Crisis in Louisiana

Here's a snip of my latest post at DaTechGuy blog: 

 When news broke this past Thursday that John Bel Edwards had halted all payments to the enormously popular college scholarship program, you could feel the panic and desperation throughout the state.  

 Thursday afternoon, February 11, word came down about the program via NOLA:  

Gov. John Bel Edwards' budget chief, Jay Dardenne, said the state will have to leave TOPS approximately $28 million short of what it would take to fully fund the program through the end of the semester. He said all public universities will be informed that they would not receive all their TOPS payment this spring. 

Dardenne added that TOPS could only be fully funded this year if the Legislature agreed to raise taxes a lot -- over a half a billion dollars -- in the next couple of months. Even then, the Edwards administration would likely prioritize filling a shortfall in the Medicaid program before the college scholarship program would receive the money it needs.

The TOPS program began in 1989 and, in brief, it pays college tuition to in-state universities for Louisiana students who score a certain percentage on the ACT and who maintain a certain GPA. The intent was to keep our kids here in the state. Through the years the requirements have been tweaked with the GPA requirement now at 2.5 and the ACT score now at 20. You can read more specifics here.  

Now, there are a couple of things to look at in those two paragraphs from NOLA: first, Dardenne said basically that those students already enrolled in the spring semester are on the hook for the balance of the tuition they had been told would be paid through their scholarship. Literally what he said was that the colleges would “absorb” the cost of the unpaid balance. Recall that higher education throughout the state has already been decimated by Bobby Jindal and there is no room to “absorb” anything.  

Students across the state went to bed Thursday night anticipating bills for the balances to hit their mailboxes any moment. 

The second thing to note from that NOLA quote is that Dardenne indicated that even if the money to fund TOPS was found, it would instead go toward funding Medicaid rather than satisfying the promised TOPS debt.

Go to DaTechGuy to read the whole thing.

Everywhere I've been over the past few days you can hear worried, subdued conversations about the tax increases and the proposed cuts. Edwards has the entire state under emotional blackmail.

And now we have the race card. Can we just stop already with the racial division?

The Special Session has begun and it is already contentious.  Whatever lawmakers ultimately decide to do, you can be certain that you'll be paying higher taxes on everything, and new taxes on things you don't pay taxes on now, and that the TOPS program will be decimated with cuts up to 80%.

Dark days ahead.

Added:  

It gets worse.

And worse. The deficit has grown an additional $17 million.

It's Not Really Welfare, It's a "Transitional Living Fund"

The always entertaining Sheila Jackson Lee thinks we need to stop calling welfare what it is:  welfare, and call it something less demeaning, like "transitional living fund."

That's a great solution and probably why the people of the great state of Texas have kept her in office since 1995.  You don't like something, just change the name.  Problem solved!

So, for example, instead of saying she's a "brainless idiot" we could just say that hungry zombies won't bother with her.

Entitlement Nation

We are a nation of entitlements.

Via CNS News:

The total number of people in the United States now receiving federal disability benefits hit a record 10,988,269 in December, up from the previous record of 10,982,920 set in November, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration. 

The average monthly benefit paid to a disabled worker also hit a record of $1,146.43 in December, up from a previous high of $1,130.34 in December of last year.

The Foundry posted on disability fraud last year (not to say that everyone on disability is perpetrating fraud, that is):

An 18-month investigation by a Senate subcommittee reports that in more than 25 percent of cases reviewed, evidence confirming disabilities was “insufficient, contradictory, or incomplete.” The staff reviewed 300 decisions in which individuals were awarded disability benefits by administrative law judges. A 2011 internal Social Security Administration report echoed the findings, showing a national error rate of 22 percent.

We spent 3.7 trillion dollars on welfare in the fast five years.  49% of Americans receive some kind of assistance from the government and these figures continue to grow.  Only half of Americans pay income taxes.

When Washington talks about cutbacks, why is it that they look first to military retiree benefits and never welfare?

Graphic via ZeroHedge

The Dependency Agenda

Obama Throws Welfare Reform Out the Window

As you may have noticed, this blog has been obsessed in the past few days with C.L. Bryant's documentary, Runaway Slave.  I believe it is critical that everyone see this film; both sides of the aisle have something to learn from this movie, however I think it will take more courage from those on the left to see it because they will be challenged.  Their life long beliefs will be challenged.  I'm hoping they'll have the courage to see it.

To that end, the film is more relevant now than ever.  The topics the film discusses are all over the news these days.  That's why I said yesterday, when this film breaks nationwide on the 27th of this month, it is all anybody will be talking about.  Because they already are - they just don't know it.

Case in point:  the Obama administration's move to gut the work requirement from the 1996 welfare reform law:

Today, the Obama Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an official policy directive rewriting the welfare reform law of 1996. The new policy guts the federal work requirements that were the foundation of the reform law. The Obama directive bludgeons the letter and intent of the actual reform legislation. 

This move is probably illegal since the original law stated that this provision was in no way eligible for waivers:

When it established TANF, Congress deliberately exempted or shielded nearly all of the TANF program from waiver authority. They explicitly did not want the law to be rewritten at the whim of HHS bureaucrats. In a December 2001, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service clarified that there was no authority to override work and other major requirements: “Effectively, there are no TANF waivers,” it reported. 

But legality has never been an issue for the Obama administration.

Entitlements under Obama have skyrocketed.  One in seven Americans are on food stamps.  In 2000, seventeen million people were on food stamps.  Today forty-six million people are dependent on food stamps.

More people have gone on disability than have found jobs.

The Obama administration is enslaving a class of people who are perpetually dependent on the government to save them.  And these people keep voting Democrat so they can keep getting handouts.

Wouldn't the better option be to create jobs so people won't need welfare?  Wouldn't it be better to create an environment where entrepreneurs can flourish and small businesses could grow?

Instead, the Democrats just want to keep handing out checks.

How demoralizing.

Wake up people!  Turn away from government hand outs and make your own way.  Create your own success.  Be a role model for someone who is looking up to you.  Break the cycle of dependency.  Don't let the Democrats enslave you to a life of poverty; you'll never get rich on handouts.

(H/T:  Memeorandum)

A New Underground Railroad

Holy smokes.  Via Red State, "the most incredible movie trailer I've ever seen":



I'm dumbfounded at the sheer blind idolatry of it!

Instead, how about a film about freedom?  How about a film that makes you feel good about your country without being preachy?  How about a film that lifts your spirits and fills you with optimism?



When C.L. Bryant's Runaway Slave hits nationwide, it is ALL anybody is going to be talking about.  I just watched it a second time and it was more powerful the second time.  Of course, after I saw the film this weekend I have read Star Parker's book and started Deneen Borelli's book, so I brought more background to the table this time.

This time around I was really watching the imagery and technical aspects of the movie.  It not only holds up on message, but it holds up as a technical work, too.  When I reviewed the movie I wrote that it has a "gritty, urban feel" to it.  Imagery of chains, bars, and locks are flashed across the screen.  Urban graffiti.

Most prevalent was the image of the railroad; one of the themes of the film is that it's time for "a new underground railroad" to escape poverty and the tyranny of big government oppression.

We see C.L. walking down railroad tracks, running on the tracks, and standing in thought on the tracks.  In the beginning he picks up a rusty railroad spike and you see that spike from time to time through the film.  At the end, as he shouts "Run!  Run away from socialism!  Run away from progressivism! Run!"  This is when you get chills up and down your arms.  He throws that spike off a railroad trestle into the river - freedom.

The image is there verbally, too, as AlfonZo Rachel says, "I must be on the right track!"

The most beautiful image to me was CL's visit to the Jefferson Memorial.  He stands, staring up at the statue of Jefferson, a man who once owned slaves, and the sun breaks through the columns.  The message?  It's a new day; look forward.  Don't look to the past.  Look forward and where we can go, together.

It's simply a beautiful film in both message and content.

Go see it.  Because when it opens up nationwide, everyone is going to be talking about it and you will want to be part of that conversation.

We've Moved Way Past "Hammock"

James Pethokoukis has six charts that ought to scare you to death.

I heard Allen West say the other day that welfare was meant to be a safety net, not a hammock.  According to these charts, it's not only become a hammock but a TempurPedic mattress.

This chart shows the explosion of the entitlement state:

Look at the other charts and keep in mind, this is BEFORE Obamacare hits.

(H/T:  Memeorandum)

Trading One Form of Tyranny for Another

I've been busy reading which is why it's been quiet here.  I'm deep into Star Parker's book, Uncle Sam's Plantation:  How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do About It.  She has a compelling personal story and, like C. L. Bryant and others, makes the case that welfare is the new plantation.  From one set of chains to another.

When I finish Ms. Parker's book, I have Silence Makes the Loudest Sound:  A Conversation Between African-Americans and the Republican Party by Marvin D. Rogers.  

All of this, of course, is inspired by C. L. Bryant's Runaway Slave documentary which I saw this past weekend.  The thesis isn't new:  Democratic entitlement programs have enslaved many black Americans to a dependency on the government, thus the politicians get power and money while the poor get handouts and remain dependent.  The Democratic programs have also decimated the family unit in black communities; to get that welfare check there must be only one parent and the more kids there are, the more money you get.

Rush Limbaugh talked about this very subject today:

We have 48% of the people in this country not paying income tax, and yet all of them... And this is important in trying to assess all this. All of these people are eating. They're not going hungry. And they all have their cell phones. And they all are able to afford to use their cell phones. And they all have their plasma TVs, and they're all able to sign up for cable and use them. Despite all of the economic malaise. Now, the reason for this is that we're $16 trillion in debt. We've got an administration which is happily paying for this result. 

There is no longer a stigma to being unemployed or a stigma to being on welfare.

What will hopefully happen as C. L. Bryant's documentary makes its way across the country at the end of the month is that people will talk about this and raise awareness.  Hopefully more people will be inspired to take Star Parker's route and turn their backs on a life of dependency and poverty and instead dedicate themselves to honest work, renewed self-esteem and prosperity.  C. L. and the participants in this film hope to reach what he calls the "closet conservatives."

Of course, the only way for those on welfare to prosper is to reject the big government programs favored by the Democrats and to elect small government, fiscal conservatives who support small business development and job creation on all levels.  That, and as Parker notes, a strong moral code:  "Although the poor need free enterprise, capital investment, and rising productivity in order to attain better living standards, the lack of a sustainable moral code and value system brings such endeavors to naught."

Nobody ever got rich living on welfare, Parker says.  

Amen to that.

Watch this clip with C. L. Bryant and Deneen Borelli talking with Glenn Beck.  It's 26 minutes but well worth your time:

Stephen King's Juvenile, Profanity Laced Op Ed Misses the Point

Stephen King has stepped off the rails and is now an economist.  In a juvenile, profanity laden, editorial for The Daily Beast, King demands that the rich, himself included, be compelled to pay more taxes.  Mr. King spends as much time insulting Chris Christie in the piece (fat jokes are pretty juvenile if you ask me) as he does advocating higher taxes for the rich.

Blasting Mitt Romney for refusing to apologize for being rich, King writes:

 I don’t want you to apologize for being rich; I want you to acknowledge that in America, we all should have to pay our fair share. That our civics classes never taught us that being American means that—sorry, kiddies—you’re on your own. That those who have received much must be obligated to pay—not to give, not to “cut a check and shut up,” in Governor Christie’s words, but to pay—in the same proportion. That’s called stepping up and not whining about it. That’s called patriotism, a word the Tea Partiers love to throw around as long as it doesn’t cost their beloved rich folks any money.

King, and other liberals like him, fail to ever recognize or acknowledge that what we have is a spending problem.  Let's address that little problem before we start hammering the top ten percent for more dough.  


Revisit this article from the Wall Street Journal a year ago which points out that the top one percent pay 38% of the taxes in this country.  Nearly half of the American population pay no income taxes whatsoever.  You want to talk about paying your "fair share"?  What's "fair" about that?


King points out that the uber-wealthy voluntarily donate millions each year (himself included) but fails to address the issue of Apple shaving billions off their tax bill by taking advantage of legal loopholes and funneling their dough overseas.  Their tax bill is about 9.8%.  Not bad.  Paying their "fair share," are they, Mr. King?  


In truth, if the rich were taxed at 100% they wouldn't be able to cover the grand entitlements expansion that Obama has saddled us and the next generation with, and that is, as the Wall Street Journal points out, BEFORE Obamacare kicks. in. 


It seems to me that King's (and others like him) criticism is misguided. Instead of taxing the rich even more we should expand the tax base - create more tax payers. Get more people paying into the system. Creating jobs would create more tax payers. 


 One of the biggest problems with the Obama administration is that it kills jobs. Do we need a list? Start with the Keystone pipeline. Energy crushing EPA regulations have shut down coal fired power plants and cost jobs. The Gulf moratorium cost countless jobs and not just in the drilling sector but on land too in all those businesses that cater to and support the drilling industry. Need I go on? 


 It doesn't take a rocket scientist (oh and we killed those jobs too at NASA) to figure out that businesses aren't hiring because of the crushing Obamacare mandates coming down the pike. If you keep an employee at part-time you won't have to pay for his hip replacement later. 


 When did it become a crime to be rich in America, anyway? Instead of falling into Obama's class warfare rhetoric,  Mr. King should stick to his writing career. Then he can make more money and pay more taxes. 


 (Graphic from Heritage) 


 (H/T: Memeorandum)

When "On Your Own" Meant Freedom and Liberty

I've been stewing over this Obama speech since last Friday.  Did you see (or hear) this?



In a speech in Vermont, The Great Uniter takes a sharply partisan turn toward Republicans.  He sounds defensive, doesn't he?  Is he worried about something?

This is the part that just slays me:

"You know, if you're out of work, can't find a job, tough luck; you're on your own. If you don't have healthcare, that's your problem; you're on your own. If you're born into poverty, lift yourself up out of your own -- with your own bootstraps, even if you don't have boots; you're on your own," Obama said in remarks before a cheering crowd in Burlington, Vt. "Hey, they believe that's how America has advanced. That's the cramped, narrow conception they have of liberty."

Wow.  Just wow.  Clearly the man has no concept of economics or of what made America great.  We did not become the greatest country in the world by cradle to grave handouts or by massive expansion of the welfare state.  Obamacare alone created yet another massive entitlement system on top of the expansion of food stamps and extensions of unemployment benefits Obama has enacted.

Republicans do not believe "you're on your own."   I'd like to see his research on conservative charitable giving.  Healthcare?  Charity hospitals and clinics abound throughout the United States.

This is the part that got me: the insinuation that if you're born into poverty the only way you can get out is by some government handout.  Think of all the people born into poverty through the decades, since the beginning of America even, who had nothing yet worked hard, studied hard, and found a way to succeed.  THAT'S what makes America great is that the opportunity is there; the grit and determination of the individual to make something of himself makes the difference.

What pride is there in doing nothing but taking government handouts?

Obama mocks the way that America has advanced?  He says we have a "narrow conception...of liberty"?

Liberty is when the government leaves us alone; when it does the job the founders enumerated and no more.

Later in the day Obama said in another speech:

"I hear politicians talking about values in an election year," he said. "Let me tell you about values. Hard work, personal responsibility -- those are values. But looking out for one another, that's a value. The idea we're all in this together, I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper, that's a value."

He is confusing the idea of "looking out for one another" with unconstitutional mandates and government handouts. He's confusing it with cradle to grave handouts and entitlements.  He's confusing it with creating a society dependent on the federal government for its every need and whim while wrecking innovation and small business.   Let churches, neighbors, and families look out for one another.    


If Obama is truly his "brother's keeper," somebody ought to give him the number to his brother's hut in Kenya and maybe he'll leave me alone and let me worry about my own brother.


I agree with him on one thing.  Of the upcoming election, Obama said:

"I think it's going to be a clarifying election about who we are and what we stand for."

He's got that right.