Upcoming Primary: Ohio CD 8 US Congress May 6

On Tuesday, May 6, 2014, Ohioans will be voting in several primary elections. We will focus on the US Congress primary for CD 8. House Speaker John Boehner, who represents this district, is running for reelection this year.

There is a lot to be said about Speaker Boehner, so I will leave it to you to do so. This is his website: http://www.speaker.gov/.

Here is a list of Republicans who are running to unseat Speaker Boehner, along with their respective websites:

Eric Gurr http://gurrforcongress.com/

J.D. Winteregg http://www.jdwinteregg.com/

Here is a list of Democrats who are running for this seat:

Matthew Guyette https://www.facebook.com/GuyetteforCongress

Tom Poetter http://www.poetterforcongress.com/

The Constitution Party candidate running for this seat is:

Jim Condit, Jr. http://www.jimconditjr2010.com/

For fun, please see this ad against Speaker Boehner.

Ohioans, please remember to vote in this primary on Tuesday, May 6, 2014!

Open Forum: Minimum Wage

Today Senate Republicans blocked a Democrat-sponsored bill that would increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.

Do you think the minimum wage should be increased? Do you think we should even have a minimum wage? Do you think welfare payments should be equal to the minimum wage? Why do you think Democrats are pushing for an increase in the minimum wage? How do you think an increase in the minimum wage would affect the economy? Please comment with any thoughts you may have on this topic.

Upcoming Primary: North Carolina US Senate Tuesday, May 6

On Tuesday, May 6, 2014, North Carolinians will be voting in several primary elections, including those for Congress. We will focus on the US Senate primary.  Senator Kay Hagan is running for reelection this year.

Senator Hagan continues to support Obamacare, despite a recent High Point University poll stating that 54% of North Carolinians disapprove of the law. Senator Hagan blames insurance companies for cancelling health insurance plans as those plans are, according to her, “substandard.” In addition, Senator Hagan has repeated the “if you like your plan, you can keep it” lie.

Here is a list of the Republicans in this crowded primary running for Senator Hagan’s seat along with their respective websites:

Ted Alexander http://tedforsenate.com/

Alex Lee Bradshaw http://www.bradshaw4nc.com/

Greg Brannon http://gregbrannon.com/

Heather Grant http://www.heathergrantnc.com/

Mark Harris http://www.markharrisforsenate.com/

Edward Kryn http://edwardkrynforussenate.com/

James E. Snyder http://www.jamesesnyderjr.com/

Thom Tillis http://thomtillis.com/

Currently, Thom Tillis is poised to win this primary. In a matchup between Tillis and Senator Hagan, they are virtually tied.

In addition to this primary, Rep. Renee Ellmers is running for reelection in CD 2 against Clay Aiken, American Idol runner up. Apparently competing on two reality shows (Idol and Celebrity Apprentice) qualifies a person to serve as a Congressman. What’s next? Kongresswoman Kardashian?

North Carolinians, please remember to vote in this primary on Tuesday, May 6, 2014!

Thursday Debate

If you had the power to eliminate one federal agency from the list below, which agency would you eliminate? Why would you eliminate this agency? Would you replace the eliminated agency with something else?

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Department of Education (DOE)
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Food For Thought

The Democrats love to blame President George W. Bush for all of our country’s woes and will continue to do so until the end of time. President Bush was not a perfect President – no President is – but many people forget that, at the end of the day, there was no question that President Bush loved America and was a true patriot. I’m not sure we can say the same for the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

I came across this comic entitled Stuff Bush Didn’t Do, Illustrated.

Do you think this is accurate? What else would you add to this? I would add a few more examples:

President Bush did not threaten Congress by stating that he had a “pen and a phone.”

President Bush did not have an Attorney General who referred to those who shared his skin color as “my people.”

President Bush did not sit in a church pew for years, listening to the violent discourse of a person who hated America.

President Bush did not treat our military like second class citizens.

Democrats and the Disincentive to Work

President Obama’s Democratic Party has become unrecognizable. The party to which I belonged has jumped overboard, and has now become a party that celebrates a disincentive to work for a living. Now, I am a fan of the movie Office Space and I understand that people are not always crazy about their jobs. However, the Democrats have become absurd beyond belief.

On February 5, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Elmendorf testfied before the House Budget Committee stating that ObamaCare provides a “disincentive for people to work.” Elmendorf’s statement follows a report released by the CBO that provides details on how millions of workers would cut their hours and opt out of the job market in order to retain the benefits provided by the healthcare law. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s response? “Overwhelmingly, for the American people, this is a liberation,” she said during an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley. During a press conference after the CBO report was released, Pelosi elaborated. “What we see is that people are leaving their jobs because they are no longer job-locked. They are following their aspirations to be a writer; to be self-employed; to start a business. This is the entrepreneurial piece. So it’s not going to cost jobs. It’s going to shift how people make a living and reach their aspirations.”

What kind of nonsense is this? Remember that the subsidies that enable some Americans to decide whether they want to work translates into higher taxes from those who must or want to work. No wonder why the 10 poorest cities in America have been run by Democrats. This chart illustrates the percentage of residents of each of these cities who are at or below the poverty line.

Unless you happen to be fabulously wealthy like Rep. Pelosi, if you decide to free yourself from the constraints of work, chances are you will then have to be dependent on government assistance. If you happen to live in a state where welfare pays more than minimum wage, you’re in fat city.

What kind of message is that sending to our youth?

Keeping people dependent on government is not compassionate, its insulting.

Do you think Democrats really care about you? Do you think increasing welfare, making it easier to qualify for food stamps, making Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) permanent means that Democrats care about you? The answer is no. Democrats only care about increasing the number of people who will vote for them. This is a hard truth to swallow. I know this because I used to eat up this rhetoric. In contrast, Republicans are the party of work. Republicans are the party of business, of getting ahead and of achieving. Republicans believe that government expansion threatens individual initiative. Telling people that they are only good enough to live off the government and not to work for a living is disgraceful. There is dignity in every single job. We must re-instill in people the initiative to work and personal responsibility.

Obamacare’s legacy is that it supposedly helps people get health insurance without having to work. Let the suckers who work for a living pay for your health insurance, your welfare and your food stamps. This is sad and this is dangerous for our country’s future. Disincentivizing work is pathetic and desperate. When you go to the polls in November, I urge you to think about what kind of a future the Democrats want to create for your children. 

Monday Debate: Amnesty

The Democrats are clamoring for Congress to pass S. 744: Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, or as I like to call it, the Amnesty Bill. Sponsored by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the bill was written by Schumer and the Gang of Eight Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Jeff Flake (R-AZ).

The bill would essentially legalize all 11 million illegal aliens currently residing in the United States and make it easier for illegal aliens who have been deported but have family members residing in the United States to gain reentry. In addition, the bill would not first secure the border.

How do you think we should fix our “broken” immigration system?
Do you think our immigration system needs to be fixed?
Is there anything positive about this bill?
How would you propose we better secure our southern border?

Democrats seem to like comprehensive bills: this bill, the Affordable Care Act and the Justice for All bill. Democrats argue that our “broken” immigration system needs to be reformed. Democrats also thought that our health care system needed an overhaul and look at how that turned out.

Defender of Women: Harry Reid

Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-NV) is so passionate about protecting women that he even wrote an editorial entitled Republicans Renew War on Women in The Huffington Post.

So passionate about women is Senator Reid that he has neither a female chief of staff nor a female communications director. In contrast, Sharon Soderstorm is Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) Chief of Staff and Beth Jafari is Minority Whip John Cornyn’s (R-TX) Chief of Staff. In addition, Senate leaders Cornyn, Conference Chairman John Thune (R-SD), Policy Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY) and Conference Vice Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO) all have female communications directors. But I digress.

Remember that actions often speak louder than words. Illustrating this idiom is Senator Reid’s inaction regarding the Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2014. Named after sexual assault survivor Debbie Smith, the Act provides funding to state and local law enforcement agencies to perform DNA tests on evidence they collect from rape crime scenes. Renewal of this act helps law enforcement continue to reduce the backlog of untested DNA from rape kits and therefore prosecute offenders.

This Act is a bi-partisan bill, originally authored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), and passed by Congress as part of larger legislation, the Justice for All Act of 2004, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 30, 2004. The Act also amends the Violence Against Women Act of 2000 to broaden the type of survivors eligible for legal assistance to include survivors of dating violence. Senator Reid refused to allow a vote on the Debbie Smith Act and instead will only allow a vote on broader legislation that includes this Act, the Justice for All Reauthorization Act.

All Senators are in favor of passing the Debbie Smith Act. Senator Cornyn wanted a vote on the Debbie Smith Act itself, without yet including the Justice for All Act, because Cornyn’s colleague objects to an aspect of the Justice for All Act, unrelated to the rape kit provision. If Senator Reid had allowed a vote on the Debbie Smith Act, it would have gone directly to the White House, where President Obama would have signed the Act into law.

Senator Reid is, as usual, playing partisan games. Senator Reid will accuse Republicans of being obstructionists because Republicans first want to pass a provision of the Justice for All Act rather than the entire legislation. Pot, meet kettle. See?

In case you missed it, I challenged my Republican friends today regarding their constant obstruction and delay: http://t.co/9PqJF89hgP

— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) April 10, 2014

Instead of helping millions of rape survivors, Senator Reid would rather deny Republicans the ability to say that they are helping women because Senator Reid wants to keep alive the rhetoric that Republicans have declared a War on Women. That is despicable. Sexual assault survivors are not pawns in Senator Reid’s transparent chess game. I hope that voters will think about this as they head to the polls this November. Women, along with all Americans, can not afford to have a Senate Majority Leader who would deny rape victims justice because of partisan nonsense.

Saturday Debate

Do you think that if Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic nomination in 2008 and subsequently the Presidency that the country would be better off today than it is under President Obama’s second term? Do you think it would be worse? Or do you think it would be about the same?

Food For Thought

This is a map of how each county in all 50 states voted in the 2012 Presidential election. Think about it. How can Republicans embrace urban centers, and how can urban centers embrace Republicans?