Politically Direct
One of the biggest mistakes of President Ronald Reagan was his failure to deliver on a promise to abolish the federal Department of Education.
When you hear someone mention that today, he or she is regarded as a complete nincompoop, who has little regard for children.
Most people don’t remember life before the federal Department of Education. It was created in 1979 by Jimmy Carter and we did quite well without it. Continue reading “The “Core” Problem in Education”
(With Apologies to Clement Clark Moore, Henry Livingston, Jr. or Anonymous)
Twas the night before Cliffmas, when all through the House
Republicans were wondering if their leader was a man or a mouse;
The parameters for the budget talks had been set out with care,
In hopes that a compromise soon would be there.
The taxpayers were uneasy, not snug in their beds,
While visions of higher rates danced in their heads;
And mom with her checkbook and dad with the bills,
Had just settled down with a bottle of pills, Continue reading “Twas the Night before Cliffmas”
He was a charismatic guy with big ears and an important message that resonated with the American people. No, it wasn’t Barack Obama. (He had fuzzy words and no message.) It was Ross Perot 20 years ago.
In 1992, using charts and graphs on 30-minute infomercials funded out of his personal fortune, Perot ran the most successful 3rd party bid for the presidency in a century and received 19 percent of the vote. His message was simple: The country is going broke. We have made too many promises we can’t keep. Our level of spending cannot be sustained. This has to stop!
Unfortunately, there was a major flaw in his show and tell which kept those who interpret the numbers churned out by the government from getting on board and taking him seriously. Some believed he was playing the old political game of “envy and greed” in an effort to win votes. Others thought it an honest mistake. Continue reading “Welcome Back Ross Perot”
One of the saddest moments in a child’s life is when one learns there is no Santa Claus.
That jolly old elf who has a large belly and an even larger bag of toys has brought smiles to children for hundreds of years. It’s his ability to grant every wish, large or small, that causes us to hang our stockings with care and makes us giddy with anticipation every Christmas Eve.
Of course when one is quite small, wishes are of a similar scale and the cost quite nominal. Somewhere between the doll house and the Ford convertible, we got a needed dose of reality. Someone has to pay for all those goodies. Nothing in life is free.
Unfortunately, some people never grow up. For these folks, the federal government replaced the man in the red velvet suit. Continue reading “Killing Santa Claus”
The most important event of the week will be decided on the floor of the House of Representatives.. Unfortunately, it largely will go unnoticed.
It isn’t as tantalizing as those racially-charged protests over the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. It isn’t as emotional as those Supreme Court arguments over the constitutionality of ObamaCare. Nevertheless, it is vitally important to the future of our country and will have an impact on each and every one of us. Continue reading “The most Important Event of the Week, largely unnoticed”
How can you tell if a politician is lying? If his (or her) lips are moving. So goes one of the oldest political jokes. It would not be funny if it were not true.
Barack Obama wants a socialist nanny state. He believes that the government should take care of our every need. Furthermore, he wants the government to define those needs. In order to fund the nanny state, he must redistribute the wealth in the country.
For those who were not paying attention during the 2008 presidential election, Obama campaigned on what he termed “economic fairness” and “social justice.” To the uninitiated, these words may sound benign, but those terms are right out of the play book of Karl Marx. Continue reading “John Boehner is a Hypocrite!”
Newt Gingrich has billed himself as the more “consistent conservative” in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. According to Gingrich, he engineered the 1995 Republican takeover of the House of Representatives, balanced the budget and reformed welfare. If that is the case, why wouldn’t all conservatives want this man in the White House?
In 1994, Gingrich did lead the revolution that enabled Republicans to take control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. However, his record on balancing the budget and welfare reform needs an asterisk. And, sadly, under his leadership, the GOP quickly lost its footing and became part of the problem in Washington.
Under the Contract with America Continue reading “Is Gingrich a “Consistent” Conservative?”
“Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.” Mark Twain
Does a leopard change its spots? Does a tiger change its strips?
Newt Gingrich is what you might call a striped leopard or a spotted tiger. When it comes to what some see as the impending doom of climate change, the former speaker of the House is trying to have it both ways.
On December 20, at a campaign stop in Iowa, he looked more like a deer than a leopard or tiger – a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. When confronted by a woman who expressed concern about a chapter on climate change being written for his post election book on the environment by climate change apologist Katherine Hayhoe, Newt began backpedaling. “That’s not going to be in the book,” he said. “We didn’t know that they were doing that, and we told them to kill it.”
Ah, the proverbial “we.” Who are/is the we? The book’s editor, some unknown puppeteer who is out of sight pulling all the strings or Gingrich himself? Continue reading “Gingrich reignites Climate Change Controversy”
One of the most familiar comic strips in history has Peanut’s character Lucy holding the football for gullible Charlie Brown. It has been repeated again and again. We all know what is going to happen. At the very last moment Lucy will pull the football out of the way and Charlie Brown, with his full force behind the kick, goes sprawling.
It’s all very funny. Why does Charlie keep falling for Lucy’s promise that she will never, ever do this again? Still we laugh. We can’t seem to get enough of it. Why? Because it mirrors real life.
We the people are Charlie Brown, Congress is Lucy and our ballooning national debt is the football. Continue reading “Suckers!”
If we learn anything from the Solyndra debacle it’s that the government should not be in the business of making loans, period!
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is now investigating the allegations of improper dealings between the White House and the failed energy company. Taxpayers would be better served if Congress simply would vote to end all government-backed loan programs.
Fat chance! These government-backed projects represent a mother-lode of campaign contributions for both political parties. Continue reading “The Takeaway from Solyndra”
Jane Chastain 