Category — News

Tea Party Patriots has put together an excellent full-page fact sheet by the same title, summarized here for your convenience. We need help in the following areas:

• Print the fact sheet and post it in a visible location at your place of employment, and share this page with everyone you know.
• Contact the SC congressional delegation and tell them you do not want the debt ceiling raised one penny!

1. We won’t default if we prioritize our spending.

News flash: we will still be collecting taxes even if we don’t raise the debt ceiling, to the tune of $2.2 trillion in 2011 alone. After servicing our debt, that leaves $1.9 trillion to spend on essentials (see “The Debt Ceiling: debunking the myths“).

The Toomey-DeMint Full Faith and Credit Act (S. 163) would direct the Treasury department to prioritize our debt payments to ensure that the US does not default on its obligations.

2. If they raise it, they will spend it.

Enough said. Except to remind you that the debt ceiling has been raised 10 times in the past 11 years.

3. We have been warned to stop the reckless spending.

Both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have warned us that our credit rating will be downgraded if we do not control our debt. China, our primary lender, has had enough of our spending habits. Ruining our credit score will only make borrowing more expensive — if not impossible — a fact of life many American households are already keenly aware of.

4. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel on spending.

If we roll spending back to 2003 levels, we won’t need to raise the debt ceiling, nor will we have to default or leave parts of the government unfunded. Oh and get this: the Federal Government is actually holding $1 trillion in highly liquid assets and natural resources.

We do not have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem. There is no reason whatsoever to raise taxes or the debt ceiling except to grow government.

5. A rising national debt hinders jobs and the economy.

Government displaces private sector jobs. Government tried to create jobs in the 1930s, the 1960s, and the 1970s, and failed miserably.

Since 2009 there are 2 million fewer people employed, while government spending has increased 19%!

Raising the debt ceiling will kill jobs.

PERIOD.

P.S. How would you prioritize spending for Aug.-Dec. 2011?

A great summary from the good folks over at Reason.tv:

by Jacob Sullum

There was a time when Barack Obama seemed more honest than Bill Clinton. While Slick Willie notoriously claimed he smoked pot but “didn’t inhale,” Obama candidly admitted, “When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently. That was the point.”

Lately I have not been so impressed by Obama’s truth-telling tendencies. Three incidents last week vividly illustrated the president’s Clintonian desire to have things both ways, even if it means insulting our intelligence. [Read more →]

By Sen. Tom Davis

A couple of weeks ago, a new congressional plan for South Carolina pushed by the Myrtle Beach business community, in general, and by a Myrtle Beach state representative, in particular, unraveled in the South Carolina Senate. Much to their dismay, the state Senate approved a redistricting plan that creates a new 7th District with the counties of Beaufort, Berkeley and Dorchester — three of the fastest growing counties in the state — as its core. [Read more →]

You may have heard about Rep. David Simpson’s (R-Longview, TX) bill which “would make it a crime of official oppression if federal employees perform a search that involves touching a person’s private parts without probable cause to believe the person has committed an offense.” (Republican!) Texas Speaker Joe Straus was a key player in killing this badly-needed bill.

Becky Acker’s scathing commentary on Texas’ cowardice is worth a read:

Predictably, Simpson’s effort “died in the regular legislative session in the wake of warnings [sic for ‘blackmail’] from federal officials that it would conflict with federal law” – whoa! Who knew federal law allows “touching a person’s private parts without probable cause”? And now that we do know, what will we do about it? – “and could force flight cancellations if the safety of passengers and crew could not be assured.”

This is manure of nauseating degree, Piled High and Deep. “The safety of passengers and crew” is never at greater risk than when the TSA is groping, robbing, beating, and killing victims – to say nothing of when it damages their planes or traumatizes the pilots on whom depend the lives of everyone aboard. Indeed, if the TSA were actually concerned with protecting us rather than its $8.2 billion yearly budget and 60,000 make-work jobs, it would disband tomorrow.

By now, only morons swallow Our Rulers’ lie that the TSA has anything to do with safety….

And this was the real kicker:

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst asked the state attorney general’s office for guidance to ensure the measure is in line with the U.S. Constitution and federal law. You can calculate how far we’ve travelled down the road to serfdom when Our Rulers actually pretend that they must “make sure” legislation barring bureaucrats from pawing us doesn’t conflict with the Constitution. Try to imagine James Madison’s reaction to such insult. Even the anti-Federalists would grab their horsewhips rather than remind Jemmy et al, “We told you so.”

All that, in a Republican-controlled Texas Legislature. I don’t think South Carolina’s Republican-controlled General Assembly would be any better at all. If Speaker Bobby Harrell is any less evil than Texas Speaker Joe Straus, it is only because he is more politic and devious.