Congress

The Social Decay That We See All Around Us Is Absolutely Breathtaking

Throughout human history we have seen great nations rise and fall, and for many of them it was not actually an external threat that took them down. When the social decay inside a society gets bad enough, it is just a matter of time before that society falls apart. That is why what is happening to the United States is so deeply troubling. Everywhere around us there is evidence that the social order in this country is rotting. At one time we were the most respected nation on the entire planet, but now we have become the laughingstock of the world. And instead of setting a good example for the rest of us, our leaders are some of the greatest examples of corruption and filth.

Our founders would be absolutely nauseated if they could see what our federal government has become today. There is so much corruption in Congress that nobody is really fazed when yet another scandal breaks. This week, the public learned about the twisted sexual adventures of Democratic congresswoman Katie Hill, and there isn’t that much public outrage because we have come to expect this sort of thing from our representatives. The following is how the Daily Mail summarized some of the key facts in this case…

  • Hill was pictured kissing and brushing her young female staffer’s hair, who DailyMail.com can identify as Morgan Desjardins from Santa Clarita, California
  • The then 22-year-old began a throuple relationship with Hill and her husband Kenny Heslep shortly after she started working for Hill in 2017
  • Texts and photos between Hill, Heslep and Desjardins reveal their throuple was steamy at first, but ended with Hill leaving them ‘high and dry’
  • The congresswoman was also seen posing naked while smoking a bong on 9/11 in 2017, as a tattoo of a Nazi-era Iron Cross on her bikini line is on full display

It has also come out that Hill and her husband posted nude photos of her on “wife sharing” websites in 2016.

Is this really who we want representing us in Washington?

Hill has also been accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with legislative director Graham Kelly. At first she lied and completely denied it, but after a ton of evidence came out she was finally forced to admit what happened…

On Tuesday, Hill said she did not have a relationship with legislative director Graham Kelly, but she walked back that account the next day, saying in a letter to constituents that she got involved with Kelly “during the final tumultuous years of my abusive marriage,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

“I know that even a consensual relationship with a subordinate is inappropriate, but I still allowed it to happen despite my better judgment,” the letter read.

Having a sexual relationship with a subordinate is so serious that it could potentially get Hill kicked out of Congress, but if she survives she will probably be re-elected in 2020.

So far, it is mostly Republicans that are calling for her to resign, but that is only because she is a Democrat.

When the extremely disgusting sexual behavior of Republican members of Congress is brought up, all of a sudden “conservatives” have all sorts of excuses about why they should be allowed to stay in office.

If you only condemn sexually immoral behavior when a member of the other party does it, you are a hypocrite.

Speaking of weird and twisted sexually behavior, it is certainly not limited to members of Congress. For example, just check out what a Florida man recently did in the toy department of a Target store…

A man has been arrested for having sex with a stuffed ‘Olaf’ snowman toy in front of horrified shoppers at a Target store in Florida.

Cody Meader was detained on Tuesday afternoon after repulsed eyewitnesses claim they saw him ‘dry-humping’ the large snowman toy from Disney’s ‘Frozen’ at the store in St Petersburg.

I am almost hoping to find out that we was on drugs, because nobody in their right mind should ever do such a thing.

What is wrong with us? It is almost as if a large percentage of the population has been transformed into drooling zombies without any social awareness whatsoever.

This next story is perhaps even more disturbing. In one county in Georgia, a group of sex offenders is suing the sheriff because he was putting signs in their front lawns warning children not to trick-or-treat at their homes…

A group of sex offenders in the U.S. state of Georgia are suing a sheriff’s department after local authorities placed “No Trick-Or-Treat At This Address!!” signs on the front lawns of their homes.

While Butts County Sheriff Gary Long claims that the move is meant to keep children safe on Halloween, the pedophiles claim that the move was unjust and violates their rights to privacy and free speech.

But I haven’t shared the most shocking part of this story with you yet.

Last October, the sheriff put up more than 200 warning signs because there are that many registered sex offenders that live in his relatively small county…

On September 24, attorney Mark Yurachek filed a complaint on behalf of plaintiffs Christopher Reed, Reginald Holden, and Corey McClendon, all of whom served prison time for sexual offenses against children. The court filing accuses the sheriff’s office of putting up warning signs on the front lawns of over 200 registered sex offenders in the county last October.

Unfortunately, this is not an anomaly.

Today, there are more than 859,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, and that number is growing rapidly each year.

Switching gears, what would an article about social decay be without at least some discussion of the human feces in our streets?

Normally I bring up examples on the west coast, but today let me share with you what has been happening in downtown Miami…

“The situation is the worst I’ve seen in my 25 years here,” said business owner Jose Goyanes. “The stench is really bad, even after you hose it down. We see people urinating against buildings or pulling their pants down and squatting because they have nowhere else to go.”

Deposits of human waste can be seen in planters, doorways, gutters — or right in the middle of the block. The pavement behind the old Macy’s department store is soaked with urine. Feces ferment in front of vacant storefronts for days when there’s no landlord to clean up. People who work and live downtown are calling in a Code Brown.

Sadly, this is a perfect metaphor for what is happening to the country as a whole.

We need to call a “Code Brown” on the entire nation, because America is rapidly being transformed into a rotting, decaying cesspool of filth, corruption and wickedness.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I can only allow this to happen if this “About the Author” section is included with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of this website. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.

Guy dressed up like the Monopoly Man sat directly behind Google CEO Sundar Pichai as he was grilled by Congress

This is too funny! While Google CEO Sundar Pichai was being grilled by Congress on Tuesday, a guy that was wearing a top hat, a fake handlebar mustache and a big bag of money was sitting directly behind him.  This was definitely the highlight of the testimony, because the rest of it was rather mundane…

Questions on privacy, data collection, China, Russia —and especially political bias — dominated Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s grilling before Congress Tuesday.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy opened the House Judiciary Committee hearing by noting a “widening gap of distrust” between tech companies and the American people. He asked whether tech companies are “serving as instruments of freedom or instruments of control” in the U.S. and beyond.

Nobody seems to know who the guy in the costume was, but it definitely made a statement.

Radical Leftist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Shocks The New York Political Establishment By Defeating Congressman Joe Crowley In Tuesday’s Primary

She was outspent 18 to 1 and she wasn’t supposed to have a chance, but radical socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has done it.

She beat Congressman Joe Crowley, and now she will almost certainly be the next member of Congress from one of New York’s most liberal districts…

Crowley became the highest-profile Democrat to lose a primary this year, and the highest-ranking House member to lose an intra-party fight since Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost in 2014. Crowley, the longtime Democratic Party boss in Queens, had not faced a primary challenger in over a decade. But Ocasio-Cortez’s activist campaign overran Crowley’s old-guard support and cast more uncertainty on the future of Democrats’ leadership in the House.

Ocasio-Cortez, 28, challenged Crowley on ideological, generational and racial grounds, arguing that the 10-term congressman was not in step with his majority-minority district and was too cozy with corporate donors. A former Bernie Sanders organizer, Ocasio-Cortez campaigned on abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and pushing the Medicare-for-all bill championed by Sanders.

This is yet another indication that the Democratic Party is rapidly shifting left, and that is really bad news for the future of our country…

This Man Threatened To Kill A Congressman’s Kids Over Trump’s Immigration Policy

This is yet another sign that our nation is becoming ungovernable…

A Stuart man was arrested Tuesday after a federal complaint states he threatened U.S. Rep. Brian Mast’s children over the Trump administration’s child-separation immigration policy.

Laurence Key called Mast’s Washington office Monday and said, “I’m going to find the congressman’s kids and kill them,” an intern who took the call told the FBI, according to a federal complaint filed in U.S. District Court. “If you are going to separate kids at the border, I’m going to kill his kids.”

Key is charged with communication of a threat to kidnap or injure a person in regard to Mast’s children, a girl and two boys younger than 8.

Congressman Mast is a U.S. military veteran and a double amputee.  He served our nation with distinction and does not deserve this sort of treatment.

This is one of the reasons why good people don’t run for office anymore.

A Potential Government Shutdown Is Literally Just Hours Away, But Congressional Leaders Insist That Everything Will Be Just Fine

Either the Republicans are going to give Democrats virtually everything that they want, or the federal government will shut down at the end of the day on Friday. We have been through this process time after time, and in every single instance the Republicans have always folded like a 20 dollar suit. Unfortunately, it looks like the Democrats are going to win big this time around too. The spending agreement is essentially an updated Obama budget that fully funds Planned Parenthood, that contains no money for a border wall, and that doesn’t reflect any of President Trump’s other important priorities either. On Thursday, the House is expected to pass this horrible bill, and the Senate is expected to take up the matter on Friday. According to Bloomberg, right now this plan would keep the government open through December 22nd…

The House Rules Committee approved a rule setting the bill up for a floor vote Thursday, after which the Senate will have until the end of the day Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown. A formal check of how members would vote on the Dec. 22 deadline came back showing widespread support, said Representative Dennis Ross, a member of the vote-whipping team.

So even if this plan gets through both the House and the Senate, we will be facing another government shutdown deadline in just a few weeks.

And every time one of these deadlines approaches, the Democrats use it as leverage to get what they want. In addition to getting a spending agreement that is extremely lopsided in their favor, many Democrats want to use this current deadline to pass the DREAM Act before the end of 2017. In fact, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Dick Durbin, Elizabeth Warren and Corey Booker have all said that they will not vote in favor of any spending agreement unless it includes the DREAM Act.

Emboldened by their past successes, Democrats are asking for more than ever this time around. But if we are just going to hand the Democrats whatever they want every time, what is the point of even having elections? In 2016 we gave the Republicans control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, and yet the Democrats just keep winning over and over again. This is deeply infuriating, and grassroots conservatives all over the country are sick and tired of Republicans acting like spineless jellyfish.

Fortunately, we do have a man with a spine in the White House, and it sounds like he has absolutely no intentions of giving in on the DREAM Act. The following comes from NBC News…

“Democrats are really looking at something very dangerous for our country. They are looking at shutting down, they want to have illegal immigrants, in many cases people that we don’t want in our country,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We don’t want to have that, we want to have a great, beautiful, crime-free country.”

If the Democrats stand firm on their demands, there is a very real possibility that we could have a government shutdown, and federal agencies are already preparing for one. When the government shuts down, it only affects about 13 percent of the federal government, and we don’t actually need most of that 13 percent anyway.

So even though the mainstream media would be totally freaking out, it definitely would not be the end of the world.

If you don’t remember the last government shutdown, the following is a pretty good summary of what would happen that was published by Newsweek…

If the shutdown does occur this weekend, the effects will be felt immediately. All nonessential employees of the federal government will stay home until further notice, and some will stop receiving paychecks. Refunds from the IRS could be delayed, as could the State Department’s passport service. Most air-traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration security will continue to go to work, but there won’t be as many as them so air-travel will be slower. Members of Congress will have limited staff and won’t be as responsive (well, as responsive as they normally are) to constituents. And after 10 days without a spending bill, federal courts will close.

Obviously it would be a good thing to avoid a government shutdown, but it is exceedingly foolish to give the Democrats whatever they want just to keep things functioning normally.

In case you are wondering, I would definitely vote “no” on the bill that is currently going through the House of Representatives. I will not vote in favor of a spending bill that explodes the size of the national debt, that funds Planned Parenthood and that contains no money for a border wall. I am never going to compromise on my most important principles, and any Republican that caves in and gives the Democrats whatever they want just to avoid a government shutdown should be ashamed of themselves.

Sadly, the Democrats have done a very good job of selling their story to the American people, and at this point most Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of a compromise…

Sixty-three percent say members of Congress should avoid a shutdown at all costs. Only 18 percent of voters surveyed say members should allow a temporary government shutdown if it helps them achieve their policy goals. The remaining 19 percent of voters are undecided.

Of course “compromise” means giving in to the Democrats on virtually every single point. There are many things that the Democrats will never, ever compromise on, and that is why they keep on winning over and over again.

Most Republicans have been compromising for so long that most of them don’t even stand for anything any longer.

It is time to kick out the corrupt professional politicians and replace them with a new generation of leaders that are willing to stand up for us. We will have a chance to do that in 2018, and we must not squander this opportunity.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Faces Of Evil: Bill Clinton, Al Franken, Charlie Rose and Glenn Thrush All Face New Sexual Misconduct Allegations

Have we entered a time when justice will begin to prevail in America? For decades, celebrities, politicians and those in other positions of power have been engaging in very serious sexual misconduct, and victims have felt powerless to do anything about it. But now thanks to Harvey Weinstein, the dam appears to be breaking and all of a sudden a flood of allegations is coming out. On Monday, we learned of brand new accusations against Bill Clinton, Al Franken, Charlie Rose and New York Times journalist Glenn Thrush.

Let’s start with Thrush, because many find his case to be the most ironic. The New York Times is supposed to be a paragon of political correctness, and yet it is being alleged that one of their most highly decorated reporters has been sexually harassing women for a very long time…

Vox interviewed multiple women who alleged sexual misconduct against Thrush, including unwanted groping and kissing.

Laura McGann, the editorial director at Vox and the author of the story, described an incident at a bar five years ago, when she and Thrush were colleagues at Politico.

“He slid into my side of the booth, blocking me in,” she wrote. “I was wearing a skirt, and he put his hand on my thigh. He started kissing me. I pulled myself together and got out of there, shoving him on my way out.”

She wrote that she found a “pattern” in Thrush’s behavior through interviews with other women.

Thrush has already been suspended by the New York Times, and this is likely the end of his journalistic career.

Meanwhile, eight different women have come forward to accuse Charlie Rose of making “unwanted sexual advances”…

And just minutes ago, the Washington Post reported that eight women have come forward to accuse legendary Emmy-winning broadcast journalist Charlie Rose made unwanted sexual advances toward them, including lewd phone calls, walking around naked in their presence, and groping their breasts, butts or generals.

The women were either employees or aspired to work for Rose at “the Charlie Rose Show”. The alleged harassment spans from the late 1990s to as recently as 2011. The women ranged in age between 21 to 37 at the time the harassment took place. Rose, 75, has a show that airs on PBS. He also co-hosts “CBS This Morning” and is a contributing correspondent at “60 Minutes”.

Like Thrush, Rose has been suspended by both CBS and PBS, and his journalistic career is probably over too.

Moving over to the world of politics, a second woman has come forward to accuse Senator Al Franken of sexual misconduct. According to Lindsay Menz, Al Franken put his full hand on her bottom as they were taking a photo together at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010…

As her husband was getting ready to take their picture, Menz says that Franken ‘pulled me in really close, like awkward close’ and then ‘put his hand full-fledged on my rear’.

‘It was wrapped tightly around my butt cheek. It wasn’t around my waist. It wasn’t around my hip or side. It was definitely on my butt. I was like, ** ** ***, what’s happening,’ she said.

She said the moment last four seconds, and that immediately after the photo was taken, she left Franken’s side without saying a word.

This took place a full two years after Franken had already been in office, and it may be the final nail in the coffin that finally forces him to resign.

Meanwhile, four new women have come foward to accuse former president Bill Clinton of sexual harassment. The following comes from the Daily Mail…

The new allegations refer to incidents that took place more than 10 years ago, in the early 2000s, when Clinton was hired by Ron Burkle, the playboy billionaire investor, to work at his Yucaipa companies.

Clinton helped Burkle generate business and flew around the world with a flock of beautiful young women on Burkle’s private jet, which was nicknamed ‘Air **** One.’

The four women, who have not yet revealed their identities, were employed in low-level positions at the Burkle organization when they were in their late teens and claim they were sexually assaulted by the former president.

After all these years, is the truth finally starting to catch up with Bill Clinton?

Of course Clinton and Franken are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sexual misconduct in Washington. As I wrote about yesterday, 264 cases of sexual harassment in Congress have been settled since the beginning of 1997, and the total amount of money paid out in those settlements has been $17,250,854. The American people deserve to know who was accused of sexual harassment in all of those cases, because it was taxpayer money that was used to pay all of those settlements.

In my new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters”, I talk about the consequences of turning our back on God as a society. Just about every form of evil that you can possibly imagine is multiplying all around us, and we definitely need to turn back to God.

But the fact that light is being shined in some very dark places gives me hope. I truly do believe that we can change this nation, and that includes taking back our very corrupt government.

It is when things are the darkest that light is needed the most, and let all of us rise up and be lights at this very dark time.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Since 1997, 264 Cases Of Sexual Harassment In Congress Have Been Settled For A Total Of $17,250,854

We finally have the official numbers, and they aren’t pretty. Reid Wilson, a correspondent for the Hill, has posted to Twitter a year by year breakdown of sexual harassment settlements and awards that he received from the Congressional Office of Compliance. I went ahead and added up each column, and what I discovered is that 264 cases of sexual harassment in Congress have been settled since 1997, and the total amount awarded in those settlements comes to a grand total of $17,250,854.

So where has the $17,250,854 come from to pay those settlements?

That money has come from the taxpayers of course. That means that you and I have been paying to cover up the epidemic of sexual harassment that has been taking place on Capitol Hill.

When U.S. Representative Jackie Speier originally told us that more than 15 million dollars had been paid out to victims of sexual harassment in recent years, I was envisioning a few dozen cases at most.

I had no idea that the total number of cases would actually be well over 200.

If our leaders were serious about stopping this from happening, they would pass a law making it mandatory that all cases of sexual harassment in Congress be made public, and that members of Congress would be personally responsible for paying out any settlements.

If such a law was instituted, I guarantee you that sexual harassment on Capitol Hill would come to a screeching halt.

But they don’t want it to stop. For many in Congress, having so many attractive young women around is one of the key benefits of the job. I included the following quote from CNN in an article the other day, but I also believe that it fits just perfectly here…

In an environment with “so many young women,” said one ex-House aide, the men “have no self-control.” “Amongst ourselves, we know,” a former Senate staffer said of the lawmakers with the worst reputations. And sometimes, the sexual advances from members of Congress or senior aides are reciprocated in the hopes of advancing one’s career — what one political veteran bluntly referred to as a “sex trade on Capitol Hill.”

Do you want to stop this from happening?

It isn’t going to stop until we boot out the corrupt career politicians that are engaging in this type of behavior. So I am asking you to support my campaign and other “grassroots deplorables” that are running for office all over the nation.

Morality really matters when it comes to serving in public office, and we are not going to send people that engage in sexually inappropriate behavior to Washington anymore.

And I am calling on Congress to immediately release the details of all of the 264 cases of sexual harassment that have been settled since 1997. The American people have a right to know, and those that engaged in this type of behavior do not have a right to hide.

It is time to drain the swamp, and this would be a really good place to start.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

The Curtain Is Being Pulled Back In Washington D.C., And Al Franken Is Just The Beginning

For decades, Americans have known that very sick things happen behind the scenes in Washington D.C., but the mainstream media nearly really talks about any of it. But now the curtain is starting to be pulled back, and the revelations about Al Franken are just the beginning. Earlier this week, I wrote an article about how “sexual harassment is rampant in the halls of Congress”, and that was before a female radio anchor named LeeAnn Tweeden revealed that Al Franken had “forcibly kissed” and groped her during a USO tour in 2006. The following comes from an article in which Tweeden shared her story…

I couldn’t believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep.

I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated.

How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it’s funny?

I told my husband everything that happened and showed him the picture.

I wanted to shout my story to the world with a megaphone to anyone who would listen, but even as angry as I was, I was worried about the potential backlash and damage going public might have on my career as a broadcaster.

But that was then, this is now. I’m no longer afraid.

When the story initially broke, Franken rushed to issue an apology…

“I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann,” said Franken. “As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”

Needless to say, many were completely unsatisfied with Franken’s very weak statement. In fact, some members of his own party said that his apology was entirely insufficient and are calling for Franken to be held accountable for his actions…

Guy Cecil, the former head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and now the boss of a leading Democratic super PAC, voiced his frustration with the inadequacy of Franken’s apology on Twitter.

“That was not an apology and was an insufficient response to serious allegations,” Cecil tweeted. “Al Franken must be held accountable if our party wants to live up to our commitment to women & girls.”

This scandal has set off a feeding frenzy as Internet sleuths search for other incidents in which Franken has acted inappropriately. And of course since we are talking about Al Franken, it wasn’t exactly difficult to find material.

For example, a photo has surfaced of Franken grabbing Joy Behar in a very creepy manner. The following comes from Breitbart…

Amid the emergence of a 2006 photo of Al Franken groping journalist and talk radio anchor Leeann Tweeden, a photo of the embattled Minnesota Senator appearing to grab comedian Joy Behar’s breast has also resurfaced.

Franken was a comedian before he ever entered the world of politics, and we understand that. But just because he was a comedian does not mean that he gets to play by a different set of rules.

There appears to be an ongoing pattern of behavior, and Fox News has documented some of the other incidents that have come up in the past…

Franken, then a comedian, was quoted in a 1995 New York Magazine article discussing a skit for “Saturday Night Live” that involved drugging and raping CBS reporter Lesley Stahl. Franken, at the time a writer for “SNL,” suggested one skit should play out with “60 Minutes” commentator Andy Rooney finding an empty pill bottle on his desk.

“’I give the pills to Lesley Stahl. Then when Lesley is passed out, I take her to the closet and rape her.’ Or ‘That’s why you never see Lesley until February.’ Or, ‘When she passes out. I put her in various positions and take pictures of her,’” Franken was quoted saying.

The article, along with a 2000 Playboy column in which Franken talked about fantasizing a machine would perform oral sex on him, was used to attack Franken during his 2008 Senate campaign in Minnesota.

As much as we may be appalled by some of the things that Al Franken has done, the truth is that there are far worse offenders in Washington.

Let’s talk about Bill Clinton for a moment. Democrats have been covering up his sexual crimes for years, and my hope is that now this will start to change. Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Connie Hamzy, Eileen Wellstone, Sandra Allen James, Christy Zercher, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, Gennifer Flowers, Elizabeth Ward Gracen, Sally Perdue, Lencola Sullivan, Susie Whitacre and Bobbie Ann William are some of the women that have made allegations against Clinton, and if even half of their allegations are true Clinton should be in prison for the rest of his life.

In my article yesterday, I discussed how one Secret Service agent is charging former Vice-President Joe Biden of engaging in “Weinstein-level” behavior, and I also talked about how 15 million dollars in settlements have been secretly paid out to victims of sexual harassment in the House of Representatives in recent years.

There is a culture of corruption in Washington D.C., and we desperately need to drain the swamp. If you agree, I hope that you will support my campaign and the campaigns of other anti-establishment candidates that want to clean up the halls of Congress.

It is time to take our government back, because at this point it has become an absolutely disgusting cesspool of filth and corruption.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Another Reason To Drain The Swamp: Sexual Harassment Is Rampant In The Halls Of Congress

Did you know that the House of Representatives has paid out $15,000,000 to victims of sexual harassment in recent years? I am going to share some things with you in this article that are deeply disturbing, but it is for a purpose. The status quo is not acceptable in Washington, and once people truly understand how deep the corruption runs I believe that they will get motivated to finally drain the swamp once and for all. So yes, I am going to share some things in this article that are truly disgusting, but the goal is to show you that it is time to take our government back from the corrupt career politicians that are completely and utterly out of control.

In recent days, CNN has interviewed dozens of people that worked on Capitol Hill, and almost every single one of them had stories of sexual harassment to share…

CNN spoke with more than 50 lawmakers, current and former Hill aides and political veterans who have worked in Congress, the majority of whom spoke anonymously to be candid and avoid potential repercussions. With few exceptions, every person said they have personally experienced sexual harassment on the Hill or know of others who have.

In an environment with “so many young women,” said one ex-House aide, the men “have no self-control.” “Amongst ourselves, we know,” a former Senate staffer said of the lawmakers with the worst reputations. And sometimes, the sexual advances from members of Congress or senior aides are reciprocated in the hopes of advancing one’s career — what one political veteran bluntly referred to as a “sex trade on Capitol Hill.”

The American people are not going to put up with this any longer.

We have no choice but to clean up our government, because the rest of the world is laughing at us.

On Tuesday, U.S. Representative Jackie Speier told a congressional hearing that she personally knows of two current members of Congress that have “engaged in sexual harassment”…

“In fact there are two members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, right now, who serve — who have…engaged in sexual harassment.”

Speier said one of the harassers has propositioned women with the comment, “Are you going to be a good girl?” Another has exposed his genitals, she said, and some victims have had “their private parts grabbed on the House floor.”

“All they ask in return as staff members is to be able to work in a hostile-free work environment. They want the system fixed and the perpetrators held accountable.”

And Speier was the one that revealed the fact that 15 million dollars have been paid out to victims of sexual harassment in the House in recent years. The following comes from Breitbart…

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press Daily on Tuesday that the U.S. House of Representatives has paid $15 million to alleged victims of sexual harassment by its own members in recent years.

“We do know there is about $15 million that has been paid out by the House on behalf of harassers in the last ten to 15 years,” she said.

“15 million dollars has been paid out over sexual harassment claims,” Todd replied, somewhat shocked. “So, obviously more than one member of Congress.”

If members of Congress are engaged in this type of behavior, why don’t the American people know about it?

And why are those members of Congress still allowed to serve?

Representative Barbara Comstock also testified on Tuesday. She said that one current member of Congress exposed his private parts to a female staffer when she delivered papers to his house…

Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) said at a House Administration Committee hearing on Tuesday that a sitting member of the U.S. Congress exposed himself to a young female staffer who delivered papers to his house–at his request.

We need to be told who this member of Congress is so that he can be removed from Congress immediately.

This kind of behavior is not acceptable from anyone in a civilized society – and that goes double for someone that is supposed to be one of the leaders of our nation.

Here are the exact words that Comstock used as she described this incident…

This member asked a staffer to bring them over some materials, to their residence. And the young staffer — it was a young woman — went there and was greeted with a member in a towel. It was a male, who then invited her in. And at that point, he decided to expose himself. She left, and then she quit her job. She left, she found another job.

Of course this sort of behavior is not just limited to members of Congress. According to an ex-Secret Service agent, Vice-President Joe Biden was regularly engaged in “Weinstein-level” predatory behavior…

An ex-Secret Service agent is claiming that former Vice President Joe Biden engaged in “Weinstein-level” sexual assault and that he would walk around the VP residence late at night completely naked.

According to Big League Politics’ Cassandra Fairbanks, a Secret Service agent who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed that Biden “would mess with every single woman or teen,” and that a Christmas get-together at the VP’s house had to be canceled “because Biden would grope all of our wives and girlfriend’s asses.”

In fact, things were so bad that at one point a Secret Service agent almost got into a fight with Biden. Here is more from Paul Joseph Watson…

During one alleged incident in 2009, Biden cupped the breast of a Secret Service agent’s girlfriend during a photo, prompting the agent to shove Biden and almost hit him. The agent was subsequently suspended for a week, according to the source.

Men would often stand in front of female agents and Navy women or create false pretenses to have them leave the room just to get them away from Biden, according to the agent.

When I am elected to Congress, I am going to make fighting this sort of predatory behavior a top priority.

We are supposed to serve as an example to the rest of the world, and instead we have become a bad joke.

Those that have been engaging in this sort of shameful behavior have got to go, because we simply are not going to put up with it anymore.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

I Have Only Been Running For Congress For 2 Weeks And I Am Already Being Attacked Viciously By The Left

I always knew that politics was a dirty game, but I didn’t know that running for Congress would be like running into a nest of angry hornets.  When I decided to do this, I told my readers that I would keep them updated on what I am learning, and one of the things that I am learning is that people can be really mean.  So far, every cuss word in the book has been thrown at me, I have been told that I should leave the state, and people have even been saying absolutely horrible things about my wife and daughter.  I am tough and can take the abuse, but it isn’t right to attack family.

Many of the attacks are not fit for public consumption, so in this article I just want to share some of the milder attacks that are more focused on the issues.

I knew that my extremely strong Pro-Life stand was going to upset a lot of people, and that is definitely turning out to be the case.  Here is one example from Facebook…

“Let’s be real. Our nation is in a moral decline and giving lectures to foolish young folk after they crave attention and love just isn’t going to work . Let’s force the unmarried girls to have the child and then be sure to punish them by no social satety net so the girl and child die in the street. The Tea Party folk need real answers to real social problems.”

If we ban abortion, women and children are not going to be dying in the street, and that certainly wasn’t the case before abortion was legalized in 1973 either.

Another issue that many have brought up is Obamacare.  I believe that it should be fully repealed, and obviously those on the left are not going to agree with that.  The following was sent to me by email…

“Sure, go ahead and repeal the Affordable Care Act, just as soon as you can come up with an economically and ethically viable alternative. The fact that Republicans have had 7 years to come up with a plan, and six months to pass it, and have completely failed is not only and embarrassment to the party, it’s a testament to their inability to govern.”

I will admit that the Republicans in Congress have completely fumbled the football when it comes to health care, and hopefully they can get their act together soon.

Some of the attacks from the left have actually made me smile.  I had one leftist make a gift to the ACLU in my name, and I could at least appreciate his sense of humor.

Other attacks have left me scratching my head.  On The Economic Collapse Blog, one of my readers left a comment criticizing me for being too much like Ron Paul…

“Many of your positions are laudable and good, but your views regarding the Federal Reserve are way off the mark and you need to think those through with an understanding as what the Federal Reserve is and is not. The very same is true regarding the IRS as NOBODY is going to vote for defunding the US government which desperately needs MORE FUNDING (or massive spending cuts) not less. Your views on those issues like Ron Paul would DESTROY THE US ECONOMY nearly overnight and have ZERO CHANCE of getting any voter instance at all and are the key reasons why Ron Paul got practically no voter support at all.”

Actually Ron Paul kept his House seat in Texas in election after election, and when he ran for president he became one of the most popular politicians in the entire country.

And abolishing the Fed is actually part of the Idaho GOP platform, so obviously a lot of Republicans up here think that it is a really good idea.

More than anything else, it is my faith that has been the subject of the most attacks up to this point.  Here is one example from an email that I received…

“Was this nation founded by Bible-believing Christians? For the most part, yes. At the very least they believed in a higher power. However, your claim that “the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were birthed out of the values and principles found in the Word of God” is false. If American and Biblical values are one in the same, what’s the need for a Constitution? You think God supports freedom of religion, free speech, the democratic process, or has a problem with cruel and unusual punishment? I fully support your right to lead your personal life according to whatever religious beliefs you might hold; you do not have the right to enforce those beliefs on the populace as a whole through the government. That would be a theocracy, and that practice is unquestionably not in line with American values.”

And that same individual saved his greatest vitriol for President Trump…

“Then the Electoral College put Donald Trump in office. A complete political neophyte. An undeniable narcissist. A liar. A thug. A serial sexual predator and misogynist. They elected a person who sees his own daughter as a sexual object. A person who upon meeting a 10 year old girl immediately thinks about how long it will be until he can have sex with her. Someone who openly admits that he hasn’t matured emotionally since the age of 6. Someone so delusional that he admits under oath that he estimates his net worth based upon how he feels that day. A person that expresses his desire to physically assault people who speak out against him. He stated during the campaign that he would rarely leave the White House, but he’s spent 1/3 of his time in office at his properties, usually a golf course, and not in the White House. He dismisses any claims of having a conflict of interest between his personal businesses and his elected position, but the membership fees have gone up at his properties since his election and he implies that foreign governments will get favorable treatment if they stay at his hotels. You want the president to be a moral compass for this country, yet he’s been married 3 times and has cheated on all of them. Religious hucksters claim that Trump is a great Christian, but Trump himself admits that he has never asked forgiveness for anything.”

This shows why fake news is such a problem.  This particular individual believes a whole bunch of things about Trump that are simply not true, but they are passed around by leftists as if they are facts.

Like I said, in this article I have shared with you some of the milder attacks.  But before I end this article, I want to share with you an excerpt from an attack that was sent to me by email that was of a particularly nasty nature.  I have censored out the cuss words, but even so I still cringe when I read it…

“By the way, I just found out that you and your **** wife have a little **** brat. To be honest, you’re a **** Trump supporting tool who believes all his ****. I wish you and your damn family pain, suffering, and a miserable life. In conclusion, **** you, **** your **** wife, **** your **** daughter, and most importantly, **** Donald Trump and Melania “Tramp”. Furthermore, **** America and **** all your fake attempts to save it.”

This is what it is like to run for office guys.

In my new book I talk a lot about forgiveness, and of course I forgive everyone that has said horrible things about me and my family.

But I also hope that politics in America can be cleaned up, because right now a lot of good men and women are afraid to run for office because of all the nonsense.

I will continue to share what I am learning with you guys as I go through this process.  So far, it has been a very, very eye-opening experience.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Kid Rock Is Running For Senate – And Maybe You Should Run For Public Office Too

Would Kid Rock make a good U.S. senator? When asked if a website promoting his potential run was real, he responded by tweeting that the answer is “an absolute YES”. Of course no official announcement has been made yet, but Kid Rock says one may be coming very soon. Many Republicans have been urging him to run against incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow, and it looks like this may actually happen. Thanks to Donald Trump’s election victory last November, a lot of celebrities are starting to realize that they might be able to be successful in politics too. Even now, there are rumors that Mark Zuckerberg, The Rock, Katy Perry and Oprah Winfrey may all be considering running for president in 2020, and it would be a shock if we didn’t see at least a few “unconventional candidates” shoot for the White House next time around.

Considering the clown show that the Senate has already become, it is hard to imagine things getting much worse. If you want to see the website that has been set up for Kid Rock’s campaign, you can find it right here. Apparently his primary slogan is “Are You Scared?”

Some may dismiss this as a publicity stunt, but apparently Kid Rock is quite serious about running…

Famed rocker and admitted Republican Robert Ritchie — aka “Kid Rock” — tweeted Wednesday that he has been asked repeatedly about whether he is going to run for office, specifically for the U.S. Senate. His response? “Absolute YES.”

Ritchie has been vocally supportive of Republican politicians in the past, including President Donald Trump, whom he endorsed during the 2016 presidential elections. Ritchie recently made headlines when he visited the White House with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and fellow rocker Ted Nugent. The photos that came out of the visit prompted nasty comments from many on the left.

When you go to his website, you will notice that nothing is said about the issues. This is so typical of what you will find on many campaign websites these days, and that is why I have tried to be completely different. Instead of playing “hide and seek” with the issues, candidates should come out and tell people exactly where they stand so that voters can make informed decisions.

So where does Kid Rock stand? Well, apparently he is not really that conservative. The following comes from Fox News…

Rock, an outspoken conservative, endorsed Mitt Romney for president during his 2012 campaign. He told The Guardian in 2015 that he’s a Republican on certain issues, but leans toward the middle on others.

“I am definitely a Republican on fiscal issues and the military, but I lean to the middle on social issues. I am no fan of abortion, but it’s not up to a man to tell a woman what to do. As an ordained minister I don’t look forward to marrying gay people, but I’m not opposed to it,” Rock said.

Obviously this is not the kind of candidate that a lot of us are going to be able to get behind.

In fact, I have unequivocally stated that I will never support any Republican candidate that does not pledge to vote against any bill that contains even a single penny of funding for Planned Parenthood.

But if good people don’t run, we are going to end up with whatever we get.

If you think that Nancy Pelosi, John McCain, Al Franken, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Lindsey Graham and the rest of our Congress critters are doing a great job, then no action is required.

However, if you are sick and tired of the mess in Washington, I encourage you to join us in trying to do something about it.

I am trying to do my part by running for Congress here in Idaho. I am just an ordinary person that has never run for public office before, but at least I am putting myself out there.

And maybe you should consider running for something in 2018 too.

One of the big things that I am trying to do is to inspire good people to run for public office all over the nation. Because getting one person elected is only going to have a very small impact, but if hundreds of good people start winning elections all over the country that is really going to start changing things.

There is never any guarantee of success. When our founders decided to rebel against the mighty British Empire, the rest of the world thought that they were crazy. But instead of listening to the doubts, they put everything they had on the line, and as a result the United States of America exists today.

And whoever thought that Donald Trump would become the president of the United States? When he first announced his candidacy, the mainstream media mocked him relentlessly. They treated him like a huge joke, and hardly anyone believed that he actually had a prayer of winning the Republican nomination.

Jeb Bush had 100 million dollars and nearly the entire Republican establishment on his side, and Trump smashed him because Trump simply had a much better message.

So would you consider getting involved? If you feel like you absolutely cannot run for something, then at least get involved in the campaign of someone that you do feel like you can back.

If we do nothing, there is no hope for America. Because if this nation stays on the path that it is currently on, it will crash and burn.

What we need is a second American revolution. Instead of a revolution with guns and bullets, what we need is a revolution of ideas, values and principles.

So many of us (including myself) have bitterly complained that we never have anyone good to vote for. And we can continue to do so, or we can take matters into our own hands and start running for these offices ourselves.

A lot of people believe that America is too far gone and that we shouldn’t even try to fight the death of our country.

But I believe that it is never too late to shine a light in the darkness, and I plan to keep proclaiming the truth for as long as I possibly can.

And I hope that as many of you as possible will join with me, because otherwise the clowns will just keep on winning over and over again.

(Originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog)

When I Found Out How Members Of Congress Really Spend Their Time, I Just About Threw Up

Did you know that many members of Congress spend three or four hours a day “dialing for dollars” in cramped call centers that both parties have set up in Washington?  I promised that I would keep all of you updated on what I am learning as I run for Congress, and what I learned the other day just about had me losing my lunch.  I always imagined members of Congress spending long hours in their offices working on legislation and other important matters, but the truth is that most members of Congress are little more than glorified telemarketers at this point.  Winning the next election is everything for most of these Congress critters, and so they spend far more time making cold calls to potential donors than doing anything else.

Have you ever had a politician call you up in the middle of the day begging for money?  It is an absolutely disgraceful thing to do, but the truth is that money is the number one factor in determining election outcomes, and so our professional politicians have an endless appetite for it.

Every two years, more than a billion dollars is spent on congressional elections, and those that are masters at raising money just keep winning over and over again.  Something desperately needs to be done to fix our fundamentally flawed system, but neither party seems to have any desire to take the money out of politics.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about the fact that the U.S. House of Representatives will only be in session for 147 days this year.  But even on those days, members of Congress are not exactly spending much time doing what they were elected to do.

During an interview with 60 Minutes, U.S. Representative Rick Nolan told Norah O’Donnell that members of Congress are expected to spend about 30 hours a week “dialing for dollars” in their respective call centers…

Rep. Rick Nolan: Well, both parties have told newly elected members of the Congress that they should spend 30 hours a week in the Republican and Democratic call centers across the street from the Congress, dialing for dollars.

Norah O’Donnell: Thirty hours a week?

Rep. Rick Nolan: Thirty hours is what they tell you you should spend. And it’s discouraging good people from running for public office. I could give you names of people who’ve said, “You know, I’d like to go to Washington and help fix problems, but I don’t want to go to Washington and become a mid-level telemarketer, dialing for dollars, for crying out loud.”

This is utterly shameful, and if I end up getting elected I will never do it.  In fact, I will push legislation to ban this practice.

Former U.S. Representative David Jolly was also interviewed by O’Donnell, and he admitted to her that Republican members of Congress are actually given a telemarketing script to use while making these calls…

Simply by calling people, cold-calling a list that fundraisers put in front of you, you’re presented with their biography. So please call John. He’s married to Sally. His daughter, Emma, just graduated from high school. They gave $18,000 last year to different candidates. They can give you $1,000 too if you ask them to. And they put you on the phone. And it’s a script.

In 2013, new Democratic members of Congress were given a “model schedule” for how they should be spending their time.  On that model schedule, two hours a day were allocated for “committee/floor”, and four hours a day were allocated for “call time”.  In other words, those members of Congress were expected to only devote two hours a day to doing the jobs they were elected to do and four hours a day to making telemarketing calls.

If we ever want to end this disgraceful system we need to take matters into our own hands.

Shortly after I announced that I was running for Congress, I was given a list of thousands of names in my district.  It is the same list that other politicians are getting too.  Even at this moment, people are having their dinners interrupted by desperate politicians that are “dialing for dollars”.

If this ever happens to you, write the name of that politician down and never vote for that individual again.

I have pledged not to participate in this shameful system, and if I get the chance I will work to abolish it.  Yes, every campaign needs funding, but making telemarketing cold calls to people at home is not the way to do it.

In fact, these politicians are actually trained to interrupt you during lunch and dinner because those are apparently some of the best times for raising money.

And these call centers in D.C. are as bad as you are probably imagining.  The following is more from former Representative David Jolly…

It is a cult-like boiler room on Capitol Hill where sitting members of Congress, frankly I believe, are compromising the dignity of the office they hold by sitting in these sweatshop phone booths calling people asking them for money. And their only goal is to get $500 or $1,000 or $2,000 out of the person on the other end of the line. It’s shameful. It’s beneath the dignity of the office that our voters in our communities entrust us to serve.

Jolly is precisely correct.

Any politician that makes these sorts of calls is acting in a completely shameful manner.

If we don’t get the money out of politics, we are just going to end up with a bunch of sleazebags in Washington that spend most of their time on the phone bugging people for money.

Is that what we want?

Do we really want our laws to be made by those that can prove that they are the best telemarketers?

Nobody is supposed to talk about these things, and I suppose that this is yet another article that is going to get me into trouble.

But I don’t care.  Our system is deeply broken and it needs to be fixed.  Hopefully by shedding some light on these issues I have moved the ball in the right direction.

One Of The Main Reasons Congress Is Getting So Little Done Is Because They Will Have 218 Days Off In 2017

Would you like to have a job that gave you 218 days off a year?  According to the official calendar put out by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the House of Representatives will only be in session for 147 days in 2017.  And that is actually an increase from last year.  In 2016, there were only 131 legislative days for the House.  So if you are wondering why Congress never seems to get anything done, this is one of the biggest reasons.  The sad truth is that members of Congress simply do not spend a lot of time doing what they were elected to do.

If you are an average American worker with a full-time job, you probably put in around 240 working days a year.  If you have to work that hard, why can’t Congress?

And actually things used to be even worse.  The New York Times looked back at 2013 once it was done, and they found that the House was only in session for 942 hours for the entire year.  When you break that down, it comes to about 18 hours a week.

If you go all the way back to 2006, there were just 104 legislative days in the House.  It is almost as if they just decided to take pretty much that whole year off.

This is what I am talking about when I say that we need to “flush the toilet”.  Those that are fortunate enough to be chosen to represent us in Washington should be some of the hardest working people in the entire country, and unfortunately we are getting just the exact opposite.

In the past there have been efforts to make members of Congress work full work weeks, but those efforts have always ended up failing…

Some attempts have been made to force members of Congress to work full weeks. In 2015, for example, a Republican lawmaker from Florida, Rep. David Jolly, introduced legislation that would have required the House to be in session 40 hours a week when members of the House were in Washington, D.C.”A work week in Washington should be no different than a work week in every other town across the nation,” Jolly said at the time. Jolly’s measure failed to gain traction.

Congress gets especially lazy during the summer months.  Many Americans don’t realize that every year Congress takes the entire month of August off.  And actually, the House will be on vacation from July 29th all the way to September 4th in 2017.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had the entire month of August off every year?

This year, U.S. Senator David Perdue is proposing that the August vacation be canceled because there is so much for Congress to do.  According to Senator Perdue, there are five major tasks that need to be accomplished by September 30th…

First, we have to complete the work on the first phase of repealing Obamacare and fixing our health care system.

Second, we have to pass a budget resolution that will work within the reconciliation process for changing the tax code.

Third, we have to use the appropriations process to fund the federal government by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

Fourth, we have to deal with our debt limit. The Treasury Department has used extraordinary measures to buy time since the national debt hit its limit of $19.8 trillion in March.

Fifth, we have to finally act on our once-in-a-generation opportunity to change our archaic tax code, but we will only be able to do so if we achieve the first four priorities.

If those things don’t get done in time, members of Congress should not expect the voting public to have any sympathy for them.

Of course there are many that would argue that members of Congress actually work very hard and that they need all of that time off to “serve their constituents”.  The following comes from Snopes…

Members of Congress have two jobs: represent their constituents and govern. These responsibilities do not always go hand in hand. Representing constituents means speaking with them in person, holding town hall meetings, organizing rallies, attending to casework, and otherwise being present in the district or state they represent. This is not easily done from a Washington office. Supporting or opposing legislation is an important part of a member’s’ job. However, it does not come close to capturing members’’ range of responsibilities. This is why even when Congress is out of session, members are at work. Most members of Congress work a five-to-six-day week. The representative aspect of Congress’’s job is almost completely ignored in these statistics.

Yes, without a doubt it is important for members of Congress to go back and interact with those that elected them.

But at the end of the day their main job is to do the work that they were elected to do.

And even when they are in Washington, many of these Congress critters are spending much of their time on activities that have nothing to do with legislation.  For example, in his new book entitled “Giant Of The Senate”, Senator Al Franken admits that he often spends much of his day on the phone raising money…

“It’s not uncommon to have three straight hours of call time scheduled as part of your day. … It’s brutal.”

This is why we need federal term limits.  If members of Congress were not so busy constantly raising money for their next elections maybe they would have time to actually get something done in Washington.

In November the American people gave the Republicans control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.  Enormous amounts of time, money and energy went into those campaigns, and now we want to see some results.

Instead of flying off for a month-long vacation in August, Congress should stay in town and get to work.  The Republicans have already wasted much of the first half of 2017, and the mid-term elections are right around the corner.

It is time to change the way that Washington works, because right now we have a system that is deeply broken.

The Way Congress Is Handling Health Care Shows Why They Only Have A 17 Percent Approval Rating

The Senate health care bill was unveiled on Thursday, and it appears to be dead on arrival. At least four conservative senators say that they can’t vote for the current version because it doesn’t go far enough, while several moderate Republicans are expressing concerns that it goes too far in repealing popular Obamacare provisions. You can read the full text of the bill here. Since Democrats are going to be united in voting against any bill that the Republicans put forward, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can only lose two Republican votes if he wants something to pass. I don’t know how that is going to be possible, and so in the end we may be stuck with Obamacare for the foreseeable future and that would be a total disaster.

It is astounding to me that Republicans don’t want to pass the exact same clean Obamacare repeal bill that they got to Obama’s desk in 2016. If they got that same bill to Trump’s desk, he would sign it. Instead of trying to do everything at once, just repeal Obamacare and then start working on various pieces of the health care system one at a time.

According to Real Clear Politics, Congress currently has an average approval rating of just 17.6 percent. It is an institution that has failed the American people over and over again, and we are never going to move things in a positive direction in this country until we do something to clean up that cesspool of filth and corruption.

If we truly want to fix health care in this country, we need to rebuild the entire system from the ground up based on free market principles. But of course the bill that was just unveiled in the Senate simply tries to patch up the system we already have, and that ultimately won’t work…

The bill is very similar to the version of the House bill that passed last month but with some key changes. The text released Thursday showed the Senate legislation would still make major changes to the nation’s health care system, repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate, drastically cutting back federal support of Medicaid, eliminating Obamacare’s taxes on the wealthy, insurers and others. The Senate plan however would keep Obamacare’s subsidies to help people pay for individual coverage.

One thing that is good about the Senate bill is that it would eliminate Medicaid reimbursements for Planned Parenthood for 12 months, but of course this is something that would need to be made permanent as soon as possible.

A more detailed list of major changes that the Senate bill makes was posted on Zero Hedge…

  • Gives subsidies illegal immigrants if they are working in the United States
  • Subsidies based on 350% Federal Poverty Level, not 400%.
  • Gets rid of business and consumer mandates with no penalty
  • Qualified plans don’t need to provide abortion coverage unless it’s to save the life of the mother
  • Each state gets 15-10 Billion for uninsurables
  • Cadillac tax is gone
  • OTC med tax is gone
  • HSA penalty tax is 10%
  • Prescription tax is gone
  • Medical device tax is gone
  • Business owners can deduct part d expense again
  • Deductible medical expenses are back to 7.5% instead of 10% AGI
  • Tanning tax is gone (ironic)
  • Net investment tax is gone
  • HSA deductibility will be adjusted every year for COLA
  • Both spouses can now make catch-up contributions to a family HSA
  • 60 day limitation to setting up an HSA account when first getting the plan for purposes of a current claim
  • No coverage for abortion clinics
  • Repeal of cost-sharing subsidy
  • MLR set by states
  • Grants for states battling opiod addiction (like mine)
  • CHIP is reauthorized
  • $5,000 app fee to create small business association health pool
  • Psychiatric coverage is limited to institutionalized individuals only, and for stays up to 30 days but not to exceed 90 days
  • The Senate draft health-care bill doesn’t currently include a provision penalizing people who don’t maintain continuous coverage

Overall, the Senate bill would be a bit of an improvement over Obamacare.

But a slight improvement over a major disaster is still a disaster.

Shortly after the bill was unveiled, four conservative senators announced that they cannot vote for the bill the way that it stands now…

However, four conservative Republican senators —Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah— said they “are not ready to vote for this bill” because it does not go far enough in repealing Obamacare. Separately, moderate GOP Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada said he has “serious concerns” about the bill’s impact on Medicaid patients.

“Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor,” Paul, Cruz, Johnson and Lee said in a joint statement. “There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current health care system, but it does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs.”

On the other end of the spectrum, a couple of RINO (Republican in name only) senators are expected to object to the bill because it would reduce funding for Planned Parenthood…

The Senate bill would cut Medicaid funds from organizations that provide abortions for one year. It does not mention Planned Parenthood by name, but the legislation is clearly targeting the organization, which Republican leaders have promised to defund.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have both expressed concerns about any legislation that defunds Planned Parenthood. Murkowski said Thursday she was still reviewing the bill’s provisions.

President Trump says that the Senate bill is not a finished product and that it is open for negotiation.

But I don’t see how in the world anyone is going to be able to craft something that will be acceptable to at least 50 Republicans in the Senate.

Unfortunately, even if the Republicans pass a health care bill somehow it will not fix the giant mess that our system has become.

One step in the right direction would be to legalize the kind of national buying groups that Rand Paul has proposed…

Imagine if the tens of millions of people who belong to Credit Unions, or organizations like the NRA or ACLU, could negotiate as a group for health insurance and drug prices! Imagine the insurance executives and drug companies coming on bended knee to negotiate for the business of tens of millions of people!

I have proposed legalizing nationwide Association Health Plans. My Senate Bill 222 does just that. I have advised the President to act through his Secretary of Labor to review existing law and make it explicitly known that national associations can negotiate as one to bring down insurance prices.

And I would also like to see an expansion of direct primary care and other models that bypass the health insurance companies entirely.

The health insurance companies collectively make a profit of 15 billion dollars a year, and they are a big part of what is wrong with our current system.

There is so much that needs to be done to fix things, and both parties are failing the American people.

So let’s hope that we can remove a lot of these incumbents in 2018, because we definitely need some fresh thinking in Washington.

(Originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog)

‘When I say cut taxes, I don’t mean fiddle with the code. I mean abolish the income tax and the IRS, and replace them with nothing’

The quote in the headline comes from Ron Paul, and it should be the goal of every conservative lawmaker in the entire country. When professional politicians tell you that they are in favor of reforming the tax code or reducing taxes a little bit, essentially what they are telling you is that they are perfectly fine with the status quo. They may want to tweak things slightly, but in general they are content with big taxes, big spending and big government. I spent an entire year getting a Master of Laws in Taxation at the University of Florida Law School, and in my opinion the best thing that Congress could do to the tax code would be to run it through a shredder and put it in a dumpster. As I noted the other day, the tax code is now more than four million words long and it takes Americans about six billion dollars a year to comply with it. Those that believe that they are offering the American people a “solution” by proposing to tinker with this abominable mess are just fooling themselves.

The only long-term solution that is going to work is to get rid of the entire steaming pile of garbage. Ron Paul understood this, and we would be very wise to take his advice. The following is the full version of the quote from the headline above…

“By the way, when I say cut taxes, I don’t mean fiddle with the code. I mean abolish the income tax and the IRS, and replace them with nothing.”

If I run for Congress, and I am very strongly leaning in that direction, this is what my position on taxes is going to be.

Of course we are going to have to dramatically change the composition of the House and the Senate in order to get this done, so in the short-term we may have to focus on reducing tax rates and the size of the tax code by as much as possible.

But ultimately, the goal will be to abolish the tax code and the IRS altogether.

We have become so accustomed to an income tax that many of us couldn’t possibly imagine a society without one. But today there are seven states that do not have one, and that includes very big states such as Texas and Florida. And from 1872 to 1913, there was no federal income tax. When a federal income tax was finally reinstituted in 1913, the rates were extremely low. The following comes from Politifact…

The 1913 law imposed a tax of 1 percent on income up to $20,000, for both individual and joint filers. However, exemptions from the tax — the first $3,000 of income for individuals and the first $4,000 for joint filers — meant “virtually all middle-class Americans” were excused from paying, according to W. Elliot Brownlee’s book, Federal Taxation in America. The law also put in place a graduated surtax on incomes above $20,000; the highest rate paid, 7 percent, applied to Americans making more than $500,000 (about $11.4 million in 2011 dollars).

So how did things go for our country during the four decades when there was no federal income tax?

Well, if you regularly follow my work you already know the answer to that question.

That period of time just happened to be the best period of economic growth in U.S. history.

Oh, but we wouldn’t want to change from the way things work today, would we? After all, the U.S. economy has grown at a blistering average yearly rate of just 1.33 percent over the past decade, and we are actually behind that pace so far in 2017.

If you want a no growth economy and a steadily shrinking middle class, then our current system is perfect for you.

But I believe that we can do so much better.

So how are we going to fund the federal government if we eliminate the income tax?

Well, the truth is that taxing individual incomes accounts for only 46.2 percent of all federal revenue. The federal government has lots of other ways that it raises money, but of course we wouldn’t be able to keep the massively bloated federal bureaucracy that we have today. We would need to reduce the size and scope of the federal government to an appropriate constitutional level, and of course most politicians on the left would resist this greatly.

There are some federal agencies and programs that we could completely eliminate altogether. If it was up to me, the EPA, the Department of Education and the BATFE would be good places to start. Any essential functions that they are currently performing could easily be absorbed by other agencies.

There are very few politicians in our entire country that will still talk like this, because our leaders have taken us so far down the road toward “a social state” that most Americans don’t even know what “limited government” looks like anymore.

I would like to share with you an old newspaper clipping that was posted to Facebook by Get Involved, You Live Here…

Over the past several decades, the left has made a tremendous amount of progress toward achieving the goals that Saul Alinsky originally outlined in Rules for Radicals. Obamacare was a giant step toward federal control over our healthcare system, poverty is exploding as the middle class shrinks, we are nearly 20 trillion dollars in debt, our public schools have become left-wing indoctrination centers, and God has been pushed out of almost every corner of public life.

We should be very thankful that we got Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton, but many radical leftists consider Trump to simply be a bump in the road on the way to completely eradicating our way of life.

They want to criminalize what we believe by making it “hate speech”, they want to steal the minds of the next generation by dominating our system of education, and they want to use government institutions and the legal system as tools to completely reshape society in their image.

The only way that we are going to defeat this tyranny is if we stand up and fight for our country, and that is precisely what we are going to do.

(Originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog)

Rush Limbaugh And Ann Coulter Are Right – America Is On The Verge Of Widespread Chaos And Civil Unrest

Things will never be the same in America from this moment forward.  When 66-year-old James Hodgkinson attempted to gun down as many Republican members of Congress as possible at a baseball field in Virginia, he permanently shattered the notion that we could go back to the way that things used to be in this country.  At one time, Republicans and Democrats may have strongly disagreed with one another over the issues, but there was always a certain code of civility that everyone understood and respected.  But now that is long gone, and if our politicians and the big media outlets continue to fuel the rising hatred in this country, it won’t be too long before we are dealing with widespread chaos and civil unrest from coast to coast.

Most of the anger and frustration that we are currently witnessing is being fueled by the left.  On his radio show yesterday, Rush Limbaugh accused the left of openly promoting violence…

“I have been worried for quite a while about the cumulative effect or impact of this constant anti-Trump hysteria everywhere in mainstream media: New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC,” Limbaugh told listeners.

“It’s hysteria. It’s lies. It’s things that are completely manufactured about Trump personally, about Trump and Russia, about climate change, about any number of things.

“I have been very concerned about what all of this is doing to the average, base Democrat voter. I have sensed them getting more and more fringe and imbalanced, and the evidence for it is everywhere in the things that they tweet. They openly promote violence, and advocate some of the most despicable things happening to their political enemies.”

Someone like James Hodgkinson is not produced in a vacuum.  There has been a steady pattern of threats and violence against Republicans since the election, and all that Hodgkinson did was take things to the next level.  Breitbart has put out an article entitled “15 Times Celebrities Envisioned Violence Against Trump and the GOP”, and WND published an even longer list entitled “20 times violence threatened, used, in wake of Dems’ political collapse”.  When celebrities, politicians and media personalities constantly use language that is seething with hatred, it shouldn’t surprise us when their followers engage in violent acts.

I have warned many times in the past about the civil unrest that is coming, and now many of my fellow conservative commentators are sounding the alarm as well.  For example, in the aftermath of the attack in Virginia radio host Michael Savage made the following chilling statement to his audience: “We are at a boiling point. There’s going to be a civil war.”

No American should ever want to see such a thing happen, but the left just keeps getting more and more radical.  And even Hillary Clinton recently stated that she has joined “the Resistance”.  The following comes from Ann Coulter…

Recently, Hillary announced her steadfast opposition to the winning candidate using a military term, saying she’d joined the “Resistance.”

Imagine if Trump lost and then announced that he’d joined the “RESISTANCE.” He’d be accused of trying to activate right-wing militias. Every dyspeptic glance at an immigrant would be reported as fascistic violence.

But the media seem blithely unaware that the anti-Trump “Resistance” has been accompanied by nonstop militaristic violence from liberals.

In recent weeks, I have heard from so many people all over the nation that are extremely excited about the possibility of me running for Congress.  But anyone that is considering running for public office these days has to consider the fact that they will become potential targets for violence.  For example, just recently one very sick individual actually threatened to hang Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz…

“I feel very safe and secure at the Capitol,” Chaffetz said Wednesday. “We work in a fortress with literally thousands of people to protect us, but once we leave the Capitol, it’s a whole different equation.”

Chaffetz wants U.S. marshals to be charged with assessing threats against members of Congress and securing them in more high-profile and widely attended events.

Chaffetz was the focus of a March death threat in which a Florida man vowed in a voicemail to “hunt your a– down, wrap a rope around your neck and hang you from a lamppost,” according to court records.

Could you imagine if your wife found that voicemail before you did?

But this is what the left is becoming.  Because they don’t have any sort of a positive message to offer, they have to resort to threats, intimidation and violence.  I have been writing about this quite a bit lately, and it turns out that Rush Limbaugh very much feels the same way…

They don’t have an agenda that’s optimistic and upbeat that they can run on, and they don’t dare be honest about their real agenda. So all they can do is to continue to do what they’ve been doing, and it’s not healthy, it’s not uplifting, it’s not inspiring. It isn’t representative or reflective of any of the traditional American values that for so long have united us. A sense of optimism, a sense of can-do, a sense of unity, a sense of nationhood. All of these things are under assault.

If the left continues to go down this path, the anger and the frustration are going to continue to grow, and eventually cities all over America are going to burn.  This is the kind of a scenario that I laid out in The Beginning Of The End, and now it is actually starting to play out right in front of us.

Today, this nation is more divided than it has ever been in my entire lifetime, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.  In fact, I expect even more anger and even more hatred as the divisions deepen.

Without each passing year, the left moves even farther to the left.  It has gotten to the point where many on the far left actually refer to Hillary Clinton as a “moderate”, which is funny because at one time she was a cutting edge liberal.

On the right, there is an emerging movement to return to the values and the principles that this country was founded upon.  So if the left doesn’t like current Republican leadership, then they really aren’t going to like the hardcore constitutional conservatives that are going to start replacing them.

We are in a battle for the soul of our nation, and the future of America is literally at stake.

It is a battle that we cannot afford to lose, because if the left wins there literally will be no viable future for our country at all.

Has Kathy Griffin Produced A Defining Moment That Will Cause America To Reject The Hate-Filled Ideology Of The Radical Left?

The image of Kathy Griffin holding up a bloody mock ‘decapitated’ head of Donald Trump will be burned into our memories forever, and she may have just produced the single most destructive moment for the radical left that this country has seen in decades.  It is perfectly fine to disagree with President Trump and his policies, but to hold up his ‘decapitated head’ like an ISIS executioner would goes far beyond anything that would ever be acceptable in a civilized society.  This is a moment that absolutely screams “too far”, and I believe that it will be this moment that causes many Americans to finally realize that the hate-filled ideology of the radical left is entirely bankrupt.

At this point the radical left doesn’t have any sort of positive message to offer the American people.  They hate that wealthy people have so much money and so they want to raise taxes.  They hate capitalism and use every opportunity that they can to try to destroy it.  They hate conservative Christians and so they mock Jesus and the Christian faith every chance they get.  They pander for money and votes by pitting one racial group against another.  They are all about killing liberty, killing freedom, killing babies, and killing the values that this nation was founded upon.  And they have demonstrated over and over again that they are willing to use violence to achieve their goals.

What Kathy Griffin was attempting to communicate was so horrible and so over the top that even CNN has decided to fire her…

“CNN has terminated our agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year’s Eve program,” spokesman Shimrit Sheetrit confirmed to USA TODAY in a statement Wednesday.

The network used even stronger language a day earlier: “We found what she did disgusting and offensive,” read a statement sent to USA TODAY Tuesday night by Sheetrit. “We are pleased to see she has apologized and asked that the photos be taken down.”

And even her old buddy Anderson Cooper denounced her on Twitter…

For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in. It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate.

It is hard to imagine that Kathy Griffin will have much of a career left after all of this, so hopefully she has been saving her money.  In fact, she has already lost a major endorsement deal…

Squatty Potty, a Utah-based business that creates and sells bathroom products — including a popular toilet stool made famous by one of the company’s well-known viral videos — has decided to pull down a new ad that Griffin stars in.

“We were shocked and disappointed to learn about the image Ms. Griffin shared today,” Squatty Potty CEO Bobby Edwards said in a statement issued to Faithwire. “It was deeply inappropriate and runs contrary to the core values our company stands for.”

I don’t know what she thought would happen.  If a conservative had done the same thing to Obama, we would probably be talking about prison time right about now.  Griffin went so far over the line that even the Church of Satan has disavowed her.

And of course this isn’t the first time that she has done something like this.  During a 2007 awards show, she openly mocked the name of Jesus.  What she said was so horrible that I do not want to repeat it.

Surprisingly, not everyone on the left is turning their backs on Griffin.  In fact, Democratic Senator Al Franken says that he is not going to cancel an appearance with Griffin that is scheduled for July.

Al Franken will be up for re-election in 2020, and I think that it is time for the people of Minnesota to find a new senator.

Of course I think that things are going to be very difficult for most liberal Democrats moving forward.  If anger and hate are the core of your message, and if you survive by constantly pitting one group against another, eventually the American people are going to see through the games and will start choosing another direction.

Whether she intended it or not, Kathy Griffin is now the poster child for the radical left in this country, and she just did Trump and the Republican Party a huge favor by showing the true face of her movement.  I really like how Mike Adams made this point…

There’s no other way to say it: Kathy Griffin and the deranged, lunatic Left are mentally ill and pose a very real danger to society. This wretched, terrorist-style beheading video posted by Griffin encourages deadly violence against Trump supporters and sends a message that murdering political opponents of the intolerant Left is a normal, acceptable activity.

That’s what the deranged Left already believes, of course. Fanned into flames by a wildly dishonest, discredited fakestream media, Trump Derangement Syndrome has now escalated into a left-wing murderous rage that now celebrates gruesome images of beheadings that were once the sole domain of fanatical terrorists. What’s even more disturbing about all this is that Kathy Griffin apparently thought posting a video showing a bloodied, decapitated Trump head in her fist would somehow be hilarious or inspiring in some twisted way.

So how should we respond to all of this?

Instead of responding to this kind of hate with even more hate, I propose that we respond with lots of love.

Let’s show the American people that there is a fundamental difference between the right and the left.  Let’s show them that true conservatives are all about loving everyone and doing everything that we can to promote life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Let’s show them that we believe in a positive, united future for our country based on the values and principles that are enshrined in the United States Constitution.

We don’t have to attack Kathy Griffin because she has already destroyed herself and done an immense amount of permanent damage to her political movement.

The American people are going to be looking elsewhere for inspiration, and we should be ready to supply it.  If we can clearly communicate a positive, uplifting message, we can start to clear out the cesspool that Washington D.C. has become and begin to build a brighter future for all Americans.

It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way

Is there any way to unite our country once again?  We live at a time when our nation is deeply polarized and many people have chosen to completely give in to hate.  There are a lot of Democrats that deeply hate Donald Trump with everything that they have inside of them, even though they might not be able to clearly explain to anyone exactly why they hate him so much.  And the same thing could be said about many Republicans when it comes to top politicians among the Democrats.  Yes, there are very important issues that divide us, and there are certain things where compromise simply is not an option.  But just because we disagree with others politically does not mean that we have to hate them.  The following is another excerpt from my new book, and hopefully it will inspire people to start loving their enemies (even their political ones)…

*****

What do you think would happen to our society if we decided to just start loving one another?  I am writing this at a time when the United States is the most polarized that it has been in decades.  Democrats hate Republicans and Republicans hate Democrats, but all of this hate is not really getting us anywhere.  I think that most of us have forgotten that we are supposed to love our enemies.  If we only love those that agree with us and that are just like us, what is that going to accomplish?

Following the election in November, there were news reports about leftists that were being “triggered” simply by seeing the name of Trump somewhere.  I don’t know if I have ever seen so much rage directed at a new president, and some of the things that are being said and done by those on the left are absolutely frightening.  For example, Kathy Griffin made national headlines when she posed for photographs “with a ‘beheaded’ President Trump”…

Kathy Griffin sent shockwaves through the internet when she posed with a “beheaded” President Trump.

The comedian looks somber in pictures that are reminiscent of ISIS beheading videos and photos. She holds a facsimile of Mr. Trump’s detached, bloodied head by the hair.

The photo was taken by Tyler Shields, who is known for controversial art, including a photo of Clint Eastwood’s daughter burning a $100,000 Hermes handbag.

(http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kathy-griffin-takes-photos-with-beheaded-trump/)

Why would someone do such a thing?

Many of those on the left have no idea why they are feeling so much rage.  They just know that Trump is on the “wrong team” and that he supposedly stands for things that they aren’t supposed to like.  But if you would ask many of them to put their feelings into words, most of them would not be able to do so in a cohesive manner.

Of course many on the right have heaped a tremendous amount of abuse on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in recent years.  Even though they stand for things that are truly appalling, does that justify the horrible mistreatment that they have received?

You can love people without agreeing with them.  In fact, you can deeply love someone and still disapprove of every single thing that they stand for.  And even though Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are both completely unfit to hold any political office anywhere in the country, that doesn’t mean that we should hate them.  Like so many other political leaders, Obama and Clinton have done some exceedingly terrible things, but that doesn’t mean that they are beyond all hope.  All of us have done things that we are now ashamed of, and all of us have needed some grace at various points in our lives.  We should always be willing to love our political enemies, to forgive them, to pray for them, and we should always want the very best for them and for their families.

As it stands, America is at a very dangerous place because of all of the anger and frustration that are boiling just under the surface.  According to a recent Reuters survey, only 25 percent of Americans believe that the country is heading in the right direction, and the protests in our streets have turned increasingly violent in recent years.

Many on the left are using terms such as “Nazi”, “racist” and “dictator” to describe Donald Trump, and that is the kind of language that can spur people to take violent action.  There are some that believe that America is heading for a “civil war”, and there are others that believe that one has already started.  But none of us should ever want that to actually happen.

In my adult life, I have never seen America so divided, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

What if we decided to start loving one another no matter what we look like, where we are from or who our ancestors were?

What if we decided to start loving one another no matter who we voted for or what our particular political beliefs may be?

What if we decided to start loving one another no matter how much the mainstream media, our politicians and the entertainment community tried to stir up hate?

Not too long ago, a distant relative decided to cut off all communication with Meranda and I simply because of a pro-Trump article that I authored.  Apparently someone must be anti-Trump in order to be loved and accepted by this particular individual.

Of course similar things are happening all over the country because of animosity toward Trump.

But if we are not willing to talk with one another, how will we ever solve any of the problems that this nation is facing?

Don’t get me wrong.  I am certainly not suggesting that we should ever compromise our most cherished values and principles.  If the left is going to hate us because we refuse to move from the values and the principles that this nation was founded upon, there isn’t much we can do about that.

But even though they may hate us, we can choose to love them.  When we do good to those that hate us, it has a far more powerful effect than if we return hate with more hate.  The following is one of the most famous quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr…

Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.
Hate multiplies hate,
violence multiplies violence,
and toughness multiplies toughness
in a descending spiral of destruction….
The chain reaction of evil —
hate begetting hate,
wars producing more wars —
must be broken,
or we shall be plunged
into the dark abyss of annihilation.

Those are very wise words.

We will never defeat the leftists that are trying to destroy our nation by hating them.  But if we shower them with light and love many of them will eventually come over to our side.

I am a big believer in the marketplace of ideas, because I also believe that truth always wins in the end.  If we can respectfully engage with those that disagree with us and show them that there is a better way, we will win many of them over.

One of the reasons why the left has made so much progress in recent decades is because most of the population has abandoned the core values that once made America so great.  If we rediscover those values, they can provide a basis for healing and reuniting our broken nation.

For example, in the Declaration of Independence our forefathers declared that “all men are created equal”.  We should all be able to agree that every single individual is of immense value, and that all of us should be treated equally under the law no matter where we came from, no matter what our skin color is and no matter how much money we have.

The Declaration of Independence also tells us that we have been endowed “with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.  If you follow my work on a regular basis, you know that first one is absolutely huge for me.  Elsewhere in this book I am going to spend an entire chapter on that topic.  But for the moment I want to focus on Liberty.  In every human heart there is a desire to live free.  This is one of the reasons why big government liberalism is such a bankrupt philosophy.  Big government always ends in tyranny, and I don’t know any true American that actually wants tyranny.

There are so many things that both the left and the right should be able to agree upon.

One is that Congress has become a cesspool of filth and corruption.  Can’t we agree that the way that we run our elections needs to be greatly reformed and that special interests and big donors should have much less influence in Washington D.C.?

Another thing that we should be able to agree upon is that we should have a country where freedom and liberty are maximized.  Instinctively, most of us want to live our lives without someone else constantly telling us what to do.  We all proudly sing that we are “the land of the free”, and we need to start making that a reality once again.

We should all also be able to agree that terrorism is a growing problem, and that we should do all that we can to keep our communities safe.  Of course there are disagreements about how precisely to do that, but in the face of a common enemy that is intent on destroying us the American people should be able to come together.

In addition, we should all be able to agree that we need to strengthen the Social Security system so that it will always be there for retiring Americans that need it.  Unfortunately, our politicians raided the Social Security trust fund and have badly mismanaged the system, and so now the future of the program looks shaky.  But we should be able to work together to get it back on solid ground once again.

Of course all of us want an economy that is vibrant and growing, and that hasn’t been true for a very long time.  Barack Obama was the only president in U.S. history not to have a single year when the economy grew by at least three percent, and over the past ten years U.S. GDP growth has averaged just 1.33 percent per year.  If we would just take the shackles off of the economy we could do so much better.  The greatest era of economic growth in our history was when there was no Federal Reserve, no IRS and no income tax, and we can do it again.

We all want better lives for our families and our communities, and we can make America great again if we start doing the things that made America great in the first place.

Ultimately, much of this book is about restoring American values.  It is about restoring God, family and country to their proper places and getting our priorities back in order.  It is about learning to love others the way that we love ourselves.

It has been said that a house divided against itself will surely fall.  And if we continue down this road of hatred and division, America will surely fall no matter what ideology eventually triumphs.

There is nothing that says that we all have to hate one another.  It doesn’t have to be this way, and we need a new generation of leaders that are willing to take us in a different direction.

Because right now what we are getting from the corporate media and most of our politicians is a steady stream of strife, discord, bitterness, resentment and hatred.

The only way that we are going to become “a shining city upon a hill” again is if we learn to love one another truly and deeply and from the heart.  To close this chapter, let me share with you what President Ronald Reagan said about this shining city during his farewell address to the American people…

The past few days when I’ve been at that window upstairs, I’ve thought a bit of the “shining city upon a hill.” The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we’d call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.

I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.

Reagan’s dream is still alive, but in order to live in harmony and peace we must reject hatred and division.

Just because America is deeply divided today does not mean that all hope is lost.

There is a better way, and we can get there.

It’s Time To Flush The Toilet

Is it fair to compare Congress to a toilet?  If there is one institution that embodies the corruption that permeates Washington D.C., it is the United States Congress.  Dominated by extremely selfish career politicians that are primarily interested in raising enough money to win the next election, Congress has become a cesspool of filth, fraud and malfeasance.  The American people are absolutely sick of this, and that is why approval ratings for Congress are consistently much lower than for any other political institution.  In fact, at this moment Congress has an average approval rating of just 18.3 percent according to Real Clear Politics.  Donald Trump captured the imagination of tens of millions of American voters when he pledged to “drain the swamp” during the last election, but I say that it is time to “flush the toilet” because the only way that we will ever be able to turn the federal government in a positive direction is by clearing out as many of these Congress critters as possible.

Getting Donald Trump into the White House was the biggest political miracle in American history, but now his agenda is almost completely stalled and it is Congress that is to blame.

For example, Trump repeatedly pledged that he was going to build a “big, beautiful wall” along the southern border to combat illegal immigration, but at this point funding for that wall is being completely blocked.

What is the problem?

Congress.

Trump also pledged that Obamacare would be repealed very rapidly once he became president, but that obviously has not happened.

What is the problem?

Congress.

In fact, it is looking quite doubtful that a bill to repeal Obamacare will ever get through the U.S. Senate…

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is tempering expectations that the Senate will pass an overhaul of the nation’s healthcare system, promising his colleagues a vote but not success.

McConnell in his public comments and private conversations about the ObamaCare repeal and replace bill is painting a more sober picture than Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who in March guaranteed passage through the House.

McConnell is stopping well short of any grand pronouncement.

Trump also promised all of us that our taxes would be going way down, but even though the Republicans control both houses of Congress this also seems to be going nowhere fast.  The following comes from the Wall Street Journal…

The GOP’s dreams have collided with interest-group lobbying and the tax system’s reality. Politicians all profess to hate the tax code, but they don’t agree on exactly what they hate. Voters gripe about complexity but are wary of losing cherished breaks that are woven into the economy.

“Eventually you run out of ways to pay for your promises,” said Alan Cole, an economist at the Tax Foundation, which favors a simpler code with lower rates. “There aren’t any free obvious sources of money where you can just do the thing and nobody gets mad.”

I could bring up a whole bunch of other issues such as the national debt, trade with China, unconstitutional government surveillance, etc. but I think that you get the point.

Trump’s presidency is going to be mostly wasted if we do not get him some help.  And I am not just talking about clearing out more Democrats.  Right now the Republicans control the Senate and the House, but the problem is that most of them are “establishment Republicans”.  Career politicians from both parties have sold their souls to the special interests and big donors that fund their campaigns, and this is why such a dramatic political revolution is necessary.

Sadly, most Americans don’t realize just how deep the corruption goes in Washington these days.  To illustrate this, I would like to share just a few quotes from “The Confessions of Congressman X”.  It claims to have been written by an anonymous Democratic member of the House of Representatives, and the following quotes very much ring true to those of us that understand how things in D.C. really work in our day and age…

-“Most of my colleagues are dishonest career politicians who revel in the power and special-interest money that’s lavished upon them.”

-“My main job is to keep my job, to get reelected. It takes precedence over everything.”

-“Voters are incredibly ignorant and know little about our form of government and how it works.”

-“It’s far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant gratification.”

-“Fundraising is so time consuming I seldom read any bills I vote on. Like many of my colleagues, I don’t know how the legislation will be implemented, or what it’ll cost.”

-“We spend money we don’t have and blithely mortgage the future with a wink and a nod. Screw the next generation. It’s about getting credit now, lookin’ good for the upcoming election.”

And it isn’t just political corruption that is the problem.  When you start peeling back the onion, you find some of the most disturbing things imaginable in political circles.  For example, just consider what police just uncovered in New York City…

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is hiring! There’s a vacancy in his administration for a computer programmer analyst, in the Department of Design and Construction. That’s because Jacob Schwartz, 29, a DNC staffer and former analyst, has been arrested and charged with being in possession of “kiddie porn” involving children as young as 6 months old.

Schwartz is also the president of the Manhattan Young Democrats and the downstate region vice president of the New York State Young Democrats. In other words, he was a “made” Democrat, part of the inner circle of budding influential NYC politicians, who was even friends with Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Robbie Mook.

Schwartz was caught with 3,000 child pornography images and 89 videos on his laptop after he downloaded them from the Internet. He surrendered his laptop to police, signed a release granting them permission to do a search of his hard drive, and was subsequently arrested. He has since posted $7,500 bail.

Of course stories such as this are just the tip of the iceberg.  There is so much more out there, but we aren’t really supposed to talk about those things.

So what can be done?

Well, we can sit back and keep on complaining as our country deteriorates right in front of our eyes, or we can do something about it.

On Memorial Day back in 1982, President Ronald Reagan delivered a stirring address at Arlington National Cemetery.  The following is an excerpt from that address…

I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.

Yet, we must try to honor them—not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.

Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we—in a less final, less heroic way—be willing to give of ourselves.

There is no war for us to fight, but let there be no doubt that we are in the midst of a great battle for the soul of our nation.

If this generation of Americans does not stand up and defend liberty and freedom, the forces that seek to destroy our country will win by default.

For years, many of us have been trying to persuade our leaders to do the right things, but by now it has become exceedingly clear that they simply are not listening.

So if we want the direction of our country to change, we have got to vote them out and replace them with others that will listen to the will of the people.

I am under no illusion that this will be easy.  The special interests and the big donors have a tremendous amount of money, and the mainstream media is very closely allied with the establishment.

But the election of Donald Trump showed us that anything is possible, and I choose to believe that it is possible for us to take our government back.

We just have to be willing to try.

Congressional Republicans Are Failing To Advance Trump’s Agenda

On February 8, 2017, Matt Drudge tweeted, “No Obamacare repeal, tax cuts!” and “Republican party should be sued for fraud. NO discussion of tax cuts now.” Drudge was spot on.

This week, Sen. Rand Paul (my former boss, it should be pointed out) stormed out of a meeting with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan when he heard talk of keeping Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion intact and creating tax credits. Paul worried these tax credits would be a Republican-created entitlement program.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

A Bill To Abolish The Department Of Education Has Been Introduced In Congress

On the day that Betsy DeVos was confirmed as the Secretary of Education, House Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced a short bill to abolish the Department of Education, which was established under the Carter administration in 1980.

Massie’s legislation, HR 899, simply states, “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2018.”

In a Feb. 7 statement, Massie said, “Neither Congress nor the President, through his appointees, has the constitutional authority to dictate how and what our children must learn.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

91 percent of new Congress members are Christian

congress

A recent survey found that approximately nine in 10 members in the incoming United States Congress proclaim themselves to be Christian.

According to the latest findings published by the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life division, Christians form the overwhelming majority of the 115th Congress, as 90.7 percent of them identify themselves as Christians.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Congress moving to cut US funding to UN in wake of anti-Israel vote

u-s-capitol-building

Congress is already setting the stage to cut off U.S. funding to the United Nations in the wake of a contested vote last week in which the Obama administration permitted an anti-Israel resolution to win overwhelming approval, according to congressional leaders, who told the Washington Free Beacon that the current administration is already plotting to take further action against the Jewish state before vacating office.

Other punitive actions by Congress could include expelling Palestinian diplomats from U.S. soil and scaling back ties with foreign nations that voted in favor of the controversial measure, according to multiple sources who spoke to the Free Beacon about the situation both on and off the record.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

CIA officials REFUSE to brief Congress on the truth about Russian hacking claims – and are rebuked by GOP congressman for ‘disgraceful’ move

u-s-capitol-building

Members of the House Intelligence Committee are fuming that the CIA is refusing to provide an immediate briefing on Russian interference in the U.S. elections, after media reports that the intent of hacking was to boost President-elect Donald Trump’s chances.

The panel had hoped to hold a briefing with the CIA Thursday, although the agency is declining to participate, prompting panel member Rep. Peter King of Long Island to suggest U.S. intelligence could be perpetuating a ‘disinformation campaign’ designed to undermine Trump as he prepares to take office.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Ted Cruz Joins Pastors, Members of Congress in Prayer Meeting to Cut Satan’s Power On Capitol Hill

prayer-meeting-on-capitol-hill-facebook

Former 2016 presidential candidate, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz joined forces with a number of conservative pastors and members of Congress last Wednesday to pray against Satan’s power on Capitol Hill.

The prayer meeting was part of the “Congressional-Clergy Town Hall” organized by Wallbuilders and the Jefferson Gathering, according to Right Wing Watch.
(Read the rest of the story here…)

Member Of Congress: It’s Easy ‘To Manipulate A Nation Of Naive, Self-Absorbed Sheep’

Sheeple - Photo by Andrew R Tester

You may not believe the incredible things that one member of Congress is saying about the corruption of our political system and the gullibility of the American people. In a brand new book entitled “The Confessions of Congressman X“, one anonymous member of the U.S. House of Representatives confesses that he hardly ever reads the bills that he votes on, that his main job is to get reelected, and that it is “far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant gratification”. This book is being published by Mill City Press, and it is being billed as “a devastating inside look at the dark side of Congress as revealed by one of its own.” I don’t know if you would classify this anonymous member of Congress as “brave” since he does not wish to reveal his identity, but the things that he is admitting confirm suspicions that many of us have had for a very long time. Just check out a few of the most important quotes from his book…

-“Most of my colleagues are dishonest career politicians who revel in the power and special-interest money that’s lavished upon them.”

-“My main job is to keep my job, to get reelected. It takes precedence over everything.”

-“Fundraising is so time consuming I seldom read any bills I vote on. Like many of my colleagues, I don’t know how the legislation will be implemented, or what it’ll cost.”

-“Voters are incredibly ignorant and know little about our form of government and how it works.”

-“It’s far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant gratification.”

-“It’s about getting credit now, lookin’ good for the upcoming election.”

-“We spend money we don’t have and blithely mortgage the future with a wink and a nod. Screw the next generation.”

That last quote made me want to tear my hair out.

This is exactly what I have been saying for years.

One of the things that will really get me ranting is the national debt. Since Barack Obama entered the White House, we have been stealing an average of more than 100 million dollars from future generations of Americans every single hour of every single day.

What we are doing to future generations of Americans is beyond criminal. In a just society, a whole lot of our politicians would be going to prison over this. And now this anonymous member of Congress is openly admitting that they understand precisely what they are doing.

And in the quotes above you can see the contempt that our career politicians have for the American people. They know that society has become so “dumbed-down” that it is easy to trick and manipulate most of the population. And they are also very well aware that the key to staying in office is raising as much money as possible. In fact, according to the Washington Post the candidate that spends the most money wins 91 percent of the time.

So that is why these Congress critters spend as much time as possible raising money. If they want to keep their jobs, that is what they need to do. Whether they actually do any good for their constituents is basically immaterial. If you want to read more of what this particular anonymous member of Congress has to say, you can find the book right here. I think that because of these revelations this is going to be one of the most important political books to come out in decades.

In the end, I believe that our system of governance is heading for an inevitable implosion. Even now, most Americans have completely lost faith in the way that we are being governed. According to an average of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics, Congress has a 12.8 percent approval rating and a 78.8 percent disapproval rating right at this moment.

Those are absolutely stunning numbers.

And trust in the main institution propping up faith in our system of government has also fallen to extraordinary lows. One recent survey discovered that only 6 percent of all Americans have “a lot of confidence” in the mainstream media at this point…

Trust in the news media is being eroded by perceptions of inaccuracy and bias, fueled in part by Americans’ skepticism about what they read on social media.

Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public’s view of other institutions.

There are lots and lots of reasons why the American people are dissatisfied, and I write about many of them on my website. But it isn’t just the “big issues” that are upsetting people. Today, we have gotten to a point where the government cannot seem to perform even the most basic functions such as fixing our roads and protecting our power grid. The following comes from CNBC…

America is falling apart. And the repair bill is getting bigger.

That’s the conclusion of the latest “report card” on American roads, bridges, airports, power grid and other critical infrastructure from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Over the next decade, it would cost more than $3.3 trillion to keep up with repairs and replacements, but based on current funding levels, the nation will come up more than $1.4 trillion short, the group says. When projected to 2040, the shortfall is expected to top $5 trillion, unless new funds are allocated.

I would like to believe that it is going to be possible to smoothly reform our system and make it a lot less corrupt.

I would like to believe that we can return to the ideal of “citizen politicians” that our founders envisioned.

But everyone knows that those things are not likely to happen any time soon. With each passing year, we come closer to resembling other extremely evil and wicked societies that experienced great falls. What we are doing right now is not even close to being sustainable. If we continue on this current path, it is only a matter of time before our nation completely implodes.

My hope is that there will be a mass awakening and the United States will be pulled back from the brink at the last moment, but the truth is that it may already be too late for that.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Scandal: Obama Caught Spying On Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu And Members Of Congress

Spying - Photo by Pascal Kirchmair

If you found out that one of your “friends” was secretly peeking in your windows at you and your family throughout the day, would that person continue to be your friend?  Of course not.  But that is exactly what Barack Obama has been doing to Israel.  According to the Wall Street Journal, during Obama’s first term the decision was made to monitor the communications of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders.  This represents an astounding betrayal of our closest ally in the Middle East, but the scandal doesn’t end there.  In the process of monitoring Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, the NSA also collected private conversations that they had with members of the U.S. Congress.  So that means that Obama and the NSA were spying on Congress, which is a very serious violation of the law.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.  Two years ago, Obama promised that he was going to quit spying on the leaders of other nations that we are allied with.

But just like most of Obama’s other promises, this one proved to be hollow as well.  The following comes from the Wall Street Journal…

President Barack Obama announced two years ago he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state after the world learned the reach of long-secret U.S. surveillance programs.

But behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch, current and former U.S. officials said. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

So when did all of this spying on Israeli officials originally start happening?

Apparently, the surveillance of Netanyahu began “late in Obama’s first term in office”…

The NSA began keeping tabs on the Israeli Prime Minister late in Obama’s first term in office. The surveillance was driven by fears that Israel was planning an attack on Iran.

The agency carried on with its spying operations, and discovered that Netanyahu had leaked details of the Iran negotiations – which could have jeopardized the deal – and had coordinated talks with American Jewish groups. He also asked undecided U.S.lawmakers what it would take to win their vote.

This scandal should be front page news all over the country, but this story is already starting to fade from the headlines.

The way that we are acting is absolutely disgraceful.  The “good guys” do not spy on their friends.  Personally, I can’t understand why the American people are not steaming mad about this.

No wonder the rest of the world is turning on us.  We go around doing whatever we want and abusing our “friends”, and then we still expect everyone to love us.

Are we insane?

According to the Wall Street Journal, the NSA has “spent decades” building up the infrastructure to spy on other global leaders.  Over the past couple of years spying on some allied leaders has stopped, but apparently that was never even a consideration when it came to Israel…

The NSA had, in some cases, spent decades placing electronic implants in networks around the world to collect phone calls, text messages and emails. Removing them or turning them off in the wake of the Snowden revelations would make it difficult, if not impossible, to re-establish access in the future, U.S. intelligence officials warned the White House.

Instead of removing the implants, Mr. Obama decided to shut off the NSA’s monitoring of phone numbers and email addresses of certain allied leaders—a move that could be reversed by the president or his successor.

There was little debate over Israel. “Going dark on Bibi? Of course we wouldn’t do that,” a senior U.S. official said, using Mr. Netanyahu’s nickname.

This is yet again another scandal which could bring down the Obama presidency.  Of course the Republicans have never shown any willingness to stand up to Obama, but if they ever somehow did find enough courage to do so, they would certainly have all the ammunition that they would need.  Because in the process of monitoring Israeli leaders, the NSA was also spying on the private conversations of members of Congress…

The National Security Agency’s targeting of Israeli leaders and officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups. That raised fears—an “Oh-s— moment,” one senior U.S. official said—that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress.

Many prominent voices are already using the phrase “abuse of power” in connection with this scandal.  Just consider the words of former U.S. Representative Pete Hoekstra…

Former Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who chaired the House intelligence panel from 2004 to 2007, called for a probe late Tuesday, remarking that the Obama administration had exhibited an “unprecedented abuse of power” if the allegations are true.

“WSJ report that [National Security Agency] spied on Congress and Israel communications very disturbing. Actually outrageous,” he tweeted. “Maybe unprecedented abuse of power.”

“NSA and Obama officials need to be investigated and prosecuted if any truth to WSJ reports,” he continued. “NSA loses all credibility. Scary.”

And Politico is reporting that the House Intelligence Committee is already looking into these allegations…

“The House Intelligence Committee is looking into allegations in the Wall Street Journal regarding possible Intelligence Community (IC) collection of communications between Israeli government officials and members of Congress,” Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said in a statement. “The Committee has requested additional information from the IC to determine which, if any, of these allegations are true, and whether the IC followed all applicable laws, rules, and procedures.”

Regardless of what happens in Congress (which probably won’t be much), the big story is what this will do to our already damaged relationship with Israel.

By systematically conducting surveillance on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, the Obama administration has shattered what little trust remained between the two governments.

During his first seven years in the White House, Obama has already proven to be the most anti-Israel president in modern times.  Everyone already knew that he greatly disliked Netanyahu and that he even sent many of his top campaign officials over to Israel to try to help defeat Bibi during the last election.

But this scandal takes things to an entirely different level.

Barack Obama has greatly betrayed Israel, and he isn’t even sorry for doing it.

So how will the American people respond?

Will they express great outrage and demand Obama’s resignation?

Probably not.

In fact, this story will probably almost be entirely forgotten once the current 48 hour news cycle is over.

We have a population that is so far gone that they don’t even understand that spying on our allies is very, very wrong.

It isn’t just Obama – our entire nation is becoming a little bit more like Nazi Germany every single day, and hardly anyone even seems upset about the transition.

So is there any hope for us?

Please feel free to tell us what you think by posting a comment below…

The Senate fails to advance effort to defund Planned Parenthood

Capitol Building - Public Domain

The Senate failed Monday to advance a Republican-led measure to halt federal aid to Planned Parenthood, but leaders of the GOP-controlled chamber appear ready to continue the fight, galvanized by a series of unsettling videos about the group.

The vote to bring debate on the bill was 53 against to 46 in favor.

The measure had not been expected to get the 60 votes needed to move it toward a final vote because Republicans needed several “yeas” from Democrats, who largely support Planned Parenthood.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

If GOP Can’t Defund Planned Parenthood, They Don’t Deserve 2016 White House

Congress

House Speaker John Boehner may or may not defund Planned Parenthood, telling reporters that he wants to get the facts first.

You want facts, Mr. Speaker?

OK—call up Planned Parenthood and see what the going rate is for an aborted baby’s backbone.

You want facts, sir?

How about more than a half billion American tax dollars are being used to fund Planned Parenthood’s killing fields.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Democrats Introduce Bill to Ban ‘Husband’ and ‘Wife’ as ‘Anti-Gay’ Words

Husband And Husband - Wikimedia Commons

Fresh off the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, Democrats in California have introduced a bill that would ban the words “husband” and “wife” from being used in federal law because they are “gendered terms” and discriminate against gay people.

The words husband and wife were deleted from California state law last year in order to accommodate same sex marriage.

Under new legislation proposed by over two dozen Democrats, that same rule would be applied federally. The bill, introduced by Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif, would introduce new “gender-neutral” terms such as “spouse” or “married couple.”

“The Amend the Code for Marriage Equality Act recognizes that the words in our laws have meaning and can continue to reflect prejudice and discrimination even when rendered null by our highest courts,” Capps said. “Our values as a country are reflected in our laws. I authored this bill because it is imperative that our federal code reflect the equality of all marriages.”

Capps said that amending the language used was necessary to reflect “the equality of all marriages” following last month’s Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage that mandated all states to license same sex marriages.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Americans Have Lost Confidence … in Everything

U.S. Capitol Building

Americans have little confidence in most of their major institutions including Congress, the presidency, the Supreme Court, banks and organized religion, according to the latest Gallup poll.

“Americans’ confidence in most major U.S. institutions remains below the historical average for each one,” a Gallup spokesman said in a news release. Only the military, in which 72 percent of Americans express confidence, up from a historical average of 68 percent, and small business, with 67 percent confidence, up from 63, are currently rated higher than their historical norms. This is based on the percentage expressing “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in these institutions, the Gallup spokesman said.

Only 8 percent have confidence in Congress, down by 16 points from a long-term average of 24 percent – the lowest of all institutions rated.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

79 Members Of Congress Have Been In Office For At Least 20 Years

US Capitol Building - Public Domain

No wonder Washington never changes – 79 members of Congress have been there since Bill Clinton’s first term in the White House. This list includes names such as Reid, Feinstein, McConnell, McCain, Pelosi, Boehner, Rangel and Boxer. In this article, I am going to share with you a complete list of the members of Congress that have been “serving” us for at least 20 years. They believe that they are “serving” us well, but without a doubt most Americans very much wish that true “change” would come to Washington. In fact, right now Congress has a 15 percent approval rating with the American people, and that approval rating has been consistently below 20 percent since mid-2011. So of course we took advantage of the 2014 mid-term election to dump as many of those Congress critters out of office as we possibly could, right? Wrong. Sadly, incumbents were re-elected at a 95 percent rate in 2014. This just shows how broken and how corrupt our system has become. The American people absolutely hate the job that Congress is doing, and yet the same clowns just keep getting sent back to Washington again and again.

Our founders never intended for service in Congress to become a career, but that is precisely what it has become for many of our “public servants”. As of this moment, there are 79 members of Congress that have been in office for at least 20 years, and there are 16 members of Congress that have been in office for at least 30 years.

No wonder so many Americans are advocating term limits these days. When there are dozens of members of Congress that know that they are going to be sent back to Washington over and over again no matter how the American people feel about things, that can cause them to become extremely callous toward the will of the people. Instead, often these politicians become increasingly responsive to the needs of their big donors, because it takes big money to win campaign after campaign. I am sure that if George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were running around today, they would be absolutely disgusted by how our system has evolved.

The following is a list from rollcall.com of the Republicans in the U.S. Senate that have served for at least 20 years and the dates when they first took office…

Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Jan. 4, 1977
Thad Cochran, Miss. Dec. 27, 1978
Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Jan. 5, 1981
Mitch McConnell, Ky. Jan. 3, 1985
Richard C. Shelby, Ala. Jan. 6, 1987
John McCain, Ariz. Jan. 6, 1987
James M. Inhofe, Okla. Nov. 30, 1994

The following is a list from rollcall.com of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate that have served for at least 20 years and the dates when they first took office…

Patrick J. Leahy, Vt. Jan. 14, 1975
Barbara A. Mikulski, Md. Jan. 6, 1987
Harry Reid, Nev. Jan. 6, 1987
Dianne Feinstein, Calif. Nov. 4, 1992
Barbara Boxer, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993
Patty Murray, Wash. Jan. 5, 1993

The following is a list from rollcall.com of the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives that have served for at least 20 years and the dates when they first took office…

Don Young, Alaska March 6, 1973
Jim Sensenbrenner, Wis. Jan. 15, 1979
Harold Rogers, Ky. Jan. 5, 1981
Christopher H. Smith, N.J. Jan. 5, 1981
Joe L. Barton, Texas Jan. 3, 1985
Lamar Smith, Texas Jan. 6, 1987
Fred Upton, Mich. Jan. 6, 1987
John J. Duncan Jr., Tenn. Nov. 8, 1988
Dana Rohrabacher, Calif. Jan. 3, 1989
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Fla. Aug. 29, 1989
John A. Boehner, Ohio Jan. 3, 1991
Sam Johnson, Texas May 18, 1991
Ken Calvert, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993
Robert W. Goodlatte, Va. Jan. 5, 1993
Peter T. King, N.Y. Jan. 5, 1993
John L. Mica, Fla. Jan. 5, 1993
Ed Royce, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993
Frank D. Lucas, Okla. May 10, 1994
Rodney Frelinghuysen, N.J. Jan. 4, 1995
Walter B. Jones, N.C. Jan. 4, 1995
Frank A. LoBiondo, N.J. Jan. 4, 1995
Mac Thornberry, Texas Jan. 4, 1995
Edward Whitfield, Ky. Jan. 4, 1995

The following is a list from rollcall.com of the Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives that have served for at least 20 years and the dates when they first took office…

John Conyers Jr., Mich. Jan. 4, 1965
Charles B. Rangel, N.Y. Jan. 21, 1971
Steny H. Hoyer, Md. May 19, 1981
Marcy Kaptur, Ohio Jan. 3, 1983
Sander M. Levin, Mich. Jan. 3, 1983
Peter J. Visclosky, Ind. Jan. 3, 1985
Peter A. DeFazio, Ore. Jan. 6, 1987
John Lewis, Ga. Jan. 6, 1987
Louise M. Slaughter, N.Y. Jan. 6, 1987
Nancy Pelosi, Calif. June 2, 1987
Frank Pallone Jr., N.J. Nov. 8, 1988
Eliot L. Engel, N.Y. Jan. 3, 1989
Nita M. Lowey, N.Y. Jan. 3, 1989
Jim McDermott, Wash. Jan. 3, 1989
Richard E. Neal, Mass. Jan. 3, 1989
José E. Serrano, N.Y. March 20, 1990
David E. Price, N.C. Jan. 7, 1997 Also served 1987-95
Rosa DeLauro, Conn. Jan. 3, 1991
Collin C. Peterson, Minn. Jan. 3, 1991
Maxine Waters, Calif. Jan. 3, 1991
Jerrold Nadler, N.Y. Nov. 3, 1992
Jim Cooper, Tenn. Jan. 7, 2003 Also served 1983-95
Xavier Becerra, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993
Sanford D. Bishop Jr., Ga. Jan. 5, 1993
Corrine Brown, Fla. Jan. 5, 1993
James E. Clyburn, S.C. Jan. 5, 1993
Anna G. Eshoo, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993
Gene Green, Texas Jan. 5, 1993
Luis V. Gutierrez, Ill. Jan. 5, 1993
Alcee L. Hastings, Fla. Jan. 5, 1993
Eddie Bernice Johnson, Texas Jan. 5, 1993
Carolyn B. Maloney, N.Y. Jan. 5, 1993
Lucille Roybal-Allard, Calif. Jan. 5, 1993
Bobby L. Rush, Ill. Jan. 5, 1993
Robert C. Scott, Va. Jan. 5, 1993
Nydia M. Velázquez, N.Y. Jan. 5, 1993
Bennie Thompson, Miss. April 13, 1993
Sam Farr, Calif. June 8, 1993
Lloyd Doggett, Texas Jan. 4, 1995
Mike Doyle, Pa. Jan. 4, 1995
Chaka Fattah, Pa. Jan. 4, 1995
Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas Jan. 4, 1995
Zoe Lofgren, Calif. Jan. 4, 1995

As you looked over those lists, you probably noticed that they contain many of the members of Congress that Americans complain about the most.

Unfortunately, because the vast majority of these individuals come from states or congressional districts that are basically a lock to vote a certain way, there is very little hope of ever removing them. That means that most of these Congress critters are going to get to keep coming back for as long as they want.

No matter which political party you prefer, this should greatly disturb you.

Our founders certainly never intended for a permanent class of elitists to rule over us.

But that is what we have.

We are supposed to have a government of the people, by the people and for the people, but instead we have a government of the elite, by the elite and for the elite. Most people do not realize this, but today most members of Congress are actually millionaires. The disconnect between members of Congress and average Americans has never been greater than it is right now, and I think that is a very troubling sign for the future of this nation.

So is there a solution to this problem?

Please feel free to share what you think by posting a comment below…

(Originally published on End of the American Dream)

114th Congress Heavily Religious According to Pew Survey; Close to 92 Percent ‘Christian’

Congress

The 114th Congress, which is to be sworn in on Tuesday, is heavily religious in its makeup, a Pew Research Center study has revealed. Close to 92 percent of representatives identify as Christians, which is almost 20 percent more than the general population, while only a single member is religiously unaffiliated.

Pew published the results of its survey on Monday, and included a table offering a side-by-side comparison of the religion makeup of members of Congress as opposed to the general population of America.

The survey queried all 491 members in Congress, and found that 57.2 percent identify as Protestants – more than the 49 percent of the American public. Another 164 members or 30.7 percent of Congress members identified as Roman Catholic, compared to 22 percent of the population. Furthermore, 5.2 percent of Congress is Jewish, while only 2 percent of Americans answered the same.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

+ More
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!