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« on: May 01, 2015, 06:02:49 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 5-1-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest
May 1, 2015
THE FOUNDATION
“Your love of liberty — your respect for the laws — your habits of industry — and your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness.” —George Washington, letter to the Residents of Boston, 1789
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Freddie Gray Investigation Handed Over to Prosecutors1
Baltimore city officials are mum after the police department handed its investigation into the death of Freddie Gray over to state prosecutors Thursday, a day before they said the investigation would be completed. The public still doesn’t know the details surrounding the 25-year-old’s death. Maryland State Attorney Marilyn Mosby2 said, “While we have and will continue to leverage the information received by the department, we are not relying solely on their findings but rather the facts that we have gathered and verified. We ask for the public to remain patient and peaceful and to trust the process of the justice system.” Prosecutors will decide whether or not to bring charges against the six police officers who are currently suspended from the Baltimore police force.
Meanwhile, the likes of Al Sharpton are in Baltimore, and they will not be satisfied if the prosecutors' decision doesn’t go their way. Daniel Henninger3 writes in The Wall Street Journal, “When Al Sharpton popularized the chant, ‘No justice, no peace,’ it was unmistakably clear that ‘no peace’ was an implicit threat of civil unrest. Not civil disobedience, as practiced by Martin Luther King Jr. Civil unrest.” Now is the time for conservatives to focus on ways to rebuild Baltimore4 to counter Sharpton’s race baiting and give residents better paths to prosperity. More…5
In Campaign, Hillary Clinton Distances Herself From Bill6
On April 29, Hillary Clinton stood before an audience at Columbia University and criticized America’s criminal justice system, the system her husband helped create in 1994 with the passage of his Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. “We have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance,” Ms. Clinton said. “And these recent tragedies [in Baltimore and Ferguson] should galvanize us to come together as a nation to find our balance again.” This is not the only instance where Hillary has positioned herself directly opposing the legislation and policies that her husband’s administration instituted some 20 years before. Bill signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law; Hillary now says same-sex marriage is a constitutional right. Bill’s administration repealed the Glass-Steagall Act; Hillary wants it restored. The Washington Free Beacon7 reports that this distancing extends all the way to edits of Hillary’s official campaign bio. In 2008, her biography said “she followed her heart and a man named Bill Clinton to Arkansas” instead of pursuing a career at a big law firm. Eight years later, Clinton’s bio now says she skipped the big-law career path because she wanted to fight for children and families at the Children’s Defense Fund. With all the revisions, it seems Hillary only kept the name “Clinton” for the name recognition. More…8
Updated Satellite Data Puts a Chill on Global Warming9
More bad news for climate scaremongers. Remote Sensing Systems recordings, which more accurately reflect global temperatures, have perplexed many scientists ever since they revealed a global warming hiatus that’s now lasted for more than 18 years10. In response, alarmists have trashed RSS findings in favor of NOAA’s complicated and flawed method11. Three University of Alabama climatologists, Roy Spencer, John Christy and William Braswell, just concluded additional research on UAH Version 6, an alternative system used to study global temperatures. Not only did the new research cast further doubt on the claims of climate alarmists, but the adjustments revealed similar results to that of RSS. You can read more12 about why revisions are necessary and, notably, how these revisions are different than NOAA’s alleged tampering with historical data. To summarize, UAH’s newest finding is another inconvenient truth for envirofascists — which is exactly why they’ll ignore it.
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Sen. Corker’s Stand for a Better GOP Budget13
By Lewis Morris
Republicans' first attempt to present a fiscally responsible budget after assuming control of Capitol Hill ran into some snags this week. A budget resolution hashed out between House and Senate negotiators was expected to see an easy passage before Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) stalled the process by refusing to sign on to the final proposal.
Corker, recently listed as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People14, where he was described as the “pragmatist of Congress,” is known for having a strong grasp of economics after spending many successful years in the private sector. He withdrew his support of the budget because he saw the proposal as riddled with budget gimmicks.
The resolution that Republicans crafted relies on a budget tool that gives lawmakers flexibility in dealing with spending curbs. This budgetary shell game is cleverly known as CHIMPS ⎯ Changes in Mandatory Programs — and it allows for boosting spending in some areas by offsetting spending in mandatory programs. The trouble with CHIMPS is that those spending cuts in mandatory programs are rarely, if ever, honored, basically amounting to an overall increase in spending.
“CHIMPS is a budget gimmick that is $190 billion in extra spending over a 10 year period,” Corker told reporters Tuesday. “And it’s something our caucus all has been for eliminating.”
Republicans gained control of both chambers of Congress in part because of their promise of fiscal responsibility after a decade of budgetary chaos thanks to spendthrift Democrats. Under the leadership of heavyweight curmudgeon Harry Reid, the Senate flat out refused to craft budgets, as required by law, opting instead to hide the true nature of impending fiscal doom through a series of continuing resolutions.
The GOP wants to bring an end to this craziness by passing budgets that come into balance in ten years. But thanks to CHIMPS, military spending will increase in the coming fiscal year without any significant cuts to entitlements.
Corker’s refusal to sign on to the budget proposal made sense for fiscal hawks. The GOP’s inability to curb spending its first time out as the majority party on Capitol Hill does not bode well for the future of its grand plan to bring fiscal sanity to Washington. So-called moderate Republicans who are just as drunk on spending as Democrats gleefully rely on CHIMPS and other budget tricks to circumvent the sequestration caps put in place four years ago. Corker’s opposition to the status quo offered a welcome change to the lip service being paid on spending.
But all is not what it seems in Washington. Wednesday, Corker reversed himself15 and signed on to the House-Senate budget proposal. “There is no question this budget is far from perfect,” Corker said, “But it is some progress since it has been a long time since Congress has completed this basic part of governing.”
With Corker allowing the budget to proceed, the House passed the proposal 226-19716 Thursday, sticking close to their self-imposed deadline to move things forward before leaving town for a brief recess. Fourteen Republicans joined all the Democrats in opposition. The Senate will vote on the proposal in a few days.
Corker’s change of attitude could be considered a flip-flop since there were no fundamental changes made to the resolution to get him on board. But by making his initial stand, he brought to light some of the fundamental problems that plague the budget process in Washington. |
