The Next Meeting of Texas County Republicans will be TUESDAY February 27 at the Lions’ Club on US63 north of Houston. The meeting starts at 7Pm with a pot luck supper at 6PM. The speaker will be Terry Bruno, Director of the Texas County Medical Reserve Corps who will talk about responding to emergencies.

 

The Next Meeting of Republican Women will be at NOON SATURDAY, February 10 at the Pizza Express in Houston. Mozelle McKinney and Helen Lafoon will be hostesses.

 

QUESTION?  Have you paid your 2007 dues as a member of the Texas County Republicans? Be a participant and write a check ($10 per person) to Texas County Republicans and mail it to Ray Smith, Treasurer, P.O. Box 126, Mountain Grove, MO 65711. Do you have raffle tickets and money? Please turn them into Ray Smith. AND he is accepting contributions to the Texas County Republican Scholarship Fund.

 

NOTICE: It was announced at the last meeting that the $7 charged for a one year subscription to this newsletter does not quite cover the cost of printing and mailing. And as postage will increase in April, it was decided to take two actions. First, although the “Commentary” will continue to be available on the Texas County Republican website, we will e-mail the letter directly to each person who gives us an e-mail address. There will be no cost for this and each person can print his own copy. For those who cannot receive e-mail the cost per subscription is increased to $10 per year.  Those who want to automatically receive “The Commentary” by e-mail please send your e-mail address to Lee and Joyce Hutcheson at ljhutch@fidnet.com.

Mark Your Calendar  The annual Lincoln Day Dinner will be held April 21, 2007. Start thinking about what you can contribute to the silent auction.

 

Governor Blunt has Announced that “Utilicare” is being funded with $6.3 million to assist over 12,000 low-income families with their heating expenses this winter. The Public Service Commission estimates that the average five month winter cost for Missourians to heat their homes with natural gas will exceed $800. For more information contact the Local Community Action Agencies. (Governor Blunt news release)

 

In the State of the State Address the governor proposed a new health care system, MOHealthNet, to replace the old Medicaid system. The proposal recognizes that Missourians should all have one central point of contact and a doctor who knows them personally. It empowers participants to choose their health care home and to develop a plan of care for improved health and avoid unnecessary emergency room visits. The most vulnerable participants will have access to the Chronic Care Improvement Program recognizing that some people need more care than others. MOHealthNet will expand the number of participants who are allowed to choose their own health plan or purchase health insurance. (Governor’s News Release)

 

The Internet Cyber Crime Grant Program has been awarded more than $242,000 to support law enforcement in investigating Internet crimes, including those that endanger Missouri’s children. These funds were distributed to twelve different state, county and local law enforcement agencies. (Gov’s News Release)

 

The Missouri National Guard (MONG) had more than 500 soldiers on duty performing various missions in the area struck by the storm last month. It included transporting generators and going door to door in some areas. The Missouri State Water Patrol assisted with health and welfare in Dallas and Hickory counties. The Department of Corrections assisted with the transportation of donated goods More than 150 generators and 11 pallets of Meals-Ready-to-Eat were delivered. (Governor’s News Release)

 

President Bush Granted Governor Blunt’s Request that 34 counties be declared a major disaster following the ice storms that swept across Missouri last month. Texas County was not one of the counties named in the request. However, Texas County was among the counties where damage assessment teams were to meet with county officials to determine the impact of the storm. The State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency established a joint field office and have been working with elected officials in the declared counties. (Governor’s News Release)

 

He who laughs last thinks slowest

It’s Getting Crowded There are eight Democrats who want to be President, namely: Senators Hillary Clinton, (NY), John Edwards, (NC), Mike Gravel (AK), Barack Obama, (IL) and Chris Dodd (CT) plus Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, former Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa and Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Among the Republicans there are Senators John McCain (AZ), and Sam Brownback (KS),  former Governors Mitt Romney (MA) and Mike Huckabee (AR), and Congressman Duncan Hunter (CA). Not included are George Allen (who shot himself in the foot with a casual remark about Indians) and Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York who has yet to announce his intentions. Who’s next? (OneNewsNow.com)

 

The Right to Life Act has been re-introduced by Duncan Hunter, U.S. Representative from California and presidential hopeful, on the 34^th anniversary of the Roe V. Wade Supreme Court decision. This act, if it became law, would establish that an unborn child is a person at the moment of conception. This is apparently seen as a constitutional way to overturn Roe without involving the Supreme Court. When first introduced in the 109^th Congress the bill had 101 co-sponsors, the most ever. (OneNewsNow.com)

 

Despite the Chaos in Iraq the birthrate has increased since the U.S. led invasion 43 months ago. The rate has jumped from 29 births per 1,000 to 37 per 1,000 last year according to government figures. Neighboring Iran has a birthrate of 21 per 1,000. (Opinion Journal of the Wall Street Journal)

 

To Understand why the Founders put War Powers in the hands of the presidency, consider the resolution pushed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee late last month by Joe Biden (D-DE) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), two men who would love to be President if only they could persuade enough voters to elect them. Both men voted for the Iraq War. But, with that war proving to be more difficult than they thought, they now want to put themselves on record as opposing any further attempts to win it. Their resolution, calls for Iraqis to “reach a political settlement leading to “reconciliation,” as if anyone disagrees with that necessity. Their logic seems to be that if Americans leave, Iraqis will miraculously conclude they must settle their differences. (from The Wall Street Journal editorial page)

 

Think About It:  40 percent of all workers in L.A. County (population 10.2 million) are working for cash and not paying taxes because they are predominantly illegal immigrants working without a green card.  +  95 percent of warrants for murder in LA are for illegal aliens + Two thirds of all births in L.A. County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal, whose births were paid by taxpayers.  +  Nearly 25 percent of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.  +  Nearly 60 percent of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.  +  21 radio stations in LA are Spanish speaking.  +  Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops but 29 percent are on welfare. +  In LA County 5.1 million people speak English and 3.9 million speak Spanish. (From the Los Angeles Times)

 

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Hussein Obama Sr. a black Muslim of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District Kenya and Ann Dunham of Wichita,Kansas a white atheist. When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced and his father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, another Muslim, moving to Jakarta, Indonesia with Barack when he was six years old. Obama spent two years in a Muslim school, then two more years in a Catholic school. Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim while admitting that he was once a Muslim. However, his mother married another Muslim who educated his stepson as a good Muslim enrolling him in one of Jakarta’s Wahabbi schools. Wahabbism is the radical teaching that created Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad on the industrial world. Since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when you are seeking political office in the United States, Obama joined the United Church of Christ.  (Source of the foregoing is unknown)

 

Banks Scramble to Curb Foreclosures As mortgage delinquencies rise to levels not seen in five years, banks are reaching out to borrowers and help stem the tide of defaults. The popularity of adjustable rate mortgages as a way to finance more homes has put homeowners in hot water. To avoid massive defaults, lenders are offering free refinancing and forgiving debt when a home is sold at a loss. (NewsMax.com)

  <> 

You are never too old to grow younger.  (Mae West)

A Spending Sham  

A recent article from The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page by Pete DuPont

 

A fresh new Congress has come to Washington, run by a different party, with different leadership and very different ideas. The new House adopted tougher ethics rules for its members and hopes to get America out of the antiterrorism effort in Iraq; it voted to raise the minimum wage and reduce interest rates on student loans; and it wants to roll back deductions for oil companies and force drug makers to reduce Medicare prescription drug prices.

 

But, the most important goal of the new Democratic congressional majority is establishing a liberal national economic policy: bigger government and higher taxes. Spend more even than the Republicans have been spending (an annual 7.2% increase during the Bush years), and raise rather than lower tax rates.

 

Making sure that the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010 is the Democrats’ most important policy, and easy to accomplish since their expiration is automatic unless the law is changed. That will raise low-income tax rates to 15% from 10% and high income tax rates to 39.6% from 35%, and… if you assume higher taxes don’t depress the economic growth, it will generate about $88 billion in annual tax receipts by the end of the decade. And it the Congress allows the death tax to be reinstated (its phase-out expires in 2010 too), they will gain another $28 billion each year. For big government advocates, this is real progress.

 

But a new Congress supportive of increased spending cannot be supportive of increased deficits, so the Democratic House majority reinstated a clever and deceptive wrinkle, something called pay-as-you-go, or “Paygo.” It specifies that any revenue loss as a result of tax cuts, or any newly enacted entitlements, or other spending increases, must be paid for by other spending reductions or tax increases. (House rules require a three-fifths vote for tax increases, but Democrats made sure that requirement can be waived by a simple majority vote.)

 

Thus, the Democrats’ plan to reduce the interest rates on some student loans by half, to 3.4% from 6.8%, which would cost about $6 billion over five years, would have to be covered by other spending cuts or tax increases.

 

Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, chairman of the Agriculture Committee, recently introduced a bill to expand the farm subsidy program by mandating that vehicles use 60 billion gallons of ethanol annually by 2030, instead of the current five billion. The current subsidy for farmers producing ethanol is 51 cents a gallon, so that’s another $30 billion in farm subsidies to be paid for by tax increases or spending cuts.

 

And the House Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles Rangel’s proposal to reduce the large income tax increases being imposed by the Alternate Minimum Tax. Last year 3.5 million people paid this tax, but since it is not indexed to inflation about 23 million will have to pay it this year unless Congress passes another one-year fix, which last year cost $30 billion in lost tax revenues. Completely eliminating the AMT would cost about $750 Billion over the next 10 tears, and under paygo, Mr. Rangel would have to find some tax increases or spending cuts to include whatever AMT reduction bill he proposes.

 

It all sounds good, very fiscally responsible, but paygo is riddled with deceptions. It does not cover increases and Medicare’s 14% (which includes Bush’s senior citizens’ drug program) spending increase plus spending increases in existing entitlement programs. So, for example, this year’s 4.7% Medicaid spending will be unfunded and health care spending will continue to grow unabated.

 

“Emergency” expenditures are not covered by paygo either; they averaged $22 billion a year in the 1990s, and are $100 billion a year now. (Continued on the following page)

 

 

There is no amount of money Congress cannot outspend (Thomas Sowell)

 

And the new House paygo rule contains a blockbuster of loopholes: The House can pay for short-term spending increases by promising long term spending cuts. Paygo requires setting spending amounts for the current fiscal year and five or ten years from now. So Congress presumably can add another $50 billion to next year’s spending and comply with paygo by promising to reduce spending by that amount in 2017.

 

The truth of the matter is that paygo is a pipedream, a spending sham. Neither the Democratic nor the Republican establishment wants it to apply to any appropriation bills or spending program increases, for linking spending increase to a tax increase is a tough sell.

 

The Heritage Foundation’s new study “The 100 Hour Agenda: The New Congressional Majority’s Uneven Proposals” reports that in the dozen years (1990 -2002) that the old paygo rules were in effect, Congress “repeatedly passed legislation that prevented the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) from enforcing paygo at all,” and in those years “97 percent of all mandatory spending…all but $31 billion…had been statutorily exempted from any paygo sequestration.”

 

But of course tax cuts are a different matter, and that is the point of the Democratic paygo plan. The liberal Democratic majority (and those 48 Republican Congressmen who voted with them) will make sure it never applies to spending increases and always apples to tax cuts, so that taxes can never be reduced, spending can always be increased, and big government liberalism will be restored to its 1960s prominence.

 

 

A Story the News Media Ignores

 

NASCO, North America’s Super Corridor Coalition, Inc., is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing the world’s first international, integrated and secure multi-modal transportation system along the Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America. This organization was founded in 1994 as the I-35 Corridor Coalition and in 1996 incorporated into a non-profit organization and became NASCO. (See www.nascocorridor.com)

 

NASCO is not a government agency. It has no authority to build or develop anything unilaterally. NASCO works with its members, state Departments of Transportation and federal and local agencies involved in transportation, trade and security to accomplish its mission.

 

The NASCO Corridor encompasses Interstate Highways 35, 29 and 94, and the significant east/west connectors to those highways in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The corridor directly impacts the continental trade flow across U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico.

 

From the largest border crossing in North America (The Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Canada), to the second largest border crossing of Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, extending to the deep water ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico and Manitoba, Canada, the tri-national NASCO membership reflects the international scope of the corridor and the regions it impacts.

 

NAIPN (The North American Inland Port Network) a sub-committee of NASCO, has been tasked with developing an active inland port network along the corridor to specifically alleviate congestion at maritime ports and our nations borders. The NAIPN envisions a network of inland ports specializing in the transpor- tation of containerized cargo in North America. The guiding principle of the NAIPN is to develop logistics systems that provide a cost-effective and efficient flow of goods, and at the same time enhance global security.  (Continued on the following page)

 

You may not be the master of your destiny, but you control a great amount of what happens to you.

NASCO has received $2.25 million in Congressional funding to be administered by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) for the development of a technology integration and tracking project. The project will use members of NASCO as the primary participants in the project, to the extent possible. NASCO believes a modern information system will reduce the cost and improve efficiency, reduce trade- related congestion and enhance security of cross border information, trade and traffic.

 

 

Ethanol and its Consequences

From The Wall Street Journal, Editorial Page, January 27, 2007

 

President Bush made a big push for alternative fuels in his State of the Union speech last month, calling for Americans to reduce gasoline consumption by 20% over 10 years. On the following day he set out to tour a DuPont facility in Delaware to tout the virtues of “cellulose ethanol” and propose $2 billion in loans to promote the stuff.

 

Cellulose ethanol, which is derived from plants like switchgrass, will require a big technological break-through to have any impact on the fuel supply. That leaves corn, and sugar based ethanol, which have been around long enough to understand their significant limitations. What we have here is a classic stampede rooted more in hope and self-interest than science or logic.

 

Ostensibly, the great virtue of ethanol is that it represents a “sustainable” environmentally friendly source of energy, a source that is literally homegrown rather than imported from unstable places like Iran.

 

The Milken Institute Review state that federal and state subsidies for ethanol ran to about $6 billion last year.  That’s roughly half of the wholesale market price. Ethanol gets a 51-cent a gallon domestic subsidy, and there’s another 54-cent a gallon tariff applied at the border against imported ethanol. Without those subsidies, hardly anyone would make the stuff, much less buy it, despite the recent high oil prices.

 

That’s why the percentage of the U.S. corn crop devoted to ethanol has risen 20% from 3% in just five years, or about 8.6 million acres of farmland. Reaching beyond the president’s target of 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels by 2017 would, at present yields, require the entire U.S. corn harvest. In Mexico, the price of corn tortillas, the dietary staple of the country’s poorest, increased by 30% in recent months. This has led to widespread protests and price controls. In China, the government has put a halt to ethanol-plant construction because it threatens the country’s food security. A beltway fad becomes Third World woes.  (Continued on Page Six)

 

Send comments and subscriptions to THE COMMENTARY, PO Box 126, Mountain Grove, MO 65711

Subscriptions by mail are $7 per year or free on line at www.texascountyrepublicans.org, Lee Hutcheson, Editor

The Texas County Commentary is a publication of the Texas County Republican Party, Kevin D. McGowen, Chairman

   Click here to return to the Texas County Republican Home Page