Opus 2026-252: Headlines: Texas Hope

I saw a brief note this morning that Trump had finally made an endorsement in the Texas runoff race for the US Senate between Ken Paxton and John Cornyn.  It is about time.  Early voting started Monday.  He went with Paxton which was the MAGA choice.  

I have lived in Texas about nine years now.  Cornyn has been in the Senate that entire time and I have watched him Rino his way through every issue.  I don’t know that I would say he never did something right but I noticed a pattern of uniparty loyalty.  

Paxton is just the opposite.  I am sure he has made some decisions I would disagree with but I can’t remember what they were.  On the other hand he has been consistently on the side of liberty and rejection of federal heavy handedness.

I think that in the general election Paxton will have no trouble with the basket case the Democrats has nominated.  It will be a Republican replacing a Republican so the states on all the charts will not change but, oh what a difference it will make in how things move forward.  It will be like a reduction for the Democrats of one vote.  The senate might start putting America first again.  Is it too much to hope for?  

Keep the faith, pray without ceasing and make your voice be heard.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-004: Never Happy

I’ve been seeing a lot of people complaining recently because Congress isn’t doing anything.  There’s a lot of moaning and groaning about how they went home for Christmas without getting any bills passed.  What happened to the old idea that when the legislator was not in session we were safe from losing more of our liberties?

Could it be that one of the reasons nothing has been passed is because everything that is being presented is just another method of skimming off billions of dollars from the revenue of the government and putting it in the pockets of the corrupt and parasitical?  Could it be that buried in all of these bills that people are complaining aren’t getting passed are all kinds of little giveaways to the crony capitalists and their buddies in government?

Keep in mind that usually no bill is better than a bad bill.  Once something is passed it becomes immortal.  I think the income tax was going to be temporary.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-236: The Golden Zucchini

Remember the statement about a billion dollars here, a billion dollars there and pretty soon you start to talk about real money.  Think about that in regard to all the “stimulus” and “infrastructure” money being proposed and printed by congress.

Maybe we need to go back to understanding that a million dollar budget is real money to most Americans.  People passing budgets seem to have forgotten what it takes to earn a dollar.  I am not just talking about congress here.  We have city councils and school boards who seem to think that there is a magic plant somewhere that grows golden zucchinis.  Forget the goose.  No goose could lay enough golden eggs to make a difference.  Even if that were true it would not solve the problem because if gold were that common but there was no increase in productivity to justify the extra money, inflation would be just as rampant.  Congress has as little understanding of what it costs to pay our bills as we do of how much money a trillion dollars represents.

Congress needs to learn to think in terms of how long it takes to pay off their spending even if you have a job paying $100,000 a year.  

If they won’t think in those terms then we need to find ways to vote differently.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-081: Election 2022: Whose Side Are You On

What is the mandate of elected officials?  Are they elected to give their constituents what they want or to do what is right for the country?

Not an easy question to answer.  We tend to answer it based on what we think is best for the country.  We assume what we think is best is best.  I must admit it usually is, at least as long as you agree with me.

The problem I see is that too many of our elected officials don’t follow either path.  It is hard to discover how the last “stimulus bill” was good for the country.  American families were given $600 while trillions were given to foreign countries for questionable projects.  Most of the “foreign aid” went into the pockets of the foreign politicians with sizable kickbacks for the Americans in congress.  It is hard to believe this is what the local folks want either.  Sure they like getting $600 but if they stop to think about who is going to pay for gender studies in a Muslim country they won’t be too excited.  I guess the key word there is “think”.

We need to keep looking for people who can’t be bought.  I have seen people running for school board who flip as soon as elected.  I have seen pastors who come in on fire but the church they go to soon has them toeing the line of compromise.  I am not sure that term limits enshrined in the law is the answer but I would like to see more people willing to get rid of their representatives.  If they are getting wealthy on their government salary they need more than an audit.  If they are pushing their own agenda, they need a wake up call.

When in doubt, vote them out.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-068: Bounced Checks and Loaded Balances, part 2 of 3

We had a system of checks and balances.  

How is all that working out today?  The three branches of government seem to be in lock step.  We have had this before.  FDR had a lock on everything but the Supreme Court and when they resisted he threatened to appoint more justices.  Sound familiar?  His one party government managed to take a recession and turn it into an ongoing depression.  It was so bad it is referred to as “The Great Depression”.  One strong theory is that they could have kept the economy in the tank for years and would have done so if not forced to gear up for World War II.  It gave them a way to advance the socialist agenda with little interference.  Unfortunately for them they could not ignore the treat to their power offered by the national socialists of another country.  Like today, the administration of FDR was infiltrated with what we would call Progressives*.  

Then you had the two years that Obama had unchecked power.  He managed to get through Obamacare.  When the Supreme Court had a chance to adjust the mandate, John Roberts found out that congress did not mean what it said in regard to it being a tax.  Obama worked hard with his identity politics to divide us as a people.  Remember those moving words, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon”?  When Obama was talked into meeting with heads of the so-called opposition party, he smugly said, and I paraphrase from memory, “Elections have consequences.  We won.”  So much for working together.  Now we are back to that kind of dictatorial leadership.  Biden talks unity and acts division.

*(Liberals, educators, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, MSM, etc.  Another word for swamp dwellers)

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-262: Election 2024: Platform, Regulate the Regulations

One of the accomplishments of President Trump is in the area of regulations.  He has been reducing them at a brisk pace.  We need to speed the process.  We need to make it unnecessary.  We can approach it a few ways.

Sundown all regulations.  This would be simple to legislate either with a final paragraph required for each bill or a general bill passed separately.

Get congress to do its job.  End all regulations not specifically approved by legislation.  This would require our elected officials to actually read the bills.  It would hold them accountable.  

Limit amendments to the above bills to items that actually have something to do with the bills.

This should become a part of the Republican platform for 2024.  I think people would respond.

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-129: Franklin Delano Pelosi

As the lockdown continues and I am forced to do some serious reading I came to a book that has been on my shelf for 40 years.  I started it once but did not get far.  It is called The Roosevelt Myth and deals with the way in which FDR has been mythologized by history.  A similar thesis was put forth by Amity Shlaes in The Forgotten Man.  They have different approaches and lift out different examples but tell much the same tale. 

I keep coming across things that happened as Roosevelt came to power and I see that some things have not changed.  You may remember Nancy Pelosi telling congress they needed to pass the bill to find out what is in the bill.  We laughed and felt uncomfortable.  She could have quoted FDR as her precedent.  When elected Roosevelt had to face the bank crisis and immediately closed the banks.  Then they had to figure out how to open the banks with no money.  The answer they came up with is one we are very familiar with today:  Have the Federal Reserve print money.  We don’t think this is weird today.  Immoral and bad policy maybe, but not weird.  It was never heard of in those days.  So the team through something together and sent it to congress.

“The new Congress met at noon Thursday.  Roosevelt’s message was read and the bill introduced.  This was the bill that was represented by a newspaper, as there had yet been no time to make copies.  No one but the Congressional leaders had seen it and it was passed in an hour.  A few hours later the Senate passed it.”  page 30

Notice the phrase “represented by a newspaper”.  They did not even have a copy to bring to be voted on so they rolled up a newspaper and pretended it was the bill.  Too bad they didn’t have the phrase “Fake News” in those days.

Within a few hours both houses of the legislature passed a bill authorizing the printing of 20 billion dollars and they never even saw the bill.  Keep in mind these are depression era dollars we are talking about.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was truly one of the most influential presidents in our history.  The more I learn about him the more convinced I am that the influence was bad.

Flynn, John T.  The Roosevelt Myth.  Garden City, New York:  Garden City Books, 1948.

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-096: Election 2024: Platform, Twitter Legislation

Thinking Americans, both of us, were aghast at the words of Nancy Pelosi when she said we need to pass a bill so we could find out what was in it.  Come again.  What this reveals is that members of congress rarely read the laws they are passing.  On one side that is understandable.  I understand that one current bill was 1,400 pages long and they got it just as they were expected to vote.  On a more rational side, why in the world would they consent to vote on something they had not read.  It defies logic, but that is way our government is now working.

I would propose for a plank in the Republican party platform that we follow the example of Twitter.  Understand that I am not on Twitter.  All I know is what people tell me and I observe.  My understanding is that a Twitter post is limited to a certain number of characters.  In that regard I have seen a lot of posts quoting someone from twitter and it is a string of short statements you are supposed to follow.

I think there is wisdom in this for congress.  All legislation should be limited to a certain length and required to be voted on as a stand alone bill.  I don’t know how long that would be but it would be far short of 1,400 pages.  This might cripple the process because people would not be able to get deals and add endless pork through amendments but in my mind that kind of crippling would be very healthy for the country.

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-067: Almost Thanked a Democrat

I was so close to saying something good about the Democrats in congress.  Their obscene stuffing of all their left wing agenda into the stimulus was keeping it from being passed.  Yay, team.  Then they had to realize how evil they looked and pulled out enough to get the RINOs on board.

The stimulus is not a good idea.  If we end up having a failing economy it can be traced back to this pork barrel deluxe.  I have seen lists of all the stuff the Democrats tried to get away with but no one has confessed to all the self serving additions made by the Republican.  You know they added whatever they could get away with.

Americans don’t need handouts.  They need liberty and the freedom to go to their jobs.  As I write we have 910 deaths in a nation of 350,000,000.  Each one is a tragedy.  So are the ones that died from illegal aliens and criminals let loose by demented political leaders.  So are the babies that are executed by abortion.  The list can go on.  We need to let people be responsible for their own lives.

I hope God has mercy on us because the politicians won’t.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-205: Romneyaches

I find myself becoming more embarrassed by the day.  I am glad no one was paying any attention a few years ago when I had good things to say about Mitt Romney.  I once thought he would make a solid president.  I thought of him as a good man. 

Now he is almost enough to make me a Buddhist and believe in reincarnation.  I am almost ready to believe that he is John McCain come back to haunt us.  I am not sure if karma moved him up or down.  Actually the timing is bad.  Maybe we are looking at Woodrow Wilson II.  Maybe Benedict Arnold.  He was a hero first and a traitor later. 

I can only hope that his Trump hatred is a bit isolated.  We have judges to approve and a country to run.  I think of how McCain kept us from getting rid of Obamacare.  Does Romney have a similar bit of treachery in his future?  Does he think he has a shot at 2020?

I would hope the people who elected him are paying attention and looking into a recall vote of some kind.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-088: Headlines: Congressional Investigations

Why is congress investigating Donald Trump Jr. and not Hunter Biden?

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-030: Election 2020: Get Your Lists Started

Paul Mirengoff of Power Line gives a quick run down of how the Senate voted on the recent funding bill.  I find it very helpful to find out who is willing to stand on principle.  Only 11 Republicans voted against it.  I was glad to see that Ted Cruz was on the short list but disappointed that John Cornyn voted “yes”.  Those are my two senators.  You might check and see if either of yours made the cut.

I don’t begin to claim to be an expert on legislation but the list of obviously unacceptable provisions included in the bill keeps growing.  I don’t really expect every legislator to read every line of every bill but they have staff that can do it and give them a summary.  Were they all on vacation? 

2020 is coming.  We need to begin watching how people vote now.  We need to begin a list of what we agree on and what we don’t.  I have yet to see Cruz oppose what I think is right.  He may have done so but I haven’t noticed.  I am seeing that Cornyn is not always present in the fight to save America.  I need to remember that in the primaries that are to come.  In the general election Cornyn will almost certainly be better than what the Democrats have to offer but there might be some options in the primary. 

Start watching now so that you will be ready in primary season.  Your state will have different options and you will have different issues.  If you live in Nancy Pelosi’s district then you have my sympathy.

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-270: Act II

Intermission is over.  It is time to get to the next act in the blockbuster play, If You Can Keep It.  I refer of course to the antidote in which Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government we would have.  He is reported to have answered, “A republic, if you can keep it.”  It is becoming questionable whether we can keep it.  I am not sure that too many want to try.

The intermission was a two year period where the Republicans controlled congress and the presidency.  During that time you had a Supreme Court with Justice Kennedy providing the mystery and the others voting as expected.  It was a time to get things done.  Donald Trump did his part.  He has done everything he could as an executive.  He has kept his promises.  He has been repeatedly stabbed in the back by the Republican establishment.  Just think what could have been done on health care, immigration, regulation, voter fraud, the right to bear arms, etc if the RINOs had not been such RINOs.  We dreamed and that is about all we got out of them.

Will the new make up in the Senate perform as hoped?  We will see.  There is some hope but keep in mind that Mitt Romney is not exactly Trump’s BFF.  I take some hope in the belief that Romney is basically a decent guy.  If Ted and Donald can kiss and make up for the good of the country, maybe Mitt will join in.  We also hold our breaths to see if Lindsey Graham 2.0 stays the same or has another metamorphosis. 

The curtain is about to rise.  Watch carefully.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-371: Headlines: Head Fake in the Right Direction

The headline that greeted me on the Washington Times site talked about something we have needed for a long time.  I know it is spun as an attack by mean Republicans on decent, hard working DACAs but in reality it a gesture toward the government doing what it needs to do:  Cut spending.

Tax cuts are well and good but they are just candy being given out to childish people by evil clowns.  They are bribes for votes.  All we are missing is the white vans.  If the clowns ever want to become super-heroes then they will pull spending cuts out from under their capes.  Of course that is like offering fat children broccoli instead of chocolate. 

I would be willing to let the taxes stay as they are if the government would simply limit next year’s spending total to the same dollar amount it was this fiscal year.  In order to make it work there would be no adjustments for inflation or cost of living.  There would be no escape clause for emergencies.  It would be just like my allowance as a kid.  Here is your money.  Spend it as you please.  Don’t bother asking for more.

We need to grow up and be the parents to the children in congress. 

Slap their hands and vote the suckers out.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-260: Headlines: Reformers Who Aren’t

The president is doing what he can to cut government bloat.  The first day in office he instituted a hiring freeze.  Now we are told that it is not popular with reformers.  At least that is what the Washington Times headline implies.  The actual content of the article points out the usual techniques and roadblocks.

The person quoted as telling us this is a bad idea is someone named Donald F. Kettl.  All it tells us about him is that he is a professor at the University of Maryland.  What it doesn’t tell you is that he is associated with the Brookings Institute (read liberal) and went to Yale.  I am sure he is a fine fellow but I doubt if he approves of anything that would reduce the size of the federal government especially one that targets the EPA.

Then we get to the real problem.

“Chris Edwards, director of tax policy at the libertarian Cato Institute and author of “Downsizing the Federal Government,” said Mr. Trump will need cooperation from Congress to significantly shrink the federal workforce.”

Trump has done his part.  He has expected congress to do theirs.  That will probably not happen until the next round of elections in 2018.

Vote the suckers out.

homo unius libri