The New Poor?

I was reading an article from the Associated Press today that states that the gap between the rich and the poor is growing.  Specifically, that the top 20 percent of Americans (those making more than $100,000 per year) received 49.4 percent of all income while those living below the government established “Poverty Line” made only 3.4 percent of all income. “That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was… nearly double a low of 7.69-to-1 in 1968.

I wonder how many TRILLIONS of dollars have been transferred to the “Poor” in anti-poverty programs since 1968 in order to make the problem WORSE than it was?

I think that our problem in the United States now is not that we have an increase in the number of “Poor” people, or that they are making less of the national income than others, but that our DEFINITION of “Poor” has changed so much as to be unrecognizable.

I know that anecdotal evidence is never the best basis for an argument, but how many times have you experienced being behind a person at the grocery store who, after using their “food stamp” card to pay for the milk, bread, cereal, cheese, etc., then reaches into their wallet to produce cash to pay for their beer, cigarettes, steaks, etc?  Then the bag boy/girl takes their purchases out to their less than three year old vehicle?

So, I am going to disregard what you and I see with our own eyes, and look at the statistics provided by our own government.

The government set the 2009 “Poverty Line” at $21,954.00 for a family of four or $1,829.50 per month.  This is just about $11 per hour for a standard 168 hour work month.  But wait, this is ADJUSTED GROSS INCOME.  So, this family of four actually makes about $12,000.00 more just based on what standard exemption/standard deduction removes from their taxable income.  So we are looking at a salary of about $34,000.00.  That brings us up to $2,841.67 per month or almost $17 per hour.

According to the 2009 IRS Tax Tables, this family of four should owe $2,454.00 in income taxes.  But wait, we forget about the Child Tax Credit of $1,000.00 per child, thereby reducing their tax burden to $454.00.  That sounds reasonable.  But WAIT!  We forget about the Earned Income Tax Credit!

Again, according to the 2009 Earned Income Tax Credit Tables, this family of four is eligible for $3,648.00 in Earned Income Tax Credit.

That means, this family of four would pay NO INCOME TAX and would RECEIVE a check from the government of $3,194.00.  This would make their ACTUAL ANNUAL INCOME to $37,194.00.  Are these people POOR?

Remember, that this is BEFORE we consider eligibility for the “anti-poverty” programs of SCHIP, AFDC, Section 8 Housing assistance, Free and Reduced School Lunch Program, etc., the value of which could exceed $20,000 per year.

When my Father was a child in the 1930’s, during the Great Depression, living with his Parents and 12 brothers and sisters on a hardscrabble farm south of Grapevine, Texas talks about being Poor, he knows what he is talking about:  No running water in the house,  an outhouse in the back yard,  one new pair of shoes every year.  Most of our Parents can tell similar stories.

What is poor today?  I don’t really think anyone knows, particularly not the government.

Should a “poor” person receiving federal assistance have: a new car, an HD TV, a Cell Phone, a $200 pair of sneakers, gold and diamond jewelry?

Is the American taxpayer, through the provision of monetary and non-monetary assistance, taking away the incentive of people to work hard and improve their lot in life?

Are we providing a level of support that is allowing people to spend their income on luxuries because they know that the government will provide for their basic needs?

I think that we, as a country, need to reevaluate what we consider to be poor and better target the benefits to those who actually have needs that cannot otherwise be fulfilled.

I also think that everyone who has ANY income, no matter how little, has an obligation to pay SOMETHING in income taxes to help defray their costs to the rest of society.

Nearly HALF of Americans pay NOTHING in income tax.

My friends, something is very wrong with that.

Happy Constitution Day!

Two hundred and twenty three years ago today on September 17,1787 thirty-nine representatives of the various States assembled in Philadelphia signed the Constitution of the United States of America.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

This document in seven simple articles, set forth the framework of the new government.  From the powers allotted to the Legislature, the Executive and Judiciary,  to the obligations of the States to the whole, to the methods for ratifying and amending the document.  In 4,543 words, these men charted the path that our nation would take.

Unfortunately, their work was incomplete.  George Mason of Virginia protested that there was no "declaration of rights" in the new Constitution and that it opened the door to tyranny by the central government.

Although most of the formal arguments for and against the Constitution, particularly as contained the the Federalist Papers, dealt with the power of the central government versus the various States, the undercurrent of Individual Rights was always present.

While some States had already had statements of rights passed by their legislatures such as the Virginia Declaration of Rights passed in 1776, most did not.

Even Alexander Hamilton, in the Federalist #84 was forced to address these concerns claiming that the Constitution contained "the common and statute law of Great Britain, by which many other rights, not expressed in it, are equally secured."

Additionally, he stated that "I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and to the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous."

Because of, or possibly in spite of, Messieurs Hamilton, Jay and Madison's efforts, on June 21, 1788 with New Hampshire ratifying, the Constitution of the United States of America came into effect.  Elections were set for the first Tuesday in November 1788.  On March 4, 1789 the first United States Congress took their seats and the government began operations.

Fortunately, the argument for a Bill of Rights had not died with the ratification of the Constitution.  On September 25, 1789 the first amendments to the Constitution, later to become known as the "Bill of Rights" was passed by the Congress and submitted to the several states for ratification.  In December of 1791, with ratification by the Virginia House of Delegates, the Bill of Rights became part of the Constitution of the United States.

To remind you all, these amendments are as follows:

Amendment 1
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


Amendment 2
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.


Amendment 3
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.


Amendment 4
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.


Amendment 5
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.


Amendment 6
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the
accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.


Amendment 7
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.


Amendment 8
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.


Amendment 9
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.


Amendment 10
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

For the last two hundred and twenty three years, these simple words have held this country together and made her strong.

It is only when we have strayed from this enumeration of the rights of the individual that our country has gone astray.

Today I would say to you that our country is in just such peril.

We must return to our roots, to the Constitution, to it's actual words and original meanings, not what we want them to say, but what they truly say.  We must reign in a bloated, over reaching central government and return the power to the States and the People.

We must, we can, and we will.

An Open Letter to the Republican Party

To the Republican Party, Republican Political Pundits and especially my Senator, the Honorable John Cornyn.  You need to read this carefully, because it is important.

We Conservatives, we followers of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan have for many years been bound to your party of milquetoast "moderates" and the other mushy northeast "Country Club" Republicans who think us rubes.  These people don't see any problems with growing the size of government so long as the "old money" interests are protected.  They detest the nouveau riche of people who actually EARNED their money instead of inherited it.

Only three times in the last 50 years have we Conservatives gained full control of our party.

The first, in 1964, we put Barry Goldwater on top of the ticket.  Typically, you picked a "moderate" Republican from New York to "balance" the ticket and then ran for cover and voted for Johnson.  We Conservatives were betrayed by our own party.  When the smoke cleared, you claimed you "knew" that Goldwater was too radical and used that to bash us as "out of the mainstream.  You gave us Richard Nixon in 1968.

In 1980, we rose again and unfurled the banner of Conservatism behind Ronald Reagan.  Again, you paraded out the old saw about him being "too conservative", but Americans saw through you and the Democrats.  They heard the message of freedom from government control, the free market and the promise of a return to prosperity for our battered economy.  This resulted in the largest electoral landslide in American History.  After enacting the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, began the longest economic expansion this country has ever known.

In 1988, even though we were not sure of his Conservative bona fides, we accepted George H.W. Bush as the party nominee.  We read his lips: "No new taxes".  We worked hard and helped to elect him.  We were rewarded in 1990 when, unwilling to man-up and actually force the Democrats to cut spending, he was rolled by them and taxes were increased.  Once again we were betrayed.

In 1994, led by Newt Gingrich we rose again.  We forced the weak kneed moderates to stand up and be counted.  We led our party into dominance over the Democrats and their President.  We set this country on the road to fiscal responsibility and in 2001, for the first time in over 40 years, produced a budget surplus.  Unfortunately, that surplus was short lived as the War on Terror, in Iraq and Afghanistan gave cover for increases in spending across the board.  Again, Conservative principles were sacrificed for political expediency and the Republican Party jumped on the spending gravy train once again.

Now it is 2010.  Since the election of Barack Obama, the piglets sucking at the Federal Teats have increased and the budget deficit, already unacceptable under the Bush administration has swelled to over 1.3 Trillion dollars.

Let's put that into context: $1,300,000,000,000.00 equals $422,077.92 of debt for every man, woman and child in the United States.  That was just for the fiscal year ending this month.

The current federal debt has exploded from $9,985,800,000,000.00 to $13,442,100,000,000.00.  In just two years we have added almost 3 Trillion dollars to our national debt.

Republicans are just as much to blame as the Democrats.  In the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2009, an act that contained over 8,500 "earmarks" in the amount of $7.7 billion dollars.  Only 39 of the 178 Republican House members refused to ask for "earmarks".  The other 139 had their hands out, in line with Democrats, to get their "fair share".

Now, we Conservatives are speaking out again.  We organized the TEA Parties to let our representatives know that we have been Taxed Enough Already.

We spoke out against more spending and more debt.

We put candidates in the Republican Primaries who carried our message.

We ELECTED them, defeating the choices of your party.

You need to understand that we, who have supported you for decades, even after being repeatedly betrayed and ridiculed by you; we are once again taking power.

If you fail to support us; if you abandon us again; if you fail to work for our candidates as we have always worked for yours; if you fail to follow through on your promises to roll back the liberal wave of over regulation and overtaxing; we will remember.  Rest assured we will remember.

To paraphrase one of your candidates, you won't have Conservatives to "kick around" anymore come 2012.

You know, that Jefferson guy was pretty smart!

As most of you know, I am a student of Politics and a lover of History.  When you combine the two, I can reach stages of joy only known by the truly devout of any known religion.

Today, a friend of mine sent me a forward (you know, the ones you usually delete) entitled "How did Jefferson Know?"  Although it sounded a little too much like the whole "What would Jesus Do?" bit, I dutifully scrolled down the page to find quotations from our third President, Thomas Jefferson.  As I read through them, I was astonished at how much prescience he had of what we are facing in our country today.

I will admit that I have always considered Jefferson a bit too much of a "small D" democrat for my tastes.  His support for the excesses of the French Revolution and his call for the spilling of the "blood of patriots and tyrants" from time to time to refresh "the tree of Liberty" was a bit too much for me to really admire him like some other Presidents.  Of course, some of his personal peccadilloes were over the top.  Some were said to have even made Franklin blush.  That must have taken a lot!

I do give him credit for the Louisiana Purchase where he went way beyond the powers of the President but in turn set our country on the path of greatness, and as the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and a major contributor to the Constitution, he deserves the adulation as one of America's greatest presidents.

So, that being said, let us look at some of these Nostradamus like quotes:

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

How many generations of people have we empowered, through government largesse to collect their various welfare payments instead of seeking employment.

Just recently, our Congress extended unemployment benefits to 99 weeks, just 5 weeks short of TWO YEARS, thereby removing the necessity to take a job of "lesser" pay or importance from the one they were released from.  Part of the reason that we have to import labor for the more menial jobs in this country is because even the meanest and poorest of our citizens will do better collecting welfare than actually working for a days pay.

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."


Just in the last two years, not including so called "stimulus" packages and "bail outs" of various industries, unions and states, the base federal budget has INCREASED by nearly 38 percent.  Thousands of new pages of regulations are being written every day to cover everything from egg research to what kind of light bulb you can use.

According to www.regulations.gov, in the first 14 days of this month, 198 new rules have been submitted.  Since January 1st of this year, that number is 4,118.  That my friends is an average of 16 new rules EVERY DAY.  A government that makes that many rules has grown way beyond what our founding fathers envisioned.

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."


The nanny government that is trying to take care of us looks at us as children who don't know any better.  We were told that the more we got to know about the Health Care Reform Act of 2009, the more we would like it.  We were told that we didn't understand properly that borrowing a trillion dollars to spend on make work programs and political and union payoffs would stimulate our economy and create millions of jobs.  Just trust us they said, we'll take care of everything.

You know what?  I was born at night, but not LAST night.

I DON'T trust the government to take care of me, and anyone who does is a fool.

You want to find out who the really smart Presidents are?  Then I encourage you to READ (yes read) Washington, Jefferson, Adams and most of all Reagan.

Inform yourself.  Put on the "whole armor" of truth, knowledge and understanding.  No one can stand against you.

The Rules

In the beginning there were the rules, and the rules were good.

WE learned the rules.

WE were taught to respect our elders.  WE were taught to respect authority.  WE said "Yes Sir" and "No Ma'am".  WE called our friends parents "Mr. Jones" and "Mrs. Smith".  WE said "Please" and "Thank You".  The Policeman was our friend and WE loved and respected our Teachers.

WE played sports and learned that even games had rules.  WE were coached by the parents of our friends and WE were taught about teamwork and sportsmanship.  WE learned that sometimes WE had to "take one for the team" and put our personal achievements behind that of the team.  WE learned that when WE lost, WE should be gracious and congratulate the winners and even when WE won WE should be humble and thank the losers for playing a good game.

WE learned rules from Scouting to "Do your best" and "Be Prepared".  WE were taught to be honest and loyal amongst other things, but always to do the right thing and be honorable and live up to what WE said WE would do.

WE learned rules from Church to "Do unto others" as WE wanted done to us.  WE learned to respect that there was a power greater than ourselves.

Even when WE played with other kids, WE set our rules before WE began.  WE made it clear where "home base" was and what was "out of bounds".  WE knew the difference between playing "two below" and tackle.  WE enforced the rules and followed them.

When WE got to be teens, WE tested the rules.  WE stretched them as far as WE could and yes, even broke a few.  WE got a little wild, but WE always knew the rules were there, and if necessary, WE paid the price for breaking them.

One thing that WE were taught, that WE always believed, even if sometimes WE said WE didn't:

If WE played by the rules and worked hard, WE would succeed.

So eventually WE settled down and played by the rules of the adult.  WE worked hard.  WE minded our own business.  WE took care of our families and expected others to do the same.  WE thought that everything was fine with the world.

But then, small groups of people began to challenge the rules.  They said that this rule wasn't "fair" because everyone couldn't play the game as well as others.  They said that this other rule was "discriminatory" because it kept less able people from playing the game.  They said that some other rule was "racist" because it kept a certain minority from succeeding in the game.  Others said that some rule was "hateful" because failure was cruel and indiscriminate.

WE didn't want to be unfair or bigots or racists or hateful, so WE allowed the people to be exempted from the rules that WE had played by all of our lives.

One morning, WE woke up and realized that WE were the only people playing by the rules anymore.  WE were working hard and contributing our taxes to a government that not only allowed people to avoid the rules, but actually encouraged them to do so.  WE found ourselves being responsible for other peoples mistakes.

WE began to wonder why.

The final straw came, after years of making exceptions for all of the people who for one reason or another, couldn't or wouldn't pay by the rules, WE began to question whether WE could continue to pay more and more of the money that WE earned to take care of a larger and larger class of dependent people.  WE expressed concern that, as a nation, WE could no long continue to borrow money to pay for all of the things that those people wanted

WE were called ignorant, stupid, close-minded, backward. provincial, uninformed, hateful, bigoted, homophobic, xenophobic, islamophobic, and worst of all: racist.  Not just by the people who WE had been so understanding and tolerant with over the years, but by the political leaders that WE elected to office.

Now, WE have finally had enough.

In November, WE THE PEOPLE will have our say, and WE will begin the process of putting the rules back in place.