Saturday, February 10, 2018

Debt and the Budget Deal

The national debt is over $20 Trillion and rapidly rising. This works out to be more than $60,000 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. and nearly $170,000 for every taxpayer in the country. Just the interest on the debt costs taxpayers over $250 Billion every year. The fact that the national debt continues to grow shouldn't come as a shock. The national debt has grown every single year since 1957, even in the so called “surplus” years at the end of the Clinton presidency. Since 1962, Congress has approved lifting the debt ceiling 74 times. It hasn't mattered if the Democrats or Republicans were in charge, the result has been the same.
Last week Congress did it again. Not only did they pass yet another short term spending bill, they added almost $400 Billion more to the debt and eliminated the debt ceiling. The government can now borrow an unlimited amount of money. Right now that is expected to add well over $1 Trillion dollars to the national debt just this year.
This is not sustainable. Congress hasn't passed a full budget and appropriations bill as required since 1997. Temporary spending measures are expolding the national debt. We are already at the point where future generations will be hard pressed to pay the bills we have run up. Children born today will not be able to afford the enormous tax burden we have placed on them. In 20-30 years the interest alone will eat up more than our entire current discretionary budget. There will be no money left for schools, roads, defense, healthcare, etc...
Representative Womack, along with all but one of his Republican colleagues from Arkansas, voted last week for this huge increase in debt. In fact, Mr. Womack has voted for every short term spending bill, spending increase, debt increase and effort to raise the debt limit since he was elected to the House seven years ago. In those 7 years, Womack has increased the debt by $5 Trillion. That's almost a trillion dollars a year. His reward for his fiscal irresponsibility was to be named chairman of the budget committee.
Our government is broken. We need to drain the swamp. We need some hope and change we can believe in. To do so we need to do something different. #VoteDifferent Don't waste your vote on another Republican or Democrat. You have a much better option. It's long past time to vote Libertarian.
Vote Michael Kalagias for Congress.

Sunday, February 4, 2018

DACA and Dreamers

Immigration has been getting quite a lot of attention lately. In particular the DACA program protecting "dreamers" (children brought to this country illegally by their parents) from deportation.  This was a program begun by Obama and allowed to expire by Trump. It is/was not a good program. It is the result of bad immigration policy and law that has needed attention for decades. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have any desire to fix it though. Arguing over the status quo helps energize the base of both parties and gets out the votes. To the detriment of everyone.
America is a country of immigrants. Founded by immigrants. Built by immigrants. Defended by immigrants. Made great by immigrants. The Great Melting Pot is as integral to our history and culture as the Declaration of Independence is.  The Statue of Liberty is a symbol to the world of the freedom offered by the US and a beacon to " your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." The very same folks Congressman Womack called "depraved" from countries Trump apparently considers "shitholes." To deny this, to disparage immigrants, is to disrespect and deny the values and essence of the United States of America. In fact, the Constitution and our founding fathers deliberately gave no authority to the government to regulate immigration at all. 
Critics of immigration point out that there are hazards that can't be ignored, and there is some merit. The Constitution DOES give the authority to the government to defend it's borders. We SHOULD be ensuring that prospective immigrants that wish to do us harm do not make it here. A wall will not do this. Deporting children of illegal immigrants will not do this. A broken immigration system will not do this.
Much is made of the cost of providing services and welfare to illegal immigrants. Much of what we call welfare is not available to illegal immigrants, but there are services provided that taxpayers pay for. The problem doesn't lie with the immigration though. "Fix" illegal immigration and we still have huge problems with the welfare state that need to be solved. Fix the problems of the welfare state and there is no longer an issue with illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is a symptom of what's wrong. We need to fix the problem, not the symptom.

The Memo Released

"The Memo" was released to much fanfare and consternation depending on the preferred flavor of cool-aid one is drunk on. It was written by Republicans to appeal to the Republican base. As the party in power it gave the GOP a chance to control the narrative on a partisan political talking point. Nothing in it is actionable. To attempt to criminally charge anyone, all info would have to be released; not just what the Republicans cherry picked for maximum political affect. This would take away their control of the narrative and negate the political weapon they created. Democrats are upset because they have no control over the narrative and think that's not fair. The facts are yes, the Obama administration government spied on Trump's campaign. Yes this is bad. Yes, the Republicans and Trump both recently decided to continue using the exact same FISA program that they are complaining about now. Knowing full well that it had been used against them. Knowing full well that now they have the power to abuse the same program that has been unconstitutional since its inception. That's the narrative that needs to be heard. The problem isn't just the Democrats. Both Democrats AND Republicans have and continue to support and abuse this unconstitutional program of domestic spying on Americans. It needs to end. To do so we need to #votedifferent. Vote Libertarian.
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