CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Marco Rubio: deficit spending risking the American dream

Today the American Dream is threatened by out-of-control politicians in Washington who think that more government deficit spending is what it takes to grow our economy. -- Marco Rubio

In today's Weekly Republican address, Florida Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio talks about how the American Dream is threatened by out-of-control, deficit spending Washington politicians:

Today the American Dream is threatened by out-of-control politicians in Washington who think that more government deficit spending is what it takes to grow our economy. That has never worked anywhere it’s been tried and it won’t work now.

Rubio has a better understanding than most of us that the risk to the American dream is real:

Now for some it may be hard to imagine that the American Dream could actually be at risk, but as the son of exiles I know firsthand that it is possible to lose your country because my parents lost theirs.

Rubio reminds us what needs to be done to correct the course big government deficit spending has set:

1. Washington needs to realize that politicians don’t create jobs -- jobs are created by everyday who start a new business or grow an existing one. Government needs to create an economic climate that encourages the job creators.
2. Washington needs to stop spending more money than it takes in.
3. ObamaCare must be repealed and replace it with a plan that will lower health insurance costs for Americans without bankrupting the nation -- a system that promotes competition, allows people to keep the coverage they already have, and gives individuals the same tax breaks that businesses get when they buy healthcare insurance for their employees.

Watch the video of former Representative Rubio's address:

You can read the full transcript of Rubio's address below:

Hi, I’m Marco Rubio.

It’s an honor to talk to you today about the direction of our country.

About the decisions being made in Washington that will determine what kind of nation we leave to our children.

America is the greatest country in the history of the world. But that didn’t happen by accident and it won’t continue automatically.

Today the American Dream is threatened by out-of-control politicians in Washington who think that more government deficit spending is what it takes to grow our economy. That has never worked anywhere it’s been tried and it won’t work now.

Now for some it may be hard to imagine that the American Dream could actually be at risk, but as the son of exiles I know firsthand that it is possible to lose your country because my parents lost theirs. They came to America with virtually nothing.  My Mom worked as a factory worker, a maid and a stock clerk at Kmart. My Dad was a bartender. They made many sacrifices so we would know opportunities they never did.

But you see our story is not unique. It’s the story of America. It’s our history. It’s our common heritage.

Will we remain that type of country? Well that depends on the decisions we make right now. America’s greatness is threatened by the economic policies coming from Washington, D.C. Simply put, they are taking us in the wrong direction. But it’s not too late to do something about it.

You know, for the last two years I’ve traveled Florida, listening to the concerns of everyday Americans, and discussing ideas to bring real change to Washington.

And over and over, I heard the same message.

Like most Americans, Floridians are frustrated with arrogance in Washington.  And they have had enough of the failed stimulus, of record deficits, of reckless spending, and of economic policies that are killing jobs.

You know, since the stimulus was passed, more than 200,000 Floridians have lost their jobs. And for the first time in our history, more than one million Floridians are out of work.

People have every right to be upset. But in the midst of this frustration and anxiety, there is also great resilience.

Tired of finger pointing and sound bites, they want real solutions. They want an alternative to the direction Washington is taking our country and that alternative really isn’t all that complicated.

First, Washington needs to realize that politicians don’t create jobs. Jobs are created by everyday people from all walks of life who start a new business or grow an existing one. The job of government is to create an economic climate that encourages the job creators.

But the policies coming from Washington are scaring the job creators. They have created tremendous uncertainty about the future.

And that’s why we must prevent the massive tax hikes set to take effect at the end of the year.  Tax increases which would be the largest in America’s history.

And it’s time, once and for all, to abandon ideas like cap-and-trade and card check.

Second, we need Washington, D.C., to stop spending more money than it takes in.

And that means ending the failed stimulus and using the leftover funds to pay down the debt.

And finally, we must repeal ObamaCare and replace it with a plan that will lower health insurance costs for Americans without bankrupting the nation.

Replace it with a system that promotes competition, allows people to keep the coverage they already have, and gives individuals the same tax breaks that businesses get when they buy healthcare insurance for their employees.

We are truly at a crossroads. Our children will either be the most prosperous Americans ever, or they will be the first to inherit a diminished country.

If we stay on the road Washington has us on right now, we will lose our exceptionalism and our country will become no different than any other country in the world.

But if we embrace free enterprise, if we accept spending discipline, well then America’s future will be brighter than her history. And we will secure for our children what they deserve to inherit. The greatest nation in all of human history.

Thank you for listening, God bless you and your family, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.

Obama admin gives illegal aliens backdoor amnesty

The so-called backdoor amnesty for illegal aliens is no longer merely another bad idea from the Obama administration. According to the Houston Chronicle, the Department of Homeland Security is trying to dismiss thousands of deportation cases against "suspected illegal immigrants."

The Chronicle reports the Obama amnesty effort began "about a month ago" in Houston, where the Department of Homeland Security now has five attorneys working full-time on this backdoor amnesty for illegal aliens. The amnesty program is expected to be rolled out nationwide soon.

Senator John Cornyn blasted the Obama amnesty:

This situation is just another side effect of President Obama's failure to deliver on his campaign promise to make immigration reform a priority in his first year. Until he does, state and local authorities are left with no choice but to pick up the slack for prosecuting and detaining criminal aliens.

Earlier this year, President Obama affirmed his support for the Schumer/Graham immigration legislation outline.

Obama ran for president promising secure borders, increased number of legal immigrants, to remove incentives for illegal immigration, and to allow undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.

President Obama promised to make immigration reform a top priority of the first year of his presidency. When Obama backed away from that promise, Politifact rated his promise stalled.

As I have said before, Amnesty for illegal, whether it is backdoor or contained in a comprehensive reform bill, sends a simple message - get into the United States anyway you can because eventually you will be legalized. That message will be heard loud and clear just as it was with the adoption of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 ("IRCA"). That "immigration reform" legalized four million illegal aliens. IRCA was a monumental failure. Twenty years later there millions of new illegal aliens to legalize.

Congressman Djou takes on Washington spending in GOP Weekly Address

For every problem facing our nation, the answer from Washington has been to spend and spend, and -- if that doesn’t work -- spend some more. -- Congressman Charles Djou

In this week's Weekly Republican address, Congressman Charles Djou talks about Washington's habit of spending too much, borrowing too much, and taxing too much:

For every problem facing our nation, the answer from Washington has been to spend and spend, and -- if that doesn’t work -- spend some more. The current administration in Washington told us that borrowing and spending billions would create jobs "immediately" and keep unemployment from exceeding 8%. They were wrong. Instead, we’ve lost millions of jobs and unemployment remains near 10%.

No price tag has been too high for Washington, and now we’re all paying the price. Altogether, we now owe more than $43,000 for each man, woman and child in the United States. That is a frightening number.

Even more frightening is the fact that the current administration in Washington intends to use this fiscal crisis to impose job-killing tax hikes on families and small businesses. But we will not fix the deficit until we cut spending and have real economic growth -- and we will not have real economic growth if we keep raising taxes on small businesses. According to the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, Congress’s official tax scorekeeper, half of small-business income in America will face higher taxes under the president’s plan.

If we keep spending too much, borrowing too much, and taxing too much -- if we keep doing the same things, we’re going to get the same dismal results. It’s time to change direction.

Djou also talked about the Republicans' plan to cut $1.3 trillion in Washington spending.

Watch the video of Congressman Charles Djou's address:

You can read the full transcript of Djou's address below:

I’m Congressman Charles Djou.

Ninety days ago, I earned the privilege of serving the people of Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District. Of course, it didn’t take me nearly that long to figure out that Washington does a lot more talking than listening -- and a lot more spending than saving.

For every problem facing our nation, the answer from Washington has been to spend and spend, and -- if that doesn’t work -- spend some more. The current administration in Washington told us that borrowing and spending billions would create jobs "immediately" and keep unemployment from exceeding 8%. They were wrong. Instead, we’ve lost millions of jobs and unemployment remains near 10%.

No price tag has been too high for Washington, and now we’re all paying the price. Altogether, we now owe more than $43,000 for each man, woman and child in the United States. That is a frightening number.

Even more frightening is the fact that the current administration in Washington intends to use this fiscal crisis to impose job-killing tax hikes on families and small businesses. But we will not fix the deficit until we cut spending and have real economic growth -- and we will not have real economic growth if we keep raising taxes on small businesses. According to the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, Congress’s official tax scorekeeper, half of small-business income in America will face higher taxes under the president’s plan.

If we keep spending too much, borrowing too much, and taxing too much -- if we keep doing the same things, we’re going to get the same dismal results. It’s time to change direction. It’s time to listen.

All throughout this month, Republicans have been meeting with our constituents to hear their concerns. These town-hall meetings are part of our America Speaking Out project, which gives Americans a megaphone to make their voices heard and share their solutions for turning things around.

To participate in this nationwide effort, all you have to do is log on to AmericaSpeakingOut.com, post an idea of your own, or comment and vote on someone else’s. As we speak, thousands of ideas are percolating on America Speaking Out.

As part of this national conversation, Republicans have proposed better solutions to provide the fiscal discipline economists say is needed to get Americans working again.

Led by Congressmen Paul Ryan [of Wisconsin] and Jeb Hensarling [of Texas], Republicans on the House Budget Committee -- a panel on which I serve -- have identified more than $1.3 trillion in Washington spending we can cut right now. From canceling unspent "stimulus" funds and TARP bailout money to freezing government pay and government hiring, these common-sense proposals recognize that what our economy needs is more private sector jobs, not more public sector programs.

Of course, this is just a start. Much more needs to be done to make sure Washington has gone on its last spending spree, but these are steps we can take right now to demonstrate to taxpayers at home and allies abroad that America is serious about getting its fiscal house in order.

When Congress returns in September, Speaker Pelosi should bring our $1.3 trillion in proposed spending cuts to the floor for immediate consideration. Even if the powers-that-be in Washington do not support less government and less spending, they should at least provide those of us who do with a chance to give the American people the common-sense fiscal discipline they are demanding.

Visit AmericaSpeakingOut.com to learn more and have your say. May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America. Aloha and Mahalo.

Combat brigades still in Iraq, but now called 'advise and assist brigades'

Seven years after President Bush declared an end to major combat operations, President Obama claimed our combat mission in Iraq will end this month. On cue, the mainstream media dutifully reported the withdrawal of the last combat brigade from Iraq.

That was last week. As with all things Obama, the storyline reported by the mainstream media obfuscates the truth. Now, via the Army Times, we learn that the 50,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq include seven "Advise and Assist Brigades," two air combat brigades and two National Guard infantry brigades. The "Advise and Assist Brigades" are distinguished from "full" combat brigades by additional training prior to deployment:

The Army has three different standard brigade combat teams: infantry, Stryker and heavy. To build an Advise and Assist Brigade, the Army selects one of these three and puts it through special training before deploying.

The smoke and mirrors re-designation allows the "advisory" brigades to retain an inherent capability to conduct offensive and defensive operations. These brigades can shift operational focus from security force assistance to combat operations as required.

In other words, Obama just gives combat brigades still deployed in Iraq a new designation and declares the combat mission over.

Republicans are going to win the House back in November

In an interview with the wall street Journal's Jerry Seib, Charlie Cook the editor and publisher of the Cook Political Report, says it unequivocally:

I think Republicans are going to get the House back.

Republicans need a net gain of 39 seats to win back control of the House. Cook's current "conservative" estimate is that they are in line for a 35 to 45-seat gain:

But frankly, I think we're being very conservative with that. The odds of it being higher than that range are a lot better than lower.

In the interview, Cook explains that this midterm election will be a wave:

There are two kinds of elections." There's sort of the Tip O'Neill all-politics-is-local, and then there are wave elections. We're seeing just every sign in the world that this is going to be a wave, and a pretty good-sized wave.

The November elections will be a wave election because of the Democrats' extreme agenda.

Watch at least the first few minutes of the interview:

The NRSC reveals Dems as extremists

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has launched a devastating video demonstrating that it is the Democrats that are out of the mainstream:

Extreme?

57% think Democrat agenda is "extreme"

60% favor repeal of ObamaCare

56% disapprove of Obama's performance

61% favor Arizona-like law in their state

68% oppose Ground Zero Mosque

65% angry at federal government policies

65% say America is on the wrong track

Now, who was it again who's extreme?

Suing Arizona

Siding against 9/11 families

$3 trillion tax hike

$1.5 trillion deficit

$13 trillion debt

$2.5 trillion health care takeover

Mr. President, that's extreme.

Pat Toomey talks about the wasteful and extravagant spending of the Democrats’ extreme agenda in GOP Weekly Address

Our national strength does not come from bailouts and government spending. It comes from a free enterprise system and the hard-working honest citizens who make it run. -- Pat Toomey

In this week's Weekly Republican address, Republican Senate candidate and former Representative Pat Toomey talks about the wasteful and extravagant spending of the Democrats’ extreme agenda.

Toomey succinctly lays out the problem Obama and the Democrats have created:

All these bailouts, takeovers and spending sprees leave us with a weak economy without job growth and with a mountain of debt for our kids.

Then Toomey lays out what needs to be done to stop the Democrat-controlled federal government to stop causing even more harm:

1. Stop digging -- don't spend the hundreds of billions of dollars that have not yet been spent in the bailout and stimulus programs.
2. Offer American families and businesses the kind of tax cuts that will stimulate genuine private sector job growth, instead of the billions of tax increases the Democrats have already imposed and the more that they are threatening -- make the current tax rates permanent instead of raising them at the end of the year.

There is a reason Toomey is leading in the U.S. Pennsylvania Senate race.

Watch the video of former Representative Toomey's address:

You can read the full transcript of Toomey's address below:

Hi, I’m Pat Toomey from the great state of Pennsylvania, and I’m pleased to have this opportunity to share a few thoughts with you today.

Like a lot of Americans all around the country, I really believe America is at a crossroads. I’ll always be optimistic about America. We’re too strong a people and too good a country to be held back for long. But I am deeply concerned about the direction we’re heading in right now. That direction is being driven by extreme policies that are coming from one-party domination of government in Washington. And this extreme ideologically driven agenda is preventing the strong economic recovery and job creation that we should be having.

It’s time we put some real checks and balances back in place this November.

Let’s take a minute to review what’s happened in just the last 18 months. First, there were the ill-advised taxpayer funded bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the car companies. Now, to be fair, the bailouts were begun under the previous administration; but the crew that’s in charge now ramped them up when it was perfectly clear that they were not accomplishing what they were supposed to.

Next, we had the so-called stimulus bill. Nearly a trillion dollars in new Washington spending, including some egregiously wasteful spending, like $2 million to study exotic ants and $30 million for a spring training baseball complex, among hundreds of other ridiculous items. Now we were told that this monster spending bill would create jobs and keep unemployment below 8%. Well, since then we’ve lost nearly 3 million more jobs and the unemployment rate hit 10%, and in some states it’s still well above that. Over 14 1/2 million Americans remain out of work.

But even that was not enough for the one-party extremists in Washington. After that, they went ahead and rammed through a $2-trillion healthcare bill, that even the official budget scorekeepers say will actually increase the cost of health insurance for individuals and families. And that’s not to mention the very serious consequences for healthcare quality of imposing government in between doctors and patients.

Now where do all these bailouts, takeovers and spending sprees leave us?

They leave us with a weak economy without job growth and with a mountain of debt for our kids. 

Washington spending as a percentage of our country’s economic output has grown by 25%--practically overnight. That extravagant spending has caused a budget deficit for this year alone of $1 1/2 trillion dollars. That’s a staggering amount of debt. In fact, this Democratic administration is projected to create more debt than all the debt we accumulated in the entire history of our country from George Washington all the way through 2008, combined.
 
So where do we go from here?

Well, the first thing we need to do is eliminate the threats from further harmful legislation. Some elements of the Democrats’ extreme agenda have not yet been implemented, and if we want to create jobs, we need to keep it that way. For example, Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to impose a massive energy tax on all of us through a cap-and-trade bill and to take away workers’ rights with a Card Check bill. Well, first and foremost, Washington needs to stop causing even more harm.

Second, you know, there’s an old saying: When you’re in a hole, stop digging.

There are hundreds of billions of dollars that have not yet been spent in the bailout and stimulus programs. We should stop spending that now.

There are billions more in completely unnecessary and wasteful Washington spending that should stop immediately.

And finally, we need to offer American families and businesses the kind of tax cuts that will stimulate genuine private sector job growth, instead of the billions of tax increases the Democrats have already imposed and the more that they are threatening. To start, we should make the current tax rates permanent instead of raising them at the end of the year. And we should cut capital gains taxes to encourage business investment. Even prominent Democrats have recently said the last thing we should be doing in a recession is to raise taxes. 

Now, I have every confidence that the 21st century can be another great American century. And I know we can have a booming economy.  But to get there, we have to remember the source of our national strength. Our strength does not come from bailouts and government spending.

It comes from a free enterprise system and the hard-working honest citizens who make it run—the kind of industrious folks I see every day in Pennsylvania. When government lets these folks grow their businesses and work hard without putting obstacles in their way, that’s when we will achieve the flourishing recovery our country deserves. I’m Pat Toomey, and I thank you for listening.

Failing Dems try to "f*ck" the Tea Party movement

This morning I received a disgusting email from Trevor FitzGibbon of fitzgibbonmedia.com signed by Erica Payne ([email protected]) founder and president of some entity called The Agenda Project. According to Politico's Ben Smith, this is a so-called "progressive group with roots in New York's fundraising scene."

The sophomoric email asked me to suspend civility:

Set aside your good manners, your tolerance, your measured understanding of policy differences, and your earnest do-gooder ideas for a [sic.] just a moment to join me in telling the Tea Party what you really think of them.

The email proudly announces that the "F*ck Tea Movement" was launched at Netroots, a.k.a. Nutroots, and was a "major presence" at the College Dems' annual convention. Enough from these defenders of civil discourse. You get the picture.

As most RedStaters understand, the Tea Party is a popular grass roots movement of Americans so offended by the efforts Obama and his leftwing supporters to lurch the country far to the left that they have taken to politics. They are as mad as hell and aren't going to take it any more. Because of this the Tea Party movement is perceived as a threat to those pushing Obama's extremist agenda. 

As they did when threatened by the elevation of Governor Sarah Palin to the national stage, Democrats have resorted to demonization to attempt to discredit the Tea Party movement and remove the threat.

The Democrats failed efforts to disparage the movement have included:

• Incorrect and unsubstantiated assertions that the Tea Party movement was Tea Party movement was the astroturf creation of corporate groups.

• Attempts to infiltrate the Tea Party movement.

• Attempts to paint the Tea Party Movement as racist.

• Attempt to convince voters to equate the Tea Party Movement with the GOP.

Having miserably failed in all these efforts the Liberal/Progressive Democrats now try another despicable campaign -- this desperate "f*ck" the Tea Party Movement campaign.

Tell Erica Payne what you think of her campaign to "f*ck" the Tea Party movement. But please try to keep it civil. 

Marco Rubio takes Harry Reid to task for Reid's latest racist slur

Harry Reid once again demonstrates that it is that it is OK to be a racial bigot, so long as you are a leftwing racial bigot.

"I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, OK? Do I need to say more?" -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), August 10, 2010

Earlier this year we learned that, in 2008, Reid suggested that Obama’s success was due in part to his "light-skinned"appearance and ability to turn on/off his "Negro dialect." Because Reid is a leftwing bigot, the biased main stream media wing of the Democrat party gave Reid a pass for his racist remarks about Obama. In case it is necessary to point out the double standard here, just think for a moment about what happened to former Majority Leader Trent Lott over more innocuous comments.

Fortunately there are alternatives to the JournoList-controlled media. Fox News' "Fox and Friends," gave Florida's Republican U.S. Senate nominee Marco Rubio --a Republican of Hispanic heritage, an opportunity to respond to Reid's latest "outrageous" and "ridiculous" racial slur. Watch the Video:

It's outrageous. It's ridiculous.

You know, Americans of Hispanic descent, you know the strongest issue there is? That is economic empowerment--upward mobility. My parents worked every single day to work to give me and my siblings opportunities that they didn't have.

There's only one economic system in the world that that's possible in time and again and that's the American free enterprise system. And the reason why Americans of Hispanic descent should be Republicans is because the Democratic leadership is trying to dismantle the American free enterprise system--the only system in the world where parents like mine, who work hard and play by the rules, can give their children the opportunities they themselves did not have.

[. . .]

The point is [Reid's] wrong. The fundamental issues of this campaign are no different for Americans of Hispanic descent than they are for anybody else: and that's economic empowerment and the desire to be able to live in a country where, if you work hard not only can you do better for yourself, you can leave your children better off than you were.

There is a reason that Rubio now leads in the polls. Too bad Senator Reid is too bigoted to see why a person of Hispanic heritage would choose to be a Republican.

Obama vs. Obama - Afghanistan edition

In the following devastating video, Huffington Post Video Editor Ben Craw, combines clips of Senator Obama questioning Rice about Iraq in January 2007 with comments President Obama has made about his own Afghan exit strategy in a speech in March 2009, an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" in March 2009, an address to the nation in December 2009, remarks to the troops in Afghanistan in March, an interview with ABC in April, and an appearance on ABC's "The View" in July:

I can't decide which is more infuriating, that the biased media wing of the Democrat party gives Obama a pass on such outrageous inconsistency, or that Obama always tries to be on both sides of so many issues. Just how stupid does the JournolLst crowd think the American people are?  

Like Obama has done with issue after issue, his "new strategy" for the War in Afghanistan tries to have it both ways. Obama's strategy is a Bush-like surge, but with a timetable for ending, not winning the war.

I remain an unrepentant supporter of the war against terror the Islamic extremists have forced upon us, but I find it very hard to support Obama's Afghan "new strategy" because of his misguided artificial withdrawal date. As I have written before, a war our leaders are not willing to fight to win, is not a war we should fight. 

Also posted at Right Side Politics (Examiner).