Apparently, the US Government has misinterpreted the news that tax revenues are the highest they have ever been to mean there is a huge surplus of money in need of spending. You can’t look at any news source without seeing someone asking for money. Comprehensive bills are in various stages throughout Congress. Uncle Sam must be positively flush with money. Then you look at the National Debt Clock and see the $17.6 trillion debt rocketing upward. To put that into perspective, that works out to $1,049,560 per taxpayer.

Several months ago, the VA turmoil was front and center in all the news media. There were 40 veterans dead in Phoenix, Az., veterans being placed on waiting lists only to be ignored, mismanagement and corruption ran rampant. The VA Secretary resigned or was asked to resign over the disgrace perpetrated against our veterans. Last week, the acting Secretary, Sloan Gibson announced that the VA needed comprehensive overhaul costing $17.6 billion. The CBO claims the overhaul could cost $50 billion. I’m sorry, but that is not what is needed at the VA; the bureaucratic culture prevalent throughout government needs to be held accountable for what it does. Receiving bonuses for manufacturing bogus paperwork is NOT acceptable. The money requested, other than a small portion going to hiring some doctors and nurses, will get lost in bureaucracy and unions. The hospital and clinic facilities already on the drawing boards won’t be built any faster than planned. A year or two down the road, it will be noticed that their money is gone and the plight of the veterans hasn’t improved one iota. But, by then, there will be several new crises to hide that view.

In Texas, illegal aliens (I know, I’m not supposed to use illegal or alien) are pouring across the southern border. The rate is so high that the DHS is set to spend $110 million to transport them to other states, where they will be dumped on the states and told to report to their court hearing at a later time, now as long as two years in the future. That’s working so well that 90% of those supposed to show up in a Dallas court aren’t showing up. The President wants $3.7 billion to handle the crisis. The problem is that the money goes to hiring judges, people to care for the unattended children, etc. There is nothing in the bill that stops the problem: they need to secure the border. A nation that can’t (or won’t) secure their borders ceases to be a nation! If passed, the money will be gone by October, but the crisis will only get worse.

By the way, Secretary of State John Kerry is giving Iran $2.8 billion in an effort to bribe them into not producing nuclear weapons in the next three months. The negotiations have been going on for a while now, and, all that time, Iran has been spinning centrifuges wildly the get closer to that goal of producing fissionable material. I’m sure Iran will put that money to great use, probably continued funding of Hamas and Hezbollah and any other terrorist entities in search of money to create mayhem.

This is just a few examples of boondoggles proposed to spend that surplus of money the Treasury has. There are other comprehensive bills floating out there. The thing to keep in mind is that comprehensive is liberal speak for a bill that has so many parts to it and is so costly that the money will get lost and nothing addressed will change. Anyone remember the comprehensive healthcare plan, Obamacare? And, for those that are unaware, there ISN’T any surplus, but a yearly deficit. That means the US government doesn’t have any money. Anything spent by the government, puts every citizen deeper into debt. A child born today is born already $55,259 in debt. Wake up, that’s your future they want to spend.

Friday morning, Barack H Obama appeared in a news conference to tell America that the reports of  abuses in the Veteran’s Administration are not to be tolerated and that the Secretary, Eric Shinseki, had turned in his resignation. In a meeting prior to the presser, Shinseki told veterans he took responsibility for the debacle and  that people in the Phoenix office were being fired. So, the Secretary steps down and several of the managers get fired, but the question remains: what’s next?

During Obama’s speech, he brought up the question of criminal prosecution, saying he’ll leave that decision to the Department of Justice. He’s done that on several occasions before; the Black Panthers voter intimidation, Fast and Furious,Benghazi, IRS, and the AP scandals to name a few. Each time, Eric Holder decided there was nothing to investigate so he wouldn’t waste DoJ funds looking at them. With those episodes fresh in our minds, I don’t hold much hope for much investigating of anything surrounding the fraud (at least), the federal felony of filing false information on a federal form, or much more serious offenses.

The talk of more money has already been brought up, but Obama wants to find out where the money goes and what is needed. Really, the problem isn’t a money problem. Last year’s budget for the VA was approximately $150 Billion. Of that, $57.7 Billion went to medical care fund. Now, that’s seems like a lot of money, but routinely, only 39% of that money goes to actually care for the veteran. The rest goes to administrative purposes. That’s about $22.5 Billion that’s actually going to veterans’ medical attention. Also, there was an unused $450 Million from last year was rolled over for use with this year’s budget. Bureaucracy is like the volume of gas; it expands to fill the allotted space, so, I’m sure none of that money came from the admin side.

The 2015 budget for the Veterans Administration is $163 Billion, an increase over last year. Before we go with the typical liberal solution of throwing more money at the problem, we need to completely revamp the VA. We need to get rid of the government bureaucrats whose only concern is manipulating data to make a bonus.We need to cut those who don’t care about anyone but themselves. We need people at the VA that are genuinely concerned about veterans care. We need to rid ourselves of the pervasive culture that makes employees think what has been going on in the Veteran’s Administration is acceptable.

This weekend is the unofficial start of summer. Millions of Americans will be on the roads and in the air for short vacations and beach trips. Others will be partaking of savings at sales in stores, both brick and online. There will be boating, grilling and hiking all over the country. Friday afternoon will kick off the three-day weekend, culminating with Memorial Day.

Somewhat lost in all the aforementioned festivities, or marginalized altogether is the actual meaning of the day. Many are confused by it. I’ve actually heard news commentators confusing Memorial Day with Veterans Day. Memorial Day isn’t about those brave men and women in uniform today; that would be Armed Forces Day, a week ago. It’s not about those who served in the military in the past; that’s Veterans Day in November.

Memorial Day is the day we commemorate those who lost their lives in the service of their country. In truth, all of these men, both past and present, should be honored every day, not just one day a year. That’s just my opinion. These men all stood up, raised their right hands and swore to “support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic”. Memorial Day honors those who died upholding that oath, thus protecting our rights established in the Constitution of the United States.

Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t do the sales, the BBQ’s or any of the other things. I believe we should not forget those who  gave everything so that we have our fun. Many churches will be having memorials Sunday and cemetaries across the nation will be honoring our lost heroes on Monday. They are not very hard to find. It is an excellent learning experience for children. Why not sit down with an older child and read the Constitution, explaining that this is what those we commemorate fought and died for. What could be wrong with showing your child the rights they have.

The administration has decided that, with the end of the military’s mission in Afghanistan, we no longer need a capable armed force.  A year and a half ago, it was ” Bin Ladin is dead and Al Qaeda is on the run”, so obviously, there are  no terrorist threats in the world today. In Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai has solved all the problems of the region to the point that they no longer require any military assistance. The Olympics are over and all the world is at peace!

Therefore, the White House wants to use a chain saw on the US military forces. We no longer need to be prepared to fight in two conflicts. We can cut manpower in the military to around the numbers prior to World War II. We’ll use attrition to lower active duty numbers, putting more veterans into a workforce that isn’t hiring. We’ll trim the Reserve units so, in an emergency, states will have to more heavily rely on the federal government for assistance. They have agreed to keep our aircraft carriers, but the rest of the ships aren’t immune from cuts, and will probably carry half load-outs. They plan to discontinue the A-10 Warthog aircraft for the F-35. I’ve seen the A-10 in action; they can stay on station a lot longer than a fast mover. While we’re at it, let’s cut housing, college and retirement benefits to veterans. The world is now a better place.

At least, this is what you hear from some of the talking heads. This is the idea the administration wants people to think. The reality, of course, is quite different.We’ve been out of Iraq for a couple of years now, and recently, the black flag of Al Qaeda flies over at least two cities there. In Afghanistan, Karzai is working against American interests by negotiating with Al Qaeda and the Taliban. He has refused to sign a Bilateral Security agreement providing for the security of American troops and, without that, we will pull our forces out of Afghanistan, followed by the other forces by the end of the year. In a couple of years, the black flags of Al Qaeda will fly of their cities as well.

In the Pacific Ocean, China is growing its navy, built around their aircraft carrier. They are in arguments with Japan over a group of islands that both claim. They have declared a no fly zone over the islands that, of course, was immediately challenged by American and Japanese aircraft. Still, their navy is continuing to grow and become more aggressive. The North Koreans, despite the best efforts of America’s faux ambassador, Dennis Rodman, are flexing their military muscle. Recently, in response to a joint exercise with S Korean and American military, N Korea launched several short-range missiles. They are working on longer range missiles and they do have nuclear weapons.

Iran is a special kind of trouble in the Middle East as well as the world. Their tentacles are everywhere, from Egypt to Syria to Iraq and Afghanistan. Their major export is terrorism. Their brand of radical Islam hates everyone that doesn’t hold their belief system. Their job is to bring that belief system to other places, along with the incumbent slavery associated with it.They have longer range missiles and they have nuclear weapons. Most recently, they decided to thumb their collective noses at Washington, by having ships of its navy set sail for American coastal waters. Have you heard about them the last week or so?

Then, we have Russia. During the Olympics, the Ukrainians balked at the president’s alignment with the Russians. Protests broke out and, eventually ousted the Ukrainian leader from rule. Immediately after, Vladimir Putin, no longer involved in the Olympics, started military drills at the Ukrainian border with troops and military aircraft. Today, word got out that people in military clothing, possibly Russian Marines, had seized control of several airports in the Ukraine. Those people may just be surrogates of Russia, but, I’m sure, they have the complete backing of Russian troops. Oh,and I forgot. Why is there all of a sudden a Russian spy ship docked in Havana?

The White House has decided that we can cut the military’s funds and use that money to further fund his various hand-out programs. Mark my words; unemployment will rise. Workers will be laid off around bases that get closed. Teens out of high school won’t be able to turn to the military for a job. Currently, teen unemployment runs around 20%. That will increase.

Overseas, an America with a military that is hamstrung will receive little respect. Actually, that’s already the case. Russia and Iran surely have no respect for us now. Yesterday, the White House sent warnings to Russia about the situation in Ukraine. Just now, Russia has admitted to invading the Ukraine! Respect? Don’t think so.

The world is not the safe place where we should be drastically cut our military. I don’t think we should be the police force of the world, but having a capable military force provides for more options in diplomacy. Just the capacity to put a fighting force anywhere, anytime heads off a lot of evil in the world. With these cuts, we degrade that capacity. We degrade our own national security and our sovereignty.

The Federal Communication Commission wants to launch a study called the “Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs”. The FCC wants to determine what news stories get chosen for airing and how they are chosen. To find the answers to these questions, they want to put monitors in local TV and radio newsrooms. Does this sound harmless to you? Maybe, until you realize that places government officials in the radio and television stations many of you watch. Maybe it sounds harmless, until you realize that it is only a first step.

Evidently, this spring will bring the study to newsrooms in Columbia, SC when officials start asking news directors there about their “news philosophy”. It’s obvious that, should the answer be anything other than flattering to this administration, the FCC will do to the local medium the same thing as the IRS does to the Tea Party. The FCC will, first suggest a more liberal viewpoint on a story, followed by ordering the story pulled. If the station doesn’t change its recalcitrant ways, the FCC goes ahead and pulls the station’s license to operate.

All this starts at the local level. If they succeed in the takeover , I mean, if the study is successful, it would be implemented on cable and satellite newsrooms. Of course, that would be a bit easier. There would be no need for inspectors to go to such facilities as CNN or MSNBC as they no longer have any journalists. After all, the people working there just read the statements that come from the Propaganda Department at the White House.

That is what all this is about. It’s about the control of what the public knows. When a military force invades, part of that force first secures the port or airfield, and part takes the government buildings and radio and television stations. They immediately start to calm the citizens, as much as they can. During World War II, the Germans forbid owning radios other than those that aired transmissions approved by the Germans. They wanted to make sure that the only news people got was the version they wanted the people to get. They wanted to control the information flow and content.

It’s the same here. The popularity of the administration is in free fall and they blame it on Fox News and talk radio. They are the ones who constantly play the “Lie of the Year”. They are the ones that constantly bring up Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal, the NSA spying on citizens, etc. By the way, if you’ve never heard of any of those, you are already part of the problem. If you pair this “study” with the “Net Neutrality” efforts, which are making a come back, and the internet “kill switch” and you form a more compliant public. This makes it easier to push forth an agenda that ,otherwise, may be opposed. To a ruling administration, opposition must be crushed. One step at a time!

I have a bumper sticker on my truck that says “American Pride”. Actually, it’s not on my truck’s bumper, but on the toolbox. This is the toolbox in which I carry my tools from one job site to another. For the most part, I enjoy what I do, but, there are some days that are tougher than others. Regardless of whether or not it was a good job or a tough job, ultimately, I have pride in the job I’ve done.

This feeling may soon become a thing of the past. Last week, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report on the effects of Obamacare over the next ten years. The CBO reports that the healthcare law will result in the loss of what amounts to 2.3 million jobs. The net result of this reduction in employment will be lowered economic growth and a lower gross domestic product. This is not very good news for an economy that is teetering on the fulcrum of recovery.

Enter the talking heads from the liberal side. Keith Ellison (D-MN) boldly says that Americans work too much. He claims that Americans work more than workers in other nations in the civilized world and that the reduction in the workforce will allow Americans to cook dinner at home. He doesn’t mention that Americans out of work won’t have the money to go out to eat.

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says that the Affordable Care Act (a misnomer, because it’s not affordable and there is NO care involved in the act) will enable more that 2 million Americans to rid themselves of job-lock, needing to hold on to a job in order to get healthcare. Of course, this is the same person that claims welfare in the form of food stamps is great for the economy. I hesitate to take her advice on financial matters.

This debate over the CBO report doesn’t go quite far enough however.Obamacare was never about healthcare. It was about control. The government has or soon will have control of 1/6 of the economy of the United States. It immediately started doing what the government does best, gumming up the works. It has created turmoil in the insurance industry, with the ultimate goal  of state-run medicine. Medicare has taken a hit, as has Tricare. Medical research and medical device companies have been damaged.

More importantly, the American people continue to be assaulted. In July, 2012, the President issued an executive order that removed the requirement for looking for work or job training in order to receive welfare benefits. Long before, the food stamp program quit issuing cards that might “embarrass” a recipient at the cash register of a store. The stigma of receiving welfare is gone. In fact, Michele Obama is in front of high school students declaring that there is federal money available to them and for the students to not leave any of it on the table. Currently, there are over 91 million people out of the workforce, either unemployed, under employed or no longer looking for work. This administration has done nothing, except give lip service, toward the creation of jobs. In fact they’ve done everything possible to stifle creation of jobs! The liberal goal is to get as many as possible on the government dole. This is tantamount to placing people into slavery.They want the message to ring out that nothing happens without the government and all else is subservient.

The problem with this transformation is two-fold. First, this move to socialism is flawed. The more people are moved out of the workforce, the less people there are to pay the taxes required to float those programs for the “needy”. As Margaret Thatcher said, “The problem with socialist is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” This administration,through its policies, has diminished the middle class. The pool of taxpayers has also diminished.

Secondly, Americans still have that pride in being American. For instance, some of the poorest Americans, those in the Appalachia in West Virginia have exasperated the government in their refusal to accept welfare benefits. Their pride  prohibits them from accepting welfare.  Perhaps the Zombies who have so little self-respect as to willingly prefer the slavery of welfare could learn something from those Americans.

Shortly before Congress left for its Christmas break, Paul Ryan (R-Wi) and Patty Murray(D-Wa)  unveiled their budget deal for the next two years. It was a bad deal for many reasons, but one of the worst reasons was the fact that one of the funding mechanisms for the bill was a cut in the cost of living adjustment of veterans, including those of disabled veterans. This provision was to increase revenues some six billion dollars. Once this was pointed out, both Ryan and Murray claimed that it was an oversight. Immediately afterward, an amendment to the bill was proposed to eliminate the cut to veterans’ benefits and, instead cut funds that went to illegal aliens. This was shot down by the Harry Reid Senate and voted down by all Democrats and five Republicans. Over this turmoil, Democrats and the anti-vet Republicans said they would rectify the cut to veteran benefits at a later time.

Well, Thursday, the opportunity to rectify the situation came back around. Another bill was put up to restore veterans’ benefits and reduce benefits to illegal aliens. Again, the Senate shot it down! Every Democrat, except Joe Manchin (D-WV) voted against the bill. Every Republican, except Dean Heller (R-Nv) voted for the bill. Again, the Senate places illegal aliens ahead of veterans. Am I missing something here?

The very people who have gone into the military with the unselfish concept of fighting for their country, possibly to be wounded or killed in combat, and are promised that after 20 years in service, they receive a pension, are considered less important than those who have entered the country illegally. A veteran, who has sustained a life-changing injury and receives a disability payment now has that benefit cut instead of cutting the benefits of someone here illegally. Such gratitude our members of Congress shows!

Our Armed Forces have been degraded by budget cuts, while, at the same time, being asked to do more. Our members of the military are asked to go forth to do more with less, while the military leadership places hurdles before them by way of the rules of engagement. This administration uses the military as pawns on their chessboard of foreign policy. Now, the Senate demonstrates how little they think those pawns are worth!

Three years ago, Nancy Pelosi said that we had to pass the bill to see what was in it. Well, those who weren’t paying attention back then are now finding out why we had to pass the law first, before the people could find out what terrible things were in the bill. Many of us knew what was to become of the best healthcare in the world and were ignored or worse. To paraphrase Barack Hussein Obama’s pastor, the chickens are coming home to roost.

We were told by every Democrat that if we liked our plan, we could keep it. Obama told us that after the bill passed, then later campaigned for re-election on it. He continued that until the insurance companies started sending out the cancellations and placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of Obamacare. I remember one of our senators, Kay Hagan, proclaiming the same thing in speech after speech. She repeated the mantra that Obamacare was going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread and that everybody would greatly benefit from the law. Many other democratic congresspeople were declaring the same thing. Well, so far, 5.9 million people have lost their policies, with more to come. The democrats are so alarmed that Obama has delayed, unconstitutionally, the small business mandate. When all the delays are finished, there will be as many as 125-150 million cancelled policies, resulting in new policies with premiums three to four times more and much higher deductibles. All this so that 30 million uninsured could get insurance. Estimates are that after the dust settles around 30 million people will be uninsured.

Besides not being able to keep our policies, we are finding we can’t keep our doctors. Many doctors are retiring or closing their offices due to the low rate of pay under Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare. By 2015, the rate of pay for doctor services will be 16 cents on the dollar. To top that off, many doctors are being overlooked or ignored by Obamacare. Inclusion in the Obamacare networks is by invitation only huge numbers of doctors, and indeed hospitals, were not invited. If a doctor finds that he wasn’t invited, nobody can tell them how to get invited. The obvious result of this will be massive wait times for even simple treatments. Didn’t we point this out even when Hillarycare was being talked about in ’93? I remember pointing out the example of Canada and their wait times.

Now, we find out that, beyond plans, doctors and hospitals, we can’t keep our medicines. The list of approved prescription medications is highly abbreviated, whole classes of drugs not available under the Obamacare policies. You may be able get those drugs, but it will be out of your own pocket and the price doesn’t apply against your deductible. You remember that purple pill for indigestion that used to cost you $20 under your prescription policy. How are you going to like paying the $138 per month  for the same thing, or more? What about the costs of drug cocktails for cancer or HIV? How will people be able to afford the drugs required to fight the life-threatening diseases that are being fought today?

Yesterday, the news broke that volunteer firefighters were going to be the latest victims of Obama’s government-run healthcare law. According to the IRS, the Obamacare Gestapo, the volunteers, whether paid or not, for the purposes of Obamacare, are to be designated as employees, therefore required to be enrolled in Obamacare. Many rural areas rely exclusively on volunteers to fight fires. Many volunteers come to help regular fire stations. But, now, some, if not all, of those volunteer fire departments will have to be dropped as being too expensive to operate, posing considerable loss of property and life in the process.

The more we know about Obamacare, the more we realize that it is an assault on almost everything we have, from our health, our life and our property. This goes beyond a wealth redistribution; it’s an affront to our Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.