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« on: October 04, 2015, 06:23:29 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 9-29-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest
Sep. 29, 2015
THE FOUNDATION
“Hence as a private man has a right to say what wages he will give in his private affairs, so has a community to determine what they will give and grant of their substance for the administration of public affairs.” —Samuel Adams, 1772
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Congress Plans to Continue Unconstitutional Redistribution1
The clock is winding down to 11:59 p.m. Wednesday and Congress is on its last lap before it approves a temporary spending measure for the new fiscal year that will keep government running until Dec. 11. On Monday, the Senate approved2 77-16 the clean spending bill that keeps federal funds flowing to Planned Parenthood. The legislation has been sent to the House, and, if Republicans there don’t halt the process, it will end up on Obama’s desk. While some Republican lawmakers want to block the $500 million that the government gives to Planned Parenthood, there are other political strategies that are less politically fraught. House Speaker John Boehner, despite his flaws, announced3 that the House will form a special committee to investigate the organization’s trafficking of baby parts. It’s a compromise: As we learned with the House Select Committee on Benghazi, a bulldog-like lawmaker in the vein of Rep. Trey Gowdy can do much to keep focus on an issue. But as for the talk of grinding the government to a halt over Planned Parenthood, unfortunately, it’s become little more than a political fundraiser for both sides. Of course we shouldn’t be funding Planned Parenthood — because there’s no constitutional authority for doing so. While federal money going to the nation’s largest abortion provider is a particular abomination, nothing in the Constitution empowers Congress to take money from taxpayers and redistribute it to special interests of any sort. But there are thousands of such expenditures in every budget. If we’re going to shut down government, let’s do it to stop all of this unconstitutional spending.
Clinton Indicates Indictment Might Be Imminent4
After learning that the FBI was able to recover5 some of the emails that she deleted, Hillary Clinton launched into damage control, explaining that she didn’t determine which emails were public and which were private. Instead, she claims, she let her lawyers sift through the tens of thousands of emails to weed out any reference to yoga class. “I didn’t look at them,” Clinton now says6. “I wanted them to be as clear in their process as possible. I didn’t want to be looking over their shoulder. If they thought it was work-related, it would go to the State Department. If not, then it would not.” But knowing Clinton’s track record in telling the truth regarding this scandal, this statement could be disproven before long. After all, what reason do we have to trust her ever-changing story? Self-preservation is on her brain. As Judge Andrew Napolitano said7 Monday, “Her most recent troubles show that when she certified under oath, ‘under penalty of perjury,’ to a federal judge that she had surrendered all her emails to the State Department, in fact she had not.” As a result, Napolitano believes the FBI will recommend indicting Clinton over her email use to the State Department. For the first time, Clinton is very clearly saying, “Hey, I was just a bystander here and my lawyers did all of it.” This is a huge shift, the kind of shift you see when she’s really concerned about a felony indictment — and not just for perjury. We can’t see how she avoids an indictment at this point, other than to lay it all on her attorneys. How willing are the Clinton lackeys to fall on a sword for their crumbling political machine?
Trump: Millions Who Pay No Taxes Will Keep Paying No Taxes8
Donald Trump offered his tax plan Monday, and it has quite the populist appeal. His plan9 says, “If you are single and earn less than $25,000, or married and jointly earn less than $50,000, you will not owe any income tax. That removes nearly 75 million households — over 50% — from the income tax rolls. They get a new one page form to send the IRS saying, ‘I win,’ those who would otherwise owe income taxes will save an average of nearly $1,000 each.” On top of that, he’d lower the top rate from 39.6% to 25%, and reduce corporate taxes from the current highest-in-the-world rate of 35% to 15%. On the other hand, he wants to eliminate deductions that help people like hedge fund managers pay a lower rate than many Americans. We suppose their tax forms will say, “I lose.” Indeed, “eliminating most deductions and loopholes available to the very rich” is how he proposes to keep the plan “revenue neutral.” Fat chance of that. His proposed four brackets of 0%, 10%, 20% and 25% will “simplify the tax code,” he said. “It’ll grow the American economy at a level that it hasn’t seen for decades.” It’s worth noting, as Trump does, that there are already millions of Americans who pay no income tax, though they do have to fill out complex tax forms to reach that conclusion. Thus, they have no “skin in the game,” and everyone should bear some of the burden, even if it’s just 1%. But Trump would expand the numbers paying nothing — smart politics. On the other hand, these same workers pay a disproportionate share of the payroll tax, which supposedly funds the biggest drivers of our debt: Major entitlements.
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FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Putin Keeps Taking Obama’s Lunch Money12
By Lewis Morris
In dueling speeches at Monday’s UN General Assembly meeting, Barack Obama13 and Russian President Vladimir Putin14 sounded off in the latest round of tense relations between the U.S. and Russia. Unfortunately, because of Obama’s thoughtless foreign policy America looks weak and clueless on the world stage.
Obama continued to rail against Moscow for its actions in Ukraine. “We cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated,” he declared. “If that happens without consequence in Ukraine, it could happen to any nation gathered here today.” Of course, “stand by” is precisely what Obama has done with regard to Ukraine and Crimea.
“Stand by” has also been Obama’s “plan” with regard to Syria. And Putin has used the opportunity to bolster Russia’s presence in the Middle East. In a one-two punch this month, the Kremlin provided military support to bolster longtime Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad, and then — just in time for the UN confab — announced an intelligence sharing agreement15 with Syria, Iraq and Iran to combat the Islamic State.
The Wall Street Journal explains16 the significance of that move for Iraq: “It’s hard to fault Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for the decision. He’s watched for a year while the U.S. coalition has made little progress against Islamic State. His decision risks putting Baghdad further under Tehran’s sway, and pushing more Iraqi Sunnis into Islamic State’s arms. But desperate leaders will act in desperate ways.”
One Iraqi militia leader put it this way: “We believe that Russia and Iran are serious about defeating ISIS while the U.S. doesn’t want to defeat ISIS. We wish that the Iraqi government wouldn’t trust or depend heavily on the U.S. because we’ve had a bad experience with the U.S. in this regard.”
So Obama has not only abandoned Iraq to the Islamic State, but to Iran and Russia.
Russia’s pledge to help Assad catches the U.S. flatfooted after Obama’s own pathetic attempts to combat ISIL in Syria have come to nothing. The haphazard air campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq has had little impact on stopping the terror group’s territorial gains. And the embarrassing17 $500 million training program that led to a half-dozen pro-Western boots on the ground in Syria didn’t do much more to instill confidence in America’s abilities. In fact, the program has been suspended18.
On the positive side, Obama in his remarks promoted the Islamic State from “JV team” to “apocalyptic cult.” Baby steps.
Fox News' Brit Hume surmised, “Obama’s speech at the UN [Monday] encapsulated perfectly notions that have long driven his foreign policy. He looks upon the behavior of America’s adversaries as not simply self-interested or even evil but mainly outdated, old-fashioned. … Obama warns America against ‘a notion of strength that is defined by opposition to old enemies, perceived adversaries, a rising China or a resurgent Russia, a revolutionary Iran or Islam that is not compatible with peace.’ While those may sound like the very threats we face, Obama further warns against ‘the idea that the only strength that matters for the United States is bellicose words and shows of military force.’ … Does it even occur to him that the problem is not ‘bellicose words’ but following them up by backing down?” |
