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| Brief · December 12, 2011 The Foundation"Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread." --Thomas Jefferson Re: The Left"In the first month of his presidency, Barack Obama averred that if in three years he hadn't alleviated the nation's economic pain, he'd be a 'one-term proposition.' When three-quarters of Americans think the country is on the 'wrong track' and even Bill Clinton calls the economy 'lousy,' how then to run for a second term? Traveling Tuesday to Osawatomie, Kan., site of a famous 1910 Teddy Roosevelt speech, Obama laid out the case. It seems that he and his policies have nothing to do with the current state of things. ... Responsibility, you see, lies with the rich. ... For Obama, these rich are the ones holding back the 99 percent. ... A country spending twice as much per capita on education as it did in 1970 with zero effect on test scores is not underinvesting in education. It's mis-investing. ... In Kansas, Obama lamented that millions 'are now forced to take their children to food banks.' You have to admire the audacity. That's the kind of damning observation the opposition brings up when you've been in office three years. Yet Obama summoned it to make the case for his reelection! Why? Because, you see, he bears no responsibility for the current economic distress. ... This is populism so crude that it channels not Teddy Roosevelt so much as Hugo Chavez." --columnist Charles Krauthammer How do food banks help Obama's re-election effort? Government"So what do the Republicans leave out in their rebuttal to the grim Democrats? They leave out that they have an economic model that is proven. It's called supply-side economics. According to the model, one does not raise taxes on anyone, certainly not in times of economic unease. The very rich might be slobs or they might be living saints, but like everyone else, their taxes are not to be raised because they spend their money or invest their money in economic growth. They cannot help themselves. The way they spend or invest is always more efficient than the government. Money spent by the rich (and the middle class) leads to growth. Money spent by the government rarely leads to growth, and the following year the government has to come up with more money again. ... Government is not a reliable source of funds. Ask a citizen of Greece or of Italy." --columnist R. Emmett Tyrrell Insight"There is just one condition on which men can secure employment and a living, nourishing, profitable wage, for whatever they contribute to the enterprise, be it labor or capital, and that condition is that some one make a profit by it. ... It cannot be done by law, it cannot be done by public ownership, it cannot be done by socialism. When you deny the right to a profit you deny the right of a reward for thrift and industry." --President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) For the Record"If we were to eliminate just 5 million barrels of our current daily 9 million barrels of imported petroleum, the annual savings could reach nearly $200 billion per year. Eventually, the new gas and oil could add another 1.6 million new jobs and add up to nearly $1 trillion in federal revenue. ... Of course, there are sizable interests opposed to the new American gas and oil finds -- not all of them foreign governments, but instead reflected in the current Obama administration policy of halting new pipelines, placing moratoriums on offshore drilling, and putting lucrative federal lands off-limits. ... For the American poor and unemployed, how liberal is it, really, to keep energy prices high while stalling millions of high-paying private-sector jobs that would both lower government costs in entitlements and empower the working classes? In the current presidential campaign, three issues dominate: national security, fiscal solvency and high unemployment. Development of America's vast new gas and oil finds addresses all three at once." --historian Victor Davis Hanson Opinion in Brief"If a person without health insurance finds himself in need of costly medical care, let's investigate just how might that care be provided. There are not too many of us who'd suggest that we get the money from the tooth fairy or Santa Claus. That being the case, if a medically indigent person receives medical treatment, it must be provided by people. There are several possible methods to deliver the services. One way is for people to make voluntary contributions or for medical practitioners to simply treat medically indigent patients at no charge. I find both methods praiseworthy, laudable and, above all, moral. Another way to provide those services is for Congress to use its power to forcibly use one person to serve the purposes of another. ... I'd personally find such a method of providing medical services offensive and immoral, simply because I find the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another, what amounts to slavery, in violation of all that is decent. ... I share James Madison's vision, articulated when Congress appropriated $15,000 to assist some French refugees in 1794. Madison stood on the floor of the House to object, saying, 'I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents,' adding later that 'charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.' This vision of morality, I'm afraid, is repulsive to most Americans." --economist Walter E. Williams Essential Liberty"Jeffersonian liberty, the bedrock of America's founding, rests on the idea that individuals are means to their own ends, never the ends of others; that individuals should be free to engage in voluntary acts of mutual agreement with each other; and that they deserve that which they produce. Progressivism represents the antithesis of these simple concepts. It's dawning on the American polity during the turn of the nineteenth century brought about structural changes that gave rise to iniquitous lobbying that dominates politics even to this day; to the administrative state that continues to circumvent natural economic forces; and to a fundamentally new and perverted definition of liberty and America's founding philosophy. President Obama has endorsed this Progressivism, and should be held accountable for those ideas." --columnist J. K. Gregg Calling All PatriotsAs of this morning, we have raised about 65 percent of the funds for our 2011 Year-End Campaign. There are only 19 days left in this critical campaign, and we have only $127,000 to raise in order to meet budget. Our mission and operations budget is a small fraction of other influential conservative organization budgets. (View our expense graphic here.) We are able to do this in large part because our dedicated staff members are motivated by mission, not the modest wages they receive. Please, if you're able, make a secure online donation today to The Patriot Post's 2011 Year-End Campaign. If you prefer to support us by mail, please use our printable donor form. Thank you! Nate Jackson
Political Futures"For 30 years, from 1933 to 1964, the Democrats pushed programs designed to help the working class: Social Security and Medicare, FHA home mortgage loans, support for labor unions. But since the middle 1960s, when antipoverty programs took center stage, Democrats in Washington and big cities have pushed welfare programs for the poor and lenient measures against crime. The Democrats' shift produced vote gains in some segments of the electorate. Blacks, who voted 62 percent for John Kennedy, have voted about 90 percent Democratic starting in 1964. ... Obama lost among noncollege whites by a 58 percent to 40 percent margin [in 2008]. And in the 2010 House elections, non-college whites went Republican by 63 percent to 33 percent. So maybe it makes sense for Obama to write off the white working class. Yet he is doing it in an odd way, by enacting New Deal-like programs and expending great energy on raising taxes on high earners. Historically, that was the way to win working class votes. But it plainly isn't doing so now, and it seems poorly calculated to enthuse the top half of the top-and-bottom coalition. Class warfare is a dubious strategy when you've written off the working class." --political analyst Michael Barone Faith & Family"For most people, marriage is a sacrament with 'rules' firmly established by God and when followed these rules benefit married couples, their children and society. ... Divorce has become widely accepted (though not to the Author of marriage) as a sometimes 'necessary evil,' but adultery remains for most people what it has always been: a betrayal. It's not just a religious concept. Ask a person who is married but does not believe in God how he or she would feel about a cheating spouse and you most likely would get the same response you would receive from one who does believe in a higher power: anger and profound disappointment. ... Ultimately, what voters must decide is this: Does a presidential candidate's personal flaws rise (or fall) to a level that inhibits his ability to do the job of president? Put another way, if you are about to have surgery, do you care if the doctor is a cad, or do you care more whether most of his patients are alive and well? With the multiple challenges Americans face and with the choices presented to us, if the country is to be made well, voters may just have to sacrifice the ideal for the pragmatic." --columnist Cal Thomas The Gipper"This spirit of love, as simple as a spoken greeting and as profound as a changed heart, seems so full that it ceaselessly looks for ways to express its power. We respond to it best when we share it with family, friend or stranger -- when we recognize that, under the sheltering evergreen branches of God's love, all are family and no one is a stranger. When we do these things, when we visit the lonely or help those in need, when a family is reconciled, Christmas is real and present, and that is truly what makes it 'the most wonderful time of the year.'" --Ronald Reagan
Culture"Last week in Boston, a seven-year-old boy named Mark got into a fight with a bully. The bully put his hands around the boy's throat and began to squeeze. That's when Mark fought back; he kicked his aggressor right in the family jewels. In a normal society, we'd celebrate Mark. Throw him a ticker tape parade or something. ... But in Boston, Mark was charged with sexual assault. ... [The left] treat all violence as equal ... and so they recommend counseling and training, as though a little classroom instruction can solve boys' basic biological urge toward aggression. ... The left has instead come up with an alternative solution: eunichism. ... We will teach them that fighting bullies is the same as being a bully. ... Jerry Sandusky wasn't going to stop raping little boys based on taking a few seminars -- but Mike McQueary was going to avoid reporting that rape to police if he was trained into spinelessness by the surrounding culture. ... The fact is that males' aggressive instinct is good for the world, if channeled properly. Without it, Hitler goes unpunished. Without it, millions continue to starve in the Soviet Union. The key to the aggressive instinct is training it to act along proper moral lines, not eradicating it." --columnist Ben Shapiro Reader Comments"Without you guys, where would we find the truth? I've donated $52 dollars, which is stretching the budget. Yet I am becoming frustrated with those who benefit from the truth but have not invested in its continuance. Readers and Patriots; don't let the purveyors of lies and deceit overcome us and silence the truth!" --Terry "In response to Mark Alexander's essay Obama Has Found Jesus!, Obama worships himself. He is for himself, everything he does is for his self profit and everything he thinks and says it motivated to his selfish advantage." --Scarlet "I'm as critical as anyone when it comes to Obama's political and social views and his actions before and after he became president, but you are on shaky ground when you openly challenge another man's Christian beliefs. Let's stick to judging him as president and let God judge his heart." --Keith Alexander's Reply: "Judge not, lest ye be judged" is often taken out of context by even the most well-intentioned Christians, and used to argue not only should one not judge others (indeed, the authority for judgement is God's alone), but also to suggest at the same time one should not discern between truth and untruth, between right and wrong. This essay is about discernment, not judgement, and the two should not be confused. "Let's get real. The 'temporary' cut in S.S. payroll taxes and unemployment benefits extension did virtually nothing to help the jobs situation. It only hurt the Social Security Trust Fund and increased the deficit." --Jim "As for the administration's classification of the Fort Hood massacre as 'workplace violence,' the planes on 9/11 were places where the crew worked. They flew into buildings that were places where others worked. Evidently 9/11 was 'workplace violence.'" --Lin The Last WordNote: The following is satire. "[L]ook at [Barack Obama]: He's a bright, Harvard-educated man who's not only been to other countries but has actually lived in them -- he knows cultures and viewpoints beyond the narrow ones we have here. ... Look at what Obama did to try and get our economy going. He had this big, hundreds of billions of dollars stimulus that was designed by all the great economists who work in his administration -- the top minds. It should have worked. ... Obama did everything he possibly could, but apparently Americans just aren't very good at running businesses and creating jobs. ... Is that what we want for ourselves and Obama? Though Obama has slipped and insinuated it a few times, he's just too concerned about our feelings to come out and say what's now quite obvious: We're a waste of his time. Plus I know I can't take it anymore seeing the disappointment in his eyes every time he looks at us after the new jobs numbers come out. It's unfair to keep him as our president only to make him watch us fail while tarnishing him in the process. In 2012, we really should just go with some dumb 'me want cut taxes' Republican -- we deserve no better -- and let Obama go on to bigger and better things." --humorist Frank J. Fleming
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