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Mark Caserta: Democrats continue to stand on Obamacare lies

12 May

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Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor

May, 12, 2017

 

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In March 2010, President Barack Hussein Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Following its passage, Obama boldly declared to all Americans, “We did not fear our future, we shaped it.”

In retrospect, that may have been the only true statement Obama would ever make about his failing signature health care bill. He certainly didn’t fear what it would do to our country, and he and his liberal accomplices certainly controlled its shape.

It’s obvious Democrats didn’t have a clue what was in the bill or what impact it would have on nearly 20 percent of our nation’s economy. It was, after all, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” when she spoke to the National Association of Counties in March 2010.

But controlling a nation’s health care system would be the ultimate mechanism of oversight over its people. And Obama and the Democrats were willing to say anything to make it happen.

To date, I’ve never fielded a serious rebuttal from any liberal regarding the bald-faced lies the Obama administration leveraged in throwing this political curve ball right past the American people. Yet, as old health care wounds are being reopened, it’s time to revisit the true “genesis” of this disastrous initiative.

“If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” became the battle cry for the Obama administration as they traversed the nation selling their snake oil and liniment. It was such an egregious lie that PolitiFact dubbed it the “Lie of the Year” in 2013.

When one ponders the exorbitant number of lies politicians bestow upon Americans in a single year, this recognition illuminates the magnitude of the falsehood.

“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” was another liberal lie designed to mislead trusting Americans into believing the Democrats were planning on providing Americans viable health care options.

Imagine misleading a senior citizen into believing they couldn’t possibly lose a doctor with whom they had established a longtime relationship. But that’s exactly what Obama and his minions did to pass Obamacare – without a single Republican vote.

And the empty promise that premiums, on average, would decline by $2,500 per year under Obamacare was laughable. The exact opposite has happened.

And the most incredible part of this tragedy is that liberal Democrats act as if none of this chicanery ever transpired! Do they really believe Americans are that stupid?

Thank goodness, the House of Representatives voted last week to dismantle the pillars of Obamacare and begin the process of replacing this broken health care system. The bill is on its way to the Senate, where its conservative components will be debated and strengthened.

Rest assured, Republicans will compromise on a finished product and the edicts of Obamacare will be reduced to a Democrat eulogy depicting the death of Obamacare.

So, when liberal Democrats attempt to “frighten” you about GOP health care, remember how they lied to you before.

And how they continue to stand by those lies.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Mark Caserta: Politicians should refrain from using profanity in public

5 May

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Mark Caserta:  Free State Patriot editor

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Does the First Amendment to the Constitution restrict free speech when it comes to profanity?

According to most constitutional experts, including the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University and the Newseum, the Constitution does indeed protect a “great deal of offensive, obnoxious and repugnant speech.”

“As Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote 40 years ago in Cohen v. California, ‘one man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.'” The column on the First Amendment Center’s website references the court’s ruling that an individual had a right to wear a jacket invoking the “F-Bomb” in sentiment expressed over the draft.

But in this writer’s humble opinion, just because a person has the “right” to say something, doesn’t exempt them from looking like a complete fool when they use profanity in a public venue.

Sadly, using profanity in public seems to be the rage today, especially in politics.

Now, I’m certainly not nave enough to believe profanity could ever be controlled or eliminated. But using profanity in public represents an utter disrespect for another individual’s rights to listen or attend an event without being concerned about being subjected to vulgar language or actions.

I doubt a single reader would disagree that our elected politicians are employed by “We the People.” So, as “employees,” their constituents should hold them to a standard of behavior commensurate with their position.

I will be the first to say I loathe President Trump spouting four-letter words in some of his public speeches. It’s unnecessary. Just speak the truth, and people will get the message. I don’t want to worry about exposing my child to offensive vernacular when I’m attempting to educate them on government.

But lately, Democrat politicians have taken the use of public profanity to a level that should be embarrassing to their party.

For example, a T-shirt available for purchase on the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) website reads, “Democrats give a “sh_t” about people.”

In a New York Magazine profile featured in Politico this month, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, included several expletives, including three f-bomb’s in the magazine interview.

Also from Politico, DNC Chairman Tom Perez has been recklessly including profanity in his stump speeches, telling a New Jersey Working Families Alliance event in March that Republicans “don’t give a sh_t about people.”

 Why do Democrats feel the need to use this language? Do they feel they’re pandering to an “uneducated” blue collar segment they feel supports Donald Trump? Are they really that shallow?

Besides the obvious reasons, let me tell you why we must insist this stop, now.

Once again, the progressive modus operandi is to constantly challenge the status quo, moving the “range of acceptability” further to the left. What sort of language will we be accustomed to hearing in another 10-15 years?

Let me be clear. Anyone using profanity in public is openly displaying his or her ignorance and a total disregard for others’ rights.

So, here’s a message to elected officials from your employer, the voters.

If you can’t restrain from ignorance, serve your notice and begin clearing out your desk.

We’ve had enough.

 

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Mark Caserta: Trump busy negotiating on behalf of Americans

28 Apr

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Mark Caserta:  Free State Patriot editor

April 28, 2017

 

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As President Trump rights the ship of U.S. foreign policy steered dangerously into troubled waters by the Obama administration, both friends and enemies alike are rapidly re-assessing their relationship with the United States.

Trump’s execution of his “America first” policy is something the world hasn’t seen in over eight years. And while it’s the antithesis of his predecessor’s “apology and appeasement” ideology, it may also be the most resolute approach we’ve seen from any U.S. president since Ronald Reagan.

Throughout his entire campaign, Donald Trump was harshly critical of China, accusing its leaders of manipulating their currency, making it difficult for America to compete economically. As president, he’s maintained his tough stance on trade relations, but is working to build a relationship with Chinese leadership that will be conducive to fair trade negotiations.

You see, what liberals portray as failure, Donald Trump sees as simply the first step in negotiation. Successful negotiations often begin with incredulous offers and distant terms. That’s simply a natural part of the process. Afterward, if there is enough at stake, accomplished negotiators will work toward “win-win” solutions for both parties.

Trump’s recent meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping was reportedly a huge success and helped foster an unexpected relationship between the two men. A recent Fox News column by Andrew O’Reilly shared an expert’s perspective.

“This meeting will set the tone in looking at the strategic framework between the U.S. and China for the next few years,” Robert Daly, the director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, told Fox News. “China wants to know what President Trump’s framework toward Beijing will be and if he is a man they can work with.”

Following Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s recent Moscow meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the Russian government surely came away with a clear understanding that despite liberal and mainstream media attempts to brand President Trump as a Russian “apologist,” they’re no longer dealing with an ill-prepared community organizer, but rather with a man determined to successfully negotiate on behalf of the American people.

A recent U.S. News column reported, “President Donald Trump says the U.S. is ‘not getting along with Russia at all’ and relations between the two global powers are at an ‘all time low,'” following U.S. response to the Syrian chemical weapons attack. The piece went on to say Trump is “hopeful he can improve relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin but ‘we’re going to see what happens.'”

And following eight long years of declining U.S. – Israeli relations, a column in The Times of Israel by Gavin Rabinowitz reports officials are enthused about the prospect of making the alliance between the two nations “greater than ever.”

As a skilled negotiator, Donald Trump understands negotiating from a position of strength. He’s currently establishing a principled foundation from which to advance his agenda.

Right now, world leaders are simply taking it all in, trying to figure out how best to deal with this new U.S. president. But rest assured, he’s negotiating on behalf of Americans.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger and Cabell County resident.

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Mark Caserta: Trump fulfilling promise to protect borders

22 Apr

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Mark Caserta:  Free State Patriot editor

  • Apr 21, 2017

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Like him or not, Donald J. Trump says what he means and means what he says regarding illegal immigration and making America great again on the world stage.

Trump’s recent job approval ratings are soaring! A Rasmussen poll shows 50 percent of likely voters approve of his performance since taking office.

A Washington Post column, by Maria Sacchetti, reported illegal immigration arrests rose 32.5 percent in the first weeks of Trump’s presidency. According to the report, this included illegals with criminal records, as well as those who are simply undocumented.

According to statistics requested and reported by The Post, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 21,362 illegals, mostly convicted criminals, from January through mid-March, compared to 16,104 during the same period last year.

Liberal Democrats like to use the word “compassionate” when weighing the dilemma of removing illegal immigrants from our country. As with nearly every other progressive position that places the weight of “pivotal political posturing” on the shoulders of law-abiding citizens, liberals constantly kowtow to any demographic that can envision pulling a voting lever.

Simply put, when weighing compassion against national security, one must make the tough call, for a compassionate decision for one group of individuals can result in devastation for another innocent sector. It’s called unintended consequences.

Here are some dreadful examples of serious crimes from the Federation for American Immigration Reform website, committed by illegals, not far from our readers.

In December 2015, a 40-year-old illegal, Michael Garcia, was sentenced to four life terms for the rape and sodomy of two children in Alabama. In August 2016, a Salvadoran illegal gang member was convicted of murder in Virginia for the brutal stabbing of an individual suspected of being an informer for law enforcement. Jose Torres was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 20 years.

In February 2017, 29-year old Ricardo Garcia was sentenced to 20-29 years in prison after being convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in North Carolina in 2015. Garcia lured the girl into his car on the pretense of giving her a ride.

Four decades of mass, illegal immigration have devastated our nation, largely due to the passage of Ted Kennedy’s Immigration Reform Act of 1965, changing immigration laws and widening the gate of entry into the United States.

Additionally, in 2012, Barack Obama signed an executive order providing deportation amnesty to illegal immigrants already in our country. His order expanded the concept of “prosecutorial discretion” allowing millions of illegals safe harbor.

Liberals have been working for years to increase illegal immigration in the U.S.

According to the Pew Research Center, there were over 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States in 2014. Who knows how many there are now?

Thank goodness, President Trump expeditiously wiped out nearly all of Obama’s immigration policies in January with executive orders unleashing ICE agents to enforce immigration laws and punishing sanctuary cities by withholding government funding.

A nation must protect its borders. And we must know who is here illegally.

President Trump is working to fulfill that promise, and Americans are pleased.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Mark Caserta: Liberals find Trump’s success disconcerting

14 Apr

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Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor

April 14, 2017

 

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It’s interesting that progressives portray the Trump presidency as being in disarray and that he’s struggling with the rigors of being commander-in-chief.

The truth is, President Trump’s accomplishments the last two months have been directed toward making America great again and reversing the damage to our country by the Obama administration.

It is, after all, what Americans hired him to do. Here are only a few significant achievements:

In January, as reported by the Washington Post and other news agencies, President Trump reinstated a rule, first instituted by President Reagan, blocking U.S. aid to foreign organizations that use the funds to perform or advocate abortions.

The ruling gives entities a choice to either stop providing abortions or any information regarding abortions, or lose valuable dollars from the U.S. This is a huge win for the pro-life movement.

Living up to his campaign promise to increase domestic energy production, Trump also signed executive orders breathing life to the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines. The projects, which have been squelched by liberal activists for years, are a monumental win for jobs and U.S. energy independence.

A February column in The Hill, by Devin Henry, reported on a Trump executive order ending a key Obama administration coal mining rule. At the signing, Trump called the regulation “another terrible job killing rule” and said ending it would save “many thousands of American jobs, especially in the mines”.

It’s laughable that liberals who’ve probably never employed a person in their life ridicule Trump’s action as ineffective in returning miners and those impacted by the industry to their jobs. Sadly, many progressives, including some local, hope it’s true.

In the crme, de la crme for constitutional conservatives, the Senate voted last week, 5445, to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. As the president promised, he nominated a judge in the spirit of departed Justice Antonin Scalia who will protect and uphold the Constitution.

While many believe the 2016 presidential election was, in part, a referendum on the Supreme Court, this was a major blow to the progressive movement. The procedural change in the Senate requiring a simple majority for a justice’s confirmation paves the way for more conservative appointments during Trump’s presidency.

And on his 75th day as president, Donald Trump proved to the world that Obama’s indecisive, “lead-from-behind” strategy was over.

Following a horrific chemical weapons attack by Syria’s Bashar Al Assad on his own people, President Trump ordered U.S. warships to launch 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian airbase responsible for the attacks.

No empty “line in the sand” threats, no politically correct oratory, no gauging the winds of opinion – just action. It’s been eight years since the world has seen such decisive leadership in the U.S.

Of course, liberals are furious and have excoriated President Trump in every way imaginable. But frankly, it’s a litmus test of his success.

So, if progressives really believe Trump hasn’t been successful so far, they have a long eight years ahead of them.

He’s just getting started.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger and Cabell County resident.

 

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Mark Caserta: Will Trumpgate become a modern-day Watergate?

7 Apr

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Mark Caserta:  Free State Patriot editor

 

April 7, 2017

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It was arguably the biggest political scandal in our nation’s history.

In the early morning hours of June 17, 1972, burglars were arrested inside the office of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C., attempting to wiretap phones and steal secret documents.

Subsequent investigations would reveal the crime was connected to President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign. Ultimately, 40 government officials would eventually be indicted or jailed and the president of the United States would be forced to resign in 1974.

 The Watergate affair was a dark event in the history of U.S. politics. Could we be reliving this political nightmare with the consummation of “Trumpgate.”
Days before leaving office, President Barack Hussein Obama suspiciously decided to broaden the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying the required privacy protections.

In January, a New York Times column by Charlie Savage, reported “the new rules significantly relax longstanding limits on what the NSA may do with the information gathered by its most powerful surveillance operations.”

The column detailed methods by which information may be acquired such as satellite transmissions, phone calls, emails and messages between people abroad. The ultimate result would be more officials searching through more data containing private information about innocent people.

But, why, after eight years in office, did Obama feel compelled to change this intelligence sharing just before leaving the White House?

Allow me to share what many believe transpired.

These new rules were signed into effect just weeks after Obama and the Democrats were shocked by the stunning presidential victory of Donald J. Trump. Reeling from their sense of loss and hopelessness, I believe there was an initiative to begin gathering any available information that would help delegitimize the incoming administration.

And liberals are so pleased with themselves, some just can’t keep their mouths shut about it.

On March 2, on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, Mika Brzezinski interviewed a former top Obama administration official who acknowledged efforts by “colleagues” to gather intelligence on Trump’s ties to Russia before Donald Trump took office and to “conceal the sources of that intelligence from the incoming administration.”

 In the interview, Evelyn Farkas, the former administration’s top Russian expert, described a “rush to spread the material before Trump took office,” citing fear that if the Trump team became wise, information would quickly be cut off.

Predictably, liberal Democrats and the mainstream media have attempted to deflect the real story of illegal wiretapping and sharing of information with a bogus narrative suggesting the Russians influenced the 2016 presidential election.

Yet, not an ounce of proof has been submitted that the Russians influenced a single vote in the election.

If the Obama administration committed a premeditated act to acquire intelligence on Donald Trump, and the required privacy protections were not enacted before disseminating, the Justice Department must hold them accountable.

Democrats may, indeed, have “re-enacted the villainy” of Watergate, with this so-called Trumpgate.

If so, indictments and jail time should be forthcoming.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger and a Cabell County resident.

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Doug Smith: The Tyranny of Perfection

5 Apr

My country ’tis of thee…

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Doug Smith:  Author and historical, social and political editor for Free State Patriot

April, 5, 2017

 

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My wife is a perfectionist.

So, I live with this phenomenon and understand it. She was the sort of Straight A student who would be very upset at getting a 99, if someone else had ever gotten a 100, or getting a 100 if extra credit made a 103 possible.  This all made her a driven and excellent student, but not a very happy one.

Nothing she ever did was going to be good enough for her. Now, being a much more laid back sort, I find myself shaking my head at this attitude, because it is amazing that a straight A, Summa Cum Laude student so frequently growls “Stupid, stupid, stupid” at herself. You think you might get a little credit for those A s, and the long nights? No?

Now, she is not alone. The Utopians among us, clear back to Plato, and moving all the way to today’s progressives and socialists, build in their mind a perfect society; one which has never existed, but might, if only they were put in charge. Now not to pop their collective little bubbles, but if some 6,000 years of human civilization has never produced a Utopia, what in the world would make them think they are so much smarter, wiser, and better than a Solomon or Marcus Aurelius that they will finally get it done?

And there has not been a perfect society or civilization, ever. But the Utopians live lives of noisy misery, focused on every fault of the best civilization the world has seen. By their emphasis on the problems, they miss the joy of what they have, lack appreciation of the good, and buy into many Brooklyn Bridge fantasies of how good things could be if only. Moral relativism is a miserable frame of mind when it leads you to long for the gulags and empty shelves of Russia, and decry the missing 10 % in the 90 % society.

Western civilization, and American civilization, is the highest, best, and most desirable the world has yet seen. (Easy snowflakes, don’t have your stroke just yet. I’m not done assaulting your sensibilities.) It is not perfect, but then all nations, being peopled by, well, people, are imperfect. Still, the horse kissers, (as in gift), who decry the blessings they enjoy by being born into or permitted to live in the greatest nation in the history of the world, have a peculiar blindness and tunnel vision when it comes to the nation and culture which spawned and nurtured them.

Let s review the record.

Ok right up front. The United States had slavery. Yep. Sure, did. And in the 16th through 18th century, so did a large portion of the world. The countries from which many American slaves came had a long history of capturing and selling slaves. And in fact, many still do. Slavery is rampant today, in the 21st century, throughout the Muslim world, for which the critics and snowflakes of America love to act as apologists.

The United States also had a long growing moral objection to slavery, nearly derailing the formation of the nation’s Constitution. It took several decades, but then erupted into a war which raged for four years, left over half a million dead, and devastated the country. Aside from the revolt of Spartacus, which was fought BY the slaves, trained as gladiators, and ended in disaster, what nation has ever in history fought such a war to destroy an economy based on slavery, and free slaves?  Feel free to do your own research, but spoiler alert: none, ever.

It was a long an arduous process bringing former slaves closer to parity with the rest of the citizenry, and we are not without problems yet. But a quick look at Ben Carson and Barack Obama must tell anyone looking, that tremendous progress has been made.

Yet there are those who still focus on Thomas Jefferson holding slaves. As though nothing else has ever happened in our nation. We ought to be judged by who we were in the world as it stood then, and what we have done in the meantime. So many want to judge us based on some impossible perfection standard, or judge the United States of 1800 by the standards of 2000.

As though the United States, alone, has not fought more, bled more, spent more, to free more people from tyranny than any other nation in the history of mankind. No nation as powerful as the United States has ever, from the outskirts of Eden to now, spent its treasure, and blood, and young men to free other nations from tyranny, and taken possession of only the amount of ground necessary to bury our 10,000 dead in French soil. French soil. Not occupied France. Not the American zone. French. French soil holds the blood and bodies of the men of the 29th Infantry Division, just above the beach on which they died. It was named Omaha, for a city in America, but it was, and remained, a French beach.

The United States has given more to the world than any other nation, ever. The British Empire can make a claim for a near second, yet the United States has done more to lift more people, both our own citizens and others, out of poverty than any other nation in history. The United States has fed more of the world than any other nation, ever. The United States has given the world light bulbs, (thanks Tom Edison), electricity, education, literature, the Panama Canal, eradicated polio, nearly eradicated malaria (until one of the “aint it awful crowd” pulled DDT from the shelves and signed a death warrant for 100 million).  Absent the United States, totalitarian empires would have plunged the world into a dark age from which it might never emerge.

Who would give the world advances in food production, medicine, balance the power of despots and tyrants, raise the standard of living of the world to a higher level than it has ever seen, serve as the example and shining city on the hill to which millions aspire if not the United States? To which other country would so many risk life and limb and imprisonment to come? They know, unlike the horse kissers who refuse to appreciate what we have been blessed with, how truly superior in so many ways are the United States of America.

So many of the Occupy Antarctica Snowflake Brigade focus on every fault, and deny every virtue of this, the greatest nation in the history of mankind. They roll their eyes, and look down their sniffing little noses at “flag waving” and patriotism.

Well, I am a patriot, and I have a flag flying on the back of my home. I served in the uniform of my country, and saluted that flag every day for years. I learned the history and tradition of the Navy whose uniform I wore, and of the Sailors and Marines who fought and died for this country with that flag as their symbol and rallying point. I served in a difficult, demanding, dangerous job, which required us to be the deadliest force imaginable. If we were ordered to do so, we would have killed thousands. If caught, we would have been sunk and killed. We did the job because we believed in it, and the country. Value judgement: It is worth my life to protect this country; it is worth causing the deaths of thousands I would never see if so ordered to keep the country safe. We took an oath which said “I promise to protect, preserve, and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. “I did not see any expiration date when I took it.

I love this country, and while recognizing its faults, still believe it is the greatest country ever.  I am unashamedly a fan and supporter of the United States, and her friends and allies, and all others take a back seat.

If it comes to the interests of the United States or any other country, this country, which houses my children, and the ideas which let them live as they wish comes first.

Always. Forever. And without apology.

 

 

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Mark Caserta: Obamacare repeal and replace simply delayed

1 Apr

 

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Mark Caserta:  Free State Patriot editor

Mar 31, 2017

 

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Last week’s charade in the House of Representatives confirmed the level of ineptitude on Capitol Hill. For the GOP to have had eight years to reach consensus on a viable healthcare alternative to Obamacare and to be so unprepared is embarrassing.

But “let not your heart be troubled.” Obamacare will eventually be eliminated and replaced with a sustainable healthcare bill that will be affordable for all Americans.

However, what we saw legislatively last week was exactly what we “didn’t” see during the Obama administration – legitimate legislative debate on the content of a proposed healthcare initiative.

Remember, in 2010, when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at a legislative conference and said, “We have to pass the bill,” speaking of the Affordable Care Act, “so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

Well, it turns out the intended lack of transparency shrouded the multitude of liberal lies about Obama’s signature healthcare law and facilitated its passage.

The GOP establishment, while debilitatingly dimwitted along the way, debated, argued and disagreed on provisions of the American Healthcare Act and ultimately couldn’t agree on the initial piece of legislation. I’m truly encouraged that true conservatives ultimately blocked a potentially flawed bill.

Finally, Americans receive some representation.

But that’s not what you’ll hear from liberal Democrats or the mainstream media. And frankly, the Democrat’s lack of genuine concern for the uninsured is very telling. Obamacare is in a death spiral and liberals seemingly couldn’t care less what happens to the average American, as long as they “win one for Obama.”

So, here’s what we can expect moving forward.

Successfully rewriting one-fifth of the economy will take time, but I assure you the House will eventually have the votes needed to pass a viable healthcare bill, probably in 2017. They don’t want to be unemployed the next election cycle. Subsequently, it will move on to the Senate, where it could be further amended.

But Republican Senators lack the 60 votes needed to pass any sort of healthcare legislation, no matter how good it is. They must resort to a process known as “reconciliation,” which requires only a majority vote and negates a Democrat filibuster. This is the legislative procedure Democrats used to pass portions of Obamacare.

An additional hurdle the GOP must clear is the “Byrd Rule,” named after our beloved Robert C. Byrd. As part of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Byrd Rule states that reconciliation can only be used on legislation that impacts the federal deficit.

Now, clearly this is budgetary in nature, but if it rises to the level of debate in the Senate that I expect, the presiding officer of the Senate, the vice president of the United States, has the final word on what’s permissible on reconciliation and what’s not.

So, despite liberal Democrats presenting this as an Obamacare victory, it necessarily delayed the inevitable.

As part of making America great again, Donald Trump will ensure every American has access to affordable healthcare.

Just as he promised.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Doug Smith: The Loyal Opposition?

27 Mar

doug-for-fsp

Doug Smith: Author, historian and political, historical and social editor for Free State Patriot.

 

March 27, 2017

 

That is what the party out of power is supposed to be. However, that is not what the current Democrat party will be, ever. But more on that later. The Dems and the Left will only oppose Trump in the most vicious, “un” Democratic way possible.

The Loyal Opposition from come from within the President’s own party. The Freedom Caucus. The Heritage Foundation.

Me.

So, here goes. No, Mr. President, the Freedom Caucus was not to blame for the failure of the Ryan Health Care bill to get the required votes. But they did help, and for that, kudos to them.

The Democrats, as you should know (you are not stupid, but impulsive in the extreme, and for God’s sake give your phone to Reince Preibus and enough with the 2 am tweets!) will never support anything you say or do. You never were going to get any vote to touch a hair on the head of Obamacare, or Planned Parenthood from the Left side of the aisle. Well, maybe Joe Manchin, but he is fighting for survival in a WV that is getting redder every day. And he doesn’t want to come back to Morgantown and practice law.

But I think you already knew all this, and so did Paul Ryan.

Not everything is the art of the deal. There is also the value of rigorous honesty.

Paul Ryan seems, from one perspective, to be angling for the GOP to repeat a hat trick they have done successfully over and over. We need more!

Give us the House, and we will repeal Obamacare.  So, the get the House. Then, to avoid a government shutdown caused by Obama and Reid, but blamed in the press on the GOP (have you figured this out yet? EVERYTHING is going to be the fault of you and the GOP. Get used to it, and just do the right, and smart, thing.)  the GOP House caved on funding, where they did have power, then voted for a “clean bill” to repeal, and sent it to the Senate, where they did not have power, to die.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Give us the Senate.

We did.

Same routine.

Give us the White House.

We did, well, sort of. You are not what the GOP had in mind, and it is somewhat amusing to find them in this state.

But as we got closer over the last 6 years to giving the GOP everything relating to power in DC, a curious rot has set in. We need to repeal it, root and branch, thundered Mitch McConnell. We need to fix the parts that are broken, whimpered Jeb Bush, with all the passion of an artichoke.

Huh?

We need to repeal and replace it, as we have been promising the American people, sang the GOP in DC, in 216-part harmony. Wait a minute, now, just wait one doggone minute. What is this, trying for a soft landing.

It just doesn’t work like that. You sign a contract, or make a promise, and then as it gets close to time to deliver, you start to change the words, and alter the terms.  You start to wax eloquent about the terms of the deal that only you are party to, and how you feel obligated to keep that promise.

And you know what?  The folks who were promised a Mercedes, and now hear about the Prius you say you promised them, are going to feel betrayed, and suspicious. We are also going to wonder, if you didn’t keep the first promise, why would we expect you to keep the second one when the going gets tough?

We need to fix the parts that are broken? Yes. And it is all broken. As any big government takeover of a business necessarily will become. The bigger, the worse, and quicker it will break.

One argument is the phased repeal: keep Obamacare in place for a while so Secretary Price can reverse the many discretionary rules and changes of Secretary Sibelius.

Anyone see the problems there? Anyone? Beuhler?

Ok, first, if that is what the GOP, or you, Mr. President, want to do, Secretary Price is in office right now. He can busily spend his day reversing every move that Kathleen Sibelius took to try and prop up Obamacare, including eliminating the Cornhusker Kickback, and have it done right now. He has a staff. They can pull up every move she made and right a simple change: this is eliminated, and Tom Price can sign it.

Secondly, and one of the major flaws of Obamacare: what the Secretary giveth the Secretary, or a future one, can take. The law is so nebulous the Secretary of HHS can do whatever they want at any time. Forever. Uncertainty is deadly for a business. And this provision inserts it into the entire industry.

So, use the power you inherited now (after all, if you don’t, why would we think you will after the next bill is passed?)  and do it.

Secondly, it has not been that long since we had an administration and Congress force feed us a bill in record time, without giving a clear picture of what was in it. Pelosi s famous “We have to pass the bill, to see what’s in the bill. “You did, we have, and we don’t like it. Furthermore, we don’t want bills passed like that again.
A lesson for you from Obama, one which he did not learn: POTUS is not a king, and must often persuade and negotiate, rather than rule, bully, and bluster.

You and Ryan have told us this is the best you get. Ignore the previous promises, just be grateful we are giving you something. We are at a crisis, and if you don’t pass it right now (this sounds so very much like 2009 all over again) the seas will rise, buildings will crumble, and you will be stuck with Obamacare till it crashes and burns, and we will blame it on the Democrats, and any of you, our own folks, who did not go along.

But that is not going to work this time. The common sense, conservative core of the Republican voting base has been lied to by our leadership far too many times to let it happen again without consequences. You, Mr. President, are one of those consequences, and the reasons Jeb or Marco are not planning the Easter Egg hunt.

Ryan is playing by the old boy rules. He is trying to craft a bill which would pass the old Senate rules. But of course, Harry Reid blew up long standing convention, so all bets are off in that august body.  And if anything, his first bill should be WAY over to the other side, leaving room to negotiate back to the center. You never make a deal by starting out with all you want and saying That’s it, no negotiating.

Have you ever read “The Art of the Deal, “by Donald Trump?

If the GOP passes, and you sign, a bill which leaves most of Obamacare intact and just paints the walls in a house on fire, the folks who voted for you, and them, will feel, correctly, that they have been betrayed.

The Democrats were and are never going to support anything you do. The loyal opposition is not going to chant your name and give you a rubber stamp. We are going to support you when you are right (well done with Gorsuch and extreme vetting, nice start with the EPA) and when you are wrong, let you know.

The last real journalist I can remember speaking the truth to power when it came to POTUS was Sam Donaldson. He did a nice job of keeping Carter and Reagan’s feet to the fire.  I can still hear him now.

Hold On, Mr. President.

That is the title of HIS book. It might be good reading for you, Mr. President. At 2 am. Instead of tweeting.

As I’m sure you have discovered, you are sitting in the hottest seat around.  There are some of us around who will loyally support you, but still hold your feet to the fire when your misstep and try to urge you back on the right path.

I expect you will make missteps. You are human, after all.  Smart humans learn from their mistakes and don’t repeat them. That is my hope for you.

So, to summarize, here, from the loyal opposition, Hold On, Mr. President.

That is not what we sent you there to do. Take a breath. Have a steak, well done, with ketchup, and try again.

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James Caserta: Finally Stepping Into The Light – Part 3

27 Mar

Taking Back My Fire

JAMES

Sunday, March 26, 2017

  “Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.”

Luke 10:19 NLT

A couple weeks ago I took it upon myself to begin this blog, to document my journey to better health and regaining the life I had taken for granted; a life I sacrificed in exchange for immediate satisfaction. Each week I sit here at the family computer, and I put on my uplifting music, and I lift up this new entry to God, to use for His divine purpose.
Now, I’m finally beginning to see some of those results I’ve been looking for. The exciting part is hearing many others comment on how I look like I’ve lost weight; it’s like fuel to the fire for me. I could not be happier with how this is going so far, and the minor improvements in my mobility and stamina are all testaments to my daily efforts to control how much food I intake.
However, this is only half the battle for me. During my low points, those times when I felt hopeless and past the point of no return, my spiritual fire was decimated. I completely lost my faith in God, and I felt as if He wasn’t even listening. Those voices had me convinced that I had thrown my life away, and God wasn’t going to answer my tear-filled cries for help. So taking back my fire is just as critical to my overall well-being as my physical health is.
The voices are still there, but I have a choice as to how much power they have over my mind and the choices I make. So I’m making it my goal to arm myself with the knowledge that comes from the Bible, and to reignite my dormant inner being, because I refuse to let my weight or my food addiction dictate my identity any more. I can’t take this for granted, or make excuses like I have so many times before.
And so, for my health, for my wife, for my family, and most of all for my God, I’m taking the fight to the enemy, and taking back my fire, once and for all.

Posted by at 4:09 PM

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