3/13/2009 8:43:00 AM Illinois Democrats promote socialism
Rory Ryan
By the time you read this, I will be otherwise pre-occupied attempting to stimulate the economy at a local watering hole in South Florida. With that said, please direct all rebuttals, comments, addenda and erotica, I mean errata, to the managing editor. He most likely won't mind. I'm sure I won't.
Since I'm on the aforementioned vacation, let's have a little fun with the new president and his liberal Congress.
Last week, conservative columnist and erstwhile presidential candidate Pat Buchanan offered this little gem: "On The Road To Socialism? We've Arrived!"
In his column, Buchanan writes: "Markets are not infallible. But the stock market has long been a lead indicator of where the economy will be six months from now. What are the markets, the collective decisions of millions of investors, saying?
"Having fallen every month since Obama's election, with January and February the worst two months in history, they are telling us the stimulus package will not work, that Tim Geithner is clueless about how to save the banks, that the Obama budget portends disaster for the republic."
Buchanan notes that President Barack Obama has promised new investments in energy, education and health care.
"Who is going to pay for all this?" Buchanan asks. "The top 2 percent - the 'filthy rich' who got all those Bush tax breaks, say Democrats. But the top 5 percent of all income-earners already pay 60 percent of all income taxes, while the bottom 40 percent pay nothing."
Sure does sound like a path toward socialism.
The Obama Kool-Aiders are great at promises, but less skilled in simple math. They remind me of a former acquaintance who railed against those Bush tax cuts "for the wealthy." She didn't get a reduction on her income tax that particular year and was quite indignant about it. I then explained to her that she was not paying any federal income taxes whatsoever. She still wanted to be included in the tax cuts.
I started to explain that if one pays no taxes but expects a "tax cut," we used to call that welfare. Instead, I just gave up. Where ignorance is bliss...
In reality, the Bush tax cuts helped a great many taxpayers, the vast majority of whom were not wealthy. His per-child tax credits put real dollars in the pockets of hard-working families.
Those dollars spent a lot better among the working middle class than Obama's thus-far false promises.
"The real Obama has stood up and lived up to his ranking as the most left-wing member of the Senate," Buchanan wrote last week.
Some of us who've actually tracked the Illinois Democrat's voting record (present!) are not surprised. American ingenuity and productivity has been replaced by the proverbial free lunch. Bon appetit.
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• Another socialist idea being floated by another Illinois Democrat is House Resolution 45, introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill. A Times-Gazette editorial last Friday touched on this hare-brained attempt at national gun control.
You'd think the Democrats who control Congress would give up on their attempts to blatantly disregard our Constitution's Second Amendment. But you'd be wrong.
On March 4, Geoff Metcalf wrote for NewsMax.com, "An entire bumper sticker industry exists for pro-Second Amendment types. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, James Monroe, Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry all trumpeted the refrain, 'No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.'"
Metcalf writes: Jefferson quoted Cesare Beccaria's 1767 words, "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants."
House Resolution 45 would put strict demands and unconstitutional limitations on gun ownership among private citizens.
The legislation is a re-introduction of Rush's 2007 H.R. 2666, which was co-sponsored by Obama's current chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel.
Metcalf further quotes President Calvin Coolidge, who once observed, "It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones."
"House Resolution 45 screams to be killed," Metcalf said. I agree.
As of this writing (late on March 5), I have made three requests to members of Congress, including Third District Rep. Mike Turner and Second District Rep. Jean Schmidt, to write columns on the merits of H.R. 45. I've not heard a word from either of them. (With apologies, if either has subsequently responded during my pre-occupation at the aforementioned watering hole.)
While congressional columns on college internships have their place, it seems to me there are a lot more important issues for our Ohio delegation to address.
House Resolution 45 is one of them. The resolution, sponsored by a former U.S. Army deserter and convicted felon, has been in a congressional subcommittee since February. Let's hope it dies there a fast and painful death.
Meanwhile, I think I'll get re-acquainted with my good friends Mr. Smith, Mr. Wesson, Bill Ruger and Sam Colt. I like to call them The Four Horsemen of the Second Amendment.
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• Hillsboro City Auditor Gary Lewis has already written an excellent column for our readers on the so-called Fairness Doctrine (see www.timesgazette.com).
But our good friend Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma recently weighed in on the censorship bill.
In a press release last Wednesday, Inhofe ripped an amendment by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., (another Illinois Democrat?!) "encouraging and promoting diversity in communication media ownership," which Inhofe calls "really just a new means of censorship on the airways."
Inhofe points out the Durbin Doctrine is simply an attempt to end conservative talk radio - perhaps the last national bastion of intelligent conversation.
"Not only do I continue to stand firm in my opposition to the Fairness Doctrine, but I am adamantly opposed to any attempt aimed at regulating the airwaves, such as more stringent licensing requirements, and vague diversity regulations aimed at an industry whose authorizing authority is the First Amendment to the Constitution."
One might think that radio station owners and managers, regardless of political persuasion, would be thanking Sen. Inhofe. Don't hold your breath.
A few stations might appreciate the support, but it's a safe bet that others will agree to censorship in exchange for the promise of a government handout. Your tax dollars at work.
Three Illinois Democrats and three more moves toward socialism. In the classic 1980 musical comedy "The Blues Brothers," Jake Blues uttered this famous line: "I hate Illinois Nazis."
I'm beginning to hate Illinois Democrats - and we haven't even mentioned Rod Blagojevich or Roland Burris.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Times-Gazette.
Reader Comments
Posted: Monday, March 16, 2009
Article comment by:
Kathleen Suda
I remember hearing about Bobby Rush, a Black Panther Party member. They were pro Marxists trying to overthrow the govt. As a convicted felon, he can't carry a handgun anyway-but as a Chicago politician I'm sure he could get someone to give him a permit to carry. I say clean out the Chicago political machine-none of their politicians should be allowed in Washington until they clean up their act. I commend you for your article providing some true transparency(not the Obama propaganda being foisted on the American public).
Posted: Friday, March 13, 2009
Article comment by:
Debra Gravois
I'd love to just blame the democrats. That's easy. They are idiot socialists. However, I am more angry with the compromising republicans. There is no way that we got to this place where people are comfortable with socialism...which we all know is next door to marxism/communism, without the help of the republicans. No way.
