Informed voter


By Jim Killebrew

[November 03, 2014]  We have an election coming up on Tuesday that will decide the immediate, and perhaps long-term future of our nation. That future will be either more of the same or traveling in a different direction from where we are now. There is no use in rehearsing all the scandals and foibles of the Administration; by this time in the Mid-Term election process most voters have likely already heard about that long list of government overreach and misconduct. As each voter goes to cast their vote on Tuesday, it would be wise to give it some detailed thought and consideration about what the possible outcomes of the future might be if we remain with the status quo or change toward the relatively unknown.

Consider the jobs situation over the past six years. Unemployment has been staggeringly high with many people having lost their jobs or having been forced into part-time work. With the elements and requirements of the Obamacare insurance mandating employers to provide insurance for their workers except for the part-time workers. The Obamacare law stipulates that mandate is required for all full-time employees who work more than 30 hours per week. Consequently, thousands of employees were reduced to less than 30 hours so the employer could avoid providing the insurance. As if that were not a real issue, the Administration is now planning to circumvent Congress regarding putting millions of illegal immigrants on a pathway to citizenship while those who are wanting to come to the country legally are being required to wait; sometimes for years.

It is interesting to note that the Presidents Hoover, Truman and Eisenhower were from both Democrat and Republican parties. They were thinking of the need to create jobs for citizens returning from war by deporting those who were not citizens and had entered the country illegally. Now the politicians only think of how to build a "block" of voters to keep them in power. When the left discovered they could build allegiance among groups of people by giving subsistence allowances they could always be counted on to vote for them. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you" comes to mind. The consequence of that practice was to create generational underclass and keep people enslaved in positions of poverty.

Government has grown so large under the liberal agenda we have duplicity of services and multiplication of laws that have been chipping away at freedoms for citizens just for the sake of growing the government. Jobs in the past six years have grown much more rapidly in government than in the private sector simply because the government is growing. A prime example of the liberal mentality for job growth was voiced by the presumptive democrat presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton was campaigning for Martha Coakley a week ago last Friday in Massachusetts where Coakley is running for the Governor's Office. Hillary demonstrated her lack of knowledge regarding the economy during a stump speech she made. In that speech she said, “Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs.” She continued, “You know that old theory, trickle-down economics. That has been tried, that has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly. One of the things my husband says when people say, ‘What did you bring to Washington?’ He says, ‘I brought arithmetic.’ ”

So what is it Hillary that creates jobs? Right! From your perspective it is the GOVERNMENT! If we could just grow the government to such a large entity, we could produce more jobs than ever has been created by corporations and businesses. Notwithstanding Solyndra, the bailout of the auto industry and other government investments in the billions of dollars that have been losers for the taxpayer. Remember, however, the government does not produce any product or services; it simply takes taxes from everybody and redistributes to whomever it wishes. That is not job building.

Finally, for the voter to really consider the growth of government they should consider the practice of springing forward one hour in the Spring and turning back the clocks one hour in the fall, what we experienced just this past week-end. For sure, the current Administration did not bring about daylight savings time, but the example of the work of government, no matter what time period, is presented in the following bit of humor regarding daylight savings.

I saw a picture of a Native American a friend of mine on face book sent to me that had the inscription on it that read, "When told the reason for daylight savings time the Old Indian said, "Only the government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket."
I replied, "To the reason why we have daylight savings time...It was likely a committee decision. Only then after several committees discussed it, analyzed it, paid 14 million dollars to 102 different research teams to research it. Then sent it to Congress to have 14 different Senate and House investigations look into it; but discovered most of the information requested from the Executive Branch came back redacted so most of the information delivered was unreadable. It was only then the President had to circumvent Congress to issue an Executive Order, which was later struck down by the Supreme Court. Finally, after much more debate with the talking heads from the media chiming in on the discussion, it was implemented.
Seventeen more university studies later, we have discovered what the Old Indian said was true...we still have the same number of hours in a day."

Finally, what can be attributed to the current administration is a constant misjudgment or miscalculation of interactions in foreign affairs. Jeffrey Goldberg writing in The Atlantic cited a "senior Obama Administration official" as saying about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "The thing about Bibi is, he's a chickensh-t." What a thing for a "senior" official in the President's administration to say.

First, if that senior official is so stupid to say such a thing after looking around and seeing the President's political toxicity resulting from the enormously significant fall in approval ratings because of a long lineup of scandals and miscalculations, it adds to the President's position of having to ferret out the scoundrel and fire him or her. Second, it is unfortunate for Obama since that is going to be difficult for him to do since he likely agrees with the statement. Besides, it puts us in a position of making a comparison between the leadership of Netanyahu and Obama: You know, Netanyahu the decorated, commando in the Israeli army, and Obama the community organizer.

So, if we are wanting more of the same we can look at the past six years of this Administration and the democrat Senators who have supported it lock-step during the entire time, and vote for each of them again. We will likely see more taxes, more scandals, more use of the Presidential "pen and phone," and more destruction of the economy. If we want to see change that will have a better chance of bringing back solvency to the economy, the strengthening of the military, closing up the US Southern Borders to illegal immigrants, the possibility of term limits on politicians, a revision to the Obamacare debacles, and prevention of millions of illegal immigrants becoming citizens via fast track, we should consider voting for the conservative candidates.

[By JIM KILLEBREW]