Howard County Republican Club

Howard County, Maryland

NEWS & EVENTS THAT AFFECT YOU AND YOUR NEIGHBORS!

Taking Back Our County in 2010!

And don't make me tell you again!

The GOP Connection's "Weekly Edition"

February 6th, 2010

Congratulations to

David Wissing & Meredith Hochman

on their Impending Nuptials!

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Snow plowing available. Contact Anthony Pavlosky at 410-440-7554. Remember, it may take him sometime to respond back to you because he is out there plowing right now.

Joel's Rant

We are in deep trouble!

How dim a memory it is to look back on those terrible and horrible and even feeble-like days when George W. Bush was President. How awful it was when unemployment averaged just 5%, when inflation was never above 3%, when the budget deficit was never above $482 billion in any single year, when the value of homes literally doubled on average, when income taxes for every person who actually paid income taxes was literally reduced, when the Treasury collected more in personal and corporate income tax receipts than at any time in the history of the United States, when foreign investment money was flowing into the United States because this country was where investment opportunities guaranteed financial expansion, wealth and success. Oh, the humanity!

Of course any dolt could have inherited a recession, managed to work through a tech bubble explosion that eviscerated trillions in national wealth and held the country together during the catastrophe of September 11th. And essentially handled all of that pretty much in the same year. Give me a break, for crying out loud. My mother could have done that.

How could anyone compare that "lost decade" to the one single year under the magnificent leadership of Barack Hussein Obama. Building upon the success of the Democrat control of Congress in the last two years of the Bush administration, in which every spending bill proffered by the apparently incompetent Bush was increased by the Dems, and in which Obama voted along with his party every single time, official unemployment soared to about 10%, and to 17% when including those underemployed, yearly budget deficits are in excess of $1.3 trillion and growing, the total national debt is expected to double in 5 years and triple in 10 years and where homes continue to be foreclosed on at a record pace.

That should characterize about where we were and where we can expect to go and Obama's budget address of last week didn't disappoint. Actually his call to reduce deficits and to get the country's financial house in order were pretty comical when one realizes it is he, his minions and his colluders in Congress that have brought us to this public-debt crisis.

The budget released for FY'2011 is one of the greatest spend-while-you-can documents in American history. It requires spending of $3.834 trillion and assumes a deficit of $1.51 trillion. All of that $1.51 trillion represents borrowed money. In fact, doubling the income tax rate of every person and corporation who pays income taxes in America would not equal the $1.51 trillion being borrowed, most of which will come from our enemy China.

What's especially interesting here is that there really are well documented, successful and time-honored ways to fight recessions. This is nothing new. There's a formula to it. Why we're not using those successful models from the recent past should make you wonder what exactly is going on here. John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush all came into office having inherited recessions. In the case of Reagan, what he inherited was even arguably much worse than that inherited by Barack Obama. What they did was cut taxes across the board. That put money in the pockets of people to spend efficiently as they wished. It also left money in the private sector so they could invest in inventory, perform R&D, increase markets and hire more workers. What a concept.

Why is it the exact opposite is being done now to combat this recession? Instead of tax cuts, its tax increases. Instead of people determining where best to spend money, the government decides where to spend money.

Is it just a mistake of ideology, or is it a purposeful policy to destroy American wealth and create a class of victims requiring government support and intervention forever? You have to think about that, don't you? What's happening now cannot in a million years bring prosperity. It cannot bring jobs. It cannot create individual wealth. When you put these numbers and tactics into the well-known formula for success it comes up as an error. So what's the purpose?

And while we're all thinking about that, the Chinese, Russians and Indians will be literally dancing on the Moon. But we won't be among them. Our once great and envious American standard of living will be spiraling out of control, directly into the ground.

Being a superpower was great. Now let's try what it's like in the Third World.

Results for the Newsletter
Satisfaction Survey

Actual Figures

Highly Satisfied	74
Somewhat Satisfied	13
Neutral	5
Somewhat Dissatisfied	8
Highly Dissatisfied	4

Thank you participating in our Newsletter's Satisfaction Survey. As a club, we try to do all we can to represent all of our members. As you can see from the chart above, we seem to be doing a pretty good job. We received 104 responses which is an excellent sampling and clearly illustrates the direction that the overwhelming majority of the Club members want to take. We are delighted to say that with just a few exceptions (12%) we seem to be hitting the nail right on the head.

When we begin to utilize the suggestions submitted below, that percentage might just about disappear. We realize that we probably will not please everybody, all of the time, but we can assure you that we are going to do our best.

Please review some of the terrific suggestions below. All of them have been paraphrased or combined to prevent duplication. There are a few that are high-lighted and that is because we have already implemented those recommendations. This may take some time to implement all, but rest assured we will be making the necessary efforts to accomplish that goal.

One of the suggestions below is highlighted in red because of the sheer number of times it was expressed, "Embrace the Tea-Party Movement!" Rest assured, as we did last year, we will continue to embrace the Tea-Party Movement as their guiding principles are of Freedom, Conservativism and Liberty, and those were the original philosophies of the "Republican Party" and will hopefully be ours for the future.

You should also realize that there are a few members who had the opposite opinions as other members, in this case we decided to go with the majority. Therefore, as terrific as the suggestions may have been, not all of the recommendations will be implemented.

The highlighted comments have already been implemented.

Advertise the Newsletter and promote its distribution.

Would like a Calendar or a link to one

Add Annapolis Legislation Information-Link to Bates & Miller

Add local Political Information

Modify the events if they are repeating week to week

Feature Guest Columnists especially Candidates

Enthusiastically push the Conservative Movement/Post the Tea Parties & Rallies/Continue to arrange for group transportation!

Add Educational links for Understanding the Constitution

Add more Membership Contributions to the Newsletter

Encourage participation in Leafleting and Sign Waving

Biographies on Members of the Month & New Members

Link for members to join the HCRC easily

Elected Official/Candidate Contribution

Warren Miller's Opinion

In an effort to stabilize the Maryland State Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, Governor O'Malley and his Democrat colleagues in the legislature have introduced SB107/HR91 (Labor and Employment-Unemployment Insurance Modernization and Tax Relief Act), for our vote. This bill expands eligibility (LIBERALIZES Eligibility) for unemployment insurance, makes changes to part-time workers provisions, and provides for up to 26 weeks of additional training benefits as a condition of receiving a one-time $126.8 million dollar grant in federal stimulus funds. (The Carrot)

That certainly sounds fair and friendly, but a closer review of the bill's details reveals that this bill is not a good deal for Maryland's employers and business community. Because of this recession, Maryland is on track to pay out over $1 billion in unemployment benefits this year and probably beyond that as well. At that rate, the 126.8 million pledged by the federal government would last less than 5 1/2 weeks. In exchange for those funds, the federal government would require automation and other program updates to be made that would cost the State of Maryland approximately $20 million each year permanently. Clearly incurring annual long term liabilities of an estimated $20 million so the state fund can pay out 8 weeks of benefits far overshadows the short term benefit of the federal stimulus.

Unfortunately, this provision also liberalizes the system (The Stick) by making more individuals eligible who do not have sufficient attachment to the workforce to be eligible under Maryland's present system. It is employers, not the state government or other taxpayers, that bear the burden and consequences of maintaining a solvent Trust Fund, and expanding it to include others not presently covered will certainly result in fewer jobs and potentially fewer businesses to pick up the increased costs. We have no way of knowing what this liability could be, but it will greatly increase the drain on the employer funded Unemployment Insurance fund.

I believe that the antidote to unemployment benefits is jobs and creating a business friendly environment where businesses can flourish, thereby increasing the need for more workers. To achieve this goal we need to get the Federal and State Government off of our business people's backs. Years of bad legislation and taxation in Maryland have done permanent harm to our economy. In Howard County alone the u

nemployment rate has doubled! Driving up the costs of businesses to employ workers is not good public policy during this recession.

The short term $126.8 million federal stimulus payment cannot mask the fact that it is simply not sustainable to liberalize eligibility without making offsetting long term savings. Now is not the time to add long term liabilities that increase employers' costs, threaten trust fund solvency and hurt job creation. In addition, counting on continued federal monies for the purpose of shoring up unemployment benefits is plainly naïve and should be resisted when they obligate employers to permanent additional costs.

Member's Contribution

Offshore Drilling in Brazil aided by our President.

"Even though President Obama is against off shore drilling for our country, he signed an executive order to loan 2 Billion of our taxpayers dollars to a Brazilian Oil Exploration Company (which is the 8th largest company in the entire world) to drill for oil off the coast of Brazil ! The oil that comes from this operation is for the sole purpose and use of China and NOT THE USA ! Now here's the real clincher...the Chinese government is under contract to purchase all the oil that this oil field will produce, which is hundreds of millions of barrels of oil".

mmm

We have absolutely no gain from this transaction whatsoever! Wait, it gets more interesting.

Guess who is the largest individual stockholder of this Brazilian Oil Company and who would benefit most from this? It is American BILLIONAIRE, George Soros, who was one of President Obama's most generous financial supporter during his campaign.

If you are able to connect the dots and follow the money, you are probably as upset as I am. Not a word of this transaction was broadcast on any of the other news networks!

Below is the Wall street Journal article to confirm this.

Wall Street Journal

Although this article says nothing about George Soros and Petrobras, I googled it and it is true, he bought a $811 million stake in Petrobras in August of 2008 .

Change we all can believe in.....

Maggie Schiulz contributed this article. She is one of our most appreciated members-Thank you!