Federal Oversight Committee’s activities and our concerns since the committee was formed in December 2010) to the attendees of the January 24 rally our organization sponsored for Rick Santorum. The speech outline shown below covers many of the major problems the Committee is witnessing in our monitoring of the federal government, including outright law breaking by the Obama Administration and the Congress.
SPEECH OUTLINE FOR SANTORUM RALLY
By: William Bigelow
· REASONS WHY TPPG FORMED THE FEDERAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE. With loss of the House in 2010, TPPG believed Obama (to continue to implement his agenda) would need to use his many Departments of Government to initiate extensive, new regulation and he would have to create many new Executive Orders. TPPG believes it is responsible for informing our membership of the impact of such actions so it formed the Federal Oversight Committee to concentrate on the monitoring or the activities of the House, the Senate, the Fed, the Obama Administration and all departments of the Obama Administration, which are capable of furthering the Obama agenda outside the purview of Congress.
· MAKE-UP OF THE FEDERAL COMMITTEE - WHAT WE LOOK FOR: Committee has 10 members who assemble monthly information of what is happening in the areas of the federal government identified above. A monthly report, documenting the pertinent information assembled and discussing major governmental/economic/financial trends/topics, is distributed to membership attending the monthly meeting. Such reports are posted on the organization’s website and the reports are e-mailed to readers across the country.
· WHAT THE COMMITTEE CONCLUDED OVER THE 13 MONTHS OF ITS EXISTANCE?:
1. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S FINANCIAL CONDITION IS A LOT WORSE THAN AMERICANS BELIEVE. Nearly $16.4T of Treasury Debt will be outstanding before the next election and in the future the biggest buyer of new debt will be the Fed, which will have to print more money to buy our bonds; $1T budget deficits have become the norm under President Obama; and Entitlement Spending is totally out of control and beyond the government’s capability to fund. For example, actuarial estimates to fund FUTURE ENTITLEMENT COSTS exceed $100T after related revenues are deducted. Total True Debt of the United States is over $120T.
2. THE ESTABLISHMENT POLITICIANS OF BOTH PARTIES T0TALLY CONTROL THE CONGRESS AND THEIR AGENDAS DO NOT MATCH THE PEOPLE’S AGENDA.
THE POLITICIAN’S AGENDA: CONCENTRATE POLITICAL POWER IN THEIR RESPECTIVE PARTY, GAIN CONTROL OF THE TAX PURSE STRINGS TO DIRECT MONEY TO RECIPIENTS AS THEY SEE FIT, AND CREATE A STRUCTURED SYSTEM THAT WILL PROVIDE THE ESTABLISHMENT MEMBERS LONG, FINANCIALLY LUCRATIVE CAREERS.
THE ESTABLISHMENT AGENDA IS QUICKLY LEADING TO POLITICAL TYRANNY OVER THE CITIZENS, WHO UNDER THE CONSTITUTION ARE THE POLITICIANS’ BOSSES.
THE PEOPLE’S AGENDA IS AS FOLLOWS: (SUPPORTED BY CONSTANT POLLING RESULTS):
REDUCTION OF THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT, BALANCED BUDGETS, PROTECTION FROM FOREIGN INTERVENTION, CONTROL OF THE COUNTRY’S BORDERS, PERPETUATION/EXPANSION OF THE FREE MARKET, JOBS FOR EVERYONE HAVING TO WORK, AND RISING AMERICAN STANDARDS OF LIVING.
THE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE BELIEVES NONE OF THE PEOPLE’S AGENDA CAN BE OBTAINED WITHOUT MAJOR MEMBERSHIP OVERTHROW IN THE POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT’S RANKS.
3. THE BURGEONING SIZE OF THE GOVERNMENT HAS STRIPPED (VIA TAXATION AND PERFORMANCE COST OF REGULATIONS) THE PRIVATE SECTOR OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF CAPITAL, WHICH IS DESPERATELY NEEDED BY SMALL BUSINESS JOB CREATORS TO FUND THEIR BUSINESSES. EVERY DOLLAR STRIPPED FROM THE PRIVATE SECTOR REDUCES THE ACCUMULATED WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY FOR GOVERNMENT SPENDING CREATES VERY LITTLE WEALTH.
4. NOWADAYS, THE BILLS BEING PASSED BY CONGRESS ARE SO VOLUMINOUS THE POLITICIANS HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS CONTAINED IN THEM. THEREFORE, MOST DO NOT READ THE BILLS BEFORE VOTING.
THIS SITUATION IS DANGEROUS FOR SUCH BILLS ARE WRITTEN BY CAREER BUREAUCRATS AND SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS WHO HAVE NO ALLEGIANCE/ COMMITMENT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
5. SINCE POLITICIANS EXEMPT THEMSELVES FROM THE EFFECT OF MOST BILLS THEY PASS, THEY HAVE CREATED, AT THE CITIZENS’ EXPENSE, AN ELITE CLASS WITH BETTER HEALTHCARE, PENSION BENEFITS AND SALARY STRUCTURE THAN THE PRIVATE SECTOR OFFERS FOR THE LARGE PROPORTION OF THEIR EMPLOYEES. AND, WITHOUT ANY OVERSIGHT, THE POLITICIANS SET AND APPROVE THEIR OWN COMPENSATION.
ADDITIONALLY, SINCE THE POLITICIANS ARE EXEMPT FROM ANY CONFLICT OF INTEREST LAWS (AFFECTING ALL OTHER AMERICANS) THE EVIDENCE IS THAT MANY POLITICIANS MAKE THEIR INVESTMENTS BASED ON CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION NOT KNOWN BY THE PUBLIC. IF THE PUBLIC KNEW SUCH CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION AND MADE INVESTMENTS BASED UPON CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION THEY WOULD, IF CAUGHT, BE PROSECUTED UNDER THE CONFLICT OF INTEREST LAWS OF THE LAND.
QUESTION: HOW DID THE PELOSI’S NET WORTH GO UP 62% IN 2010 TO OVER $60M? (For the answer and discussion of the shoddy activities cited in the previous paragraph, read the book “Throw Them All Out” by Peter Schweitzer)
6. CRONY CAPITAL REIGNS ALIVE AND WELL IN WASHINGTOND.C. THE RECORD SHOWS THE PREPONDERENCE OF THE $35B+ SPENT BY OBAMA UNDER THE GREEN ENERGY/OTHER CORPORATE FINANCIAL SUPPORT PROGRAMS WENT TO COMPANIES AFFILIATED WITH BIG DONORS TO OBAMA/DEMOCRAT PARTY. ACCORDING TO PETER SCHWEITZER, LARGE CAMPAIGN DONOR COMPANIES, READILY OBTAIN CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION FROM ELECTED OFFICIALS, PLACING THEM IN AN ADVANTAGEOUS COMPETITIVE POSITION VIA A VIS THEIR COMPETITIORS, WHICH ARE NOT PRIVY TO SUCH INFORMATION. THERE IS AN ENTIRE CHAPTER DEVOTED BY SCHWEITZER WHICH PLACES WARREN BUFFET IN THE ELITE CRONY CAPITAL RECIPIENT GROUP.
THE ACQUISITON COST FOR ANY JOB CREATED BY GOVERNMENT IS MANY, MANY TIMES GREATER THAN THE COST THE PRIVATE SECTOR EXPERIENCES IN CREATING JOBS.
FOR THE INCOMPETENCY CONSTANTILY DISPLAYED IN THE “GREEN ENERGY” GRANT PROGRAM, OUR COMMMITTEE BELIEVES ENERGY SECRETARY STEVEN CHU SHOULD LOSE HIS JOB.
7. DURING HIS THREE YEARS IN OFFICE, OBAMA HAS CONSTANTLY BROKEN OR IGNORED THE CONSTITUTION. HIS/BUSH’S BAILOUT OF THE FINANCIAL, INSURANCE AND AUTO INDUSTRIES WERE CLEARLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND IN THE PROCESS (ABETTED BY THE FEDERAL COURTS) THE AUTO BAILOUT TRASHED LONG STANDING CONTRACT LAW AT THE EXPENSE OF SENIOR BOND HOLDERS. WILL FUTURE INVESTORS INVEST IN THE U.S. IF THEY FEEL THEIR CONTRACT CAN BE CAST ASIDE BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ON A WHIM? THE AUTO BAILOUT HAPPENED SOLEY FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE UNITED AUTO WORKERS AND FOR VOTES FOR DEMOCRATS AND IN THE END DID NOT RESULT IN WORLD COMPETITIVE MANUFACTURING COSTS AT EITHER GM OR CHRYSLER, WHICH SITUATION COULD HURT THEM BADLY IN THE NEXT ECONOMIC DOWNTURN.
THE CURRENT ESTIMATE IS THE TAXPAYERS WILL EVENUALLY LOSE $16B ON THE AUTO BAILOUTS.
THE SENATE HAS NOT APPROVED A BUDGET IN NEARLY 1,000 DAYS AND REFUSES TO CONSIDER AND BRING UP FOR VOTE THE 2012 BUDGET AS PASSED AND SUBMITTED BY THE REPUBLICAN HOUSE.
8. OBAMA’S DEPARTMENTS OF GOVERNMENT HAVE BEEN CONTINUOUSLY EXCEEDING THEIR REGULATORY AUTHORITY (AS ESTABLISHED IN LAW) TO HELP GET HIS AGENDA THROUGH BECAUSE CONGRESS WILL NOT APPROVE THE OBAMA AGENDA. CASS SUSTEIN, OBAMA’S REGULATORY CZAR, PUMPS OUT HUNDREDS OF NEW REGULATIONS PER MONTH FOR THE DEPARTMENTS TO CONSIDER/INACT. CONGRESS HAS NO CONTROL OVER SUSTEIN WHATSOEVER.
EPA, FCC, LABOR, ENERGY, NLRB, TRANSPORTATION AND HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES ARE THE BIG VIOLATORS. JUSTICE SPENDS MOST OF ITS TIME SUING STATES FOR IMMIGRATION AND VOTING LAW DISCRIMINATION AND VIA THE ATF SHIPPING GUNS TO DRUG GANGS IN MEXICO IN THE “FAST AND FURIOUS SCANDAL”. EVIDENCE HAS BEEN FOUND THAT SECRETARY HOLDER KNEW TOTALLY ABOUT THIS ILLEGAL OPERATION (UNDER OATH, HOLDER HAS STATED HE KNEW NOTHING ABOUT THIS ATF “GUN WALKING” PROGRAM), WHICH HAS RESULTED IN OVER 200 DEATHS AND BROKE INTERNATIONAL LAWS BETWEEN THE U.S. AND MEXICO. AT A MINIMUM, SECRETARY HOLDER SHOULD LOSE HIS JOB OVER THIS SCANDAL.
OBAMACARE AND DODD-FRANK LAWS MUST BE REPEALED FOR THE SAKE OF THE U.S. ECONOMY. IF OBAMACARE IS NOT DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL BY THE SUPREME COURT THIS YEAR OR NOT REPEALED IN 2013, THE LAW WILL BECOME THE LAW OF THE LAND IN 2014, AND THE CITIZENS OF THE COUNTRY WILL THEN BE FOREVER ENSLAVED----FOR ONCE ONE GIVES UP CONTROL OF HIS/HERS BODY TO THE GOVERNMENT ONE GIVES UP ALL FREEDOM AND RIGHTS. JUST LOOK AT WHAT MAYOR BLOOMBERG HAS DONE IN NYC VIA HIS NANNY LAWS AFFECTING WHAT TYPES OF FOOD AND CONDIMENTS CAN BE SOLD/PROVIDED IN NYC RESTRAURANTS.
DODD-FRANK PUTS MORE POWER IN THE HANDS OF THE MAJOR BANKS AND ASSURES THE TAXPAYERS WILL AGAIN BAIL OUT THE BIG BANKS IF ANY GET IN FUTURE FINANCIAL TROUBLE. EXPERTS ANALYZING THE LAW, OPINE THAT OVER 1,000 SMALL BANKS WILL GO OUT OF BUSINESS BECAUSE THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FINANCIALLY ABSORB THE COST OF THE LAW’S MASSIVE REPORTING REQUIREMENTS AND THE FACT THEIR LOAN PORTFOLIOS WILL BE SO CLOSELY SCRUTINIZED BY THE GOVERNMENT LOAN EXPANSION WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT.
ADDITIONALLY, DODD-FRANK FORMS THE BUREAU OF CONSUMER FINANICAL PROTECTION, WHICH WILL BE THE BIGGEST AND MOST EXPENSIVE DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT----AND SINCE THE DEMOCRATS PUT THIS AGENCY UNDER THE BUDGET OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE, THERE WILL BE NO OVERSIGHT OF THE BUREAU OPERATIONALLY OR FINANCIALLY BY CONGRESS.
There is much political, financial and economic trouble in this land and the only way to rectify these problems is for voter/citizen to apply constant, maximum pressure on all elected officials at the federal, state and local levels. Additionally, the People must commit to voting into office politicians who convince us they are for the perpetuation of our Republic and they will conform to the U.S. Constitution only in managing the affairs of the People.
Federal Oversight Committee of
Tea Party of Punta Gorda LLC
By: _____________________________
William G. Bigelow, Chairman
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________TEA PARTY OF PUNTA GORDA
FEDERAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
CHAIRMAN’S MONTHLY REPORT TO MEMBERS
January 5, 2012
2. Passage of the Food Safety Bill, giving the FDA (arguably the worst run department of government) the power to “prevent” food-borne disease outbreaks rather than trying to contain them once rampant. Such power will involve massive regulation of the agricultural industry and, given the significant compliance cost by agricultural companies/farms many experts believe small farms/farmers’ markets will eventually disappear. Republicans Senators could have stopped this law from passing, but fifteen of them ended up voting for this massive expansion of government. In the future, consumers will witness an increase in agriculture product prices this legislation will cause.
With these significant roadblocks now in the way of Obama’s agenda, the President developed a strategy of going around Congress to enact his “Hope and Change” agenda” via a regulatory strategy process implemented by various governmental departments of government controlled by the President and using new regulation tactics created by his Regulatory Czar, Cass Sustein. During the year, the EPA, FCC, Labor, National Labor Relations Board, Agriculture, Interior, Energy, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Justice/ATF and Fish and Wildlife Service all which actively participated in 2011 in (1) initiating new regulations/strongly enforcing (and even exceeding legal authority provided by) existing law; (2) aggressively disbursing tens of billions of dollars under various programs such (a) Food Stamps/Child Nutritional Programs-“SNAP” [e.g. at 1-31-09. when Obama took office, there were 32 million people on Food Stamps and at 9-30-11 program participants had risen to 46 million, a 44% increase. The annual budget for SNAP is currently about $80 billion, a 46% increase over FY 2009]; and (b) the about $35 billion of investments/credit guaranty support committed to alternative energy companies under Obama’s Green Energy development programs. [Details of many of these departmental actions can be found on our web site, pgteaparty.org., then accessing our committee’s various monthly reports for 2011.
When the Senate refused to pass the Cap and Trade Bill (passed by the House in 2010), the EPA went quickly into high gear writing regulations to: (1) regulate greenhouse gases [primarily CO2 with estimates being such regulation would cost the economy a cumulative GDP loss of $7T by 2029 and annual job losses of 800,000 for several years]; (2) proposing to increase ozone emission standards [estimates are such new regulation would cost the economy $700B in economic activity and 700,000 jobs]; and (3) institute the Cross-State Pollution Rule [“CSPR”], which would significantly decrease plant emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide which experts opine would cause the closing of many of the nation’s coal plants and rolling blackouts in many areas of the country. Given that 2012 is an election year, Obama in September postponed implementation of the new ozone standards until 2013. Additionally, on December 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals (D.C. district) stayed the implementation of the CSPR (scheduled to be activated on 1-1-12) pending judicial review. Many companies and states have initiated lawsuits against the EPA to stop such regulatory increases.
(a) defunded $105B of ObamaCare organizational expenditures; and (b) stopped the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. The expected battle turned out to be a “let’s once again fool the voters” moment.
Second, in July/August on the Debt Ceiling negotiations. Rather than not allow the debt to go above the $14.3T maximum, the two parties ended up agreeing up front to cut budget expenditures over 10 years $971B and then form a 12 member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (our Committee believes formation of this entity was unconstitutional) to reach agreement on an additional $1.2T to $1.7T of budget cuts/tax increases. Given the background of the 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans named to the committee, expectations for success were slim, and that assumption proved to be correct as a stalemate occurred in December. Upon the committee’s announcement of failure, automatic sequestration requiring $1.2B of additional budget cuts (50% from the Military Budget and 50% from all domestic expenditure budgets) over 10 years became operable commencing in calendar year 2013. The charade was this: the whole compromise involved budget cuts, the preponderance of which occurs in the out years and mostly from the “Baseline Budget”, not the “current” budget. This charade allowed the parties to agree to permit additional Treasury borrowings in increments up to an aggregate a $2.1T. Such incremental borrowings could be stopped by Congress, but only if it has the votes to override a sure Presidential Veto, which votes are not there. These negotiations did absolutely nothing to slow down the country’s mad rush towards bankruptcy.
Third, in December Congressional Republicans/Obama went at it again in negotiations to extend for one year the 2% FICA tax cut approved in the 2010 Lame Duck legislative session (discussed above) and extend unemployment insurance funding. The House Republican conservatives demanded that any FICA, Unemployment Insurance and Increased Medicare Doctor funding (the “Doctor Fix”) extensions be paid for by cuts in existing budget expenditures. The House passed a bill funding the government though 9-30-12 incorporating the 3 areas discussed in the previous paragraph with one proviso—that being the President must make a go/no go decision on the XL Pipeline (discussed in detail in the Committee’s July and December reports) within 60 days. The Senate ignored the House Bill and passed an Omnibus Funding Bill through 9-30-11 plus a 60-day bill extending the FICA, the Doctor Fix and Unemployment budget components with the same XL Pipeline rider as the House Bill required. Placed under pressure by Obama and the Senate action, Speaker Boehner acquiesced and was able to convince his House caucus to agree to the Senate’s Omnibus Funding Bill plus the 60-day Senate extension. Again, the Congress decided to get out of town for the holidays instead of tending to the pressing business of the country.
The Many Pending Obama Administration Scandals:
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2012:
We will all be watching very closely the new disclosures on the several Obama Administration scandal areas---and they will ultimately come. There is the potential that several Obama administrators will be heading out the door---or worse, which would hurt the President politically.
The economy is attempting a small comeback, but the overhang of the apparent slowdown in the global economy (especially in the EU, which represents 20% of our annual GDP, and the BRIC nations) would negatively impact the federal budget due to falling tax collections and the politicians penchant to ramp up further the welfare payments associated with a slowing economy. Many analysts believe the EU financial fix is much too big for France and Germany to
Look for the Obama Administration to continue to be aggressive on legislating via regulation. There has been no credible challenge to date by the Republicans to stop this Executive Branch usurping of Congressional authority so Obama will ramp up his efforts to rule by executive fiat.
And last, but not least, the future make-up of the country will be determined in 2012 when the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of ObamaCare and the new Arizona immigration laws.
To the American people and to our Tea Party members, the Committee wishes you all a prosperous New Year. For sure the year will be volatile and challenging, but a free people can win the war for freedom and renewed prosperity.
Federal Oversight Committee of
Tea Party of Punta Gorda LLC
By: _________________________________
William Bigelow, Committee Chairman
__________________________________________________________________________
FEDERAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
CHAIRMAN’S MONTHLY REPORT TO MEMBERS
DECEMBER 1, 2011
In November, however, in Washington D.C. political circles, the turkeys cooked up by the political establishment were again representative of charred, dry offerings, unreflective of what polls strongly say the American people are demanding from our elected officials in the areas of fiscal responsibility and adoption of expansive private sector economic/financial inducements.
The list of burnt offerings from D.C. politicians grows unabated without ANY positive ideas/legislation generated by either the President and/or establishment Congressional politicians controlling both political parties. As our economy stagnates and our deficits and debt grow, following are examples of the destructive behavior continuing to permeate throughout the halls of Congress and the White House:
1. The (in our committee’s opinion) unconstitutional 12 member congressional Super Committee just announced its failure to reach budget reduction consensus. This committee was formed under the Budget Control Act of 2011 to find a minimum of $1.5T of “net” deficit budget reductions---i.e. the sum of any revenue enhancements and expenditure reductions---over the next 10 years. Such sum would be on top of about $900B of discretionary budget spending cuts agreed to up front by Congress and the President under BCA---for a total targeted net budget reduction of $2.3T (represents only miniscule cuts of .0028%/annum). Now given the lack of consensus, if Congress and Obama cannot agree to reduce the budget on a net basis by the targeted $1.5T, mandated sequestration triggers. Assuming Congress does nothing, $1.2T of mandated expense cuts will occur over 10 years with 50% coming from discretionary Security--Defense, Homeland Security and the FBI and 50% from the rest of the discretionary budget items except Pell Grants.
Republicans in the Senate are now scrambling to draw up a bill to stop the “big” sequestration cuts from the Security budget. However, this whole process is a political fraud for there never was any true budget cuts going to happen under BCA for the cuts would be from the mandated, annually increasing baseline of the budget over 10 years, not from the current year’s budget. Even the “Draconian Cuts” of sequestration are a total charade. Irrespective of what we heard from Mitt Romney, who in the November 22 debate listed the major weapons reductions which would be shelved, Senator Rand Paul agrees with us by saying the Security Budget is, via the exiting 10 year baseline, scheduled to INCREASE 23% and such increase will fall to ONLY a 16% increase once sequestration is mandated. Military spending is currently at an all time high and we all know all to well of the enormous waste regularly found by the Inspector General Office in audits of Pentagon spending. The major objective of both parties in this political exercise was to allow the Treasury to borrow an additional $2.1T through the end of 2012 no matter what Congress does, and an additional $300B if Congress agrees to some other budget cuts.
Bearing in mind even the Ryan Budget projects additional borrowings over 10 years of $6+T, it is obvious that NO TRUE, MEANINGFUL BUDGET CUTS WILL OCCUR as long as the current Congressional Leadership and the current President remain in place and many of the current big spending politicians from both parties continue to hold their seats. If the country is to be saved from the coming financial debacle, the people of this country must take appropriate action in the 2012 elections to assure such politicians do not receive extended careers. (Good News: Rep. Barney Frank has just announced his retirement)
What will happen because of this political charade and the fact that the country’s current outstanding debt now exceeds 100% of GDP (and projections of new debt to cover projected budget deficits show increases over the next 10 years by $1T per annum)? The PROBABILITY is the country’s debt will incur TWO ADDITIONAL CREDIT DOWNGRADES (Fitch Ratings just put the U.S. on Negative watch but kept its AAA rating in place) before the next President takes office in January 2013. This political stalemate is about one thing and one thing only--political power. Such political positioning will continue to generate actions from D.C., not in the best interests of the country and its people, but actions in the best interests of politicians seeking unmitigated power and extension of political careers. If voters want a return to economic sanity, substantial growth in our economy and creation of millions of new jobs, they must follow the lead of Spanish, English and Canadian voters and given control to Conservative politicians in 2012.
2. During November, our “Jobs” obsessed President opted twice in making two decisions whereby he chose to placate his environmental campaign donors by “postponing” two energy projects, which would have created over 250,000 high paying jobs over the next 3 years.
Firstly, Obama announced that he would defer a go/no go decision until 2013 on the Keystone XL Pipeline. This pipeline, which would be constructed by TransCanada at an estimated cost of $7B ($5.4B spent in the U.S.) and once completed would transport up to 800,000 barrels of oil per day from: (1) Alberta, Canada; and (2) via a pipeline spur, 65.000 bbls per day from the Bakken Shale Oil fields in North Dakota/Montana, to U. S. Gulf South refineries. Such up-front committed throughput represents nearly 90% of rated capacity of the pipeline. A consensus of several analysts put the economic benefits of the pipeline at 20,000 new high wage construction jobs, many thousands of spin off jobs and over the life of the pipeline $5.2B in property taxes payable to states in which the pipeline will traverse.
The pipeline has gone through three years of environmental impact study. Earlier this year, the State Department was ready to commence public hearings (setting the stage for final approval) when the EPA, at the behest of several environmental groups, challenged the findings of the impact study (consisting pf 9 volumes with over 1,000 pages). EPA cited too high CO2 emissions and possible danger to water aquifers, especially in Nebraska—even though over 50,000 of pipelines crisscross the U.S. already without any incidence as been recorded concerning water aquifer problems. (See Potpourri Section Below for new information on the CO2 emission fraud by climate scientists)
The U.S. currently is importing from the volatile Persian Gulf states area about 1.6M bbls. of oil/day. The Keystone XL pipeline could replace 800,000 bbls./day or about half of Persian Gulf imports, thereby significantly increasing the long-term security of such valuable energy imports---until we have the votes to override political opposition and tap our world-class oil and natural gas reserves.
President Obama finally entered the pipeline approval process when he declared last summer that he would personally assume the go/no go decision. The environmentalists then began a major campaign to stop the pipeline, threatening to cut off Obama campaign funds and other campaign support if Obama approved the pipeline. Obama, like always in his past, voted “Present” by delaying the decision until 2013, killing much needed job creation and new economic activity deeded to jump start our stagnated economy. However, uninterrupted political cash flow is more important to Obama than the economic needs of the country.
Secondly, in mid-November, the Obama’s Agricultural Department announced a delay in a major shale gas drilling project in Ohio by canceling a mineral lease auction for Wayne National Forest area. This lease delay occurred after environmental groups pressured the Administration demanding the federal government verify the hydraulic fracking techniques that will extract the natural gas adhere to the environmental impact study approved previously by the government for the WNF plan. The environmentalists will do/have been doing everything they can to stop all fracking technology from utilization in this country. The Washington Examiner recently cited studies by the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program, which indicated this shale oil project would create 204,000 jobs in Ohio by 2015.
Again, the President though his administrative departments, has put a hold on a very productive economic project under pressure from his big donor environmentalist groups.
3. ANOTHER OUTRAGE OF THE MONTH AGAINST U.S. TAXPAYERS:
The Obama Labor Department announced on November 21 the federal government would pay each of the 1,100 laid off Solyndra employees an “aid” package aggregating $13,000 consisting of job retraining (although most of the Solyndra employees are already skilled in high tech disciplines), job search cost allowances, health benefits and up to 130 weeks of “income support”. The total cost to taxpayers will be $14,300,000 on top of the probable loss to the government on the $535M Solyndra loan guaranty default.
The reasoning used by the Labor Department to commit to such financial aid packages under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act (a bad law which had expired but was renewed with Republican votes last October), was that Solyndra was forced to file for bankruptcy because it could not compete against foreign competition/unfair trade practices---especially from Chinese manufacturers of solar panels, which have low wages and a corner on the world’s Rare Earth reserves.
The Chinese competition problems, as cited by the Labor Department, are purely false and the Solyndra employees should not receive any TAA money on the taxpayer dime.
The facts are that: (1) before the government committed to extend the $535M loan guaranty in September 2009, the previous month the government had in its possession Solyndra’s financial projections; which showed the company would totally run out of money by September 2011, the month it ultimately filed for bankruptcy. The Department of Energy closed the transaction anyway; (2) A Red Herring Financial Prospectus was circulated by Solyndra in the financial community in June 2010 showing the company was losing 84 cents on every dollar of sales, which clearly shows the product was not acceptable in the market; and (3) Solyndra’s “revolutionary cylindrical solar panel design” proved to be not readily adaptable to mass production techniques and was therefore was too expensive to produce.
None of the above factors had/have anything to do Chinese or any other foreign competition causing the company to fail. The problem was bad management and a bad product design and Obama looking for every opportunity to expand his socialistic policies in the energy field.
4. REASONS WHY THERE IS ONLY A 50/50 CHANCE TO SAVE THE “REPUBLIC”:
• The nation’s school system is not developing critical thinkers and not graduating enough students with 21 Century technology disciplines required for the country to continue to lead the world in the development of new technologies and products;
• Government at all levels has become too intrusive stifling (via taxation and regulation) the individualism and innovating spirit that made the country’s economy great for over 100 years. The citizens are losing freedoms daily as government regulation proliferates and taxpayer money is wasted at the trillions of dollars level per annum;
• The Best of the Best in the country avoid public service given the ultra personal scrutiny and political red tape with which all candidates must contend. Therefore, the country is getting second/third tier leaders to run the government and those elected to federal office over the past 30 years are a testimony to such poor quality;
• The nation’s Major Media has evolved into a political cheerleader/propagandist cabal readily espousing left wing ideology. The evidence is overwhelming that only news (slanted at that) reported is news that is favorable to Major Media’s “favored political group”. The media has gone from its major function of being a watchdog of government activity to a proponent of big government politicians. A country in which the citizens have constitutionally granted freedom is a country which incorporates an unbiased reporting of the news and a media committed to constant probing and reporting of activities at all levels of government. In this proper environment, the citizens learn the truth of what is truly going on in government and thereby they become informed voters. This is not occurring any longer in the Major Media circles in this country.
• The country has developed over many years a political class, which now considers itself the Employer of the people, a mindset 180 degrees from the original intent of the U.S. Constitution. Most politicians are more attuned to first satisfy deep pocket special interests (given receipt of huge campaign contributions from them); and by the rigging of voting district configurations and driving up the cost to run for office, all of which make it very hard to beat an incumbent, politicians have created a system to perpetuate the length of their political careers. Such politicians establish their own pay/benefit packages absolving themselves from laws they pass to cover/burden the citizenry. Such private deals provide politicians broader options and are much more financially lucrative. Politicians have absolved themselves from conflict of interest investing, thereby allowing them to line their pockets in a manner, which would be illegal for anyone not holding political office. We recommend reading the new book entitled “Throw Them All Out” by Peter Schweizer, who exposes the many politicians in D.C. substantially increasing their personal net worth via securities trading/land transactions using insider information they garner in their law making activities. Additionally, the very loose Ethics Rules of the House and Senate make it nearly impossible to dislodge a politician from office ala Rep. Charlie Rangel. It will take a near rebellion by the voters to undo this corrupt system;
• The financial condition in the country is dire and getting worse day by day. We have over $100T of outstanding debt and unfunded future net liabilities (after projected revenues) related to the many committed federal entitlement programs plus a chronic budget deficit exceeding $1T/annum. There is no strong political leadership in place to break the wide ideological divide existing in Congress so no current aggressive measures forthcoming to address the deficit and repay the debt. It has been reported by several sources, the General Accounting Office audit of the Fed earlier this year disclosed the Fed between December 2007 and June 2010 (without any knowledge of our government) made loans to international and U.S. banks and other corporations totaling $16T from newly created dollars. The loans had a “0” interest rate and “virtually all of the loans have not been repaid.” Forbes Market magazine reports the U.S. banks (which got $7T of this money) have earned interest on the funds exceeding $13B. Given the current Keynesian mindset in Fed leadership more fiat money will be printed in the future in a futile effort to stabilize the economy/ employment levels as inevitable economic shocks take place in the EU and at home. The massive printing of money by the Fed in the past few years and inevitable more money creation in the future will cause massive inflation (definition of inflation is to much paper money chasing too little economic output) will result in much higher interest rates (causing much bigger federal budget deficits), a stagnanting or falling economy and then a crash in the value of the U.S. dollar---causing massive foreign investment to head back home. On top of the federal financial problems is the fact that several states are careening towards bankruptcy and the municipal bond market is showing growing trouble as many municipal bonds are being downgraded this year and bond experts believe this trend will continue for the foreseeable future.
• Public sector unions are becoming belligerent as several states seek to have their union employees pay for more of their healthcare and pension costs and eliminate collective bargaining on financial contracts by the unions. Additionally, many states are moving towards opting out of defined pension agreements with new employees, putting new employees into 401k’s and this is also unacceptable to the unions. Unions have taken to the street and have joined with the Occupy Wall Street movement with several demonstrations turning violent. Major demonstrations will occur next year commencing with the annual meetings of NATO and the G8 in Chicago, both in May.
• A majority of Americans are ignorant as to the real major problems confronting the country. History shows major apathy by a nation’s people has been a precursor for governmental tyranny over such citizens.
• Our country’s political leaders in a quest for votes refuse to secure the country’s borders to a point where up to 20M of illegals are estimated to reside in the U.S. All to many American companies take advantage of this situation by hiring illegals at low wages to prop up their profitability. Such Politics and Greed are enemies of the people.
• If ObamaCare is declared constitutional or the Congress is not able to repeal the law (which is rapidly showing the expected cost reductions articulated by the law’s sponsors were bogus and the resulting healthcare system will become a financial albatross for the country), the citizens of the country will have put their bodies/minds under the total control of the government, which represents Hard Tyranny. The Constitution would then no longer be the document which limits the power of the government over the people;
• The government has successfully through bailout/regulation placed itself into a position that by 2014 will effectively control the financial institutions industry, the healthcare industry, the domestic auto industry and the Student Loan/Mortgage loan industries. It is currently in the process of killing the best economy in the world by moving to control greenhouse and ozone emissions and impeding development of the largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world (which will cause the economy to stall due to lack of energy). Additionally, Obama is actively working to take away Second Amendment rights (via proposed UN control of hand guns---endorsed by Secretary of State Clinton).
• If the above reasons are lacking in completeness, refer to the next section below for additional reasons imbedded in the strategies of the left to destroy America. We are also sure our members will be able to add to this list given there are innumerable reasons.
5. SYNOPSIS OF AN ALREADY ACTIVATED STRATEGY TO DESTROY AMERICA:
The following speech was given by Richard Lamm, former Governor of Colorado, at the 2004 Immigration-Overpopulation Conference in Washington, D.C. Governor Lamm titled it “A Plan to Destroy America.”
We thank Federal Oversight Committee member, Bill Orwa, for bringing to our attention this very insightful speech for many of the takeover strategy bullet points outlined by Gov. Lamm are seven years later occurring; and therefore the evidence is overt the strategy has indeed been activated by the left and is proving valid/effective….hopefully, only for the time being.
In his past position of Governor of Colorado, a battle ground state with major illegal immigrant problems, Governor Lamm’s thoughts are particularly poignant. In June 2004 there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, which was filled to capacity by many of America's finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor, Victor Davis Hansen, talked about his book, Mexifornia," which outlines how immigration - both legal and illegal - was destroying the entire state of California. Hansen said this plague would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.
Moments later, former Colorado Governor Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America. The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States. He said, "If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let's destroy America. It is not hard to do for no nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and “An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.'"
Here is how they do it," Lamm said:
First, …turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country." History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this way: "The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy." Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans." *(See note 1 below)
Second, …. Invent 'multiculturalism' and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal. That there are no cultural differences. I would make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.
Third, "We could make the United States an 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: "The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentricity and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together." Lamm said, "I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities."
Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school."
Fifth, Get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of 'Victimology.' I would get all minorities to think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population."
Sixth, Establish dual citizenship, and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other - that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshipped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic games. A common enemy, Persia, threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. "E. Pluribus Unum" -- From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the 'pluribus' instead of the 'Unum,' we will balkanize America as surely as Kosovo."
Seventh, I would place all subjects off limits; make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of 'diversity.' I would find a word similar to 'heretic' in the 16th century - that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like 'racist' or 'xenophobe' halt discussion and debate. Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multi-culturism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of 'Victimology', I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them."
In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally, Lamm said:
Lastly, I would censor Victor Davis Hanson’s book Mexifornia. His book is dangerous for” it exposes the plan to destroy America. If you feel that America deserves to be destroyed, don't read that book."
There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Even barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate 'diversity.' American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America - take note of California and other states – to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell's book "1984" In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: "War is peace," "Freedom is slavery," and "Ignorance is strength."
Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy is deeply in trouble and worsening fast.
If we don't get this immigration monster stopped within three years**, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path, especially The American Dream.
* Note 1: Given large Muslim populations, which are not assimilating in Spain, England, Italy, Netherlands and Belgium, these countries should now will be added to Lamm’s list of those nations that could totally lose their national identity.
** Note 2: It is now over 7 years later and Obama is the purveyor of such destruction.
6. POTPOURRI:
• More CO2 Emission Lies Uncovered: Forbes reported on November 23, “5,000 more e-mails among scientists central to the assertion that humans are causing a global warming crisis were anonymously released to the public yesterday”.
Forbes goes further, stating “Three themes are emerging from the newly released emails: (1) prominent scientists central to the global warming debate are taking measures to conceal rather than disseminate underlying data and discussions; (2) these scientists view global warming as a political “cause” rather than a balanced scientific inquiry and (3) many of these scientists frankly admit to each other that much of the science is weak and dependent on deliberate manipulation of facts and data. (To read the entire article, which is very revealing as to the CO2 emissions fraud, which EPA is using to regulate such emissions plus ozone emissions from coal fired power plants, please go to the following web link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2011/11/23/climategate-2-0-new-e-mails-rock-the-global-warming-debate/
Additionally, Professor Fred S. Singer, Climatologist from U. of Virginia strongly disputes the “Consensus Theory” of the connection between Global Warming and CO2 in his article in American Thinker. Go to the following web link to read his very enlightening stance: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/11/durban_climate_conference_the_dream_fades.html
Finally, last week a climatologist research team at Oregon State University led by Andreas Schmittner, released an extensive study on the affect of CO2 gases on any warming occurring on the Earth. The study’s conclusions are as follows: (1) Climate Change fears have been exaggerated and doomsday predictions are over-estimated; (2) Risk is not imminent; (3) their study studied data back to the Ice Age and the data shows the impact of CO2 is much less than first thought. To read the team’s findings go to the following web address: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2065954/Climate-change-fears-exaggerated-say-scientists-claim-apocalyptic-predictions-unlikely.html
• FHA: THE AGENCY ON WATCH FOR TAXPAYER BAILOUT: The Obama Administration secretly is using the same political game plan that eventually tanked the economy in 2008—i.e. aggressively expanding loans to home purchasers who are unqualified for bank loans. The funding source Obama and Holder have used to fulfill their strategy is the Federal Housing Administration. FHA has guaranteed in excess of a trillion dollars of mortgages (FHA once represented 5% of mortgage market, but now covers 30% of market) and its reserves are now depleted, having paid out $37B in default claims in the past 3 years. If the residential housing market does not improve (estimates currently expect home values in the next 12 months could fall another 10% to 15%), then a TAXPAYER bailout may be necessary and that bailout is being bracketed by expert observers at $50B-$100B.
To read the entire article, the web link is: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/11/22/federal-housing-administration-could-be-the-next-housing-bailout
To read what FHA’s easy credit requirements are, the web link is:
http://don38.hubpages.com/hub/Buying-A-House-With-Bad-Credit-FHA-Mortgage-Home-Loans
The Obama Administration continues to believe it is smarter than the banking industry in the lending money and it again appears Obama is wrong and the taxpayers will suffer the consequences if and when the FHA’s problems become terminal.
• Occupy Wall Street: According to Investors Business Daily, Occupy Wall Street leaders (egged on by Andrew Ross, a professor at New York University) have concocted a new strategy called Occupy Student Debt. The program is seeking at least 1 million students with Student Loan Debt outstanding to default on such debt, which debt they laughing state is “poisoning the pursuit of higher education”. Additionally, they want all public college education to be free, all existing Student Loan Debt be forgiven and any required debt to fund private college tuition to be interest free. It is obvious the sane people of this country have a lot of work to do to return the country to moral and economic sanity.
Federal Oversight Committee of
Tea Party of Punta Gorda LLC
By: _________________________________
William Bigelow, Committee Chairman
________________________________________________________________________
FEDERAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
CHAIRMAN’S MONTHLY REPORT - NOVEMBER 3, 2011
The bad fiscal, economic and social policies/legislation created by politicians and/or the Federal Reserve over the past 80 years have put the country on the brink of a major financial calamity.
However, even with:
(1) National debt approaching $15T (rising at $4B/day) and Congressional approval in place for adding an additional $2T to this unmanageable total by the 2012 election;
(2) Producer price inflation for the past 12 months hitting 6.9% resulting primarily from the Federal Reserve’s misguided/destructive Keynesian money-printing press/below market interest rate policies;
(3) Unemployment rate mired over 9%; 26 million Americans out of work or underemployed; 20% of working Americans earning poverty level wages or below; 108M+ [45% of the workforce] of working age Americans either unemployed, underemployed or “Not in workforce”; and nearly 45M on food stamps;
(4) The prolific business regulatory binge sponsored by the Obama Administration and the ongoing implementation of ObamaCare [at a cost exceeding $100B], which are causing U.S. businesses to sit tight on about $2.5T of cash reserves until they can see the light at the end of a politically land mined tunnel;
(5) The constant threat of the EPA, against the will of the Congress, to regulate greenhouse gases, ozone and plant emissions, which in consort will kill our economy and drive unemployment substantially higher;
(6) More stimulus spending being proposed by Obama to the tune of nearly $500B and his threat that he will proceed unilaterally around Congress to implement his new stimulus ideas [even though they mirror the already failed stimulus of over $850B] if Congress does not approve his Jobs Program;
(7) The probable failure of the unconstitutional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction given it appears to be more ideologically divided than Congress itself, and
(8) Another credit downgrade by S & P, as being predicted by Ethan S. Harris, North American Economist for Bank of America, plus Merrill Lynch for they see the budget cuts demanded by S & P not being met by the Congress/Deficit Reduction Committee.
the fact is the science of economics has it own rules and regulations. Such scientific principles always in the end supersede/destroy bad laws/policies/regulations created by politicians and bureaucrats, which derail dynamic economic activity and usually result in disastrous “unintended consequences”. And now economic science is beginning to signal the beginning of an economic trend, which is bullish for America. If (and it is a big “if”) our politicians adopt new policies fostering the required dynamic new direction for the country, such change in direction could turn the dire situation currently engulfing the U.S. into a 21st century economic boom, allowing us to regain for the balance of this century, and possibly beyond, the status of the world’s most vibrant economy and its once strong economic/political leadership position.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge University, and Le Sorbonne and is International Business Editor in London for the UK Daily Telegraph, has written an impelling article, which outlines the probable economic renaissance in the U.S. (The writer personally discussed Evans-Pritchard with Daniel Hannan, conservative Tory in the British Parliament and Iain Murray, who is currently working for Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C. and is a Fellow at the think tank, Adam Smith Institute in London, Both advised me Evans-Pritchard is the best reporter/analyst of economic issues in the European Union and his articles are always thoroughly researched and documented and accurate.)
Following is a resume’ of Evans-Pritchard major points, which outline his belief in an emerging American economic boom and our existing/impending economic advantages. The future advantages include: (1) America’s world-class natural resources of energy reserves; and (2) the rapidly changing economic landscape caused by escalating wage rates in China.
1. With the technological breakthrough in the U.S. of hydraulic fracking, which enables the development of huge oil reserves embedded in rock [previously inaccessible], Evans-Pritchard states the U.S. is positioned to increase daily production of this “world-class” oil source from the current production level of 395,000 barrels per day to 5.5M bpd within 4 years.
((TPPG Comment: The United States is home to the largest and most concentrated oil shale deposits in the World. The Department of Energy states the total oil shale resources in the United States potentially exceed 6 trillion barrels of oil. For example, the Green River area of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado contains estimates of 2T barrels of shale oil with conservatively 800B barrels being recoverable using existing technology. But, development of shale oil is prohibited by the government. Additionally, major on-shore and offshore areas are currently not assessable for non-shale oil development again due to governmental prohibition. These areas contain upwards of 400B barrels of recoverable oil. Based on the standard of “Probable” Oil Reserves, the U.S. by far has the largest oil reserves in the world with Saudi Arabia a distant second at 400B-700B barrels.
Further, in the past few years, advancements in fracking technology have made the U.S. the “Saudi Arabia of natural gas” with reserves estimated at significantly in excess of 100 years. Oil companies now believe the demand for natural gas/liquid natural gas will skyrocket in the next few decades as the uses for this energy source proliferate, including the conversion of trucks and automobiles to a proven n.g. power source. Saudi Arabia believes in the future of n.g. for last year it committed nearly $4B to n.g. investment projects.
The U.S. is also the “Saudi Arabia of coal”. Given the objective of the EPA/Obama to close coal fired plants in this country, the U.S. coal industry’s export sales are booming as many countries such as China have approved the construction of thousands of new coal fired power plants.
The bottom line is our country is blessed with abundant energy sources that could allow us to attain near total energy self-sufficiency within 15 years. However, to achieve that goal, we must overcome one major problem [i.e. the continuous, huge amounts of environmental organizational cash internationally being donated to liberal politicians’ campaigns to assure the votes will be there to inhibit new fossil fuel development. In other words, many politicians are selling the country’s energy future out for money.]))
2. Evans-Pritchard believes the country’s ability to become energy self-sufficient would (if realized) eliminate purchases of imported oil from politically risky countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, thereby positioning America to perpetuate its leadership status in the areas of “geopolitics, military alliances and economic activity.” He sees the EU losing economic power going forward because the EU is becoming increasingly more dependent on the heavily volatile and risky Middle East for major energy inputs. Attainment of self-sufficiency by the U.S. would greatly represent a major enhancement of America’s national security.
3. Evans-Pritchard citing a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group called “Made in America, Again” (http://www.bcg.com/documents/file84471.pdf ) states the competitive business position of the U.S. vis a vis China for many manufactured goods is now quickly swinging back to the U.S., as China’s is now “no longer the “default location” for cheap plants supplying the U.S. He cites the financial “tipping point is near in computers, electrical equipment, machinery, autos and motor parts, plastics and rubber, fabricated metals, and even furniture”. This trend has already started with several companies (including Farouk Systems, ET Water Systems, Master Lock and NCR) having recently returned production of some manufactured products to the U.S. Additionally, he highlights Volkswagen and Samsung current investment of billions of dollars in the U.S. and Intel, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Caterpillar opting to keep their plant operations in the country. (TPPG Comment: All such positive news will stop if ObamaCare/Dodd-Frank are not repealed and if the EPA is successful in implementing major regulations under the auspices of the Clean Air Act).
The main reasons cited by Evan-Pritchard for this competitive shift is:(1) the incidence of rapidly rising Chinese labor costs (“Chinese wage inflation at 16% a year for the past decade”) which has reduced the dollar/yuan wage differential by 61% (based on southern U.S. wage scales); and (2) the falling U.S. dollar, as the Chinese Yuan has shown slow but sure relative value increases. He explains that, when you add to the relative product cost equation the cost of Chinese product delivery expense, import duties, a history of bad quality Chinese products, and high incidence of technology piracy by the Chinese, the relative price gap on a wide range of manufactured goods is virtually eliminated.
His conclusion is that U.S. “Off-shoring is out, and re-shoring is the new fashion.” (TPPG Comment: China is cognizant that its total dominance of the world export market is beginning to wane and to keep its economy humming it must develop a strong domestic economy. To accomplish that goal, wages paid to Chinese workers must continue to rise, better mirroring worker productivity. This objective will fail if Chinese wages do not continue to move upward increasing the purchasing power of the average worker. Therefore, it is a mandate to continue to raise wages and worker organizations are being formed to accomplish that goal.
Some of the mandatory changes the Committee believes necessary to put the country in position for the economic growth required [we believe per annum GDP growth of 5%-7% must regularly occur] to solve our massive financial problems and return trillions of dollars of capital to the private sector are:
(1) Restructuring of entitlement programs and cutting discretionary spending to at least 2008 budget levels will result in a massive reduction in government spending (under Obama, spending has increased 40% over the past two years), thereby ramping down the size of the government and the elimination of deficits;
(2) The current tax code must be abolished and replaced by a broad based flat [whereby all citizens will pay some amount of non-FICA tax to finance the government] and/or national non-VAT sales tax, which will assure the underground economy, pays some taxes. The capital gains taxes on investments must be eliminated to attract trillions of new investment from all over the globe. The Estate Tax must be eliminated to keep the money/capital in the private sector. The corporate tax, the second highest in the world, must be substantially reduced (and we believe it should be eliminated for it represents a double tax on corporate earnings when dividends are distributed to investors);
(3) The “on steroids” NLRB and EPA must be quickly throttled down and the laws they are using to create havoc on the economy must be re-written to put a defined/controlled wall around their ability to regulate;
(4) Dodd-Frank, ObamaCare, Sarbanes-Oxley and Humphrey-Hawkins (expanded Fed action into non-currency/interest rate setting areas of the economy) and many labor laws (stifling the creation of jobs, such as the Minimum Wage Law) must be repealed. The American healthcare system must be returned to the free market system with no coercive federal/state governmental involvement whatsoever, as currently exists thereby continuously driving up health care costs. Each family will then be responsible for managing their individual health coverage and given individuals make decisions in their own behalf better than government bureaucrats ever will, costs will begin falling;
(5) The annual cost (about $2T per year) of regulatory oversight must be substantially reduced. It is imperative that small business be free to be founded, expanded and create new products/technologies without undue governmental interference;
(6) An ALL OF THE ABOVE “free market” energy policy is adopted opening up all areas for energy development; but ceasing in the process governmental financial support of any sector of the industry;
(7) A new “get off of welfare program”, akin to the Clinton plan of the 1990’s, must be implemented so personal integrity and responsibility whereby true American virtue will be restored;
(8) The Patent issuing process must be revised/enhanced to where patents will be issued in significantly shorter time frame than the current system accommodates; and
(9) The Congress must past laws that will provide the country with the required transparency in the Federal Reserve on a systematic basis. Bernanke’s tenure [and his disruptive Keynesian money policies] must be ended.
(10) The responsibility for education must become the responsibility of the states and the Department of Education must be closed down. Curriculums must be changed back to teaching basics whereby the student learns to think critically and has the tools to prosper in a capitalistic society.
(11) Passing of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.
With the above structural changes in place and given the economic inclinations now trending favorably towards the U.S., as cited by Evans-Pritchard, this country will be positioned to experience record economic growth and record employment. The principles of economics are beginning to move the one on one economic battle between the U.S. and China to more even terms. In the end, economic strength CAN strongly return to America, but only if our politicians do the required actions to save the country from future financial blowup and position it for long-term prosperity.
These great advances CANNOT BE REALIZED under liberal and progressive ideology, which espouses/demands of/for bigger government, continuous increase in spending, and more government control of the business sector and our citizens [via full implementation of ObamaCare and other insidious legislation. Once our citizens cede their healthcare totally to government bureaucrats, they will automatically become a total slave to the government.] The more political influence the liberal and progressives continue to have in D.C. the less our economy will grow and greater will be the odds that the country will incur a financial catastrophe within the next five years.
The 2012 election will determine whether the country will mirror the ideas of the Founding Fathers or whether it will adopt the visions of President Obama/Liberal-Progressive Democrat Party, which include big and growing government power, mandatory redistribution of the wealth from the country’s doers to the poor, and a governmental structure reflective of the quickly failing social democracies of Europe.
To preserve the Constitution, the greatest governmental document ever written, and the capitalistic free market economy that has made this country and its people the most prosperous in the history of mankind, it will be mandatory for each and every one of us to commit to be active in educating our fellow citizens to clearly show them what is needed for the country to continue to generate increased prosperity, rather than the economic stagnation indicative of all socialistic states. We must elect politicians to office who espouse conservatism and are committed to abiding by the mandates of the Constitution, cutting the size of governments at all levels, balancing budgets yearly, and fostering free market solutions to every problem confronted.
THE YOUNGER GENERATION’S PERSPECTIVE ON SOCIAL SECURITY:
Following is a blog by Celia Bigelow, a senior at Hillsdale College majoring in economics with a minor in mathematics. She currently is interning at Freedom Works in Washington D.C. Celia blogs for Freedom Works on economic and financial issues. This blog was subsequently reprinted on Newsmax.com.
The premise of the story is that America, falling just short of $15 trillion in debt, is being dragged down the path of unsustainability.
The role of the Phantom is played by Social Security. Its true identity — massive unfunded liabilities and unsustainable growth — is masked by the rosy depiction of “security” for all generations that pay into the system. The antagonist — Washington — has shackled younger generations to the reins of the social system.
What is separating younger Americans from crossing to the path of freedom? Weight capacity.
The increasing number of baby boomers entering retirement cannot be sustained by younger generations. Privatization must make its debut, remove the mask of this evil Phantom, and restore liberty and prosperity for the future.
What constitutes the system’s shortfalls are the following:
• Baby Boomers represent a quarter of the population of the United States. This generation produced a significantly smaller generation than their own, decreasing the amount of taxpayers supporting their retirement. In 1940, 42 taxpayers supported each retiree. Now, it is only 3.3 taxpayers per retiree — decreasing still. In order to prevent its collapse, Washington must impose more taxes or decrease benefits.
• Social Security surpluses continue to fall with an increase in beneficiaries.
• Social Security “Trust Fund” consists of government IOUs. Surpluses of Social Security revenue are held by the Treasury and can be used to increase spending, pay off government debt, and reduce taxes. If the money is being used for such purposes, it is not being saved.
Results from privatization include continual increases in economic growth, generated surpluses without raising taxes or interest rates, an increase in pensions by over 50 percent, and a 5 percent unemployment rate.
Critics to privatization in the United States say that it will create trillions of dollars in transition costs. These costs are derived by retirees currently supported by the public system. It is estimated that the transition would cost around $3.7 trillion.
However, there is a way to pay for it. Chile paid for transitions costs with unused government assets.
“Suffice it to say that even though governments have enormous pension liabilities, they also have enormous assets. In Chile we had state-owned enterprises,” said Jose Pinera, Chile’s Minister of Labor.
• $193 billion in gold assets
•$919 billion in land
• $1.2 trillion in buildings and equipment
• $392 billion in mineral rights
• $600 billion in TARP assets and direct loan portfolio
• Hundreds of billions of dollars in federally run utilities and other government-run operations
These assets provide flexibility in transitioning to a new social security system.
Young America faces a future of paying off massive debt that they have inherited from a compulsive spending government. Social Security must be reformed before the curtain closes on younger generations.
Celia Bigelow
Freedom Works
October 3, 2011
Federal Oversight Committee of
Tea Party of Punta Gorda LLC
By: _________________________________
William Bigelow, Committee Chairman
_______________________________________________________________________
CHAIRMAN’S MONTHLY REPORT - OCTOBER 6, 2011
THE QUESTION OF THE AGES and FOOD FOR THOUGHT
IS THIS COUNTRY CAPABLE OF PAYING BACK ITS DEBT AS IT CURRENTLY EXISTS
ANDGIVEN ITS FUTURE FUNDING REQUIREMENTS AND COMMITMENTS?
Facts/Projections On Debt SDtatus and Entitlement Funding Commitments:
- Current Debt totals about $14.77T of which $10.1T is held by the public (including foreign)
- Unfunded liabilities to cover Entitlement Programs: Many analysts provide a wide range for such unfunded debt. For example, USA Today - $61.6T; Heritage Foundation - $63.T; GAO (2007)-$53T; Real Wealth (Larry Edelson) - $110T; and National Review (Kevin Williamson) - $100T. Average of Unfunded Liability Estimates: $77.5T.
- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Currently in receivership with Federal Government Oversight under which the taxpayers of the country are funding operating losses. The country has not guaranteed payment on these institutions' debt/bond guarantees, which Forbes states exceeds $5T. To date, the government has advanced about $160B to cover monthly operating losses and that policy will continue, as the Treasury opines this amount could rise to in excess of $300B. Current CBO debt estimates for 2021 amount to $25T of which about $18T is publicly held. If ObamaCare is not repealed or ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court, you can conservatively add another need for funds which could hit $1T.
- Total Estimated Liabilities of the United States: $108.8T. Real Wealth estimates market value of every asset owned in the US in 2010 totaled $74T so the balance sheet of the country qualifies for bankruptcy court--except the Fed can print money, but that option is the Road to Financial Oblivion.
the prima facie evidence is that the country cannot repay its existing Treasury Debt, let alone cover its future liabilities outside of the Federal Reserve printing significantly more dollars thereby trashing the value of the dollar on foreign markets (maybe by as much as 70%) and allowing the country to repay its debt with substantially devalued dollars. The inflation created by such a disasterous FED policy would be catastrophic and certainly wipe our a major portion of the wealth of most Americans.
To allow the country to have a fighting chance to pay back its debt, the debt must be first restructured (40% of the debt has maturities of less than one year) to near an average maturity of 20 years and the economy must be positioned to generate GDP Growth of 5% - 7% annually. The latter can be done with major corporate and individual tax reductions, having every family pay some amount of non-FICA tax assessments, cutting the size of government to accommodate such tax reductions, initiate comprehensive tort reform and initiate a major reduction in the thousands of bureaucratic regulations, which are causing a continuous outflow from the country of millions of jobs.
We must elect at every level of government people who are fearless, astute and very knowledgeable of finance and economics for the current incumbents mostly do not possess such attributes. (See info later on polling results of government performance.)
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION INVESTIGATED BY U. S. HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
COVERING THREE AREAS OF QUESTIONABLE AND POSSIBLE ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES:
• Fast and Furious: This ATF sponsored gun running strategy, which has turned into a political and operational disaster, is well chronicled and described in detail in the attached report by Dave Falk, one of our committee members and a retired FBI agent.Dave’s report is factual so it does not cover the theory that Fast and Furious was conceptualized by the Obama Administration to create the fiction that a huge magnitude of armament was being sent into Mexico illegally from U.S. sources, which would provide the Administration the perfect opportunity to initiate much tighter gun laws in this country. Given the trashing of the rule of law and the high incidence of the Obama Administration’s circumvention of Congress via its bureaucratic departments (both documented in previous committee reports), this theory will surely be investigated thoroughly by the House Oversight Committee and Senator Grassley-R Iowa, who is also strongly involved in the investigation.
To date, the Justice Department has stonewalled the investigation, refusing to provide the Committee the documents repeatedly requested. This investigation has the potential to exceed Watergate for a Administration cover-up is already documented and to date there have been over 200 deaths in Mexico plus the murder of a NARC agent in Arizona, all attributable to the ATF gun purchases (with taxpayer dollars) and transfers. Additionally, the Mexican government was not advised of the program so legal analysts are opining treaties between the two countries could have been violated by the ATF.
FLASH: On October 3, Fox News reported it has obtained two internal Justice Department correspondence documents (dated in July and October 2010) both addressed to Attorney General Holder each showing the AG was advised by Justice Department personnel of what was going on in Fast and Furious.This disclosure conflicts with the AG’s May 3, 2011 testimony in front of the House Oversight Committee where he stated under oath he first heard about Fast and Furious only about two weeks before his testimony. On October 4, Fox News reported House Republicans are calling for a special counsel to determine whether the Attorney General misled Congress during his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Operation Fast and Furious.
. Do we have a case of perjury by the Attorney General of the United States?
• Solyndra and Green Energy Loan Program: Under the Bush Administration’s efforts to broaden the country’s energy source base, a government loan/loan guarantee program was established and the first applicant was Solyndra Corp., a solar panel manufacturer, which applied for credit in 12/06. In 3/10, Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, announced the “conditional” approval for a governmental guarantee of a $535Mloaneven though a Bush Administration’s analysis had concluded the loan was too risky. George Kaiser, a political campaign contribution bundler and a large investor in Solyndra actively lobbied the Obama Administration and Congress to approve the credit. The Daily Caller reports Kaiser (37% Owner through his company Argonaut Ventures) and executives of Solyndra donated to the Obama Campaign a total of $87,050 and Kaiser visited the White House 16 times before the loan was granted; and then at the lowest rate possible, a rate no other energy company could negotiate in the private sector.Further, it is now known that Treasury Secretary Summers unsuccessfully tried to stop the transaction from happening. Finally, evidence shows the Administration lobbied the OMB to fast track the credit and shortly thereafter (in 3/09) the OMB granted its final approval for the transaction. Immediately the company applied for a second loan $469M, which request remains outstanding. In 3/10,the company’s outside auditors, raised concerns about whether Solyndra could continue as a “going concern” and a month later Obama visited the CA plant and touted the company as the business model the government should seek to financially support. In the fall of 2010, the company defaulted in making required sinking fund loan payments and it was in default of several financial loan covenants. After negotiations to reset the loan, Secretary Chu, a person who spent his career in scientific academia, approved a restructuring of the transaction’s terms, which included Chu (in 2/11) agreeing to the subordination of $385M of the tax payers’ liquidation superiority in bankruptcy to certain of Solyndra’s private investors/lenders, including George Kaiser, in consideration for the certain investors committing an additional $75M credit facility to the company. But, lo and behold in 8/11, the company filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and laid off all of its 1,100 employees. On September 8, the FBI raided the company’s headquarters and subsequently announced they are determining whether the investors and management made false statements to obtain the guarantee and issued false financial reporting. The company’s President and Chief Financial officers in September were ordered to provide testimony to the House Energy Committee and at that hearing both refused to answer questions and opted to take the fifth.
The House Committee has now asked the investors, private lenders, the company and the Administration to provide all files and correspondence in connection with the transaction. The company’s bankruptcy creditor list includes the Democrat Party. Solyndra donated $7,500 to the party, which maybe it did not pay in full.
Did the Obama Administration learn anything from this financing fiasco and the fact that three other solar companies had failed in July 2011? Not hardly! Given the funds appropriated for such type loans was set by law to expire on September 30, 2011, Secretary Chu pushed out the door quickly commitments totaling $1.74B representing: (1) a $737M loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy to build a solar tower on federally owned land in Nevada [parent company is SolarReserve LLC of Santa Monica, CA which also has Board ties to George Kaiser plus other SolarReserve directors are major Obama/ Democrat Party donors. Finally, a major financial backer of SolarReserve is PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund whose second in command is Ronald Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law. and (2) a $337M loan guarantee for Sempra Energy to fund development of a 150-MW solar plant in Phoenix. Between the two projects, the $1.74B will create an aggregate of only 90 permanent jobs.
This scandal shows that clearly the Obama Administration strongly believes in Crony Capitalism using taxpayer money as the dangled carrot to entice political payment donations from friendly business interests. We can expect many more such stories to arise before the total story has been told.
The bottom line is that the Green Energy loan scam must stop and Secretary Chu must be fired for his incompetence in handling many billions of loans/guarantees, which have been wasted by the Obama Administration.
• LightSquared: This is another situation where a major Obama/Democrat Party donor’s (Phillip Falcone, owner of Harbinger Capital, LightSquared’s owner) company has received from the federal government a major financial reward for extending campaign donations to Obama (Falcone, his wife and company executives contributed $100,000 while lobbying for an exclusive license to build a new nationwide communication system). Many news sources have put the hot lamp of investigation on this license transaction, which represents a projected $12B revenue windfall for the licensee. There are several other transactions/occurrences, which are related to this transaction, as follows: (1)Obama in 2005 invested $50,000 in the stock of Skyterra [after he received $150,000 in donations raised by four of Skyterra’s principals] the same day the FCC approved a broadband system Skyterra was developing.
Subsequently, Skyterra was purchased by LightSquared. A Texas securities firm put out a major buy recommendation on the Skyterra stock andthat firm was a major donor to Obama in his 2008 campaign to the tune of $150,000. Obama sold his stock in 2005 just before Skyterra was locked in a proxy fight.
Falcone/Harbinger Capital bought Skyterra in 2009. IBD points out that $6B is included in Obama’s latest jobs billfor a national broadband system; (2) it has been now disclosed that the Obama Administration attempted to alter the testimony before Congress of General William Shelton of the Air Force Space Command and of Anthony Russo, director of the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing. These gentlemen refused such overtures and testified the LightSquared system would harm/make inoperable other critical GP systems currently in place and operating. They fear the LightSquared system would be dangerous to the country’s security. Enter the House Oversight Committee which has announced it will investigate the circumstances behind the granting of the license (license has now has been put on hold until all facts on the conflict between LightSquared and GP technology providers has been resolved) and the content of the Administration’s attempt to alter testimonies of two government officials.
UPDATE ON ACTIVITY OF ROGUE DEPARTMENTS OF OBAMA ADMINISTRATION:
• EPA: We reported last month that EPA was moving forward to significantly decrease the allowable ozone being emitted into the atmosphere. Major negative feedback from Republicans and the business community and very weak economic conditions led the Obama Administration last month to overrule the EPA and its independent scientific advisers’ ozone reduction recommendations and postpone implementation of the new ozone regulations until 2013.
In its quest to protect the atmosphere of the Earth by stopping the depletion of ozone, a few weeks after Obama’s announcement on ozone regulation postponement, the EPA announced it is banning as of 12/31/11 epinephrine based over-the-counter asthma inhalers in agreement with other countries in an attempt to reduce chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), which are used in aerosol sprayers. The users of the inhalers will now have to obtain a prescription from a doctor for albuterol alternatives, which cost three times more. Swedish expat, Len Bilen, on his environmental blog projects the following from the CFC ban: “The total amount of CFC’s in the air is now decreasing by about 1 percent per year. The counter inhalers release maybe 100 tons of CFC’s per year. This would increase the level in the atmosphere by 0.002 parts per trillion per year. Since CFC’s now are decreasing by 20 parts per trillion /year, it would speed up the decrease by 1/10000. So this banning of CFC inhalers will decrease the time to return to previous levels from 100 years to 99 years and 361 days. This is our scientific community at work.
There is no indication yet that political/election pressure will convince Obama to postpone the implementation of the EPA’s intention to regulate greenhouse gases and/or emissions from coal plants, which are both scheduled to commence by January 2012. As pointed out in the September committee report, both of these regulations, if implemented, will greatly harm the economy and employment.
Red States Blog reports last month EPA announced it would need 230,000 additional workers to regulate greenhouse gases (primarily CO2). Initially, the annual costs of the additional paperwork and new employees (1.4 billion hours of work to process an estimated 6.1 million of new permit applications) is estimated at $21B plus the 50 States’ permitting costs would increase by $1.6B with 10,000 new state workers required.In 2016, the initial decrease level in such gases goes much lower and EPA states compliance may be “absurd” or “impossible” to administer, but it says it will demand strict compliance from the emitting companies. There is no science justifying this insane action, which will greatly harm economic performance. Further, Congress can do nothing to stop the greenhouse regulation process now unless the EPA asks for a budget increase to cover the increased expenses.Then the pressure will again be on Speaker Boehner, who stripped the EPA rider to stop this new regulation from the Compromise Agreement on the 2011 Budget and he made no attempt to stop the EPA in the Debt Limit negotiations. We will see what he proposes this time and pressure by the voters must be intense to make sure he does not agree to approve EPA’s budget increase request under any circumstances.
• LABOR DEPARTMENT: Drudge reported last month “The job creation bill that President Barack Obama sent to Congress earlier this month includes a provision to prevent companies from discriminating against the unemployed. The provision would ban employment ads that explicitly declare the unemployed ineligible, with phrases like "Jobless need not apply." Applicants could sue for discrimination. "We do not see a need for it," Michael Eastman of the Chamber of Commerce told the New York Times. It is obvious businesses may wish to hire currently employed personnel with equal or superior skills as opposed to an unemployed applicant who might have been out of work given that applicant may have lost some skills while not working for an extended time. This is merely another sop to the trial lawyers, a big donor group for the Democrats.
Secretary Hilda Solis last week headlined an AFL-CIO “summit” in Minneapolis having the topic of “How to target and unionize young people (and others).” The tab for the summit was paid for by the U.S. taxpayer, even though in 2010, the union membership rate (the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union) was only 11.9 percent, down from 12.3 percent a year earlier. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions declined in 2010 by 612,000 to 14.7 million. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent, and there were 17.7 million union workers.
It is an outrage the President of all the American people would pander to this small in number, big donor union base and then pay for such pandering with taxpayer money.
• NLRB:In August, the NLRB enacted via regulatory law its version of Card Check. Once again, the Obama Administration circumvented the Congress and set up a regulatory procedure for unionization of a company without a secret ballot. In the new regulation, if the union is able to get most of a company’s employees to sign a union election card, a secret ballot of all workers is PROHIBITED, and the union is automatically recognized as the representative of the workforce. BIG LABOR, which is actually a small laborforce, is rewarded again for theirmembership has continued to fall for 20 years and Obama is there to pick them up by, once again, circumventing Congress, which refused to pass Card Check.
THE SORDID STORY OF THE “NEW” CHEVY VOLT: GM’s electrical car, the Volt with a sticker price over $40,000, has experienced miserable sales in the U.S. even though Obama provides any purchaser a sales rebate of $7,500 plus if you purchase the car in California, you obtain an additional $5,000 rebate. GM was bailed out with taxpayer money via $50Bof loans plus received a $45 billion credit against federal income taxes. The government took ownership control of GM and after a successful IPO, the government still owns 32% of its stock. The Obama Administration quickly initiated its Green Energy/Green Jobs program and GM (as a good subsidiary should) pumped hundreds of millions into the development of the Volt to please its parent in D.C.
Now, with the U.S. market rejecting the purchase of the Volt, what does Government Motors do to save the situation? It runs to China to negotiate a 50-50 Joint Venture with Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp. then getting a pledge from the Chicom government to help the JV saying, “it will do whatever it takes to help the Chinese car industry take the lead in Electrical Vehicles (“EV”) worldwide, starting with a $19,300 subsidy per EV produced. What did GM have to do to get this great gift? It simply agreed to share its electrical vehicle technology (partially paid for by taxpayer money) with the Chicoms and produce the JV’s EV’s only in China.
Obama’s friend, Jeffery Immelt, CEO of GE, agreed to help get the JV off the ground by committing to purchase many EV’s from the JV for its use in China. GE, for its efforts, gets into the goodies bag provided by the Chicoms by installing battery charging stations in a government assigned international EV demonstrationzone in Shanghai and at GM headquarters in Shanghai. GE will be allowed to expand its charging stations as demand dictates and they expect the venture to produce $500 million of revenues over the next 3 years. The technology being installed by GE was developed via taxpayer money through Department of Energy grants. GE will also partner with Hertz for the development of EV’s and charging stations in China.
So, the Jobs, Auto Bailout and Green President now sees his corporate sibling and his GE friend (company paid no income taxes in the U.S. in 2010) run to China to develop his precious Green Cars and build them with cheaper Chinese labor.
This story shows clearly that the U.S.’s abhorrent corporate tax policies and massive regulatory burden, which have been mushrooming since 1930, are now causing even Obama’s friends to run overseas to more business friendly confines. Corporations are not in the gratitude business, they are in the business of making strong profits for their shareholders so when we bail out anyone out, which we should not, we cannot be mad when the company bailed out runs for the profit which these days are out of the U.S. What a raw deal the American taxpayers get in each and every deal where Presidents (especially Obama) spend our money on very bad ideas that are best handled by the private sector.
Oh, by the way, the government has announced that it believes the taxpayer will lose $14B on the bailouts.
GALLUP POLL SHOWS THE COUNTRY HAS LITTLE RESPECT FOR POLITICAL LEADERS:
The key findings follow:
• 49% (61% of Republicans and 57% of Independents) of Americans believe the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. (2003- less than 30% believed this)
• 82% disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job with only 15% approving.
• An all time high of 69% say they have little or not confidence in the legislative branch of government. (Up from 60% in 2010)
•53% have little or no confidence in the men and women who seek or hold office elected office. (What this means is the process and hurdles to obtain office are abhorrent to the best of the best in the country and we get many who are out for self, power and money)
• Americans strongly believe, on average, the federal government wastes 51 cents of every tax dollar.
• Confidence in the legislative branch is higher for Republicans than Democrats by 41% to 32%.
• 43% (lowest in 4 decades) believe the federal government iscapable of handling domestic problems. The yearly average since 1972 (including 77%for the year after 9-11 attacks) is 58%.
FOLLOW-UP ON LEFT’s PLAN FOR MAJOR STREET DEMONSTRATIONS:
Last month, the committee provided in its report an article by Aaron Klein entitled “Left Preparing Street Chaos, Class Warfare. Radicals Behind Seattle Protests Plan “Intimidation” At Major NATO, G-8 summits”. The article provided proof of Obama’s past and present associations with many of the radical groups applying for permits to demonstrate in Chicago next May causing the Chicago Police Department to begin training 13,000 police to control the demonstrators. Klein’s investigations led him to believe that this was the warm up for pro Obama demonstrations before the next election.
Now we are experiencing demonstrations (“Occupy Wall Street”) and mob scene activity throughout the country in an effort to bring down capitalism and Wall Street. Attached is an article by Paul Joseph Watson writing on Alex Jones’ Inforwars.com, which analyzes these demonstrations, including their leaders’ skewed objectives and lists their financiers, some of which have close Obama ties.
The 2012 election is shaping up to be one of the most contentious the country has ever seen and therefore the tactics used by the left will include tactics never used before. Statements by union leaders indicated the unions will not just provide Obama money and boots on the ground to get out the vote, but they plan to organize massive pro Obama street demonstrations. You can also expect the likes of the Black Panthers, ACORN, the Wall Street demonstrators and other radical groups to join them.
What results could be a mess, but you will hear no condemnation or see no action from the Justice Department led by AG Holder. Why? Read the book “Injustice” Exposing the Radical Agenda of the Obama Justice Department by J. Christian Adams. Adams is an election law lawyer who worked in the G. W. Bush Justice department and was a hold over in the Obama Justice Department until he resigned in a battle over the Black Panther election intimidation affair, which AG Holder dismissed. Here is Andrew Breitbart’s review: “Injustice is a whistleblower’s explosive expose’ into the rancid world of Obama’s Justice Department. Adams shows how the institutional Left has turned the power of the Justice Department into a weapon against the rule of law.” Yes, we have been reporting for months on how Obama has trashed the rule of law.
New tactics have already surfaced. Beverly Perdue, Governor of NC, recently stated that she will push to have the 2012 elections postponed for two years “just to let the country recover”. Many other Dems are joining the chorus including Peter Orzag (OMB past head) when he stated that policy making is hindered by “the baleful infringement that elections impose” so he believes politicians should stay in place until national and global situations are stabilized. Orzag also said “we need to counter the gridlock in our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic”. This election will be one wild ride.
Federal Oversight Committee of
Tea Party of Punta Gorda LLC
By: _________________________________
William Bigelow, Committee Chairman
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) scandal has been rolling on and on since late March, 2011 and now appears heading toward Attorney General Eric Holder and some members of Obama’s White House staff including Kevin O’Reilly, former Director of North American Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC), Dan Restropo, Special Assistant for Obama at the NSC , and Greg Gatjanis, Director for Terrorist Finance and Counter Narcotics at the NSC. This scandal could equal that of Watergate which did not result in anyone being killed or murdered. “Fast and Furious” has resulted in the murders of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona and an unarmed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent, Jamie Zapata, in Mexico with arms such as AK-47’s, A-15’s and semi-automatic handguns sold to drug cartel operatives in the U.S. from gun stores. These were allowed to be taken into Mexico by the express directives of ATF and Justice Department officials over the objections of ATF field agents who said this was a very dangerous and dubious program.
Several ATF field agents such as, Jon Dodson and Olindo James Casa contacted Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Congressman Darryl Issa (R-California) who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. They had wanted to interdict these large numbers of weapons headed for Mexican Drug Cartels but were repeatedly ordered to step aside by superiors in ATF. They were told only to surveil these straw buyers in some misguided intention to track them into Mexico to score some kind of knockout blow against the cartels. It badly misfired resulting in many killings in Mexico in drug wars there and now various crimes in the U.S. Gun store owners in the U.S. were told by ATF agents to allow these gun purchases to happen even when they suspected the buyers were straw buyers.
President Obama has stated neither he nor Eric Holder knew of or approved of this operation. A September 9, 2011 CBS report revealed that ATF’s Special Agent in charge in Phoenix, William Newell, provided regular updates to Kevin O’Reilly at the White House as early as the summer of 2010; and O’Reilly asked to share information about “Fast and Furious” with Dan Restropo and Greg Gatjanis. The White House claimed that these three NSC men were only given top-line briefings and not the investigative details and tactics of “Gun-Walking.” This sounds like a cover story or “plausible deniability.”
The whole operation came to a crashing halt in January, 2011 when U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by gunfire in the Arizona Desert and two “Fast and Furious” guns purchased under ATF surveillance were found at the crime scene.
Congressman Issa’s committee has issued a draft report, according to FoxNews.com on 6/15/11 with these findings:
•Agents expected to interdict weapons, yet were told to stand down and “just surveil.” Agents therefore did not act. They watched straw purchasers buy hundreds of weapons illegally and transfer those weapons to unknown third parties and stash houses.
• ATF agents complained about the strategy of allowing these guns to walk in Operation Fast and Furious. Leadership ignored their concerns. Instead, supervisors told the agents to “get with the program” because senior ATF officials had sanctioned the operation.
• Agents knew that given the large numbers of weapons being trafficked to Mexico, tragic results were a near certainty.
• Operation Fast and Furious contributed to the increasing violence and deaths in Mexico. This result was regarded with “giddy” optimism by ATF supervisors hoping that guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico would provide the nexus to straw purchasers in Phoenix.
In an effort to contain this growing scandal, the Obama Administration forced the resignation of the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix, Dennis Burke, and the ATF Agent-in-Charge there was “laterally transferred” to a new position in Washington, D.C. Also, Acting ATF Director, Ken Melson, who was in charge during this “Fast and Furious” operation has stated he was not going to be “the fall guy” in this scandal. However, he was transferred to the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Programs as senior advisor on forensic science. Three ATF supervisors responsible for this operation on a day-to-day basis were actually promoted. The Justice Department claimed these were “lateral transfers.”
Investigators working for Grassley and Issa have reportedly found a deeper involvement by the FBI, DEA and the Department of Homeland Security as of late August, 2011.
Fox News online reported on September 9, 2011, that a third gun linked to “Fast and Furious” was found at the murder scene of Border Patrolman, Brian Terry, south of Tucson. Two weapons, AK47s, were found initially. This third weapon was referred to as an “SKS assault rifle out of Texas.” This is a semi-automatic rifle produced in Russia and China just before the introduction of the AK47 in the late 1940’s, but it also fired the same round as the AK47 in a ten round internal box magazine and loaded with ten round stripper clips. Thousands of these rifles were imported into the U.S. in the 1980’s and 1990’s. This weapon apparently has been linked to an FBI informant involved in a drug cartel. There is suspicion the FBI may have concealed the evidence of a third gun in some way to protect this informant who they were operating as a national security matter.
Note that the FBI has been concerned for a long time that drug cartels were assisting terrorist groups like Hizbollah and Al Quaeda in crossing the border into the U.S. This informant and possibly a second one were originally working for the DEA and U.S. Marshall’s Office but were terminated because they were assessed as being “stone-cold killers.” It is alleged that the FBI stopped their deportation at one point due to their high rank in a drug cartel.
It is always hazardous for a law enforcement or intelligence agency to use such men as informants but concealing murder scene evidence is absolutely reprehensible and even criminal in nature. It is called evidence tampering. Some investigators believe that there is some guiding hand above both agencies involved in coordinating the larger operation.
There are other Obama scandals brewing such as the Solyndra green energy collapse and the pressuring of a four-star Air Force general to alter his testimony before Congress, but these have not resulted in murders, at least not yet.
On September 22, 2011, Mike Walsh’s column in the New York Post stated that Congressman, Issa, had called for a Special Prosecutor for Fast and Furious this week because of non-cooperation by the Justice Department.
Fox News reporter William Lajeunesse revealed on September 26, 2011, that newly uncovered ATF documents revealed that in June, 2010 ATF had dramatically upped the ante by making the U.S. Government the actual “sellers” of guns to the straw buyers for the Mexican drug cartels. ATF agent John Dodson was ordered to buy six semi-automatic Draco pistols from Arizona gun stores by his ATF supervisor, David Voth.
Agent Dodson felt so strongly that he did his own one-man, twenty-four hour surveillance of the stash house for these weapons in the desert heat against direct orders. When the cartel men showed up to get the guns, Agent Dodson called for an interdiction of these people and the guns. Voth refused and the guns and suspects disappeared. Thereafter, Dodson got into a screaming match at the ATF office in Phoenix with Voth and Assistant Special Agent in charge George Gillett saying “Why don’t you go and empty out the (ATF) arms room?”
Agent Dodson was soon transferred to a menial job. When Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed, Agent Dodson contacted Senator Grassley’s office as a whistleblower.
Another IBD editorial on September 27, 2011 asserted a strong opinion that “Fast and Furious” has been another attempt to push a gun control agenda. Senator Charles Grassley has also said: “There is something sinister going on. They’re doing everything they can to avoid the issue. They want to stonewall us and string us along.” When Greta Van Susteren of Fox asked Grassley about ATF’s claim that this was just abotched sting, Grassley responded: “It’s a lie – it’s a lie – and just to make things clear for your listeners, the ATF ordered this ATF agent to purchase these guns and in turn sell them and supposedly track them. But he was a lone wolf in the operation – they wouldn’t give him any help for twenty-four surveillance.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Additional news sources:
1. Fox News online, 9/10/11: “2nd Arizona crime scene yields guns from ATF Sting.”
2. CBS News.com, 9/9/11: “ATF Investigation Expands to White House Staffers.”
3. Investors.com, 9/7/11: “A White House Gunrunner?”
4. Fox News online, 8/27/11: “Issa Goes to War with New York Times over False Story.” (a smear attempt)
5. Fox News online, 8/30/11: “ ATF Director Reassigned, U.S. Attorney Out Amid Fast and Furious Uproar.”
6. Townhall.com, 9/12/11: “The Real Darrell Issa,” by Bruce Bialosky.
7. Investors.com, 9/15/11: “Alcohol, Tobacco and Murder”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Despite their honest intentions, many of the Occupy Wall Street protesters are being suckered into a trap and calling for the very “solutions” that are part of the financial elite’s agenda to torpedo the American middle class – higher taxes and more big government.
The ignorance displayed in interviews with the protesters know no bounds. The protesters just don’t get it. They are calling for the government to use force to impose their ideas, all in the name of bringing down corporations who they don’t realize have completely bought off government regulators. Corporations and government enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship – getting one to regulate the other is asinine and only hurts smaller businesses who are legitimately trying to compete in a free market economy that barely exists. The zeal for totalitarian government amongst some of the “protesters” is shocking. One sign being carried around read, “A government is an entity which holds the monopolistic right to initiate force,” which seems a little ironic when protesters complain about being physically assaulted by police in the same breath.
One woman interviewed by Kokesh also announces her intention to help Obama to capture a second term. How can a self-proclaimed Occupy Wall Street protester simultaneously support the man whose 2008 campaign was bankrolled by Wall Street, whose 2012 campaign is reliant on Wall Street to an even greater extent, and whosecabinet was filled with Wall Street operatives?
Something is very wrong with this picture.
The usual suspects, mega-rich foundations and elitists, behind the young radicalshave also started to emerge – George Soros, The Ruckus Society, the Tides Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
“The belated crusade against Wall Street is even more pathetic as it is coordinated by groups who wouldn’t exist without men like Soros, who made their money from deals that make the Street look sparkling clean. It’s class warfare as a cynical jab at the populist center, the people who mutter to themselves that the Street is full of crooks and so is Congress,” writes Daniel Greenfield.
The thousands of Americans currently expressing their disgust at Wall Street and the bankers who have ruined the economy to the detriment of the poor and middle class should be commended for getting off their hind ends and doing something, unlike the millions who will continue to watch American Idol, drink beer and laugh in ignorance as the country is flushed down the toilet. It should also be added that there is a sprinkling of “End the Fed” demonstrators who truly understand the root cause of the problem.
However, the fact that the majority of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are advocating “solutions” which the very elite they claim to be protesting against also want should set alarm bells ringing.
The official Occupy Wall Street website vehemently supports Obama’s tax agenda,again in the deluded belief that Obama, the ultimate Wall Street puppet, genuinely wants to go after big corporations who use loopholes to avoid paying income tax.
In calling for higher taxes on the middle class, the protesters aremimicking the likes of billionaire Warren Buffet. The top corporations pay virtually zero income taxbecause of loopholes that they have crafted in league with bought off government regulators. Obama’s tax hikes will only impact genuine middle class businesses and middle class Americans earning over $200,000 – with the rate of inflation as it is this can hardly be described as the “super rich”.
As Anthony Wile writes, the protesters are being completely misdirected by their socialist/communist leaders. The real center of financial control is the Federal Reserve and the city of London, and yetideologue Michael Moore said earlier this week that “ending capitalism”was more important than dealing with the Fed.
Wile notes that the protesters seem obsessed with those who conduct financial transactions, not those who actually run global central banks, the real string pullers.
“To get at the root of the problem, one should be protesting, say, in London’s City where central banking originated. Or protesting in front of the Federal Reserve in Washington DC. These are real seats of power. But the shadowy and excessively powerful and wealthy individuals who have created the modern economic system are quite satisfied no doubt to have Wall Street take the blame. It suits their purposes,” writes Wile.
“It is too bad that the Occupy Wall Street movement seems to be obscuring the larger issues by apparently blaming the private (transactional) sector in entirety for what has occurred in the past few years.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
July 13, 2011
Debt Limit Comments
I am faxing you a letter, which our oversight committee sent to Seantor McConnell yesterday when we heard of his stop gap plan, which we abhor.
We believe the Washington leaders of the Republican Party are in the process of destroying the Republican Party by their handling of the Debt Limit issue. As confirmed by many polls, the majority of the American people (58% in this week's IBD TIPP poll, including 38% of Democrats) do not want the debt ceiling increased. Both Boehner and McConnell say any deal they enter into will bear their recommendations to increase the debt limit. This afternoon, Senator McConnell outlined his plan to put the decision to raise the debt limit on the President thereby again having Congress concede much of its powers as granted to it by the Constitution. The ability for Congress to override the President's requests for spending and borrowing is a total joke and those safeguards would never be operational given the make-up of the Senate. Hence, Obama could borrow up to $2.5 T more.
As soon as the McConnelll announcement was made public, the Tea Party communication flow was wild with the general consensus being McConnell sold out the Party's conservative base. We concur 100% with that assessment. We immediately sent a letter to the Senator conveying our wrath and advising him if he requested and received Senate approval for this legislation, he was risking the future of the Republican Party. If he and Speaker Boehner persist in their inside the Beltway politicking methods, we are afraid the pressure will be enormous to form a new political party.
We ask that you and other Republican conservative Senators fight to stop any increase in the debt limit for the reasons cited in the McConnell letter, especially given Bernanke's announcement that the Fed will probably commence QE3. To add $2.5T of more debt (with only the Fed probably being the biggest purchaser via monetizing) on top of a QE3, the dollar will plunge, commodity inflation will quicken and hard earned private wealth will plunge. Is this what the Republicans were sent to Washington last November to be complicit in? Not hardly!! Ignore the will of the people on the debt ceiling at your own peril. It appears from our standpoint, the politicians in Washington prefer lunacy. It is time the Republicans in Washington consider installing new leadership.
Bill Bigelow, Treasurer of Tea Party of Punta Gorda, LLC
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Senator McConnell:
We cannot believe what we just heard you say would be an acceptable compromise for Republicans on the Debt Ceiling issue. To cave in and allow this incompetent President to be able to borrow trillions more debt until the next President is seated is the height of irresponsibility. If successful compromise occurs, such utter capitulation will force Republican conservatives to form a new party, which will incorporate politicians who will abide by the U.S. Constitution, not cave in to the President who is in the weakest negotiating position in memory. This makes us feel Washington Republicans would find a way to lose a poker hand having four aces. Needless to say, we are utterly floored by your latest position.
To increase the Debt Limit, at this time and under the current Administration's litany of destructive policies, represents folly and a perpetuation of the out of control financial debate all Washington politicians have created over the past 80 years. Now is the time for the leadership to stand strong and throw aside the wild spenders of both parties.
China, the traditional biggest buyer of Treasury debt, no longer has any confidence in Washington's fiscal policies and is now buying Euros and its leaders are strongly talking down the U.S. Dollar as the World's Reserve Currency. Japan, the second biggest buyer, must use all of its resources to reconstruct its country. The Federal Reserve, which has been the biggest buyer of our new debt since last November, has announced through Chairman Bernanke, the Fed will not monetize any further new debt and will only purchase new bonds through reinvestment of the proceeds generated from current U.S. bond investments. Therefore, Senator, if you do cave in and permit a significant increase in the debt limit, as only weak leadership would consent to, who will purchase the remaining debt?
Once again, the obvious answer is the Fed. If the politicians authorize more debt, the Fed, under your proposed compromise, will be forced to monetize $2.4 trillion +++ more debt. The dollar value will crash, commodity inflation will move into renewed overdrive and the government expenses will increase significantly via higher inflationary pressures thereby eradicating any effort to cut spending. The government will then find itself in even greater financial trouble. Is this the lunacy you want to unleash on the citizens of this country?
The better way is for Republicans to do nothing unless the Obama Administration totally caves! All compromise with a President and a leftist Democrat Party, both whom have proven through their failed ideologies/policies to be incompetent to lead this country and maintain financial solvency, will end up being bad for the economy and add to our teetering financial situation and any chance we have to turn the situation around.
Many experts, including Peter Morici, a very credible economist with extensive government (national and international), private sector and academic experience, do not want the debt limit increased. They have analyzed the current expe3ditures under the budget and the government ability to generate significant monthly income (estimated receipts range from $180B - $250B/ month). Conclusions reached are the government can operate under a "no new debt" requirement for up to two years. Our eight-person oversight committee agrees with these assessments. This two-year time frame is sufficient to seat a new President, who hopefully will bring back fiscal and economic sanity to Washington. If faced with an inability to borrow more, Obama wants to play ideologue games in determining spending priorities his administration will cover, he will pay a major political price if the voters deem that list is politically inspired, rather than reasonable/critical, in nature. The majority of people are now knowledgeable of political acts of deceit used by politicians and false statements they constantly make to paper over the truth.
Based on recent experience, we are afraid there is no sufficient political backbone to do what is right for the country in this critical situation. The country needs intelligent, courageous, strong leaders to step forward. Looking out over the political landscape of the Presidency, the Congress and the Federal Reserve, we see no such leadership (e.g. Bernanke says he is clueless why the stimulus policies have failed to spur good growth) and this is why the citizens of this country are totally fed up with the Washington mess as being verified via polling showing Congressional performance at record low and the President's ratings are falling quickly. It appears to us our political leaders value career, power, and avoidance of conflict over the best interests of the country and its citizens. This will change for the majority of people are now awake, for the future of their country is at stake.
We hope you will have a grand epiphany and grasp what is truly at stake for the country and the Republican Party. If you take the reins strongly in your hands and say NO to an increase in the debt ceiling, significant rewards will accrue to you and the Republican Party. The independents and conservative Republicans (who make up a big part of the party) will be watching to see if you finally get the message.
Will Obama crash the system? He will if his strategy is to force the country into default in an effort to take over the country. If he does, he will finally reveal to the American people he is an ultra radical and his strategy will totally fail, strongly setting the stage for a pro-business, pro Constitutional inspired President. Its time for you and Speaker Boehner to get some backbone and join the big majority of Americans who do not want an increase in our debt.
Federal Oversight Committee of
Tea Party of Punta Gorda (FL) LLC
By:________________________________
William Bigelow, Committee Chairman,
and Treasurer of Tea Party of Punta Gorda LLC
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FEDERAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
CHAIRMAN’S MONTHLY REPORT
JUNE 2, 2011
CURRENT ECONOMIC/FINANCIAL UPDATE: We have experienced and are still experiencing the negative affects of a near financial melt down of our financial sector in late 2008. Remedies imposed by our elected politicians and the Federal Reserve include buying toxic assets from banks, bailing out failing companies and utilizing the pump priming Keynesian economic model unsuccessfully used by President Roosevelt in the 30’s, which policies have been wholly adopted by President Obama. These policies have ballooned outstanding Treasury debt ($14.3T from $10.63T when Obama entered the White House in January 2009, a 34.7% increase), and have resulted in 3 annual budget deficits all exceeding $1T. If nothing major is done to reduce spending and the debt limit is increased without major spending cuts, debt is projected to quickly reach $16.5T compare to about $15T of GDP projected in 2011, thereby putting us in third world financial status.
IMPORTED GOODS INFLATION STATISTICS FOR APRIL 2011
| Food | Energy | All Imports |
Monthly Increase (April) | 1.8% | 6.7% | 2.2% |
Annualized Increase | 23.9% | 117.8% | 29.8% |
Trailing Annual Increase | 20.0% | 36.8% | 11.1% |
Unemployment in the country rose in April to 9% and, unless the current economic policies are scrapped for more pro growth policies, the soft economy will guaranty this rate will stay well above 8% until the 2012 election. A shocking statistic reported last week by Michael Cosgrove, a Dallas economist and professor at U. of Dallas was U.S. non-farm employment in Dec. 2000 totaled 132.5M and at the end of April 2011 the same employment measurement was 131M. Over this 10 year period, the U.S. population increased by 28M and yet employment for the period declined. This vividly demonstrates the economic malaise politicians have created on top of the massive debt and budget problems.
This week, Consumer Confidence Index fell to 60.8 (67 was expected by economists) and this level compares to a” healthy economy” rating of 90. Additionally, the Case-Schiller 20 City Housing Price Index fell 4.2% in first quarter of 2011, the lowest in 5 years. Experts opined these index numbers represents a double dip recession in housing and projections call for another 5% drop by 12-31-2011.
Refer to the informational handout package for an article entitled “A Tale Of Two Recessions And Two Presidents”, which compares economic growth results of Reagan recessionary economic policy in the early 80’s to the Obama recessionary economic policy. The findings demonstrate free market/private sector economic policy emphasis trumps significantly Big Government economic policy emphasis.
The political positioning games are now running rampant in Washington with regard to the increase debt limit issue. Obama, Geithner and Bernanke are all pleading for an immediate increase and in the process fear mongering that the country will default if the debt limit is not increased. The committee has been putting constant pressure on the Republicans (see attached three letters to John Boehner, which were also sent to 10 other Republican leaders/senators/reps) to stay the course and not agree to any debt ceiling increase. The committee’s reasons for our no debt limit increase position are outlined in those letters and our position is strongly validated by a May 2011 IBD+TIPP poll which disclosed 63% of respondents (including a plurality of respondent Democrats) oppose any debt increase while only 29% support such increase. By playing accounting games, Secretary Geithner now publicly acknowledges no default will be reached until August even though the country has officially hit the current limit of $14.3. Republican leaders (Boehner, Cantor and McConnell) have publicly announced they will agree to increase the debt limit only if substantial spending cuts are agreed to (over $2T of spending decreases being demanded, BUT occurring over 10 years, which is totally unacceptable to the committee). But given the results of the 2011 budget negotiations (Republicans promised $100B of budget cuts and in the end settled for $38B with a CBO report stating only $353M were true, viable cuts), we are leery Republican leadership will back up their public demands this go around.
Last week, Representative Issa’s House Oversight Committee had the two top EPA managers testify under oath about proposed new EPA regulatory activities, which have the potential to greatly harm the U.S. economy. This hearing ended up to be a total farce as the Republican Committee members (including our own Rep. Mack) were totally unprepared and threw nothing but softballs at the EPA, not even challenging them on the phony evidence/data EPA is using to justify their position that CO2 emissions are a major risk to the long term survival of the country. The Democrats/EPA all came well prepared with unsubstantiated, but effective debate points unchallenged by Republicans. Many conservative bloggers opined the Republicans ended up being totally embarrassed. One editorialist commented “What happened yesterday is a prime example of what appears to be Boehner syndrome.”
The Federal Oversight Committee believes we are entering a most dangerous period of time given the country’s precarious financial condition and the fact that the Obama Administration and Departments of Government continue to skirt the rule of law, implement without significant Republican challenge (to date) the ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank Bills, and ramp up regulation by skirting the Congress. Some of the most distressing/pressing problems for the country currently taking place are:
· The massive regulations being implemented under the 2,300+ page Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will soon be written and become operational. The essence of the bill is that the federal government will now totally control the massive U.S. Financial Services Industry and the very large banks will be designated as “Too Big to Fail.” This bill, when combined to the bad Sarbanes-OxleyBill implemented after the Enron bankruptcy in the early 2000’s, will result in the United States losing its status as the world’s banking center. The bill is very bad for small banks and will prove very costly to the economy with the American people paying for the cost via larger fees (and less loan sources) implemented by financial firms to maintain profitability. Our committee believes this bill and the ObamaCare Bill are the two worst laws passed by Congress and signed by a President in the history of the country. Massive regulation incorporated under these two bills will be so costly to the free market that once both laws are fully operable there will be millions of additional jobs moved out of the country to more business friendly confines.
A recent analysis by the Competitive Enterprise Institute shows the ANNUAL cost of governmental regulation in this country amounts to over $1.7 trillion. This compares to total combined income tax collections from business and individuals in 2010 of $1.05 trillion.
The Republic House has cleared bills in Committee to strike out major portions of Dodd-Frank, but this effort will be totally ineffective given the Democrat Senate majority and a sure Presidential veto.
We can all thank one Republican Senator for passage of Dodd-Frank. In May 2010, Senator Scott Brown broke the Senate Republican’s cloture blockage by providing the 60th vote to end debate on the bill thereby allowing Senate passage via majority vote.
· The wheels are now being put in motion to recreate some of the same mortgage lending atmosphere as existed last decade when rampant lending to bad credit applicants brought down the whole economy. The Justice Department under Eric Holder has begun a “redlining” vendetta against banks (initially 60 banks are on the target list for lending discrimination) citing the actions of sub prime lending and discriminatory loans terms to less than credit worthy applicants (forced upon banks by Janet Reno and HUD) are now classified by Justice/ Holder as predatory. To date certain banks have settled with the Justice Department without a fight given they do not want to be labeled discriminatory by the government. The PrimeLending Bank group of Texas settled for $2M and Citizens Bank in Michigan settled for $3.6M. The forced settlement terms initially have included agreement by defendant banks to establish branches in minority neighborhoods and establishment of committed reserves from which “prime” loans will be granted to people in such neighborhoods, including those with bad credit histories. Investors Business Daily reports (see related article in editorial handout package accompanying this report) Justice has formed a Fair Lending Unit to police bank redlining and has manned the unit with lawyers, economists and statisticians, with many of the top people being far left zealots. Additionally, IBD states Justice has “ordered them to scrub clean the bad credit histories of minorities who’ve defaulted on sub prime loans.” With the regulatory compliance costs to be piled up by small banks and the Justice Department hounding/fining/coercing them for redlining discrimination, the future of small banking (which makes most of the loans to communities all over the country) is under massive assault by the Obama Administration. This is very bad for the future of the financial system needed to provide the loan volume needed by small business and individuals when the economy begins growing briskly.
· A few weeks ago, the Fourth CircuitCourt of Appeals heard arguments on the multi-state lawsuit which asks the courts to deem unconstitutional the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. At the hearing the Acting Solicitor General of the United States made the following statement in his assertion the Act is constitutional. Quote: “The federal government can mandate anything it wants.” He further admitted the law was unlike any other law in American history and that he believed Congress could force individuals to buy certain food, for instance, wheat. Matthew Staver, sFounder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel argued for thetates and was later quoted as saying “by the government’s own admission, if ObamaCare is upheld Congress would no longer have any limitations on it regulatory power. Today is health care, but tomorrow it could be food, transportation, housing, or whatever.” Chilling!!
· Jeffery Immelt, CEO of General Electric, Chairman of Obama’s Jobs Creation Commission and avowed Green Energy advocate, announced in early May GE was giving up its Green Energy crusade and will get back to the business of creating wealth/profits. Immelt has been under major stockholder pressure for a long time to take the company back to basics for its financial performance has been substandard under his reign as CEO. He could also see that the Republicans could take over the federal government totally in 2012 and then cut/eliminate subsidies for Green Energy equipment/jobs, an area where he has had GE commit significant product development capital.
· After announcing earlier this year that his Administration had decided to support passage of the tradepacts with Columbia, Panama and South Korea (Obama’s Trade Rep, Ron Kirk, testified that these pacts were “free trade job creating machines”, two weeks ago Obama announced that unless Congress re-approves the cancelled TradeAdjustment Assistance program, he would notseek a vote on the pacts.TAA provides “income support” (for workers who have lost their jobs because of free trade) for 156 weeks on top of the 99 weeks of unemployment compensation---thereby providing up to 5 years compensation to laid off workers (and the law makes it easy to make “free trade” causation of job loss). Big Labor has not lost its clout in the West Wing and if they win this fight the economy will lose an estimated $18B of annual exports and 350K new jobs.
· ObamaCare waivers now exceed 1.400 for business, governments, unions and insurers.
William Bigelow
Chairman,Federal Oversight Committee
*******************************
May 10, 2011
John Boehner, Speaker of the House
1011 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-3504
Dear Speaker Boehner: (Sent Via Fax on May 10, 2011)
We are again faxing you a resolution adopted by Tea Party of Punta Gorda LLC on March 30, 2011, whereby the organization strongly demands House and Senate Republicans vote not to increase the nation’s debt limit above the current limit of $14.3 trillion.
Based on the termsof the 2011 Budget Compromise, which you personally negotiated with the ObamaAdministration/Senator Reid, it is now obvious to us the pledges you make have questionable validity, as demonstrated by your commitment to cut $100 billion out of that budget, which promise proved totally disingenuous. In those negotiations, your willingness to compromise key fiscal and economic positions out of the final agreement, namely:
(1) defunding ObamaCare, which legislation concealed about six years of startup funding for that pitiful heath care system totaling over $110 billion; and
(2) barring the EPA from regulating CO2 gas emissions, an economy killing action which has very little support in this country outside of ideologues/Big Government advocates, clearly shows us the Republican political machine/leadership in Washington D.C. does not have the collective backbone (as being demonstrated throughout the country by courageous Republican governors fighting similar financial problems) to stand strongly up and do what is necessary to stop the federal government’s borrowing addiction, which is financially drowning the country and driving us into inevitable bankruptcy. This objective can be accomplished only by Congress quickly cutting real trillions of dollars of spending from the budget (not the paltry hundreds of millions of real cuts you agreed to in your 2011 budget compromise) and getting the government out of the way of the private sector so the economy can grow freely without governmental interference. Fiscal stability cannot be achieved unless the budget is balanced and the economy is strongly growing GDP and creating millions of new jobs, and in the process generating huge increases in governmental income tax revenue collections.
We do not buy into the propaganda being put out by Obama Administration, Democrat politicians and RINO Republicans that falsely postulates if the Debt Ceiling is not raised the country will automatically default on its debt. What we know there exists is a continuous flow of FICA/Medicare/Medicaid taxes and other tax and fee income coming into the government every week and income tax estimates coming in each quarter, which aggregate cash flow will be sufficient to meet payment of all critical expenses (including interest on the debt, military wages, SS, etc.). Once the announcement has been made public there will be no debt limit increase, the dollar would rally strongly thereby reducing “declining currency value induced” inflation and the stock market would continue to rise, increasing the wealth of the country and helping the many pension funds which are actuarially out of coverage compliance. Confidence of most citizens (including the “doers”) in the country would rise, boding good things for the future of the economy. The politicians of both parties would then be put (where they should be put) under tremendous pressure to negotiate a realistic budget to fund a much needed downsized government to February 2013 at which point the bully pulpit would be passed to the next President, whom we are confident will be conservative. In reality, “no increase in the debt limit” will force large cuts in spending, whereas an increased debt limit would most assure spending would continue at unacceptable levels. The longer the Congress and the President wait to enact the inevitable, the higher the pain level suffered by all Americans will be. Therefore, further remedial delay is unacceptable and irresponsible.
Speaker Boehner, the question we now have of you is “Will you and the Republican Party stand up and join forces with the millions of people who voted overwhelmingly for financial responsibility last November?” Our vote was not a vote of confidence for the Republican Party(which has to shoulder much of the burden of establishing policies and approved excess spending which have led to this financial mess), but represented our belief the Party is the best conduit (because of the Party’s Traditional Platform Planks) to get proper and necessary change implemented. Based on your major input into the 2011 Budget Compromise, the answer to the above question is probably “No” and if such answer proves correct and you and the Republicans at the federal level continue to thumb your collective nose at your political base on the up-coming debt ceiling limit and the 2012 Budget negotiations, the Tea Parties nationally will relish taking up the job of replacing via primary elections next year all fiscally irresponsible Republicans who this year reveal to us their Big Government Lite stripes. The stakes are too great for us to ignore Republican inaction in this precarious time in our history for the initiation of solutions requires bravery, not timidity.
We will be watching closely to find out whether you are in Big Government’s corner or whether you are in the concerned voters’ corner. Your choice, Mr. Speaker; are you with us or against us?
Federal Oversight Committee of
Tea Party of Punta Gorda LLC
By: ________________________
William Bigelow, Committee Chairman and Treasurer of the Tea Party of Punta Gorda, LLC
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
May 17, 2011
John Boehner, Speaker of the House
1011 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-3504
Dear Speaker Boehner: (Sent Via Fax on May 17, 2011)
Oppose 63% Support 29% Not Sure 8%
Dem. Rep. Independent
Support 47% 16% 22%
Oppose 43% 78% 70%
Not Sure 10% 16% 8%
Speaker Boehner, if you choose to go against the people on this matter, you can expect we will go strongly going against you.
Federal Oversight Committee of
Tea Party of Punta Gorda LLC
By: ___________________________
William Bigelow, Committee Chairman
and Treasurer of the Tea Party of Punta Gorda, LLC
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
June 1, 2011
1011 Longworth HouseOfficeBuilding
Washington, D.C. 20515-3504
We had very high hopes you and the Republican majority in the House would take the mandate given you last November and use that power of the purse to stand fast against the socialist horde which has taken over the Democrat Party--and is attempting to turn our great country into a European-style Socialist State. So far, you have squandered that power by a agreeing to a terrible compromise on the 2011 Budget, approval of a 2012 Budget which will add a projected additional $9 trillion to our already staggering $14.3 trillion debt load and now you publicly state you will increase the country’s debt limit if you are successful in getting Obama to reduce spending $2 Trillion+ over 10 years,which demand represents embarrassing chump change compared to the terrible financial situation the country is in.
The Tea Party supporters across this country could care less about political careers for our mission is to see to it the tough things necessary to save the country from the impending financial disaster are quickly implemented. The longer it takes for effective remedies to be implemented, the more severe will be the pain level experienced. However, what we are witnessing in Washington is the blind leading the blind with all politicians holding hands behind the scenes to come up with some clever plan (which can be deceitfully spun) to string out the remedy as long as possible hoping the pain we all know must come will be minimal and in the process salvage your jobs. This mutual admiration society approach will not work any longer for if the Republicans end up playing The Game once again, by endorsing incurrence of trillions more of debt, there will be major retribution coming in the primaries leading to the 2012 election.
The April inflation numbers for imported goods by the U.S. showed food prices up 1.8% (20.0% trailing annualized), energy prices up 6.7% (36.8% trailing annualized) and All Imports prices up 2.2% (11.1% trailing annualized). QE2 gave us this major hidden tax problem, not the promised big jump in GDP growth or significantly lesser unemployment as promised by a President with absolutely no experience in economic matters.
If QE3 happens because the Republicans cave in and agree to increase the debt limit, the current miserable economic numbers will worsen and the Republicans and the Democrats will both equally shoulder the blame setting the stage for a massive house cleaning by the voters next year. Polls show strongly the voters are infuriated that our leaders in Washington seem to be incapable of leading and doing the right things to address the huge trillion dollar budget deficits, the burgeoning Treasury debt and the very poor economy which is gripping the country and causing capable workers to become slaves of government unemployment insurance payments and food stamps. This is an abominable situation and, as the leader of the House of Representatives, it is your job to get it right and truly lead, not play political games.
We ask you to join the people/doers of this country, Speaker Boehner, and stand fast against raising the debt ceiling under any and all conditions thrown up by the President and Harry Reid. We will be following your actions very closely.
You have been known over the past 5 months to shed many tears for personal reasons. We ask you now to shed tears for the horrific financial condition you politicians have placed our country in and after that tear flow has stopped, lead the destruction of the Potomac Madness that grips Washington. Do the job, you were elected to do and the job the political establishment wants you to do.
Federal Oversight Committee of
Tea Party of Punta Gorda LLC
By: ___________________________
William Bigelow, Committee Chairman
and Treasurer of Tea Party ofPunta Gorda LLC
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Drill, Maybe, Drill - Posted 05/16/2011 06:48 PM ET
Similar words were used to justify the seven-year moratorium on offshore drilling off both coasts, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in the seas off Alaska following last year's Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf, even though no other wells were found to be unsafe. The Associated Press reported with a straight face that "Obama is directing his administration to ramp up U.S. oil production." In fact, what he proposed is extending existing leases in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska and holding more frequent lease sales in a federal petroleum reserve in Alaska.
Using those leases is quite another matter.
Shell Oil, after investing five years and $4 billion, had to abandon attempts to drill off Alaska after Obama's Environmental Protection Agency withheld the necessary air permits. An EPA board ruled that Shell had not taken into account the greenhouse gas emissions of an icebreaking vessel needed to plow through the Chukchi Sea to clear the way for the drilling ships.
Significant areas off Alaska have been designated critical polar bear habitat, hampering drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. They are thought to contain 25 billion barrels of oil and 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas — America's second largest hydrocarbon reserves after the Gulf of Mexico.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that the dunes sagebrush lizard, a 3-inch-long reptile native to the American Southwest, "faces immediate and significant threats due to oil and gas activities and herbicide treatments" and begun the process to have it listed it under the Endangered Species Act. That could severely limit, if not shut down, West Texas oil production.
Extending existing leases is not enough in this environment. The snail's-pace permitting process in the Gulf and elsewhere remains a de facto moratorium. If the president were truly serious about ramping up production, wouldn't he sign the bill the House passed on Thursday, the Reversing President Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act? That bill that would require lease sales within five years for drilling in areas that were subject to Obama's seven-year moratorium on offshore drilling. The legislation sets a production goal of 3 million barrels of oil and 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day and estimates that 1.2 million jobs will be created around the country.
The only area where lease sales might be accelerated, according to the president, is the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, which was created by President Harding in 1923.
Why is this location acceptable, but not the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? Both are home to caribou. Oil companies would prefer to drill in ANWR, that's why.The Democrats are fond of saying we have just 2% of the world's oil yet consume 25% of it, a false claim repeated by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin on Fox News Sunday. Leaving aside the fact that we produce 24% of the world's goods and services, the 2% supply figure includes reserves only where we are already drilling.It does not include the 10 billion barrels locked up in ANWR or the 86 billion barrels locked up in the Outer Continental Shelf or the 800 billion barrels of oil held hostage in shale in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.
Obama says we can't drill our way out of our energy predicament soon.
Yes, we can.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
And granted, the economy needs to expand by at least 2.5% just to keep up with growth in the labor force. So at 1.8%, we're essentially losing ground, a fact that last week's 429,000 initial jobless claims underscores. But what Goolsbee didn't acknowledge is that the economy could be growing at a much faster rate, and would be if it weren't saddled with Obama's reckless policies.
How do we know this? Compare the two worst post-World War II recessions. Both the 1981-82 and the 2007-09 downturns were long (16 months and 18 months, respectively) and painful (unemployment peaked at 10.8% in 1981-82 and 10.1% in the last one).
What's dramatically different, however, is how each president responded.
Obama massively increased spending, vastly expanded the regulatory state, and pushed through a government takeover of health care. What's more, he constantly browbeats industry leaders, talks about the failings of the marketplace and endlessly advocates higher taxes on the most productive parts of the economy.
In contrast, Reagan pushed spending restraint, deregulated entire industries, massively cut taxes and waxed poetic about the wonders of a free economy. The result? While the Reagan recovery saw turbocharged growth and a tumbling unemployment rate, Obama's has produced neither. Consider:
• GDP. In the seven quarters after the 1981-82 recession ended, the economy cranked out quarterly growth rates that averaged 7.1%. Under Obama, GDP growth has averaged a mere 2.8%. (See chart at right.)
• Unemployment. Under Reagan, the unemployment rate had fallen to 7.5% by this point in the recovery. Under Obama, it's still stuck at 8.8%.
• Long-term unemployment. There were far fewer long-term unemployed by this point in the Reagan recovery; just 18% of the unemployed had been without a job 27 weeks or more. Under Obama, that figure is an astonishing 45%.
• Consumer confidence. By this point in the Reagan recovery, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index had hit 100. Today, the index stands at just 65.4.
• Deficits. Under Reagan, the federal deficit was trimmed to 4.8% of GDP by 1984. Under Obama, the deficit is expected to climb to 10.9% of GDP this year. Obama and his defenders like to say he inherited the worst downturn since the Great Depression and that things would have been worse still had he not acted. But the recession was almost over by the time he took office — and officially over just six months after that.
So while Obama's policies had little to do with bringing an end to the Great Recession, they've had everything to do with producing what is by far the worst economic recovery in the past 70 years. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Perspective - Four Pro-Growth Axioms To Avert Shared Scarcity
The only winners in that trade are special interests in Washington, with taxpayers and working families taking the hit today, and future generations taking an even harder hit tomorrow. I call it the "shared scarcity" mentality. What's missing from the equation is economic growth. Fiscal discipline is a means to a greater end: a growing, prosperous economy. These goals are mutually reinforcing: Sound government finances are essential to economic growth, and economic growth is essential to stable revenues and a citizenry that is not dependent on government spending.
Past periods of American prosperity were no accident: They resulted from adhering to the foundations of economic growth:
1.We have to stop spending money we don't have, and address the structural drivers of our debt.
2. We have to restore common sense to the regulatory environment, so that regulations are fair, transparent and predictable.
3. We have to keep tax rates low and predictable, so that job creators have incentives to invest in Amerioca.
4. We have to refocus the Fed on price stability, instead of using monetary stimulus to bail out Washington's failures. Businesses and families need sound money.
Let me deal with each in order.
The first foundation, real spending discipline, is pretty simple. You can't get quality, sustainable growth by continuing to bury the economy in debt. More debt means more uncertainty, and more uncertainty means fewer jobs.
Mounting debt also threatens our poorest and most vulnerable citizens, because those who depend most on government would be hit hardest by a fiscal crisis. We have to make our safety- net programs more sustainable so that they are there for those who need them most, and this starts by building on the successful, bipartisan welfare reforms of the mid-1990s.
Most important, we cannot avert a debt crisis unless we directly address the relentlessly rising cost of health care. These rising costs are not just threatening the nation with fiscal ruin, but also hurting our economy.One reason that many people haven't seen any increase in their wages in a long time is because health care costs are rising too quickly and eating into their paychecks.
Getting health care costs under control is critical, both for solving our fiscal mess and for promoting growth.
The second foundation addresses thegrowing scourge of crony capitalism — in which bureaucrats in Washington abuse the regulatory process to pick the winners and losers in the private economy.
Congressional Republicans continue to advance reforms that stop regulators from strangling job growth and innovation in red tape. (Tea Party Note: And they are doing a terrible job at it).
We've advanced legislationto stop the Environmental Protection Agency from imposing job-destroying energy caps on American businesses. We'veadvanced legislationto revisit the flawed Dodd-Frank law, which actually intensifies the problem of too-big-to-fail by giving large, interconnected financial institutions advantages that small firms do not enjoy. We've advanced legislation that requires Congressional approval of any new government rule with an estimated economic cost of $100 or more. (Tea Party Note: Code words for no legislation yet) But most important, we passed a full repeal of the new health care law, with its burdensome maze of new regulations, penalties and restrictions that stifle job creation.
The third foundation recognizes that we cannot get our economy back on track if Washingtontries to tax its way out of this mess. (Tea Party Note: Democrats are demanding tax increases if agreement on Debt Ceiling is to be reached)
The economics profession has been very clear about this — higher marginal tax rates create a drag on economic growth. Christina Romer, the former director of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, has argued: "Tax changes have very large effects on output. Our (research) suggests that an exogenous tax increase of 1% of GDP lowers real GDP by roughly 3%."
Finally, the fourth foundation calls for a rules-based monetary policy to protect working families and seniors from the threat of high inflation. (Tea Party Note: Fed’s policy is to debase the Dollar and cause inflation for they are terrified of deflation),
The Federal Reserve's recent departures from rules-based monetary policy have increased economic uncertainty and endangered the central bank's independence. Congress should end the Fed's dual mandate and task the central bank instead with the single goal of long-run price stability. The Fed should also explicitly publish and follow a monetary rule as its means to achieve this goal. (Tea Party Note: Humphrey-Hawkins Bill must be repealed).
These are our four foundations of economic growth — and the House-passed budget starts the long, arduous and necessary process of restoring these foundations and building a prosperous future.
The House-passed budget lifts the crushing burden debt by cutting wasteful Washington spending and reforming those government programs that drive the debt. It doesn't just put the budget on a path to balance — it actually pays off the debt over time. (Tea Party Note: Ryan’s Budget does not reach balance for the 10 year forecast period and per CBO estimates it will add $9 Trillion of additional debt, which we feel is totally unacceptable).
America is an exceptional nation, defined by upward mobility and committed to leaving future generations with a better nation than the one we inherited. I am confident that this generation will keep that commitment and defend the American legacy. We must reject the shared scarcity approach, and instead choose renewed prosperity.
• Ryan represents Wisconsin's 1st congressional district and serves as chairman of the House Budget Committee. He authored the House-passed Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Resolution — The Path to Prosperity.
FEDERAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
May 5, 2011
As we have stressed in our March and April Committee Reports, given the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, the Obama Administration has decided to circumvent the Congressional process by having the Administrative Departments (bureaucracies) establish regulations throughout all areas of the country/economy to grow the power of government and grow its bureaucracy. This strategy has continued unabated over the past 30 days (and, frankly, without much effective challenge by the Republicans) with the major new impositions to our freedom and livelihood outlined as follows:
1. The National Labor Relations Board (siding with charges brought in March by the International Association of Machinists) filed in late April a complaint against Boeing (the largest exporting firm in this country) citing Boeing for “unfair labor practices” in purchasing a non-union aircraft manufacturing plant in South Carolina, which plant will commence building the same aircraft (“Dreamliner”) to be built at the unionized Everett, Washington plant. Employment has been increased at the union plant (2,000 new jobs added) in anticipation of the kickoff of the contract’s manufacturing cycle. Boeing has sustained several strikes in WA in the past 10 years and therefore Boeing tried in July, 2009 to negotiate a 10-year non-strike pledge to protect it from s future shut construction down construction on this very critical aircraft contract. The union refused to provide such assurance. Boeing then bought out the owners of the SC plant in two separate transactions (7/09 and 12/09) and has hired 1,000 employees for that plant. The union/NLRB charge is that Boeing has expanded into a Right To Work State to avoid strikes, which action they claim is against the labor laws. If the ultimate court decision goes against Boeing, Senator Lindsay Graham correctly opined “it would give the unions a virtual veto over business decisions” It would also hurt badly Right to Work States, which are often the recipients of new jobs/new plants created by unionized companies seeking to expand. The NLRB has recently been very aggressive under the Obama Administration, cracking down on businesses which fire employees during union organizing drives and threatening to sue South Carolina and three other states over the unconstitutionality of those states’ voter approved state constitutional amendments, which guaranty the right to a secret ballot in union elections. Craig Becker, who is a far left radical and ex-lead attorney for Service Employees International Union, could not be confirmed by the Senate for appointment to the NLRB, so Obama made him a “recess appointment” and Becker is now leading the aggressive charge to provide labor unions with new advantage over employers.
2. The EPA last week ruled that Shell Oil will not be given a license to drill for oil on leases they purchased from the Interior Department in the Chukchi Sea off of Alaska for $2.2billion, because the EPA believes the emissions from the drilling operations of Shell would represent a risk to the 250 residents of a small Alaska town about 70 miles away from the nearest Shell lease. In total, Shell has spent over $4 billion in preparing to develop these leases, which monies are unrecoverable. Oil reserve estimates by the University of Alaska at Anchorage for the Chukchi Sea, and nearby Beaufort Sea and the Aleutian Basin show potential extractable crude oil at over 60 billion barrels. To no avail, Alaska has been pressuring the Obama Administration to open up these offshore areas and Anwar for drilling.
Investor’s Business Daily reports the EPA has recently adopted an overly-broad definition of bodies of water falling under the Clean Water Act which will given the agency control over just about all land-use, including energy development. A month ago, EPA shut down an Arch Coal mountain top strip mine employing more than 500 and for which Arch has invested over $250 million. The reason cited by the EPA was “destructive and unsustainable mining practices that jeopardize thehealth of Appalachian communities and clean water on which they depend.” Note: Arch has been granted a water permit by the Army Corps of Engineers. Obama in 2008 and on tape declared he would shut down the coal industry and he is in the process of doing that even though coal represents about 35% of the country’s energy usage. Natural gas (represents about 30%--and rising--of our energy consumption) developers are now in the EPA’s gun sights as are ranchers, farmers and other agricultural growers, which now fear ditches, stock ponds and standing water will be targeted under the new clean water definition. Big government is making many decisions which will kill our economy.
In April, the EPA put out the following press release about their regulatory activities: “The [regulatory impact assessment] does not include either qualitative or quantitative estimation of the potential effects of a proposed rule on economic productivity, economic growth, employment, job creation or international economic competitiveness.” A retired EPA scientist, Dr. Alan Carlin, who challenged the EPA’s findings on greenhouse gases in 2009, has now written and published his own independent
study, “A Multidisciplinary, Science-Based Approach to the Economics of ClimateChange” in the peer reviewed International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Carlin’s findings are that fossil fuel use has little impact on the atmospheric CO2 levels. Moreover, the claim that atmospheric CO2 has a strong positive feedback effect on temperature is contradicted on several grounds, ranging from low atmospheric sensitivity to volcanic eruptions, to the lack of ocean heatingand the absence of a predicted tropical “hot spot.” He states that most economic analysis of greenhouse gas emission controls, which as being proposed by the EPA, have been conducted with NO CONSIDERATION of the QUESTIONABLE underlying science. Therefore, Dr. Carlin concludes the EPA’s data used to justify
regulation of CO2 because it will increase economic benefits for the globe “may be two orders of magnitude less” than what is claimed in the EPA reports. We are finally getting a debate on this nonsense.
3. The Fish and Wildlife Service is in the process of shutting down the largest on-shore oil producing region in the U.S. (the Permian Basin in Texas representing about 15% of U.S. annual production) because continuation of such drilling techniques could, in their opinion, be dangerous to the survival of
the Dunes Sagebrush lizard, which the FWS is in the process of seeking to be declared Endangered (oh, by the way, the Endangered Species Act was a GHW Bush initiative). After public hearings are held, the decision will be made on the lizard’s status next December. If the lizard becomes endangered, oil
production in the Permian Basin, per past experience, will fall precipitously as regulatory requirements proliferate and you witness a rapid move to $6/gal of gasoline. We have witnessed the results of this scenario being played out before when the logging industry in the NW United States was destroyed after the Spotted Owl was declared endangered and when the San Joaquin Valley farmers went bankrupt after the Delta Smelt was declared under endangerment due to the engineering configuration of the water flow systems which brought water into the valley. The water into the valley, one of the best agricultural areas in the country, was cut off by the government and the area now has severe drought conditions and a 40% unemployment rate.
KEY VOTES IN CONGRESS COMING UP:
1. By the middle of May, the Congress will have to vote on extending the debt ceiling of the country from its current limit of $14.3 trillion. Our Tea Party has sent many Congressional leaders a Resolution adopted by our Committee calling for Congress not to increase the limit and 60-80 of the Republicans in the House want no increase approved. However, again, major negotiations will take place betweenRepublican leadership and the Obama Administration to determine whether an acceptable compromise can be reached. Given the very bad compromise Speaker Boehner agreed to on the 2011 budget deal (close analysis of the purported expense cuts revealed the True Cuts did not exceed $560 million compared to Republican promises that $100 billion would be cut from the 2011 budget), we can expect a probable cave-in by the Republicans once again. However, we expect the debate to be very
lively and who knows the Speaker may be forced by Republican House members to take a strong stand.
A NAY vote on increasing the ceiling would represent a forced reduction in spending. Cash flow (SS and Medicare/Medicaid tax money flows in each week) usage would be prioritized with debt service (interest on the debt) having the top priority, with Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, military and government worker pay the next priorities in line. There would be no default on the debt as the scare mongering Democrats/Treasury Secretary and certain RINO Republicans are peddling. The positive
consequence would be the value of the U.S. Dollar would immediately skyrocket, commodity prices would plunge and the dollar would buy significantly more imported goods. And then, you would see a scramble to pass a real budget for 2012, which would have appropriate big spending cuts. Probable wishful thinking.
Several bills will be coming up for vote to increase the development of crude oil and natural gas. If the country does not significantly increase development of it on-shore and off-shore reserves (we have 4 times the amount of recoverable crude oil than Saudi Arabia and we are considered the Saudi Arabia of natural gas with over a 200 year supply), the economy will hit a “affordable energy” stone wall within 5 years and the economy will begin shedding trillions of dollars of GNP and millions more of
American jobs. Just the announcement that the U.S. will open up our world class fossil fuel reserves to development and allow more nuclear power plants to be built would result in a big plunge in crude oil prices, which have been recently ranging from $111-$113/barrel, which prices have caused regular gasoline prices to approach $4/gal.
Unfortunately, the Democrat Senate will probably not go along with more fossil fuel development of any major consequence, or if they did, surely the President would veto such bills. So the country is stuck in an ideological rut that has the potential to torpedo the economy. Add on to that bad scenario the fact that the EPA is moving rapidly forward to regulating CO2 gas emissions and you end up with a Perfect Storm which will crush the economy.
3 .The 2012 budget debate will be a confrontation between four possible budget alternatives, the Ryan Budget, Obama Budget, Senate Finance Committee Budget and the Gang of 6 Senators (3 Republicans and 3 Democrats) Budget. Given that none of these budgets balance the budget for the next 10 years, it appears the only way to bring realism to Washington is DO NOT INCREASE THE DEBT CEILING.
FLORESCENT LIGHT BULBS:
In 2012, the purchase of incandescent light bulbs will be banned in this country and will be be replaced by florescent bulbs. German scientists have now determined florescent light bulbs contain poisonous carcinogens that could cause cancer and therefore they recommend such light bulbs should be “kept as far away as possible from the human environment”. Additionally, if you dispose of/break a florescent light bulb the disposal/clean up process will cost you an arm and a leg given the extensiveness of the governmentally approved disposal methods. Fred Upton, who was GW Bush’s House point man on getting this bad law passed and who now is the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has now admitted he made a mistake by sponsoring such legislation, but he is ready to rectify his mistake by sponsoring a repeal bill. So far, no bill.
THINGS TO BE LOOKING FOR LATER THIS YEAR:
1. The NLRB will try to sneak through its regulative process some form of Card Check i.e. the elimination of secret ballots in union certification votes).
2. FCC will try and sneak through some form of “Local Content” requirement for radio stations must abide by to retain/renew their FCC licenses. This represents a disguised Fairness Doctrine ploy and is being pushed by the Democrats to force a way to eliminate conservative Talk Radio;
3. EPA will announce its regulations on CO2 emissions control. Were is the House and where are the lawsuits (several states and business have sued) by the Republicans to stop this madness? Speaker Boehner could have demanded the CO2 2011 Budget Rider remain, but he agreed to eliminate the rider for literally no consideration, which was a major blunder and major setback for the people of this economy who want jobs.
4. Certain states will demand a Federal Government bailout of their horrible financial condition, which they created by out of control spending; and
5. Reuters reports, public pension funds in the U.S. are $1.26 trillion under-funded, a gap which increased 26% in 2010. CA and IL pensions are in the worst shape so expect an Obama Administration budget/PR push to help out (read another bailout).
CONCLUSION:
There are a lot of bad things going on throughout our central government, which will continue to take continuous monitoring by concerned taxpayers and our Tea Party members. The Committee will keep you informed as best we can, but we need a commitment for increased diligence from each of you and your continued pledge to put maximum political pressure on our elected officials where appropriate and when necessary. There are still too many career politicians in office who are looking out for themselves and not willing to take the personal risk to do what is needed to save the country from financial ruin. All of these kinds of politicians must be identified before the 2012 election and then each must be disposed of in that election. The Committee will be diligent in identifying those politicians and we ask you commit to doing your own homework so the job of weeding out the deadwood can be accomplished.
Canadian voters just gave total control over their country to the Conservatives. That country, unlike the United States is utilizing its assets (natural resources) to the maximum and the country is financially strong. I hope our voters are wise enough to do the same in 2012.
__________________________________________
Bill Bigelow
Treasurer of Tea Party Of Punta Gorda, LLC and
Chairman of the Federal Oversight Committee
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
During the past month, the Committee unanimously approved three resolutions, which were faxed along with a cover letter to Speaker of the House, John Boehner, with copies sent to House Leaders, Cantor and McCarthy, Reps. Ryan (Chairman of the Budget Committee, Rogers (Chairman of the Appropriations Committee), Jordan (Chairman of the Conservative Caucus), Noem (Liaison Between Republican Freshman and House Leadership), Bachmann, King, Rooney, Buchanan and Mack; and to Senators McConnell (Senate Minority Leader) and Sessions (Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee).
The resolutions call for the:
(1) Defunding of $105 Billion of ObamaCare expenditures found in March by the Congressional Research Service, which funding was surreptitiously injected into the 2,700+ page bill by Democrat leadership to provide initial spending of the health care system through 2019. It is obvious very few politicians knew about these expenditures (which could be unconstitutional) existed and if known
the bill probably would not have passed. Reps. Bachmann and King attempted to get House Republican Leadership to attach an amendment to the last Continuing Budget Bill (three week extension eventually approved) or the upcoming Debt Ceiling Increase vote. The Amendment has yet to be approved, but Rep. Ryan says his FY 2012 preliminary budget (see below for discussion) incorporates a complete defunding of ObamaCare;
(2) Major reductions in spending over the next 2 1/2 fiscal years where a balanced budget will be passed for FY 2013, and thereafter budgets will be structured in such a manner to create surpluses, which will allow the government annually to pay back a minimum of $300 Billion of the $14+ Trillion of outstanding Treasury debt; and
(3) An amendment to our Committee’s Debt Ceiling Resolution of February 23, 2011 [we originally demanded minimum annual Treasury debt reductions of $300 Billion commencing in FY 2013], where we change the target commencement year to FY 2014 to begin paying back the debt. The amended resolution now coincides with the spending reduction resolution discussed in (2) above.
The three Resolutions and the letter to Speaker Boehner are attached hereto.
In addition to the FY 2011 Budget battles currently happening, two very important things are occurring in Washington D.C., which are discussed below:
(1) PROPOSED EPA REGULATION DANGEROUS TO THE ECONOMY:
Whereas, the EPA has announced a program to regulate mandatory cuts in CO2 emissions of oil refineries, utilities, manufacturing plants, mines and any other facility, which the EPA says is emitting CO2 above their maximum target level, politicians in the Senate on April 6, attempted to eliminate the EPA’s legal power to pare such emissions or postpone such EPA actions for two years. Four
amendments to a small business bill to stop the EPA were voted on and all were handily defeated, the closest vote falling 10 votes from approval. Therefore, the House of Representatives once again represents the only way the EPA can be stopped. The 2011 budget resolution passed by the House to fund the government to September 30, 2011 contains provisions to stop the EPA and those provisions appear to be one of the major stumbling blocks between Obama-Senate Democrats and the Republicans being able to reach a consensus on the 2011 budget. The Republicans must stand firm and not negotiate those provisions out for anything done on the budget going forward will not solve our financial problems without the assistance of a vibrant economy---and a regulation of CO2 gases by the EPA will greatly harm the economy. Hence, today, I sent another fax to Speaker Boehner demanding he stand fast on the EPA riders in the 2011 budget bill passed by the House. A copy of that fax is attached hereto.
If the EPA is not stopped, a Heritage Foundation analysis of CO2 regulation concludes nothing good for the economy as follows: (a) the regulation will be akin to putting a large economy-wide tax on the country given 85% of the economy is powered by fossil fuels; (b) the cumulative loss in GDP will total $7 Trillion by 2029 in 2008 inflation-adjusted dollars; (c) energy costs would rise 30%, (d) annual job losses would exceed 800,000 for several years with some manufacturing industries jobs being cut 50%; (e) scientific analysis projects that a 60% reduction in CO2 gas emissions by 2050 will reduce global temperatures by a miniscule less than 1 degree Celsius [0.1-0.2 to be exact]; (f) no scientific evidence supports the THEORY that CO2 emissions create global warming or adverse climate change; (g) EPA’s bureaucracy will expand significantly and expensively to police whether CO2 emitters are complying with the law; and slow to be approved environmental impact statements would proliferate slowing down significant economic activity; and (h) corporate compliance costs would be huge (my comment addition-“and cause many companies to shift many jobs offshore, thereby exacerbating the economic impact to the country”).
(2) 2012 RYAN BUDGET MADE PUBLIC THIS WEEK:
Last Tuesday, Rep. Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee released his Preliminary FY 2012 Budget, which objective is to reverse the mad spending binge the Obama/Bush Administrations have been on for 5 years. Although proposed 10-year spending under the Ryan Budget is $6.2 trillion less than President Obama’s Budget, it does not balance the budget over the 10-year period,
but limits the cumulative deficit to a maximum $5.1 Trillion (vs. aggregate deficits under the Obama budget of $9.5 Trillion). In 2012, Ryan’s Budget projects a deficit of $995 Billion for FY 2012 and under the budgets construction it would take an estimated 26 years to reach a balanced budget, which is totally unacceptable. There is insufficient detail to project the additional debt needed to fund the deficits, but it will be in the trillions of dollars. The gold market was not impressed by the Ryan Budget as gold jumped over $20/oz. the day the Budget was made public.
In total, the Budget should be a disappointment to the Tea Party movement, which is espousing massive and quick Federal expense reductions and future budgets constructed to create surpluses for use in initiating systematic debt reductions. Under the Ryan Budget, over the next 10 years the deficit is not eliminated and the outstanding debt continues to rise significantly. It appears the Budget represents a political realism/expediency document designed to substantially slow down the government’s spending binge in hope the next President will be a Republican who will have the courage to: (a) initiate more significant spending cuts; and (b) grow GDP significantly (along with tax revenues). In combination, these two occurrences would balance the budget and start repayment of debt.
The Budget does incorporate some very positive proposals as follows:
* It states it defunds ObamaCare totally, including the elimination of $800 Billion of taxes to be imposed under the law. Allied with this action, the budget in 2022 starts the phasing out of direct government participation in Medicare by providing qualified “new retirees” (qualifying minimum age increased to 67 by 2033) annual cash vouchers (amount to be determined by individual medical circumstances and annual income) to assist them in purchasing private insurance from companies (licensed by a to-be-formed Medical Insurance Exchange), thereby preserving the doctor/patient relationship with no governmental interference. Additionally, in 2013 Medicaid and food stamp program would be transferred to the states with the Federal government providing annual Block Grants to the states (amounts capped with increases subject to population fluctuation in the individual state and the CPI-U) to fund the programs as will now be designed and managed by the states. Significant medical tort reform is also incorporated. No changes in Social Security are being proposed at this time.
* In an effort to stimulate the economy, the Budget cuts existing upper level income taxes rates for both corporations and individuals to a maximum 25% (and a minimum of 15% for corporations and 10% for individuals), simultaneously eliminating many loop holes and deductions which Ryan believes makes the tax code unwieldy and complex.
* Eliminates the ethanol subsidies and reforms farm subsidies by trimming farm/corporate welfare from its current annual level of $25 Billion. Over 70% of such subsidies are given to Big Agra companies and rich land owners.
* Eliminates all earmarks.
* Repeals the Death Tax.
* Begins financially cutting off Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and seeks their privatization. Also calls for an end of corporate bailouts still allowed under the recently passed Financial Institutions Bill labeled as Dodd-Frank.
Given the Presidency and Senate are in the hands of the Democrats, who do not want to cut the size of the federal government, the Ryan Budget has zero chance of passing. The government during the FY 2012, therefore, will probably be funded via a string of Continuing Resolutions and a possibility that the government may be shut down once time or more over the next 18 months. However, what the Ryan Budget accomplishes is that it establishes the financial parameters of the political campaign of 2012 with each side being nearly 180 degrees apart on their positions on government finance and managing the economy. The choice for voters will be clear and that’s why the 2012 election will determine whether the country continues to survive under the Constitution.
CURRENT STATISTICS DEPARTMENT OF LABOR:
CPI - +.05% February
Unemployment - 8.8% (March)
Payroll Increase - 216,000 (March)
PPI - 1.6% (Feb.)
UI Claims - 388,000 (Wk. 3-26)
Notes: (1) Using the formula abandoned in the 1990’s CPI is increasing at an annual
rate of 10%+.
(2) Unemployment % does not include workers who have stopped actively looking for a job given the poor job market. Gallup reports they calculate unemployment in March to be 10.3% and
underemployment at 19.3%.
FEDERAL RESERVE UPDATE:
The Federal Reserve is holding interest rates steady and states it will continue to buy government bonds according to a statement released earlier this week at the conclusion of a meeting of the Fed's policy-makers. The Fed cited the recent increase in commodity prices, but did not sound the warning bells for sustained inflation. For the first time, however, there are at least three Governors who want to increase interest rates to tame inflation. The Fed's statement lso mentioned the marked improvement in the job market in the U.S. The FOMC will next meet on April 26.
Nearly all countries are raising interest rates to curb inflation with China again raising its banking rates this week by ¼ of 1%. Foreign Central Bankers have accused Ben Bernanke of creating global inflation by the Fed’s continuous creation of trillions of new money (the dollar is the world’s reserve currency and commodities are priced in dollars). The big recent rise in commodity prices (gold/silver) prices tend to substantiate their accusations. Compounding the non-crude related commodity inflation increases are Middle East turmoil which has increased crude prices/barrel to about $110 and average gasoline prices are now approaching $4/gal nationwide. The Fed’s actions reflect its questionable
concern for deflation (housing prices continue to plunge in all markets except Washington D.C.) and high unemployment and are continuing unabated because there is no movement in Congress to take the pressure off of the Fed by agreeing to cut spending and grow the economy, which would reduce the high unemployment rate and increase federal and state tax revenues.
The bottom line is that this fiscal mess is reflective of the dysfunctional actions of our Federal politicians. The Ryan Budget, if enacted into law (which won’t happen given Obama’s veto power and the fact that the Senate is still in Democrat hands), would set the stage for a comprehensive increase in economic activity, not a phony economy which is showing meager increases by the Fed and Government flooding the economy with nearly $10 Trillion of debt and newly printed money. The buyers of our bonds are watching closely at this budget battle to see whether federal spending will be substantially cut and our economy given a strong boost as the government’s need to borrow will then be reduced leaving more capital for use in the private sector. If no reasonable compromise is agreed to in Washington, interest rates surely will rise (and maybe significantly) to attract buyers for new
debt. Rising interest rates would tend to reduce GDP growth and possibly throw the country back into a double dip recession.
FEDERAL DRUG ADMINISTRATION:
Attached is a resume’ of the Food Safety Modernization Act which was passed in last year’s Lame Duck session and signed into law in January 2011 by President Obama. Many agriculture and financial experts believe the legislation, which will be implemented and policed by the very incompetent Federal Drug Administration, will result in the closing of most small farms and farmers’ markets across the country. Nine Republican Senators, including LeMieux of Florida who just threw his hat in the ring to run for Bill Nelson’s Senate seat, voted for this unjustified and dangerous growth in big government.
The FDA is also in the process of implementing new rules covering the approval of medical devices, an industry which is dominated by the United States. The new rules will make it significantly longer to get approval for medical devices no matter if they are improvements to existing devices or totally new devices. Combine this additional time and expense to get new products on the market with the huge taxes being implemented on the medical device industry by ObamaCare, and the fact other countries (including the EU) have much faster device approval processes, and you know have a situation where medical advice companies are starting to move more and more of their operations overseas.
The U.S. equation of excess regulation by many departments of government, high corporate taxes and expensive social laws which have to be complied with by U.S. companies results in a move of millions of jobs from our country to other less costly countries which appreciate the new business and well paying jobs for their citizens. This situation is proliferating under the Obama Administration.
_______________________________________________________
Bill Bigelow
Chairman of the Federal Oversight Committee
and Treasurer of the Punta Gorda Tea Party, LLC
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John Boehner, Speaker of the House March 31, 2011
1011 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-3504
Dear Representative Boehner:
I am the Treasurer of the Tea Party of Punta Gorda LLC and the Chairman of its Federal Oversight Committee. Our organization continues to be in strong support of House Republican efforts to quickly eliminate the Federal budget deficit and save the country and its citizens from a financial meltdown, which is rapidly coming upon us because of the government’s spending binge and the creeping socialism which has been fostered by many politicians over the past 80 years.
Over the past 4 months, our organization has been sending you and other Federal politicians copies of resolutions passed by the Federal Oversight Committee which have addressed the Federal Debt Limit and the Federal Budget. Today, we are remitting to you the following three Resolutions unanimously passed yesterday by the eight members of the Committee, which cover our positions as follows:
* Elimination, under the final FY 2011 Budget Bill, of the $105 Billion the Democrats snuck into theAffordable Care Act/Budget Reconciliation Bill signed by the President on March 23, 2010 to fund the initial implementation costs of ObamaCare;
* Major budget spending reductions commencing immediately and extending through the 2012 and 2013 budgets whereby at the end of this period the budget will be balanced; and annual budgets after 2013 will show surpluses which will permit a systematic reduction of outstanding Treasury debt thereafter; and
* No increase in the Treasury Debt Ceiling Limit of $14.3 Trillion.
We are astonished at the recent House Republican leadership’s refusal to add to the last Continuing Budget Resolution the Bachmann/King amendment defunding prior approved ObamaCare initial funding totaling $105 Billion. Mr. Speaker, you are on notice that defunding ObamaCare, a law two Federal judges have declared unconstitutional in whole or in part, is a very big deal to millions of Tea Party members all over this country. Therefore, we expect the House Republicans to quickly find a way to work the proper defunding language into any legislation passed by the House to finalize the 2011 FY budget.
By: ________________________
William Bigelow, Chairman Federal Oversight Committee
of the Tea Party of Punta Gorda, LLC
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FAX COVER To: Speaker of the House, John Boehner
From: William G. Bigelow
Fax: 202/225-5117
Pages: 1 (Including Cover Page)
Date: April 7, 2011
Re: On-coming EPA CO2 Regulation
Urgent For Review Please Comment Please Reply Please Recycle
Speaker Boehner:
Yesterday, the Senate struck down 4 Amendments (to S.493), which either would have postponed the EPA’s ability to regulate CO2 emissions from oil refineries, manufacturing plants, utility power plants and any other source where the EPA deemed was emitting excess CO2 gases. Therefore, it appears that the Senate is incapable of stopping the EPA.
Apparently, the House has attached a rider to their Continuing Resolution that stops the EPA from regulating CO2 gas emissions. If the EPA is successful in implementing this financially disastrous regulation, the hit to GDP, private sector profits, jobs and utility bills will tank the economy and drive many additional jobs overseas.
Speaker Boehner, any deal reached with Obama/Democrats on the 2011 Budget must have as a non-negotiable demand by the Republicans the permanent barring of the EPA to regulate CO2 emissions. No matter what is done on the Budget going forward, the country cannot climb out of the major financial hole D.C. politicians have dug for us unless we experience a vibrant economy---which will not be possible if the EPA regulates CO2 emissions.
The Republicans must stand up for the country and stop the EPA as a major condition of any Budget/ Debt Limit vote agreement. The Senate has punted once again so it is the Republican led House that must strongly stand up for the people and the economy. Do your job, Mr. Speaker.
By: _______________________________________
William G. Bigelow
Treasurer of the Punta Gorda Tea Party, LLC
and Chairman of the Federal Oversight Committee of
_________________________________________________________________________________
Food Safety Legislation Key Facts:
The food safety law passed by Congress on December 21, 2010 aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus of federal regulators from responding to contamination to preventing it. FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. issued a written statement (see below) shortly after passage. Key facts about this legislation are presented below.
The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA): Key Facts
The burden of food borne illness is considerable. Every year, 1 out of 6 people in the United States—48 million people--suffers from food borne illness, more than a hundred thousand are hospitalized, and thousands die.
Below are some of the important food safety enhancements included in the legislation.
Preventive controls
For the first time, FDA has a legislative mandate to require comprehensive, prevention-based controls across the food supply.
* The legislation transforms FDA’s approach to food safety from a system that far too often responds to outbreaks rather than prevents them. It does so by requiring food facilities to evaluate the hazards in their operations, implement and monitor effective measures to prevent contamination, and have a plan in place to take any corrective actions that are necessary.
* It also requires FDA to establish science-based standards for the safe production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables to minimize the risk of serious illnesses or death.
* This new ability to hold food companies accountable for preventing contamination is a significant milestone in the efforts to modernize the food safety system.
Inspection and Compliance
The legislation recognizes that inspection is an important means of holding industry accountable for their responsibility to produce safe product. FDA will meet this expectation by:
* Applying its inspection resources in a risk-based manner
* Innovating in its inspection approaches to be the most efficient and effective with existing resources
* requires importers to perform supplier verification activities to ensure imported food is safe
* authorizes FDA to refuse admission to imported food if the foreign facility or country refuses to allow an FDA inspection
* authorizes FDA to require certification, based on risk criteria, that the imported food is in compliance with food safety requirements
* provides an incentive for importers to take additional food safety measures by directing FDA to establish a voluntary program through which imports may receive expedited review of their shipments if the importer has taken certain measures to assure the safety of the food
Response
For the first time, FDA will have mandatory recall authority for all food products. While FDA expects that it will only need to invoke this authority infrequently since the food industry is largely compliant with FDA’s requests for voluntary recalls, this new authority is a critical improvement in FDA’s ability to protect the public health.
Enhanced Partnerships
The legislation recognizes the importance of strengthening existing collaboration among all food safety agencies – Federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, and foreign – to achieve our public health goals.
It also recognizes the importance of building the capacity of state, local, territorial and tribal food safety programs. Among other provisions, it directs the Secretary to improve training of state, local, territorial and tribal food safety officials and authorizes grants for training, conducting inspections, building capacity of labs and food safety programs, and other food safety activities.
Statement by Margaret A. Hamburg, Commissioner of Food and Drugs, December 21, 2010
Today's passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act1 has laid the critical foundation for a prevention-based 21st Century food safety system. This law makes everyone responsible and accountable at each step in today's global food supply chain. Under this new law, FDA will now have new prevention-focused tools, as well as a clear regulatory framework, to help make substantial improvements in our approach to food safety. Preventing food borne illness is a core public health principle that is especially critical in an increasingly complex and globalized world. This law helps us take the critical steps toward strengthening the food safety system that is vital to the health and security of the American people.
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IBD Editorials Perspective Ryan Rides To The Rescue With Realistic Budget PlanBy ERNEST S. CHRISTIAN AND GARY A. ROBBINS Posted 04/05/2011 05:26 PM ET
It's jump ball on the federal budget — and America's future is up for grabs.
Although often cast in numerical terms involving trillions of dollars, the real budget battle is about human dignity, freedom and progress. Can we preserve these and other bedrock characteristics of American civilization? Or will they and we be dragged down by mindless fiscal excesses in Washington?
The two most immediate protagonists in this historic budget drama are President Obama, the likely villain, and Paul Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, the emerging hero.
Obama holds the modern record for the biggest debt and deficits in the shortest time and is sub rosa heading America toward the biggest tax hikes in history.
In opposition to Obama's road to ruin, Ryan has unveiled a high-minded "Path to Prosperity" by which America can escape the spend-debt-tax trap set by Obama before it's finally and fatally sprung.
The Republican budget is designed to make everyone better off. Cut taxes, cut spending, induce jobs and income growth, repeal ObamaCare, rescue Medicare, protect seniors and enable young Americans to create a new golden age of freedom and prosperity in the 21st century. And this is just for starters. Wait until 2013 for the best stuff.
Seniors Protected
The "win-win" Ryan-Rivlin proposal saves Medicare from financial collapse while at the same time allowing existing senior Americans (those now 55 and older) the option to continue with present Medicare.
Ryan's budget achieves $6 trillion of outlay savings — including $1 trillion in historic health care entitlement reform — but seniors are protected. Cynical Democrats may have hoped that with the debt crisis already at $10 trillion and Obama pushing it to $21 trillion, they could frighten fiscally responsible Republicans into cutting back on seniors — but Ryan deftly avoids the sucker punch.Ryan also avoids the tax trap. Many people — including some well-meaning Republicans — have been lured into thinking that America's financial crises can be solved by combining spending cuts with big tax increases.
But dollar-for-dollar, tax increases do more harm to the private economy — and, therefore, to GDP growth and jobs — than they add to Treasury revenues for deficit reduction. This is the "dig the hole deeper" approach taken by Obama's Bowles-Simpson Commission. It won't work.
Ryan does the smart thing. He and Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp plan big cuts in both individual and corporate tax rates.
Individual tax rates will be 10% and 25% — and the present exorbitantly high tax rates on corporations (their stock is in nearly everyone's retirement plan portfolio) will be reduced to 15% and 25%.
Even under CBO's old-fashioned static scoring method — which Democrats insist on — the Camp-Ryan tax reforms will induce economic growth. On a correct dynamic scoring basis as performed by the Heritage Foundation, the positive effects of tax reform on both the budget and the lives of millions of Americans are even bigger. Each year, roughly 1.3 million new jobs will be added. Household wealth will average $500 billion more over the 10-year period.Fiscal Freeze The Republican plan reduces outlays as a percentage of GDP from the current level of 24.1% to 19.9% in 2021. Tax rates are lower — but revenues as a percent of GDP increase from today's 14.8% to 18.2% in 2021. And by 2021, debt as a percent of GDP is 40% less than under Obama's budget.
The Republican "Path to Prosperity" is the kind of common-sense government downsizing that voters were calling for in the game-changing election last November, when they threw out so many big-spending Democrats and, had Obama himself been up for reelection, would probably have thrown him out as well. Ryan's budget resolution freezes and reforms much government spending at or below 2008 levels, thereby saving $4 trillion. It cuts subsidies, corporate welfare, government waste and bloat — and whacks those notorious Washington swingers known as Fannie and Freddie, who helped cause the mortgage crisis. It will be a struggle to plug the gigantic hole that Obama has blown in America's finances. But everyone who is called upon to give up a government subsidy or to pay more should look upon the temporary sacrifice as if they were putting money away in a savings account that will pay them dividends as America returns to prosperity. Some conservative Republicans have been heard to criticize Ryan's budget plan because it does not completely eliminate the federal deficit within 10 years. Not a good objection. Cutting tax rates, getting the deficit and debt heading downward, and boosting economic growth is much more important than adherence to some arbitrary date. Everyone who has America's best interest at heart — including a good many Democrats in both the House and the Senate — ought to stand up and cheer. • Christian, an attorney, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Ford administration. Robbins, an economist, served at the Treasury Department in the Reagan administration.
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TEA PARTY OF PUNTA GORDA (FL) LLC FEDERAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE AMENDED FEDERAL SPENDING/ DEBT CEILING RESOLUTION DATED MARCH 30, 2011
RESOLVED:
WHEREAS, the Federal Government Budget DEFICIT for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011 is projected to be upwards of $1.6 Trillion, the third straight fiscal year the government has shown deficits exceeding One Trillion Dollars;WHEREAS, such deficits have caused the outstanding Treasury debt to grow at a record pace to where the National Debt Clock on March 30. 2011 shows $14.22 Trillion outstanding; WHEREAS, Congressional Budget Office, under the current budget, projects additional budget deficits from FY 2012 through FY 2021 in an aggregate amount of $9.5 Trillion; WHEREAS, Treasury debt will continue to grow rapidly and exceed $20 Trillion over the next 10 years if budget deficits are not eliminated; and WHEREAS, under the Constitution, all government spending bills originate in the House of Representatives, wherein the Republicans, who publicly espouse fiscal responsibility, currently have a solid majority and therefore have the power to pass and strongly defend budgets which substantially can eliminate the habitual spending binge of the Federal Government; NOW THEREFORE, the Committee members unanimously and strongly ask the U. S. House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate to both enact and the President sign bills reflecting fiscally responsible spending plans structured to insure substantial and immediate cuts in Federal spending, whereby the three year string of huge Federal budget will be totally eliminated by the end of FY 2013; and thereafter, annual budgets will be approved which will generate surpluses and cause the outstanding Federal Debt to be reduced by a MINIMUM 300 Billion Dollars each fiscal year commencing for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014. It is the Committee’s further position, that if the House of Representatives, Senate and the President cannot all agree on such required fiscal measures to save our country from financial ruin, the government should be shut down (except for agreed upon essential services) until the necessary votes are obtained and consensus reached to pass such responsible legislation and such legislation is signed into law.
The Committee is adamant our elected federal politicians are obligated to first address the massive financial problems of the country and the remedies to solve those problems and secondarily about how they can perpetuate their political careers. The country needs each of the 537 elected Federal politicians to act quickly and responsibly to immediately end this insane era of fiscal irresponsibility, which is rapidly bringing the country to financial ruin.
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TEA PARTY OF PUNTA GORDA (FL) LLC FEDERAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
RESOLUTION TO ELIMINATE ANY PAYMENTS UNDER PAST BUDGET RECONCILIATION BILLS
APPROVING FUNDS UP TO ABOUT $105.5 BILLION DOLLARS TO FUND
PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
DATED MARCH 30, 2011
RESOLVED:
WHEREAS, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “Act) was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010; WHEREAS, Democrats linked the Senate passed version of the Act to the House of Representatives’ Budget Reconciliation Bill (the “Bill), which surreptitiously concealed in many, many forms funding triggers for pre-authorized appropriations covering initial funding the Act through FY 2019 which aggregated about $105.5 Billion, and such funding became law when the Act and Bill were signed by the President; WHEREAS, the Act has subsequently been declared unconstitutional in whole or in part by two Federal Judges; WHEREAS, Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are on record declaring they intend to repeal all or portions of the Act and not allow any funding of the Act to occur; WHEREAS, Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate are on record assuring the American people it is their intention to balance the federal budget and begin paying down the enormous amount of outstanding Treasury debt; WHEREAS, public opinion polls have consistently showed over the past year a large majority of the country wants the Act repealed; WHEREAS, the current budget negotiations with the Democrats and the Obama Administration represent an excellent opportunity for Republicans to eliminate all approved expenditures to finance the Act; NOW THEREFORE, the Committee members unanimously and strongly ask the U. S. House of Representatives to live up to their campaign pledges to the American people by writing into the final 2011 FY budget funding bill the necessary language to eliminate the $105.5 Billion of currently authorized funding for the Act and simultaneously passing a Rule making such defunding language compliant under House Rules.
The Committee believes this important action by the Republicans will strongly propel the advent of the process to balance the Federal Budget and generate future budget surpluses which will allow the Treasury to begin meaningfully paying back the country’s huge debt position, thereby strongly aiding the private sector to obtain the capital necessary to power a long overdue resurgence in our economy.
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TEA PARTY OF PUNTA GORDA FEDERAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
CHAIRMAN’S MONTHLY REPORT MARCH 3. 2011
Last November, the Republicans, with major help from the Tea Parties nationwide, retook the House of Representatives, added 6 additional senators and took over many additional governorships and state legislatures. Faced with this repudiation by the voters, President Obama knows he can no longer implement his left of center policies ; therefore, he appears to have decided to rule by Executive Orders and via regulation initiated by his Executive Branch Departments. I took over the Chairmanship of the Federal Oversight Committee about a month ago, and realizing this change in tactics by the President, the Committee was restructured to monitor not only the Legislative process but closely follow what is transpiring at the Executive Order and Departmen- tal levels. This was done by having members of our eight person committee take individual responsibility for monitoring the activities of at least three of the executive departments, regularly reporting their findings to the Chairman.
During the past month, the Committee unanimously approved a resolution covering the upcoming Debt Ceiling vote, which will occur within the next two months as the country approaches the current $14.3 Trillion debt limit. The resolution, along with a cover letter, was mailed to ten Republican leaders (Speaker Boehner, Reps. Cantor, McCarthy, Ryan, Rogers (Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee), Rooney, Buchanan, Mack and Jordan (Leader of the 80 person House Conservative Caucus); and Minority Senate Leader, McConnell. Another letter was sent to President Obama and Senate Majority Leader, Reid. These documents are attached.
Everything in this country seems to be in chaos these days. We believe these unsettled conditions are caused by a President, who is a weak leader, refusing to strongly weigh in the huge problems confronting the country and solve them. We are witnessing, under President Obama, the demise of the “Rule of Law” principle which has guided our country since its inception. Examples of the Obama Administration/ Democrats running roughshod over our “Rule of Law” are:
· The Obama Administration brow beat the GM/Chrysler bond holders to give up their superior legal position (including security positions) in deference to much smaller labor union claims and accept a much smaller ownership position than the government and unions received. This act makes the country a risky place in which to do business given the government proved in these bailouts it can override existing business law and get a bankruptcy judge to rule in their favor;
· The Obama Administration has been cited by Federal Judge, Martin Feldman, in Contempt of Court given their ignoring his demand that the drilling moratorium imposed after the Gulf oil spill must be immediately lifted. The judge’s order was ignored when a new 7 year moratorium on oil/gas drilling was instituted by the Interior Department. As a token gesture, the Department of the Interior announced it was allowing Noble Energy to commence initial drilling activities off of a rig that had just commenced drilling when the oil spill occurred. However, no other action has yet been taken to allow other Gulf development and many rigs have been transferred under new contracts in other areas outside the U.S. and will not return· Roger Vinson, Federal Judge, in January ruled ObamaCare to be unconstitutional, which under law stops the Obama Administration from continuing to implement any part of the legislation until they obtain a higher court ruling in their favor or a stay of Vinson’s ruling until the Supreme Court rules on the law’s constitutionality. There is ample evidence that the Administration has already spent over $100B on ObamaCare implementation and is continuing to spend, thereby ignoring Judge Vinson’s unconstitutionality ruling. The Republican House has voted to not provide money for further implementation of ObamaCare.
* The FCC recently ruled by a 3-2 vote they could regulate the internet via their Net Neutrality dictates. The FCC lost a court battle for its Net Neutrality power in April 2010 and Congress has refused to give the FCC that power. No problem, given the FCC intends to rule via regulatory dictate. The House has voted to defund the FCC if they don’t rescind their Net Neutrality vote.The EPA has announced it intends to implement a form of Cap and Trade on emitters of CO2 using its powers under the Clean Air Act. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 for the EPA’s ability to regulate CO2 (the air we exhale) provided EPA proved CO2 was dangerous to humans/the environment—which the EPA subsequently declared. Heritage Foundation has studied the proposed EPA rules and concludes that by 2031 CO2 regulation will cost each family of four $4,500/yr. and 2.5 million jobs will be lost. All of this nonsense is being done even though there is NO SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS proving greenhouse gases are causing Global Warming. The House’s budget cuts passed last week defunds the EPA if they do not cease attempts to implement such regulation. Flash: At yesterday’s House Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing on EPA’s job killing greenhouse gas regulations, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) asked panel witness Gina McCarthy, chief of EPA’s air programs (including the agency’s greenhouse gas regulations) whether she had any idea of what the atmosphere level of CO2 is. She admitted that she did not. This is an Obama power play to take over the entire U.S. economy.
· The ATF has begun to peck away at the 2nd Amendment by: (1) requiring (under Emergency Regulation) gun dealers toreport multiple purchases of guns within a 5 day period (and provide detailed info on the purchasers); and (2) ATF is looking at stopping the sale of certain semiautomatic rifles and certain shot guns. No Congressional authority supports these actions.
·Democrat Senators in Wisconsin have fled their state to shut down any legislative process designed to pare collective bargaining rights and union contributions to retirement plans and health care coverage, as being proposed by Republican majorities in WI. Senators in Indiana have also fled to stop votes on similar pending legislation. This action by elected lawmakers is blatantly against the Rule of Law in this country and such politicians should be recalled by the voters.
· The Obama Administration and Homeland Security Department continue to refuse to seal the southern border and the drug war is now funneling into southwest U.S. Our NARC agents cannot possess arms when working in Mexico and some have been recently attacked and one died. No outrage on the part of Obama has been demonstrated against Mexico and no action on the border has been taken other than suing Arizona for their new Immigration Law. This is an outrageous situation, which has major national security interests given evidence shows that terrorists have been infiltrating into the U.S. from Mexico.
· TSA is now attempting again to unionize their 40,000 employees and has named two unions to hold an election March 9. Unionization will create problems with scheduling, work hours, overtime, disciplinary matters and transfers especially in time of crisis. TSA budgets will also necessarily balloon. Unions will then increase in power at greatcost to safety and the taxpayer. CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSMEN/SENATORS IMMEDIATELY FOR THE SAFETY OF THE COUNTRY CANNOT BE COMPROMISED VIA UNION WORK RULES
Where is the Leadership?
· This country has a major budget crisis ($1.6T deficit projected for FY ending 9-30-11) and the President has punted on addressing the problem by submitting a budget for fiscal 2012 that projects a continuation of annual trillion dollar deficits throughout the balance of this decade.
· The country is faced with major, growing energy needs as crude oil/gasoline prices skyrocket and the President seems oblivious to the problem by initiating the followingactions: (1) orders the Interior Department to put a 7 year moratorium on Gulf oil exploration and the Interior Department follows that action up by taking millions of additional federal acres off of the acceptable areas’ licensing list; (2) Obama’s energy policy consists of supporting only renewable green energy technologies (currently represents 3.3% of all energy used in the country), such as wind (.007%), solar (.0008%), geothermal (.004%) and biomass/biofuels (2.1%). Projections show the U.S. will require 28% more energy by 2025 and at current technological levels experts project heavily subsidized renewable energy sources to range only between 10% and 15% of our total needs. Obama says he is for the expansion of nuclear energy (currently represents about 9% of energy sources), but has not put forth any program to promote increases in nuclear power and, in fact, has shut down development of Yucca Mountain (Nevada) storage facility for spent fuel rods. Our long term economy is in jeopardy and Democrats (in the financial hip pockets of the environmentalists) use the Cloture Rule of 60 votes to stop all fossil energy expansion. Oh, by the way, gasoline will hit $5/gal in next few years and Obama is praying for $9/gal. Americans have to become very vocal to change this catastrophe in the making.
· To further the farce of subsidization of ethanol gasoline refineries, EPA just authorized gasoline refiners to increase ethanol content to 15% but sale can be made only to customers owning cars manufactured since 2007. Experts say ethanol harms engines and this decision could hit car owners big in the pocketbook if they use E15. 45% of all farmland used for grain farming is now devoted to growing corn for ethanol, which product would not be competitive in the market if not for heavy subsidies paid by the government to producers. This very poor decision by the Bush Administration has been a catalyst for substantial price increases in grains as edible grain production has been negatively affected. This is a program that needs to be repealed.
The Federal Reserve continues to purchase Treasury Bonds under the current QE2 program whereby $600 Billion of new (fiat) printed money is targeted for such purpose. Bernanke this week testified that the current inflationary trend in commodities, grains, crude oil/gasoline is only a temporary blip and inflation in the U.S. will be well controlled by the Fed. Foreign Central Bankers recently denounced this Fed policy and declared it the reason global inflation is beginning to rage. So, what do es Bernanke do? He said he will continue with QE2 and is considering a QE3 sequel. The reason the Fed can print money like wild fire is due to its expanded authorities under t he Humphrey-Hawkins Bill, which expanded the Fed’s area of jurisdiction from inflation fighting/strong dollar to helping the economy grow and reduce unemployment. Humphrey-Hawkins should be repealed and at a minimum the Fed should be audited to determine where the money has been spread. Ron Paul has a bill to audit the Fed and we should support him, Significantly more transparency is needed for the Fed is out of control and is engineering inflation and a huge drop in the dollar to pay off the country’s debt with monopoly money. If this policy continues, significant wealth in this country will be destroyed.
You should read the cover letter to the Resolution sent to politicians last week to see what is happening in international markets, which will ultimately replace the Dollar as the global reserve currency. If the Chinese Yuan is allowed to seek its own value in currency markets (rather than being pegged to the value of the Dollar), many currency experts believe that the value of the Dollar could fall immediately by 50%. Our politicians have created this catastrophe and it is up to the American people to put into political office smart people who know economics and finance and who have the spine to make the tough decisions to save the country and its citizens from a financial disaster.
With regard to our country's energy sources, we have 4 times as much oil as Saudi Arabia and we are the Saudi Arabia of natural gas (300+ years worth) because of technological advances in getting ng out of shale formations. Because of the huge natural gas reserves, natural gas prices are low (about $5/mcf) and production could be rapidly increased to replace coal in power plants and all commercial vehicles could be converted to run on natural gas given engines are now available (natural gas vehicles have been operational in other parts of the world for years). All we need is political initiatives to make this happen. Just recently, a report concluded that if the Outer Continental Shelf off Alaska was opened for oil exploration, as the Alaskans are demanding, Alaska would become the 8th largest oil production area on the3 globe (and this excludes the opening up of the vast Anwar reserves). We need immediate approval to expand nuclear energy capability by at least 50 plants. New small nuclear reactors are near commercial availability to power towns, plants and out of the way areas which are not located near electrical grids. We do not have a energy deficiency, we have a paid for political roadblock and this has got to be broken open by huge political pressure by the American people for the future of our economy is at stake.
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THE CRITICAL PROBLEM OF RARE EARTH”
The Obama Green Jobs Initiative to create millions of high paying jobs is outright delusion and Will Never Happen. There will NEVER, under current technological advancements, be any high paying, long terms Green Jobs created in this country. The reason is “Rare Earth” (17 elements of the Periodic Table of Elements), which are critical components of wind turbines (754 lbs. required in every wind turbine), solar panels and all high tech electronic equipment currently manufactured. China controls 97% of the operating mines in the world and nearly all of the critical refining capacity.
China is committed to use its Rare Earth monopoly to make Chinese manufacturers as the only viable sources for future Green Energy products requiring Rare Earth (non-recyclable). To make this happen, exports of Rare Earth have been slashed in the past few years by the Chinese government and recently China cut off Japan’s imports of Chinese Rare Earth 100% over a East China Sea naval dispute. Eventually, China will announce to the world that any company wanting to manufacture products requiring Rare Earth will have to open a Chinese plant with Chinese minority ownership and such plant will be prohibited from trans-shipping.
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TEA PARTY OF PUNTA GORDA (FL) LLC
FEDERAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE FEDERAL SPENDING/ DEBT CEILING RESOLUTION
DATED FEBRUARY 23, 2011
RESOLVED: WHEREAS, the aggregate amount of debt the U.S.Treasury can legally borrow is capped at 14.3 Trillion Dollars; and WHEREAS the Federal government projects current trends in Federal spending and the resultant higher Treasury borrowings will cause a breech of this maximum debt limit in the spring of 2011 unless major action to decrease federal spending is enacted immediately; and WHEREAS the Committee believes if drastic fiscal budget remedies are not immediately enacted by the President and the Congress the country will soon face a national financial disaster, which is not in the best interests of the long term financial security of our citizens; THEREFORE, the Committee members unanimously and strongly demand the U. S. House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate both immediately enact, and the President sign, bills reflecting fiscally responsible plans structured to insure substantial and immediate cuts in Federal spending, whereby the current Debt Ceiling Limit of 14.3 Trillion Dollars will not be breeched and such maximum debt limit can be systematically reduced by a MINIMUM 300 Billion Dollars each fiscal year commencing for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2012.
The Committee is adamant in stating our elected officials are obligated to the American people to immediately address the massive financial problems of the country by initiating politically difficult remedies to solve such problems, with political posturing to perpetuate political careers being laid aside, for the good of the country. The Committee and the American people demand the 537 elected federal politicians act immediately to put an end to and permanently reverse the direction of this insane era of fiscal irresponsibility.
