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Category: About the candidate

Published: 07 October 2006

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Hello Fellow District 11 Constituents

Thank you for being here.

I am running for Congress for the 11th District seat in the State of Pennsylvania. 

This site is continually being perfected so that it will be more meaningful to you as time passes.

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The Fair Tax -- An Essential Element for Jobs!

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Category: The Fair Tax

Published: 14 April 2015

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The Fair Tax -- An Essential Element for Jobs!
 
"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration." Way back in February, 1913, the 16th Amendment was ratified by the states and thus it became a part of the Constitution. As such, mostly everybody who is affected by the income tax law would like it to go away. Yet, if we listen to them and believe their lies (Matt Cartwright lies), even Congress cannot get rid of it. It will take another amendment to the constitution to make that happen and that is not easy.  But, if I am elected your representative, and if you throw out Matt Cartwight in the deal, you can be assured that I will push to get the ball rolling as well as the institution of most parts of the FAIR tax as well as the reduction in the corporate income tax as discussed in other essays.

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Brian Kelly for Congress

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Category: About the candidate

Published: 04 May 2010

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Thank You for Visiting, Please Come Back! 

Fellow Citizens of Northeastern Pennsylvania, I  would like to present myself as a Candidate to be your Congressman for the 17h District of Pennsylvania.  As you know, this seat is currently held by Representative Matt Cartwright of Scranton, Pennsylvania.  I will be running as a write-in candidate, a Democrat against Mr. Cartwright in the Primary Election on April 26, 2010.   

I am proud to say that--but for a few years--I would be a lifetime Democrat, and a lifetime resident of Northeastern PA.  Right after I earned my Bachelor of Science from King's College at the age of 21, I competed in a tough job market, and was hired to work as a Systems Engineer at IBM in Utica, New York. For two years, I lived in Utica as a registered Independent. 

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Brian Kelly is Pro-Mom and Pro-Baby!

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Category: Abortion

Published: 12 April 2016

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Brian Kelly is Pro-Mom and Pro-Baby!

Contact:          Brian Kelly for US Congress  
Email               This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Date:               April 13, 2016

   ****** PRESS RELEASE ******

Like you, Congressional Candidate Brian Kelly is disgusted with the current leaders in our government. He is asking for voters to forget about what big government can do for them. The results are in and the verdict is "0." Kelly is asking voters to write him in twice -- once in 2016 for the House of Representatives, PA District 17, and once in 2018 for the US Senate.

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Americans are in Revolt. Countervailing power is the only solution!

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Category: Conservative

Published: 04 March 2010

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Americans are in Revolt. Countervailing power is the only solution!

Those with power sometimes do not know how powerful they are while those without power know very well how weak they are.  The have's always have and the have-nots, have not ever--but they do their best to survive. So it has been from the beginning of time as the major law of the universe dictates: "survival of the fittest."

Are humans above it all? Is there just a little bit in a human that is animal? Is it possible that part really is not as good in its spirit as man's best friend, the wonderful creature called dog. Are humans or dogs more inclined to do the right thing if called upon accordingly? Tough question! I look into my wonderful dog's eyes and I know which way he is going to go. When I look a human in the eye, It is my history with the person more than the look in his eye that matters. But, the look in his eye does matter. I admit that it is good to have a fine canine friend help out in the evaluation. Who is good; and who is bad? Dogs seem to know!

As we go back to the turn of the 20th century we find certain humans who had lots and lots of material goods as well as lots of power. These folks were truly captains of industry and they were referred to as "Robber Barons." That term was not very flattering to these people who went to church each week in fine clothes, hoping to charm even the priests into believing in their goodness. But, there was little goodness there!

Robber Barons was not a very flattering term for anybody at the time and it is not a well-appreciated term today.  It implies that certain Barons are robbers. They rob the people. We all know who they are and who they were in real times from our unedited American History classes. John D. Rockefeller, Milton S. Hershey, J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and Cornelius Vanderbilt were the headliner robber barons of the period. They were all shrewd, cunning, and some might add heartless businessmen of the period. Even they may not have known they were so bad. .

These Robber Barons were indeed captains of industry and they were indeed, robber barons.

They had immense power and ran huge companies and hired many people to work in their facilities. For the workers, it was good because they had a job and they were able to provide for their families, though just barely.  For the families, it was not so good because the head of the household had to work most of his waking hours every day of the week. The Robber Barons believed, perhaps even sincerely, that they were providing a modicum of wealth for the plaebians of the new America. 

There is a very offensive term that has been used for some time to describe one of the worst acts of the Robber Barons.  This term is "labor arbitrage." It  came from this period of American History as the Robber Barons tried their best to assure that the wage they paid was the absolute minimal wage. And, they did pay only as much as legally required.
 
Only the Robber Barons held the power in the period before and immediately after the turn of the twentieth century.  The irony is that the workers did not really understand their value in the wealth creation process. The workers were the means to the Barons' wealth. Yet, they had no power, and in most cases were living in destitute circumstances.

The worker had power but could not realize it individually. This enabled the barons to exact upon the workers whatever terms were favorable to the barons alone. The workers were mere resources. Though they were clearly the means to the barons' wealth, nobody on the Robber Baron team was about to reveal this to them.

In the power game, the barons had all the power and the workers had none. -- zero, nada, zilch as they like to say today.  Thus, there was a power void. Whenever there is a power void, it will eventually be filled as the seemingly powerless realize that in numbers, they have power.  In the days of the Robber Barons, the barons were able to essentially enslave the workers because there was no notion of a countervailing power, and no means of achieving it even if the notion were well known.
 
What is countervailing power and why is it important?

Wikipedia authors often get it right, "Modern economies give massive powers to large business corporations to bias this process, and there arise 'countervailing' powers in the form of trade unions, citizens' organizations and so on, to offset business's excessive advantage."

Corporations at the turn of the century were just becoming legal and powerful and this was coincident with the Robber Baron period.  Corporations were like little dictatorships that created worker cities ruled mostly by tyrants all within the democracy of the United States.  This was not a proud moment in American History.

The greed exhibited by one corporation during this period forced another corporation to be as greedy as the first or go out of business. So, corporations and the men (at the time) who ran them, chose to be as greedy as they could be. They viewed it as much a matter of survival as a means to success.

The conditions were perfect.  There was a large supply of labor and many needy families willing to send any member into the factory. This set the stage for the ultimate labor arbitrage. So, let's examine this notion of labor arbitrage in light of countervailing power. Quite simply, Labor arbitrage is the movement of the wage which industry must pay for workers to the lowest possible level.
 
Labor arbitrage creates big hurts in lots of regular people. In many ways in 2016, the "new immigrants," undocumented workers," "illegal foreign nationals," or quite simply, "illegal aliens, are driving American wages down again to the point of labor arbitrage, and it is not by accident.

The Robber Barons are documented as having exploited Americans, using sweatshops with abysmally low wages.  They were fully in control of the labor arbitrage.  If workers had to work just 10 hours a day, it was an easy shop but sometimes the periods included 18-hour work shifts, without overtime pay. The abuses of the period included child labor; inadequate safety, minimal health and environmental safeguards; and of course, no pension or health benefits--for most Americans.

There seemed to be no escape. if a worker of that era tried to change his plight, he might be summarily discharged for union organizing. There were a lot of reasons for families to just accept their condition as it was dealt. The Robber Barons assured that those who accepted their dire circumstances were able to survive, though in the most meager ways.
 
Humans are animals and when animals are pinched and hurt and their young are hurting, life is different than when you and I are screaming at the TV set because of things so trite as that our favorite team did not score. If the team is Notre Dame, and If I (Brian Kelly) were the coach, then perhaps the screaming would be appropriate and responsible. But, that again is not the theme of this essay.

Eventually, when you are really hurting, finding a solution because of the gravity of a problem such as labor arbitrage with no countervailing power is far more important than the fear of repercussions.  A solution must come one way or another. From every void a solution will come.

At the turn of the last century, however, there was a huge void. People were hurting and it seemed they were helpless.  However, every now and then, brave men would come by to help. These were union organizers and they tried their best to fill the void. The union organizers intrinsically knew that giving power to the worker was the only solution to labor arbitrage.  Yet, workers knew that the best they could do would be to be able to barely make it if they made no waves at all. If they made some waves, such as fraternizing with a labor organizer, they might be left with nothing. The choice to organize was difficult as the risks were high.

The union workers were very brave souls with a real mission. They suffered and all suffered when trying to take the smallest action to avoid the tyranny of the Robber Barons. Can you imagine working for the Baron and trying to overcome the Baron at the same time?

There is an idea that if a decent wage were paid to the workers-- not substantially larger but seemingly generous, the Robber Barons would have been able to keep their gold and the worker would have achieved the opportunity to live more hours per week with family, rather than at the factory.  But, with no countervailing power, the Robber Barons were more concerned about competing against other Robber Barons. They had no regard at all for the power of the worker who was merely part of the means of production. The worker simply had no power.

Wherever and whenever there is a power void, it will be filled..

Over time, unions developed strategies to face and to compete against the all-powerful captains of industry, the Robber Barons. They demanded better wages and better benefits for workers. The unions became the countervailing power against the Robber Barons / corporations that had been missing from the foray for far too long. 

Soon after unions were integrated into the fabric of America, life got better for everybody -- workers and even the former barons.  Though the sins of the Robber Barons were hard to forgive, the unions helped them to stop sinning against their fellow human-kind.

Enter the Politician

Political corruption is not new to our times. When the Robber Barons had the wealth, there were plenty of politicians who favored their way of life and benefited from it immensely.  The people did not count. The political process has not changed much, unfortunately.

When the unions gained power, and perhaps as a means of that power, there were politicians who recognized the winds of change and prepared to accept their largesse from Unions as there had become a choice.

Once the countervailing power had been duly established, neither corporations nor unions controlled the scenario. Both were very powerful, and the unions did their best for the worker while the corporation did its best for the former baron class citizens.

Eventually both the corporations and the unions noticed that there was a very large and available third party that had entered the ring. Actually it had always been there but in the early days it represented only we the people. The third party was actually to have been the "people" as  represented by the Congress, the Senate, the President, and the Supreme Court. Instead, the third party in its public face was just the government with all of its inelegant bureaucracy.

Of course, when it chose to do so, and only when it was inclined, this third party known as the government, did claim to represent ordinary people. However, most of the time, as we have all come to realize in 2016, the temptation of the politician to feed himself from the public treasury is so overwhelming that he has little time to include we the people in his greed-driven thought process. Self serving politicians are more visible today because they promise the people everything to get elected. John Quinton called it right when he described the greed of a politician in this way: "Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel." 

The corporations and the unions fought for the control of this powerful entity known as the government. Whoever won over the politician had the tie breaker on their side. For the most part, only at election time did the people matter. And, we know politicians love their perquisites. Depending on which politician was on-the-take or as they would like to have it said, "depending on which group got the politician's ear," things moved in that direction with a little help from government friends.

Meanwhile, though the forte of the unions was to organize workers, not all regular workers were in the union camp. These were the unorganized workers. There was no mistake then as there is no mistake today, when groups of people organize for any purpose, it is the unorganized people who are left behind with no power. There is only so much bounty and plunder to gain that those without organized power are always destined to become society's losers, giving up their meager holdings for those organized to take them from them with impunity. There really is no big pot, from which to distribute to all. When a union wage is exorbitant for example, the unorganized in society feel the pain in their purchasing power far more than do the union members.

For years, as unions grew more powerful, they represented the interests of the organized working people and the corporations represented the interests of the descendants of the wealthy Robber Barons. There were and still are classes of people in America but in America, since there are no classes permitted as all men are equal under God and the law; nobody talked about classes. So, we say there were / are no classes. But, there certainly were the rich and poor.  There still are. There is no doubt about that.
 
One can conclude that from all of the good parts of the first major countervailing power, unions, came about a middle class.  Without the good work of brave union organizers, the gap between poor and rich would be ever widening and thus the countervailing power brought by the unions helped all of America and all Americans. There was no longer just the rich and the very poor.

The middle class did not have enough to be rich and they did not have so little as to be poor. In some ways, they could see in both directions.  Some middle class descendants became poor and some became rich and some stayed in the middle.  Thus there were the nouveaux riche, coming from no-place to gain seats that had once been reserved for the rich alone.  Unions were a major reason for enabling the emergence of the middle class.

How did this happen?  Over time, from their emergence during the Robber Baron years, labor unions became stronger and stronger. Owners and management had to pay attention or they risked economic loss from strikes and other union actions.  Unions thus became a strong countervailing power.  They got big enough to shift some corporate profits from very wealthy owners to the middle class. The middle class gained better wages and unprecedented benefits. An economic side benefit was that money stayed in the hands of those most likely to spend it. Thus, with the middle class holding some of the country's wealth, this stimulated the national economy and provided more and more essential public services.

What about the poor?

The poor, however were still poor.  Who represented the poor?  Though supposedly representing all the people, in many ways government became a Robin-Hood type ally of the poor. The notion of one-voice, one vote meant, other than direct campaign contributions from the wealthy, that the poor counted just as much as the rich at election time, and this notion was not lost on the politicians.

And so there came massive initiatives directed at the poor. With programs such as Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society," the poor in the second half of the twentieth century seemed a lot less poor than those whose labor had been arbitraged at the "turn of the 20th century."  There were programs that good Americans put together to help the poor and from this came plenty--from housing projects and food distribution centers, and even cash payments, often with no work requirement.

This assured that the poor could share in the health and wealth of the country. Some watching all this have humorously called the creation of so many agencies to serve the poor as Poor Inc.  The rich again in one way or another were able to make money--this time, ironically, by serving the poor.

But, there was a problem. The poor still were isolated to the tenements and complexes that had been designed to make life more comfortable for them.  Yet, everywhere in these complexes were poor people and their "poorness" became even more obvious. The people living in these facilities after awhile began to refer to their neighborhoods derogatorily as "the projects."

Yet, despite the partial economic / neighborhood segregation,  the poor for the most part shopped in the same stores and malls and paid the same prices as everybody else for their wares. So, they knew for sure that they were poor.  Many of the children of the poor eventually, through major educational programs--college loans and scholarships, escaped to be successful but this story is not about that. And, yes, the middle class awaited all those who were able to make the great escape. Nobody forced anybody to be poor and the more opportunity that business produced, the more likely it would be for more and more poor to escape their condition.
 
As a point in time summary, during this period in the mid 1900's the three major forces were corporations, unions, and government. Together, the work of all three of these major forces has gotten the poor to understand the good life but in many cases the stubbornly poor know that the next step in the "good life" is difficult if not impossible to achieve for them. They have to work to achieve the next level.

Some knew they could change their lives but others felt that they had few choices. Television of course made it even worse to be poor as the poor were never exalted in TV shows such as "Leave it to Beaver."  The heroes of the shows of the 1950's and 1960's were never somebody who had nothing before they became a hero. The "Beave" had that nice home with the white picket fence. It was nothing like the projects.

And, so, just like the void that caused the unions to form, and for government to take more of a role with the poor, there was another power vacuum. The poor were better off for sure but they had no power. They still did not feel good about themselves, but was that the objective of the assistance? The poor had people vouching and lobbying for them but on their own, they were powerless.  The poor, other than having the inalienable opportunity of all Americans to chose to become successful, which somehow had left many of them behind, had little control of their destiny. Living in the "projects" was a continual reminder of that.
 
Wherever and whenever there is a power void, it will be filled.

And, so, seemingly out of nowhere for many in this situation, another power group emerged.  These were called community organizers.  This movement began, shall we say, with well-intentioned people in the US. They believed intrinsically that the people who had to live in complexes or the "projects" were left out of realizing the American Dream.  As in all things, this conclusion was not hard and fast as many had climbed out of their poor life through education grants and job opportunities, and they had moved on. But, it certainly was not common thought. Community groups, once formed, never were successful if they actually helped the poor.

Community groups, such as Acorn served the poor?

To serve the poor, in this, their time of realized need, bands of people appeared, who called themselves community organizers.  They believed that everyone, regardless of their status in life should have the opportunity to own a piece of the American Dream. The "dream" was symbolized by a nice house with a garage--preferably a two-car garage and a nice car.

Over time, the controversial group Acorn became one of the most powerful of these community organizing groups. Before too long, the community groups began to operate as much for the good of the community groups as for the poor.  The poor gained single family housing though in most cases, they could not sustain the mortgage payments.  The community groups became more cash-rich and more powerful as the poor had become their means for them to gain a lucrative financial end.

During Barack Obama's run for the presidency, many Americans were first introduced to the notion that there was an occupation called "community organizer," as the candidate president posited that was his profession.  The major reason people would meet a community organizer from Acorn or from another group is if they needed help in getting a home mortgage.  Thus, many people in the middle class had never even heard of the term.

To help poorer Americans have a shot at the American Dream, community organizers brought those with nothing, who were looking for the American Dream to the banks where the organizers helped them obtain a mortgage.  So, the poor in this scenario were being lifted from the projects to a real home. The community organizers helped give the poor the status and the power to negotiate a home mortgage with neighborhood banks. In most cases, the poor had no real income, no assets, and they had no possible means of paying back the loan.  None of this mattered to the government. So, they got the loan. Eventually John Q. Public, in the form of the American taxpayer paid the loan when the mortgagee defaulted.

The Acorn and banking Industry relationship really was not very symbiotic. Left on its own, the banking industry, in my humble opinion, would not have gotten in bed with Acorn for any reason whatsoever than that they were compelled to do so.  Banks actually had no choice or else the government would take away their licenses. What was the result?  Acorn made a ton of money. The poor got a piece of the American Dream. The banks were left holding the bag but nobody ever liked banks anyway. What's wrong with this scenario? Well, as we all know, in 2008, the bag of bad debt completely burst.

The overworked term, "perfect storm," applies here as the power structure was perfect for the American Dream to unfold for the poor.  The government through the Clinton-backed Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) changes that became law in 1993, gained for the Democrats who have never been known to protect the taxpayer's money, the power to punish banks for not loaning to minorities. Minorities were known as the "plain old poor," as reported by hard neighborhood numbers.

Bankers who wanted to become truck drivers could have resisted. Those who wanted to remain bankers knew that if they chose to not loan to the poor; they were finished. Community groups figured out that if they became the tattletalers, and squealed at the slightest negative action of the banks, they were in a position to better their personal "business" financially. And so, the groups extorted money from the banks and for the funds they received, they agreed to give the banks a good report card to the government auditors. The major forces in our government were complicit! Nobody was innocent but nobody went to jail.    

Tracing through history we find that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton and many very liberal Democrats believed and many still believe that everybody is entitled to a home, and whther they can afford one or not should not be a consideration. I believe that everybody should have a home as long as the same everybody can afford it.  The Clintons did not add the qualifier.  It really did not matter to these folks whether the mortgagee ever worked a day in their lives or, if the truth be known, whether they were in the U.S. legally or illegally.

Originally, there was nothing in it for the Republican Congress to give Bill Clinton this bill in 1993. So, there was Republican resistance but then Clinton figured a way to buy Republican support. Like politicians today, Clinton had to give the Republicans something to get them to go along.  It may not have been the Louisiana Purchase but then-President Clinton promised the banks the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act.

This was a big concession to business but not necessarily a wise one. Without this post-depression law that had kept the financial industry stable for 60 years, banks were permitted to engage in much more risky ventures with depositors' money. The combination of mortgagees not being able to pay mortgages (toxic assets), and the ability of banks to play roulette with depositor's funds had a lot to do with the financial crisis in 2008. Moreover, the government knew it was destiny. The crash had to happen. 

Acorn hustled the banks and banks willingly paid Acorn a "fee."  This was pure extortion so that Acorn would not complain to have government probes launched against the bank's lending practices.  The question has been asked many times, "Why would banks pay so much without even a small fight?  Sol Stern, a famous consultant in the financial industry is quoted often with the best answer:

�The banks know they are being held up, but they are not going to fight over this. They look at it as a cost of doing business.�

While ACORN et al was hustling the banks, unfortunately they were also hustling the poor in their communities. They charged a nominal fee in the neighborhood of $100 for their services in getting poor families mortgages, whether the families could afford the $100 or the mortgage, it did not matter as long as ACORN got paid. Additionally, the new homeowner often got a mortgage with lousy terms.  That as much as anything else created the conditions for eventual foreclosure.  On top of it all, community groups like Acorn found other ways to get money from the taxpayers.  In the last several years before its bust-up, for example, they received about 40% of their money from US.  Various governmental agencies doled out big bucks to Acorn and others for one reason or another. 

In 2010, Acorn's corruption and scandals finally caught up with the group and it went under. It filed for bankruptcy and seemingly was taken out. After four years of anonymity, Acorn seeds have been popping up all over the country and liberal veterans are pleased to tell conservatives that just like the big shark, they�re back.

Conservatives thought they had ended Acorn once and for all. They had tapes of Acorn giving their low-income clients advice on how to engage in tax evasion, human smuggling, and child prostitution Now, as noted, dozens of mini-entities have sprung up with the same leadership and they are back doing their dirt all over again. Watch out, corruption breeds corruption.

The sub-prime bubble that burst in 2008, was inflated first by Clinton, and then George Bush did nothing to stop it. Bush knew that illegal aliens somehow were able to get mortgages for homes they otherwise were not able to afford. It got so bad as the banks were trying to prove the loans were worthy that they began to accept statements from Acorn that showed the "undocumented income" of "undocumented people" on the plus side of the books to help assure them getting a mortgage.  Acorn referred to this as "under the table money.' They clearly were aiding in people avoiding paying taxes but no charges were filed.

Apparently George Bush liked the fact that illegal aliens were taken care of in the US as it seemed good for the businesses who would employ them. Unfortunately George Bush and now Barack Obama and the whole Congress are pleased to look the other way when non-citizens are fleecing the public treasury.

As hard as it is to believe, the government, in concert with the new countervailing power, the community groups, were responsible for delivering the American Dream to the poor.  The CRA law actually encouraged community groups to market loans to targeted groups and they would collect various fees from the individuals and from the banks. It was more profit as a motive than altruism.

In essence, the "regulators" imposed an "Affirmative Action" approach to CRA. In most cases, to book the loan, bank officers had to relax the credit standards of the bank to get the loan approved. So, banks were trained to cheat by the federal government itself or pay the consequences. Banks also learned how to minimize their own risk.  Yet, by 2007, as the price of housing began to drop, the financial party was just about over.
 
The community organizers had become the fourth great US countervailing power. Were they needed? They surely thought so. They orchestrated so many wonderful things for poor people that, after the down payment to them, many families actually believed that what happened to them was a miracle. It actually was but it was unsustainable. The Community Reinvestment Act gave the poor the advantage over the banks and said basically that sanity was no longer important in lending.
 
Eventually, as Banks were bundling and selling their mortgages to the unknowing investment community and the price of homes began to decline, or not increase, there was no escape for somebody who really could not afford the mortgage in the first place. They could not sell the property and win the game. They could not keep the property because they could not afford the monthly payments when they finally came due. So, what would they do?  They would ultimately default and hightail it out of town. This created what was almost a second great depression. It happened because Jimmy Carter in 1977 and Bill Clinton in 1993 created bad legislation, and because George Bush for eight long years, permitted it to be the law of the land.

So in 2009, the next President, Barack Hussein Obama, at a time of great financial trouble decided to solve the problem by throwing gobs of taxpayer money at it as had George Bush several months earlier. Words emerged that had seldom been used in the US lexicon, such as TARP, stimulus, bailout, and porkulus. These became bywords on the American landscape. The people were saying no tarp, no stimulus, no bail outs, and no porkulus, but our unresponsive representatives in Congress felt they knew better.

The fourth countervailing power, community organizers, were in it for the money and they directed the flow of profits their way.  The unorganized, mostly from the middle class, were the ones hurt as they funded this largesse.  The poor were clearly hurt as they had to give up their new homes that they never could have lived in if there had been reasonability tests applied to the loans. But, they were hurt anyway.  For awhile, it seemed like the unions, the corporations, the government, and the community organizers had already decided how to split the loot and they were going to get away with it. They were impervious to the people left out. Then, all of a sudden the market collapsed, and somebody said:

Look, up in the sky, it's a bird, no it's a plane, no it's Superman. Someone else said, " that Mister Trouble always hangs around, til he hears this mighty sound, -- "Here I come to save the day -- that means that Mighty Mouse, is on his way.  Then people began to gain the scent of TEA in the air. For a time, this was as pleasant a scent as the scent of freedom.

Remember wherever and whenever there is a power void, it will be filled.

But, just before the scent of TEA came in 2009, the United States had room for just one Superhero. His name of course is Barack Hussein Obama. Though some say that Obama is not a bad guy, watching him for seven years now, in 2016 Americans have learned that everything he touches turns out bad, and since Obama always wants to touch lots more than he has, things have gotten progressively worse, even in this, his last year, 2016.

With his thoughtful gifts in 2009 to US Citizens, such as a try at Cap and Trade, and Obamacare, and his 40 brand new Marxist czars, amidst the longest recession since the deep depression, regular Americans began wondering what was happening to America?  Now we wonder what has happened to America. Another power void surely had been created.  Many people lost half or more of their retirement savings in just a few months.  There was another need for countervailing power. This time, it was driven by the middle class in response to all of the shenanigans and the complicity of the Congress and the president.  The middle class had emerged as the newest unprotected class.

Corporations were still for corporations and owners. Unions were still for unions and their members and leaders, and Community organizers, even though they began to be attack by conservative forces in Congress about 2010, continued to be for community organizers. The poor and the the middle class, who were supporting this huge burden had been forgotten.  And so, there was yet another power void.

Wherever and whenever there is a power void, it will be filled

Whenever there is a power void, it will eventually be filled as the seemingly powerless realize that in numbers, they have power.  The poor still had nobody but the community organizers who were creating problems for themselves and were also fleecing the poor. The middle class and the small business people across the US as well as some from the ranks of the poor and the rich had become "mad as hell" about the pure buffoonery and reckless spending of our government.
 
The leaders of this government became caricatures of themselves.  Hearing after hearing with one buffoon after another speaking in their patented buffoonish language, the government clearly showed that it had begun to believe that it had limitless resources. Worse than that, the government solution was always to spend every dime in sight to satisfy its perceived needs.  Our government has not changed much though today's Republicans have simply decided to hand in the towel and let it happen. Government has gotten even worse since 2008. It is still hell bent on continuing to bail out every special interest so they cannot fail while adding so much national debt that the country itself is now in danger of failing and defaulting on its debt. 

And, so people by the millions for years have been writing Congress and making their concerns known. Congress, for the first time that I can remember clearly told the people that the Congress knew better and it has simply ignored the cards and letters and the spirited debates that once occurred in Town Hall Meetings. Congress became completely unresponsive and it is still unresponsive though now it is controlled by Republicans. The cries of the people do not matter. The people continue to have every reason to feel completely helpless, at the mercy of a corrupt government, and without power.

Many hard working people are still being hurt today and will continue to be hurt by policies that elevate the needs of certain people over people who provide the work engine for the country.  All citizens have a right to expect that by working hard for themselves, they should be able to keep the fruits of their labor.  Redistribution of wealth and the redistribution of healthcare has become the new mantra of Congress and the President.  This has not been cutting it with the people at large. A look at the success of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump shows the frustration of  with the Congress and the president. Redistribution is one of the basic tenets of socialism, and that is not the American way. Americans have decided that enough is enough, and neither elected representatives or the establishment elite of both Political Parties can no longer control the people.  

The people at large have been neglected by corporations, by unions, by government, or by community organizers and thus, there has been a large void to fill.

Before the hard left and the socialist corrupt press misrepresented, defamed, disparaged, villainized and dishonored the TEA Party, it was able to make a huge mark on the political scene as a countervailing power for middle class regular Americans. 

What happened to the TEA Party? In 2009, it became the new countervailing power. Quiet for many years after a dishonest press smothered it with negatives, and the government's IRS harassed its leaders, it is quietly at work reflecting the discontent of the majority of today's American people. The TEA has not only boiled; it has boiled over. The people are upset at elite politicians, the government and the media. The simple reason for its existence has always been that government had gone astray. Government has been taken too much from the people. People who liked TEA Party philosophies have not gone away; they still want their government � and their country back.  NOW!

The work of the TEA Party is happening today and it will go on in the future as this grassroots non-partisan network works to achieve many objectives. The TEA Party, without pushing its name, has gained power across the land. It is filling the void as a countervailing power.  The slogans, precepts, objectives, desires, and love affairs of the people who would be classified as being TEA Partiers are many.

There are several hundred slogans, precepts, objectives, desires, and love affairs, within the philosophy espoused by the original TEA Party. Keep your eyes open.

Eric Olsen, organizer for the Billings TEA Party Group in Montana, as quoted in the Billings Montana Gazette in 2010 summed up his perception of the destiny of the TEA Party as a movement in an unconventional way. He knows the folks "of TEA" will not give up...ever:

�If someone gave me $1 million to leave [the TEA Party] , that would be tempting,� Olsen said. �But then Jennifer would take over and they�d have to give her $1 million. And then someone else would take over ��

TEA, the fifth and soon to be the controlling countervailing power never had a scent so sweet!

Summary of the Conservative Populist Movement. Can it be called The John Doe Party?

Some think that the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party, which was never a unified singular purpose group, has gone away. It could not be further from the truth. Since it was regular people and not elites that sponsored gatherings and created a conservative agenda, it was pretty easy for the TEA Party to slip under-ground for the last several years; but it has been active nonetheless.

The media and all the Lois Lerner's out there have had a tough time attacking conservative individuals since the TEA Party was more or less underground.  The steam of the TEA of patriotism, however, is still hot. The believers in America-First are incensed at what has been happening to our country. Even more-so for many, the wimpy Republican response has been nauseating for those looking for somebody to stop our tyrannical president. .  Donald Trump and Ted Cruz's successful candidacies are a reflection of the sentiments of the people without having to use any particular name.

The new conservative populist movement is a result of a combination of budget compromises that funded Obama�s wish-list 100%, while not rolling back any of his dramatic expansion in government spending. That's not all. The push for amnesty led by one-time TEA Party favorite Florida Senator Marco Rubio in the Senate, and the disintegration of trust in GOP House leadership, which brought down Boehner�s speakership, changed the movement and made it more alive, and more tuned in; yet more subdued.

Instead of having fun with tri-cornered hats symbolizing patriotism and expecting that most Americans are patriotic, the people who once were Tea Party stalwarts transformed from idealistic babes waiting to get thumped by a corrupt media and government. They began to distrust more than trust even those politicians who promised that they mirrored their beliefs. They are now a far more savvy and far more successful and a much more effective countervailing force. They have no label now other than a description as a much more cynical electorate. TEA Party groups were major victims of Obama�s IRS abuses, and they were ignored by those they helped elect. Therefore, local TEA Party leaders and those citizens simply paying attention to what is going on in America are now challenging the very politicians who they pushed into office in 2010. Fool me once!

A young lady who was once a self-described TEA Party activist, when testifying before Congress on IRS abuses, captured the new essence of the new populist residual of the old TEA Party sentiment in these words: �I�m not interested in scoring political points. I want to preserve and protect the America that I grew up in. The America that people crossed oceans and risked their lives to become a part of, and I�m terrified it�s slipping away. Thank you very much.�  And, so it is the people against the establishment today. The new countervailing power is alive and well, and it is driving the 2016 Presidential Election Campaigns but nobody is drinking any more TEA. To join the movement, all one has to do is believe in America. Nobody needs to tell anybody. I would call it the John Doe Party if it needed a name.

The people in the TEA Party returned to their roots. It is no longer an organized political machine as it once was. Instead, it is simply a movement of people who believe that America can and needs to do better. Those politicians, once trusted in 2010 and 2014 have used up their chances. And so, the people, not a group easily picked off by a corrupt media, have found alternatives to elite Republican double-dealers. They have found a brazen-faced New York real estate mogul who plays by the people's rules. Additionally, they have Ted Cruz, another outsider with grand eloquence and no shortage of guts. Cruz sticks to his guns, and does not play the elite Republican game. That's why his fellow Senators, the same Senators whose greed drives their very being, fear Senator Cruz. They do not want their gravy train to end. 

By the way, I am a Democrat and my populist conservative view is right in line with this thinking. More and More Americans from all Parties, are deciding that the power of the politicians needs to be minimized and the power of the people expanded. That's why Bush, Rubio, and John Kasich never had a prayer. The people are sick of politicians. Insider, elitist politicians create an extra revulsion in the caring citizenry.  

So, is there a TEA Party left to fight as a countervailing power. There does not need to be a formal group as the people are together on this one.  Look around and you can see that the spirit of the TEA Party is the new heart and soul of the Republican Party. This is much to the shock and chagrin of too-comfortable GOP Congressional majority. It is not nice to fool the people.

About Brian W. Kelly,:
Brian W. Kelly is a former IBM Senior Systems Engineer and Retired Professor of Business and Information Technology (BIT) at Marywood University in Scranton, PA. He was a candidate for US Congress from PA District 11 in 2010. Kelly was also a candidate running or Mayor in his home town of Wilkes-Barre PA in 2015. Brian still manages his own IT business (www.kellyconsulting.com), and he has recently completed his 63rd book, available at www.bookhawkers.com.

Brian is currently running for office as a write-in candidate as a Democrat for Congress to represent the 17th PA District You can check out his two campaign web sites at (www.briankellyforcongress.com and www.kellyforussenate.com). These are both in the process of being rejuvenated for 2016 and 2018. The good news according to Kelly is that when running as a write-in, there are virtually no campaign expenses.  

Thank you for being part of the quiet populist revolution to save America.

The Second Amendment--The Right to Bear Arms?

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Category: 2nd Amendment

Published: 27 March 2016

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The Second Amendment--The Right to Bear Arms? 

The last stanza of Cheyenne, a western hero is: 

"Move along, Cheyenne --- Next pasture's always so green.  Driftin' on, Cheyenne don't forget the things you have seen,   And when you settle down where will it be?  Cheyenne!  Cheyenne!" 

From Hugh O'Brian in Wyatt Earp: 

"Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp, brave courageous and bold, long live his fame and long live his glory, and long may his story be told." 

You may argue with me but there are lots of stories from the old west and from today's America in which the armed have saved their families and the families of many others from being harmed... by being armed.

The robbers and the thieves and the killers will never be without their weapons no matter how hard those who believe everybody is OK trump their message. Only a person armed with similar or greater force will be able to stop a perpetrator from creating more harm. 

Do you support the right to self-defense?  I do!  I wish nobody means harm but only a dummy thinks it will ever always be that way.  The Founding Fathers believed the people should be able to defend themselves and they were miffed in their days in the old world when the King pronounced miserable tributes and they had no recourse but to become prisoners of the crown. Sidearms and rifles helped them even the score.  

Is the second amendment mischaracterized when we conclude that it gives ordinary citizens the right to bear arms? Or is this what the founding fathers actually meant? Why would anybody have the right to bear arms?   Would it be to kill their neighbors as in the Hatfield's and the McCoy's?  I don't think so.  Only in a world without bad guys would anybody be able to decide they do not have to defend themselves.  

The 2nd Amendment assures that each citizen has a right to keep and bear arms to defend his/her life, liberty, and property. There are bad guys out there wanting to take away our citizen's rights and my vote will be to sustain the second amendment and also recognize that it also exists to help protect ordinary citizens from an intrusive confiscatory government that one day may no longer be on the side of the ordinary people. The Founding fathers loved the idea of checks and balances, debits and credits. It is all about keeping one side from getting too powerful. The side the founders worried most about was a national government deciding that it was as powerful as King George's England and thus, could make the people subject to a crown again. 

JFK Democrat

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Category: Conservative

Published: 05 May 2010

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Being A JFK Democrat 

You may wonder why I am a JFK Democrat instead of a conservative Republican? The fact is that neither party is perfect for me.  I am for business but not for unbridled corporate power.  I am for Unions but not for thug tactics in the workplace and I am not for forced Unionism. 

I worked for IBM for 23 years and at the time, IBM never had nor needed a union. Corporations should treat workers right and unions should be for the workers and not on the same team as the managers.  At IBM, the founders believed that if you take care of the people, the people will take care of the business. It worked!  

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Cap & Trade -- National Energy Tax

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Category: Energy

Published: 26 March 2010

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Cap & Trade -- The National Energy Tax 

One of the worst pieces of legislation that actually passed by the house when controlled by Democrats in 2009, got hung up in the Senate as a few Democratic Senators along with all the Republicans could not in good conscience release this painful act on America. The bill was known as "the CAP and TRADE bill."  This was really the "Obama Energy Tax Bill," and it was rushed through and passed by the Pelosi led House literally in the dark of night. Like many bills in 2009, It was unread by the masses in Congress, including Paul Kanjorski, who went along with his friend Nancy Pelosi rather than vote for Pennsylvanians. Matt Cartwrigth, Kanjo's successor in Congress who I plan to defeat soundly in 2016, believes 100% in Cap and Trade so you all can believe that he does not represent Pennsylvaniana at all.    

If this ugly bill ever comes back. it will mean that the cost of your natural gas, electricity, gasoline and taxes will QUADRUPLE shortly after it goes into effect.  Does your family have another $3,000 to spend on energy on top of the 30% price increase for electric power?  Is this legislation good for Northeastern PA?  Because it has major disincentives for coal, it may very well mean the end of the COAL industry in NEPA. So, why would Paul Kanjorski have sided with Nancy Pelosi over the citizens of Northeastern PA.  Can you figure it out? 

Global Warming

Global warming is a scientific hoax but a political reality. It is such a hoax that every time the zealots celebrate a regulation of some kind that supposedly helps their cause, along comes a snow blizzard on the day of celebration to "rain on their parade." That was getting old. So, the namers in the progressive ideology movement decided this could not stand. So, they renamed it to "climate change." They are right on this one. The climate changes from day to day and many times in-between. Though the earth is not warming, the climate does change on a daily basis. In fact, it is cooler in the morning on most days than it is in the afternoon. There is no reason to have a smaller drink or a drink with less sugar because the climate changes every day. 

Does it seem warmer to you?  If it doesn't it is because the earth has been cooling for a number of years now.  Nobody sees the real perils of what has been called "global warming" for years because they do not exist. Just in the last fifteen years as the earth began a cooling cycle, scientists who had bet their homes on "warming" were forced to change the name of this phenomenon to "climate change."  If that seems a little hoaxy to you, it is because it is.  

That is a big clue that this whole thing is a big hoax. The name change means that any fluctuation of the weather proves their bogus theory.  They think we are dumb. If it snows, rains or if we have a drought or if a mosquito dies of malaria, someone is there to blame it on climate change, a.k.a. global warming. Their investments in this farce mean there can be no other meaning. Their fortunes are tied up in perpetrating this lie.  

Many groups, including leading scientists as well as NASA have said repeatedly that the "global warming" data is incorrect. The recent East Anglia scandal with purposely altered data bases and destroyed data purportedly to hide the facts, proves the environmentalists are not being very truthful. On February 13, 2010, University of East Anglia global warming cultist Phil Jones (a.k.a. the man) conceded that there has been no statistically significant warming over the last 15 years. That makes it 21 in a row as of today.  Case closed. Hopefully Jones has an ample liquor supply to wash away that little embarrassment. 

Al Gore warmed up quite a bit as this may be the end of his empire building.  The former VP went from being almost broke when he left the White House in 2000 to being a hundred millionaire in less than 10 years. Mr. Gore has his sights on being a billionaire soon and if it would only warm up again, he'd have a far better chance. 

Gore makes money in many ways off the backs of the global warming community. They love him and his propaganda, and they literally throw money his way.  He also pushes carbon credits from CAP and Trade. The more people buy his bull and his many Carbon Credits, the more money he makes.  And, to do his best for the Jobs picture back in the USA, as a good American, Mr. Gore accepted a $529 million grant in 2009 from good ole Barack O and company to make tiny sports cars that are supposedly environmentally friendly.  Why do we need sports cars? Moreover, Gore has decided to manufacture the cars in Finland. No wonder the stimulus never helped American manufacturing.  

Maybe I don't  have that right.  Maybe it was not Finland. It was FLorida, right... Had to be? The US gave Gore a grant for $529 million. That's right. The state began with an "F." Oh, it was not Florida. It really was Finland. And you know what, Finland is not a state at all.  It is a country in Europe.  I kid you not. Al Gore got $529 billion of our money to help the economy of Finland. That really is an inconvenient truth. Don't you think? 

For the record, I am 100% against the Energy Tax called (also called Cap and trade). I am against it because it will not solve a problem because there is no problem. The identified problem is a trick by Al Gore.  It is also a very regressive tax and it is a huge tax  This tax will cost thousands a year for families and it will make it hard to stay warm in the winter.  

Because nobody suggests that China or India reduce their emissions, it will cost more to produce goods in our country and more companies will take jobs offshore. That's right, while we are looking for ways to create jobs, Matt Cartwright and Bob Casey are pleased to ship jobs overseas and whack us with a big energy tax.  What are they thinking?  

China and India again will benefit from US anti-business laws. By the way, Al Gore, Matt Cartwright, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Bob Casey Jr, and just about every Democrat in the House and the US Senate are all for Cap and Trade. So, if you want to be spared the burden of this plan that cannot work, vote for any Democrat anytime. If you want it to end, vote for Brian Kelly, a JFK Democrat for Congress in 2016. Help Kelly afford the campaign by buying one or several of his patriotic books at www.bookhawkers.com 

Throw the Bums Out!

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Category: Saving America

Published: 01 March 2016

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Throw The Bums Out! 

Hello America! 

The global recommendation is to throw all the bums out. 

In every district and every state in America, we cannot permit our own legislator to go back to Washington.  Do not think that your representative is the exception because he or she brings the pork back to town.  The pork you get back may not be worth the price of the pig you send back to Congress. Their actions again have been nothing short of treacherous for this country and no matter how much pork anybody gets, if there is no America left in which to enjoy the pork, what good is it! 

The global recommendation is to throw all the bums out.

Intrinsically, that may sound unfair.  So, I vote that we keep Jeff Sessions. You may contend that some legislators, though very few, really represent America and Americans in the two years of the 114th Congress or the last two years of their time in the US Senate.  However, most Americans would be pleased for them to voluntarily exit--stage left.

It is time for them all to go! America would not be hurting and Barack Obama would not be mocking us all if Congress were doing its job.

The Congress (House and Senate) on both sides, Democrat ad Republican enjoy a very, very low approval rating.  Your Congressman from wherever you live, contributes to that low approval rating.  So, the sentiment in the country is to not send them back.  Get rid of them all!  It would make America a better country for sure if we got together and decided to not send any of these treasonous rascals back to Washington.  Few people who love America would argue with that.  

In NEPA, I hope my fellow Democrats have had enough of incumbency and the pain it lays on Americans. We in NEPA definitely do not want to send back to Congress our socialist representative Matt Cartwright. In just two terms, he has become a hard core socialist / communist. Check out how much he loves Hillary Clinton by examining his web site. 

The problem that most people, who want all of Congress dumped, is that they cannot get the moxie up to dump their own representative.  Matt Cartwright knows this. Sometimes constituents who are favored by their Congress person are greedy and want to make sure that their nephews and nieces can get jobs even though their neighbors kids cannot get the jobs because the system is rigged.The privileged keep incumbents in power because it pays off for them. This is wrong. Ask not what your country can do for you! 

So, we do have people across the land want to dump all incumbents but their own.  They would like to dump yours and maybe keep theirs but that cannot be done.  The risk of keeping yours is that none of these scoundrels get dumped when we want all to be dumped.  

The message is that it starts at home folks. For District 17 in the State of Pennsylvania for example, it is our duty in 2016 to dump Matt Cartwright. He does not represent the people of PA even if he sends you some pork every now and then!  

The global recommendation is to throw all the bums out.

Email Bag- Illegal Immigration Penalties

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Category: Illegal Immigration

Published: 04 January 2010

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Email Bag -- Illegal Immigration

If this is even close to right, we have a big problem, spelled C-O-N-G-R-E-S-S

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LET ME SEE  IF I GOT THIS RIGHT. 

IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR.

IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.

IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.

IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.

IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND YOUR FATE WILL BE  SEALED.

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Recovering from a Recession---the Bottom Line

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Category: Saving America

Published: 18 April 2010

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The Government Is a Liar

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Category: Corruption

Published: 26 March 2010

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Politicians Are Liars 

When I complain about this, please know that it is not necessarily the American people who are engaged in the process of government that are the issue, it is the leadership of the Congress and President and it includes the heavily entrenched high level bureaucrats.  The fact is that Government by itself produces nothing, period.  It does create huge bureaucracies of mostly unneeded people to deprive those who pay their salaries of their financial liberty. Why pay for government suck-ups? Government takes and squanders. It mismanages and corrupts while it seeks full control.  That is why the founding fathers wanted limited government as a major principle. Politicians are liars. As W. C. Fields would say, they make prevarication an Art.  Government is made up of politicians. The Government lies to achieve its objectives. When will we ever learn?

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The Coming Tax Increases & the Chinese Foreclosure

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Category: Unfair Taxation

Published: 27 March 2010

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The Coming Tax Increases & the Chinese Foreclosure 

George Bush is continually criticized for his tax cuts and the "Bush Tax Cuts" had always been big targets for the Obama / Pelosi / Reid Administration to get off the books until the Republicans finally cut a deal. After several bruising fights with Congress, Republicans finally permitted Obama to raise taxes on the highest-income households -- married couples with incomes exceeding $450,000. Now, the other Bush cuts are part of the tax law.

Nonetheless these cuts were a constant theme of the current administration until the Republicans in Congress along with the Democrats decided to give him all of the socialism he wants while he is destroying our military and terrorism is reaching our shores. Matt Cartwright consistently votes for all of Obama's big government initiatives. Cartwright loves Obama and big spending. He does not pay for it. You do! Those a few years older than millennials remember the last guy who said he was going to raise taxes. It was Walter Mondale way back in 1976  and he paid dearly for that.  You may remember what Mondale said as he was supposedly trying to bring campaign honesty to the table: 

"Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did."  History shows Reagan reduced taxes as did Bush! 

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Initiation, Referendum, & Recall

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Category: Good Government

Published: 05 January 2016

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Initiative, Referendum, and Recall

Initiative, Referendum, and Recall are fundamental precepts of a direct democracy. Ours of course is a representative democracy with a Constitution as a defining document just in case the lawmakers in all branches ever were to go astray -- all at the same time.  Because we have a Constitution, our democracy is best called a Democratic Republic. With three branches of government, one would think that the parts could keep honesty and the people's business at the top of their lists.  Instead, being Democrat or Republican appears to be more important today than being a good representative whether in the House, the Senate, the Presidency, or even the Supreme Court. 

And, so, it sure seems that rather than separation of powers, we now have collusion by party. The party's influence is only to help in the elections and then the good of the country is supposed to prevail.  The party affiliations should be left in the outside area of the Halls of Congress.

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George Says It Ain't Fair!

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Category: Unfair Taxation

Published: 14 April 2010

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It Ain't Fair! 

Right after I wrote my essay on the American Tax System. my e-mailbox was graced with this note from George.

Who is George?

I think George is John and Jane Doe's long lost brother who has come to life after taking the cattle prod from the Congress one time too many.

Let's let George say it!

Subject: My Feelings On Our Income Tax System

Broken, complicated, corrupted, expensive, destructive and unfair are the words that best describe the federal income tax system after almost a hundred years of being treated like the personal piggy bank of tax lobbyists and members of Congress.

This is not simple a plain old pig sty. it is one that is so complex that it costs taxpayers and American businesses more  than $300 billion a year in just paperwork costs. I am saying this costs is a given even before a penny of tax is paid. What people owe but don't pay amounted to more than $400 billion last year—a shortfall that, to make up, increased the average taxpayer's bill by more than a third.

In Washington, D.C., however, a new American aristocracy made up of political insiders, profits immensely by buying and selling pieces of the federal tax code. It is routinely used to buy votes and pit Americans against each other. This explains why almost half of the nation does not pay income  taxes while the other half carries the entire load. Does such pandering represent the 'Achilles  Heel' of our Republic and spell inevitable economic ruin?

Our tax system makes members of Congress powerful and it makes tax lobbyists among the richest and most influential people in Washington's elitist ranks. In a nation that threw off the power of pampered aristocrats in our founding, we need to recognize that these bastards are back and they are dining out on our money. Meanwhile,  the nation continues to stagger under unthinkable, suffocating levels of national debt. Between promises to spend more and more to buy votes, coupled with insider deals to sell off more and more of the tax code, we the people are always left holding the bag.

Obviously corrupted, our nation's tax system caters to powerful schemers with access to Congressional tax writing committees at the top and ignores the just plain dishonest down below.  More than a trillion dollars a year in America's "underground economy" escapes taxation. Drug dealers, prostitutes and gamblers revel in a taxation dead zone along with at least 10 million illegal immigrants. Millions enjoy the fruits of honest Americans' labors as their tax dollars go to pay for highways, our nation's defense, schools and every other federal program, while they pay no federal income taxes

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Well said, George

Thank you!