Congressional Freshman Speak Up

In southeast Florida last week, first-term GOP Rep. Allen West, a tea party favorite, called for changes that some might consider radical: abolish the Internal Revenue Service and federal income tax; retain tax cuts for billionaires so they won't shut down their charities; stop extending unemployment benefits that "reward bad behavior" by discouraging people from seeking new jobs.

As for entitlements, West told a friendly town hall gathering in Coral Springs, if Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid "are left on autopilot, if we don't institute some type of reform, they'll subsume our entire GDP" by 2040 or 2050. GDP, or gross domestic product, measures the value of all goods and services produced in the United States.

Social Security, the largest federal program, mainly benefits retirees. Medicare provides health coverage for older people. Medicaid helps those with low incomes. Combined, the three consume about 40 percent of the budget. Their costs are growing rapidly. Social Security and Medicare benefits now exceed the payroll taxes that fund them.

West, who's likely to draw serious Democratic opposition next year, showed scant interest in edging toward the center on anything. He didn't take issue with the man who said congressional Democrats "have joined with the radical Islamists," or with the woman who said President Barack Obama "certainly doesn't support Israel."

In Greenville, S.C., a different Republican freshman with tea party ties, Rep. Trey Gowdy, also suggested during last week's congressional break a paring back of social programs.

According to a Greenville News account posted on his website, Gowdy "described a recent school classroom where most children indicated they think it's the government's job to provide health care, Social Security and education. 'We've got to do something about the sense of entitlement,' Gowdy said."

Gowdy's office later said he thinks Social Security "is a key aspect of a broad effort to fundamentally reform our entitlement system, but any solution must honor our commitment to current retirees."

Indeed, West and many other Republicans say current and soon-to-be retirees should see no benefit cuts. Their calls for changing Medicare and Social Security often lack specifics, and it's unclear whether the divided Congress will tackle the programs' long-term problems or postpone action, as has happened many times before on Capitol Hill.

West's desire to slash spending seems to stop at his district's doorstep. The Coral Springs audience cheered loudly when he said he helped secure a $21 million grant for a new runway at the nearby Fort Lauderdale airport.

"Grant money is not pork," West said. He issued a press release saying the runway project "will generate at least 11,000 jobs" by 2014 and cost $791 million.

"No one is going to be hurt by it," said Steve Stevens, 80, a retired real estate developer. If people, rich or poor, count on Social Security to fund their retirement, he said, "it's very poor planning."

Obama's debt commission has recommended gradually increasing the full retirement age, from 67 to 69, over the next 65 years.

Cynthia Steele, 51, said anyone making more than $100,000 a year should not receive Social Security benefits, even if it affected her and her friends.

In Washington, Democrats are conflicted. Thirty-two Senate Democrats joined 32 Republicans in urging Obama to negotiate a broad-based spending plan that includes changes to Social Security and Medicare.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says he opposes cuts in Social Security benefits.

The centrist Democratic group Third Way says the public is ready to embrace gradual changes to entitlement programs and that Republicans are winning the issue so far.

"We don't believe Republicans 'going too far' will be their Waterloo," the group said in a memo. "The party seen as most serious on the issue will win the day."

If Republicans and Democrats cannot agree soon on spending plans for this year and next, the government could face its first partial shutdown since 1996. That prospect worries leaders of both parties, and they are watching to see if last week's recess hardened of softened lawmakers' positions.

West suggested there is room for compromise, but not much.

"I'm not for shutting down the government," he told the Coral Springs crowd. But he said Obama must lead the budget negotiations, or else.

If there is a shutdown, West said, "it's going to be because the president is not engaged."

Murderous Afghan rioters and that Idiot Terry Jones

Headline from an hour ago: Afghan riots over Quran-burning, 2 days and 20 dead

I'm sure most of you have heard or read about the Koran burning by Florida Pastor Terry "I'm an Idiot Butt Clown" Jones, which is what kicked off the recent rioting in Kabul, but here is the news summary by Patrick Quinn, Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghans rioted for a second day Saturday to protest the burning of a Quran in Florida, killing nine people in Kandahar and injuring more than 80 in a wave of violence that underscored rising anti-foreign sentiment after nearly a decade of war.

The desecration at a small U.S. church has outraged Muslims worldwide, and in Afghanistan it further strained ties with the West. On Friday, 11 people were killed, including seven foreign U.N. employees, in a protest in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

The protests come at a critical juncture as the U.S.-led coalition gears up for an insurgent spring offensive and a summer withdrawal of some troops, and with Afghanistan's mercurial president increasingly questioning international motives and NATO's military strategy.

Two suicide attackers disguised as women blew themselves up and a third was gunned down Saturday when they used force to try to enter a NATO base on the outskirts of Kabul, NATO and Afghan police said. Earlier in the week, six U.S. soldiers died during an operation against insurgents in eastern Afghanistan near Pakistan, where the Taliban retain safe havens.

President Hamid Karzai expressed regret for the 20 protest deaths, but he also further stoked possible anti-foreign sentiment by again demanding that the United States and United Nations bring to justice the pastor of the Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, where the Quran was burned March 20. Many Afghans did not know about the Quran-burning until Karzai condemned it four days after it happened.

An evangelical pastor whose church burned a Koran last month said he was "devastated" but did not feel responsible for the killings Friday of seven UN workers in a violent protest in Afghanistan.

"We are devastated by that information, that news," Terry Jones, the head of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, told AFP. "We don't feel responsible for that."

The United Nations said four Nepalese guards, three foreign UN workers, and several protesters were killed when a mob enraged by the Koran burning attacked the UN compound in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Jones presided over the burning of the Islamic holy book March 20 at his Florida church, an act he had long threatened despite warnings it would put American troops and others in Afghanistan in danger.

Cowboy's comment:To be sure, the radical, anti-West Islamist are responsible for their murderous actions, however I also hold Terry Jones somewhat responsible. I think Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center is an IDIOT for doing just what the radical Muslims have been doing to everyone else. Stooping to their level and burning their Holy Book is NOT an example that true Christians should set and was a STUPID thing to do, endangering our service memebers who have a hard enough job staying alive as it is. This was after DoD officials asked him not to go through with the Koran burning. Terry Jones is certainly the Idiot of the Day,..maybe of the Week for that matter.....that is until Braney "Mumbles" Frank gets in front of another camera.

Alot of my friends may disagree and not hold Jones responsible at all,....that's fine. After all, the radical Muslims cannot justify their actions. BUT the Koran burning will be broadcast all over the world as an example of U.S. intolerance.

And, what the hell kind of a namem for a church is the "World Dove Outreach Center",....burning the Koran is not outreach at all, and the Dove is a nasty bird anyway.

Liberal Lies About Tax Cuts

From Michael Medved http://www.Townhall.com

Don't Blame Tax Cuts for Catastrophic Deficits

Liberal commentators blame the Bush tax cuts, not runaway spending, for the budget crisis.

They insist that slashing rates on income taxes, which means smaller percentages of private income going to government, would guarantee red ink even if Congress finds many billions in spending cuts.

The problem with this argument is that it’s clearly contradicted by recent history. Actually, the second round of Bush tax cuts in 2003 brought increased revenues – both in actual dollar terms and as a percentage of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) -- not falling levels of government support.

In 2007, six years after Bush began slashing tax rates, revenues rose above 18% of GDP –more than the 60 year post-war average. Revenue didn’t fall until 2009, when economic collapse meant people earned less money and more families joined the 40% of the population who pay no federal income taxes—leaving top earners carrying more, not less, of the overall tax burden. The Bush tax cuts never increased the federal taxes on the poor, the middle class or anyone else and, in fact, served to exempt millions of Americans from paying income taxes at all. The Bush experience wasn’t unique in demonstrating that lower tax rates don’t cause reduced levels of federal revenue.

The official numbers show that in dollar terms (adjusted for inflation) the money the government collected in taxes went up every single year between 1950 and 2009, even with sharp tax cuts by Presidents John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Even measured as a percentage of the GDP –or overall economy – falling tax rates didn’t produce plunging revenues—government generally got a bigger share, not a smaller share, when tax rates went down.

Reagan sharply cut tax rates twice, and reduced the top marginal rate from 70% when he took over all the way down to 28% when he left the White House. But revenue between the beginning and the end of his two terms went down only from 19% to 18% (of a dramatically expanded overall economy) and in dollar terms the tax collections dramatically soared.

Cowboy's Comment: How did this Country or any country for that matter even exist when the government could tke 70% of what you earn?

Nor do sky-high tax rates on the rich guarantee substantial increases in government revenue. Under Eisenhower, the top tax rate reached 91%, but the government collected just 19%--almost identical to the 18% it collected after Reagan dropped that top rate all the way down to 28% in 2006.

Yes, government at all levels is broke, but the problem is based almost entirely on over-spending, crippling entitlements, too much borrowing and swelling debt, with stimulative tax cuts contributing little or nothing to catastrophic deficits

Cowboy's Comment: It is beyond belief when you get these union members in Wisconsin or state government workers in Ohio and many other places who decry that the solution to the State deficits is that the "rich" pay more taxes. They need to be careful. In my tally book, they are the rich for one thing. And for another thing these government workers in unions are a large part of the problem with their gold plated salaries, medical benefits and pensions.