E-Newsletter No. 63  ____  March 2019  

February was a busy month.  President Trump delivered his State of the Union address.  Congress then “successfully avoided” another partial government shutdown by passing yet another “omnibus” spending bill (more on that later).  And then President Trump was forced to declare a state of emergency to deal with the long-festering emergency on our southern border with Mexico.

Let’s start with the State of the Union address.  Here are some key excerpts –  

… large, organized caravans are on the march to the United States…  This is a moral issue.  The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety, security, and financial well-being of all Americans.  We have a moral duty to create an immigration system that protects the lives and jobs of our citizens…  In the last two years, our brave ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of criminal aliens, including those charged or convicted of nearly 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes and 4,000 killings…

My Administration has acted decisively to confront the world’s leading state sponsor of terror: the radical regime in Iran…    We will not avert our eyes from a regime that chants death to America and threatens genocide against the Jewish people…

We stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom…  Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.

Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, Congress played politics with the spending bill (which should have already been in place more than four months earlier) and generated a 1,169-page bill that no one had a chance to read.  The “deal” was struck behind closed doors and violated the House’s own budget rule that requires the text of legislation be available at least 72 hours before a vote is held. 

Kay Coles James (the President of the Heritage Foundation) issued the following statement –

… today’s announcement is an unacceptable resolution to a genuine national crisis…  Congress has responded with apathy, negligence and incompetence…  We’ve watched as vicious and violent cartels have taken advantage of our lax border and trafficked drugs, guns and people into our land…  Congress again failed to live up to its sacred duty to protect the American people…  Frustrated with Washington, President Trump believes he has no choice but to take this action today… 

Obviously, different people will have different definitions of what is “immoral” and what constitutes an emergency.  We recently read an Op Ed piece that stated illegal border crossings decreased to about 400,000 last year (as if that was supposed to be “good” news) but the number increased to 47,000 during the month of January.  As we mentioned in last month’s newsletter, it is estimated that the number of people living in our country illegally is somewhere between 14–22 million, and the estimate of government spending on immigrants range from $113 – $279 billion EACH YEAR.  Our Editorial Board believes that this is a “more-than-adequate” definition of an emergency. 

Our apologies, but here is one more piece of bad news – – the federal government’s debt crossed the $22 trillion threshold during February.

But the one piece of good news from last month is that Mike Braun (the newly elected Senator from Indiana) introduced his proposed legislation entitled “No Budget, No Pay.”  We can hardly wait to see who is going to support, and who is going to oppose, this bill.  Unfortunately, we suspect that there will not be enough support in either party, or in either chamber, for this bill to become law.  But hey, who knows??

US Debt Clock – – February 1st – $66,895 per citizen / March 1st – $67,141

E-Newsletter No. 62 _____ February 2019

First, let’s discuss the facts about the “partial” government shutdown. ‘Unfortunately’ approximately 70% of the federal government’s spending (i.e., “mandatory” spending) was not affected. Therefore, Social Security checks, interest on the $21.97 trillion of debt, etc. were not affected. Prior to the shutdown, five of the twelve appropriation bills for fiscal 2019 had been passed into law – the Department of Defense (good); Energy and Water; the Executive Branch; Military Construction & Veterans Affairs; and Labor / Health / Human Services. Seven of the twelve appropriations had not been passed by the start of the fiscal year (as they were supposed to be, and we are already four months into the new fiscal year) – Agriculture; Financial Services; Interior & Environment; Transportation / Housing / Urban Development; Commerce / Justice / Science; State / Foreign Operations; and Homeland Security.

There has been a lot of press about how the shutdown was affecting the 800,00 federal employees who had been furloughed. Unfortunately, if you work for a truly dysfunctional entity (the federal government) these types of things happen. The “good news” for these federal employees is that we all knew all along that they were going to get their full back pay. So, what was the purpose of this partial government shutdown? Well mostly, this is because that is the law. Other than “mandatory” spending, if funds have not been appropriated, they cannot be spent.

This is what happens when Congress does not do its job on a timely basis. Actually, Congress has not been effectively / timely doing its job for many (20 +) years now. Government shutdowns are basically “Stupid is as Stupid does” simply because Congress has become politicized, and deeply divided and dysfunctional. Fortunately, there have been a number of proposals put forward by a number of people – Rand Paul, Rob Portman, Troy Balderson, Glenn Grothman, Brendan Boyle, and others – to fix this broken process. One of the more interesting proposals is entitled the “No Budget, No Recess Act” by Joni Ernst, James Lankford, and David Perdue, which says that if Congress misses its deadlines of passing a budget by April 15th, and passing all of the necessary appropriations by August 1st, then members of Congress can’t leave Washington DC until they get their job done. Unfortunately, the only thing missing from this proposed legislation is a provision whereby the salaries of members of Congress are suspended effective October 1st, if we enter the new fiscal year without all of the required spending bills in place. (We wonder how this key provision was somehow left out of this proposed legislation).

But an even bigger problem is the radical shift to the Left by the Democratic party. You have probably seen the various videos from several years ago, where Bill Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, Dianne Feinstein, etc. all said that we need to halt the flow of illegal immigrants into our country, and that we needed effective border security. In fact, The Secure Fence Act of 2006 was passed with strong bipartisan support by both the House and Senate, and was signed into law by President George Bush. Unfortunately, Congress never subsequently passed the necessary appropriations to actually create a secure border and stem the flow of illegal immigrants into our country.

Now, evidently, in today’s world, border security has somehow become “immoral”, and our country should move away from the concept of maintaining its status as a sovereign nation. The Left’s agenda now appears to fully embrace the ideologies of “One World Order” and “Open Borders”. As we mentioned in our October 2018 newsletter, you can only imagine the flood of “refugees” that will occur if we have open borders, coupled with a mandatory minimum wage of $15 per hour. BTW – the preceding comment is not “racist” – it is just a (highly likely) prediction.

$5.7 billion dollars is immaterial in comparison to the estimated annual spending by the federal government and the states on illegal aliens. It is estimated that the number of people living in our country illegally is somewhere between 14 – 22 million. The estimates of government spending on immigrants range from $113 – $279 billion EACH YEAR. The estimate for effective border security back in 2006 was roughly $50 billion. Maybe that is the amount that should be back on the table for discussion purposes thirteen years later.

So, Congress has now punted these problems down the road to February 15th. Let’s see if Congress can come up with a solution to secure our southern border and keep the government open. Otherwise, we may need to go through the farce of yet another partial shutdown.

US Debt Clock – – January 1st – $66,739 per citizen / February 1st – $66,895

E-Newsletter No. 61 ____ January 2019

As of January 3, 2019, we now have a “divided” federal government, with the Democrats becoming the majority party in the US House of Representatives. But our Editorial Board is more concerned about a bigger issue – – the widening division among our country’s citizens between the Left and the Right, because the Democratic party has shifted radically to the Left. A number of pundits now say that our country has not been this divided since the mid-1800s prior to the Civil War. On the Left, you not only have the hard-core “resisters” who do not accept the results of the 2016 election, along with the people who act in an uncivil manner, but you also have a growing number of people who have begun to reject many of our country’s Founding principles (self-reliance, personal responsibility, limited government, Common Sense, etc.).

Our Editorial Board believes that we now stand at a definitive fork in the road. We can either choose to continue to go down the Socialists’ path of an ever-expanding, more-intrusive, coercive (mandating) federal government, or we can choose to go down the “Right” fork and figure out a way to restore and maintain a Free Market economy and minimize the amount of dollars flowing into the federal government swamp. Those funds would be much more effective if they went to Civil Society organizations instead. This change in the use of our citizens’ tax dollars is the primary objective of The 2020 Initiative.

We believe that most of our society’s economic woes can be directly attributed to the Socialists’ agenda and the marketplace distortions those types of policies cause. We find it interesting that the issues that seem to be the most vexing to our country’s citizens are those areas where the ever-expanding federal government has caused the problem and the associated price distortions – housing, education, and healthcare. Our Editorial Board has much more faith in individuals, Civil Society, Not for Profit organizations, private commercial enterprises, and the Free Market.

The 2018 midterm elections for the House of Representatives seemed to turn on the Left’s obsession with the issue of healthcare. Unfortunately, the Left was very effective in disseminating a lie that “The GOP was trying to take away people’s healthcare”. Healthcare is not the same thing as a health insurance policy. Yes, conservatives still want to repeal the Obamacare legislation that has disrupted and distorted the health insurance marketplace. What the Democrats failed to mention is that the GOP’s proposal to replace Obamacare included provisions to assist citizens who have a pre-existing condition or other affordability issues.

It is true that conservatives have a different view on the role of government versus the marketplace. Conservatives have more confidence in the Free Market (non-distorted) as being a better solution to health insurance issues. Our Editorial Board abhors the idea of the federal government’s involvement (at all) in our country’s healthcare system. We do not believe in a Socialist solution. Contrary to Senator Bernie Sanders, we do not believe that healthcare is a “right” that can be bestowed by the federal government. This line of thinking will continue to push our country down a slippery slope (down a bad fork in the road), because we do not believe that food, or housing, or education, or healthcare, or welfare, or any other “non-Constitutional” use of our citizens’ tax dollars should be used to fund these new, ever-expanding “rights”. These aspects of daily life are Personal Responsibilities, and if any of our country’s citizens need assistance, this assistance should be provided by Civil Society (families, supported by Not for Profit organizations) – – not the federal government.

Obamacare has been an abject failure, and our country should not “double-down” on the next bad (worse) “solution” that is being proposed by the Left – “Medicare for All”. There are much better ways to help address those situations where an individual has a pre-existing condition. Our coercive, bureaucratic federal government is the last entity on earth that should be involved in trying to resolve an individual’s pre-existing condition.

We have posted a new Conversation Piece on our website entitled Healthcare Re-Visited (Again), where we put forward a number of Common Sense solutions to these healthcare issues –

http://www.f2ppr.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Healthcare-Revisited-Again.pdf

US Debt Clock – – December 1st – $66,237 per citizen / January 1st – $66,739

E-Newsletter No. 60 ____ December 2018

Our country’s long and painful political season is now behind us. Reading the various opinion pieces that have been written since the election, the general consensus seems to be that the end results were “mixed”. The number of Republicans in the US Senate increased to 53, and for the US House of Representatives, there was a “blue ripple”, with the Democratic party taking control of the House next month. In many ways, this year’s elections were no different than the vast majority of other previous midterm elections, where the party of the most recently elected president typically loses seats in both the Senate and the House. It was somewhat unusual for the GOP to have a net gain of two seats in the Senate.

Our Editorial Board members have read a number of opinion pieces that seem to indicate our country’s citizens might very well be most comfortable with a divided government. Maybe this is simply one of those other checks and balances that are built into the structure of our federal government. Maybe our country’s citizens won’t be getting the benefit of an additional tax cut, but this might be OK as the annual deficit continues to creep back up towards the $1 trillion range.

And maybe our country’s citizens won’t be coerced into paying for the Socialists’ agenda that calls for a massive new single-payer healthcare program (“Medicare for All”), or a guaranteed minimum income (whether you work for that income or not), or for “free” college, etc. In many ways, stopping the advance of Socialism would be a good outcome, because more “entitlements” simply lead to more spending and an increase in the level of dependency on the government.

As we mentioned in our September and October newsletters, Socialism doesn’t work – – it never has, and it never will. If the Democratic party’s “success” in the midterm elections can be attributed to one primary issue, it was healthcare and how to address the issue of pre-existing conditions. As we have discussed elsewhere on our website, there are other ways to address health insurance issues via the Free Market and Civil Society, without the involvement of the federal government. “Medicare for All” is a horrible “solution”. Obamacare has been an abject failure, and our country should not “double-down” on Obamacare 2.0. We will re-visit health insurance (again) in our next newsletter.

The upcoming 2020 elections will represent yet another opportunity for our country’s citizens to choose between a smaller (limited) government, versus an ever-expanding, more intrusive federal government. Our Editorial Board remains committed to advancing the concept of Personal Responsibility and re-establishing the positive aspects of Civil Society (versus “the government”). And we support the Founders’ vision spelled out in the Tenth Amendment – The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

US Debt Clock – – November 1st – $65,932 per citizen / December 1st – $66,237

E-Newsletter No. 59 ____ November 2018

Our country’s (long and painful) 2018 political season will conclude with the general election on Tuesday, November 6th. Our Editorial Board encourages every registered voter to go to the polls and vote your conscience as you cast your votes for the various federal, state and local candidates, based on your assessment of each candidate’s “agenda” and platform, and whether they have earned your trust.

As we have noted over the past several months, our Editorial Board continues to focus on the underlying principles of the two major political parties. The 2018 elections represent yet another opportunity to choose between a smaller (limited) government, versus an ever-expanding, more intrusive federal government.

We encourage you to re-read the Seven Inevitable Results that arise from Big Government, which were listed in our August 2016 newsletter
http://f2ppr.org/seven-inevitable-results/

And we all need to keep in mind the Tenth Amendment – The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people.

The choice is ours to make on November 6th.

US Debt Clock – – October 1st – $65,444 per citizen / November 1st – $65,932

E-Newsletter No. 58 ___ October 2018

In last month’s newsletter, we discussed the fallacies of Socialism. The Left continues to fail to learn from history regarding Socialism, and there are many other instances where the Left has rejected the fundamental concepts behind our country’s founding. The Left continues to deny the reasons why those ideas and concepts are the reasons why America continues to be a great country.

In some of our earlier newsletters, we have discussed the Left’s attacks on Free Speech and the First Amendment. The most troubling examples of these attacks occur on our college campuses. These attacks are oftentimes perpetrated by the members of the Radical Leftist group, Antifa, who refuse to allow the dissemination of alternative (conservative) points of view, which oftentimes contradict the Left’s narrative and the “progressive” agenda that they attempt to advance.

The First Amendment also states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Thankfully, earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that the state of Colorado could not force a Christian baker to provide a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding. This ruling was important because the Colorado law was written to coerce citizens to comply with one of the key planks of the Left’s agenda. The ruling simply confirmed the exact words of the Constitution as it was written – – the baker was free to exercise his religious beliefs.

One of the key tenets of Marxism is atheism. (“Religion is the opium of the people”). Communists do not believe in God. This is an obvious rejection of our country’s official motto, which was adopted in 1956 and appears on every coin and dollar bill – – “In God We Trust”. Another example of the Left’s attacks on religious liberty is the ongoing attempt to remove the words “under God” from our Pledge of Allegiance. One of the best examples of this attack was the attempt to eliminate a reference to God from the Democratic party’s 2012 platform. Only after three votes from the floor on a proposed amendment was the phrase “God-given potential” re-inserted into the party’s platform. What is most troubling about this incident is that when the convention’s chairman announced that “The ayes have it” (after the third vote) loud boos erupted within the arena. (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/democrats-rapidly-revise-platform-include-god/story?id=17164108 ).

The Left’s attacks on the Second Amendment are well documented. Any school shooting is obviously and undeniably an extremely tragic event. The members of our Editorial Board also believe that 650 homicides in the city of Chicago during 2017 (down from 771 during 2016) represent an ongoing series of tragic events. But here are some inconvenient truths – – there has been (and will probably always continue to be) evil in the world; guns do not kill people – people kill people; putting yet another gun control law on the books will NEVER stop the next incident of murder; and banning “assault rifles” will NEVER stop the next murder. Earlier this year, the school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, was carried out by the perpetrator who used a shotgun and two pistols. The Columbine school shooting in 1999 was also perpetrated without the use of an “assault rifle”.

The Radical Left’s real agenda (and their erroneous belief) is that in order to reduce gun violence, the government needs to ban and confiscate all firearms. But unfortunately, this line of thinking is fatally flawed. While it is true that such a law could serve to prevent a law-abiding citizen from being able to defend him-/herself, such a ban would NEVER be able to guarantee that a criminal / murderer would ever follow such a law. There is only one sure-fire way to reduce the number of incidents of school shootings, and that is to implement the same type of screening at our schools that is used at other public places (such as at sporting events, concerts, our airports, the US Senate and House of Representatives buildings in Washington DC, etc.). In addition, an armed presence within our schools would serve as a deterrent (but not a guarantee) against future school shootings. Such an approach towards school safety has proven to be effective in Israel.

The Left has betrayed the US Constitution and continues to show contempt for border security and our country’s immigration laws. The concept of a “sanctuary city” is a direct, fundamental violation of Article VI of the US Constitution, which states “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States… shall be the Supreme Law of the Land.” We find it very interesting that the Left generally wants to increase the size and power (and coerciveness) of the federal government, except in those instances where existing federal laws run afoul of their agenda.

The most troubling aspect of the immigration issue is that many elements of the Left support open borders and unrestricted immigration. They also want to implement an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour. With the minimum wage in Mexico being set at 88.36 pesos per hour (approximately $4.25) what “unintended consequences” would you expect to happen? Guatemala’s minimum wage is even less. Any rational person should anticipate that a flood of immigrants would arrive in our country through our open borders to compete for these “entry level” jobs. But unfortunately, a minimum wage of $15 per hour would severely reduce the number and availability of ANY entry level job, and this would only serve to keep many of our country’s legal citizens trapped in poverty and sitting on the sidelines.

Our Editorial Board supports the concept of private-sector unions and the rights of workers to voluntarily join together to negotiate with their employer regarding compensation and working conditions. Many of the goals of these private-sector labor unions have been achieved and codified into law (which is one of the reasons why private-sector union membership has steadily declined since the 1950s). However, we oppose the concept of public sector unions. Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) was one of the most pro-union presidents in American history, and yet he was strongly opposed to government employee labor unions. (You can read his August 16, 1937 letter here ). FDR knew these unions were fundamentally different from private-sector unions and that there is a fundamental conflict of interest between these unions and the governmental units where these union members work. By their very nature, public-sector unions are “pay-to-play” politics at its worst. These unions take taxpayer-funded union dues and funnel them back to career politicians. One of the worst outcomes of this closed-loop system is that the members of these unions have been able to obtain (coerce) compensation and pension benefits that are much more generous than anything seen in the private sector for similar types of service.

Fortunately, earlier this year, the US Supreme Court took a major step forward in its decision in Janus vs. AFSCME to limit the power of these public-sector unions. Prior to this ruling, a number of states allowed the situation where a non-union member (as a condition of their employment) was forced to pay an “agency fee” to a union whose views they might oppose. The forced payment of these fees was deemed to be a violation of these workers’ rights to free speech and free association under the First Amendment.

Another of our country’s mottos “e pluribus unum” (“From Many, One”) is also under attack by the Left. In our Editorial Board’s review of the Democratic Party’s 2016 platform ( see http://www.f2ppr.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/The-2016-Democratic-Party-Platform.pdf ) we noted that the Democratic party’s platform is extremely divisive. The Left’s platform was merely a collection of promises being made to a number of special interest groups. The only common principle was the party’s desire to give a special favor to each subsegment of our country’s citizens. But probably the most egregious example of hypocrisy about our country’s motto was Representative Joe Kennedy’s response to the 2018 Sate of the Union address. Mr. Kennedy evoked the motto in his speech, and yet he also spoke several sentences in Spanish. A large portion of our country’s citizens were excluded from understanding whatever point he was conveying to the Dreamers. What is most troublesome is the Left’s refusal to support a proposed piece of legislation to make English the official language of our country. The fact of the matter is… If we can’t talk to each other, we will never be One. Our Editorial Board believes it should be a requirement that each and every immigrant possess a rudimentary level of English language skills, so that they can pass the US Citizenship test (in English) which will ultimately help them assimilate to life in our country. If we do not embrace English as our official language, we will continue to further Balkanize our country.

As Dennis Prager noted in his video on the difference between the Left and the Right (see https://www.prageru.com/courses/left-and-right-differences/how-big-should-government-be-left-vs-right-1) the Left fears Big Business and the Right fears Big Government. Coca Cola cannot break into your house or confiscate your wealth, or build concentration camps, or commit genocide – – only Big Governments can do that. The Left does not like Big Business, but more specifically, they are envious of successful individuals who are employed by Big Businesses. What the Left really fears is the advancement of conservative values and capitalism. The Left appears to be motivated more by envy of the rich than by compassion for the poor. The Left’s fear of Big Business is misguided, because we have never seen a single instance where a corporation has been able to cast a vote at the ballot box in any of our elections. What the Left really opposes is the “undue influence” of Big Business, and we agree – – we strongly oppose crony capitalism. Crony capitalism is a violation of “Favoritism to None.” The federal government should not provide any special favors to Hollywood producers, or a “green energy” company, or ANY special interest industry. We agree that the federal government has an important role to play in protecting our environment and our country’s citizens, but the government should never show favoritism to any special interest group or corporation, or attempt to “socially engineer” our country’s citizens.

And lastly… Many conservatives feel that one of the most menacing aspects of the Radical Left’s agenda is (in effect) a clandestine, undeclared war against the most fundamental building block of a stable society – – the family. Please see the Preamble of the Platform for The Party of Personal Freedom (http://www.f2ppr.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/The-Party-of-Personal-Freedom.pdf ).

US Debt Clock – – September 1st – $65,320 per citizen / October 1st – $65,444

E-Newsletter No. 57 ____ September 2018

In last month’s newsletter, we discussed the Left’s obsession with “income inequality.” The Left’s solution to this “problem” is simply more Socialism and a larger transfer of wealth within America. The Left continues to fail to understand the lessons from history regarding Socialism and Communism and continues to ignore the lessons from current events (i.e., Venezuela and North Korea). Many critics of inequality seem to be motivated more by envy of the rich than by compassion for the poor.

The first pillar of the American Dream is economic freedom. Property rights are fundamentally just, and they are inseparable from liberty. Where property rights are not protected, liberty is always in jeopardy. So long as each citizen’s property rights are secure, and the laws and regulations equally apply to all, one cannot legitimately speak of injustice in the marketplace.

It is imperative that we not confuse “equality of opportunity” with “sameness of opportunity”. The former is a moral imperative and a requirement of a fair and just government. The latter is a charitable pursuit, and as such, this is an issue for civil society. We should remember that not every social ailment is a responsibility of government, much less the federal government.

Because we are free, some people will inevitably earn more and others less. An excessive focus on equality of income would unfairly constrain the full range of options that America offers its citizens. Income “equality” forces everyone into the same mold.

A free-market economy creates wealth. For one person to make a dollar does not mean that another person needs to lose one. History has shown that a Socialistic economy impedes a country’s ability to create wealth.

The fear that the United States has become a society of “haves” and “have-nots” is disproven by data on consumption. Consumption is a better measure of well-being than income, because it measures goods acquired and used. In a free-market economy, consumption is distributed much more equally, with goods formerly held to be luxuries widely available to everyone. There is plenty of evidence to show that low-income families have access to more and better goods than ever before. Virtually every household below the poverty line has a television, while nearly three-fourths have a vehicle, and over three-fourths have a microwave and air-conditioning. The same cannot be said of Venezuela and North Korea.

The welfare state that is promoted by Socialism not only fosters dependence and saps the vigor of its citizens, but it also undermines the family and eats away at the culture of work.

A free-market system celebrates and encourages competition.

Socialism may well “give” the poor many things (subsidized housing, “free” healthcare, “free” college tuition, and other “free” stuff) but someone (i.e., our federal government and then, ultimately, our children and grandkids) will have to pay for all of this free stuff.

There is a quote that is oftentimes attributed to Norman Mattoon Thomas, who was a six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America – – “The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But under the name of “liberalism”, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation without knowing how it happened.”

http://www.f2ppr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/A-Picture-is-Worth-a-Thousand-Words.pdf

http://www.f2ppr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/One-Picture-One-Word.pdf

US Debt Clock – – August 1st – $64,885 per citizen / September 1st – $65,320

E-Newsletter No. 56 _____ August 2018

In last month’s newsletter, we included a link to a short video entitled “There is only one way out of poverty” (i.e., Opportunity for All, and Work). In that video, Arthur Brooks observes that many progressives offer only one solution – more government spending on poverty programs. They believe we need to transfer more wealth through government taxation. This is the “income inequality” argument.

This month we are including a link to a conversation piece entitled “Defending the Dream: Why Income Inequality Doesn’t Threaten Opportunity.”

https://www.heritage.org/poverty-and-inequality/report/defending-the-dream-why-income-inequality-doesnt-threaten-opportunity

The above link is to an extensive article on the issues regarding “income inequality”, so we are also including the following link to an excerpt of the key passages –

https://www.f2ppr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Why-Income-Inequality-Is-Inevitable.pdf

Free-market economics is not about dividing up a dwindling pie. Instead, the free market is about expanding the pie to serve everyone. Unfortunately, government interference and over-regulation have a tendency to restrict the growth of the pie. Our Editorial Board believes “less is more” – – less intrusion by the federal government has a beneficial effect on expanding the pie. Our country’s GDP growth rate during the first half of 2018 is all the proof we need.

However, the authors do point out that there is one major threat to upward mobility that needs to be combatted – – crony capitalism. But this is not a problem of the free market – – it is a problem when the government dishes out “special favors” to “special interest groups”. Whether these favors go to Hollywood producers, labor unions, or certain favored corporations / industries, these types of actions by the government violate the concept of “Favoritism to None”.

US Debt Clock – – July 1st – $64,580 per citizen / August 1st – $64,885

E-Newsletter No. 55 ______ July 2018

Just a short newsletter this month – – we have included a link to a short video on the issue of poverty and welfare reform –

https://www.prageru.com/videos/there-only-one-way-out-poverty

Our goal should never be to merely make poverty less miserable. Our goal must be to make poverty more escapable. Earning your way out of poverty is more empowering and enduring than being supported by a variety of government programs. Through engaging in work, people earn their own success, which is the key to a more fulfilling and dignified life.

US Debt Clock – – June 1st – $64,635 per citizen / July 1st – $64,580

The federal government’s $21.2 trillion debt decreased slightly during June. Although the government’s spending has not slowed down, tax revenues have increased, primarily due to the growth in the economy and the increase in payroll tax receipts due to the decrease in unemployment.

E-Newsletter No. 54 _____ June 2018

Last month, we talked about the costs and the benefits of employment and welfare. There have been a lot of discussions lately in Washington DC about re-establishing work requirements in exchange for the “entitlement” to receive welfare benefits. Re-establishing work requirements would be a step in the right direction towards eliminating poverty in America.

However, these discussions are also somewhat mis-guided, because they fail to address the fundamental problem, which is Congress’ disregard for the Tenth Amendment and an erroneous belief that the federal government can solve the issue of poverty. The federal government can only throw money at the symptoms of the disease – – it cannot cure / eradicate poverty. Our elected officials have failed to remember the words of wisdom in Thomas Paine’s pamphlet entitled Common Sense about the fundamental differences between government and civil society.

The federal government was established to handle specific, limited responsibilities. Over the past 100 years or so, it has expanded well beyond this limited role, and this expansion has directly contributed to many of the troubling issues that currently confront our country. These social ills – – dependency on the government, a growing sense of “entitlement”, and a ballooning federal debt – – can be tied directly to the advance of Socialism.

As Dennis Prager pointed out in his video on the detrimental effects of Big Government (https://www.prageru.com/courses/left-and-right-differences/how-big-should-government-be-left-vs-right-1) “Big Government eats away at the moral character of a nation. People no longer take care of one another. After all, they know the government will do that.”

One unfortunate by-product of many pieces of legislation passed by Congress is the detrimental effects of unintended consequences. In the tax reform legislation that was passed last December, Congress significantly increased the standard deduction for personal income tax returns. We support that increase – – in The 2020 Initiative we take the position that no individual or family should be asked to pay federal income taxes until they have earned enough income to cover their own cost of living.

However, the problem with this increase in the standard deduction is that it will probably lead to a decrease in the amount of charitable contributions that are made by our country’s citizens. There have already been signs of a decrease in the amount of contributions to universities, civic organizations and religious institutions (the unintended consequences). However, we are somewhat skeptical, because this might actually have been by design – – the federal government wants to continue to crowd out civil society, and Congress wants to be seen as being the solution to all of our country’s social ills. But let’s repeat – – the federal government cannot solve the issue of poverty.

The federal government’s welfare programs simply add to the federal government’s debt. Charitable contributions made by our country’s citizens do not. This is the reason why we recommend that four national pass-through charities be established (for education, food, housing, and medical care), which would be funded by allowing a dollar-for-dollar tax credit against an individual’s / family’s federal income tax liability for the contributions to these four charities. With this change, the federal government should then eliminate all of its “non-constitutional” welfare programs, and the war against poverty should be waged by civil society at the state and local level. Local Not-for-Profit charitable organizations are closer to the action and are better equipped to deliver actual, positive results.

US Debt Clock – – May 1st – $64,606 per citizen / June 1st – $64,635